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-Project Gutenberg's The Great Commission, by C. H. (Charles Henry) Mackintosh
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Great Commission
-       Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, volume IV
-
-Author: C. H. (Charles Henry) Mackintosh
-
-Release Date: August 24, 2012 [EBook #40575]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT COMMISSION ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Julio Reis, Moises S. Gomes, Julia Neufeld and
-the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
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-
-
-
-  MISCELLANEOUS
-  WRITINGS
-
-  of C.H.M.
-
-  The Great
-  Commission
-
-  _Miscellaneous Writings of_
-  C. H. MACKINTOSH
-
-  _Volume IV_
-
-  LOIZEAUX BROTHERS
-  _New York_
-
-
-
-
-CONVERSION: WHAT IS IT?
-
-
-
-
-PART I.
-
-
-The first chapter of first Thessalonians presents a very striking and
-beautiful picture of what we may truly call _genuine conversion_. We
-propose to study the picture in company with the reader. If we are not
-much mistaken, we shall find the study at once interesting and
-profitable. It will furnish an answer, distinct and clear, to the
-question which stands at the head of this article, namely, What is
-Conversion?
-
-Nor is this by any means a small matter. It is well, in days like
-these, to have a divine answer to such a question. We hear a good deal
-now-a-days about cases of conversion; and we would heartily bless God
-for every soul truly converted to Him.
-
-We need hardly say we believe in the absolute, the indispensable, the
-universal necessity of divine conversion. Let a man be what he may; be
-he Jew or Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, Protestant or
-Roman Catholic; in short, whatever be his nationality, his
-ecclesiastical position, or his theological creed, he _must_ be
-converted, else he is on the broad and direct road to an everlasting
-hell.
-
-There is no one born a Christian, in the true sense of that word.
-Neither can anyone be educated into Christianity. It is a fatal
-mistake, a deadly delusion, a deceit of the arch-enemy of souls, for
-anyone to think that he can be a Christian either by birth or
-education, or that he can be made a Christian by water baptism, or by
-any religious ceremony whatsoever. A man becomes a Christian only by
-being divinely converted. We would earnestly press on the attention of
-all whom it may concern, the urgent and absolute necessity in every
-case of true conversion to God.
-
-This cannot be overlooked. It is the height of folly for anyone to
-attempt to ignore or to make light of it. For an immortal being--one
-who has a boundless eternity stretching away before him--to neglect
-the solemn question of his conversion, is the wildest fatuity of which
-anyone can possibly be guilty. In comparison with this most weighty
-subject, all other things dwindle into utter insignificance. The
-various objects that engage the thoughts and absorb the energies of
-men and women in the busy scene around us, are but as the small dust
-of the balance in comparison with this one grand, momentous question
-of the soul's conversion to God. All the speculations of commercial
-life, all the schemes of money-making, the absorbing question of
-profitable investment, all the pursuits of the pleasure hunter--the
-theatre, the concert, the ball-room, the billiard-room, the
-card-table, the dice-box, the race-course, the hunting-ground, the
-drinking saloon--all the numberless and nameless things that the poor
-unsatisfied heart longs after, and grasps at--all are but as the
-vapor of the morning, the foam on the water, the smoke from the
-chimney-top, the withered leaf of autumn--all vanish away, and leave
-an aching void behind. The heart remains unsatisfied, the soul
-unsaved, because unconverted.
-
-And what then? Ah, yes; what then! Tremendous question! What remains
-at the end of all this scene of commercial excitement, political
-strife and ambition, money-making and pleasure-hunting? Why, then the
-man has to face death! "It is appointed unto men once to die." There
-is no getting over this. There is no discharge in this war. All the
-wealth of the universe could not purchase one moment's respite at the
-hand of the ruthless foe. All the medical skill which earth affords,
-all the fond solicitude of affectionate relatives and friends, all
-their tears, all their sighs, all their entreaties cannot stave off
-the dreaded moment, or cause the king of terrors to sheathe his
-terrible sword. Death cannot be disposed of by any art of man. The
-moment _must_ come when the link is to be snapped which connects the
-heart with all the fair and fascinating scenes of human life. Fondly
-loved friends, charming pursuits, coveted objects, all must be given
-up. A thousand worlds could not avert the stroke. Death must be looked
-at straight in the face. It is an awful mystery--a tremendous fact--a
-stern reality. It stands full in front of every unconverted man,
-woman, and child beneath the canopy of heaven; and it is merely a
-question of time--hours, days, months, or years,--when the boundary
-line must be crossed which separates time, with all its empty, vain,
-shadowy pursuits, from eternity with all its stupendous realities.
-
-And what then? Let Scripture answer. Nothing else can. Men would fain
-reply according to their own vain notions. They would have us believe
-that after death comes annihilation. "Let us eat and drink, for
-to-morrow we die." Empty conceit! Vain delusion! Foolish dream of the
-human imagination blinded by the god of this world! How could an
-immortal soul be annihilated? Man, in the garden of Eden, became the
-possessor of a never-dying spirit. "The Lord God breathed into his
-nostrils the breath of life, and man became a _living_ soul"--not a
-dying soul. The soul must live forever. Converted or unconverted, it
-has eternity before it. Oh, the overpowering weight of this
-consideration to every thoughtful spirit! No human mind can grasp its
-immensity. It is beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our belief.
-
-Let us hearken to the voice of God. What does Scripture teach? One
-line of holy Scripture is quite sufficient to sweep away ten thousand
-arguments and theories of the human mind. Does death annihilate? Nay!
-"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
-
-Mark these words, "_After this_ the judgment." And this applies only
-to those who die in their sins, only to unbelievers. For the
-Christian, judgment is passed forever, as Scripture teaches in
-manifold places. It is important to note this, because men tell us
-that, inasmuch as there is eternal life only in Christ, therefore all
-who are out of Christ shall be annihilated.
-
-Not so says the word of God. There is judgment after death. And what
-will be the issue of the judgment? Again Scripture speaks in language
-as clear as it is solemn. "And I saw a great white throne, and Him
-that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;
-and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
-great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book,
-which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those
-things which were written in the books, _according to their works_.
-And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades
-delivered up the dead which were in them; and _they were judged every
-man according to their works_.... This is the second death"--the lake
-of fire. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was
-cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. xx.)
-
-All this is as plain as words can make it. There is not the slightest
-ground for demur or difficulty. For all whose names are in the book of
-life there is no judgment at all. Those whose names are not in that
-book shall be judged according to their works. And what then?
-Annihilation? Nay; but "the lake of fire;" and that forever and
-forever.
-
-How overwhelming is the thought of this! An unconverted person,
-whoever and whatever he is, has death, judgment, and the lake of fire
-before him, and every throb of his pulse brings him nearer and nearer
-to those awful realities. It is not more sure that the sun shall rise,
-at a certain moment, to-morrow morning, than that the reader must, ere
-long, pass into eternity; and if his name is not in the book of
-life--if he is not converted--if he is not in Christ, he will
-assuredly be judged according to his works, and the certain issue of
-that judgment will be the lake of fire, through the endless ages of
-eternity.
-
-The reader may perhaps marvel at our dwelling at such length on this
-dreadful theme. He may feel disposed to ask, "Will this convert
-people?" If it does not convert them, it may lead them to see their
-need of conversion. It may lead them to see their imminent danger. It
-may induce them to flee from the wrath to come. Why did the blessed
-apostle reason with Felix on the subject of "judgment to come"? Surely
-that he might persuade him to turn from his evil ways and live. Why
-did our blessed Lord Himself so constantly press upon His hearers the
-solemn reality of eternity? Why did He so often speak of the deathless
-worm and the unquenchable fire? Surely it was for the purpose of
-rousing them to a sense of their danger, that they might flee for
-refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them.
-
-Are we wiser than He? Are we more tender? Have we found out some
-better mode of converting people? Are we to be afraid of pressing upon
-our readers or our hearers the same solemn theme which our Lord so
-pressed upon the men of His time? Are we to shrink from offending
-polite ears by the plain declaration that all who die unconverted must
-inevitably stand before the great white throne, and pass into the lake
-of fire? God forbid! It must not be. We solemnly call upon the
-unconverted reader to give his undivided attention to the
-all-important question of his soul's salvation. Let nothing induce him
-to neglect it. Let neither cares, pleasures, nor duties so occupy him
-as to hide from his view the magnitude and deep seriousness of this
-matter. "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
-and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
-soul?"
-
-O reader, if thou art unsaved, unconverted, let us earnestly entreat
-thee to ponder these things, and rouse thee to a sense of thy need of
-being savingly converted to God. This is the only way of entering His
-kingdom. So our Lord Christ distinctly tells us; and we trust you know
-this at least, that not one jot or tittle of His holy sayings can ever
-pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but His word can never
-pass away. All the power of earth and hell, men and devils, cannot
-make void the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Either of two things for
-thee--_conversion here, or eternal damnation hereafter_.
-
-Thus it stands, if we are to be guided by the word of God; and, in
-view of this, is it possible for us to be too earnest, too vehement,
-too importunate in urging upon every unconverted soul with whom we
-may come in contact, either with voice or pen, the indispensable
-necessity, this very moment, of fleeing from the wrath to come,
-fleeing to that blessed Saviour who died on the cross for our
-salvation; who stands with open arms to receive all who come; and who
-declares in His own sweet and precious grace, "HIM THAT COMETH UNTO
-ME, I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT?"
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-
-In our previous paper, we have sought to set forth the absolute need,
-in every case, of conversion. Scripture establishes this point in such
-a way as to leave no possible ground of doubt for anyone who bows to
-its holy authority. "Except ye be converted, and become as little
-children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xviii.
-3).
-
-This applies, in all its moral force and deep solemnity, to every son
-and daughter of fallen Adam. There is not so much as a solitary
-exception, throughout the thousand millions that people this globe.
-Without conversion, there is--there can be no entrance into the
-Kingdom of God. Every unconverted soul is outside the Kingdom of God.
-It matters not, in the smallest degree, who I am, or what I am; if I
-am unconverted, I am in "the kingdom of darkness," under the power of
-Satan, in my sins, and on the way to hell.
-
-I may be a person of blameless morals; of spotless reputation; a high
-professor of religion; a worker in the vineyard; a Sunday-school
-teacher; an office-bearer in some branch of the professing church; an
-ordained minister; a deacon, elder, pastor or bishop; a most
-charitable individual; a munificent donor to religious and benevolent
-institutions; looked up to, sought after, and reverenced by all
-because of my personal worth and moral influence. I may be all this
-and more; I may be, and I may have, all that it is possible for a
-human being to be or to have, and yet be unconverted, and hence
-outside the Kingdom of God, and in the kingdom of Satan, in my guilt,
-and on the broad road that leads straight down to the lake that burns
-with fire and brimstone.
-
-Such is the plain and obvious meaning and force of our Lord's words in
-Matt. xviii. 3. There is no possibility of evading it. The words are
-as clear as a sunbeam. We cannot get over them. They bear down, with
-what we may truly call tremendous solemnity, upon every unconverted
-soul on the face of the earth. "Except ye be converted, ye _cannot_
-enter the Kingdom of heaven." This applies, with equal force, to the
-degraded drunkard that rolls along the street, worse than a beast, and
-to the unconverted Good Templar or teetotaler who prides himself on
-his sobriety, and is perpetually boasting of the number of days,
-weeks, months, or years during which he has refrained from all
-intoxicating drink. They are both alike outside the Kingdom of God;
-both in their sins; both on the way to eternal destruction.
-
-True it is that the one has been converted from drunkenness to
-sobriety--a _very great_ blessing indeed, in a moral and social point
-of view--but conversion from drunkenness to a temperance society is
-not conversion to God; it is not turning from darkness to light; it is
-not entering the Kingdom of God's dear Son. There is just this
-difference between the two, that the teetotaler may be building upon
-his temperance, pluming himself upon his morality, and thus deceiving
-himself into the vain notion that he is all right, whereas, in
-reality, he is not. The drunkard is palpably and unmistakably wrong.
-Everybody knows that no drunkard can inherit the Kingdom of God; but
-neither can an unconverted teetotaler. Both are outside. Conversion to
-God is absolutely indispensable for the one as well as the other; and
-the same may be said of all classes, all grades, all shades, all
-castes and conditions of men under the sun. There is no difference as
-to this great question. It holds good as to all alike, be their
-outward character or social status what it may--"Except ye be
-converted, _ye cannot_ enter the Kingdom of heaven."
-
-How important, then--yea, how momentous the question for each one,
-"_Am I converted?_" It is not possible for human language to set forth
-the magnitude and solemnity of this inquiry. For any one to think of
-going on, from day to day, and year to year, without a clear and
-thorough settlement of this most weighty question, can only be
-regarded as the most egregious folly of which a human being can be
-guilty. If a man were to leave his earthly affairs in an uncertain,
-unsettled condition, he would lay himself open to the charge of the
-grossest and most culpable neglect and carelessness. But what are the
-most urgent and weighty temporal affairs when compared with the
-salvation of the soul? All the concerns of time are but as the chaff
-of the summer threshing-floor, when compared with the interests of
-the immortal soul--the grand realities of eternity.
-
-Hence it is, in the very highest degree, irrational for any one to
-rest for a single hour without a clear and settled assurance that he
-is truly converted to God. A converted soul has crossed the boundary
-line that separates the saved from the unsaved--the children of light
-from the children of darkness--the Church of God from this present
-evil world. The converted soul has death and judgment behind him, and
-glory before. He can be as sure of heaven as though he were already
-there; indeed as a man in Christ he belongs there already. He has a
-title without a blot, a prospect without a cloud. He knows Christ as
-his Saviour and Lord; God as his Father and Friend; the Holy Ghost as
-his blessed Comforter, Guide and Teacher; heaven as his bright and
-happy home. Oh! the unspeakable blessedness of being converted. Who
-can utter it? "Eye hath not seen, or ear heard, neither have entered
-into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
-that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us [believers] by His
-Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of
-God" (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10).
-
-And now let us inquire what this conversion is, whereof we speak.
-Well, indeed, will it be for us to be divinely instructed as to this.
-An error here will prove disastrous in proportion to the interests at
-stake.
-
-Many are the mistaken notions in reference to conversion. Indeed we
-might conclude, from the very fact of the vast importance of the
-subject, that the great enemy of our souls and of the Christ of God
-would seek, in every possible way, to plunge us into error respecting
-it. If he cannot succeed in keeping people in utter carelessness as to
-the subject of conversion, he will endeavour to blind their eyes as to
-its true nature. If, for example, a person has been roused, by some
-means or other, to a sense of the utter vanity and unsatisfactoriness
-of worldly amusements, and the urgent necessity of a change of life,
-the arch-deceiver will seek to persuade such an one to become
-religious, to busy himself with ordinances, rites and ceremonies, to
-give up balls and parties, theatres and concerts, drinking, gambling,
-hunting and horse-racing; in a word, to give up all sorts of gaiety
-and amusement, and engage in what is called a religious life, to be
-diligent in attending the public ordinances of religion, to read the
-Bible, say prayers, and give alms, to contribute to the support of the
-great religious and benevolent institutions of the country.
-
-Now, this is not conversion. A person may do all this, and yet be
-wholly unconverted. A religious devotee whose whole life is spent in
-vigils, fastings, prayers, self-mortifications and alms deeds, may be
-as thoroughly unconverted, as far from the Kingdom of God as the
-thoughtless pleasure hunter, whose whole life is spent in the pursuit
-of objects as worthless as the withered leaf or the faded flower. The
-two characters, no doubt, differ widely--as widely perhaps, as any
-two could differ. But they are both unconverted, both outside the
-blessed circle of God's salvation, both in their sins. True, the one
-is engaged in "wicked works," and the other in "dead works;" they are
-both out of Christ; they are unsaved; they are on the way to hopeless,
-endless misery. The one, just as surely as the other, if not savingly
-converted, will find his portion in the lake that burneth with fire
-and brimstone.
-
-Again, conversion is not a turning from one religious system to
-another. A man may turn from Judaism, Paganism, Mahometanism, or
-Popery, to Protestantism, and yet be wholly unconverted. No doubt,
-looked at from a social, moral, or intellectual standpoint, it is much
-better to be a Protestant than a Mahometan; but as regards our present
-thesis, they are both on one common platform, both unconverted. Of
-one, just as truly as the other, it can be said, unless he is
-converted, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Conversion is not
-joining a religious system, be that system ever so pure, ever so
-sound, ever so orthodox. A man may be a member of the most respectable
-religious body in Christendom, and yet be an unconverted, unsaved man,
-on his way to eternal perdition.
-
-So also as to the theological creeds. A man may subscribe to any of
-the great standards of religious belief, the Thirty-nine Articles, the
-Westminster Confession, John Wesley's Sermons, Fox and Barclay, or any
-other creed, and yet be wholly unconverted, dead in trespasses and
-sins, and on his way to that place where a single ray of hope can
-never break in upon the awful gloom of eternity.
-
-Of what use, we may lawfully inquire, is a religious system or a
-theological creed to a man who has not a single spark of divine life?
-Systems and creeds cannot quicken, cannot save, cannot give eternal
-life. A man may work on in religious machinery like a horse in a mill,
-going round and round, from one year's end to another, leaving off
-just where he began, in a dreary monotony of dead works. What is it
-all worth? what does it all come to? where does it all end? _Death!_
-Yes; and what then? Ah! that is the question. Would to God the weight
-and seriousness of this question were more fully realized!
-
-But further, Christianity itself, in all its full-orbed light, may be
-embraced as a system of religious belief. A person may be
-intellectually delighted--almost entranced with the glorious doctrines
-of grace, a full, free gospel, salvation without works, justification
-by faith; in short, all that goes to make up our glorious New
-Testament Christianity. A person may profess to believe and delight in
-this; he may even become a powerful writer in defence of Christian
-doctrine, an earnest eloquent preacher of the gospel. All this may be
-true, and yet the man be wholly unconverted, dead in trespasses and
-sins, hardened, deceived and destroyed by his very familiarity with
-the precious truths of the gospel--truths that have never gone beyond
-the region of his understanding--never reached his conscience, never
-touched his heart, never converted his soul.
-
-This is about the most appalling case of all. Nothing can be more
-awful, more terrible, than the case of a man professing to believe and
-delight in, yea, actually preaching the gospel of God, and teaching
-all the grand characteristic truths of Christianity, and yet wholly
-unconverted, unsaved, and on his way to an eternity of ineffable
-misery--misery which must needs be intensified to the very highest
-degree, by the remembrance of the fact that he once professed to
-believe, and actually undertook to preach the most glorious tidings
-that ever fell on mortal ears.
-
-O! reader, whoever thou art, do, we entreat of thee, give thy fixed
-attention to these things. Rest not, for one hour, until thou art
-assured of thy genuine, unmistakable conversion to God.
-
-
-
-
-PART III.
-
-
-Having thus far seen the absolute necessity, in every case, of
-conversion, and having, in some measure, sought to point out what
-conversion is _not_, we have now to inquire what it _is_. And here we
-must keep close to the veritable teaching of holy Scripture. We can
-accept nothing less, nothing different. It is greatly to be feared
-that very much of what passes, now-a-days, for conversion is not
-conversion at all. Many so-called cases of conversion are published
-and talked of, which cannot stand the test of the word of God. Many
-profess to be converted, and are accredited as such, who prove to be
-merely stony-ground hearers. There is no depth of spiritual work in
-the heart, no real action of the truth of God on the conscience, no
-thorough breaking with the world. It may be the feelings are wrought
-upon by human influence, and certain evangelical sentiments take
-possession of the mind; but _self_ is not judged; there is a clinging
-to earth and nature; a lack of that deep-toned earnestness and genuine
-reality which so remarkably characterize the conversions recorded in
-the New Testament, and for which we may always look where the work of
-conversion is divine. We do not here attempt to account for all these
-superficial cases; we merely refer to them in order that all who are
-engaged in the blessed work of evangelization may be led to consider
-the matter in the light of holy Scripture, and to see how far their
-own mode of working may call for holy correction. It may be there is
-too much of the merely human element in our work. We do not leave the
-Spirit of God to act. We are deficient in faith, in the power and
-efficacy of the simple work of Christ itself. There may be too much
-effort to work on the feelings, too much of the emotional and the
-sensational. Perhaps, too, in our desire to reach results--a desire
-which may be right enough in itself--we are too ready to accredit and
-announce, as cases of conversion, many which, alas! are merely
-ephemeral.
-
-Will this lessen our earnestness? The very reverse; it will intensify
-our earnestness immensely. We shall be more earnest in pleading with
-God in secret, and in pleading with our fellows in public.
-
-We shall feel more deeply the divine seriousness of the work, and our
-own utter insufficiency. We shall ever cherish the wholesome
-conviction that the work must be of God from first to last. This will
-keep us in our right place, that of self-emptied dependence upon God,
-who is the Doer of all the works that are done upon the earth. We
-shall be more on our faces before the mercy-seat, both in the closet
-and in the assembly, in reference to the glorious work of conversion;
-and then, when the golden sheaves and mellow clusters appear, when
-genuine cases of conversion turn up--cases which speak for themselves,
-and carry their own credentials with them to all who are capable of
-judging--then verily shall our hearts be filled with praise to the God
-of all grace who has magnified the name of His Son Jesus Christ in the
-salvation of precious souls.
-
-How much better is this than to have our poor hearts puffed up with
-pride and self-complacency by reckoning up our cases of conversion!
-How much better, safer and happier to be bowed in worship before the
-throne, than to have our names heralded to the ends of the earth as
-great preachers and wonderful evangelists! No comparison, in the
-judgment of a truly spiritual person. The dignity, reality, and
-seriousness of the work will be realized; the happiness, the moral
-security, and the real usefulness of the workman will be promoted; and
-the glory of God secured and maintained.
-
-Let us see how all this is illustrated in 1 Thessalonians i. "Paul,
-and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the assembly of the Thessalonians in
-God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace be unto you, and
-peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks
-to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
-remembering without ceasing your work of _faith_ and labor of _love_,
-and patience of _hope_"--the grand elements of true Christianity--"in
-our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; knowing,
-brethren, beloved of God, your election." How did he know it? By the
-clear and unquestionable evidence afforded in their practical
-life--the only way in which the election of any one can be known. "For
-our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also _in power_, and in
-the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; _as ye know what manner of men
-we were among you for your sake_."
-
-The blessed apostle was, in his daily life, the exponent of the gospel
-which he preached. He _lived_ the gospel. He did not demand or exact
-aught of them. He was not burdensome to them. He preached unto them
-the precious gospel of God freely; and in order that he might do so,
-he wrought with labor and travail, night and day. He was as a loving,
-tender nurse, going in and out among them. There were with him no
-high-sounding words about himself, or his office, or his authority, or
-his gifts, or his preaching, or his wonderful doings in other places.
-He was the loving, lowly, unpretending, earnest, devoted workman,
-whose work spoke for itself, and whose whole life, his spirit, style,
-deportment, and habits, were in lovely harmony with his preaching.
-
-How needful for all workmen to ponder these things! We may depend upon
-it that very much of the shallowness of our work is the fruit of the
-shallowness of the workman. Where is the power? Where is the
-demonstration of the Spirit? Where is the "much assurance?" Is there
-not a terrible lack of these things in our preaching? There may be a
-vast amount of fluent talking; a great deal of so-called cleverness;
-and much that may tickle the ear, act on the imagination, awaken a
-temporary interest, and minister to mere curiosity. But oh! where is
-the holy unction, the living earnestness, the profound seriousness?
-And then the living exponent in the daily life and habits--where is
-this? May the Lord revive His work in the hearts of His workmen, and
-then we may look for more of the results of the work.
-
-Do we mean to teach that the work of conversion depends upon the
-workman? Far away be the monstrous notion! The work depends wholly and
-absolutely on the power of the Holy Ghost, as the very chapter now
-lying open before us proves beyond all question. It must ever hold
-good, in every department and every stage of the work, that it is "not
-by might nor by power; but by My Spirit, saith the Lord."
-
-But what kind of instrument does the Spirit ordinarily use? Is not
-this a weighty question for us workmen? What sort of vessels are "meet
-for the Master's use?" Empty vessels--clean vessels. Are we such? Are
-we emptied of ourselves? Are we cured of our deplorable
-self-occupation? Are we "clean?" Have we clean hands? Are our
-associations, our ways, our circumstances, clean? If not, how can the
-Master use us in His holy service? May we all have grace to weigh
-these questions in the divine presence! May the Lord stir us all up,
-and make us more and more vessels such as He can use for His glory!
-
-We shall now proceed with our quotation. The whole passage is full of
-power. The character of the workman on the one hand, and of the work
-on the other, demands our most serious attention.
-
-"And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the
-word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that ye were
-ensamples [or models] to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
-For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia
-and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread
-abroad; so that we need not to speak anything, for they themselves
-show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you."
-
-This was real work. It carried its own credentials with it. There was
-nothing vague or unsatisfactory about it--no occasion for any reserve
-in forming or expressing a judgment respecting it. It was clear,
-distinct, and unmistakable. It bore the stamp of the Master's hand,
-and carried conviction to every mind capable of weighing the evidence.
-The work of conversion was wrought, and the fruits of conversion
-followed in delightful profusion. The testimony went forth far and
-wide, so that the workman had no need to speak about his work. There
-was no occasion for him to reckon up and publish the number of
-conversions at Thessalonica. All was divinely real. It was a thorough
-work of God's Spirit as to which there could be no possible mistake,
-and about which it was superfluous to speak.
-
-The apostle had simply preached the Word in the power of the Holy
-Ghost, in much assurance. There was nothing vague, nothing doubtful
-about his testimony. He preached as one who fully believed and
-thoroughly entered into what he was preaching about. It was not the
-mere fluent utterance of certain known and acknowledged truths--not
-the cut and dry statement of certain barren dogmas. No; it was the
-living outpouring of the glorious gospel of God, coming from a heart
-that felt profoundly every utterance, and falling upon hearts prepared
-by God's Spirit for its reception.
-
-Such was the work at Thessalonica--a blessed divine work--all real,
-the genuine fruit of God's Spirit. It was no mere religious
-excitement, nothing sensational, no high pressure, no attempt to "get
-up a revival." All was beautifully calm. The workman, as we are told
-in Acts xvii., "came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the
-Jews; and as his manner was, he went in unto them, and three sabbath
-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures"--Precious, powerful
-reasoning! would to God we had more of it in our midst!--"opening and
-alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from
-the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ."
-
-How simple! Preaching Jesus out of the Scriptures! Yes, here lay the
-grand secret of Paul's preaching. He preached a living Person, in
-living power, on the authority of a living Word, and this preaching
-was received in living faith, and brought forth living fruit, in the
-lives of the converts. This is the preaching that God has ordained and
-uses. It is not sermonizing, not religious talk, but the preaching of
-Christ by the Holy Ghost speaking through men who are themselves under
-the power of what they are preaching. God grant us more of this!
-
-
-
-
-PART IV.
-
-
-The last two verses of our chapter (1 Thess. i.) demand our very
-special attention. They furnish a remarkable statement of the real
-nature of conversion. They show, very distinctly, the depth,
-clearness, fulness, and reality of the work of God's Spirit in those
-Thessalonian converts. There was no mistaking it. It carried its own
-credentials with it. It was no uncertain work. It did not call for any
-careful examination ere it could be accredited. It was a manifest,
-unmistakable work of God, the fruits of which were apparent to all.
-"They themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto
-you, and how _ye turned to God from idols_, to serve the living and
-true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the
-dead, Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come" (vers. 9, 10).
-
-Here, then, we have a divine definition of conversion--brief, but
-comprehensive. It is a turning _from_, and a turning _to_. They turned
-from idols. There was a complete break with the past, a turning of the
-back, once and forever, on their former life and habits; a thorough
-surrender of all those objects that had ruled their hearts and
-commanded their energies. Those dear Thessalonians were led to judge,
-in the light of divine truth, their whole previous course, and not
-only to judge it, but to abandon it unreservedly. It was no
-half-and-half work. There was nothing vague or equivocal about it. It
-was a marked epoch in their history--a grand turning-point in their
-moral and practical career. It was not a mere change of opinion, or
-the reception of a new set of principles, a certain alteration in
-their intellectual views. It was far more than any or all of these
-things. It was the solemn discovery that their whole past career had
-been one great, dark, monstrous lie. It was the real heart conviction
-of this. Divine light had broken in upon their souls, and in the power
-of that light they judged themselves and the entire of their previous
-history. There was an out-and-out surrender of that world which had
-hitherto ruled their hearts' affections; not a shred of it was to be
-spared.
-
-And what, we may ask, produced this marvelous change? Simply the word
-of God brought home to their souls in the mighty power of the Holy
-Ghost. We have referred to the inspired account of the apostle's visit
-to Thessalonica. We are told that "he reasoned with them out of the
-Scriptures." He sought to bring their souls into direct contact with
-the living and eternal word of God. There was no effort to act on
-their feelings and imagination. All this the blessed workman judged to
-be utterly valueless. He had no confidence whatever in it. His
-confidence was in the word and Spirit of God. He assures the
-Thessalonians of this very thing in the most touching manner, in chap.
-ii. of his epistle. "For this cause," he says, "thank we God without
-ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of
-us, ye received it _not as the word of men_, but, as it is in truth,
-_the word of God_, which effectually worketh also in you that
-believe."
-
-This is what we may call a vital and cardinal point. The word of God,
-and that alone, in the mighty hand of the Holy Ghost, produced these
-grand results in the case of the Thessalonians, which filled the heart
-of the beloved apostle with unfeigned thanksgiving to God. He rejoiced
-that they were not linked on to him, but to the living God Himself, by
-means of His word. This is an imperishable link. It is as enduring as
-the Word which forms it. The word of man is as perishable as himself;
-but the word of the Lord endureth forever. The apostle, as a true
-workman, understood and felt all this, and hence his holy jealousy, in
-all his ministry, lest the souls to whom he preached should, in any
-way, lean upon him instead of on the One whose messenger and minister
-he was.
-
-Hear what he says to the Corinthians: "And I, brethren, when I came
-unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
-unto you _the testimony of God_. For I determined not to know anything
-among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in
-weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my
-preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but _in
-demonstration of the Spirit_ and of power; that your faith should not
-stand in the wisdom of men, but _in the power of God_" (1 Cor. ii.
-1-5).
-
-Here we have true ministry--"the testimony of God," and "the
-demonstration of the Spirit"--the Word and the Holy Ghost. Nothing
-else is of any value. All mere human influence, human power, and the
-results produced by human wisdom or energy, are perfectly
-worthless--yea, positively mischievous. The workman is puffed up by
-the apparent results of his work paraded and talked of, and the poor
-souls that are acted upon by this false influence are deceived, and
-led into an utterly false position and false profession. In a word,
-the whole thing is disastrous in the extreme.
-
-Not so when the word of God, in its mighty moral power, and the energy
-of the Holy Ghost, are brought to bear on the heart and conscience.
-Then it is we see divine results, as in the case of the Thessalonians.
-Then indeed it is made apparent, beyond all question, who is the
-workman. It is not Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, but God Himself, whose
-work accredits itself, and shall stand forever; all homage to His holy
-name! The apostle had no need to reckon up and publish the results of
-his work at Thessalonica, or rather God's work by his means. It spoke
-for itself. It was genuine. It bore, with unmistakable distinctness,
-the stamp of God upon it, and this was quite enough for Paul; and it
-is quite enough for every true-hearted, self-emptied workman. Paul
-preached the Word, and that Word was brought home, in the quickening
-energy of the Holy Ghost, to the hearts of the Thessalonians. It fell
-into good ground, took root, and brought forth fruit in abundance.
-
-And let us mark the fruit. "_Ye turned from idols._" Here we have, in
-one word, the whole life of every unconverted man, woman, or child on
-the face of the earth. It is all wrapped up and presented to our view
-in the one expression, "_idols_." It is not by any means necessary to
-bow down to a stock or a stone in order to be an idolater. Whatever
-commands the heart is an idol; the yielding of the heart to that thing
-is idolatry, and the one who so yields it is an idolater. Such is the
-plain, solemn truth in this matter, however unpalatable it may be to
-the proud human heart. Take that one great, crying, universal sin of
-"covetousness." What does the inspired apostle call it? He calls it
-"idolatry." How many hearts are commanded by money! How many
-worshipers bow down before the idol of gold! What is covetousness?
-Either a desire to get more, or the love of what we have. We have both
-forms in the New Testament. The Greek has a word to represent both.
-But whether it be the desire to grasp, or the desire to hoard, in
-either case it is idolatry.
-
-And yet the two things may be very unlike in their outward
-development. The former, that is, the desire to get more, may often be
-found in connection with a readiness to spend; the latter, on the
-contrary, is generally linked with an intense spirit of hoarding.
-There, for example, is a man of great business capacity--a thorough
-commercial genius--in whose hand everything seems to prosper. He has a
-real zest for business, an unquenchable thirst for making money. His
-one object is to get more, to add thousand to thousand, to strengthen
-his commercial foundation, and enlarge his sphere. He lives, thrives,
-and revels in the atmosphere of commerce. He started on his career
-with a few pence in his pocket, and he has risen to the proud position
-of a merchant prince. He is not a miser. He is as ready to scatter as
-to obtain. He fares sumptuously, entertains with a splendid
-hospitality, gives munificently to manifold public objects. He is
-looked up to and respected by all classes of society.
-
-But he loves to get more. He is a covetous man--an idolater. True, he
-despises the poor miser who spends his nights over his money-bags,
-"holding strange communion with his gold;" delighting his heart and
-feasting his eyes with the very sight of the fascinating dust,
-refusing himself and his family the common necessaries of life; going
-about in rags and wretchedness, rather than spend a penny of the
-precious hoard; who loves money, not for what it can get or give, but
-simply for its own sake; who loves to accumulate, not that he may
-spend, but that he may hoard; whose one ruling desire is to die worth
-so much wretched dust--strange, contemptible desire!
-
-Now these two are apparently very different, but they meet in one
-point; they stand on one common platform; they are both covetous, and
-they are both idolaters.[1] This may sound harsh and severe, but it
-is the truth of God, and we must bow down before its holy authority.
-True it is that nothing is apparently more difficult to bring home to
-the conscience than the sin of covetousness--that very sin which the
-Holy Ghost declares to be idolatry. Thousands might see it in the case
-of the poor degraded miser, who nevertheless would be shocked by its
-application to a merchant prince. It is one thing to see it in others,
-and quite another to judge it in ourselves. The fact is, that nothing
-but the light of the word of God shining in upon the soul, and
-penetrating every chamber of our moral being, can enable us to detect
-the hateful sin of covetousness. The pursuit of gain--the desire to
-have more--the spirit of commerce--the ability to make money--the
-desire to get on--all this is so "highly esteemed amongst men," that
-very few, comparatively, are prepared to see that it is positively "an
-abomination in the sight of God." The natural heart is formed by the
-thoughts of men. It loves, adores and worships the objects that it
-finds in this world; and each heart has its own idol. One worships
-gold, another worships pleasure, another worships power. Every
-unconverted man is an idolater; and even converted men are not beyond
-the reach of idolatrous influences, as is evident from the warning
-note raised by the venerable apostle, "Little children, keep
-yourselves from idols" (1 John v. 21).
-
-  [1] The two Greek words to which we have alluded in the text are,
-  {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} (pleonexia--the desire to get more), and
-  {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} (philarguria--the love of money). Now it is the
-  former that occurs in Col. iii. 5--"Covetousness, which is idolatry;"
-  and there it stands in the terrible category with some of the very vilest
-  sins that stain the pages of human history.
-
-Reader, will you permit us to put a plain, pointed question to you,
-ere we proceed further? Are you converted? Do you profess to be so? Do
-you take the ground of being a Christian? If so, have you turned from
-idols? Have you really broken with the world, and with your former
-self? Has the living word of God entered your heart, and led you to
-judge the whole of your past life, whether it has been a life of
-gayety and thoughtless folly, a life of busy money-making, a life of
-abominable vice and wickedness, or a life of mere religious
-routine--Christless, faithless, worthless religion?
-
-Say, dear friend, how is it? Be thoroughly in earnest. Be assured
-there is an urgent demand for out-and-out earnestness in this matter.
-We cannot hide from you the fact that we are painfully conscious of
-the sad lack of thorough decision amongst us. We have not, with
-sufficient emphasis or distinctness, "turned from idols." Old habits
-are retained; former lusts and objects rule the heart. The temper,
-style, spirit and deportment do not bespeak conversion. We are sadly
-too like our former selves--too like the openly and confessedly
-worldly people around us.
-
-All this is really terrible. We fear it is a sad hindrance to the
-progress of the gospel and the salvation of souls. The testimony falls
-powerless on the ears of those to whom we speak, because we do not
-seem as though we ourselves really believe what we are talking about.
-The apostle could not say to us, as he said to his dear Thessalonian
-converts, "From you sounded out the word of the Lord ... so that we
-need not to speak anything." There is a want of depth, power and
-markedness in our conversion. The change is not sufficiently apparent.
-Even where there is a work, there is a tameness, feebleness and
-vagueness about it truly deplorable and discouraging.
-
-But more of this in our next, if the Lord will.
-
-
-
-
-PART V.
-
-
-We are now called to consider what we may term the positive side of
-the great subject of conversion. We have seen that it is a turning
-_from_ idols--a turning from all those objects which ruled our hearts
-and engaged our affections--the vanities and follies, the lusts and
-pleasures which made up the whole of our existence in the days of our
-darkness and blindness. It is, as we read in Acts xxvi. 18, a turning
-_from_ darkness, and from the power of Satan; and, as we read in Gal.
-i. 4, a turning _from_ this present evil world.
-
-But conversion is much more than all this. It would, in one sense, be
-but a poor thing if it were merely a turning "_from_ sin, the world,
-and Satan." No doubt it is a signal mercy to be delivered, once and
-forever, from all the wretchedness and moral degradation of our former
-life; from the terrible thraldom of the god and prince of this world;
-from all the hollowness and vanity of a world that lieth in the arms
-of the wicked one; and from the love and practice of sin--the vile
-affections which once held sway over us. We cannot be too thankful for
-all that is included in this side of the question.
-
-But, we repeat, there is very much more than this. The heart may feel
-disposed to inquire, "What have we gotten in lieu of all we have given
-up? Is Christianity merely a system of negations? If we have broken
-with the world and self--if we have given up our former pleasures and
-amusements--if, in short, we have turned our back upon what goes to
-make up life in this world, what have we instead?"
-
-1 Thessalonians i. 9 furnishes, in one word, the answer to all these
-inquiries--an answer full, clear, distinct, and comprehensive. Here it
-is--"Ye turned to GOD."
-
-Precious answer! Yes, unspeakably precious to all who know aught of
-its meaning. What have I got instead of my former "idols?" God!
-Instead of this world's vain and sinful pleasures? God! Instead of its
-riches, honors, and distinctions? God! Oh, blessed, glorious, perfect
-Substitute! What had the prodigal instead of the rags of the far
-country? The best robe in the Father's house! Instead of the swine's
-husks? The fatted calf of the Father's providing! Instead of the
-degrading servitude of the far country? The Father's welcome, his
-bosom, and his table!
-
-Reader, is not this a blessed exchange? Have we not, in the familiar,
-but ever charming history of the prodigal a most touching and
-impressive illustration of true conversion in both its sides? May we
-not well exclaim, as we gaze on the inimitable picture, "What a
-conversion! What a turning from and turning to!" Who can utter it?
-What human tongue can adequately set forth the feelings of the
-returned wanderer when pressed to the Father's bosom and bathed in the
-light and love of the Father's house? The rags, the husks, the swine,
-the slavery, the cold selfishness, the destitution, the famine, the
-misery, the moral degradation--all gone, and gone forever; and instead
-thereof the ineffable delight of that bright and happy home, and,
-above all, the exquisite feeling that all that festive joy which
-surrounded him was wakened up by the very fact of his return--that it
-made the Father glad to get him back!
-
-But we shall, perhaps, be told that all this is but a figure. Yes; but
-a figure of what? Of a precious, a divine reality; a figure of what
-takes place in every instance of true conversion, if only it be looked
-at from a heavenly standpoint. It is not a mere surrender of the
-world, with its thousand and one vanities and follies. It is this, no
-doubt; but it is very much more. It is being brought to God, _brought
-home_, brought to the Father's bosom, brought into the family;
-made--not in the language of a barren formulary, but in the power of
-the Spirit, and by the mighty action of the Word--a child of God, a
-member of Christ, and an heir of the kingdom.
-
-This, and nothing less, is conversion. Let the reader see that he
-thoroughly understands it. Let him not be satisfied with anything
-short of this grand reality--this turning from darkness to light, from
-the power of Satan, and from the worship of idols, to God. The
-Christian is, in one sense, as really brought to God now as if he were
-actually in heaven. This may seem strong, but it is blessedly true.
-Hear what the apostle Peter says as to this point: "Christ hath once
-suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to"--what?
-Heaven when we die? Nay; but "to bring us to God" _now_. So, also, in
-Rom. v. we read, "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! And not only so, but we also _joy in God_, through
-our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the
-reconciliation."
-
-This is an immense principle. It is not within the compass of human
-language to set forth all that is involved in being "turned," or
-"brought to God." Our adorable Lord Jesus Christ brings all who
-believe in His name into God's presence, in all His own perfect
-acceptability. They come in all the credit, and virtue, and value of
-the blood of Jesus, and in all the fragrance of His most excellent
-name. He brings us into the very same position with Himself. He links
-us with Himself, and shares with us all He has, and all He is, save
-His Deity, which is incommunicable. We are perfectly identified with
-Him. "Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see
-Me; _because I live, ye shall live also_." Again, "Peace I leave with
-you, _my peace I give unto you_; not as the world giveth, give I unto
-you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." "These
-things have I spoken unto you, that _my joy might remain in you_, and
-that your joy might be full." "Henceforth I call you not servants, for
-the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you
-friends, for _all things that I have heard of my Father I have made
-known unto you._"
-
-So, also, in that marvelous prayer in John xvii., we read, "I have
-given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received
-them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have
-believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them; I pray not for the
-world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And
-all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them."
-"I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because
-_they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." "As Thou
-hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
-world." "And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that
-they may be one, even as We are one_: I in them, and Thou in Me, that
-they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou
-hast sent Me, _and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me_. Father, _I
-will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am_;
-that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me; for thou
-lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
-world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known
-that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and
-will declare it; that _the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in
-them, and I in them_."
-
-Now it is utterly impossible to conceive anything higher or more
-blessed than this. To be so thoroughly identified with the Son of God,
-to be so wholly one with Him as to share in the very same love
-wherewith He is loved by the Father, to partake of His peace, His joy,
-His glory--all this involves the very highest possible measure and
-character of blessing with which any creature could be endowed. To be
-saved from the everlasting horrors of the pit of hell; to be pardoned,
-washed, and justified; to be reinstated in all that Adam lost; to be
-let into heaven on any ground or in any character whatsoever, would be
-marvelous mercy, goodness, and loving-kindness; but to be brought to
-God in all the love and favor of His own beloved Son, to be intimately
-associated with Him in all His position before God--His acceptability
-now--His glory by and by--this, truly, is something which only the
-heart of God could think of, and only His mighty power accomplish.
-
-Well, reader, all this is involved in the conversion whereof we speak.
-Such is the magnificent grace of God, such the love wherewith He loved
-us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, enemies in our
-minds by wicked works, serving divers lusts and pleasures, worshiping
-idols, the blind, degraded slaves of sin and Satan, children of wrath,
-and going straight to hell.
-
-And the best of it all is, that it both glorifies the name and
-gratifies the heart of God to bring us into this place of
-inconceivable blessedness, love, and glory. It would not satisfy the
-love of His heart to give us any lower place than that of His own Son.
-Well might the inspired apostle exclaim, in view of all this
-stupendous grace, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
-Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
-places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the
-foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
-before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of
-children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
-His will, _to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
-made us accepted in the Beloved_, in whom we have redemption through
-His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His
-grace" (Eph. i.).
-
-What depth of love, what fulness of blessing, have we here! It is the
-purpose of God to glorify Himself, throughout the countless ages of
-eternity, in His dealings with us. He will display, in view of all
-created intelligences, the riches of His grace, in His kindness toward
-us, by Christ Jesus. Our forgiveness, our justification, our perfect
-deliverance, our acceptance--all the blessings bestowed upon us in
-Christ--are for the display of the divine glory throughout the vast
-universe forever. It would not meet the claims of God's glory, or
-answer the affections of His heart, to have us in any other position
-but that of His own well-beloved and only begotten Son.
-
-All this is marvelous. It seems too good to be true. But it is worthy
-of God, and it is His good pleasure so to act toward us. This is
-enough for us. It may be, and most assuredly is, too good for us to
-get, but it is not too good for God to give. He acts toward us
-according to the love of His heart, and on the ground of the
-worthiness of Christ. The prodigal might ask to be made as one of the
-hired servants, but this could not be. It would not be according to
-the Father's heart to have him in the house as a servant. It must be
-as a son or not at all. If it were a question of desert, we do not
-deserve the place of a servant any more than that of a son. But,
-blessed be God, it is not according to our deserts at all, but
-according to the boundless love of His heart, and to the glory of His
-holy name.
-
-This, then, is conversion. Thus we are _brought to God_. Nothing short
-of this. We are not merely turned from our idols, whatever they were,
-but we are actually brought into the very presence of God, to find our
-delight in Him, to joy in Him, to walk with Him, to find all our
-springs in Him, to draw upon His exhaustless resources, to find in Him
-a perfect answer to all our necessities, so that our souls are
-satisfied, and that forever.
-
-Do we want to go back to the idols? Never! Have we any hankering after
-our former objects? Not if our hearts are realizing our place and
-portion in Christ. Had the prodigal any longings after the husks and
-the swine when folded in the father's bosom, clothed in the father's
-house, and seated at the father's table? We do not, and cannot,
-believe it. We cannot imagine his heaving a single sigh after the far
-country when once he found himself within the hallowed circle of that
-bright and blissful home of love.
-
-We speak according to the divine standard. Alas! alas! many profess to
-be converted, and seem to go on for a season; but ere long they begin
-to grow cold, and get weary and dissatisfied. The work was not real.
-They were not really brought to God. Idols may have been given up for
-a time, but God Himself was never reached. They never found in Him a
-satisfying portion for their hearts--never knew the real meaning of
-communion with Him--never tasted heart-satisfaction, heart-rest, in
-Christ. Hence, in process of time, the poor heart began to long once
-more for the world, and back they went, and plunged into its follies
-and vanities with greater avidity than ever.
-
-Such cases are very sad, very disappointing. They bring great reproach
-on the cause of Christ, and are used as a plea for the enemy, and as a
-stumbling-block for anxious inquirers. But they leave the question of
-divine conversion just where it was. The soul that is truly converted
-is one who has not merely been turned from this present evil world,
-and all its promises and pretensions, but who has been led by the
-precious ministry of the Holy Ghost to find in the living God, and in
-His Son Jesus Christ, all he can possibly want for time and eternity.
-Such an one has divinely done with the world. He has broken with it
-forever. He has had his eyes opened to see, through and through, the
-whole thing. He has judged it in the light of the presence of God. He
-has measured it by the standard of the cross of Christ. He has weighed
-it in the balances of the sanctuary, and turned his back upon it
-forever, to find an absorbing and a commanding object in the Person of
-that blessed One who was nailed to the accursed tree, in order to
-deliver him, not only from everlasting burnings, but also from this
-present evil world.
-
-
-
-
-PART VI.
-
-
-The more we dwell on 1 Thess. i. 9, the more we are struck with its
-marvelous depth, fulness, and power. It seems like sinking a shaft
-into an inexhaustible mine. We have dwelt a little on that very
-fruitful and suggestive clause, "_Turned to God from idols_." How much
-is wrapped up in it! Do we really understand the force and fulness of
-it? It is a wonderful thing for the soul to be brought to God--to know
-Him now as our resource in all our weakness and need--the spring of
-all our joys--our strength and shield--our Guide and Counsellor--our
-all in all--to be absolutely and completely shut up to Him, wholly
-dependent upon Him.
-
-Reader, do you know the deep blessedness of all this in your own soul?
-If you are a child of God, a truly converted soul, then it is your
-happy privilege to know it, and you ought not to be satisfied without
-it. If we are "turned to God," what is it for but to find in Him all
-we can possibly want for time and eternity? Nothing can ever satisfy
-the human soul but God Himself. It is not within the compass of earth
-to meet the cravings of the heart. If we had the wealth of the
-universe, and all that that wealth could procure, the heart would
-still want more; there would still be an aching void which nothing
-under the sun could fill.
-
-Look at the history of Solomon. Hear him recording his own experience.
-"I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem; and I gave my
-heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are
-done under heaven; this sore travail hath God given to the sons of men
-to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done
-under the sun, and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That
-which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting
-cannot be numbered. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am
-come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that
-have been before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart had great experience
-of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to
-know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of
-spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth
-knowledge increaseth sorrow. I said in my heart, Go to, now, I will
-prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure; and behold, this also
-is vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it?
-I sought in my heart to give myself to wine, yet acquainting my heart
-with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that
-good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all
-the days of their life. I made me great works; I builded me houses; I
-planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted
-trees in them of all kind of fruits; I made me pools of water, to
-water there with the wood that bringeth forth trees. I got me servants
-and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also, I had great
-possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in
-Jerusalem before me. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the
-peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces; I gat me men singers
-and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical
-instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more
-than all that were before me in Jerusalem; also, my wisdom remained
-with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I
-withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my
-labor; and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all
-the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had
-labored to do; and behold, _all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and
-there was no profit under the sun_" (Eccle. i., ii.).
-
-Such is the withering commentary upon all earth's resources as given
-by the pen of one who had all that earth could give--of one who was
-allowed to drain to the very dregs every cup of human and earthly
-pleasure. And what was it all? "Vanity and vexation of spirit." "All
-things are full of labor; man cannot utter it; the eye is not
-satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." The poor
-human heart can never be satisfied with the resources of earth.
-Creature streams can never quench the thirst of the immortal soul.
-Material things cannot possibly make us truly happy, even if they were
-permanent. "All is vanity and vexation of spirit."
-
-The truth of this must be proved by every human heart. Sooner or later
-all must find it out. Men may turn a deaf ear to it now; they may
-refuse to listen to the Spirit's warning voice; they may vainly
-imagine that this poor world can yield them substantial comfort and
-happiness; they may eagerly grasp at its riches, its honors, its
-distinctions, its pleasures, its material comforts; but they will find
-out their mistake. And oh, how dreadful to find it out _too late_! How
-terrible to open one's eyes in hell, like the rich man in the parable!
-What human language can set forth the horrors of a soul shut out
-forever from the presence of God, and consigned to outer darkness, to
-the place of weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth? It is
-overwhelming to think of it. What will it be to realize it? What will
-it be to find oneself in the tormenting flames of hell, at the other
-side of that impassable gulf where a single ray of hope can never
-break through the deep gloom of eternity?
-
-Oh that men would think of all this in time! that they might flee from
-the wrath to come, and lay hold on the blessed hope set before them in
-the gospel; that they might "turn to God." But alas! the god of this
-world blinds their minds, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of
-Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them. He engrosses
-them with present things--business, money-making, pleasures, cares,
-lusts, anything and everything but the one thing, in comparison with
-which all earthly things are but as the small dust of the balance.
-
-But we have digressed from our special theme, to which we must return.
-
-We are particularly anxious to press upon the Christian reader the
-immense importance of seeking to find all his resources in the living
-God. We have only for a moment turned aside from this point, in order
-to sound a warning note in the ear of any unconverted, careless one
-who may happen to take up this paper. We earnestly entreat the latter
-to turn to God. We entreat the former to seek a deeper acquaintance
-with the One to whom, by grace, he has turned. We have the two things
-before us in penning these papers on the great subject of
-"conversion." We can truly say, we long to see precious souls
-converted to God, and we long to see converted souls happy in God.
-
-We are increasingly convinced of the practical importance of
-Christians proving in their daily life that they have found thorough
-rest of heart in God. It has immense weight with worldly people. It is
-a grand point gained when we are able, through grace, to tell the
-world that we are independent of it; and the only way to do this is to
-live in the abiding sense of what we have in God. This would impart a
-moral elevation to our entire course and character. It would deliver
-us completely from that strong tendency to lean on human props and to
-betake ourselves to creature streams which we have all more or less to
-lament, and which must assuredly issue in disappointment to us and
-dishonor to God.
-
-How prone we are on all occasions to look to our fellow-men for
-sympathy, succor and counsel instead of looking directly and
-exclusively to God! This is a serious mistake. It is in principle to
-forsake the Fountain of living waters, and hew out for ourselves
-broken cisterns which can hold no water. What can we expect? What must
-be the issue? Barrenness and desolation. Our God, in very faithfulness
-to us, will cause our fellow-man to fail us, in order that we may
-learn the folly of leaning upon an arm of flesh.
-
-Hear what the prophet says on this great practical question: "Thus
-saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh
-flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall
-be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh,
-but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt
-land, and not inhabited."
-
-But mark the contrast. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,
-and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the
-waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not
-see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be
-careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding
-fruit" (Jer. xvii.).
-
-O reader, it is a grand reality to lean on the arm of the living
-God--to find in Him our relief and our resource at all times, in all
-places, and under all circumstances. He never fails a trusting heart.
-He will never disappoint us. He may see fit to keep us waiting for an
-answer to our call, but the time we spend in waiting is well spent,
-and when the answer comes our hearts are filled with praise, and we
-are able to say, "Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid
-up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that
-trust in Thee before the sons of men" (Psa. xxxi. 19).
-
-It is a great thing to be able to trust God before the sons of men, to
-confess His sufficiency for our every exigence. But it must be a
-reality, and not mere profession. It is no use to talk of leaning on
-God while at the same time we are, in one way or another, looking to
-some poor mortal to help us. This is a sad delusion. But, alas! how
-often we fall under its power! We adopt the language of dependence
-upon God, but in reality we are looking to man, and letting him know
-our wants. We deceive ourselves and dishonor God, and the end is
-disappointment and confusion of face.
-
-Reader, let us look closely and honestly at this matter. Let us see to
-it that we understand the meaning of those precious words, "Turned to
-God." They contain the very essence of true happiness and true
-holiness. When the heart is really turned to God it has found the
-true, the divine secret of peace, rest, and full satisfaction; it
-finds its all in God, and has no occasion whatever to turn to the
-creature. Am I in any perplexity? I can look to God for guidance. He
-has promised to guide me with His eye. What perfect guidance! Can man
-do better for me? Surely not. God sees the end from the beginning. He
-knows all the bearings, all the belongings, all the roots and issues
-of my case. He is an infallible guide. His wisdom is unerring, and,
-moreover, He loves me perfectly. Where could I find a better guide?
-
-Am I in want? I can go to God about it. He is the Possessor of heaven
-and earth. The treasures of the universe are at His disposal. He can
-help me if He sees it to be good for me; and if not, the pressure will
-be much better for me than the relief. "My God shall supply all your
-need, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." Is not this
-enough? Why look to a creature stream? Why turn from such a God and go
-with our wants to a human being? It is in reality giving up, so far,
-the ground of faith, the life of simple dependence on God. It is
-actually dishonoring our Father. If I apply to my fellow for help, it
-is tantamount to saying that God has failed me. It is really betraying
-my loving Father who has taken me up, body, soul and spirit, to do for
-me for time and eternity. He has pledged Himself to provide for all my
-wants, be they ever so many, ever so great, ever so varied. "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_?" His word is, "Call
-upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
-glorify Me."
-
-True, God uses the creature to meet our need; but this is a totally
-different matter. The blessed apostle could say, "God who comforteth
-those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus." Paul
-was looking to God for comfort, and God sent Titus to comfort him. Had
-Paul been looking to Titus, he would have been disappointed.
-
-Thus it is in every case. Our immediate and exclusive reference must
-be to God in all our need. "We have turned _to God_ from idols;" and
-hence in every exigence He is our sure resource. We can go to Him for
-counsel, for succor, for guidance, for sympathy, for all. "My soul,
-wait thou _only_ upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He _only_
-is my rock and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall not be moved."
-
-Will this most blessed habit of looking only to God lead us to
-undervalue the channels through which His precious grace flows to us?
-The very reverse. How could I undervalue one who comes to me directly
-from God, as His manifest instrument, to meet my need? Impossible. But
-I value him as a channel, instead of applying to him as a source. This
-makes all the difference. We must never forget that true conversion
-means our being brought to God; and most surely, if we are brought to
-God, it is in order that we should find in Him a perfect covering for
-our eyes, a perfect object for the heart, a perfect resource in all
-our exigencies, from first to last. A truly converted soul is one who
-is turned from all creature confidences, human hopes, and earthly
-expectations, to find all he wants in the living and true God, and
-that forever.
-
-
-
-
-PART VII.
-
-
-We are now called to consider a deeply practical point in our subject.
-It is contained in the clause, "_To serve the living and true God_."
-This is full of interest to every truly converted soul, every true
-Christian. We are called "to serve." Our whole life, from the moment
-of our conversion to the close of our earthly career, should be
-characterized by a spirit of true, earnest, intelligent service. This
-is our high privilege, not to say our hallowed duty. It matters not
-what our sphere of action may be, what our line of life, or what our
-calling; when we are converted, we have just got one thing to do,
-namely, to serve God. If there be anything in our calling which is
-contrary to the revealed will of God--contrary to the direct teaching
-of His word--then we must at once abandon it, cost what it may. The
-very first step of an obedient servant is to step out of a false
-position, be it what it may.
-
-We are called to serve God, and everything must be tried by this
-standard. The Christian has to ask himself this one question, "Can I
-fulfil the duties of this situation to the glory of God?" If not, he
-must abandon it. If we cannot connect the name of God with our calling
-in life, then, assuredly, if we want to walk with God, if we aim at
-serving Him, if it be our one desire to be found well-pleasing in His
-sight, then we must give up that calling and look to Him to open some
-path for us in which we can walk to His praise.
-
-This He will do, blessed be His name. He never fails a trusting soul.
-All we have to do is to cleave to Him with purpose of heart, and He
-will make the way plain before us. It may seem difficult at first. The
-path may appear narrow, rough, lonely; but our simple business is to
-stand for God, and not to continue for one hour in connection with
-anything contrary to His revealed will. A tender conscience, a single
-eye, a devoted heart, will settle many a question, solve many a
-difficulty, remove many a barrier. Indeed, the very instincts of the
-divine nature, if only they be allowed to act, will guide in many a
-perplexity. "The light of the body is the eye; therefore, when thine
-eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light." When the purpose
-of the heart is true to Christ, true to His name and cause, true to
-the service of God, the Holy Spirit opens up the precious treasures of
-divine revelation to the soul, and pours a flood of living light upon
-the understanding, so that we see the path of service as clear as a
-sunbeam before us, and we have only got to tread it with a firm step.
-
-But we must never, for one moment, lose sight of the grand fact that
-we are converted to the service of God. The outcome of the life which
-we possess must ever take the form of service to the living and true
-God. In our unconverted days we worshiped idols, and served divers
-lusts and pleasures; now, on the contrary, we worship God in the
-Spirit, and we are called to serve Him with all our ransomed powers.
-We have turned to God, to find in Him our perfect rest and
-satisfaction. There is not a single thing in the entire range of a
-creature's necessities, for time and eternity, that we cannot find in
-our own most gracious God and Father. He has treasured up in Christ,
-the Son of His love, all that can satisfy the desires of the new life
-in us. It is our privilege to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by
-faith, and to be so rooted and grounded in love as to be able to
-comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
-and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
-that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.
-
-Thus filled, satisfied and strengthened, we are called to dedicate
-ourselves, spirit, soul and body, to the service of Christ; to be
-steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. We
-should have nothing else to do in this world. Whatever cannot be done
-as service to Christ ought not to be done at all. This simplifies the
-matter amazingly. It is our sweet privilege to do everything in the
-name of the Lord Jesus, and to the glory of God. We sometimes hear
-people speak of "a secular calling," as contrasted with what is
-"sacred." We question the correctness of such a distinction. Paul made
-tents and planted churches, but in both he served the Lord Christ. All
-that a Christian does ought to be sacred, because it is done as
-service to God. If this were borne in mind, it would enable us to
-connect the very simplest duties of daily life with the Lord Himself,
-and to bring Him into them in such a way as to impart a holy dignity
-and interest to all that we have to do, from morning till night. In
-this way, instead of finding the duties of our calling a hindrance to
-our communion with God, we should actually make them an occasion of
-waiting on Him for wisdom and grace to discharge them aright, so that
-His holy name might be glorified in the most minute details of
-practical life.
-
-The fact is that the service of God is a much simpler matter than some
-of us imagine. It does not consist in doing some wonderful things
-beyond the bounds of our divinely appointed sphere of action. Take the
-case of a domestic servant. How can she serve the living and true God?
-She cannot go about visiting and talking. Her sphere of action lies in
-the shade and retirement of her master's house. Were she to run about
-from house to house, she would be actually neglecting her proper work,
-her divinely appointed business. Harken to the following sound and
-wholesome words: "Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own
-masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again:
-not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the
-doctrine of God our Saviour in all things" (Titus ii. 9, 10).
-
-Here we see that the servant, by obedience, humility and honesty can
-adorn the doctrine of God just as effectually, according to her
-measure, as an evangelist ranging the world over in the discharge of
-his high and holy commission.
-
-Again, we read, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters
-according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your
-heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as
-_the servants of Christ_, doing the will of God from the heart; with
-good-will doing _service_, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing
-that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of
-the Lord, whether he be bond or free" (Eph. vi.).
-
-How lovely is all this! What a fine field of service is opened up for
-us here! How beautiful this "fear and trembling!" Where do we see it
-nowadays? Where is the holy subjection to authority? Where the
-singleness of eye? Where the willing-hearted service? Alas! we see
-headiness and high-mindedness, self-will, self-pleasing, and
-self-interest. How must all these things dishonor the Lord, and grieve
-His Holy Spirit! How needful that our souls should be roused to a
-sense of what becomes us as those who are called to serve the living
-and true God! Is it not a signal mercy to every true Christian to know
-that he can serve and glorify God in the most commonplace domestic
-duties? If it were not so, what would become of ninety-nine out of
-every hundred Christians?
-
-We have taken up the case of an ordinary domestic servant in order to
-illustrate that special line of practical truth now under our
-consideration. Is it not most blessed for us to know that our God
-graciously condescends to connect His name and His glory with the very
-humblest duties that can devolve upon us in our ordinary domestic
-life? It is this which imparts dignity, interest and freshness to
-every little act, from morning till night. "Whatsoever ye do, do it
-_heartily_, as unto the Lord, and not unto men." Here lies the
-precious secret of the whole matter. It is not working for wages, but
-serving the Lord Christ, and looking to Him to receive the reward of
-the inheritance.
-
-Oh that all this were more fully realized and illustrated amongst us!
-What moral elevation it would give to the entire Christian life! What
-a triumphant answer it would furnish to the infidel! What a withering
-rebuke to all his sneers and cavils! Better by far than ten thousand
-learned arguments. There is no argument so forcible as an earnest,
-devoted, holy, happy, self-sacrificing Christian life, and this life
-can be displayed by one whose sphere of action is bounded by the four
-walls of a kitchen.[2]
-
-  [2] It is remarkable that both in Eph. vi. and Col. iii. the address
-  to servants is far more elaborate than to any of the other classes. In
-  Titus ii. servants are specially singled out. There is no address to
-  husbands, none to masters, none to children. We do not attempt to
-  account for this, but we cannot help noticing it as a very interesting
-  fact; and most assuredly it teaches us what a very important place is
-  assigned in Christianity to one who, in those early days of the
-  Church's history, occupied the place of a slave. The Holy Ghost took
-  special pains to instruct such an one as to how he was to carry
-  himself in his most trying sphere of work. The poor slave might think
-  himself shut out from the service of God. So far from this, he is
-  sweetly taught that by simply doing his duty as in the sight of God he
-  could adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour, and bring glory to the
-  name of Jesus. Nothing can exceed the grace that shines in this.
-
-And not only does the practical life of a true Christian afford the
-very best possible answer to the skeptic and the infidel, but it also
-meets in a most satisfactory manner the objections of those who talk
-about works, and insist upon putting Christians under the law, in
-order to teach them how to live. When people challenge us as to our
-not preaching up works, we simply ask them, "For what should we preach
-works?" The unconverted man cannot do any works, save "wicked works,"
-or "dead works." "They that are in the flesh"--unconverted
-people--"cannot please God." Of what possible use can it be to preach
-works to such? It can only cast dust in their eyes, blind their minds,
-deceive their hearts, and send them down to hell with a lie in their
-right hand.
-
-_There must be genuine conversion to God._ This is a divine work from
-first to last. And what has the converted man got to do? He certainly
-has not to work for life, because he has it, even life eternal, as
-God's free gift, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He has not to work for
-salvation, because he is saved already--"saved in the Lord with an
-everlasting salvation." What, then, is he called to do? "To serve the
-living and true God." How? When? Where? In everything; at all times,
-and in all places. The converted man has nothing else to do but to
-serve God. If he does anything else, he is positively untrue,
-unfaithful to that blessed Lord and Master who, ere ever He called him
-to serve, endowed him with the life, and the grace, and the power,
-whereby alone the service can be rendered.
-
-Yes, reader, the Christian is called to serve. Let us never forget
-this. He is privileged to "present his body as a living sacrifice,
-holy and acceptable to God, which is his reasonable (his intelligent)
-service." This settles the whole question. It removes all
-difficulties; it silences all objections; it puts everything in its
-right place. It is not a question of what I am doing, but how I do
-it--not where I am, but how I conduct myself. Christianity as
-displayed in the New Testament is the outcome of the life of Christ in
-the believer; it is Christ reproduced in the Christian's daily life,
-by the power of the Holy Ghost. Everything the Christian touches,
-everything he does, everything he says, his whole practical life, from
-Lord's-day morning till Saturday night, should bear the impress and
-breathe the spirit of that great practical clause on which we have
-been dwelling--"serving the living and true God." May it be so more
-and more! May all the Lord's beloved people, everywhere, be really
-stirred up to seek more earnest, out-and-out, whole-hearted
-devotedness to Christ and His precious service!
-
-
-
-
-PART VIII
-
-
-The last words of our chapter--1 Thess. i.--now claim our attention.
-They furnish a very striking and forcible proof of the clearness,
-fulness, depth and comprehensiveness of the apostle's testimony at
-Thessalonica, and also of the brightness and reality of the work in
-the young converts in that place. It was not only that they turned
-from idols to God, to serve the living and true God. This, through
-grace, they did; and that, too, with uncommon power, freshness, and
-fervor.
-
-But there was something more; and we may assert, with all possible
-confidence, that there would have been a grand defect in the
-conversion and in the Christianity of those beloved disciples if that
-had been lacking. _They were converted "to wait for the Son of God
-from the heavens."_
-
-Let the reader give to this very weighty fact his most devout
-attention. The bright and blessed hope of the Lord's coming formed an
-integral part of the gospel which Paul preached, and of the
-Christianity of those who were converted by his ministry. That blessed
-servant preached a full gospel. He not only declared that the Son of
-God had come into the world to accomplish the great work of
-redemption, and lay the everlasting foundation of the divine glory and
-counsels, but that He had gone back to the heavens, and taken His
-seat as the victorious, exalted and glorified Man, at the right hand
-of the throne of God; and that He is coming again; first, to receive
-His people to Himself, and conduct them into the very innermost circle
-of His Father's house--the place prepared for them: and then to come
-forth _with_ them, to execute judgment upon His enemies--gather out of
-His kingdom all that offend, and all that do iniquity, and set up His
-glorious dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of
-the earth.
-
-All this was included in the precious gospel which Paul preached, and
-which the Thessalonian converts received. We find an indirect but very
-interesting intimation of this in a passage in Acts xvii., where the
-inspired writer records what the infidel Jews thought and said about
-the apostle's preaching. "But the Jews which believed not, moved with
-envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and
-gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted
-the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And
-when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto
-the rulers of the city, crying, _These that have turned the world
-upside down_ are come hither also; whom Jason hath received; and these
-all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, _saying that there is another
-king, Jesus_."
-
-Such were the ideas which these poor, ignorant, prejudiced unbelievers
-gathered from the preaching of the Lord's beloved servants; and we can
-see in them the elements of great and solemn truths--the complete
-upturning of the present system of things, and the establishment of
-the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "I will
-overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He
-come whose right it is; and I will give it Him" (Ezek. xxi. 27).
-
-But not only did the Lord's coming and kingdom occupy a prominent
-place in the _preaching_ of the apostle, it also shines brilliantly
-forth in all his _teaching_. Not only were the Thessalonians converted
-to this blessed hope, they were built up, established and led on in
-it. They were taught to live in the brightness of it every hour of the
-day. It was not a dry, barren dogma, to be received and held as part
-of a powerless, worthless creed; it was a living reality, a mighty
-moral power in the soul--a precious, purifying, sanctifying, elevating
-hope, detaching the heart completely from present things, and causing
-it to look out, moment by moment--yes, reader, we repeat it with
-emphasis, moment by moment--for the return of our beloved Lord and
-Saviour Jesus Christ, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.
-
-It is interesting to notice that in the two epistles to the
-Thessalonians there is far more allusion to the Lord's coming than in
-all the other epistles put together. This is all the more remarkable
-inasmuch as they were the very earliest of Paul's epistles, and they
-were written to an assembly very young in the faith.
-
-If the reader will just glance rapidly through these two most precious
-writings, he will find the hope of the Lord's return introduced in
-every one of the eight chapters, and in connection with all sorts of
-subjects. For example, in chap. i. we have it presented as the grand
-object to be ever kept before the Christian's heart, let his position
-or his relationship be what it may--the brilliant light shining at the
-end of his long pilgrimage through this dark and toilsome world. "Ye
-turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to
-wait for"--what? The time of their death? No such thing, no allusion
-to such a thing. Death, for the believer, is abolished, and is never
-presented as the object of his hope. For what, then, were the
-Thessalonian disciples taught to wait? "For God's Son from heaven,
-whom He raised from the dead."
-
-And then mark the beauteous addition! "Jesus, which delivered us from
-the wrath to come." This is the Person for whom we are waiting; our
-precious Saviour; our great Deliverer; the One who undertook our
-desperate case; who took, on our behalf, the cup of wrath from the
-hand of infinite Justice and exhausted it forever; who cleared the
-prospect of every cloud, so that we can gaze upward into heaven, and
-onward into eternity, and see nothing but the brightness and
-blessedness of His own love and glory, as our happy home throughout
-the everlasting ages.
-
-Oh, beloved Christian reader, how blessed to be looking out, morning,
-noon, eventide, and midnight, for the coming of our gracious
-Deliverer! What a holy reality to be ever waiting for the return of
-our own loving and beloved Saviour and Lord! How separating and
-elevating, as we rise each morning to start on our daily course of
-duty--whatever that duty may be, whether the scrubbing of a floor or
-the preaching of the gospel--to cherish the bright and blessed hope
-that, ere the shades of evening gather round us, we may be summoned to
-ascend in the folds of the cloud of glory to meet our coming Lord!
-
-Is this the dream of a wild fanatic or a visionary enthusiast? Nay, it
-is an imperishable truth, resting on the very same foundation that
-sustains the entire fabric of our most glorious Christianity. Is it
-true that the Son of God has trod this earth of ours in the person of
-Jesus of Nazareth? Is it true that He lived and labored here, amid the
-sins and sorrows of poor, fallen humanity? Is it true that He sighed,
-and wept, and groaned, under the sense of the widespread desolation
-which sin had wrought in this world? Is it true that He went to the
-cross, and there offered Himself without spot to God, in order to
-vindicate the Divine Majesty; to answer all the claims of the throne
-of God; to destroy all the works of the devil; to make a public show
-of all the powers of hell; to put away sin by the sacrifice of
-Himself; to bear the sins of all those who, from the beginning to the
-end of time, should, through grace, believe in His name? Is it true
-that He lay for three days and three nights in the heart of the
-earth, and on the first day of the week rose triumphant from the
-grave, as the Head of the new creation, and ascended into the heavens,
-after He had been seen by at least five hundred witnesses? Is it true
-that fifty days after His resurrection He sent down the Holy Ghost, in
-order to fill and fit His apostles to be His witnesses to the ends of
-the earth? Is it true that from the day of Pentecost to this very hour
-He has been acting on His people's behalf as an Advocate with the
-Father, a great High Priest with God; interceding for us in all our
-failures, sins and shortcomings, and sympathizing with us in all our
-infirmities and in all our sorrows; and presenting continually our
-sacrifices of prayer and praise, in all the fragrance of His own
-glorious Person?
-
-Are all these things true? Yes, thank God, they are all divinely true,
-all set forth in the pages of the New Testament, with most marvelous
-fulness, clearness, depth, and power; all rest on the solid foundation
-of Holy Scripture--a foundation which not all the powers of earth and
-hell, men and devils, can ever touch.
-
-Well, then, the blessed hope of the Lord's coming rests on precisely
-the same authority. It is not more true that our Lord Jesus Christ lay
-as a babe in the manger of Bethlehem, that He grew up to man's estate,
-that He went about doing good, that He was nailed to the cross and
-laid in the tomb, that He is now seated on the throne of the Majesty
-in the heavens, than that He will come again to receive His people to
-Himself. He may come to-night. No one can tell when He will come, but
-at any moment He may come. The only thing that detains Him is His
-long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all
-should come to repentance. For eighteen long centuries has He waited
-in lingering love, mercy, and compassion; and during all that time
-salvation has been ready to be revealed, and God has been ready to
-judge; but He has waited, and He still waits, in long-suffering grace
-and patience.
-
-But He will come, and we should ever live in the hope of His coming.
-Thus the apostle taught his beloved Thessalonians to live. Thus he
-lived himself. The blessed hope was intimately bound up with all the
-habits and feelings of his daily life. Was it a question of reaping
-the fruit of his labors? Hear what he says: "For what is our hope, or
-joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, in the presence of our
-Lord Jesus Christ, _at His coming_?" He would see them all then and
-there. No enemy will be allowed to hinder that meeting. "We would have
-come unto you, even I Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us."
-Very wonderful! Very mysterious! Yet so it was. Satan hindered an
-angel of God in the discharge of his business in the days of Daniel;
-and he hindered an apostle of Christ in the accomplishment of his
-loving desire to see his brethren at Thessalonica. But, thanks be to
-God, he will not be able to hinder the joyful meeting of Christ and
-His saints for which we wait. What a moment that will be! What
-precious reunions! What sweet recognitions! What affectionate
-greetings of dear old friends! But, far above all, Himself! His smile!
-His welcome! His soul-stirring "Well done!"
-
-What a precious, soul-sustaining hope! Need we wonder at the prominent
-place it occupied in the thoughts and the teachings of the blessed
-apostle? He recurs to it on all occasions, and in connection with
-every subject. Is it a question of progress in the divine life and
-practical godliness? Thus he puts it: "And the Lord make you to
-increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even
-as we do toward you; to the end He may establish your hearts
-unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, _at the coming of
-our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints_."
-
-Let the reader specially mark the last clause of this touching and
-beautiful quotation. "_With all His saints._" What admirable wisdom
-shines here! The apostle was about to touch directly upon an error
-into which the Thessalonian believers had fallen in reference to their
-departed friends. They feared that those who had fallen asleep would
-not participate in the joy of the Lord's coming. This error is
-completely demolished by that brief sentence, "with _all_ His saints."
-Not one will be absent from that joyous meeting, that festive scene.
-Blessed assurance! Triumphant answer to all who would have us believe
-that none will share the joy of our Lord's coming save those who see
-this, that, and the other! "With _all_ his saints," spite of their
-ignorance and their errors, their wanderings and their stumblings,
-their shortcomings and their failures. Our blessed Saviour, the
-everlasting Lover of our souls, will not shut any of us out at that
-blissful moment.
-
-Is all this matchless grace to make us careless? God forbid! Nay, it
-is the abiding sense of it which alone can keep us alive to our holy
-responsibility to judge everything in us and in our ways which is
-contrary to the mind of Christ. And not only so, but the hope of our
-Lord's return, if it be kept bright and fresh in the heart, _must_
-purify, sanctify and elevate our entire character and course as
-nothing else can. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
-himself, even as He is pure." It is morally impossible for any one to
-_live_ in the hope of seeing his Lord at any moment and yet have his
-heart set upon worldly things--upon money-making, self-indulgence,
-pleasure, vanity, folly. Let us not deceive ourselves. If we are daily
-looking out for the Son of God from heaven, we must sit loose to the
-things of time and sense. We may hold the doctrine of the Lord's
-coming as a mere dogma in the intellect; we may have the entire range
-of prophetic truth mapped out before our mind's eye, without its
-producing the smallest effect upon the heart, the character, or the
-practical life. But it is another thing altogether to have the whole
-moral being, the entire practical career, governed by the bright and
-blessed hope of seeing the One who loveth us and hath washed us from
-our sins in His own most precious blood.
-
-Would there were more of this amongst us! It is to be feared that many
-of us have lost the freshness and power of our true and proper hope.
-The truth of the Lord's coming has become so familiar as a mere
-doctrine that we can flippantly speak of it, and discuss various
-points in connection with it, and argue with people about it, and all
-the while our ways, our deportment, our spirit and temper give the lie
-to what we profess to hold.
-
-But we shall not pursue this sad and humbling side of the subject. May
-the Lord look upon us, and graciously heal, restore and lift up our
-souls! May He revive in the hearts of all His beloved people the
-proper Christian hope--the hope of seeing the bright and Morning Star.
-May the utterance of the whole heart and the utterance of the whole
-life be, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"
-
-Here we must close this paper. We had hoped to run through the two
-epistles to the Thessalonians in company with our readers, in order to
-prove and illustrate the statement that the hope of the Lord's return
-was bound up in the heart of the apostle, with all the scenes,
-circumstances and associations of Christian life. But we must allow
-the reader to do this for himself. Sufficient, we trust, has been said
-to show that true conversion, according to apostolic teaching, cannot
-stop short of the blessed hope of the Lord's coming. A truly converted
-person is one who has turned from idols--has broken with the
-world--broken with his former self--turned to God, to find in Him all
-he can possibly want for time and eternity, to serve Him, and Him
-only--and, finally, "to wait for the Son of God from heaven." Such we
-conceive to be the true and proper answer to the question, "What is
-conversion?"
-
-Reader, art _thou_ converted? If not, what then? If thou art, does thy
-life declare it?
-
-
-
-
-SIMON PETER:
-
-HIS LIFE AND ITS LESSONS
-
-
-
-
-PART I.
-
-
-We propose, in dependence upon the Spirit's guidance, to write a few
-papers on the life and ministry of the blessed servant of Christ whose
-name stands at the head of this paper. We shall trace him through the
-Gospels, through the Acts, and through the Epistles, for he appears in
-all the three grand divisions of the New Testament. We shall meditate
-upon his call, upon his conversion, his confession, his fall, his
-restoration; in a word, we shall glance at all the scenes and
-circumstances of his remarkable history, in which we shall find, if we
-mistake not, many valuable lessons which we may well ponder. May the
-Lord the Spirit be our Guide and Teacher!
-
-For the earliest notice of Simon Peter, we must turn to the first
-chapter of the Gospel of John. Here we find, at the very outset, a
-scene full of interest and instruction. Amongst those who had been
-gathered by the powerful ministry of John the Baptist there were two
-men who heard him deliver his glowing testimony to the Lamb of God. We
-must quote the words: "Again the next day after John stood, and two of
-his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold
-the Lamb of God."
-
-These words fell with peculiar power upon the hearts of two of John's
-disciples. Not that the words were specially addressed to them; at
-least, we are not told so. But they were words of life, freshness, and
-power--words welling up from the depths of a heart that had found an
-object in the person of Christ. On the preceding day, John had spoken
-of the work of Christ. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
-sin of the world." And again, "The same is he which baptizeth with the
-Holy Ghost."
-
-But let the reader note particularly John's testimony to the _person_
-of the Lamb of God. "John stood," riveted, no doubt, by the object
-which filled the vision of his soul. "And looking upon Jesus, as he
-walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God." It was this that went right
-to the very heart of the two disciples who stood beside him, and so
-affected them that they left their master to follow this new and
-infinitely more glorious Object that had been presented to their
-notice.
-
-There is always immense moral power in the testimony that emanates
-from an absorbed heart. There is nothing formal, official, or
-mechanical, in such testimony. It is the pure fruit of heart
-communion; and there is nothing like it. It is not the mere statement
-of true things about Christ. It is the heart occupied and satisfied
-with Christ. It is the eye riveted, the heart fixed, the whole moral
-being centred and absorbed in that one commanding object that fills
-all heaven with His glory.
-
-This is the kind of testimony we so much want both in our private life
-and in our public reunions. It is this that tells, with such marvelous
-power, on others. We never can speak effectively for Christ, unless
-our hearts are filled with Him. And so it is also, in reference to our
-meetings. When Christ is the one absorbing object of every heart,
-there will be a tone and an atmosphere which must tell in some way or
-other on all who enter the place. There may not be much gift, not much
-teaching--very little charm in the singing, for persons of musical
-taste; but oh! there is heart-enjoyment of Christ. His name is as
-ointment poured forth. Every eye is fixed on Him; every heart is
-centred in Him; He is the commanding object--the satisfying portion.
-The unanimous voice of the assembly seems to say, "Behold the Lamb of
-God," and this must produce its own powerful effect, either in
-attracting souls to Him, or in convincing them that the people in that
-assembly have gotten something of which they know nothing at all.
-
-But let us note particularly the effect produced on the two disciples
-of John. "They heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus
-turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
-They said unto Him, Rabbi--which is to say, being interpreted,
-Master--where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They
-came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day; for it was
-about the tenth hour." Thus the blessed testimony of the Baptist led
-them to follow Jesus, and as they followed on, fresh light was poured
-upon their path, and they found themselves, at length, in the very
-abode of that One of whom they had heard their master speak.
-
-Nor was this all, though it was much--with their own hearts' deepest
-longings satisfied. There was now that delightful going out after
-others which must, in every instance, be the result of close personal
-acquaintance and occupation with the Person of Christ. "One of the two
-which heard John, and followed Jesus, was Andrew, Simon Peter's
-brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him,
-We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
-And he brought him to Jesus."
-
-Here is something which we may well ponder. See how the circle of
-blessing widens! See the result of a single sentence uttered in truth
-and reality! It might seem to a carnal observer as though John had
-lost by his testimony. Far from it. That honored servant found his joy
-in pointing souls to Jesus. He did not want to link them on to
-himself, or to gather a party round himself. "John bare witness of
-Him, and cried saying, This was He of whom I spake, He that cometh
-after me is preferred before me." And again, "This is the record of
-John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
-him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I
-am not the Christ. And they ask him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he
-saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then
-said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them
-that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of
-one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as
-said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the
-Pharisees." What a fine moral lesson for Pharisees to be set down to!
-"And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if
-thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John
-answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth One
-among you, whom ye know not. He it is, who coming after me is
-preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose."
-
-It is not very likely that the man who could give such answers, and
-bear such a testimony, would be, in the smallest degree, affected by
-the loss of a few disciples. But, in good truth it was not loosing
-them when they followed Jesus and found their abode with Him. Of this
-we have the very finest evidence that could be furnished, from John's
-own lips, in reply to those who evidently thought that their master
-might possibly feel at being left in the shade. "They came unto John,
-and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom
-thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all come to Him.
-John answered and said, _A man can receive nothing, except it be given
-him from heaven_. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not
-the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is
-the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and
-heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice:
-_this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
-decrease_" (John iii. 26-30).
-
-Noble words! It was the joy of this most illustrious servant--this
-greatest of woman-born, to hide himself behind his Master, and find
-all his personal springs in Him. As to himself, he was but a voice. As
-to his work, he was only baptizing with water, he was not worthy to
-loose the latchet of his Master's shoe.
-
-Such was John. Such the man whose glowing testimony led the brother of
-Simon Peter to the feet of the Son of God. The testimony was clear and
-distinct, and the work deep and real in the souls of those who
-received it.
-
-It does the heart good to note the simple, earnest, forcible words of
-Simon's brother, Andrew. He is able to say, without reserve or
-hesitation, "_We have found_ the Messias." It was this that led him to
-look after his brother. He lost no time. Saved and blessed himself, he
-would, at once, begin to lead his brother into the same blessing.
-
-How simple! How morally lovely! How divinely natural! No sooner had he
-found the Messias, than he went in search of his brother to tell him
-of his joy. It must ever be thus. We cannot doubt for a moment, that
-the actual finding Christ for ourselves is the true secret of looking
-after others. There is no uncertainty in Andrew's testimony--no
-wavering--no doubting or fearing. He does not even say, "I hope I have
-found." No; all is clear and distinct; and, we may say, with all
-possible assurance, it would not have done Simon Peter much good had
-it been anything else. An uncertain sound is not much use to any one.
-
-It is a grand point to be able to say, "_I have found Christ_."
-Reader, can you say it? Doubtless, you have heard of Him. It may be
-you have heard from the lips of some ardent lover of Jesus, "Behold
-the Lamb of God." But have you followed that blessed One? If so, you
-will long to find some one to whom you can speak of your newly found
-treasure, and bring him to Jesus. Begin at home. Get hold of your
-brother, or your sister, or your companion, your fellow-student, your
-fellow-shopman, your fellow-workman, your fellow-servant, and whisper
-lovingly, but clearly and decidedly, into his ear, "I have found
-Jesus. Do come, taste and see how gracious He is. Come! oh do come to
-Jesus." Remember this was the way that the great apostle Peter was
-first called. He first heard of Jesus from the lips of his own brother
-Andrew. This mighty workman--this great preacher who was blessed, on
-one occasion, to three thousand souls--who opened the Kingdom of
-heaven to the Jew in Acts iii. and to the Gentile in Acts x.--this
-blessed servant was brought to Christ by the hand of his own brother
-in the flesh.
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-
-The notice which we have of our apostle, in John i., is very brief
-indeed, though, doubtless, there is much wrapped up in it. "Andrew
-first findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, We have
-found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he
-brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art
-Simon, the son of Jonas: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by
-interpretation, A stone."
-
-Now, we have no record here of any deep spiritual work in the soul of
-Simon. We are told his name in the old creation, and his name in the
-new; but there is no allusion whatever to those deep exercises of soul
-of which we know he was the subject. For these we must ask the reader
-to turn for a few moments to Luke v., where we have a marvelous piece
-of divine workmanship.
-
-"And it came to pass that, as the people pressed upon Him to hear the
-word of God, He stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships
-standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and
-were washing their nets. And He entered into one of the ships, which
-was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the
-land. And He sat down, and taught the people out of the ship."
-
-Mark especially the moral grace that shines here. "He _prayed_ him
-that he would thrust out _a little_ from the land." Though Lord of all
-creation--Possessor of heaven and earth--He nevertheless, as the
-lowly, gracious Man, courteously owns Simon's proprietorship, and
-asks, as a favor, that he would thrust out _a little_ from the shore.
-This was morally lovely, and we may rest assured it produced its own
-effect upon the heart of Simon.
-
-"Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into
-the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." Simon was about to be
-well paid for the loan of his boat. "And Simon, answering, said unto
-Him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing;
-nevertheless, at Thy word, I will let down the net." There was power,
-as well as grace, in that word! "And when they had this done, they
-enclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their net brake. And they
-beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they
-should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships,
-so that they began to sink." Neither their nets nor their ships were
-able to sustain the fruit of divine power and goodness. "When Simon
-Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me;
-for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
-
-Here, then, we have the great practical effect produced in Peter's
-soul by the combined action of grace and power. He is brought to see
-himself in the light of the divine presence, where alone self can be
-truly seen and judged. Simon had heard the word of Jesus addressed to
-the multitude on the shore. He had felt the sweet grace and moral
-beauty of His way towards himself. He had marked the display of divine
-power in the astonishing draught of fish. All told powerfully upon his
-heart and conscience, and brought him on his face before the Lord.
-
-Now this is what we may call a genuine work of conviction. Simon is in
-the place of true self-judgment--a very blessed place indeed--a place
-from which all must start if they are to be much used in the Lord's
-work, or if, indeed, they are ever to exhibit much depth or stability
-in the divine life. We need never look for any real power or progress
-unless there is a deep and solid work of the Spirit of God in the
-conscience. Persons who pass rapidly into what they call peace, are
-apt to pass as rapidly out of it again. It is a very serious thing
-indeed to be brought to see ourselves in the light of God's presence,
-to have our eyes opened to the truth of our past history, our present
-condition, and our future destiny. Simon Peter found it so in his day,
-and so have all those who have been brought to a saving knowledge of
-Christ. Hearken to Isaiah's words, when he saw himself in the powerful
-light of the divine glory. "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a
-man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
-lips: _for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts_." So also
-in the case of the patriarch, Job. "I have heard of Thee by the
-hearing of the ear; but now _mine eye_ _seeth Thee_. Wherefore _I
-abhor myself_, and repent in dust and ashes."
-
-These glowing utterances reveal a deep and genuine work in both the
-patriarch and the prophet. And surely our apostle occupied the same
-moral ground when he exclaimed, from the very depths of a broken
-heart, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." If Simon is to
-be called Cephas, he must be thoroughly broken up, and brought to the
-end of himself. If he is to be used to catch men, he must learn, in a
-divine way, man's true condition. If he is to teach others that "all
-flesh is as grass," he must learn the application of this great truth
-to his own heart.
-
-Thus it is in every case. Look at Saul of Tarsus. What mean those
-three days of blindness, during which he neither did eat nor drink?
-May we not confidently affirm that they were serious days, perhaps the
-most serious in the entire history of that remarkable man? They were,
-doubtless, days in the which he was led down to the most profound
-depths of his moral being, the deepest roots of his history, his
-nature, his character, his conduct, his religion. He was led to see
-that his whole life had been a terrible mistake, an awful lie; that
-his very career as a religious man had been one of mad rebellion
-against the Christ of God. All this, we may feel assured, passed in
-solemn and soul-subduing review before the soul of this deeply,
-because divinely, convicted man. His repentance was no superficial
-work; it was deep and thorough; it left its impress upon the whole of
-his after course, character, and ministry. He, too, like Simon, was
-brought to the end of himself, and there he found an Object that not
-only met his deepest need, but also perfectly satisfied all the
-cravings and aspirations of his renewed being.
-
-Now, we must confess we delight in contemplating a spiritual work of
-this kind. It is truly refreshing to dwell upon conversions of this
-type. We greatly fear that in much of the work of our time there is a
-sad lack of depth and spiritual power, and, as a consequence, a lack
-of stability in the Christian character, of depth and permanency in
-the Christian course. It may be that those of us who are engaged in
-the work of evangelization are feeble and shallow in the divine life
-ourselves, that we are not near enough to Christ to understand how to
-deal with souls; that we do not know how to present the truth from
-God's side of it; that we are more desirous of showing out how the
-sinner's need is met, than how the glory of God is secured and
-maintained. We do not, perhaps, sufficiently press the claims of truth
-and holiness upon the consciences of our hearers. There is a want of
-fulness in the presentation of the truth of God, too much harping upon
-one string; there is a barrenness and dreary monotony in the
-preaching, arising from lack of abiding near the fountain head, and
-drinking into our own souls from the inexhaustible springs of grace
-and truth in the Person and work of Christ. Perhaps, too, we are more
-occupied with ourselves and our preaching than with Christ and His
-glory; more anxious to be able to parade the results of our work, than
-to be a sweet savour of Christ to Godward.
-
-We cannot but feel the weight and seriousness of these considerations
-for all who take part in the work of the gospel. We certainly do need
-to be more in the presence of God in reference to our service, for we
-cannot, by any possibility, hide from ourselves the fact, in reference
-to the preaching of this our day, that the fruit is small in quantity,
-and poor in quality. We desire to bless God for any display of His
-grace and power in souls; though we are by no means able to accredit
-as genuine much that is boastfully paraded in the way of conversion.
-What we long for is a deep, genuine unmistakable work of the Holy
-Ghost; a work which will prove itself, beyond all contradiction, by
-its permanent results in the life and character. It is one thing to
-reckon up and publish a number of cases of conversion, and quite
-another to see these cases made good in actual fact. The Holy Ghost
-can, and does, tell us at times in the page of inspiration the number
-of souls converted. He tells us of three thousand on one occasion. He
-can do so, because He knows perfectly all about it. He can read the
-heart. He can distinguish between the spurious and the genuine. But
-when men undertake to count up and publish the number of their
-converts, we must receive their statements with considerable reserve
-and caution.
-
-Not that we would be suspicious. God forbid; yea, we would earnestly
-cultivate a hopeful temper of soul. Still, we cannot but feel that it
-is better, in every case, to let the work speak for itself. All that
-is really divine is sure to be found, even though it be after many
-days; whereas, on the other hand, there is immense danger, both for
-the workman and his work, in an eager and hasty reckoning up and
-publishing of results.
-
-But we must return to the lake of Gennesaret, and dwell for a moment
-on the lovely grace that shines forth in our Lord's dealing with Simon
-Peter. The work of conviction was deep and real. There could be no
-mistaking it. The arrow had entered the heart, and gone right to its
-very centre. Peter felt and owned that he was a man full of sin. He
-felt he had no right to be near such an one as Jesus; and yet we may
-truly say he would not for worlds have been anywhere else. He was
-perfectly sincere in saying, "Depart from me," though we cannot but
-believe he had an inward conviction that the blessed One would do
-nothing of the kind. And if he had, he was right. Jesus could never
-depart from a poor broken-hearted sinner--no, never. It was His
-richest, deepest, joy to pour the healing balm of His love and grace
-into a wounded soul. It was His delight to heal the broken heart. He
-was anointed for that work, and it was His meat and His drink to do
-it, blessed forever be His holy name!
-
-"And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt
-catch men." Here was the divine response to the cry of a contrite
-heart. The wound was deep, but the grace was deeper still. The
-soothing hand of a Saviour-God applied the precious balm. Simon was
-not only convicted, but converted. He saw himself to be a man full of
-sin, but he saw the Saviour full of grace; nor was it possible that
-his sin could be beyond the reach of that grace. Oh, no, there is
-grace in the heart of Jesus, as there is power in His blood, to meet
-the very chief of sinners. "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch
-men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook
-_all_, and followed Him."
-
-This was real work. It was a _bona fide_ case, as to which there could
-be no question; a case of conviction, conversion, and consecration.
-
-
-
-
-PART III.
-
-
-We closed our last paper with these suggestive words, "_They forsook
-all, and followed Him_"--words expressive, at once, of thorough
-separation from the things of time and of nature, and of whole-hearted
-consecration to Christ and His interests.
-
-Both these we see in Simon Peter. There was a deep and blessed work
-wrought in his soul at the lake of Gennesaret. He was given to see
-himself, in the light of the divine presence, where alone self can be
-really seen and judged. We have no reason to suppose that, viewed from
-a human standpoint, Simon was worse than his neighbors. On the
-contrary, it is more than probable, that so far as his outward life
-was concerned, it was more blameless than that of many around him. He
-was not, like the great apostle of the Gentiles, arrested at the very
-height of a mad career of rebellion against Christ and His cause. He
-is introduced to us, by the inspired historian, in the pursuit of his
-quiet and honest calling as a fisherman.
-
-But then Scripture expressly informs us that, "There is no difference,
-for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. iii.).
-And it repeats this statement, in chap. x. of the same epistle, basing
-it upon another footing, "There is no difference between the Jew and
-the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon
-Him."
-
-Reader, see that you really understand this most important doctrine.
-It is not that there are not broad lines of distinction, in a moral
-and social point of view, between men. Most assuredly there are such.
-There is, for example, a vast difference between the wretched drunkard
-who comes home, or is carried home, night after night, worse than a
-beast, to his poor broken-hearted wife and squalid, starving children,
-and a sober, industrious man, who realizes his responsibility as a
-husband and a father, and seeks to fulfil the duties attaching to such
-relationships.
-
-Now, we judge it would be a very great mistake indeed to ignore such a
-distinction as this. We believe that God, in His moral government of
-the world, recognizes it. Contrast, for a moment, the drunkard's home
-with that of the sober man. Yea, contrast their whole career, their
-social position, their course and character. Who can fail to recognize
-the amazing difference between the two? There is a certain way of
-presenting what is called, "The no-difference doctrine" which, to say
-the least of it, is far from judicious. It does not allow the margin
-which, as we believe, Scripture suggests, wherein to insert great
-social and moral distinctions between men and men--distinctions which
-only blindness itself can refuse to see. If we look at the present
-government of God, we cannot but see that there is a very serious
-difference indeed between one man and another. Men reap as they sow.
-The drunken spendthrift reaps as he sows; and the sober, industrious,
-honest man reaps as he sows. The enactments of God's moral government
-are such as to render it impossible for men to escape, even in this
-life, the consequences of their ways.
-
-Nor is this all. Not only does God's present government take
-cognizance of the conduct of men, causing them to reap, even here, the
-due reward of their deeds but when Scripture opens to our view, as it
-does in manifold places, the awful judgment to come, it speaks of
-"books being opened." It tells us that men "shall be judged _every man
-according to their works_." In short, we have close and accurate
-discrimination, and not a promiscuous huddling of men and things.
-
-And further, be it remembered, that the word of God speaks of degrees
-of punishment. It speaks of "few stripes" and "many stripes." It uses
-such words as "more tolerable" for one than another.
-
-What mean such words, if there be not varied grounds of judgment,
-varied characters of responsibility, varied measures of guilt, varied
-degrees of punishment? Men may reason; but "the Judge of all the earth
-will do right." It is of no possible use for people to argue and
-discuss. Every man will be judged and punished according to his deeds.
-This is the teaching of Holy Scripture; and it would be much better
-and safer and wiser for men to submit to it than to reason against it,
-for they may rest fully assured of it that the judgment-seat of Christ
-will make very short work of their reasonings. Impenitent sinners will
-be judged and punished according to their works: and, although men
-may affect to believe that it is inconsistent with the idea of a God
-of love that any of His creatures should be condemned to endure
-eternal punishment in hell, still sin must be punished; and those who
-reason against its punishment have only a one-sided view of God's
-nature and character. They have invented a god of their own who will
-connive at sin. But it will not do. The God of the Bible, _the God
-whom we see at the cross_, the God of Christianity will, beyond all
-question, execute judgment upon all who reject His Son; that judgment
-will be according to every man's works; and the result of that
-judgment will, inevitably, be "The lake that burneth with fire and
-brimstone," forever and forever.
-
-We deem it of the utmost importance to press on all whom it may
-concern the line of truth on which we have been dwelling. It leaves
-wholly untouched the real truth of the no-difference doctrine; but, at
-the same time, it qualifies and adjusts the mode of presenting that
-truth. It is always well to avoid an ultra one-sided way of stating
-things. It damages truth and stumbles souls. It perplexes the anxious,
-and gives a plea to the caviler. The full truth of God should always
-be unfolded, and thus all will be right. Truth puts men and things in
-their right places, and maintains a holy moral balance which is
-absolutely priceless.
-
-Is it then asserted that there is a difference? Not as regards the
-question of righteousness before God. On this ground, there is not a
-shadow of difference, for "all have sinned and come short of the
-glory of God." Looked at in the light of that glory, all human
-distinctions vanish. All are lost, guilty and condemned. From the very
-lowest strata of society--its deepest dregs, up to the loftiest
-heights of moral refinement, men are seen, in the light of the divine
-glory, to be utterly and hopelessly lost. They all stand on one common
-ground, are all involved in the one common ruin. And not only so, but
-those who plume themselves on their morality, refinement, orthodoxy,
-and religiousness, are further from the Kingdom of God than the vilest
-of the sons and daughters of men, as our Lord said to the chief
-priests and elders, "Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the
-harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you" (Matt. xxi.).
-
-This is very humbling to human pride and pretension. It is a doctrine
-to which none will ever submit until they see themselves as Simon
-Peter saw himself in the immediate presence of God. All who have ever
-been there will fully understand those self-condemning words, "Depart
-from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." These were accents flowing
-from the depths of a truly penitent and contrite soul. There is what
-we may venture to call a lovely inconsistency in them. Simon had no
-such thought as that Jesus would depart from him. He had, we may feel
-assured, an instinctive sense that that blessed One who had spoken
-such words to him, and shown such grace, could not turn away from a
-poor broken-hearted sinner. And he judged rightly. Jesus had not come
-down from heaven to turn His back upon any one who needed Him. "He
-came to seek and to save that which is lost." "This is a faithful
-saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
-world to save sinners." "Him that cometh unto Me, I will _in no wise_
-cast out." A Saviour-God had come down into this world, not, surely,
-to turn away from a lost sinner, but to save him and bless him, and
-make him a blessing. "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men."
-
-Such was the grace that shone upon the soul of Simon Peter. It removed
-his guilt, hushed his fears, and filled him with joy and peace in
-believing. Thus it is in every case. Divine pardon follows human
-confession--follows it with marvelous rapidity. "I said, I will
-confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the
-iniquity of my sin." God delights to pardon. It is the joy of His
-loving heart to cancel our guilt, and fill our souls with His own
-blessed peace, and to make us the messengers of His grace to others.
-
-Not that we are called in the same way, or to the same work, as our
-apostle; but surely we are called to follow the Lord, and cleave to
-Him, with purpose of heart. This is the blessed privilege and sacred
-duty of every saved soul on the face of the earth; we are imperatively
-called upon to break with the world, and follow Christ.
-
-It is not a question of abandoning our proper calling in life, as in
-Simon's case. Few indeed and far between are the cases in which such
-a course of action is fitting. Many, alas! have assayed to do this,
-and have entirely broken down, simply because they were not called of
-God _to_ it, or sustained of God _in_ it. We are convinced that, as a
-rule, it is better for every man to work with his hands or his brains
-at some bread-winning calling, and preach and teach as well, if gifted
-to do so. There are exceptions, no doubt, to the rule. There are some
-who are so manifestly called, fitted, used, and sustained of God, that
-there can be no possible mistake as to their course. Their hands are
-so full of work, their every moment so engrossed with ministry in
-speaking or writing, teaching publicly and from house to house, that
-it would be a simple impossibility for them to take up what is termed
-a secular calling--though we like not the phrase. All such have to go
-on with God, looking only to Him, and He will infallibly maintain them
-unto the end.
-
-Still, admitting, as we are bound to do fully, the exceptions to the
-rule, we are nevertheless convinced that, as a rule, it is better in
-every way for men to be able to preach and teach without being
-chargeable to any. It gives moral weight, and it furnishes a fine
-testimony against the wretched hirelingism of Christendom so
-demoralizing to souls, and so damaging, in every way, to the cause of
-Christ.
-
-But, Christian reader, we have to distinguish between abandoning our
-lawful calling and breaking with the world. The former may be quite
-wrong; the latter is our bounden duty. We are called to rise up, in
-the spirit of the mind and in the firm purpose of the heart, out of
-all merely worldly influences, to break every worldly link, and lay
-aside every weight, in order to follow our blessed Lord and Master. We
-are to be absolutely and completely for Him in this world, as He is
-for us in the presence of God. When this is really the case with us,
-it matters not whether we are sweeping a crossing or evangelizing a
-continent. All is done to Him. This is the one grand point. If Christ
-has His due place in our hearts, all will be right. If He has not,
-nothing will be right. If there is any under current in the soul, any
-secondary object, any worldly motive, any selfish aim or end, there
-can be no progress. _We must make Christ and His cause our absorbing
-object._
-
-
-
-
-PART IV.
-
-
-The more deeply we ponder the history of professing Christians,
-whether as furnished by the pen of inspiration, or as coming within
-the range of personal observation, the more fully we must see the vast
-importance of a complete break with the world, at the outset. If there
-be not this, it is vain to look for inward peace, or outward progress.
-There may be a measure of clearness as to the doctrines of grace, the
-plan of salvation, as it is called, justification by faith, and the
-like. But unless there is the thorough judgment of self, and the
-complete surrender of this present evil world, peace and progress must
-be out of the question. How can there be peace where _self_, in some
-one or other of its thousand shapes, is fostered? And how can there be
-progress where the heart is hankering after the world, halting between
-two opinions, and vacillating between Christ and present things?
-Impossible. As well might a racer expect to get on in the race while
-still lingering about the starting post, and encumbering himself with
-heavy weights.
-
-Is it then, that peace is to be found by denying self and giving up
-the world? Most certainly not. But neither can peace ever be found
-while self is indulged and the world retained. True peace is found
-_only_ in Christ--peace of conscience in His finished work--peace of
-heart in His blessed Person. All this is clear enough. But how comes
-it to pass that hundreds of people who know, or profess to know, these
-things have no settled peace, and never seem to take a single step in
-advance? You meet them, week after week, month after month, year after
-year, and there they are in the same position, in the same state, and
-with the same old story, chronic cases of self-occupation, stereotyped
-world-borderers, "ever learning, and never able to come to the
-knowledge of the truth." They seem to delight in hearing the gospel
-clearly preached, and truth fully unfolded. In fact, they cannot
-endure anything else. But, for all that, they are never clear, bright
-or happy. How can they be? They are halting between two opinions; they
-have never broken with the world; they have never surrendered a whole
-heart to Christ.
-
-Here, we are persuaded, lies the real secret of the whole matter as
-regards that class of persons now before us. "A double-minded man is
-unstable in all his ways." A man who tries to keep one eye on the
-world, and the other on Christ, will be found to have no eye for
-Christ, but both eyes for the world. It must be so: Christ must be all
-or nothing; and hence it is the very height of absurdity to talk of
-peace or progress, where Christ is not the absorbing object of the
-soul. Where He is, there will never be any lack of settled peace; and
-there will be progress. The Holy Ghost is jealous for the glory of
-Christ, and He can never minister comfort, consolation, or strength to
-a heart divided between Him and the world. It could not be. He is
-grieved by such unfaithfulness; and instead of being the minister of
-comfort, He must be the stern reprover of indulged selfishness,
-worldliness, and vacillation.
-
-Let us look at the case of our apostle. How refreshing it is to
-contemplate his thorough-going style! His starting was of the right
-sort. "He forsook all and followed Christ." There was no halting here,
-at all events; no vacillating between Christ and present things.
-Boats, nets, fish, natural ties, all are unhesitatingly and
-unreservedly surrendered, not as a matter of cold duty or legal
-service, but as the grand and necessary result of having seen the
-glory and heard the voice of the Son of God.
-
-Thus it was with Simon Peter, at the opening of his remarkable career.
-All was clear and unequivocal, whole-hearted and decided, so far as
-the starting was concerned; and we must bear this in mind, as we
-pursue his after history. No doubt, we shall find mistakes and
-stumblings, failure, ignorance, and sin; but, underneath, and in spite
-of all this, we shall find a heart true to Jesus--a heart divinely
-taught to appreciate the Christ of God.
-
-This is a grand point. Blunders may well be borne with, when the heart
-beats true to Christ. Some one has remarked that, "The blunderers do
-all the work." If this be so, the reason is that those blunderers have
-real affection for their Lord; and that is precisely what we all want.
-A man may make a great many mistakes, but if he can say when
-challenged by his Lord, "Thou knowest that I love Thee," he is sure to
-come right in the end; and not only so, but, even in the very midst
-of his mistakes, our hearts are much more drawn to him than to the
-cold, correct, sleek professor, who thinks of himself, and seeks to
-make the best of both worlds.
-
-Simon Peter was a true lover of Christ. He had a divinely given sense
-of His preciousness, of the glory of His Person, and the heavenly
-character of His mission. All this comes out, with much force and
-freshness, in his varied confessions of Christ, even before the day of
-Pentecost. We shall glance at one or two of these, not with any view
-to chronological order, but simply to illustrate and prove the lovely
-devotedness of this true-hearted servant of Christ.
-
-Let us turn to Matt. xvi. "When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea
-Philippi, he asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the
-Son of man, am?" Weighty question! Upon the answer to this question
-hangs the whole moral condition and future destiny of every human
-being under the sun. All really depends upon the heart's estimate of
-Christ. This it is, which like a great moral indicator, reveals a
-man's true state, character, bent and object, in all things. It is not
-merely a question of his outward life, or of his profession of faith.
-The former may be blameless, and the latter orthodox; but, if
-underneath all this blameless morality and orthodox profession, there
-be not one true pulsation of the heart for Christ, no divinely wrought
-sense of what, and who, and whence He is, then verily all the morality
-and the orthodoxy are but the trappings with which a guilty,
-hell-deserving sinner adorns himself in the eyes of his fellows, or
-with which he deceives himself as to the awful eternity which lies
-before him. "What think ye of Christ?" is the all-deciding question;
-for God the Holy Ghost has emphatically declared that, "If any
-man"--no matter who or what he be--"love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
-let him be Anathema Maranatha" (1 Cor. xvi. 22).
-
-How awful is this! And how remarkable to find it at the close of such
-an epistle as the first to the Corinthians! How forcibly it declares
-to all who will only bend their ears to listen, that love to Christ is
-the basis of all sound doctrine, the motive spring of all true
-morality! If that blessed One be not enthroned at the very centre of
-the heart's affections, an orthodox creed is an empty delusion; and an
-unblemished reputation is but dust cast in a man's eyes to prevent him
-seeing his true condition in the sight of God. The Christians at
-Corinth had fallen into many doctrinal errors and moral evils, all
-needing rebuke and correction; but when the inspiring Spirit
-pronounces His awful anathema, it is levelled, not at the introducers
-of any one special error, or moral pravity, but at "any man who loves
-not the Lord Jesus Christ."
-
-This is peculiarly solemn at all times; but specially so for the day
-in which our lot is cast, when the Person and glory of Christ are so
-little thought of or cared for. A man may actually blaspheme Christ,
-deny His deity or His eternal Sonship, and yet be received into
-professing Christian circles, and allowed to preside at so-called
-religious meetings. Surely all this must be dreadful in the sight of
-God, whose purpose it is "that all men should honor the Son even as
-they honor the Father;" and that every knee should bow, and every
-tongue confess to Jesus as Lord of all. God is jealous for the honor
-of His Son; and the man that neglects, rejects, and blasphemes that
-blessed One will yet have to learn and own the eternal justice of that
-most solemn decree, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
-him be Anathema Maranatha."
-
-How momentous, therefore, the question put by our Lord Christ to His
-disciples, "Whom do _men_ say that I, the Son of man, am?" Alas, alas!
-"men" knew nothing, cared nothing about Him. They knew neither who He
-was, what He was, nor whence He was. "Some say that thou art John the
-Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets."
-In a word, there was endless speculation, because there was utter
-indifference and thorough heartlessness. The human heart has not so
-much as a single true thought about Christ, not one atom of affection
-for Him. Such is the awful condition of the very best of men until
-renewed by divine grace. They know not, they love not, they care not
-for the Son of God--the Beloved of the Father's heart--the Man on the
-throne of heaven's majesty. Such is their moral condition, and hence
-their every thought, word, and act is contrary to God. They have not a
-single feeling in common with God, for the most distinct of all
-reasons, that the One who is everything to Him is nothing to them.
-Christ is God's standard, and every one and everything must be
-measured by Him. The heart that does not love Christ has not a single
-pulsation in unison with the heart of God; and the life that does not
-spring from love to Christ however blameless, respectable, or splendid
-in the eyes of men, is a worthless, objectless, misspent life in the
-judgment of God.
-
-But how truly delightful to turn from all the heartlessness and
-indifference of "men," and harken to the testimony of one who was
-taught of God to know and own who the Son of man was! "Simon Peter
-answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
-Here was the true answer. There was no vain speculation here, no
-uncertainty, no may be this, or may be that. It was divine testimony
-flowing from divinely given knowledge. It was not yea and nay, but yea
-and amen to the glory of God. We may rest fully assured that these
-glowing words of Simon Peter went up, like fragrant incense, to the
-throne of God, and refreshed the heart of the One who sat there. There
-is nothing in all the world so precious to God as a heart that, in any
-measure, appreciates Christ. Let us never forget this!
-
-"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. And I say also unto thee, that thou art
-Peter; and upon this Rock I will build My Church; and the gates of
-hell shall not prevail against it."
-
-Here we have the very first direct allusion to the Church, or Assembly
-of Christ; and the reader will note that our Lord speaks of it as yet
-future. He says, "I _will_ build My Church." He was the Rock, the
-divine foundation; but ere a single stone could be built on Him, He
-must die.
-
-This is a grand cardinal truth of Christianity--a truth which our
-apostle had yet to learn, notwithstanding his brilliant and beautiful
-confession. Simon Peter was not yet prepared for the profound mystery
-of the cross. He loved Christ, and he had been taught of God to own
-Him in a very full and blessed manner; but he had yet much to learn
-ere he could take in the soul-subduing truth that this blessed Son of
-the living God must die, ere even he, as a living stone, could be
-built upon Him. "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His
-disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things
-of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be
-raised again the third day."
-
-Here the solemn truth begins to break through the clouds. But Simon
-Peter is not prepared for it. It withered up all his Jewish hopes and
-earthly expectations. What! The Son of the living God must die! How
-could it be? The glorious Messiah be nailed to a cross! "Then Peter
-took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, (or
-pity Thyself) Lord, this shall not be unto Thee."
-
-Such is man! Such was even Simon Peter! He would fain turn the blessed
-Lord away from the cross! He would, in his ignorance, frustrate the
-eternal counsels of God, and play into the hands of the devil! Poor
-Peter! What a rock he would be for the Church to be built upon! "The
-Lord turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan, thou art
-an offence unto Me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God,
-but those that be of men."
-
-Withering words? Who would have thought that "Blessed art thou, Simon
-Barjona," should so speedily be followed by, "Get thee behind Me,
-Satan?"
-
-
-
-
-PART V.
-
-
-We must still linger a little over the deeply interesting and
-instructive scene in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew. It brings
-before us two great subjects, namely, "The Church," and "The Kingdom
-of Heaven." These things must never be confounded. As to the first, it
-is only to be found in the New Testament. Indeed, as has often been
-remarked, verse 18 of our chapter contains the very first direct
-allusion in the volume of God to the subject of the Church, or
-assembly, of Christ.
-
-This, though familiar to many of our readers, may present a difficulty
-to others. Many Christians and Christian teachers strongly maintain
-that the doctrine of the Church is distinctly unfolded in Old
-Testament Scripture. They consider that the saints of the Old
-Testament belonged to the Church; in fact, that there is no
-difference, whatever; all form one body; all stand on one common
-ground; and that to represent the Lord's people in New Testament times
-as in a higher position, or endowed with higher privileges than
-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is a delusion. It seems strange to such to
-assert that Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, did not belong to the
-Church--were not members of the body of Christ--were not endowed with
-the selfsame privileges as believers now. Trained from their earliest
-days to believe that all God's people, from the beginning to the end
-of time, stand on the same ground, and form one common body, they find
-it impossible to admit of any difference. It seems to them presumption
-on the part of Christians to assert that they are in any respect
-different from God's beloved people of old--those blessed worthies of
-whom we read in Hebrews xi., who lived a life of faith and personal
-devotedness, and who are now in heaven with their Lord.
-
-But the all-important question is, "What saith the Scripture?" It can
-be of no possible use to set up our own thoughts, our own reasonings,
-our own conclusions, in opposition to the word of God. It is a very
-easy matter for men to reason, with great apparent force, point, and
-cleverness, about the absurdity and presumption of the notion that
-Christians are in a better and higher place, and more privileged, than
-God's people of old.
-
-But this is not the proper way in which to approach this great
-subject. It is not a question of the difference _personally_ between
-the Lord's people at different periods. Were it so, where should we
-find, amongst the ranks of Christian professors, any one to compare
-with an Abraham, a Joseph, a Moses, or a Daniel? Were it a question of
-simple faith, where could we find in the entire history of the Church
-a finer example than the father of the faithful? Were it a question of
-personal holiness, where could we find a brighter illustration than
-Joseph? For intimacy with God, and acquaintance with His ways and
-mind, who could go beyond Moses? For unswerving devotedness to God
-and His truth, could we find a brighter example than the man who went
-down into the lions' den rather than not pray toward Jerusalem?
-
-However, let it be distinctly understood that it is not by any means a
-personal question, or a comparison of people, but of dispensational
-position. If this be clearly seen, it will, we doubt not, remove out
-of the way a great deal of the difficulty which many pious people seem
-to feel in reference to the truth of the Church.
-
-But above and beyond all this stands the question, What does Scripture
-teach on the subject? If any one had spoken to Abraham about being a
-member of the body of Christ, would he have understood it? Could that
-honored and beloved saint of God have had the most remote idea of
-being linked by an indwelling Spirit to a living Head in heaven?
-Utterly impossible. How could he be a member of a body which had no
-existence? And how could there be a body without a Head? And when do
-we first hear of the Head? When the Man Christ Jesus, having passed
-through death and the grave, ascended into the heavens, and took His
-seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Then, and not until
-then, did the Holy Ghost come down to form the Body, and link it by
-His presence to the glorified Head above.
-
-This, however, is rather anticipating a line of argument which is yet
-to come before us. Let us here put another question to the reader. If
-any one had spoken to Moses about a body composed of Jews and
-Gentiles,--a body whose constituent parts had been drawn from among
-the seed of Abraham and the cursed race of the Canaanites,--what would
-he have said? May we not safely assert that his whole moral being
-would have shrunk with horror from the thought? What! Jews and
-Canaanites--the seed of Abraham and uncircumcised Gentiles--united in
-one body? Impossible for the lawgiver to take in such an idea. The
-fact is, if there was one feature which more strongly than another
-marked the Jewish economy, it was the rigid separation by divine
-appointment of Jew and Gentile. "Ye know," says Simon Peter, "how that
-it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or to
-come unto one of another nation."
-
-Such was the order of things under the Mosaic economy. It would have
-been a flagrant transgression on the part of a Jew to climb over that
-middle wall of partition which separated him from all the nations
-around; and hence the thought of a union between Jew and Gentile could
-not possibly have entered into any human mind; and the more faithful a
-man was to the existing order of things under the law, the more
-opposed he must have been to any such thought.
-
-Now, in the face of all this, how can any one seek to maintain that
-the truth of the Church was known in Old Testament times, and that
-there is no difference whatever between the position of a Christian
-and that of an Old Testament believer? The fact is that even Simon
-Peter himself found it extremely difficult to take in the idea of
-admitting the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Heaven. Though he was
-entrusted with the keys of that kingdom, he was very reluctant indeed
-to use them for the admission of the Gentiles. He had to be expressly
-taught by a heavenly vision, ere he was prepared to fulfil the
-commission with which he was charged by his Lord in Matthew xvi.
-
-No, reader, it is of no possible use to stand against the plain
-testimony of Scripture. The truth of the Church was not--could not--be
-known in Old Testament times. It was, as the inspired apostle tells
-us, "hid in God"--hid in His eternal counsels--"not made known to the
-sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets
-by the Spirit,[3] that the Gentiles should be _fellow-heirs_, and of
-_the same body_, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the
-gospel." (Eph. iii.)
-
-  [3] The "prophets," in this passage, are those of the New Testament.
-  This is evident from the expression, "_Now revealed_." He could not
-  speak of a thing being "now revealed" to men who had been dead for
-  hundreds of years. Besides, had the apostle meant Old Testament
-  prophets, the order would assuredly have been "Prophets and apostles."
-  We have a similar expression in Eph. ii. 20: "Built upon the
-  foundation of the apostles and prophets." He does not say, "prophets
-  and apostles." The truth is that the apostles and prophets formed the
-  first layer of the foundation of the Church of which Jesus Christ is
-  the chief Corner-stone; and this is an additional proof that the
-  Church had no existence save in the secret counsels of God until our
-  Lord Christ, having accomplished the work of redemption, ascended into
-  the heavens, and sent down the Holy Ghost to baptize believers--Jews
-  and Gentiles--into one body.
-
-The reader may also refer with real profit and interest to Rom. xvi.
-25, 26: "Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my
-gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to _the
-revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world
-began_, but _now is made manifest_, and by the scriptures of the
-prophets (literally, by the prophetic writings, that is, of the New
-Testament), according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
-known to all nations for the obedience of faith."
-
-We can only reach the great mystery of the Church by walking over the
-broken-down middle wall of partition. "Wherefore remember, that ye
-being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
-Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh
-made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens
-from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of
-promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in
-Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh _by the
-blood of Christ_. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and
-hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His
-flesh the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances, for to make
-in Himself of twain one new man, making peace; and that He might
-reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the
-enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you which were afar
-off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access
-by one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph. ii. 11-18.)
-
-Thus, from all that has passed before us, the reader will, we trust,
-fully see why it is that our Lord in His word to Simon Peter speaks of
-the Church as a future thing. "Upon this rock _I will build_ my
-Church." He does not say, "I have been," or, "I am, building my
-Church." Nothing of the kind. It could not be. It was still "hid in
-God." The Messiah had to be cut off and have nothing--nothing, for the
-present, as regards Israel and the earth. He must be rejected,
-crucified, and slain, in order to lay the foundation of the Church. It
-was utterly impossible that a single stone could be laid in this new,
-this wondrous building until "the chief Corner-stone" had passed
-through death and taken His place in the heavens. It was not in
-incarnation, but in resurrection, that our Lord Christ became Head of
-a body.
-
-Now our apostle was not in the least prepared for this. He did not
-understand one jot or tittle of it. That Messiah should set up a
-kingdom in power and glory--that He should restore Israel to their
-destined pre-eminence in the earth--all this he could understand and
-appreciate--he was looking for it. But a suffering Messiah--a rejected
-and crucified Christ--of this he could not hear just then. "Be it far
-from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee." These were the words
-which drew forth that withering rebuke with which we closed our last
-paper, "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offence unto Me; for
-thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of
-men."
-
-We may gather the gravity of his error from the severity of the
-rebuke. Peter had much to learn, much to go through, ere he could
-grasp the great truth which His Lord was putting before him. But he
-did grasp it, by the grace of God, and confess it, and teach it with
-power. He was led to see not only that Christ was the Son of the
-living God, but that He was a rejected Stone, disallowed of men, but
-chosen of God and precious; and that all who through grace come to Him
-must share His rejection on earth as well as His acceptance in heaven.
-They are perfectly identified with Him.
-
-
-
-
-PART VI.
-
-
-At the close of John vi. we have a very clear and beautiful confession
-of Christ from the lips of our apostle--a confession rendered all the
-more touching and forcible by the circumstances under which it was
-delivered.
-
-Our blessed Lord, in His teachings in the synagogue at Capernaum, had
-unfolded truth which puts the poor human heart to the test, and
-withers up all the pretensions of man in a very remarkable manner. We
-cannot here attempt to enter upon the subject of our Lord's discourse,
-but the effect of it is thus recorded:--"From that time many of His
-disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." They were not
-prepared for the reception of such heavenly doctrine. They were
-offended by it, and they turned their backs upon that blessed One who
-alone was worthy of all the affections of the heart, and of the homage
-and devotion of the whole moral being. "_They went back, and walked no
-more with Him._"
-
-Now we are not told what became of these deserters, or whether they
-were saved or not. No such question is raised. We are simply told that
-they abandoned Christ, and ceased to be any longer publicly identified
-with His name and His cause. How many, alas! have since followed their
-sad example! It is one thing to profess to be the disciples of
-Christ, and another thing altogether to stand with firm purpose of
-heart on the ground of public testimony for His name, in thorough
-identification with a rejected Lord. It is one thing for people to
-flock to Christ because of the benefits which He bestows, and it is
-quite another to cleave to Him in the face of the world's scorn and
-contempt. The application of the doctrine of the cross very speedily
-thins the ranks of professors. In the chapter before us we see at one
-moment multitudes thronging enthusiastically around the Man who could
-so marvelously supply their need, and the next moment abandoning Him,
-when His teaching offended their pride.
-
-Thus it has been, thus it is, and thus it will be until that day in
-the which the despised Stranger of Nazareth shall reign from pole to
-pole, and from the river to the ends of the earth. We are ready enough
-to avail ourselves of the benefits and blessings which _a loving
-Saviour_ can bestow upon us, but when it becomes a question of
-following _a rejected Lord_ along that rough and lonely path which He
-has trodden for us in this sinful world, we are disposed, like those
-of old, to go back, and walk no more with Him.
-
-This is very sad and very humiliating. It proves how little we know of
-His heart, or of what that heart desires from us. Jesus longs for
-fellowship. He does not want patronage. It does not meet the desire of
-His heart to be followed, or admired, or gazed at, because of what He
-can do or give. He delights in a heart taught of God to appreciate
-His Person, for this glorifies and gratifies the Father. He retired
-from the gaze of an excited and tumultuous throng who would fain make
-Him a king, because they had eaten of the loaves and were filled; but
-He could turn, with touching earnestness, to the little band of
-followers who still remained, and challenge their hearts with the
-question, "Will ye also go away?"
-
-How deeply affecting! How it must have touched the hearts of all, save
-that one who had no heart for aught but money--who was "a thief" and
-"a devil!" Alas! alas! a moment was approaching when all were to
-forsake Him and fly--when He was to be left absolutely _alone_,
-forsaken of men, forsaken of God--utterly and awfully deserted.
-
-But that moment was yet future; and it is peculiarly refreshing to
-harken to the fine confession of our beloved apostle, in reply to the
-deeply affecting inquiry of his Lord. "Then Simon Peter answered Him,
-Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we
-believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
-God."
-
-Well indeed might he say, "To whom shall we go?" There was not another
-throughout the wide universe of God to whom the heart could turn. He
-alone could meet their every need, satisfy their every right desire,
-fill up every chamber of the heart. Simon Peter felt this, and hence,
-with all his mistakes, his failures, and his infirmities, his loving
-and devoted heart turned with earnest affection to his beloved Lord.
-He would not abandon Him, though little able to rise to the height of
-His heavenly teaching. There was a link binding him to Jesus Christ
-which nothing could snap. "Lord, to whom shall we go?"--whither shall
-we betake ourselves?--on whom could we reckon beside? True, there may
-be trial and difficulty in the path of true discipleship. It may prove
-a rough and a lonely path. The heart may be tried and tested in every
-possible way. There may be deep and varied sorrow--deep waters, dark
-shadows; but in the face of all we can say, "To whom shall we go?"
-
-And mark the singular fulness of Peter's confession. "Thou _hast_ the
-words of eternal life;" and then, "Thou _art_ that Christ, the Son of
-the living God." We have the two things, namely, what He _has_, and
-what He _is_. Blessed be His name, Christ has all we can possibly want
-for time and eternity. Words of eternal life flow from His lips into
-our hearts. He causes those who follow Him to "inherit substance." He
-bestows upon them "durable riches and righteousness." We may truly say
-that, in comparison of what Christ has to give, all the riches,
-honors, dignities, and pleasures of this world are but dross. They all
-pass away as the vapors of the morning, and leave only an aching void
-behind. Nothing that this world has to offer can possibly satisfy the
-cravings of the human soul. "All is vanity and vexation of spirit."
-And not only so--it must be given up. If one had all the wealth of
-Solomon, it lasts but a moment in comparison with that boundless
-eternity which lies before every one of us. When death approaches, all
-the riches of the universe could not purchase one moment's respite.
-The last great enemy gives no quarter. He ruthlessly snaps the link
-that connects man with all that his poor heart prizes and loves upon
-earth, and hurries him away into eternity.
-
-And what then? Yes, this is the question. Who can answer it? Who can
-attempt to picture the future of a soul that passes into eternity
-without God, without Christ, without hope? Who can describe the
-horrors of one who, all in a moment, opens his eyes to the fact--the
-tremendous fact--that he is lost, lost forever--hopelessly, eternally,
-lost? It is positively too dreadful to dwell upon it. And yet it must
-be looked at; and if the reader is still of the world, still
-unconverted, careless, thoughtless, unbelieving, we would earnestly
-entreat of him now, just now, to give his earnest attention to the
-weighty and all-important question of his soul's salvation--a
-question, in comparison with which all other questions dwindle into
-utter insignificance. "What shall it profit a man, if he should gain
-the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in
-exchange for his soul?" It is, beyond all question, the most egregious
-folly that any one can be guilty of to put off the grand business of
-his soul's salvation.
-
-And if any one inquire what he has to do in this business, the answer
-is _Nothing_--"nothing, either great or small." Jesus has the words
-of eternal life. He it is who says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
-he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, _hath_
-everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but _is passed_
-from death unto life."
-
-Here is the hinge on which the whole matter moves. Harken to the words
-of Christ. Believe in Him that sent His blessed Son. Put your trust in
-God, and you shall be saved; you shall have eternal life, and never
-come into judgment.
-
-Nor is this all. Simon Peter, in his lovely confession, does not
-confine himself to what Christ has to give, precious and blessed as
-that is, but he also speaks of what He is. "Thou art that Christ, the
-Son of the living God." This is full of deepest interest for the
-heart. Christ not only gives us eternal life, but He also becomes the
-object of our heart's affections--our satisfying portion, our
-unfailing resource, our infallible Guide and Counselor, our constant
-reference, in all our need, in all our pressure, in all our sorrows
-and difficulties. We need never go to any one else for succor,
-sympathy, or guidance. We have all we want in Him. He is the eternal
-delight of the heart of God, and He may well be the delight of our
-hearts here and hereafter, now and forever.
-
-
-
-
-PART VII.
-
-
-The close of Matt. xiv. presents a scene in the life of our apostle on
-which we may dwell with profit for a few moments. It furnishes a very
-fine illustration of his own touching inquiry, "Lord, to whom shall we
-go?"
-
-Our Lord having fed the multitude, and sent His disciples across the
-sea, retired into a mountain, to be alone in prayer. In this we have a
-striking foreshadowing of the present time. Jesus has gone on high.
-Israel is for the present set aside, but not forgotten. Days of
-trouble will come--rough seas and stormy skies will fall to the lot of
-the remnant; but their Messiah will return, and deliver them out of
-all their troubles. He will bring them to their desired haven, and all
-will be peace and joy for the Israel of God.
-
-All this is fully unfolded on the page of prophecy, and is of the
-deepest interest to every lover of God and His word; but for the
-present we can merely dwell upon the inspired record concerning Simon
-Peter, and seek to learn the lesson which that record so forcibly
-teaches. "And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get into
-a ship, and to go before Him unto the other side, while He sent the
-multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up
-into a mountain apart to pray; and when the evening was come, He was
-there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed
-with waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the
-night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples
-saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a
-spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto
-them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter
-answered Him, and said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on
-the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the
-ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind
-boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying,
-Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and
-caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst
-thou doubt?"
-
-This brief passage presents to our view in a very forcible way some of
-the leading features of Simon Peter's character. His zeal, his energy,
-his real devotedness of heart, no one can for a moment call in
-question; but these very qualities--beautiful as they surely are--led
-him not unfrequently into a position of such prominence as to render
-his weak points all the more conspicuous. A man of less zeal, less
-energy, would have remained on board the ship, and thus avoided
-Peter's failure and breakdown. Perhaps, too, men of cooler temperament
-would condemn as unwarrantable rashness Peter's act in leaving the
-ship, or pronounce it a piece of forwardness which justly deserved a
-humiliating rebuff.
-
-All this may be so; but we are free to confess that the zeal, energy
-and devotedness of this beloved servant of Christ have far more
-powerful charms for the heart than the cool, calculating,
-self-considering spirit which, in order to avoid the shame and
-humiliation of a defeat, refuses to take a bold and decided step for
-Christ. True it is that Peter in the interesting scene now before us
-completely broke down. But why did he? Was it because he left the
-ship? No; but because he ceased to look in simple faith to Jesus. Here
-lay the root of his failure. Had he only kept his eye on the Master,
-he could have walked on the water though ever so rough. Faith can walk
-on rough water as easily as on smooth. Nature cannot walk on either.
-It is not a question of the state of the water, but the state of the
-heart. Circumstances have nothing to do with faith, except, indeed,
-that when difficult and trying, they develop its power and brightness.
-There was no reason whatever, in the judgment of faith, why Peter
-should have failed in his walk on the water. Faith looks not at the
-things that are seen and temporal, but at the things which are unseen
-and eternal. It endures as seeing Him who is invisible. "Faith is the
-evidence of things _not seen_." It lifts the heart above the winds and
-waves of this rough world, and keeps it in perfect peace, to the
-praise of Him who is the Giver of faith, as of "every good and perfect
-gift."
-
-But our beloved apostle utterly failed in faith on the occasion now
-before us. He, as we, alas! so often do, took his eye off the Lord
-and fixed it on his surroundings, and as a consequence he immediately
-began to sink. It must ever be so. We cannot get on for a single
-moment save as we have the living God as a covering for our eyes. The
-grand motto for the life of faith is, "Looking off unto Jesus." It is
-this alone which enables us to "run the race set before us," be the
-way rough or smooth. When Peter came down out of the ship, it was
-either Christ or drowning. He might well say at such a moment, "Lord,
-to whom shall I go?" Whither could he turn? When on board the ship, he
-had its timbers between him and death, but when on the water he had
-nothing but Jesus.
-
-And was not He enough? Yes, verily, if only Peter could have trusted
-Him. This is the point. All things are possible to him that believeth.
-Storms are hushed into a perfect calm, rough seas become like glass,
-lofty mountains are leveled, when faith brings the power of God to
-bear. The greater the difficulties, the brighter the triumphs of
-faith. It is in the furnace that the real preciousness of faith is
-displayed. Faith has to do with God, and not with men or things. If we
-cease to lean on God, we have nothing but a wild, watery waste--a
-perfect chaos--around us, where nature's resources must hopelessly
-fail.
-
-All this was proved by Simon Peter when he came down out of the ship
-to walk on the water; and every child of God and every servant of
-Christ must prove it in his measure, for Peter's history is full of
-great practical lessons for us all. If we want to walk above the
-circumstances of the scene through which we are passing--if we would
-rise superior to its influences--if we would be able to give an
-answer, clear, distinct, and decided, to the skepticism, the
-rationalism and the infidelity of the day in which we live--then,
-assuredly, we must keep the eye of faith firmly fixed on "the Author
-and Perfecter of faith." It is not by logical skill or intellectual
-power we shall ever meet the arguments of the infidel, but by an
-abiding sense, a living and soul-satisfying apprehension, of the
-all-sufficiency of Christ--Himself--His work--His word--to meet our
-every need, our every exigence.
-
-But it may be the reader feels disposed to condemn Peter for leaving
-the ship. He may think there was no need for his taking such a step.
-Why not abide with his brethren on board the vessel? Was it not
-possible to be quite as devoted to Christ in the ship as on the water?
-And, further, did not the sequel prove that it would have been far
-better, and safer, and wiser, for Peter to remain where he was, than
-to venture forth on a course which he was not able to pursue?
-
-To all this we reply that our apostle was evidently governed by an
-earnest desire to be nearer to his Lord. And this was right. He saw
-Jesus walking on the water, and he longed to be with Him. And,
-further, he had the direct authority of his Lord for leaving the ship.
-We fully and freely grant that without this it would have been a
-fatal mistake to leave his position; but the moment that word "Come"
-fell on his ear he had a divine warrant for going forth upon the
-water--yea, to have remained would have been to miss great blessing.
-
-Thus it is in every case. We must have authority before we can act in
-anything. Without this, the greater our zeal, energy, and apparent
-devotedness, the more fatal will be our mistake, and the more mischief
-we shall do to ourselves, to others, and to the cause of Christ. It is
-of the very last possible importance in every case, but especially
-where there is a measure of zeal, earnestness, and energy, that there
-should be sober subjection to the authority of the Word. If there be
-not this, there is no calculating the amount of mischief which may be
-done. If our devotedness flow not in the channel of simple obedience,
-if it rush over the embankments formed by the word of God, the
-consequences must be most disastrous.
-
-But there is another thing which stands next in importance to the
-authority of the _divine Word_, and that is the abiding realization of
-the _divine presence_. These two things must never be separated if we
-want to walk on the water. We may be quite clear and settled in our
-own minds, having distinct authority for any given line of action; but
-if we have not with equal distinctness the sense of the Lord's
-presence with us--if our eyes are not continually on the living
-God--we shall most assuredly break down.
-
-This is very serious, and demands the gravest consideration of the
-Christian reader. It was precisely here that Peter failed. He did not
-fail in obedience, but in realized dependence. He acted on the word of
-Jesus in leaving the ship, but he failed to lean on the arm of Jesus
-in walking on the water; hence his terror and confusion. Mere
-authority is not enough; we want power. To act without authority is
-wrong. To act without power is impossible. The authority for starting
-is the word. The power to proceed is the divine presence. The
-combination of the two must ever yield a successful career. It matters
-not in the smallest degree what the difficulties are if we have the
-stable authority of Holy Scripture for our course, and the blessed
-support of the presence of God in pursuing it. When God speaks, we
-must obey; but in order to do so, we must lean on His arm. "Have not I
-commanded you?" "Lo, I am with you."
-
-Here are the two things so absolutely essential to every child of God
-and every servant of Christ. Without these, we can do nothing; with
-them, we can do all things. If we have not a "Thus saith the Lord," or
-"It is written," we cannot enter upon a path of devotedness; and if we
-have not His realized presence, we cannot pursue it. It is quite
-possible to be right in setting out, and yet to fail in going on.
-
-It was so in the case of Simon Peter, and it has been so in the case
-of thousands since. It is one thing to make a good start, and another
-thing to make good progress. It is one thing to leave the ship, and
-another thing to walk on the water. Peter did the former, but he
-failed in the latter. This beloved servant of Christ broke down in his
-course; but where did he find himself? In the arms of a loving
-Saviour. "Lord, save me!" How touching! How deeply affecting! He casts
-himself upon a well-known love--a love which was yet to meet him in
-far more humiliating circumstances. Nor was he disappointed. Ah, no!
-Blessed be God, no poor failing creature can ever appeal to that love
-in vain. "And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught
-him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
-doubt?" Exquisite grace! If Peter failed to reach his Lord, his Lord
-did not fail to reach him. If Peter failed in faith, Jesus could not
-fail in grace. Impossible. The grace of our Lord Jesus is exceeding
-abundant. He takes occasion from our very failures to display His rich
-and precious love. Oh, how blessed to have to do with such a tender,
-patient, loving Lord! Who would not trust Him and praise Him, love Him
-and serve Him?
-
-
-
-
-PART VIII.
-
-
-We have now to follow our beloved apostle into the darkest and most
-humbling scene in his entire history--a scene which we could hardly
-understand or account for if we did not know something of the infinite
-depths of divine grace on the one hand, and, on the other hand, of the
-terrible depths into which even a saint of God or an apostle of Christ
-is capable of plunging if not kept by divine power.
-
-It seems very wonderful to find on the page of inspiration the record
-of the fall of such an eminent servant of Christ as Simon Peter. We,
-in our wisdom, would judge it best to draw the curtain of silence over
-such an event. Not so the Holy Ghost. He has seen fit to tell us
-plainly of the errors, and failures, and sins, of such men as Abraham,
-Moses, David, Peter, and Paul, in order that we may learn holy lessons
-from such records--lessons of human frailty, lessons of divine grace,
-lessons full of solemn warning, and yet of most precious consolation
-and encouragement. We learn what we are, and we learn what God is. We
-learn that we cannot trust ourselves for a single moment; for, if not
-kept by grace, there is no depth of sin into which we are not capable
-of falling; but we learn to trust the eternal stability of that grace
-which has dealt with the erring ones and sinning ones of other days,
-and to lean with ever-growing confidence on the One who is "the same
-yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
-
-Not one of the four evangelists omits the fall of Peter. Let us open
-at Matt. xxvi.; "And when they had sung a hymn they went out into the
-mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended
-because of Me this night; for it is written, I will smite the
-Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But
-after I am risen again I will go before you into Galilee. Peter
-answered and said unto Him, Though all shall be offended because of
-Thee, yet will I never be offended."
-
-In these few words Peter lets out the real root of the whole matter.
-That root was self-confidence--alas! alas! no uncommon root amongst
-us. We do not in the least question Peter's sincerity. We feel
-perfectly sure he meant all he said; and, further, that he had not the
-most remote idea of what he was about to do. He was ignorant of
-himself, and we generally find that ignorance and self-confidence go
-together. Self-knowledge destroys self-confidence. The more fully self
-is known, the more it must be distrusted. If Peter had known himself,
-known his tendencies and capabilities, he never would have uttered the
-words which we have just penned. But so full was he of self-confidence,
-that when his Lord told him expressly what He was about to do, he
-replied, "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee."
-
-This is peculiarly solemn. It is full of instruction for us all. We
-are all so ignorant of our own hearts that we deem ourselves incapable
-of falling into certain gross sins. But we should, every one of us,
-bear in mind that if not kept each moment by the grace of God, we are
-capable of anything. We have materials in us for any amount or
-character of evil; and whenever we hear any one saying, "Well, I
-certainly am a poor, failing, stumbling creature, but I am not capable
-of doing the like of that," we may feel assured he does not know his
-own heart; and not only so, but he is in imminent danger of falling
-into some grievous sin. It is well to walk humbly before our God,
-distrusting self, and leaning on Him. This is the true secret of moral
-safety at all times. Had Peter realized this, it would have saved him
-his terrible downfall.
-
-But Peter was self-confident, and, as a consequence, he failed to
-watch and pray. This was another stage in his downward journey. Had he
-only felt his utter weakness, he would have sought for strength
-divine. He would have cast himself on God for grace to help in time of
-need. Look at the blessed Master! He, though God over all, blessed
-forever, yet being a Man, having taken the place of the creature, and
-fully entering into His position, was agonizing in prayer while Peter
-was fast asleep. Yes, Peter slept in the garden of Gethsemane while
-his Lord was passing through the deepest anguish He had yet tasted,
-though deeper still lay before Him. "Then cometh Jesus with them unto
-a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here,
-while I go and pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the sons of
-Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith He unto
-them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here,
-and watch with Me. And He went a little further, and fell on His face,
-and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
-from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. And He cometh
-unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and _saith unto Peter_,
-What! could ye not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye
-enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
-is weak."
-
-What tender grace! What readiness to make allowance! What moral
-elevation! And yet He felt the sad want of sympathy, the cold
-indifference to His sore agony. "I looked for some to take pity, but
-there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." How much is
-involved in these words! He looked for comforters. That perfect human
-heart craved sympathy; but, alas! there was none for Him. Even Peter,
-who declared himself ready to die with Him, fell asleep in view of the
-agonies of Gethsemane.
-
-Such is man--yea, the very best of men! Self-confident, when he ought
-to be self-distrusting--sleeping, when he ought to be watching; and,
-we may add, fighting, when he ought to be submitting. "Then Simon
-Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's servant,
-and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus." How
-incongruous, how utterly out of place, was a sword in company with the
-meek and lowly Sufferer! "Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy
-sword into the sheath: the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I
-not drink it?" Peter was entirely out of the current of his Master's
-spirit. He had not a thought in common with Him in reference to His
-path of suffering. He would fain defend Him with carnal weapons,
-forgetting that His kingdom was not of this world.
-
-All this is peculiarly solemn. To find a dear and honored servant of
-Christ failing so grievously is surely sufficient to teach us to walk
-very softly. But, alas! we have not yet reached the lowest point in
-Peter's downward course. Having used his sword in defence of his
-Master, we next find him "following afar off." "Then took they Jesus,
-and led Him, and brought Him to the high priest's house. And _Peter
-followed afar off_. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of
-the hall, and were set down together, _Peter sat down among them_."
-
-What company for an apostle of Christ! "Can a man touch pitch, and not
-be defiled by it? Can one walk on burning coals, and his feet not be
-burned?" It is terribly dangerous for the Christian to sit down among
-the enemies of Christ. The very fact of his doing so proves that
-decline has set in, and made serious progress. In Peter's case the
-stages of decline are strongly marked. First, boasting in his own
-strength; secondly, sleeping when he ought to have been praying;
-thirdly, drawing his sword when he ought to have been meekly bowing
-his head; fourthly, following afar off; fifthly, making himself
-comfortable in the midst of the open enemies of Christ.
-
-Then comes the last sad scene in this terrible drama. "And as Peter
-was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high
-priest; and when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him,
-and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied,
-saying, _I know not, neither understand I, what thou sayest_. And he
-went out into the porch; and the cock crew. And a maid saw him again,
-and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them. _And he
-denied it again._ And a little after, they that stood by said again to
-Peter, Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy
-speech agreeth thereto. But _he began to curse and to swear, I know
-not this man of whom ye speak_. And the second time the cock crew. And
-Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the
-cock crow twice thou shalt deny Me thrice. And when he thought
-thereon, he wept." (Mark xiv. 66-72.)
-
-Luke adds a most touching clause: "_And the Lord turned and looked
-upon Peter._ And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had
-said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And
-Peter went out, and wept bitterly."
-
-How deeply affecting is all this! Only think of a saint of God, and an
-apostle of Christ, cursing and swearing that he did not know his
-Lord! Does the reader feel disposed to question the fact that Peter
-was, spite of all this, a genuine saint of God? Some do question it,
-but their questioning is a gross mistake. They find it hard to
-conceive such a thing as a true child of God falling so terribly. It
-is because they have not yet thoroughly learnt what flesh is. Peter
-was as really a saint of God in the palace of the high priest as he
-was on the mount of transfiguration. But he had to learn himself, and
-that, too, by as humiliating and painful a process as any soul could
-well be called to pass through. Doubtless, if any one had told Peter,
-a few days before, that he would ere long curse and swear that he did
-not know his Lord, he would have shrunk with horror from the thought.
-He might have said, like one of old, "Is thy servant a dog that he
-should do this thing?" Yet so it was. We know not what we may do until
-we are in the circumstances. The great thing for us all is to walk
-humbly with our God day by day, deeply sensible of our own utter
-weakness, and clinging to Him who is able to keep us from falling. We
-are safe only in the shelter of His presence. Left to ourselves, we
-are capable of anything, as our apostle found to his deep sorrow.
-
-But the Lord was watching over His poor erring servant. He never lost
-sight of him for a single moment, He had His eye upon the whole
-process. The devil would have smashed the vessel in hopeless fragments
-if he could. But he could not. He was but an instrument in the divine
-hand to do a work for Peter which Peter had failed to do for himself.
-"Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift
-you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and
-when thou art converted (or restored), strengthen thy brethren."
-
-Here we are permitted to see the root of the matter. Peter needed to
-be sifted, and Satan was employed to do the work--just as in the case
-of Job, and the man in 1 Cor. v. It seems very wonderful, very
-mysterious, very solemn, that Satan should be so used. Yet so it is.
-God uses him "for the destruction of the flesh." He cannot touch the
-spirit. That is eternally safe. But it is terrible work to get into
-Satan's sieve. Peter found it so, and so did Job, and so did that
-erring Corinthian.
-
-But oh, the _grace_ of those words! "I have prayed for thee"--not that
-he might not fall, but, having fallen, that his faith might not fail,
-his confidence might not give way. Nothing can surpass the grace that
-shines out here. The blessed One knew all that was to happen--the
-shameful denial--the cursing and swearing; and yet, "I have prayed for
-thee that thy faith fail not"--that thy confidence in the eternal
-stability of my grace may not give way.
-
-Perfectly marvelous! And then, the _power_ of that look! "The Lord
-turned, and looked upon Peter." It was this that broke Peter's heart,
-and drew forth a flood of bitter, penitential tears.
-
-
-
-
-PART IX.
-
-
-We are now called to consider the intensely interesting subject of
-Simon Peter's restoration, in which we shall find some points of the
-utmost practical importance. If in his fall we learn the frailty and
-folly of man, in his restoration we learn the grace, wisdom, and
-faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. The fall was, indeed, deep,
-terrible, and humiliating. The restoration was complete and marvelous.
-We may rest assured that Simon Peter will never forget either the one
-or the other; nay, he will remember them with wonder, love, and
-praise, throughout the countless ages of eternity. The grace that
-shines in Peter's restoration is the same which is displayed in his
-conversion. Let us glance at some of the salient points. It can be but
-the merest glance, as our space is limited. And first let us look at
-
-
-THE PROCURING CAUSE.
-
-This we have given us with peculiar force by the pen of the inspired
-evangelist Luke. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath
-desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat." If Satan had
-been suffered to have his way, poor Simon would have been hopelessly
-ruined. But no; he was merely employed as an instrument, as he had
-been in Job's case, to do a needed work, and, when that work was done,
-he had to retire. He dare not go one hair's breadth beyond his
-appointed sphere. It is well to remember this. Satan is but a
-creature--crafty, wily, powerful, no doubt, but a creature who can
-only go as far as he is permitted by God. Had Peter walked softly, had
-he humbly and earnestly looked for divine help, had he been judging
-himself in secret, there would have been no need of Satan's sifting.
-Thanks be to God, Satan has no power whatever with a soul that walks
-humbly with God. There is perfect shelter, perfect safety, in the
-divine presence; and there is not an arrow in the enemy's quiver that
-can reach one who leans in simple confidence upon the arm of the
-living God. Here our apostle failed, and hence he had to pass through
-a very severe process indeed, in order that he might learn himself.
-
-But, oh, the power and preciousness of those words, "_I have prayed
-for thee_!" Here assuredly lay the secret--here was the procuring
-cause of Simon's restoration. The prayer of Jesus sustained the soul
-of His erring servant in that terrible hour when the enemy would fain
-have crushed him to powder. What could Satan do in opposition to the
-all-powerful intercession of Christ? Nothing. That wonderful prayer
-was the ground of Peter's safety, when, to human view, all seemed
-hopelessly gone.
-
-And for what did our Lord pray? Was it that Peter might not commit the
-awful sin of denying Him? Was it that he might not curse and swear?
-Clearly not. What then? "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail
-not."
-
-Can aught exceed the grace that shines here? That gracious, loving,
-faithful Lord, in view of Peter's terrible sin--knowing all he was
-about to do, all the sad forgetfulness--could actually plead for him
-that, spite of all, his confidence might not give way--that he might
-not lose the sense of the eternal stability of that grace which had
-taken him up from the depth of his ruin and guilt.
-
-Matchless grace! Nothing can surpass it in brightness and blessedness.
-Had it not been for this prayer, Peter's confidence must have given
-way. He never could have survived the awful struggle through which his
-soul passed when thinking of his dreadful sin. When he came to
-himself, when he reflected upon the whole scene, his expressions of
-devotedness, "Though all should deny Thee, yet will I never deny
-Thee"--"Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee"--"I
-am ready to go with Thee to prison and to death"--to think of all
-these words, and yet that he should deny his beloved Lord with cursing
-and swearing, was overpowering.
-
-It is a dreadful moment in the soul's history when one wakes up to the
-consciousness of having committed sin--sin against light, knowledge,
-and privilege--sin against divine grace and goodness. Satan is sure to
-be specially busy at such a crisis. He casts in the most terrible
-suggestions--raises all manner of questions--fills the heart with
-legal reasonings, doubts, and fears--causes the soul to totter on the
-foundation.
-
-But, thanks and praise to our God, the enemy cannot prevail. "Hitherto
-shalt thou come, and no further." The all-prevailing intercession of
-our divine Advocate sustains the faith so sorely tried, carries the
-soul through the deep and dark waters, restores the broken link of
-communion, heals the spiritual wounds, lifts up the fallen one, brings
-back the wanderer, and fills the heart with praise and thanksgiving.
-"I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; and when thou art
-restored, strengthen thy brethren." Here we have set before us in the
-most touching way _the procuring cause_ of Simon Peter's restoration.
-We shall now look for a moment at
-
-
-THE PRODUCING MEANS.
-
-For this, too, we are indebted to the evangelist Luke. Indeed it is
-through him the inspiring Spirit has given us so much of what is
-exquisitely human--so much of what goes straight to our very hearts,
-in subduing power--so much of God coming out in loveliest human form.
-
-We have already noticed Peter's gradual descent--his sad progress,
-from one stage to another, in moral distance and culpable
-decline--forgetting to watch and pray--following afar off--warming
-himself at the enemy's fire--the cowardly denial--the cursing and
-swearing. All this was down! down! down! shamefully and awfully down.
-But when the erring, straying, sinning one had reached the very lowest
-point, then comes out, with heavenly lustre, the grace that shines in
-the procuring cause and the producing means of his restoration. The
-former we have in Christ's _prayer_; the latter in Christ's _look_.
-"The Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word
-of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou
-shalt deny Me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly."
-
-Yes, here it is; "The Lord _looked_"--"Peter remembered"--Peter
-wept--"wept bitterly." What a look! What a remembrance! What a
-weeping! What human heart can conceive, what tongue express, what pen
-portray, all that is wrapped up in that one look? We can well believe
-that it went right home to the very centre of Peter's soul. He will
-never forget that marvelous look, so full of mighty moral power--so
-penetrating--so melting--so soul-subduing.
-
-"Peter went out, and wept bitterly." This was the turning point. Up to
-this all was darkly downward. Here divine light breaks in upon the
-deep moral gloom. Christ's most precious prayer is having its answer,
-His powerful look is doing its work. The fountain of the heart is
-broken up, and penitential tears flow copiously forth, demonstrating
-the depth, reality, and intensity of the work within.
-
-Thus it must ever be, and thus it will ever be when the Spirit of God
-works in the soul. If we have sinned, we must be made to feel, to
-judge, and to confess our sin--to feel it deeply, judge it thoroughly,
-and confess it fully. It will not do merely to say, in levity,
-flippancy, or mere formality, "I have sinned." There must be reality,
-uprightness, and sincerity. God desires truth in the inward parts.
-There was nothing light, flippant, or formal about our beloved apostle
-in the hour of his fall and repentance. No, all was intensely real. It
-could not but be so with such a procuring cause, and such a producing
-means. The prayer and look of Peter's Lord displayed their precious
-results in Peter's restoration.
-
-Now the reader will do well to notice that the prayer and look of our
-Lord Jesus Christ set forth, in a very striking and beautiful manner,
-the two grand aspects of Christ's present ministry as our Advocate
-with the Father. We have the value and prevalency of His intercession,
-and the power and efficacy of His word in the hands of the Holy Ghost,
-that "other Advocate." Christ's _prayer_ for Peter answers to His
-intercession for us. His _look_ upon Peter answers to His word brought
-home to us in the power of the Holy Ghost. When we sin--as, alas! we
-do in thought and deed--our blessed and adorable Advocate speaks to
-God on our behalf. This is the procuring cause of our repentance and
-restoration. But He speaks to us on God's behalf. This is the
-producing means.
-
-We shall not dwell upon the great subject of the advocacy here, having
-recently sought to unfold it in our papers on "The All-sufficiency of
-Christ." We shall close this paper with a brief reference to two or
-three of the moral features of Peter's restoration--features which,
-be it well remembered, must be looked for in every case of true
-restoration. In the first place there is
-
-
-THE STATE OF THE CONSCIENCE.
-
-Now, as to the full and complete restoration of Peter's conscience
-after his terrible fall, we have the most unquestionable evidence
-afforded in his after history. Take the touching scene at the sea of
-Tiberias, as given in John xxi.[4] Look at that dear, earnest,
-thorough man, girding his fisher's coat around him, and plunging into
-the sea, in order to get to the feet of his risen Lord! He waits
-neither for the ship nor for his companions, but in all the lovely
-freshness and liberty of a divinely restored conscience, he rushes to
-his Saviour's feet. There is no tormenting fear, no legal bondage, no
-doubt, darkness, or distance. His conscience is perfectly at rest. The
-prayer and the look--the two grand departments of the work of
-advocacy--had proved effectual. Peter's conscience was all right,
-sound, and good; and hence he could find his home in the presence of
-his Lord--his holy, happy home.
-
-  [4] We have no record of Peter's first meeting with his Lord, after
-  the resurrection.
-
-Take another striking and beautiful evidence of a restored conscience.
-Look at Peter in Acts iii. There he stands in the presence of
-assembled thousands of Jews, and boldly charges them with having
-"denied the Holy One and the Just"--the very thing which he himself
-had done though under circumstances very different. How could Peter do
-this? How could he have the face to speak so? Why not leave it to
-James or John to prefer this heavy charge? The answer is blessedly
-simple. Peter's conscience was so thoroughly restored, so perfectly at
-rest, because perfectly purged, that he could fearlessly charge the
-house of Israel with the awful sin of denying the Holy One of God. Was
-this the fruit of moral insensibility? Nay, it was the fruit of divine
-restoration. Had any one of the congregation gathered in Solomon's
-porch undertaken to challenge our apostle as to his own shameful
-denial of his Lord, we can easily conceive his answer. The man who had
-"wept bitterly" over his sin would, we feel assured, know how to
-answer such a challenge. Not that his bitter weeping was the
-meritorious ground of his restoration; nothing of the kind, it only
-proved the reality of the work of repentance in his soul. Moral
-insensibility is one thing, and a restored conscience, resting on the
-blood and advocacy of Christ, is quite another.
-
-But there is another thing involved in a true work of restoration, and
-that is
-
-
-THE STATE OF THE HEART.
-
-This is of the very utmost importance in every instance. No
-restoration can be considered divinely complete which does not reach
-the very depths of the heart. And hence, when we turn back to the
-scenes on the shore of the sea of Tiberias, we find the Lord dealing
-very closely and very powerfully with the state of Peter's heart. We
-cannot attempt to expatiate, much as we should like to do so, on one
-of the most affecting interviews in the entire volume of God. We can
-do little more than quote the inspired record, but that is quite
-enough.
-
-It is deeply interesting to notice that there is no allusion--not the
-most remote--to past scenes, during that wonderful dinner, provided,
-cooked, and dispensed by the risen Lord! But "when they had dined,
-Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more
-than these?" Here Simon is recalled by the words of his faithful Lord
-to his self-confident profession. He had said, "Though all shall be
-offended, yet will not I." Then the searching question, three times
-repeated, evidently calls back the threefold denial.
-
-Peter's _heart_ is touched--the moral _root_ of the whole matter is
-reached. This was absolutely necessary in Peter's case, and it is
-absolutely necessary in every case. The work of restoration can never
-be thorough unless the roots of things are reached and judged. Mere
-surface work will never do. It is of no use to crop the sprouts; we
-must get down to the depths, the hidden springs, the moral sources,
-and judge them in the very light of the divine presence.
-
-This is the true secret of all genuine restoration. Let us ponder it
-deeply. We may rest assured it demands our most solemn consideration.
-We are all too apt to rest satisfied with cropping off the sprouts
-that appear above the surface of our practical daily life, without
-getting at the roots; and the sad consequence is that the sprouts
-quickly appear again, to our sorrow and shame, and the dishonor of our
-Lord's name. The work of self-judgment must be more profound if we
-would really make progress. We are terribly shallow, light, and
-flippant. We greatly lack depth, seriousness, and moral gravity. We
-want more of that heart-work which was wrought in Simon the son of
-Jonas on the shore of the sea of Tiberias. "Peter was grieved because
-He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?" The knife of the
-divine Operator had reached the root of the moral disease, and that
-was enough. It was needful, but it was enough; and the grieved and
-self-judged Simon Peter has only to fall back upon the great fact that
-his Lord knew all things. "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest
-that I love Thee." It is as though he had said, "Lord, it demands the
-eye of Omniscience itself to discern in the heart of the poor erring
-one a single spark of affection for Thee."
-
-Reader, this truly is real work. We have before us a thoroughly
-restored soul--restored in conscience, restored in heart. And if it be
-asked, "What remains?" the answer is, We see a servant
-
-
-RESTORED TO HIS WORK.
-
-Some would tell us that if a man falls, he can never recover his
-position; and no doubt, under _government_, we must reap as we sow.
-But _grace_ is another thing altogether. Government drove Adam out of
-Eden, and never replaced him there, but grace announced the victorious
-Seed of the woman. Government kept Moses out of Canaan, but grace
-conducted him to Pisgah's top. Government sent a perpetual sword upon
-David's house, but grace made the son of Bathsheba the wisest and
-wealthiest of Israel's kings.
-
-This distinction must never be lost sight of. To confound grace and
-government is to commit a very grave mistake indeed. We cannot attempt
-to enter upon this weighty subject here, having done so in one of our
-earlier volumes. But let the reader seek to understand it, and bear it
-ever in mind.
-
-As to Simon Peter, we not only see him restored to the work to which
-he was called at the first, but to something even higher. "Feed My
-lambs--shepherd My sheep"--is the new commission given to the man who
-had denied his Lord with an oath. Is not this something beyond
-"catching men?" "When thou art restored, strengthen thy brethren." Can
-anything in the way of service be more elevated than shepherding
-sheep, feeding lambs, and strengthening brethren? There is nothing in
-all this world nearer or dearer to the heart of Christ than His sheep,
-His lambs, His brethren: and hence He could not have given Simon Peter
-a more affecting proof of His confidence than by committing to his
-care the dearest objects of His deep and tender love.
-
-And then mark the closing words, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
-when thou wast _young_, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither
-thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be _old_, thou shalt stretch forth
-thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou
-wouldest not. This spake He, signifying by what death he should
-glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, FOLLOW
-ME."
-
-What weighty words are these! Who can tell their depth, power, and
-significance? What a contrast between Simon, "_young_," restless,
-forward, blundering, boastful, self-confident; and Peter, "_old_,"
-subdued, mellowed, passive, crucified! What a difference between a man
-walking whither he would, and a man following a rejected Lord along
-the dark and narrow pathway of the cross, home to glory!
-
-
-
-
-CONCLUSION.
-
-
-We could not close this series of papers without glancing, however
-cursorily, at the way in which our apostle discharged his various
-commissions. We see him "catching men;" opening the kingdom of heaven
-to the Jew and to the Gentile; and, finally, feeding and shepherding
-the lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ.
-
-Elevated services these, for any poor mortal to be called to, and more
-especially for one who had fallen so deeply as Simon Peter. But the
-remarkable power with which he was enabled to fulfil his blessed
-service proved beyond all question the reality and completeness of his
-restoration. If, at the close of the Gospels, we see Peter restored in
-heart and conscience, in the Acts and in his epistles we see him
-restored to his work.
-
-We cannot attempt to go into details; but a point or two must be
-briefly noticed. There is something uncommonly fine in Peter's address
-in the third chapter of Acts. We can only quote a sentence or two:
-"The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our
-fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and
-_denied Him_ in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let
-Him go. But _ye denied the Holy One and the Just_."
-
-What a splendid evidence we have here of Peter's complete restoration!
-It would have been utterly impossible for him to charge his audience
-with having denied the Holy One if his own soul had not been fully and
-blessedly restored. Alas! he, too, had denied his Lord; but he had
-repented, and wept bitterly. He had been down in the depths of
-self-judgment, just where he desired to see every one of his hearers.
-He had been face to face with his Lord, just where he longed to see
-them. He had been given to taste the sweetness, the freeness, the
-fulness, of the pardoning love of God, to prove the divine efficacy of
-the atonement and the prevalency of the advocacy of Christ. He was
-pardoned, healed, restored; and as such he stood in their presence a
-living and striking monument of that grace which he was unfolding to
-them, and which was amply sufficient for them as it had proved for
-him. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be
-blotted out."
-
-Who could more distinctly and emphatically utter such precious words
-than the erring, restored and forgiven Peter? If any one of his
-audience had ventured to remind the preacher of his own history, what
-would he have said in reply? Doubtless he would have had little to say
-about himself, but much, very much, to say about that rich and
-precious grace which had triumphed over all his sin and failure--much,
-very much, about that precious blood which had canceled forever all
-his guilt, and given perfect peace to his conscience--much, very much,
-about that all-prevailing advocacy to which he owed his full and
-perfect restoration.
-
-Peter was just the man to unfold to others those glorious themes in
-which he had so thoroughly learnt to find his strength, his comfort,
-and his joy. He had proved in no ordinary way the reality and
-stability of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was no mere empty
-theory, no mere doctrine or opinion, with him. It was all intensely
-real to him. His very life and salvation were bound up in it. He knew
-the heart of Christ in a very intimate way. He knew its infinite
-tenderness and compassion, its unswerving devotedness in the face of
-many stumbles, shortcomings, and sins; and hence he could bear the
-most distinct and powerful testimony to the whole house of Israel to
-the power of the name of Jesus, the efficacy of His blood, and the
-deep and infinite love of His heart. "His name, through faith in His
-name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith
-which is by Him hath given him _this perfect soundness_ in the
-presence of you all."
-
-What power in these words! How refreshing is the testimony to the
-peerless name of Jesus! It is perfectly delightful at all times, but
-specially so in this infidel day in which our lot is cast--a day so
-marked by the determined and persistent effort of the enemy to exclude
-the name of Jesus from every department.
-
-Look where you will, whether it be in the domain of science, of
-religion, of philanthropy, or moral reform, and you see the same
-sedulous and diligently pursued purpose to banish the name of Jesus.
-It is not said so in plain terms, but it is so nevertheless.
-Scientific men, the professors and lecturers in our universities, talk
-and write about "the forces of nature" and the facts of science in
-such a way as practically to exclude the Christ of God from the whole
-field of nature. Scripture tells us, blessed be God, that by the Son
-of His love "All things were created that are in heaven, and that are
-in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or
-principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him:
-and He is before all things, and _by Him all things consist_." And
-again, speaking of the Son, the inspiring Spirit says, "Who being the
-brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person, and
-_upholding all things by the word of His power_, when He had by
-Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
-high." (Col. i., Heb. i.)
-
-These passages lead us to the divine root of the matter. They speak
-not of "the forces of nature," but of the glory of Christ, the power
-of His hand, the virtue of His word. Infidelity would rob us of
-Christ, and give us, instead, "the forces of nature." We vastly prefer
-our own beloved Lord. We delight to see His name bound up,
-indissolubly, with creation in all its vast and marvelous fields. We
-vastly prefer the eternal record of the Holy Ghost to all the
-finely-spun theories of infidel professors. We rejoice to see the name
-of Jesus bound up in every department of religion and philanthropy. We
-shrink with ever-increasing horror from every system, every club,
-every order, every association, that dares to shut out the glorious
-name of Jesus from its schemes of religion and moral reform. We do
-solemnly declare that the religion, the philanthropy, the moral
-reform, which does not make the name of Jesus its Alpha and its Omega,
-is the religion, the philanthropy and the moral reform of hell. This
-may seem strong, severe, ultra, and narrow-minded, but it is our deep
-and thorough conviction, and we utter it fearlessly, in the presence
-of all the infidelity and superstition of the day.
-
-But we must return to our apostle's discourse, which has wakened up
-those glowing sentiments in the very depths of the soul.
-
-Having charged home their terrible sin upon the consciences of his
-hearers, he proceeds to apply the healing, soothing balm of the
-gospel, in words of marvelous power and sweetness: "And now, brethren,
-I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But
-those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His
-prophets that Christ should suffer, _He hath so fulfilled_." Nothing
-can exceed the grace of this. It recalls the words of Joseph to his
-troubled brethren: "It was not you that sent me hither, but God." Such
-is the exquisite grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, such the infinite
-love and goodness of our God.
-
-"Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
-out, when the time of refreshing shall come from (or by) the presence
-of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was
-preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of
-restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all
-His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the
-fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
-brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He
-shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which
-will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.
-Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as
-many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the
-children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our
-fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds
-of the earth be blessed. _Unto you first_ God, having raised up His
-Son Jesus, _sent Him to bless you_, in turning away every one of you
-from his iniquities."
-
-Thus did this dear and honored apostle, in the power of the Holy
-Ghost, throw wide open the kingdom of heaven to the Jews, in pursuance
-of his high commission as recorded in the sixteenth chapter of the
-Gospel of Matthew. It is what we may well call a splendid testimony,
-from first to last. Most gladly would we linger over it; but our
-limited space forbids. We can only commend it to the earnest study of
-the reader, and pass on, for a few moments, to the tenth chapter of
-Acts which records the opening of the kingdom to the Gentile.
-
-We assume that the reader understands the truth in reference to the
-keys of the kingdom of heaven being committed to Peter. We shall not
-therefore occupy his time or our own in combating the ignorant
-superstition which attributes to our apostle what we may rest assured
-he would have rejected with intense and holy horror, namely, the power
-to let souls into heaven. Detestable folly! which, while it
-obstinately refuses Christ, who is God's _only_ way to heaven, will
-blindly build upon some poor sinful mortal like ourselves who himself
-was a debtor to the sovereign grace of God and the precious blood of
-Christ for his entrance into the Church on earth and into heaven
-above.
-
-But enough of this. All intelligent Christians understand that the
-apostle Peter was commissioned, by his Lord and ours, to open the
-kingdom of heaven to both Jew and Gentile. To him were committed the
-keys, not of the Church, nor yet of heaven, but of "the kingdom of
-heaven;" and we find him using them in Acts iii. and x.
-
-But he was by no means so alert in taking up the latter as he was in
-taking up the former. Prejudice--that sad hindrance then, now, and
-always--stood in the way. He needed to have his mind enlarged to take
-in the divine purpose in respect to the Gentiles. To one trained amid
-the influences of the Jewish system, it seemed one thing to admit Jews
-into the kingdom, and quite another to admit Gentiles. Our apostle had
-to get further instruction in the school of Christ ere his mind could
-take in the "no difference" doctrine. "Ye know," he says to
-Cornelius, "how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew
-to keep company or come unto one of another nation." Thus had it been
-in days gone by; but now all was changed. The middle wall was broken
-down--the barriers were swept away; "God hath shewed me that I should
-not call any man common or unclean." He had seen, in a vessel which
-came from heaven, and returned thither, "_all manner_ of fourfooted
-beasts," and a voice from heaven had commanded him to slay and eat.
-This was something new to Simon Peter. It was a wonderful lesson he
-was called to learn on the housetop of Simon the tanner. He was there,
-for the first time, taught that "God is no respecter of persons," and
-that what God hath cleansed no man may call common.
-
-All this was good and healthful for the soul of our apostle. It was
-well to have his heart enlarged to take in the precious thoughts of
-God--to see the old barriers swept away before the magnificent tide of
-grace flowing from the heart of God over a lost world--to learn that
-the question of "clean" or "unclean" was no longer to be decided by an
-examination of hoofs and habits (Lev. xi.)--that the same precious
-blood of Christ which could cleanse a Jew could cleanse a Gentile
-also; and, moreover, that the former needed it just as much as the
-latter.
-
-This, we repeat, was most valuable instruction for the heart and
-understanding of Simon Peter; and if the reader wants to know how far
-he took it in and appreciated it, he has but to turn to Acts xv. and
-read the apostle's own commentary upon the matter. The Church had
-reached a solemn crisis. Judaizing teachers had begun their terrible
-work. They would fain bring the Gentile converts under the law. The
-occasion was intensely interesting and deeply important--yea, solemnly
-momentous. The very foundations were at stake. If the enemy could but
-succeed in bringing the Gentile believers under the law, all was gone.
-
-But, all praise to our ever-gracious God, He did not abandon His
-Church to the power or wiles of the adversary. When the enemy came in
-like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raised up a standard against him.
-A great meeting was convened--not in some obscure corner, but at
-Jerusalem, the very centre and source of all the religious influence
-of the moment--the very place, too, from whence the evil had emanated.
-God took care that the great question should not be decided at Antioch
-by Paul and Barnabas, but at Jerusalem itself, by the unanimous voice
-of the apostles, elders, and the whole Church, governed, guided and
-taught by God the Holy Ghost.
-
-At this great meeting our apostle delivered himself in a style that
-stirs the very deepest springs of our spiritual life. Hear his words:
-"And when there had been much disputing"--Alas! how soon the miserable
-disputing began--"Peter rose up and said unto them, Men, brethren, ye
-know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the
-Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
-And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the
-Holy Ghost even as He did unto us, and put _no difference between us
-and them_, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, _why tempt
-ye God_ to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our
-fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that by the grace of
-our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved _even as they_."
-
-This is morally grand. He does not say, "They shall be saved even as
-we." No; but "We shall be saved even as they"--on the same ground,
-after the same model, in the same way. The Jew comes down from his
-lofty dispensational position, only too thankful to be saved, just
-like the poor Gentile, by the precious grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-
-How those words of the apostle of the circumcision must have refreshed
-and delighted the heart of Paul as he sat at this never-to-be-forgotten
-meeting! Not that Paul sought in any way the countenance, the support,
-or authority of man. He had received his gospel and his commission,
-not from Peter, but from Peter's Lord; and from Him, too, not as the
-Messiah on earth, but as the risen and glorified Son of God in heaven.
-Still, we cannot doubt that the testimony of his beloved
-fellow-laborer was deeply interesting and cordially welcome to the
-apostle of the Gentiles. We can only say, Alas! alas! that there
-should have been aught in the after-course of that fellow-laborer in
-the smallest degree inconsistent with his splendid testimony at the
-conference. Alas! that Peter's conduct at Antioch should vary so much
-from his words at Jerusalem. See Gal. ii.
-
-But such is man, even the best of men, if left to himself. And the
-higher the man is, the more mischief he is sure to do if he makes a
-stumble. We shall not, however, dwell on the sad and painful scene at
-Antioch, between those two most excellent servants. They are both now
-in heaven, in the presence of their beloved Lord, where the
-remembrance of past failure and sin only enhances the value of that
-blood which cleanseth from all sin, and of that grace which reigns,
-through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.
-The Holy Ghost has thought proper to record the fact that our apostle
-failed in frankness and integrity at Antioch; and further, that the
-blessed apostle of the Gentiles had to withstand him to the face; but
-we are not going to expatiate upon it. We would profit by it, as well
-we may, for it is full of deep instruction and solemn warning. If such
-a one as the apostle Peter, after all his experience, his fall and
-restoration, his long course of service, his intimate acquaintance
-with the heart of Christ, all the instruction he had received, all his
-gifts and knowledge, all his powerful preaching and teaching--if such
-a one as this could, after all, dissemble through fear of man, or to
-hold a place in man's esteem, what shall we say for ourselves? Simply
-this:
-
-    "O Lamb of God, still keep me close to Thy pierced side;
-    'Tis only there in safety and peace I can abide.
-    When foes and snares surround me, when lusts and fears within,
-    The grace that sought and found me, alone can keep me clean."
-
-May the Lord greatly bless to our souls our meditation on the history
-of Simon Peter! May his life and its lessons be used of the Holy Ghost
-to deepen in our souls the sense of our own utter weakness and of the
-matchless grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-
-
-
-
-CHRISTIAN PERFECTION:
-
-WHAT IS IT?
-
-
-There are few thoughtful students of the New Testament who have not,
-at some time or another, felt a little perplexed as to the real force
-and application of the word "perfect," which is of frequent
-occurrence. This word is used in such a variety of connections that it
-is deeply important we should be clear as to what the Holy Ghost means
-by it in each particular case. We believe the context will, generally
-speaking, guide as to a right understanding of the just sense and
-application of the word in any given passage. We are aware that the
-subject of "Christian Perfection" has given rise to much theological
-strife and controversy; but we must at the outset assure our readers
-that it is not by any means our intention to take up the question in a
-controversial way; we shall merely seek to bring under their notice
-the various passages in the New Testament in which the word "perfect"
-occurs, or at least some of the leading instances of its use, trusting
-the Lord to use what He may give us to write, for the glory of His
-name and the profit of those precious souls for whom we ever desire to
-write. We shall not trace the word in the order in which it occurs,
-but rather in that order which the real need of the soul would
-naturally suggest. In this way we shall find that the first great
-aspect of Christian perfection is presented to us in the ninth verse
-of the ninth chapter of Hebrews, and may be denominated
-
-
-PERFECTION AS TO THE STATE OF THE CONSCIENCE.
-
-"Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered
-both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the
-service _perfect_ ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}) as pertaining to the
-conscience." The apostle, in this passage, is drawing a contrast
-between the sacrifices under the Mosaic economy, and the sacrifice of
-Christ. The former could never give a perfect conscience, simply
-because they were imperfect in themselves. It was impossible that the
-blood of a bullock or of a goat could ever give a perfect conscience.
-Hence, therefore, the conscience of a Jewish worshiper was never
-perfect. He had not, if we may use the expression, reached his moral
-end as to the condition of his conscience. He could never say that his
-conscience was perfectly purged, because he had not yet reached a
-perfect sacrifice.
-
-With the Christian worshiper, however, it is different. He has,
-blessed be God, reached his moral end. He has arrived at a point, so
-far as the state of his conscience is concerned, beyond which it is
-utterly impossible for him to go. He cannot get beyond the blood of
-Jesus Christ. He is perfect as to his conscience. As is the sacrifice,
-so is the conscience that rests thereon. If the sacrifice is
-imperfect, so is the conscience. They stand or fall together. Nothing
-can be simpler, nothing more solid, nothing more consolatory, for any
-awakened conscience. It is not at all a question of what I am; _that_
-has been fully and forever settled. I have been found out, judged, and
-condemned in myself. "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good." I
-have got to the end of myself, and there I have reached the blood of
-Christ. I want no more. What could be added to that most precious
-blood? Nothing. I am perfect, as to the state of my conscience. I do
-not want an ordinance, a sacrament, or a ceremony, to perfect the
-condition of my conscience. To say so, to think so, would be to cast
-dishonor upon the sacrifice of the Son of God.
-
-The reader will do well to get a clear and firm hold of this
-foundation-point. If there be any darkness or uncertainty as to this,
-he will be wholly unable to understand or appreciate the various
-aspects of "Christian Perfection" which are yet to pass in review
-before us. It is quite possible that many pious people fail to enjoy
-the unspeakable blessing of a perfect conscience by reason of
-self-occupation. They look in at self, and not finding aught there to
-rest upon--who ever did?--they deem it presumption to think of being
-perfect in any respect whatever. This is a mistake. It may be a pious
-mistake, but it is a mistake. Were we to speak of perfection in the
-flesh (what many, alas, are vainly aiming at), then, verily, true
-piety might recoil with just horror from the presumptuous and silly
-chimera. But, thank God, our theme is not perfection in the flesh,
-through any process of improvement, moral, social, or religious. This
-would be poor, dreary, depressing work indeed. It would be setting us
-to look for perfection in the old creation, where sin and death reign.
-To look for perfection amid the dust of the old creation were a
-hopeless task. And yet how many are thus engaged! They are seeking to
-_improve man and mend the world_; and yet, with all this, they have
-never reached, never understood--yea, they actually deny--the very
-first and simplest aspect of Christian perfection, namely, perfection
-as to the state of the conscience in the presence of God.
-
-This latter is our thesis, and we want the anxious reader to
-understand it in its simplicity, in order that he may see the solid
-foundation of his peace laid down by the very hand of God Himself. We
-want him, ere he lays aside this paper, to enter into the joyful sense
-of sins perfectly forgiven, and his conscience perfectly purged by the
-blood of Jesus. The entire matter hinges upon the question of the
-sacrifice. What has God found in that sacrifice? Perfection. Well,
-then, that perfection is for you, anxious one, and you should at once
-and forever enjoy it. Remember, it is not a question as to what you
-are, nor yet as to what you think about the blood of Christ. No, dear
-friend: the question is, What does God think about the blood of His
-own Son? This makes all so clear. Say, is it clear to you? Can you now
-rest in it? Is your conscience set free by being brought in contact
-with a perfect sacrifice? Oh that it may be so! May God's Spirit now
-show you the fulness and perfectness of Christ's atoning work with
-such clearness, vividness and power that your whole being may be
-emancipated, and your heart filled with praise and thanksgiving!
-
-It makes the heart bleed to think of the thousands of precious souls
-kept in darkness and bondage when they ought to be walking in the
-light and liberty which flow from a perfectly purged conscience. So
-many things are mixed up with the simple testimony of the Word and
-Spirit of God as to the value of Christ's work that it is wholly
-impossible for the heart to get liberated. You will get a little bit
-of Christ, and a little bit of self; a little bit of grace, and a
-little bit of law; a little bit of faith, and a little bit of works.
-Thus the soul is kept hovering between confidence and doubt, hope and
-fear, just as one or other of the ingredients predominates in the
-mixture, or happens to be tasted at the moment. How rare is the gem of
-full, free, present, and eternal salvation! We would fain cause that
-gem to sparkle in all its divine and heavenly lustre under the gaze of
-the reader at this moment. Then shall the chains of his spiritual
-bondage drop off. If the Son shall make him free he shall be free
-indeed, and thus be able to rise in the power of this freedom and
-trample the legal system beneath his feet.
-
-The more we ponder the question now before us--and we have pondered it
-a good deal--the more we are convinced that the true secret of all
-the error, confusion and perplexity in which so many are involved in
-reference to it will be found in the fact that they do not clearly
-understand death and resurrection--the new birth--the new creation.
-Were this grand truth only laid hold of in power it would make all
-clear as to the state of the conscience. So long as I am seeking to
-tranquilize my conscience by efforts after self-improvement, so long I
-must be either miserable or self-deceived. It does not matter in the
-least what means I adopt in carrying on the process; the issue must be
-one and the same. If I attempt to take up the profession of
-Christianity for the purpose of bettering _self_--improving nature or
-mending my condition in the old creation--I must be a total stranger
-to the bliss of a perfect conscience. "All flesh is as grass." The old
-creation lies under the withering influences of sin and its curse. A
-risen Christ is the Head of the new creation--"the beginning of the
-creation of God"--"the first-begotten from among the dead" ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}
-{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}).
-
-Here in very deed is perfection for the conscience. What more do I
-want? I see the One who hung upon the cross, charged with the full
-weight of all my sins, now crowned with glory and honor at the right
-hand of God, amid the full blaze of heaven's majesty. What can be
-added to this? Do I want ordinances, rites, ceremonies, or sacraments?
-Surely not. I dare not add aught to the death and resurrection of the
-eternal Son of God. The ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper
-symbolize and celebrate that grand reality; and, so far, they are
-precious to the Christian--most precious. But when, instead of being
-used to symbolize and celebrate death and resurrection, they are used
-to displace it,--used as patches upon the old creation, as crutches
-for the old man,--they must be regarded as a snare, a curse, from
-which may the Lord deliver the souls of His people!
-
-We would fain dwell upon this our first point because of its immense
-importance in this day of ordinances, traditionary religion, and
-self-improvement. We should like to ponder it--to elaborate,
-illustrate and enforce it--in order that the reader may get a clear,
-full, bold grasp of it. But we look to God the Holy Ghost to do His
-own work in this matter; and if He will graciously bring the heart
-under the power of the truth which has been so feebly unfolded, then
-indeed will there be both ability and leisure to look at the second
-great aspect of Christian perfection, namely,
-
-
-PERFECTION AS TO THE OBJECT OF THE HEART.
-
-Here, again, we are ushered into the new creation. Christ died to give
-me a perfect conscience. He lives to give me a perfect object. But it
-is very clear that until I have tasted the deep blessedness of the
-former, I can never be properly occupied with the latter. I must have
-a perfect conscience ere my heart can be at leisure to go out after
-the person of Christ. How few of us really taste the sweetness of
-communion with a risen Christ! How little do any of us know of that
-fixedness of heart upon Him as our one paramount, engrossing,
-undivided object! We are occupied with our own things. The world
-creeps in, in one way or another; we live in the region of nature; we
-breathe the atmosphere--the dark, heavy, murky atmosphere--of the old
-creation; self is indulged; and thus our spiritual vision becomes
-dimmed, we lose our sense of peace, the soul becomes disturbed, the
-heart unhinged, the Holy Ghost grieved, the conscience exercised. Then
-the eye is turned in upon self and back upon its actings. The time
-that else might be spent in holy and happy occupation with our Object
-is, and must be, devoted to the business of self-judgment--heavy, but
-needed work!--in order to get back into the enjoyment of what we
-should never have lost, even a perfect conscience.
-
-Now, the moment the eye is turned off from Christ darkness must set
-in--ofttimes darkness that may be felt. It is only as the eye is
-single that the body is full of light. And what, beloved reader, is a
-single eye but having Christ for our one object? It is thus that light
-divine pours in upon us, until every chamber of our moral being
-becomes lighted up, and we become lights for others, "as when the
-bright shining of a candle doth give thee light." In this way the soul
-is kept happily free from obscurity, perplexity, and anxiety. It finds
-all its springs in Christ. It is independent of the world, and can
-move on, singing--
-
-    "Salvation in that name is found,
-      Cure for my grief and care;
-    A healing balm for every wound:
-      All, all I want is there."
-
-It is impossible for words to convey the power and blessedness of
-having Jesus ever before the heart as an object. It is perfection, as
-we have it in Philippians iii. 15, where the apostle says, "Let us
-therefore, as many as be _perfect_ ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}), be thus minded:
-and if in anything ye be differently minded ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}), God
-shall reveal even this unto you." When Christ stands before the heart
-as our absorbing and satisfying object, we have reached our moral end
-so far as an object is concerned; for how can we ever get beyond the
-person of Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
-bodily, and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge?
-Impossible. We cannot get beyond the blood of Christ, for the
-conscience; neither can we get beyond the person of Christ, for the
-heart; we have therefore reached our moral end in both; we have
-perfection as to the state of the conscience, and as to the object of
-the heart.
-
-Here, then, we have both peace and power--peace for the conscience,
-and power over the affections. It is when the conscience finds sweet
-repose in the blood that the emancipated affections can go forth and
-find their full play around the person of Jesus. And oh, what tongue
-can tell, what pen unfold, the mighty moral results of gazing upon
-Christ? "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" (2 Cor. iii. 18). Observe,
-"_Beholding ... are changed_." There is no legal bondage--no restless
-effort--no anxious toiling. We gaze, and gaze, and--what then?
-Continue to gaze, and as we gaze we become morally assimilated to the
-blessed Object, through the transforming power of the Holy Ghost. The
-image of Christ is engraved upon the heart, and reflected back in ten
-thousand ways in our practical career, from day to day.
-
-Reader, remember, this is the only true idea of Christianity. It is
-one thing to be a religious man, it is quite another to be a
-Christian. Paul was a religious man before his conversion; but he was
-a Christian afterwards. It is well to see this. There is plenty of
-religion in the world, but, alas, how little Christianity! And why?
-Simply because Christ is not known, not loved, not cared for, not
-sought after. And even where His work is looked to for salvation--where
-His blood is trusted for pardon and peace--how little is known or
-thought of Himself! We are ready enough to take salvation through the
-death of Jesus, but oh, beloved reader, how far off do we keep from
-His blessed Person! How little does He get His true place in our
-hearts! This is a serious loss. Indeed, we cannot but believe that the
-pale, flickering light of modern profession is the fruit of habitual
-distance from Christ, the central sun of Christianity. How can there
-possibly be light, heat, or fruitfulness, if we wander amid the gloomy
-vaults and dark tunnels of this world's pleasures, its politics, or
-its religion? It is vain to expect it. And even where we make
-salvation our object--when we are occupied with our spiritual
-condition, feeding upon our experiences and looking after our frames
-and feelings--we must become weak and low, inasmuch as these things
-are certainly not Christ.
-
-There are many who, as we say, have retired from the world, have given
-up its balls, its parties, its theatres, its exhibitions, its
-concerts, its flower shows, its numberless and nameless vanities, who,
-nevertheless, have not found their object in a risen and glorified
-Christ. They have retired from the world, but have gone in upon
-themselves. They are seeking an object _in their religion_; they are
-engrossed with forms of pietism; they are feeding upon the workings of
-a morbid conscience or a superstitious mind; or they are trafficking
-in the experience of yesterday. Now, these persons are just as far
-from happiness--as far from the true idea of Christianity, as the poor
-pleasure-hunters of this world. It is quite possible to give up
-pleasure-hunting and become a religious mope--a morbid, melancholy
-mystic--a spiritual hypochondriac. What do I gain by the change?
-Nothing; unless, indeed, it be a vast amount of self-deception. I have
-retired from the world around, to find an object in the world
-within--a poor exchange!
-
-How different is this from the true Christian! There he stands, with
-a tranquilized conscience and an emancipated heart, gazing upon an
-Object that absorbs his whole soul. He wants no more. Talk to him
-about this world's pleasure? Ask him, has he been to this or that
-Exhibition? What is his calm and dignified reply? Will he merely tell
-you of the sin, the harm, of such things? Nay; what then? "I have
-found my _all_ in Christ. I have reached my moral end. I want no
-more." This is the Christian's reply. It is a poor affair when we come
-to talk of the harm of this or that. It often happens that persons who
-speak thus are occupied, not with Christ, but with their own
-reputation, their character, their consistency with themselves. Of
-what use is all this? Is it not self-occupation, after all? What we
-want is to keep the eye fixed on Christ; then the heart will follow
-the eye, and the feet will follow the heart. In this way our path will
-be as the shining light, shining more and more until it becomes lost
-in the blaze of the perfect and everlasting day of glory.
-
-May God, in His infinite mercy, grant to the writer and reader of
-these pages to know more of what it is to have reached our moral end,
-both as to the state of the conscience and as to the object of the
-heart!
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-In considering the subject of Christian perfection, it might seem
-sufficient to say that the believer is perfect in a risen Christ:
-"Complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power."
-This, surely, comprehends everything. Nothing can be added to the
-completeness which we have in Christ. All this is blessedly true; but
-does it not still hold good that the inspired writers use the word
-"perfect" in various ways? And is it not important that we should
-understand the sense in which the word is used? This, we presume, will
-hardly be questioned. We cannot suppose for a moment that any
-thoughtful reader of Scripture would be satisfied to dismiss the
-matter without prayerfully seeking to understand the exact force and
-just application of the word in each particular passage in which it
-occurs. It is plain that the word "perfect" in Heb. ix. 9 is not
-applied in the same way as it is in Phil. iii. 15. And is it not
-right--is it not profitable--is it not due to our own souls and to the
-sacred volume--to seek, through grace, to understand the difference?
-For our part, we cannot question it; and in this confidence we can
-happily pursue our examination of the subject of Christian perfection
-by calling the reader's attention, in the third place, to
-
-
-PERFECTION IN THE PRINCIPLE OF OUR WALK.
-
-This is unfolded to us in Matt. v. 48: "Be ye therefore perfect
-({~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}), even as your Father which is in heaven is
-perfect." "How," it may be asked, "can we be perfect as our Father
-which is in heaven? How can we reach to such an elevated point as
-this? How can we attain to so lofty a standard? We can understand our
-being perfect as to the conscience, inasmuch as this perfection is
-based upon what Christ has done for us. And we can also understand
-our being perfect as to the object of the heart, inasmuch as this
-perfection is based upon what Christ is to us. But to be perfect as
-our Father in heaven seems entirely beyond us." To all this it may be
-said that our blessed Lord does not ask us to do impossibilities. He
-never issues a command without furnishing the needed grace to carry it
-out. Hence, therefore, when He calls upon us to be perfect as our
-Father, it is plain that He confers upon us a holy privilege, that He
-invests us with a high dignity, and it is our place to seek to
-understand and appropriate both the one and the other.
-
-What, then, is meant by our being perfect as our Father in heaven? The
-context of Matt. v. 48 furnishes the answer: "But I say unto you, Love
-your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
-you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you;
-that ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}) ye may be the sons ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}) of your Father which is in
-heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
-sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.... Be ye therefore perfect,
-even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
-
-Here we have a lovely phase of Christian perfection, namely,
-perfection in the principle of our walk. We are called to walk in
-grace toward all, and in so doing to be imitators of God as dear
-children. Our Father sends His sunshine and His showers even upon His
-enemies. He deals in grace with all. This is our model. Are we formed
-upon it? Reader, search and see. Are you perfect in the principle of
-your walk? Are you dealing in grace with your enemies and those who
-are in your debt? Are you demanding your rights? Are you, in
-principle, taking your fellow by the throat, and saying, "Pay me that
-thou owest?" If so, you are not "perfect as your Father." He is
-dealing in grace, and you are dealing in righteousness. Were He to act
-as you are acting, the day of grace would close, and the day of
-vengeance open. Had He dealt with you as you are now dealing with
-others, you should long since have been in that place where hope is
-unknown.
-
-Let us ponder this. Let us see to it that we are not misrepresenting
-our heavenly Father. Let us aim at perfection in the principle of our
-daily walk. It will cost us something. It may empty the purse, but it
-will fill the heart; it may contract our pecuniary resources, but it
-will enlarge our spiritual circle. It will bring us into closer
-contact and deeper fellowship with our heavenly Father. Is not this
-worth something? Truly it is. Would that we felt its worth more
-deeply! Would that we felt more of the dignity conferred upon us in
-our being called to represent, in this evil, selfish, dark world, our
-heavenly Father, who pours in rich profusion His blessings upon the
-unthankful and the unholy. There is no use in preaching grace if we do
-not act it. It is of little avail to speak of God's dealing in
-long-suffering mercy if we are dealing in high-handed justice.
-
-But, it may be said by some, "How ever could we carry out such a
-principle? We should be robbed and ruined. How could business be
-carried on if we are not to enforce our rights? We should be imposed
-upon and plundered by the unprincipled and the designing." This is not
-the mode in which to arrive at a just conclusion on our point. An
-obedient disciple never says, "How?" The question is, "Does the Lord
-Jesus call upon me to be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect?"
-Assuredly. Well, then, am I aiming at this when I summon my
-fellow-creature to a bar of justice? Is this like my Father? Is this
-what He is doing? No; blessed be His name! He is on a throne of grace.
-He is reconciling the world. He is not imputing trespasses. This is
-plain enough. It only needs full subjection of heart. Let us bow our
-souls beneath the weight of this most glorious truth. May we gaze upon
-this most lovely aspect of Christian perfection, and seek to aim at
-the attainment of it. If we pause to reason about results, we shall
-never reach the truth. What we want is, that moral condition of soul
-that fully owns the power and authority of the Word. Then, though
-there may be failure in detail, we have always a touchstone by which
-to test our ways, and a standard to which to recall the heart and
-conscience. But if we reason and argue--if we deny that it is our
-privilege to be perfect in the sense of Matt. v. 48--if we justify our
-going to _law_ when our Father is not going to law, but acting in the
-most unqualified _grace_, we deprive ourselves of that perfect model
-on which our character and ways should ever be formed.
-
-May God the Holy Spirit enable us to understand, to submit to, and
-carry out in practical life, this perfect principle! It is most
-lamentable to see the children of God adopting in daily life a course
-of acting the direct opposite of that adopted by their heavenly
-Father. We ought to remember that we are called to be His moral
-representatives. We are His children by spiritual regeneration, but we
-are called to be His sons in moral assimilation to His character and
-practical conformity to His ways. "Do good to them that hate you ...
-_that ye may be_ the sons of your Father which is in heaven." Striking
-words! In order to our being morally and characteristically the sons
-of God, we are called to do good to our enemies. This is what He does,
-and we are called to be like Him. Alas, how little we enter into this!
-How unlike we are! Oh for a more faithful representation!
-
-Time and space would fail us to dwell, as we should like to do, upon
-this deeply practical part of our subject; we must therefore pass on,
-in the fourth place, to the consideration of
-
-
-PERFECTION IN THE CHARACTER OF OUR SERVICE.
-
-"I have not found thy works perfect ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}) before God"
-(Rev. iii. 2). The English reader should be informed that the word
-here rendered "perfect" is not the same as that used in the three
-passages already referred to. It is usually translated "fulfilled"--
-"finished"--"accomplished." Its use in reference to the works of the
-Church of Sardis teaches us a deeply solemn and heart-searching
-lesson. There was a name to live; but the works were not fulfilled
-under the immediate eye of God. There is nothing more dangerous to a
-Christian than to have "_a name_." It is a positive snare of the
-devil. Many a professor has fallen by means of being occupied with a
-name. Many a useful servant has been destroyed by the effort to keep
-up a name. If I have gotten a reputation in any department of
-service--as an active evangelist--a gifted teacher--a clear and
-attractive writer--a man of prayer--a man of faith--a person of
-remarkable sanctity, or great personal devotedness--a benevolent
-person--a name for anything, in short--I am in imminent danger of
-making shipwreck. The enemy will lead me to make my reputation my
-object instead of Christ. I shall be working to keep up a name instead
-of the glory of Christ. I shall be occupied with the thoughts of men
-instead of doing all my work under the immediate eye of God.
-
-All this demands intense watchfulness and rigid censorship over
-myself. I may be doing the most excellent works, but if they are not
-fulfilled in the presence of God they will prove a positive snare of
-the devil. I may preach the gospel--visit the sick--help the poor--go
-through the entire range of religious activity--and never be in the
-presence of God at all. I may do it for a name--do it because others
-do it, or expect me to do it. This is very serious, beloved reader.
-It demands real prayer--self-emptiness--nearness to and dependence
-upon God--singleness of eye--holy consecration to Christ. Self
-continually intrudes upon us. Oh this self, self, self, even in the
-very holiest things; and all the while we may appear to be very active
-and very devoted. Miserable delusion! We know of nothing more terrible
-than to have a religious name without spiritual life, without Christ,
-without a sense of God's presence possessing the soul.
-
-Reader, let us look closely into this. Let us see that we begin,
-continue, and end our work under the Master's eye. This will impart a
-purity and a moral elevation to our service beyond all price. It will
-not cripple our energy, but it will tend to raise and intensify our
-action. It will not clip our wings, but it will guide our movements.
-It will render us independent of the thoughts of men, and fully
-deliver us from the slavery of seeking to maintain a name, or keep up
-a reputation--miserable, degrading bondage! May the good Lord grant us
-full deliverance from it! May He give us grace to fulfil our works,
-whatever they may be, few or many, small or great, in His own blessed
-presence!
-
-Having said thus much in reference to the _character_ of our service,
-we shall close with a few lines on
-
-
-PERFECTION IN OUR EQUIPMENT FOR SERVICE.
-
-"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
-doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
-righteousness: that the man of God may be _perfect_ ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~})
-thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. iii. 16,
-17). Here, again, we have a different word, and one which only occurs
-in this one place in the entire New Testament. It is most expressive.
-It signifies _present readiness_ for any exigence. The man who is
-acquainted with, and subject to the word of God, is ready for every
-emergency. He has no need to go and cram for an occasion--to consult
-his authorities--to make himself up on a point. He is _ready now_. If
-an anxious inquirer comes, he is ready; if a curious inquirer comes,
-he is ready; if a skeptic comes, he is ready; if an infidel comes, he
-is ready. In a word, he is always ready. He is perfectly equipped for
-every occasion.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The Lord be praised for all these aspects of Christian perfection!
-What more do we want? Perfection as to the conscience; perfection in
-object; perfection in walk; perfection in the character of service;
-perfection in our equipment. What remains? What wait we for? Just
-this--perfection in glory--perfect conformity in spirit, and soul, and
-body, to the image of our glorified Head in heaven!
-
-May the Lord so work on our hearts by His Spirit, producing that which
-is well-pleasing in His sight, that we may stand "perfect and complete
-in all the will of God!"
-
-                                                            C. H. M.
-
-
-
-
-THE TRIBE OF LEVI ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THEIR FAMILIES.
-
-
-  First Class.
-
-  GERSHON, meaning,        _A stranger, or exile_.
-
-  LAEL        "            _Dedicated, or belonging to God_.
-
-  ELIASAPH    "            _God hath added_.
-
-  SHIMEI      "            _Renowned_.
-
-  LIBNI       "            _White_.
-
-
-Second Class.
-
-  KOHATH      "            _Assembly_.
-
-  HEBRON      "            _Association, communion_.
-
-  AMRAM       "            _Exalted people, or of the exalted One_.
-
-  IZHAR       "            _Oil_.
-
-  UZZIEL      "            _The strength of God_.
-
-
-Third Class.
-
-  MERARI      "            _Bitter_.
-
-  MAHLI       "            _Sick, sickly_.
-
-  MUSHI       "            _Yielding, forsaking_.
-
-  ABIHAIL     "            _Father of strength_.
-
-  ZURIEL      "            _My rock is God_.
-
-
-
-
-THE HISTORY OF THE TRIBE OF LEVI CONSIDERED
-
-
-There are few exercises more profitable for the Christian than that of
-reflecting upon the character of God as unfolded in the history of the
-saints and fathers of ancient times recorded in the scriptures of the
-Old Testament: and indeed this might be expected from the very nature
-of the subject, which is such that, whatever be its extent, it unfolds
-principles to us which stand intimately connected with all that is
-important for us to know or be established in. Thus, whether we get
-the dealings of God on a limited scale, as with any one of the fathers
-_personally_, or more widely extended, as with the seed of Israel
-afterwards, it is nevertheless the same lesson we are called upon to
-learn, namely, _God and man_. Now, this is what should enhance
-exceedingly the value of the Old Testament to the Christian; almost
-the great body of its teaching is of the above character: and not only
-so, but it also (as looked at in this point of view) guards
-effectually against the mere exercise of imagination; for when we
-consider the history of any man or people, it is not necessary that we
-should decide positively what is _shadowed out_ therein;[5] it is
-enough for us to see that we have before us a more or less extensive
-development of the character and actings of God and man; and this,
-without ever descending beneath the surface of Scripture, cannot fail
-of being instructive and edifying to the soul.
-
-  [5] In many of the Old Testament narratives, however, the instruction
-  is so manifestly typical that even the most cautious reader, if at all
-  familiar with Scripture, cannot refuse to look at it in that point of
-  view.
-
-But, of all the histories of the Old Testament embodying instruction
-of the above character, I believe there are few more copious, deep and
-varied than that which is about to engage our attention. If the
-narrative of a soul taken up by sovereign and eternal grace from the
-pit of corruption and deep depravity, carried through the various
-stages which grace and truth had enacted for sinful man, until at last
-he is set down in the very sanctuary of God and established in the
-enjoyment of the covenant of life and peace forever; if, I say, such a
-narrative would possess charms and present attractions to us, then
-does the history of Levi abound in this. It is only a matter of
-astonishment that a history fraught with such rich and varied
-instruction has not occupied more of the thoughts of those luminaries
-of the Church whose writings have been a source of comfort and
-instruction to all who have been taught to value the truth of God.
-
-Yet, much as I see in the history of Levi, and much as I admire what I
-do see, I could not think of directing the reader's thoughts to the
-subject without informing him that I purpose doing little more than to
-bring before his mind in a connected way the various scriptures which
-treat of this most interesting question; however, these scriptures are
-so plain and striking that no one who is at all familiar with
-Scripture truths can fail to enter into them. Now, as I purpose, with
-the Lord's blessing and grace, to follow the history of Levi through
-all the scriptures in which it is brought before us, I will commence
-with
-
-     HIS BIRTH,
-
-     As recorded in GENESIS xxix. 34.
-
-     "And she (Leah) conceived again, and bare a son: and said,
-     Now this time will my husband be _joined_ unto me, because I
-     have borne him three sons: therefore was his name called
-     Levi" (that is, 'joined;' see margin).
-
-Here, then, we are presented with the birth and name of this most
-remarkable character--a name of wondrous significance as looked at in
-connection with his after history, whether in nature's wild and
-lawless extravagance, in which we find him "_joined_" with his brother
-in the perpetration of a deed of blood and murder (Gen. xxxiv.), or in
-the day when he was called to drink deeply and largely of the cup of
-God's electing grace, when "_joined_" with Aaron in "the work of the
-tabernacle" (Num. viii.).
-
-     GENESIS xxxiv. 25, 26.
-
-     "And it came to pass on _the third day_, when they were
-     sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi,
-     Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the
-     city boldly, and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor
-     and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took
-     Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out."
-
-As the Spirit of God in Jacob has furnished us with a striking
-commentary on the above piece of cruelty, we will consider the
-scripture in which the commentary is given, namely:
-
-     GENESIS xlix. 5-7.
-
-     "Simeon and Levi _are brethren_; instruments of cruelty are
-     in their habitations. O my soul, _come not thou into their
-     secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou
-     united_: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their
-     self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger,
-     for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel; _I
-     will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel_."
-
-We have here a truly humbling view of human nature as looked at in the
-light of the holiness of God. It is as if the Lord would say to us,
-Look here! behold a man clothed in nature's blackest garb, and
-presenting nature's most forbidding aspect. Examine him closely, in
-order that you, seeing what _man is_ when stripped of all that false
-clothing which ignorance or vain self-righteousness would put upon
-him, may know the rich aboundings of My grace, which can avail to lift
-even such a one into the loftiest heights of communion--heights which
-human conception would utterly fail to mount, but which My grace,
-through the blood of the cross, can make available to the very chief
-of sinners.
-
-In reading such a description as that which the above passage presents
-to us, how needful it is for the sinner to bear in mind that it is
-not only in the light of _God's holiness_ that he is called to look at
-himself, but also in the light of _His grace_. When this is learned he
-needs not be afraid to penetrate deeply into the dark recesses of his
-heart's corruption; for if God in grace _fill_ the scene, the sinner
-(so far as his own righteousness is concerned) must necessarily be
-_out_ of the scene; and then it is no longer a question of what _we_
-think about sin, but how _God_ will deal with it in grace, and that is
-simply to put it away forever--yea, to bury it forever in the waters
-of His forgetfulness: thus it will be placing _our sin_ side by side
-with _God's grace_; which is what the gospel invites us to do, and
-which, moreover, is the only way to arrive at a proper settlement of
-the question of sin. On the other hand, where this saving principle is
-not known--not believed--the sinner will undoubtedly seek to make the
-load of his guilt as light as possible, in order that he may have as
-little to do as he may. This will ever lead to the most unutterable
-and intolerable bondage; or if not to this, to that which is much
-worse, even to detestable religious pride, which is of all things most
-truly abominable in the sight of God.
-
-Reader, if you have not as yet got the question of sin settled between
-your conscience and God, ponder, I do beseech you, what I have now
-stated; for to know this principle in spirit is life eternal. Christ
-has, _once for all_, borne sin's deepest curse in His own body on the
-tree, and now even _Levi_ can lift up his head; for although he be by
-nature only conversant with "_instruments of cruelty_," things which
-must have kept God forever at a distance from "his secret and his
-assembly;" although he be by nature _cruel_, _fierce_, _self-willed_,
-_scattered_, _and divided_, yet God can, in the exercise of His mercy,
-make him conversant with "the instruments of the tabernacle," bring
-him into the enjoyment of the covenant of _life_ and _peace, in union_
-with the great head of the priestly family, and, in the power of this
-blessed union, cause him to have his "_lights and perfections with his
-Holy One_" (Deut. xxxiii. 8; Mal. ii. 4, 5). However, we must not
-anticipate the teaching of passages which are yet to come under our
-notice; I will therefore close my remarks on this part of our subject
-by requesting my reader to compare attentively the character of Levi,
-as above recorded, with that which the apostle Paul, quoting from the
-Psalms, has given of man generally, whether Jew or Gentile: "There is
-_none_ righteous, no, not one; there is _none_ that understandeth,
-there is _none_ that seeketh after God. They are _all_ gone out of the
-way, they are _together_ become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
-good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their
-tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips,
-whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: _their_ FEET ARE SWIFT
-TO SHED BLOOD: _destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way
-of peace have they not known_: there is no fear of God before their
-eyes" (Rom. iii. 10-18).
-
-     EXODUS xxxii. 25-29.
-
-     "And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron
-     had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
-     then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is
-     on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons
-     of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said
-     unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man
-     his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate
-     throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and
-     every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the
-     children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and
-     there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
-     For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to-day to the
-     Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother;
-     that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day."
-
-Here a new scene opens to us, and we are called to witness the dawning
-of a new day upon Levi; a day, moreover, which may justly lead us to
-anticipate great things. It is true we get him here likewise with his
-sword by his side, but, oh, for what a different purpose, and in what
-a different cause! It is not now in anger and self-will slaying a man,
-but in holy jealousy and care for the honor of the Lord God of Israel,
-and in simple obedience to His command; and although this may, and
-will, lead to the very cutting off of a brother, a son, or a friend,
-Levi cares not; for the word is, "Consecrate yourselves to the Lord,
-that He may bestow upon you a blessing." This was enough for Levi; and
-although by nature he was vile and utterly unfit either for the
-fellowship or service of God, yet is he now the foremost in jealous
-vindication of His holy name and worship against those who would seek
-to "turn their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass."
-Nor is Levi now seen "_joined_" with his brother Simeon--no, he might
-join in league with him in the days of his wickedness for the
-perpetration of deeds of blood; but here, as I before observed, we get
-the opening of a new scene, and therefore he is seen "joined" with the
-Lord and His servant Moses for the execution of righteous judgment
-upon idolatry.
-
-And henceforth, in following the footsteps of Levi, we shall find
-that, instead of being "swift to shed blood," they are to be "swift"
-in following the movements of the cloud, and "swift" in performing the
-service of the tabernacle.
-
-It would, of course, be quite foreign to our subject to dwell upon the
-sad and humbling scene that called out the above act of service on the
-part of Levi. Suffice it to say that it was, as we know, on the part
-of Aaron and the camp, a ceasing to exercise faith in the fact that
-Moses was _alive_ in the presence of God for them. The consequence of
-which was an entire forgetfulness of the mighty Hand and stretched out
-Arm that had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and of their
-present position _in the wilderness_; hence, as might be expected,
-"the people _sat down to eat and drink_ and rose up to play." May the
-Lord preserve us from like forgetfulness; and, seeing "those things
-were written for our admonition," may we be truly admonished thereby
-not to "lust after evil things."
-
-We shall now pass on to the next scripture, where we get the Lord's
-own thoughts upon the above act of service, namely,
-
-     DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 8-11.
-
-     "And of Levi he (Moses) said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim
-     be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and
-     with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; who
-     said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him;
-     neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own
-     children: for they have observed Thy word and kept Thy
-     covenant. They shall teach Jacob Thy judgments, and Israel
-     Thy law; they shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt
-     sacrifice upon Thine altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and
-     accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of
-     them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that
-     they rise not again."
-
-In this passage we have real Levite service brought before us in the
-words, "who said unto his father and mother, I have not seen him,"
-etc. The _true_ and _decided_ servant of God will ever have to
-experience something of this; indeed, the measure thereof will just be
-in proportion to the faithfulness and power of his walk: "flesh and
-blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" therefore every heir of that
-kingdom must show himself in readiness to deny all the claims which
-"flesh and blood" would make on him, whether in himself or in others.
-Most happily does the address to "the queen," in Ps. xlv., connect
-itself with this point: "_Harken_, O daughter, and _consider_, and
-_incline thine ear; forget also thine own people_ and thy father's
-house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy
-Lord, and worship thou Him" (vers. 10, 11). We have all to watch
-against a tendency to be influenced by the claims of flesh and blood,
-in our testimony for Christ. He Himself has said on this subject that
-"no man having put his hand to the plow and _looking back_, is fit for
-the kingdom of God" (Luke ix. 62). And, as some one has observed, it
-was upon this point that the prophet Elisha's character seemed a
-little defective, for when Elijah cast his mantle over him, or, in
-other words, when he had put upon him the high honor of making him a
-prophet of the Lord God, Elisha's heart seemed to yearn after home,
-and he said, "Let me, I pray thee, _kiss my father and my mother_, and
-_then_ I will _follow thee_" (1 Kings xix. 20). Now this was most
-natural, and, as some would say, amiable and affectionate; but, oh,
-amiability and natural affection have often hindered people from
-entering as they should into the Lord's service; and although it is
-one of the marks of the latter-day apostasy to be "without natural
-affection," yet does Moses, in the above-cited passage, ask the Lord
-to bless Levi, because "he said unto his father and his mother, I have
-not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his
-own children." How grossly inconsistent would it have been for Levi to
-have said, "Let me kiss my father and my mother," when called to enter
-upon the Lord's work; and not less so is it for us to allow the claims
-of "flesh and blood" to interfere with our true hearted Levite service
-to our God, who has done so much for _us_.
-
-But let us carefully observe the blessed consequences of this decision
-of character on the part of Levi. These are, first, "They shall _teach
-Jacob_ Thy judgments, and Israel Thy law." Secondly, "They shall put
-incense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon _Thine altar_."
-Thirdly, "Bless his substance." Fourthly, "Accept the work of his
-hands." Fifthly, "Smite through the loins of them that rise against
-him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again." All these
-fruits are distinct, and yet intimately connected, as springing from
-the same source, namely, simple, devoted and uncompromising obedience
-to the Lord. As to the first of these fruits, how true it is that it
-is only the man who himself endeavors to walk in power before God that
-can speak with effect to the hearts and consciences of others; nothing
-else will do--nothing else will tell, either upon the hearts or in the
-lives of Christians. There may be, and, alas, is much of mere
-systematic teaching and preaching of things which the mere intellect
-may have received, and which, by a natural fluency of language, we may
-be able to give out; but all such teaching is vain, and had much
-better be avoided in the sight of God. True, it might often give to
-our public assemblies an appearance of barrenness and poverty which
-our poor, proud hearts could ill brook; but would it not be far better
-to keep silence than to substitute mere carnal effort for the blessed
-energy of the Holy Spirit?
-
-True ministry, however, the ministry of the Spirit, will always
-commend itself to the heart and conscience. We can always know the
-source from which a man is drawing who speaks in "the words which the
-Holy Ghost teacheth," and with the ability which God giveth; and while
-we should ever pray to be delivered from the mere effort of man's
-intellect to handle the truth of God amongst us, we should diligently
-cultivate that power to teach which stands connected, as in Levi's
-case, with the denial of the claims of flesh and blood, and with
-entire devotedness to the Lord's service.
-
-In the second consequence above referred to we have a very elevated
-point: "They shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice
-upon Thine altar." This is worship. We put incense before God when we
-are enabled, in the power of communion, to present in His presence the
-sweet odor of Christ in His person and work. This is our proper
-occupation as members of the chosen and separated tribe.
-
-But it is particularly instructive to look at both the above mentioned
-consequences in connection; i.e., the Levites in ministry to their
-brethren, and the Levites in worship before God: it was as acceptable
-in the sight of God, and as divine an exercise of his functions, for a
-Levite to instruct his brethren as it was for him to burn incense
-before God. This is very important. We should never separate these two
-things. If we do not see that it is the same Spirit who must qualify
-us to speak _for_ God as to speak _to_ Him, there is a manifest want
-of moral order in our souls. If we could keep this principle clearly
-before our minds, it would be a most effectual means of maintaining
-amongst us the true dignity and solemnity of ministry in the Word:
-having lost sight of it has been productive of very sad consequences.
-If we imagine for a moment that we can teach Jacob by any other power
-or ability than that by which we put incense before God, or if we
-imagine that one is not as acceptable before God as the other, we are
-not soundly instructed upon one of the most important points of truth;
-for, as some one has observed, "Let us look at this point illustrated
-in the personal ministry of Christ, and we shall no longer say that
-teaching by the Holy Ghost is inferior to praise by the same, for
-surely the apostleship of Christ when He came _from God_ was as sweet
-in its savor to God as His priesthood when _He went to God_ to
-minister to Him in that office. The candlestick in the holy place
-which diffused the light of life--God's blessed name--was as valuable,
-at least in His view, as the altar in the same place, which presented
-the perfume of praise."
-
-We now come to speak of the third point, namely, "Bless, Lord, his
-substance." This is just what we might have expected; an _increase_ of
-blessing will ever be the result of real true-hearted devotedness to
-Christ. "Every branch in Me that beareth fruit He purgeth, that it may
-bring forth more fruit;" "The diligent soul shall be made fat;" and
-"To him that hath shall _more_ be given." Levi had exhibited much
-diligence of soul in the Lord's service--he had shown himself in
-readiness to vindicate His name in strong and decided opposition to
-every mere human thought and affection; and now the Lord will show
-Levi that He is not unrighteous to forget his work and labor of love,
-"for He will bless his substance." We find the apostle Paul bringing
-forward the same principle to his son Timothy when he tells him to
-"meditate on these things; _give thyself wholly_ to them, that _thy
-profiting may appear to all_." Here he connects the "profiting" with
-the "giving himself wholly:" this will ever be the case; and if we
-would experience more than we do the meaning and power of the words,
-"Bless, Lord, his substance," we must first endeavor to enter into the
-meaning of what goes before, namely, "who said to his father and to
-his mother, I have not known him," etc. "Every one that hath forsaken
-houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
-children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold,
-and shall inherit everlasting life" (Matt. xix. 29).
-
-Not less striking is the connection between what has just been stated
-and our fourth point, namely, "Accept the work of his hands." This I
-conceive to be a point of the greatest importance to us, and one which
-involves a question upon which we frequently display much want of
-intelligence. We often find it difficult to reconcile the idea of
-salvation through free grace with that of an increase of blessing and
-power for walking in obedience; and yet we find the two things
-constantly maintained in Scripture; thus we read, "He that hath My
-commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that
-loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and _will
-manifest Myself_ to him." And, again, "If a man love Me, he will keep
-My words; and My Father will love him, _and We will come unto him and
-make Our abode with him_" (John xiv. 21, 23).
-
-This is very clear and decided upon the subject: we see here that the
-manifestation of the Son is made to depend on our keeping the
-commandments of Christ. Grace takes up a sinner and leads him into the
-knowledge of the full forgiveness of his sins through faith in the
-blood of the Lord Jesus Christ: but all this is simply a means to an
-end: it is, in a word, to set him down in a position of responsibility
-to Christ, which position he by nature could never have sustained,
-because "the carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to
-the law of God, neither indeed can be." If, then, a man be put into a
-place of responsibility, it is clear that the more faithfully and
-diligently he maintains that place, the more enlarged will be his
-communion.
-
-A father may have two children, the one obedient, the other the very
-reverse; now, they are both his children; neither the obedience of the
-one nor the disobedience of the other can interfere in the least with
-the relationship existing between them; but can we have a question as
-to which of them would enjoy most of the father's presence and
-affection? Surely not; a father likes to be obeyed, and will love the
-obedient child. There may be extraordinary cases where, from a warped
-judgment or a blind and unmeaning partiality, the disobedient, lawless
-son may have more of the heart of the parent than the other; but this
-is not so with God: His judgment is clear and unerring: He can
-accurately distinguish between the one that honors Him and the one
-that despises Him: the former "He will honor," the latter He will
-"lightly esteem." The Lord does not ask a sinner _dead_ in trespasses
-and sins to serve Him, for all such a one could do would be polluted
-with sin--his very prayers are polluted--his meditations are
-polluted--his acts of benevolence are polluted; in a word, he is all
-polluted, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, and
-therefore can do nothing acceptable in the sight of God. But the Lord
-quickens those that are dead in trespasses and sins, and then teaches
-them to "walk worthy of Him as dear children," and to be fruitful in
-every good word and work, to the praise of His name: and when we do
-this He graciously condescends to "accept the work of our hands." But
-not only does Scripture abound with precepts which confirm what has
-been above stated, it also affords numerous examples and illustrations
-of the same; thus, for instance, the case of Abraham and Lot, in the
-opening of the book of Genesis. These were both servants of God, but
-yet how differently they walked! one loved God; the other loved the
-well-watered plains of Sodom: and the consequence was, that while the
-Lord Himself could meet with Abraham, and sup with him, and, moreover,
-unfold to him His counsels with reference to Sodom, He merely sends
-_angels_ to Sodom, and we can plainly perceive in their manner toward
-Lot their marked disapproval of his circumstances, for when he invites
-them into his house, they reply, "_Nay, but we will abide in the
-street all night_."
-
-This is plain: the angels of the Lord would rather abide all night in
-the streets of guilty Sodom than go in to a child of His who was not
-walking in obedience; nor does the fact that they afterwards consented
-to go in at all interfere with the point which I am seeking to
-establish; no, their answer speaks volumes of the most solemn and
-practical instruction to us; they enter into _Lot's house_, it is
-true; but if they do, it is only to counteract the sad effects of
-_Lot's sin_. May we, then, seek, by prayer and communion with God, to
-keep ourselves in the path of obedience, so that we may prove in our
-soul's happy experience the meaning of the prayer in our text, "Accept
-the work of his hands."
-
-We have now arrived at the fifth and last point in this branch of our
-subject, namely, "Smite through the loins of them that rise against
-him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again." This is
-properly the last point, when there shall be neither "adversary nor
-evil occurrent," we shall rest from our labor and conflict, and enter
-into possession of that upon which hope now feeds; therefore, when it
-can be said of our enemies "that they rise not again," we shall be
-happy indeed.
-
-However, there is much of practical value in this point in the
-connection in which it stands here, i.e., as _a consequence_ of
-obedience; there is nothing that gives the soul such marvelous power
-over enemies as an obedient, holy walk. Every step we take in real
-obedience to Christ is, so far, a victory gained over the flesh, and
-the devil; and every fresh victory ministers fresh power for the
-conflict which follows; thus we grow. And on the other hand, every
-battle _lost_ only serves to weaken us, while it gives power to our
-enemies to attack us again. Thus we see that the man whose heart is
-truly devoted to the Lord will have power to teach--power to worship;
-he will increase in substance, for Christ causes those that love Him
-"to inherit _substance_" (Prov. viii.). He will enjoy more of God's
-favor and of the light of His countenance, for "them that honor Me I
-will honor;" and, finally, he will have enlarged power over all
-enemies. All these are the fruits of that true Levite devotedness
-which will enable a man to say "to his father, and to his mother, I
-have not seen him;" or, in other words, those fruits can only be
-enjoyed by one who is ready to "leave all and follow Christ." This
-being the case, then, we can have little difficulty in accounting for
-the poverty in gifts of ministry--the poverty in worship--the
-meagreness of growth--the many interruptions in the enjoyment of
-divine favor--the almost total lack of power over enemies of which we
-have all to complain. Many seek to satisfy themselves by saying that
-we cannot expect the same power in gifts and worship now as that which
-fell to the lot of the saints in the apostolic day, and this, of
-course, we are not going to deny; but then, the question is, Have we
-as much power and freshness in these things as we might have? I
-believe we have not--and why? Is not Levi's God our God? Yes, He is,
-blessed be His name, and the same everlasting and abundant fountain of
-blessing as ever He was, but we, alas, are _far behind_ in the matter
-of Levi's true devotedness; and this is the root of it all, for it
-remains unalterably true that "to him that hath shall _more_ be
-given," and "we cannot serve two masters." This is true--solemn--and
-practical.
-
-We are now called to consider a scripture which will unfold to us at
-once the wondrous secret of how a sinner so degraded as Levi could
-hold a place of such elevation and nearness to God as that which he
-afterwards occupied. There is nothing in a sinner by nature with which
-God could hold any intercourse; therefore, if ever He brings any one
-into a place of blessing and high communion, He does so in _pure
-grace_, and thus _excludes_ "boasting" altogether, for "no flesh shall
-glory in His presence." Those who look upon it as presumption in a
-sinner to speak of holding a place of such nearness to God, seem to
-lose sight of this completely. It could never be _pride_ that would
-lead any one into a place where _he_ would be broken to pieces, and be
-shown that he was altogether corrupt and worthless; if God were to
-elevate _flesh_, and bring flesh into a place of nearness to Himself,
-then indeed there would be some force in the objection on the ground
-of presumption; but God does no such thing: the flesh is so far gone
-in ruin that it cannot be improved, and therefore God declares in the
-Cross His mind about the flesh, namely, that it is a condemned thing;
-but He, by the same Cross, gives the poor sinner _life_, and in the
-power of _that life_, and not in the power of life in the flesh, He
-brings the sinner into His presence and sets him down at His table; so
-that it is not the presumption of a poor prodigal that assigns the
-place which he is to occupy, but the _grace_ and boundless
-lovingkindness of the father: thus, God says to Noah, "The end of all
-flesh is come before Me," and what then? "Make thee an ark of gopher
-wood"--and in that ark is Noah raised up beyond the region of
-judgment, and a judged world, into a place of undisturbed communion.
-Now, we shall find the very same principles developed in God's
-dealings with Levi, in the scripture which is about to engage our
-attention. I shall first consider their cleansing; and, secondly,
-their position and service. First, their cleansing as recorded in
-
-     NUMBERS viii. 5-14.
-
-     "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites
-     from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And
-     thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle
-     water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their
-     flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make
-     themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock with
-     his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil; and
-     another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering.
-     And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of
-     the congregation: and thou shalt gather the whole assembly
-     of the children of Israel together: and thou shalt bring the
-     Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel shall
-     put their hands upon the Levites: and Aaron shall offer the
-     Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of
-     Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord. And
-     the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the
-     bullocks: and thou shalt offer the one for a sin offering,
-     and the other for a burnt offering, unto the Lord, to make
-     an atonement for the Levites. And thou shalt set the Levites
-     before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an
-     offering unto the Lord. Thus shalt thou separate the Levites
-     from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be
-     Mine."
-
-This passage furnishes us with a very rich and blessed branch of our
-interesting subject. We were enabled to see, in looking at Levi by
-nature, that such was his character that God would have no fellowship
-with him whatever, and that, so far as Levi was concerned, he should
-abide forever in _his own habitation_, in company with the
-"instruments of cruelty" which were therein. But God will not leave
-him there, and therefore God must Himself provide the remedy--God
-Himself must cleanse this self-willed, cruel and fierce man. And here
-we are invited to recall a thought which occurred to the mind in the
-opening of this paper, viz., that man's sin must ever be brought into
-the presence of God's grace. Levi had nothing else to look to; his
-sin was such as to preclude every thought of human remedy; the law
-condemned Levi's nature; and God had pronounced him unfit for His
-presence. And what, then, had Levi to do? Could he set himself with
-heart and soul to keep the law? Impossible: the law had not only
-condemned his works, but pronounced the curse of God upon his very
-nature. The law said, "Thou shalt do no murder;" and having said this,
-it added, "_Cursed_ is every one that continueth not in all things
-that are written in the book of the law, to do them." But Levi had
-murder in his nature, therefore Levi's nature was cursed.
-
-What, then, could Levi do? Might he not cast himself over upon the
-mercy of God, with the hope that He would deal lightly with his sins?
-No; by no means: God had given forth His solemn and unalterable
-decree, "O my soul, come not thou into their secret;" God could not
-come into a habitation wherein were "instruments of cruelty."
-
-Thus, then, Levi was completely shut up, without a single means of
-escape; the law nailed him down to this one point, "Answer my
-demands." And all that Levi had towards the discharge of these demands
-was, "anger, fierceness, murder, self-will, cruelty," etc.: poor
-resources, alas! Nor would the law of God enter into any composition
-with the sinner; it should have "the uttermost farthing," or else the
-word was, "_cursed art thou_." Therefore Levi, _as a man alive in the
-flesh_, or, in other words, Levi, as seeking to get life through the
-law, was judged, condemned, and set aside, and it only remained for
-him to take thus the place of _one dead_, in order that God might _in
-grace_ quicken him into new life, which God was ready and willing to
-do, and which, as we shall see, He graciously did, according to His
-own marvelous thoughts, and in His own way.[6] Levi, then, had just to
-see himself as one that was, in God's account, _dead_, as we read,
-"for they (i.e., the Levites) are wholly given unto me from among the
-children of Israel; _instead_ of such as open every womb, even
-_instead_ of the first-born of all the children of Israel, have I
-taken them unto me: for all the first-born of the children of Israel
-are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote every first-born
-in the land of Egypt, _I sanctified them for myself_; _and I have
-taken the Levites for all the first-born of the children of Israel_"
-(chap. viii. 16-18).
-
-  [6] The reader will, of course, bear in mind that what is stated about
-  Levi in this paper is to be regarded as _typical_ of that which the
-  believer now knows in _reality_ through the Holy Ghost.
-
-The Lord passed through the land of Egypt with the sword of justice
-unsheathed, to smite _all_ the first-born, nor would Israel's
-first-born have escaped, had not the sword fallen upon the neck of the
-spotless victim; and thus, as some one has beautifully observed,
-"There was death in every house, not only in the houses of the
-Egyptians, but also in those of the Israelites: in the former, it was
-the _death of Egypt's first-born_; in the latter, the death of God's
-Lamb."
-
-The Levites, then, were taken _instead_ of those upon whom the sword
-of the destroying angel should have fallen; or, in other words, _the
-Levites were_, _typically_, _a dead and risen people_, and thus were
-no longer looked at in the circumstances of nature, but of _new life_
-through grace, in which they were placed by God Himself. And here let
-me observe that this is the path which every sinner must travel if he
-would know experimentally anything of Levi's after history. There is
-no other way in which to escape from the judgment of the law on the
-one hand, or from the horrid workings of indwelling corruption on the
-other, than simply to see ourselves "_dead_" to both, and "_alive_
-unto God through Jesus Christ." "How shall we," says the apostle,
-"that are _dead to sin_ live any longer therein? Know ye not that so
-many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His
-death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that,
-like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
-even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. vi. 2-4). And,
-again, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become _dead_ to the _law_
-by the body of Christ, that ye should be _married to another_, even to
-Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
-God" (chap. vii. 4). But not only are death and resurrection the only
-possible means by which a sinner can escape the condemnation of the
-law and the tyrannical sway of sin, they are also the only means by
-which he can acceptably serve God. The flesh, or carnal mind, cannot
-serve God, for it is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be;
-therefore we infer that the sources of that life by which we can serve
-God are not to be found in the flesh, but only in union with the Lord
-Jesus in resurrection. "If a man abide not _in me_, he is cast forth
-as a branch and is withered" (John xv. 6). Consequently, when God
-would bring Levi into a place of nearness and service to Himself, He
-shows him to us as passing through those circumstances which, in the
-clearest manner, illustrate _death and resurrection_; for they are
-taken instead of those that were as dead, but who escaped through the
-death of the lamb: and then, having thus passed through the
-circumstances of death, they are told in chap. viii. to "_put off the
-old man and put on the new_"--for that is the meaning of the "washing
-of water," and "shaving of the flesh," etc. This is in full keeping
-with what the apostle states to his son Titus: "For we ourselves also
-were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and
-pleasures, _living in malice and envy_, hateful, and hating one
-another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
-toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done,
-but according to His mercy He saved us, by the _washing of
-regeneration_, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us
-abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Titus iii. 3-6).
-
-But in order that we may have a clearer and more comprehensive view of
-the ground upon which the Levites stood before God, I would refer, in
-as brief and concise a manner as I can, to the offerings connected
-with their consecration: these were the burnt offering, the meat
-offering, and the sin offering; all, as we shall see, showing out the
-Lord Jesus Christ in His varied aspects.[7] And first, the burnt
-offering: the principles unfolded in this offering are brought out in
-the first chapter of Leviticus, where we read, "If his offering be a
-burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he
-shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle
-of the congregation before the Lord" (ver. 3).
-
-  [7] It may be well just to observe here that in considering the
-  offerings above referred to I have merely looked at them with
-  reference to the question of Levi's history.
-
-Here, then, is something real for the soul to feed on and rejoice in.
-We have in the burnt offering the Lord Jesus Christ, in all His
-fulness and perfections, as offering Himself "_without spot to God_,"
-and also as accepted before God _for us_. In this He was found to be
-"_a male without blemish_;" so much so, that the One in whose sight
-the very heavens are not clean, could say, "In whom I am well
-pleased;" and again, "Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth."
-
-But further, this unblemished offering presents Himself voluntarily at
-the door of the tabernacle. "No man," says the Lord Jesus, speaking of
-His life, "taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have
-power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again: this
-commandment have I received of My Father." And truly, in tracing the
-way of the blessed Jesus through this defiled world, we can recognize
-this feature of the burnt offering in a very striking manner. From
-first to last His course was marked with all the steadiness and divine
-uninterrupted calmness of true devotedness to God. The billows of dark
-and fierce temptation might roll and toss themselves with a rage and
-fury which would have crushed one less than God. The devil might stir
-up all his deadly malice against Him; man might display all his
-enmity--enmity which could only be outdone by the eternal friendship
-of this devoted One. His disciples, moreover, may refuse to "watch
-with Him one hour." Death may arm himself with all his ghastly
-terrors, and pour out a cup mixed with hell's bitterest ingredients;
-and further, display his deadly sting in all its infernal keenness and
-power to wound. The grave may conjure up all its unutterable horrors
-to make one grand struggle for "_victory_," but _all_ in vain. The
-answer of this unblemished voluntary offering to all these was, "My
-meat and my drink is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish
-His work." He had His eye upon one object, and that was "the joy that
-was set before Him." He looked forward to the moment when He would be
-able to draw forth from the inexhaustible treasuries of eternal love
-the rich and princely fruits of His hard-bought victory, and pour
-them forth in divine profusion upon the "travail of His soul;" even
-the Church, which He loved, and purchased with His own precious blood.
-He eagerly anticipated "the morning without clouds," when, surrounded
-by the myriads of His ransomed brethren, He will sound forth in
-everlasting strains the mighty answer to all the foul aspersions of
-the enemy as to the love of God toward the sinner. All these
-attractions, I say, He had before Him, and therefore He marched onward
-in the greatness of His strength; "He _steadfastly_ set His face to go
-to Jerusalem." Lord Jesus Christ, invigorate our poor cold hearts to
-sound forth the eternal honors of Thine adorable name; and may our
-lives be more and more the decided evidence of our hearts--love to
-Thee, for "Thou alone art worthy!" All this is surely most blessed for
-us; but, blessed as it is, it is not all; there are other strokes from
-the pencil of the Divine Artist, calculated, in the highest degree, to
-captivate our spiritual tastes, yea, more, to feed our souls. "He
-shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and _it shall
-be accepted for him_, to make atonement for him" (ver. 4). Here, then,
-is grace! Levi, the self-willed, cruel, fierce, and blood-shedding
-Levi, is accepted in all the perfectness and acceptableness of this
-"unblemished male" before God: whatever of excellency, whatever of
-value, whatever of purity, God beheld in this offering, that did He
-likewise behold in Levi as "accepted _in_ the offering." Thus, look at
-Levi _apart from_ the offering, and you will find him such that God
-could not come into _his_ assembly: but look at him as _in the
-offering_, and you find him, through grace, as pure and as perfect as
-the offering itself. Nothing could surpass this most excellent grace.
-The grace that could take up a sinner from such a pit of corruption as
-that in which Levi lay groveling, and lead him into such high
-elevation, deserves the highest note of praise; and, blessed be God,
-it shall, ere long, have it from all who, like Levi, have felt its
-sacred power.
-
-However, we must not enter too minutely into the detail of this burnt
-offering, and there are just two points further to which I will refer.
-The first is presented to us in ver. 6: "And he shall flay the burnt
-offering, and cut it into his pieces." Here we see at once to what a
-process of strict, jealous and uncompromising scrutiny the Lord Jesus
-exposed Himself in offering Himself before God. It was not enough that
-the animal should be APPARENTLY "without blemish," for the skin, or
-_outward surface_, might look very well, and at the same time the
-offering be not at all fit for God's altar; therefore the _outward
-surface_ must be removed, in order that this offering may be examined
-in all its sinews, joints and veins, and thus be found, as to _the
-springs of action_, _the structure of his frame_, and the source and
-channels of the life that animated him, a perfectly unblemished
-offering. But further, "_he shall cut it into his pieces_," i.e., take
-the offering asunder, and examine its various parts, in order that it
-may not only form a perfect whole, but that each distinct joint may
-be found perfect. Thus, in whatever aspect we look at the Lord Jesus,
-we get divine perfection. He could say to God, "Thou hast tried Me,
-and shalt find nothing;" and God could answer, "I am well pleased." He
-could say of the devil, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath
-nothing _in Me_;" and the devil could reply, "I know Thee, who thou
-art, the _Holy One of God_." He could say to men, "Which of you
-convinceth Me of sin?" and man could answer, "Truly this was a
-_righteous man_." Thus, I say, our divine burnt-offering, who
-voluntarily presented Himself at God's altar, and there poured forth
-His most precious blood, was found, in every feature and in every
-aspect, pure and perfect in the very highest sense of the word, and
-confessed so by heaven, earth, and hell.[8]
-
-  [8] We may also observe, in the act of cutting the offering into his
-  pieces, this important truth, that in whatever relationship of life we
-  contemplate the Lord Jesus, we find the same unsullied perfection;
-  whether we consider Him as a public or as a private character, in one
-  position or another, all is alike. Not so with man--here there must be
-  failure in one way or another. If a man is a good public character, he
-  may be the very plague of the family circle, and _vice versa_. And,
-  surely, in all this we learn the glorious truth which shall shortly be
-  owned by all created intelligences, that "He _alone_ is worthy."
-
-All, therefore, having been found pure, and fit for God's altar, it
-becomes the happy place of _Aaron's sons_ to send up before God the
-sweet savor of this most acceptable offering, as we read: "And the
-_sons_ _of Aaron_ the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay
-the wood in order upon the fire. And _the priests_, Aaron's _sons_,
-shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood that
-is on the fire which is upon the altar. But _his inwards and his legs_
-shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn _all_ on the altar,
-to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor
-unto the Lord" (vers. 7-9). The fat of the offering was God's peculiar
-part; no one could with impunity touch that; yea, the punishment for
-so doing was the same as for eating blood; i.e., it was as wrong and
-as daringly presumptuous for a man to intrude upon God's portion of
-the offering as it was for him to assume life in his own right, which
-latter was an open denial of the state of death and ruin in which he
-was by reason of sin. God, then, I say, claimed the fat. He alone
-could feed upon the inward excellency and peerless perfections of
-Jesus, just as in the case of the unmeasured ointment in Exodus xxx.,
-where we see, as well as in the above cited passage, that the infinite
-mind of God could alone appreciate the infinite value of Christ. But
-we find _the head_ burnt in connection with the fat, showing us, I
-suppose, that both the hidden energies of the Lord Jesus and the seat
-of His understanding were equally suited to be a sweet savor unto God.
-Lastly, the inwards and legs were washed and burned upon the altar,
-showing us that the secret thoughts, purposes and counsels of the Lord
-Jesus, as well as the outward development of these in His _walk_, were
-perfectly pure and fit for the altar: and, in connection with this
-last point, one cannot help dwelling with comfort upon the marvelous
-contrast between the Lord Jesus and His poor people. How often may our
-_outward walk_, typified by "the legs," appear quite right in the eye
-of man, when, at the same time, perhaps, in the eye of God, our
-"_inwards_" may be full of gross impurity. But it is well for us that
-such was not the case with our great Head: in Him _all was alike_, for
-_all was pure_. May our hearts, dear Christian reader, enter more and
-more fully, under the teaching of the Spirit, into the intrinsic
-excellency of the Lord Jesus; and may we be enabled daily, standing at
-the altar before God, to send up in His presence the savor of all
-this!
-
-As to the meat offering, we need not enter minutely into it. It was
-composed, as we know, of that which sprang from _the earth_, and such
-as aptly shadowed out "the Man Christ Jesus," the frankincense thereon
-marking the entire devotedness of all the actings of Christ's human
-nature to God His Father. Nothing was done by Him to meet man's eye,
-or man's approbation; nothing was done to produce mere effect; no,
-_all was directly before God_. Whether we trace the footsteps of the
-Lord Jesus, while, for thirty years, _He was subject_ to His parents
-at home; or while, for three years, He was engaged in public ministry
-amongst the Jews--all was alike: all showed forth the pure
-frankincense that marked Him, in all things, as God's peculiar and
-devoted servant. We may observe further that this meat offering was
-_baked_ with oil, and _anointed_ with oil; thus showing forth, I
-suppose, the incarnate Son of God, who was first "_conceived_ of the
-Holy Ghost" (Matt. i. 20), and then "_anointed_ with the Holy Ghost"
-(Matt. iii. 16; Acts x. 38).
-
-We now come to speak of the sin offering, and may the Lord graciously
-refresh our spirits while dwelling for a little on the blessed
-principles unfolded therein. The sin offering is brought before us in
-Leviticus iv., from whence we may select one case for our present
-purpose. "If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin
-of the people, then _let him_ bring for his sin which he hath sinned a
-young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering. _And
-he shall bring_ the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the
-congregation before the Lord, and shall lay his hand upon the
-bullock's head and kill the bullock before the Lord" (vers. 3, 4).
-
-The reader will, no doubt, observe a marked difference between the
-above passage and that in which the burnt offering was referred to;
-and the difference so far mainly consists in this, that in the last
-cited passage the words "_voluntary will_" are not found, and this was
-quite to be looked for. In the burnt offering we were enabled to
-recognize the Lord Jesus Christ _offering_ Himself voluntarily before
-God, in which aspect of His blessed work He could say, "No man taketh
-it (My life) from Me, _I lay it down of Myself_." In other words, He
-offered Himself "of His own voluntary will at the door of the
-tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord." But in the sin
-offering it is quite different: "_He shall be brought_" and "_He shall
-be killed_;" i.e., instead of _coming_, _He shall be brought_; and
-instead of laying down His life of _Himself_, His life _shall be taken
-from Him_. These, I say, are important distinctions, and such as arise
-from the very nature of the two offerings. In the burnt offering the
-Lord Jesus is seen offering Himself in all the unblemished perfectness
-which belonged to Him; and in this His soul had great delight, because
-He was presenting that before God which was so acceptable to Him. But
-in the sin offering the Lord Jesus is seen standing in connection with
-that which His pure and spotless soul must have deeply abhorred and
-keenly resented--abhorred and resented, indeed, in a way of which we
-cannot form the faintest idea. He is seen, in a word, as standing in
-connection with _sin_: yea, more, as "made sin" (2 Cor. v. 21). _Thus_
-it was that the prophet, through the Spirit, viewed Him when he said,
-"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
-iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with _His
-stripes_ we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
-turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the
-iniquity of us all" (Isa. liii. 5, 6).
-
-Now I believe that by looking at the two offerings in connection we
-get a very deep and wondrous view of sin's dark and dreadful enormity
-in the sight of God: for sin in this point of view appears sinful
-just according to the measure of Christ's perfectness in God's
-account. If in the burnt offering we were enabled to see that such was
-the beauty and excellency of Christ that His _whole man_ could go up
-before God as a sweet savor, and that God could "find nothing in Him"
-but perfection, as a necessary consequence then we must see in the sin
-offering the blackness and heinousness of sin, which could oblige God
-to hide His face from "His elect, in whom His soul delighted."
-
-This brings us to the next point connected with the sin offering,
-viz., "He shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head" (ver. 4). Here
-we have at once the secret of the deep and profound mystery of the
-three hours' darkness.
-
-It was before observed that God had to hide His face from the Lord
-Jesus on the cross, but how are we to account for such a mysterious
-circumstance? Simply by the words, "he (the sinner) shall lay his hand
-upon the bullock's head." If, in contemplating the burnt offering, we
-were struck by the fact that all the perfectness of the offering was
-communicated to the "fierce and cruel" Levi, so here we are called
-upon to adore the grace that devised the wondrous plan whereby that
-could be effected, which was by imputing to the offering all the sin
-and defilement of Levi, and dealing with the sin of Levi in the person
-of the sin offering, in order that Levi himself might be dealt with in
-the person of the burnt offering.
-
-And all this, be it observed, is conveyed to us in the action of "the
-laying on of hands." This action was performed in both cases; i.e.,
-Levi laid his hands on the head of the burnt-offering, and Levi laid
-his hands on the head of the sin offering. As to the _act_, it was the
-same in each case; but oh, how different the results! they were, in a
-word, as different as life and death, heaven and hell, sin and
-holiness. In fact, we cannot conceive a wider contrast than that which
-is observable in the results of this action, to all appearance the
-same in each case. We may, perhaps, be able to form some idea of it by
-considering that the act of imposition of hands was at once the
-imputation of _sin_ to one "_who knew no sin_," but was "holy,
-harmless, undefiled," and whose very nature abhorred _all sin_. And,
-on the other hand, it was the imputation of _perfect righteousness_ to
-one who was by nature "a cruel, fierce, and self-willed murderer."[9]
-Furthermore, the act of imposition of hands obliged the One who from
-before all worlds dwelt in the bosom of the Father to travel far away
-into the cold and barren regions of death and darkness, where the
-genial and life-giving rays of His Father's countenance, which He
-alone could truly appreciate, had never penetrated; and standing upon
-the confines of which, He cried out, "_If it be possible_, let this
-cup pass from Me!" and again, when these gloomy regions, with their
-ten thousand unutterable horrors, burst upon His spotless soul, "My
-God, My God, WHY HAST THOU forsaken Me?" And, on the other hand, it
-enabled the one who dwelt in "the habitations of cruelty," into whose
-"assembly" God could not come, to stand in the very blaze of the light
-of God's throne. These considerations, I say, may perhaps assist our
-conceptions in some measure upon this astounding truth. Now, the
-apostle states the same truth in the didactic language of the New
-Testament when he says, "He (God) hath _made Him_ to be _sin for us_,
-that _we_ might be _made the righteousness_ of God _in Him_" (2 Cor.
-v. 21). That is, He hath made the One whose perfectness is seen in the
-burnt offering to be judged _as sin_, and treated as such in the sin
-offering, in order that _we_, who deserved the treatment of the sin
-offering, might be treated as accepted in the burnt offering.
-
-  [9] I would observe here that in speaking of "the imputation of
-  righteousness," I by no means desire to be understood as giving any
-  countenance to the prevailing theory of "the imputed righteousness of
-  Christ." Of this expression, so much in use in the theology of the
-  present day, it would be sufficient to say that it is nowhere to be
-  found in the oracles of God. I read of "the righteousness of God"
-  (Rom. iii. passim), and, moreover, of the imputation of righteousness
-  (Rom. iv. 11), but never of "the righteousness of Christ." It is true,
-  we read of the Lord Jesus being "_made of God_ unto us righteousness"
-  (Jer. xxiii. 6), but these passages do not support the above theory. I
-  would further add that the moral effect of this idea will be found to
-  be decidedly pernicious, because it of _necessity_ supposes the
-  believer as standing apart from the Lord Jesus, whereas the doctrine
-  of Scripture is that the believer is "made the righteousness of God IN
-  HIM" (2 Cor. v. 21). And again, "we are IN HIM that is true, even in
-  _His Son Jesus Christ_" (1 Jno. v. 20).
-
-I would also observe here that there is much force and value in the
-word "_made_:" it shows out most fully that righteousness was just as
-foreign to the nature of man as sin was to the nature of Christ. Man
-had no righteousness of his own, or, in other words, he knew no
-righteousness, and therefore he had to be "_made_" righteousness.
-Christ "_knew no sin_," and therefore had to be "_made sin_" in order
-that we might be _made_ righteousness, even "the righteousness of God
-_in Him_." But further, we learn from the passage to which we are
-referring that the Lord Jesus having been "made sin for us," is not
-more real, not more true, not more palpable, than that the believer is
-"_made righteousness_ in Him."
-
-If there be any truth or reality in the record concerning the cross
-and passion of the Lord Jesus, then, it is plain that the moment a
-soul acts faith upon Christ in His death and resurrection, that moment
-he is accepted in all the acceptableness of Christ. His consciousness
-of this is, of course, quite another question: a truth and the
-realization of a truth are quite distinct.
-
-The measure of our realization will be in proportion to the measure of
-our communion with God. If we are satisfied to move at a cold and
-heartless distance from God, our consciousness of the power and value
-of any truth will, as a consequence, be meagre and shallow: while,
-therefore, it is not to be forgotten that the root and source of all
-life and communion is the truth stated in the passage to which we are
-alluding, it is manifest that the more we walk in communion with Him
-who gives us the life, the more shall we enjoy both Himself and the
-life which He gives. Dear Christian reader, let us pray that the cross
-and passion of the Lord Jesus may sink so deeply into our hearts that
-we may have on the one hand such a view of the loathsomeness of sin as
-shall lead us to abhor it with a holy abhorrence "all the days of our
-life," and on the other hand such a view of the amazing love of God as
-shall constrain us "to live not unto ourselves but unto Him who died
-for us and rose again."
-
-Thus, then, we see that the laying on of hands shows forth nothing
-less than _a change of places_ on the part of the sinner and the
-Saviour. The sinner was _out_ of the favor of God: "O my soul, come
-not thou into their habitation." The Saviour was _in_ the favor of
-God, "_daily His delight_," dwelling in His bosom from before all
-worlds. But the amazing plan of redemption _shows us the Saviour out
-of the favor of God_, _and God forsaking Him_, _while at the same time
-a condemned malefactor is brought at once into the very presence of a
-loving and pardoning God_. Amazing, deep, inconceivable, eternal love!
-unfathomable wisdom! love which soars far aloft above the most
-gigantic conception! wisdom which has written everlasting contempt
-upon all the power and base designs of the great enemy of God and man!
-For, ere Levi could be introduced into the enjoyment of the "covenant
-of _life_ and _peace_" (Mal. ii. 5), a spotless Victim must stand the
-shock of the king of terrors and all his thunders. But who is this
-Victim? We ask not, "Who is this King of glory?" but _Who_ is this
-Victim? The answer to this question it is which gives to the plan of
-redemption its grandest and most divine characteristic. The Victim was
-none less than the Son of God Himself! Yes! here was love, here was
-wisdom. The Son of God had to stoop because man had exalted himself.
-And surely we may say, If God had not entered upon the work, _all_,
-_all_ were lost, and that forever. No mere mortal could have entered
-into that dark scene where sin was being atoned for; no one but the
-Son of God could have sustained the weight which, in the garden and on
-the cross, rested on the shoulders of the "One that was mighty." And
-here we might refer to the Lord's language to His disciples when He
-was about to enter into conflict with the adversary: "Hereafter I will
-not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath
-nothing in Me" (John xiv. 30). Why could He not "talk much with them?"
-Because He was just going to enter upon the work of atonement, in
-which they could do nothing, because the prince of this world, had he
-come, would have had _plenty in them_; but then, the moment He, as it
-were, in spirit passes through that sorrowful hour, He says, "_Arise_,
-let us go hence;" i.e., although we could not move a single step in
-the achievement of the victory, yet we could enjoy the fruits of it;
-and not only so, but _display_ the fruits of it in a life of service
-and fruit-bearing to God, which forms the subject of teaching in the
-next chapter.
-
-Here, then, is what gives peace to the awakened conscience of the
-sinner. God Himself has done the work. God has triumphed over all
-man's wickedness and rebellion, and now every soul who feels his need
-of pardon and peace can draw near in faith and holy confidence and
-reap the fruits of this wondrous triumph of grace and mercy.
-
-And now, dear reader, if _you_ have not as yet made these wondrous
-fruits your own; if you have not as yet cast the whole burden of your
-sins on God's eternal love as seen in the cross, I ask you, Why do you
-stand aloof? Why do you doubt? Perhaps you feel the hardness of your
-heart, perhaps you are ready to say that you feel yourself even now
-unmoved by the contemplation of all the deep sorrow endured by the Son
-of God. Well, what of that? If it be a question of _your_ guilt, you
-may go much farther than even this, for in that hour of which we have
-been speaking you stood unmoved, looked on with cold and heartless
-indifference, while all creation owned the wondrous fact. Yea, more,
-you yourself crucified the incarnate God, you spat in His face, and
-plunged your spear into His side. Do you shrink back and say, "Oh, not
-so bad!" I say _it was the act of the human heart_; and if you have a
-human heart, it was your act. But the Scriptures at once decide this
-point, for it is written, "For of a truth against Thy holy child
-Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, _with
-the Gentiles_ and the people of Israel, were gathered together" (Acts
-iv. 27). This passage, I say, proves that all the world were
-_representatively_ around the cross. But why insist on this? Simply to
-show forth the riches of the grace of God, which can only be seen in
-all its effulgent lustre in the cross; and therein it is seen mounting
-far above all man's sin and malignant rebellion; for when man, in the
-fiendish pride of his heart, could plunge his spear into the side of
-incarnate Deity, God's cry was--BLOOD! and through _that blood
-"remission of sins, beginning at Jerusalem_." Thus, "where _sin_
-abounded, _grace_ did _much more abound_," and "grace REIGNS through
-righteousness by Jesus Christ our Lord."
-
-Enough, I trust, has been said to show the grounds upon which the
-Levites stood before God. These grounds were free and _eternal
-grace_--grace exercised toward them through the blood, which is the
-only channel through which grace can flow. Man has been found to be
-_utterly ruined_ before God, and therefore it must be a question
-either of salvation through _free grace_, or eternal damnation; for
-"by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh living be justified."
-But then, while man is by nature utterly unfit to render anything like
-an acceptable righteousness or service to God, yet, when God gives us
-_new life_ through grace, He, of course, looks for the development of
-that life. In other words, grace brings the soul into circumstances of
-responsibility and service, and it is as we meet those circumstances
-that God is glorified in us and our souls grow in the knowledge of
-God. Thus it was in the case of the leper: up to a certain point in
-his history he had nothing to do, _the priest_ was the sole actor. But
-when the priest had done his part; when, by virtue of _the blood_
-which had been shed, he had pronounced him "clean," the leper had
-_then_ to begin to "_wash himself_" (Lev. xiv. 8). Now we shall find
-that the history of Levi develops all these principles most fully.
-
-We have hitherto been engaged with Levi's condition and character by
-nature and also the wondrous remedy devised by grace to meet him in
-his lost estate, and not only to save him _from_ that estate but also
-to raise him up to an elevation which could never have entered into
-the heart of man, even into the very tabernacle of God. We shall now,
-with God's blessing and grace, proceed to examine that high elevation
-to which we have referred, and also the service which it involved, as
-put before us in
-
-     NUMBERS iii.
-
-     "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, _Bring the tribe of
-     Levi near_, and present them before Aaron the priest, that
-     they may minister unto him. And they shall keep his charge,
-     and the charge of the whole congregation before the
-     tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the
-     tabernacle. And they shall keep _all the instruments of the
-     tabernacle_ of the congregation, and the charge of the
-     children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. And
-     thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron, and to his sons:
-     they are wholly given unto him out of the children of
-     Israel" (vers. 5-9).
-
-Here, then, God's marvelous purposes of grace toward Levi fully open
-before us, and _truly_ marvelous they are indeed. We see that the
-sacrifices were but a means to an end; but both the means and the end
-were in every way worthy of each other. The means were, in one word,
-"death and resurrection," and _all included therein_. The end was,
-_nearness_ to God, and _all included therein_.
-
-Looking at Levi by nature, there could not be any point farther
-removed from God than that at which he stood; but _grace_ in exercise,
-through the blood, could _lift him up_ out of that ruin in which he
-stood, and "bring him nigh," yea, bring him into association with the
-great head of the priestly family, there to serve in the tabernacle.
-Thus, we read, "You _hath He quickened who were dead_ in trespasses
-and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of
-this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
-spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.... _But God_,
-who is _rich in mercy_, for His _great love_ wherewith _He loved us_,
-even _when we were dead in sins_, hath quickened us _together with
-Christ_ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and
-made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii.
-1-6). And again, "But _now_, _in Christ Jesus_, ye who sometime were
-_afar off_, are _made nigh_ by the blood of Christ" (ver. 13).
-
-When _nature_ is left free to work, it will ever go as far away from
-_God_ as it can. This is true since the day when man said, "I heard
-_Thy voice_, and I was _afraid_ and I hid myself" (Gen. iii. 10). But
-when grace is left free and sovereign to work, it will ever bring the
-soul "nigh." Thus it was with Levi. He was by nature "_black as the
-tents of Kedar_;" by grace, "comely as the curtains of Solomon:" by
-_nature_ he was "_joined_" in a covenant of murder; by _grace_
-"joined" in a covenant of "life and peace." The former, because he was
-"_fierce and cruel_;" the latter, because he feared and was afraid of
-the Lord's name. (Comp. Gen. xlix. 6, 7; Mal. ii. 5.) Furthermore,
-Levi was by _nature_ conversant with the "instruments of cruelty;" by
-_grace_, with "_the instruments of God's tabernacle_:" by _nature_ God
-could not come into _Levi's assembly_; by _grace_, Levi is brought
-into _God's assembly_: by nature, "his feet were swift _to shed
-blood_;" by grace, _swift_ to follow the movements of the cloud
-through the desert, in real, patient service to God. In a word, Levi
-had become a "_new creature_," and "old things had passed away," and
-therefore he was no longer to "live unto himself," but unto Him who
-had done such marvelous things for him in grace.
-
-I would further observe, on the last cited passage, that the Levites
-are, in the first place, declared to be God's property, and then they
-are "WHOLLY GIVEN UNTO AARON." Thus we read: "_Thine they were_, _and
-Thou gavest them Me_, and they have kept Thy word" (John xvii. 6). And
-again, "All that _the Father giveth Me_ shall come to Me" (John vi.
-37).
-
-I would now look a little into the detail of their service, in which,
-I doubt not, we shall find much to edify and refresh us.
-
-We find that although the whole tribe of Levi were, _as to standing_,
-"_joined with Aaron_," yet, as to _service_, they were divided into
-classes. "All had not the same office;" and this is what we might have
-expected, for, although in the matter _of life_ and _standing_ they
-were all _on a level_, yet, in the development of that life, and in
-the manifestation of the power of that standing, they would, no doubt,
-display different measures; and not only so, but there would also be
-seen an assignment to each of distinct position and line of service,
-which would serve to distinguish him from his brethren in a very
-marked and decided manner. And here I would observe that I know of
-nothing connected with the walk and service of the Christian which
-demands more attention than this point to which I am now alluding,
-viz., _unity_ in the matter of life and standing, and at the same time
-the greatest variety in the manifestation of character and in the line
-of service. A due attention to this important point would save us from
-much of that "unwise" comparing of ourselves and our service with the
-persons and services of others, which is most unholy, and, as a
-consequence, most unhealthy.[10] And not only would it lead thus to
-beneficial results in a negative point of view, it would also have a
-most happy effect in producing and cultivating originality and
-uniqueness of Christian character. But while there was this diversity
-in the line of service amongst the Levites, it is also to be
-remembered that there was _manifested unity_. The Levites were _one
-people_, and seen as such; they were "_joined_" with Aaron in the work
-of the tabernacle; moreover, THEY HAD ONE STANDARD, round which they
-_all_ rallied, and that was "the tabernacle of the congregation," the
-well known type of Christ in His character and offices. And, indeed,
-this was one of the ends which God had in view in calling out the
-Levites by His grace from amongst the people of Israel; it was that
-they should stand in marked association with Aaron and his sons, and
-in that association bear the tabernacle and all pertaining thereto on
-their shoulders, through the barren wilderness around.[11]
-
-  [10] It is worthy the serious attention of the Christian reader who
-  may desire the unity of the Church, that the tribe of Levi in the
-  desert was a truly striking example of what may be termed "unity in
-  diversity." Gershon was in one sense totally different from Merari,
-  and Merari was totally different from Kohath; and yet Gershon, Merari
-  and Kohath were _one_: they should not, therefore, contend about their
-  service, because they were _one_; nor yet would it have been right to
-  confound their services, because they were totally different. Thus,
-  attention to _unity_ would have saved them from contention, and
-  attention to _diversity_ would have saved them from confusion. In a
-  word, all things could only be "done decently and in order" by a due
-  attention to the fact of there being "unity in diversity."
-
-  [11] I say "one of the ends," for we should ever remember that the
-  grand object before the divine mind in redemption is to show in the
-  ages to come His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus; and this
-  object will be secured even though our poor puny services had never
-  been heard of.
-
-God did not call out the Levites _merely_ that they might escape the
-sad effects of God's absence from their assembly; or, in other words,
-God had more than THEIR blessing and security in view in His dealings
-with them. He designed that they should serve in the tabernacle, and
-thus be to His praise and glory. We shall, however, I trust, see this
-principle upon which I am dwelling in a clearer and stronger point of
-view as we proceed in our subject.
-
-We find that Levi had three sons, viz., "Gershon, and Kohath, and
-Merari" (Num. iii. 17). These formed the heads of the three classes
-alluded to, and we shall find that the nature of the service of each
-was such as of necessity to impart that tone of character signified by
-their very name. Thus: "Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites and
-the family of the Shimites: these are the families of the Gershonites.
-And the chief of the house of the father of the Gershonites shall be
-Eliasaph, the son of Lael. And the charge of the sons of Gershon in
-the tabernacle of the congregation shall be the tabernacle and the
-tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the
-tabernacle of the congregation, and the hangings of the court, and the
-curtain for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by
-the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service
-thereof" (vers. 21-26).
-
-Here was Gershon's work, to carry through the waste and howling
-wilderness the tabernacle and its coverings. This was indeed _true
-Levite service_, but it was most blessed service, and its antitype in
-the Church now is what we should much seek after, because it is that
-which alone puts the Christian into his right place in the world,
-i.e., the place of a STRANGER. There could be but little
-attractiveness in the rams' skins and badgers' skins; but, little as
-there was, it was, nevertheless, the high privilege of the Gershonite
-to take them all up and bear them cheerfully on his shoulders across
-the trackless sands. What, then, are we to understand by the covering
-of the tabernacle? I believe, in a word, it shadowed out the character
-of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was that which would meet the eye. There
-might be, and were, other services among the Levites of a very blessed
-nature, but surely it was most elevated service to carry through the
-desert that which so strikingly prefigured the character of Christ.
-
-This is what makes the saint "a stranger" (as the name Gershon
-imports) in the world. If we are walking in _the manifestation of the
-character of the Lord Jesus_, and in so doing realize our place as _in
-the wilderness_, we may rest assured it will impart a very decided
-tone of strangership to our character in the world. And oh, would that
-we knew much more of this. The Church has laid down the rams' skins
-and badgers' skins, and with them the Gershonite character: in other
-words, the Church has ceased to walk in the footsteps of her rejected
-Lord and Master, and the consequence has been that instead of being
-the wearied and worn stranger, as she should be, treading the parched
-and sterile desert, with the burden on the shoulders, she has settled
-herself down in the green places of the world and made herself at
-home. But there was another feature of the stranger character shadowed
-out in the curtain, viz., _anticipation_. This was most blessed--God
-dwelling in curtains showed plainly that neither God nor the ark of
-His strength had found a resting-place, but were _journeying on_
-towards "_a rest that remained_."
-
-And how could there be a _rest_ in the desert? There were no rivers
-and brooks _there_--no old corn _there_--no milk and honey _there_.
-True, the smitten rock sent forth its refreshing streams to meet their
-need, and heaven sent down their _daily bread_; but all this was not
-Canaan. They were still in the desert, eating wilderness food and
-drinking wilderness water, and it was Gershon's holy privilege to
-carry upon his shoulders that which in the fullest manner expressed
-all this, viz., THE CURTAIN. "Thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou build Me
-an house for Me to dwell in? Whereas I have not _dwelt_ in any house
-since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt,
-even to this day, but have _walked_ in a _tent_ and in a _tabernacle_"
-(2 Sam. vii. 5, 6). Here, too, we have sadly failed. The Church grew
-weary of the curtain, and wished to build a house before the time; she
-grew weary of "_walking in a tent_," and earnestly desired to "_dwell
-in a house_."
-
-And truly we have all to watch and pray against this disposition to
-grow weary of our Gershonite character. There is nothing so trying to
-nature as continual labor in a state of expectancy; our hearts love
-rest and fruition, and therefore nothing but the continual remembrance
-that "our sufficiency is of God" can at all sustain us in our Gershon
-or stranger condition.
-
-Let us therefore remember that we bear on our shoulders the curtains,
-and have beneath our feet the sand of the desert, above our heads the
-pillar of cloud, and before us "the land of rest" clothed in
-never-withering green, and, both as a stimulus and a warning, let us
-remember that "He that endureth to the end THE SAME shall be
-saved."[12]
-
-  [12] It would surely be of all importance in this day, when so many
-  are declining from the narrow path of obedience to the written Word,
-  and entering upon the wide and bewildering field of human tradition,
-  to bear in mind that the Levite, when carrying the tabernacle through
-  the desert, found no support nor guide _from beneath_; no, _the grace_
-  in which he stood was his _sole support_, and _the pillar above_ his
-  _sole guide_. It would have been miserable indeed had he been left to
-  find a guide in the footmarks on the sand, which would change at every
-  wind that blew. _But all the sand did for him was to add to his labor
-  and toil while he endeavored to follow the heavenly guide above his
-  head._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We shall next consider the Merarite feature of character; for,
-although the family of Merari does not stand next in order in the
-chapter, yet there is a kindredness of spirit, as it were, arising out
-of the very nature of their service, that would link them together in
-the mind. But, not only is there this intimate connection between the
-services of these two classes of Levites, which would lead us to link
-them together thus, the Lord Himself presents them to us in marked
-unity of service, for we read, "And the Kohathites set forward bearing
-the sanctuary; and _the other_ (i.e., the Gershonites and the
-Merarites) _did set up the tabernacle against they came_" (Num. x.
-21). Here, then, we see that it was the great business of these two
-families to pass onward through the desert in holy companionship,
-bearing with them, wherever they went, "_the tabernacle_," and,
-moreover, the tabernacle as looked at in its character of outward
-manifestation or testimony; which would, as a matter of course, put
-those who carried it thus into a place of _very laborious_
-discipleship. "And under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari
-shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the
-pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof,
-and all that serveth thereto, and the pillars of the court round
-about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords" (chap. iii.
-36, 37). Here, then, was what Merari had to do: he had to take his
-place here or there, according to the movement of the cloud, and _set
-up_ the boards of the tabernacle in their sockets of silver--and all
-this, be it remembered, upon the sand of the desert.[13]
-
-  [13] It has been well observed that in the tabernacle God was seen
-  bringing all His glory into immediate connection with _the sand of the
-  desert_: and when the high priest went into the holy place, he found
-  himself in the very presence of that glory, _with his feet upon the
-  sand of the desert_ likewise. In the temple, however, this was not the
-  case, for the floor of the house was _overlaid with gold_ (1 Kings vi.
-  30).
-
-  So is it with the Christian now; he has not as yet his feet upon the
-  "pure gold" of the heavenly city, but his deepest and most abiding
-  knowledge of God is that which he obtains in connection with his
-  sorrow, toil and conflict in the wilderness.
-
-Could anything be more opposed to another than the nature of all that
-Merari had to set up was to the waste and howling wilderness around?
-What could be more unlike than silver and barren sand? But Merari
-might not shrink from all this; no, his language was, when he had
-arrived at a spot in the desert at which the cloud halted, "I am come
-to set up the patterns of things in heaven in the very midst of all
-the desolation and misery of the wilderness around." All this was most
-laborious, and would, no doubt, impart to the character of Merari a
-tone of sadness or sorrow which was at once expressed in his name,
-which means "_sorrow_."
-
-And surely the antitype of all this in the Church now will fully
-confirm what has been stated about the character of Merari. Let any
-one take his stand firmly and decidedly in the world _for Christ_--let
-him penetrate into those places where "the _world_" is really seen in
-its vigor--let him oppose himself, _firm as a rock_, to the deep and
-rapid tide of worldliness, and _there_ let him begin to set up "_the
-sockets of silver_," and, rest assured of it, he will find such a
-course attended with very much sorrow and bitterness of soul; in a
-word, he will realize it to be a path in which the cross is to be
-taken up "_daily_," and not only taken up, but borne. Now, if any
-further proof were needed of the above interpretation, we have a most
-striking one in the fact that there are but _very few_ of the
-laborious Merarite character to be found; and why is this? Simply
-because the exhibition of such a character will ever be attended with
-very much labor and sorrow to nature, and nature loves ease, and
-therefore human nature never could be a Merarite; nothing will make us
-true Merarites but deep communion with Him who was "THE MAN OF
-SORROWS."
-
-There is something in the service of Gershon from which one does not
-shrink so much as from that of Merari. For what had Gershon to do? He
-had to place the curtains and badgers' skins over the boards _which
-had been already set up by his laborious and sorrowful brother_. And
-just so now: if a laborious servant of God has gone to a place where
-hitherto the world and Satan have reigned supreme, and there raised a
-testimony for Christ, it will be comparatively easy for another to go
-and walk on in the simple _manifestation_ of Christian character,
-which would of itself put him into the place of "a stranger."
-
-But, although nature may assume the character of a misanthropist, yet
-nothing but grace can make us Merarites, and _the true Merarite_ is
-the _true philanthropist_, because he introduces that which alone _can
-bless_; and the very fact that a Merarite should have to take a place
-of sorrow is a most convincing proof that the world is an evil place.
-There was no need of a Merarite in Canaan, nor a Gershonite either:
-for the Merarite was _happy there_, and the Gershonite _at home_. But
-the world is not the Levite's home, and therefore if any will carry
-the curtains, he must be a stranger; and if any will carry the sockets
-and boards, he must be a man of sorrow; for when He who was a true
-Gershonite and a true Merarite came into the world He was emphatically
-_the Man of sorrows_, _who had not where to lay His head_.
-
-However, if the Gershonite and the Merarite had to occupy a place in
-which they endured not a little of "the burden and heat of the day,"
-yet the Lord graciously met them in that with a very rich reward, for
-"He is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love," and
-therefore, if they had to labor and toil _amongst_ their brethren,
-they were blessedly ministered to _by_ their brethren. Thus we read
-concerning the offerings of the princes: "And the Lord spake unto
-Moses, saying, Take it of them, that they may be to do the service of
-the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the
-Levites, to every man according to his service. And Moses took the
-wagons and the oxen and gave them unto the Levites. Two wagons and
-four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according to their
-service. And four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the sons of
-Merari according unto their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son
-of Aaron the priest. _But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none_,
-because _the service of the sanctuary_ belonging unto them was that
-they should bear upon their shoulders" (Num. vii. 4-9).
-
-Here we see that the service of Gershon and Merari was that which met
-the rich and blessed ministrations of their brethren. Grace had filled
-the hearts and affections of the princes, and not only filled but
-overflowed them, and in its overflow it was designed to refresh the
-spirits of the homeless Gershonite and sorrowful Merarite: on the
-other hand, the Kohathites had no part in these ministrations; and
-why? Because _their service_, as we shall see presently, was in
-_itself_ a rich reward indeed. We see the very same doctrine taught in
-the case of the Levites generally, as contrasted with the priests, in
-chap. xviii., where we read: "And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou
-shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither _shalt thou have any
-part among them_: _I am thy part and thine inheritance among the
-children of Israel_" (ver. 20).
-
-On the other hand, He says of the Levites, "Behold, I have given the
-children of Levi all the tenth in _Israel for an inheritance_, _for
-their service which they serve_, even the service of the tabernacle of
-the congregation."
-
-And again, "Ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households,
-for _it is your reward_ for your service in the tabernacle of the
-congregation" (vers. 21, 31).
-
-Aaron occupied a position so truly elevated that any inheritance in
-the way of earthly things would have been to him most degrading;
-whereas the Levites (looked at in one aspect) had not this high
-standing, but had much hard labor; and consequently, while Aaron's
-very place and service was "_his reward_," the Levites had to get _a
-tenth_ for "_their reward_."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We come now to consider the third and last division of the Levites,
-viz., the Kohathites, of whom we read, "The families of the sons of
-Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward. And the
-chief of the house of the father of the families of the Kohathites
-shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. And their charge shall be the
-ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the
-vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and
-all the service thereof" (chap. iii. 29-31). We can now have no
-difficulty in understanding why it was that Kohath had no share in the
-ministrations of the princes. Gershon and Merari might need wagons and
-oxen to carry the boards, etc., but not so Kohath; his charge was too
-precious to be committed to any or aught but himself, and therefore it
-was his high and honored place to carry all upon his shoulders. What a
-privilege, for example, to be allowed to carry _the ark_, _the table_,
-or _the golden candlestick_! And would it not have argued an entire
-absence of ability to appreciate his elevated calling if he had sought
-for the assistance of oxen in his holy service? What, then, we ask,
-would have been the effect produced upon the character of Kohath by
-this his service? Would it not have imparted a very elevated tone
-thereto? Surely it would. What can be more elevated, at least as far
-as development of character in the world is concerned, than the
-display of that congregational spirit which is expressed in the name
-of Kohath? Should not Christians be found rebuking, by a _real_ union
-_in everything_, man's oft-repeated attempt at forming associations
-for various purposes? And how can they effect that if it be not by
-gathering more closely around their common centre, Christ, in all the
-blessed fulness and variety of that Name? a fulness and variety
-typified by the varied furniture of the tabernacle, some of the most
-precious parts of which were designed to be borne on the shoulders of
-this favored division of the tribe of Levi.
-
-And surely we may safely assert that what would lead the saints now
-into more of the congregational spirit is just communion with Him whom
-the ark and table shadowed forth. If we were more conversant with
-Christ as the ark, covering in this scene of death, and, moreover,
-with the table of showbread, whereon stood _the food of the
-priests_--if, I say, we knew more of Christ in these blessed aspects
-of His character--we should not be as we are, _a proverb_ and a byword
-by reason of our gross disunion. But, alas, as the Church grew weary
-of the curtains and the boards, and laid aside her Gershonite and
-Merarite character, so has she laid aside her Kohathite character,
-because she has ceased to carry the ark and the table upon her
-shoulder, and cast those precious pearls which were, through the grace
-of God, her peculiar property, to the swine, and thus has she lost her
-elevated character and position in the world.
-
-Thus, let us review those three grand features of character shown
-forth in the tribe of Levi.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-1st. Strangership. "Therefore the world _knoweth us not_, because it
-knew Him not." "Here we have no abiding city." "Dearly beloved, I
-beseech you _as strangers and pilgrims_, abstain from fleshly lusts,
-which war against the soul."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-2d. Sorrow in the world. "_In the world_ ye shall have tribulation."
-"If they have _persecuted Me_, they will also _persecute you_." "I
-RECKON that _the sufferings of this present_ time are not worthy to be
-compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." "After that
-_ye have suffered awhile_, make you perfect"--"_ye have need_ of
-patience"--"ye yourselves know that ye are appointed thereunto." "If
-we _suffer_ with Him, we shall also reign with Him." "These are they
-that came out of _great tribulation_, and have washed their robes and
-made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-3d. Union. "That they _all may be one_." "He should gather together in
-_one_ the children of God that are _scattered_ abroad." "That He might
-reconcile _both_ unto God in ONE body by the cross." And here, again,
-I would request of my reader to bear in mind that, while there was
-this beautiful diversity in the character and line of service of the
-Levites, yet they were _one people_, and that _manifestly_--they were
-_one_ in _life_, _one_ in standing, _one_ in calling, _one_ in
-inheritance; and so should it be with Christians _now_. We are not to
-expect uniformity of opinion on every point, nor yet are we to look
-for a perfect correspondence in the line of service and development of
-life; but then the saints should be seen as _one people_--_one_ in
-worship,[14] _one_ in labor, _one_ in object, _one_ in sympathy; in a
-word, _one_ in everything that belongs to them in common as the people
-of God.
-
-  [14] I say, _one in worship_; and I would press this point, because at
-  the present day it seems to be a thought in the minds of many that
-  there may be unity in service and at the same time the greatest
-  diversity in worship. I would appeal to the spiritual mind of the
-  Christian reader, and I would ask him, Can this really be? What should
-  we say to a family who would unite, or appear to do so, for the
-  purpose of carrying on their father's work, but who could not, by
-  reason of division, meet around their father's table? Could such unity
-  satisfy a father who loved his children?
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-How sadly out of order it would have been for a Levite to call upon
-one of the uncircumcised of the nations around to assist him in
-carrying any part of the tabernacle! and yet we hear Christians now
-justifying and insisting upon the propriety of conduct not less
-disorderly, viz., calling upon the openly unconverted and profane to
-put their hands to the Lord's work. Thus we see that the Levites have
-become scattered, and have forsaken their posts. The Gershonite has
-refused to carry the curtains because he has become weary of the
-stranger condition; the Merarite has laid down the boards and sockets
-because he grew weary of bearing the cross, and the Kohathite has
-degraded his high and holy office by making it the common property of
-those who have not authority from God to put their hands thereunto.
-Thus the name of God is blasphemed among the heathen by us, and we do
-not "sigh and cry for the abominations" thus practiced, but lift up
-our heads in proud indifference as if it all were right, and as if the
-camp of God were moving onward in all heavenly order, under the
-guidance of the cloud, communicated by the silver trumpets. "My
-brethren, these things ought not so to be." May we walk more humbly
-before our God, and, while we mourn over the sad fact that "Overturn,
-overturn, overturn" has been written by the finger of God upon all
-human arrangements, let us remember that it is only "_until He come
-whose right it is_," and then _all_ shall be set right forever, for
-God, in all things, shall be fully glorified through Jesus Christ.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Thus, dear reader, have we followed Levi in his course; and oh, what a
-marvelous course has it been! a course, every step of which displays
-the visible marks of sovereign grace abounding over man's sin--grace,
-which led God to stoop from His throne in the heavens to visit "the
-habitations of cruelty," in order to lift a poor perishing sinner from
-thence, and bring him, through the purging power of the blood, into a
-place of marvelous blessing indeed, even into the very tabernacle of
-God, there to be employed about the instruments of God's house. We
-have found Levi to have been indeed the one who "was _dead_ and is
-_alive_ again, who was _lost_ and is found." May we, then, adore the
-grace that could do such mighty acts! and if we have felt in our
-hearts the operations of the same grace in delivering us from the
-death and darkness of Egypt, may we remember that its effects should
-be to constrain us to live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died
-for us and rose again. We are now in the wilderness, where we are
-called to carry the tabernacle. May we cheerfully move onward,
-"_declaring_ PLAINLY that we seek a country," and anxiously look out
-for "THE REST THAT REMAINS."
-
-
-
-
-PART I.
-
-GLAD TIDINGS
-
-"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
-whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
-life" (John iii. 16).
-
-
-There are some passages of holy Scripture which seem to contain, in a
-line or two, an entire volume of most precious truth. The verse which
-we have just penned is one of such. It is part of our Lord's memorable
-discourse with Nicodemus, and it embodies, in a condensed form, a very
-full statement of gospel truth--a statement which may well be termed,
-"Glad Tidings."
-
-It should ever be borne in mind, both by preachers and those to whom
-they preach, that one grand object of the gospel is to bring God and
-the sinner together in such a way as to secure the sinner's eternal
-salvation. It reveals a _Saviour God_ to a _lost man_. In other words,
-it presents God to the sinner in the very character that meets the
-sinner's need. A Saviour is precisely what suits the lost, just as a
-life-boat suits a drowning man, or a physician a sick man, or bread a
-hungry man. They are fitted the one for the other; and when God as a
-Saviour, and man as a lost sinner, meet together, the whole question
-is settled forever. The sinner is saved, because God is a Saviour. He
-is saved according to the perfection which belongs to God, in every
-character He wears, in every office He fills, in every relationship He
-sustains. To raise a question as to the full and everlasting salvation
-of a believing soul, is to deny that God is a Saviour. So it is in
-reference to justification. God has revealed Himself as a Justifier;
-and hence, the believer is justified according to the perfection which
-attaches to God in that character. If a single flaw could be detected
-in the title of the very weakest believer, it would be a dishonor to
-God as a Justifier. Grant me but this, that God is my Justifier, and I
-argue, in the face of every opposer and every accuser, that I am, and
-must be, perfectly justified.
-
-And, on the same principle, grant me but this, that God has revealed
-Himself as a Saviour, and I argue, with unclouded confidence and holy
-boldness, that I am, and must be, perfectly saved. It does not rest
-upon aught in me, but simply and entirely upon God's revelation of
-Himself. I know He is perfect in everything; and, therefore, perfect
-as my Saviour. Hence, I am perfectly saved, inasmuch as the glory of
-God is involved in my salvation. "There is no God else beside Me: a
-just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me." What then? "_Look_
-unto _Me_, and be ye saved, _all the ends of the earth_; for I am God,
-and there is none else" (Isa. xlv. 21, 22). One believing _look_ from
-a lost sinner to a just God and a Saviour, secures eternal salvation.
-"_Look!_" How simple! It is not "Work"--"Do"--"Pray"--"Feel"--no; it
-is simply "Look." And what then? Salvation--everlasting life. It must
-be so, because God is a Saviour; and the precious little word "look"
-fully implies all this, inasmuch as it expresses the fact that the
-salvation which I want is found in the One to whom I look. It is all
-there, ready for me, and one look secures it--secures it
-forever--secures it for _me_. It is not a thing of to-day or
-to-morrow; it is an eternal reality. The bulwarks of salvation behind
-which the believer retreats have been erected by God Himself--the
-Saviour-God, on the sure foundation of Christ's atoning work; and no
-power of earth or hell can ever shake them. "Wherefore also it is
-contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
-Corner-stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him shall not
-be confounded" (Isa. xxviii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 6).
-
-But let us now turn directly to the profound and comprehensive passage
-which forms the special subject of this paper. In it, most assuredly,
-we listen to the voice of a Saviour-God--the voice of Him who came
-down from heaven to reveal God in such a way as He had never been
-revealed before. It is a marvelously blessed fact that God has been
-fully revealed in this world--revealed, so that we--the writer and the
-reader of these lines--may know Him, in all the reality of what He
-is--know Him, each for himself, with the utmost possible certainty,
-and have to do with Him, in all the blessed intimacy of personal
-communion.
-
-Reader, think of this! Think, we beseech you, of this amazing
-privilege. You may know God for yourself, as _your_ Saviour, _your_
-Father, _your_ own very God. You may have to do with Him; you may lean
-upon Him, cling to Him, walk with Him, live and move and have your
-being in His own most blessed presence, in the bright sunshine of His
-loving countenance, under His own immediate eye.
-
-This is life and peace. It is far more than mere theology or
-systematic divinity. These things have their value, but, be it
-remembered, a man may be a profound theologian, an able divine, and
-yet live and die without God and perish eternally. Solemn, awful,
-overwhelming thought! A man may go down to hell, into the blackness
-and darkness of an eternal night, with all the dogmas of theology at
-his fingers' ends. A man may sit in the professor's chair, stand in
-the pulpit and at the desk; he may be looked up to as a great teacher
-and an eloquent preacher: hundreds may sit at his feet and learn,
-thousands may hang on his lips and be enraptured, and, after all, he
-himself may descend into the pit, and spend a dismal, miserable
-eternity in company with the most profane and immoral.
-
-Not so, however, with one who knows God as He is revealed in the face
-of Jesus Christ. Such a one has gotten life eternal. "This," says
-Christ, "is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God,
-and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3). It is not life
-eternal to know theology or divinity. A man may sit down to the study
-of these, as he would to study law or medicine, astronomy or geology,
-and all the while know nothing of God, and therefore be without divine
-life, and perish in the end.
-
-So also as to mere religiousness. A man may be the greatest devotee in
-the world. He may most diligently discharge all the offices, and
-sedulously attend upon all the ordinances of systematic religion; he
-may fast and pray; hear sermons and say prayers; be most devout and
-exemplary; and all the while know nothing of God in Christ; yea, he
-may live and die without God, and sink into hell forever. Look at
-Nicodemus. Where could you find a better sample of religious human
-nature than in him? A man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, a
-master in Israel; one, moreover, who seemed to discern in the miracles
-of our Lord the clear proofs of His divine mission; and yet the word
-to him was, "Ye must be born again." We have no need, surely, to go
-farther than this to prove that a man may be not only religious, but
-actually a guide and a teacher of others, and yet not have divine life
-in his soul.
-
-But it is not so with one who knows God in Christ. Such a one has life
-and an object. He has God Himself for his priceless portion. This is
-divine. It lies at the very foundation of personal Christianity and
-true religion. It is above and beyond everything. It is not, we
-repeat, mere theology, divinity, or religiousness; it is God Himself,
-known, trusted, and enjoyed. It is a grand, unmistakable reality. It
-is the soul of theology, the groundwork of divinity, the life of true
-religion. There is nothing in all this world like it. It is something
-which must be _felt_ in order to be known. It is acquaintance with
-God, confidence in Him, and enjoyment of Him.
-
-Now, it may be that the reader is disposed to ask, "How can I possess
-this priceless treasure? How can I know God for myself, in this
-living, saving, powerful manner? If it be true that without this
-personal knowledge of God I _must_ perish eternally, then how am I to
-obtain it? What am I to do, what am I to be, in order to know God?"
-The answer is, God has revealed Himself. If He had not, we may say
-with decision that nothing that we could do, nothing that we could be,
-nothing in us or of us, could possibly make us acquainted with God. If
-God had not manifested Himself, we should have remained forever in
-ignorance of Him and perished in our ignorance. But, seeing that He
-has come forth from the thick darkness and showed Himself, we may know
-Him according to the truth of His own revelation, and find, in that
-knowledge, everlasting life, and a spring of blessedness at which our
-ransomed souls shall drink throughout the golden ages of eternity.
-
-We know of nothing which so clearly and forcibly proves man's utter
-incompetency to do aught towards procuring life, as the fact that the
-possession of that life is based upon the knowledge of God: and this
-knowledge of God must rest upon the _revelation_ of God. In a word, to
-know God is life, to be ignorant of Him is death.
-
-But where is He to be known? This is, in very deed, a grave question.
-Many a one has had to cry out, with Job, "Oh, that I knew where I
-might find Him." Where is God to be found? Am I to look for Him in
-creation? Doubtless, His hand is visible there; but ah! that will not
-do for me. A Creator-God will not suit a lost sinner. _The hand of
-power_ will not avail for a poor, guilty wretch like me. I want _a
-heart of love_. Yes, I want a heart that can love me in all my guilt
-and misery. Where can I find this? Shall I look into the wide domain
-of providence--the widely extended sphere of God's government? Has God
-revealed Himself there in such a way as to meet me, a poor lost one?
-Will providence and government avail for one who knows himself to be a
-hell-deserving sinner? Clearly not. If I look at these things, I may
-see what will perplex and confound me. I am short-sighted and
-ignorant, and wholly unable to explain the ins and outs, the bearings
-and issues, the why and the wherefore, of a single event in my own
-life, or in the history of this world. Am I able to explain all about
-the loss of _The London_? Can I account for the fact that a most
-valuable life is suddenly cut short, and an apparently useless one
-prolonged? There is a husband and the father of a large family; he
-seems perfectly indispensable to his domestic circle and yet, all in a
-moment, he is cut down, and they are left in sorrow and destitution;
-while, on the other hand, yonder lies a poor bed-ridden creature, who
-has outlived all her relations, and is dependent on the parish, or on
-individual benevolence. She has lain there for years, a burden to
-some, no use to any. Can I account for this? Am I competent to
-interpret the voice of Providence in this deeply mysterious
-dispensation? Certainly not. I have nothing in or of myself wherewith
-to thread my way through the mazes of the labyrinth of what is called
-providence. I cannot find a Saviour-God there.
-
-Well, then, shall I turn to the law--to the Mosaic economy--the
-Levitical ceremonial? Shall I find what I want there? Will a Lawgiver,
-on the top of a fiery mount, wrapped in clouds and thick darkness,
-sending forth thunders and lightnings, or hidden behind a veil--will
-such a One avail for me? Alas! alas! I cannot meet Him--I cannot
-answer His demands nor fulfil the conditions. I am told to love Him
-with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength; but I
-do not know Him. I am blind and cannot see. I am alienated from the
-life of God, an enemy by wicked works. Sin has blinded my mind,
-blunted my conscience, and hardened my heart. The devil has completely
-perverted my moral being, and led me into a state of positive
-rebellion against God. I want to be renewed in the very source of my
-being ere I can do what the law demands. How can I be thus renewed?
-Only by the knowledge of God. But God is not revealed in the law.
-Nay, He is hidden--hidden behind an impenetrable cloud, an unrent
-veil. Hence I cannot know Him there. I am compelled to retire from
-that fiery mount, and from that unrent veil, and from the whole
-economy of which these were the characteristic features, the prominent
-objects, still crying out, "Oh! that I knew where I might find Him."
-In a word, then, neither in creation, nor in providence, nor in the
-law, is God revealed as "a just God and a Saviour." I see a God of
-power in creation: a God of wisdom in providence; a God of justice in
-the law; a God of love _only_ in the face of Jesus Christ. "_God was
-in Christ_, reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor. v. 19).
-
-To this stupendous fact we call the reader's earnest attention; that
-is, if he be one who does not yet know the Lord. It is of the very
-last possible importance that he be clear as to this. Without it there
-can be nothing right. To know God is the first step. It is not merely
-knowing some things about God. It is not unrenewed nature turning
-religious, trying to do better, endeavouring to keep the law. No,
-reader; it is none of these things. It is God, known in the face of
-Jesus Christ. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
-darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
-knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is
-the deep and blessed secret of the whole matter. The reader, so far as
-his natural condition is concerned, is in a state of darkness. There
-is not so much as a single ray of spiritual light. He is, spiritually
-and morally, just what creation was physically before that sublime and
-commanding utterance fell from the lips of the Almighty Creator, "Let
-there be light." All is dark and chaotic, for the "god of this world
-hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
-the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
-unto them" (2 Cor. iv. 4-6).
-
-Here are two things; namely, the god of this world blinding the mind,
-and seeking to hinder the in-shining of the precious life-giving beams
-of the light of God's glory; and, on the other hand, God, in His
-marvelous grace, shining in the heart, to give the light of the
-knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Thus all hinges
-upon the grand reality of the knowledge of God. Is there light? It is
-because God is known. Is there darkness? It is because God is not
-known. No doubt there are various measures in the experience and
-exhibition of this light: but there is light, because there is the
-knowledge of God. So also there may be various forms of darkness; some
-more hideous than others; but there is darkness because God is not
-known. The knowledge of God is light and life. Ignorance of God is
-darkness and death. A man may enrich himself with all the treasures of
-science and literature; but if he does not know God, he is in the
-darkness of primeval night. But, on the other hand, a man may be
-profoundly ignorant of all human learning; but if he knows God, he
-walks in broad day-light.
-
-In the passage of Scripture which is engaging our attention, namely,
-John iii. 16, we have a very remarkable illustration of the character
-of the entire Gospel of John, and especially the opening chapters. It
-is impossible to meditate upon it without seizing this interesting
-fact. In it we are introduced to God Himself, in that wondrous aspect
-of His character and nature, as loving _the world_, and giving His
-Son. In it, too, we find, not only the "world" as a whole, but the
-individual sinner, under that most satisfactory title of "whosoever."
-Thus God and the sinner are together--God, _loving_ and _giving_; and
-the sinner, _believing_ and _having_. It is not God judging and
-exacting; but God loving and giving. The former was law; the latter,
-grace; that was Judaism; this, Christianity. In the one, we see God
-demanding obedience in order to life; in the other, we see God giving
-life as the only basis of obedience. In the one, we see man struggling
-for life, but never obtaining it; in the other, we see man receiving
-life as a free gift, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such is
-the contrast between the two systems--a contrast which cannot be too
-deeply pondered. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came
-by Jesus Christ" (John i. 17).
-
-But let us mark the way in which this is unfolded in our text. "God so
-loved the world." Here we have the wide aspect of the love of God. It
-is not confined to any particular nation, tribe, caste, or family. It
-embraces the whole world. God is love; and, being so, it is not a
-question of the fitness or worthiness of the object of His love. It is
-what He _is_. He is love, and He cannot deny Himself. It is the very
-energy and activity of His nature. The heart may have many a question,
-many an exercise as to its state and condition before God, and very
-right it should have them. The Spirit Himself may produce such
-exercises and raise such questions; but, after all, the grand truth
-shines forth in all its lustre, "God is love." Whatever we are,
-whatever the world is, that is what God is; and we know that the truth
-as to God forms the deep and rich substratum which underlies the whole
-system of Christianity. The soul may pass through deep and sore
-conflict, under the sense of its own wretchedness; there may be many
-doubts and fears; many dark and heavy clouds; weeks, months, or years
-may be spent under the law, in one's inward self-consciousness, and
-that, moreover, long after the mere intellect has yielded its assent
-to the principles and doctrines of evangelical truth. But, after all,
-we must be brought into direct personal contact with God Himself--with
-what He is--with His nature and character, as He has revealed Himself
-in the gospel. We have to acquaint ourselves with Him, and He is love.
-
-Observe, it does not say merely that God is _loving_, but that He is
-_love_. It is not only that love is an attribute of His character,
-but it is the very activity of His nature. We do not read that God is
-justice, or holiness; He is just and He is holy; but it would not
-express the full and blessed truth to say that God is loving; He is
-much more, He is love itself. Hence, when the sinner--"whosoever" he
-be, it matters not--is brought to see his own total and absolute ruin,
-his hopeless wretchedness, his guilt and misery, the utter vanity and
-worthlessness of all within and around him, (and there is nothing in
-the whole world that can satisfy his heart, and nothing in his heart
-that can satisfy God, or satisfy even his own conscience) when these
-things are opened in any measure to his view, then is he met by this
-grand substantial truth that "God is love," and that He so loved the
-world as to give His only-begotten Son.
-
-Here is life and rest for the soul. Here is salvation, full, free, and
-everlasting, for the poor, needy, guilty, lost one;--salvation resting
-not upon anything in man or of man, upon aught that he is or can be,
-aught that he has done or can do, but simply upon what God is and has
-done. God _loves_ and _gives_, and the sinner _believes_ and _has_.
-This is far beyond creation, government, or law. In creation, God
-spake and it was done. He called worlds into existence by the word of
-His mouth. But we hear nothing, throughout the entire record of
-creation, of God loving and giving.
-
-So as to government, we see God ruling in unsearchable wisdom, amid
-the armies of heaven, and among the children of men: but we cannot
-comprehend Him. We can only say, as to this subject, that
-
-    "God moves in a mysterious way,
-      His wonders to perform;
-    He plants His footsteps in the sea,
-      And rides upon the storm.
-    Deep in unfathomable mines
-      Of never failing skill,
-    He treasures up His bright designs,
-      And works His sovereign will."
-
-Finally, as to the law, it is, from beginning to end, a perfect system
-of command and prohibition--a system perfect in its action as testing
-man, and making manifest his entire alienation from God. "The law
-worketh wrath." And again, "By the law is the knowledge of sin." But
-what could such a system do in a world of sinners? Could it give life?
-Impossible. Why? Because man could not fulfil its holy requirements.
-"If there had been a law given which could have given life, then
-verily, righteousness should have been by the law." But no; the law
-was a ministration of death and condemnation. (See 2 Cor. iii.) The
-only effect of the law, to anyone who is under it, is the pressure of
-death upon the soul, and of guilt and condemnation upon the
-conscience. It cannot possibly be otherwise with an honest soul under
-the law.
-
-What, then, is needed? Simply this, the knowledge of the love of God,
-and of the precious gift which that love has bestowed. This is the
-eternal groundwork of all. Love, and the gift of love. For, be it
-observed and ever remembered, that God's love could never have reached
-us save through the medium of that gift. God is holy, and we are
-sinful. How could we come near Him? How could we dwell in His holy
-presence? How could sin and holiness ever abide in company?
-Impossible. Justice demands the condemnation of sin; and if love will
-save the sinner, it must do so at no less a cost than the gift of the
-only-begotten Son. Darius loved Daniel, and labored hard to save him
-from the lions' den; but his love was powerless because of the
-unbending law of the Medes and Persians. He spent the night in sorrow
-and fasting. He could weep at the mouth of the den; but he could not
-save his friend. His love was not mighty to save. If he had offered
-himself to the lions instead of his friend, it would have been morally
-glorious; but he did not. His love told itself forth in unavailing
-tears and lamentations. The law of the Persian kingdom was more
-powerful than the love of the Persian king. The law, in its stern
-majesty, triumphed over an impotent love which had nothing but
-fruitless tears to bestow upon its object.
-
-But the love of God is not like this--eternal and universal praise to
-His name! His love is mighty to save. It _reigns_ through
-righteousness. How is this? Because "God _so_ loved the world that He
-gave His only-begotten Son." The law had declared in words of awful
-solemnity, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Was this law less
-stern, less majestic, less stringent, than the law of the Medes and
-Persians? Surely not. How then, was it to be disposed of? It was to be
-magnified and made honorable, vindicated and established. Not one jot
-or tittle of the law could ever be set aside. How, then, was the
-difficulty to be solved? Three things had to be done: the law had to
-be magnified; sin condemned; the sinner saved. How could these grand
-results be reached? We have the answer in two bold and vivid lines
-from one of our own poets--
-
-    "On Jesus' cross this record's graved,
-    Let sin be damned, and sinners saved."
-
-Precious record! May many an anxious sinner read and believe it! Such
-was the amazing love of God, that He spared not His own Son, but
-delivered Him up for us all. His love cost Him nothing less than the
-Son of His bosom. When it was a question of creating worlds, it cost
-Him but the word of His mouth: but when it was a question of loving a
-world of sinners, it cost His only-begotten Son. The love of God is a
-holy love, a righteous love, a love acting in harmony with all the
-attributes of His nature, and the claims of His throne. "Grace
-_reigns_, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Christ Jesus
-our Lord." The soul can never be set at liberty till this truth be
-fully laid hold of. There may be certain vague hopes in the mercy of
-God, and a measure of confidence in the atoning work of Jesus, all
-true and real so far as it goes; but true liberty of heart cannot
-possibly be enjoyed until it is seen and understood that God has
-glorified Himself in the manner of His love toward us. Conscience
-could never be tranquilized, nor Satan silenced, if sin had not been
-perfectly judged and put away. But "God _so_ loved the world that He
-gave His only-begotten Son." What depth and power in the little word
-"so"!
-
-It may here be needful to meet a difficulty which often occurs to
-anxious souls, in reference to the question of appropriation.
-Thousands have been harassed and perplexed by this question, at some
-stage or other of their spiritual history; and it is not improbable
-that many who shall read these pages may be glad of a few words on the
-subject. Many may feel disposed to ask, "How am I to know that this
-love, and the gift of love, are intended for _me_? What warrant have
-_I_ for believing that 'everlasting life' is for _me_? I know the plan
-of salvation; I believe in the all-sufficiency of the atonement of
-Christ for the forgiveness and justification of all who truly believe.
-I am convinced of the truth of all that the Bible declares. I believe
-we are all sinners, and moreover, that we can do nothing to save
-ourselves--that we need to be washed in the blood of Jesus, and to be
-taught and led by the Holy Ghost, ere we can please God here, and
-dwell with Him hereafter. All this I fully believe, and yet I have no
-assurance that I am saved, and I want to know on what authority I am
-to believe that my sins are forgiven and that I have everlasting
-life."
-
-If the foregoing be, in any measure, the language of the reader--if it
-be, at all, the expression of his difficulty, we would, in the first
-place, call his attention to two words which occur in our precious
-text (John iii. 16), namely, "_world_" and "_whosoever_." It seems
-utterly impossible for anyone to refuse the application of these two
-words. For what, let us ask, is the meaning of the term "_world_"?
-What does it embrace? or, rather, what does it not embrace? When our
-Lord declares that "God so loved the world," on what ground can the
-reader exclude himself from the range, scope, and application of this
-divine love? On no other ground whatever, unless he can show that he
-alone belongs not to the world, but to some other sphere of being. If
-it were declared that "the world" is hopelessly condemned, could
-anyone making a part of that world avoid the application of the
-sentence! Could he exclude himself from it? Impossible. How then can
-he--why should he--exclude himself, when it is a question of God's
-free love, and of salvation by Christ Jesus?
-
-But, further, we would ask, What is the meaning, what is the force of
-the familiar word, "_whosoever_"? Assuredly it means "_anybody_;" and
-if anybody, why not the reader? It is infinitely better, infinitely
-surer and more satisfactory to find the word "whosoever" in the
-gospel than to find my own name there, inasmuch as there may be a
-thousand persons in the world of the same name; but "whosoever"
-applies to me as distinctly as though I were the only sinner on the
-face of the earth.
-
-Thus, then, the very words of the gospel message--the very terms used
-to set forth the glad tidings, are such as leave no possible ground
-for a difficulty as to their application. If we listen to our Lord in
-the days of His flesh, we hear such words as these: "God so loved the
-_world_ that He gave His only-begotten Son, that _whosoever_ believeth
-in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." Again, if we
-listen to Him after His resurrection, we hear these words, "Go ye into
-_all the world_, and preach the gospel to _every creature_" (Mark
-xvi.). And lastly, if we listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost sent
-from a risen, ascended, and glorified Lord, we hear such words as
-these: "The same Lord over all is rich unto _all_ that call upon Him.
-For _whosoever_ shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved"
-(Rom. x. 12, 13).
-
-In all the above-cited passages we have two terms used, one general,
-the other particular, and both together so presenting the message of
-salvation as to leave no room whatever for anyone to refuse its
-application. If "all the world" is the scope, and "every creature" is
-the object of the precious gospel of Christ, then, on what ground can
-anyone exclude himself? Where is there authority for any sinner out
-of hell to say that the glad tidings of salvation are not for him?
-There is none. Salvation is as free as the air we breathe--free as the
-dewdrops that refresh the earth--free as the sunbeams that shine upon
-our pathway; and if any attempt to limit its application, they are
-neither in harmony with the mind of Christ, nor in sympathy with the
-heart of God.
-
-But it may be that some of our readers would, at this stage of the
-subject, feel disposed to ask us, "How do you dispose of the question
-of election?" We reply, "Very simply, by leaving it where God has
-placed it, namely, as a landmark in the inheritance of the spiritual
-Israel, and not as a stumbling-block in the pathway of the anxious
-inquirer." This we believe to be the true way of dealing with the
-deeply important doctrine of election. The more we ponder the subject,
-the more thoroughly are we convinced that it is a mistake on the part
-of the evangelist or preacher of the gospel to qualify his message,
-hamper his subject, or perplex his hearers, by the doctrine of
-election or predestination. He has to do with lost sinners in the
-discharge of his blessed ministry. He meets men where they are, on the
-broad ground of our common ruin our common guilt, our common
-condemnation. He meets them with a message of full, free, present,
-personal, and eternal salvation--a message which comes fresh, fervent,
-and glowing from the very bosom of God. His ministry is, as the Holy
-Ghost declares in 2 Cor. v., "a ministry of reconciliation," the
-glorious characteristics of which are these, "God in Christ" ...
-"reconciling the world unto Himself" ... "not imputing their
-trespasses;" and the marvelous foundation of which is, that God has
-made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the
-righteousness of God in Him.
-
-Does this trench, in the smallest degree, upon the blessed and clearly
-established truth of election? By no means. It leaves it, in all its
-integrity and in its full value, as a grand fundamental truth of Holy
-Scripture, exactly where God has placed it; not as a preliminary
-question to be settled ere the sinner comes to Jesus, but as a most
-precious consolation and encouragement to him when he has come. This
-makes all the difference. If the sinner be called upon to settle
-beforehand the question of his election, how is he to set about it?
-Whither is he to turn for a solution? Where shall he find a divine
-warrant for believing that he is one of the elect? Can he find a
-single line of Scripture on which to base his faith as to his
-election? He cannot. He can find scores of passages declaring him to
-be lost, guilty and undone--scores of passages to assure him of his
-total inability to do aught in the matter of his own salvation--hundreds
-of passages unfolding the free love of God, the value and efficacy of
-the atonement of Christ, and assuring him of a hearty welcome to come
-_just as he is_, and make God's blessed salvation his own. But if it
-be needed for him to settle the prior question of his predestination
-and election, then is his case hopeless, and he must, in so far as he
-is in earnest, be plunged in black despair.
-
-And is it not thus with thousands at this moment through the
-misapplication of the doctrine of election? We fully believe it is,
-and hence our anxiety to help our readers by setting the matter in
-what we judge to be the true light before their minds. We believe it
-to be of the utmost importance for the anxious inquirer to know that
-the standpoint from which he is called to view the cross of Christ is
-not the standpoint of election, but of conscious ruin. The grace of
-God meets him as a lost, dead, guilty sinner; not as an elect one.
-This is an unspeakable mercy, inasmuch as he knows he is the former,
-but cannot know that he is the latter until the gospel has come to him
-in power. "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." How did
-he know it? "Because our gospel came not unto you in word only, but
-also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance" (1 Thess.
-i. 4, 5). Paul preached to the Thessalonians as lost sinners; and when
-the gospel had laid hold of them as lost, he could write to them as
-elect.
-
-This puts election in its right place. If the reader will turn for a
-moment to Acts xvii., he will there see how Paul discharged his
-business as an evangelist amongst the Thessalonians: "Now when they
-had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to
-Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his
-manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with
-them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
-needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this
-Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ." So, also, in that passage at
-the opening of 1 Cor. xv.: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the
-gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and
-wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory
-what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I
-delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that
-Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was
-buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the
-Scriptures" (verses 1-4).
-
-From this passage, and many others which might be quoted, we learn
-that the apostle preached not merely a doctrine, but a person. He did
-not preach election. He taught it to saints, but never preached it to
-sinners. This should be the evangelist's model at all times. We never
-once find the apostles preaching election. They preached Christ--they
-unfolded the goodness of God--His loving-kindness--His tender
-mercy--His pardoning love--His gracious readiness to receive all who
-come in their true character and condition as lost sinners. Such was
-their mode of preaching, or, rather, such was the mode of the Holy
-Ghost in them; and such, too, was the mode of the blessed Master
-Himself. "_Come unto Me_, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
-_I will give_ you rest." "If _any man_ thirst, let him come unto Me
-and drink." "Him that cometh to Me I will _in no wise_ cast out"
-(Matt. xi.; John vi., vii.).
-
-Here are no stumbling-blocks in the way of anxious inquirers--no
-preliminary questions to be settled--no conditions to be fulfilled--no
-theological difficulties to be solved. No, the sinner is met on his
-own ground--met as he is--met just now. There is rest for the weary,
-drink for the thirsty, life for the dead, pardon for the guilty,
-salvation for the lost. Do these free invitations touch the doctrine
-of election? Assuredly not. And what is more, the doctrine of election
-does not touch them. In other words, a full and free gospel leaves
-perfectly untouched the grand and all-important truth of election; and
-the truth of election, in its proper place, leaves the gospel of the
-grace of God on its own broad and blessed base, and in all its divine
-length, breadth, and fulness. The gospel meets us as lost, and saves
-us; and then, when we know ourselves as saved, the precious doctrine
-of election comes in to establish us in the fact that we can never be
-lost. It never was the purpose of God that poor anxious souls should
-be harassed with theological questions or points of doctrine. No;
-blessed forever be His name, it is His gracious desire that the
-healing balm of His pardoning love, and the cleansing efficacy of the
-atoning blood of Jesus, should be applied to the spiritual wounds of
-every sin-sick soul. And as to the doctrines of predestination and
-election, He has unfolded them in His Word to comfort His saints, not
-to perplex poor sinners. They shine like precious gems on the page of
-inspiration, but they were never intended to lie as stumbling-blocks
-in the way of earnest seekers after life and peace. They are deposited
-in the hand of the teacher to be unfolded in the bosom of the family
-of God; but they are not intended for the evangelist, whose blessed
-mission is to the highways and hedges of a lost world. They are
-designed to feed and comfort the children, not to scare and stumble
-the sinner. We would say, and that with real earnestness, to all
-evangelists, Do not hamper your preaching with theological questions
-of any sort or description. Preach Christ. Unfold the deep and
-everlasting love of a Saviour-God. Seek to bring the guilty,
-conscience-smitten sinner into the very presence of a pardoning God.
-Thunder, if you please, if so led, at the conscience--thunder loud at
-sin--thunder forth the dread realities of the great white throne, the
-lake of fire, and everlasting torment; but see that you aim at
-bringing the guilt-stricken conscience to rest in the atoning virtues
-of the blood of Christ. Then you can hand over the fruits of your
-ministry to the divinely qualified, to be instructed in the deeper
-mysteries of the faith of Christ. You may rest assured that the
-faithful discharge of your duty as an evangelist will never lead you
-to trespass on the domain of sound theology.
-
-And to the anxious inquirer we would say with equal earnestness, Let
-nothing stand in your way in coming this moment to Jesus. Let theology
-speak as it may, you are to listen to the voice of Jesus, who says,
-"_Come unto Me_." Be assured there is no hindrance, no difficulty, no
-hitch, no question, no condition. You are a lost sinner, and Jesus is
-a full Saviour. Put your trust in Him, and you are saved forever.
-Believe in Him, and you will know your place amongst the "elect of
-God" who are "predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son."
-Bring your sins to Jesus and He will pardon them, cancel them by His
-blood, and clothe you in a spotless robe of divine righteousness. May
-God's Spirit lead you now to cast yourself simply and entirely upon
-that precious, all-sufficient Saviour!
-
-We will now notice, very briefly, three distinct evils resulting from
-a wrong application of the doctrine of election, namely:
-
-I. The discouragement of really earnest souls, who ought to be helped
-on in every possible way. If such persons are repulsed by the question
-of election, the result must be disastrous in the extreme. If they are
-told that the glad tidings of salvation are only for the elect--that
-Christ died only for such, and hence only such can be saved--that
-unless they are elect they have no right to apply to themselves the
-benefits of the death of Christ: if, in short, they are turned from
-Jesus to theology--from the heart of a loving, pardoning God to the
-cold and withering dogmas of systematic divinity, it is impossible to
-say where they may end; they may take refuge either in superstition on
-the one hand, or in infidelity on the other. They may end in high
-church, broad church, or no church at all. What they really want is
-Christ, the living, loving, precious, all-sufficient Christ of God. He
-is the true food for anxious souls.
-
-II. But, in the second place, careless souls are rendered more
-careless still by a false application of the doctrine of election.
-Such persons, when pressed as to their state and prospects, will fold
-their arms and say, "You know I cannot believe unless God give me the
-power. If I am one of the elect, I must be saved; if not, I cannot. I
-can do nothing, but must wait God's time." All this false and flimsy
-reasoning should be exposed and demolished. It will not stand for a
-moment in the light of the judgment-seat of Christ. Each one will
-learn there that election furnished no excuse whatever, inasmuch as it
-never was set up by God as a barrier to the sinner's salvation. The
-word is, "_Whosoever_ will, let him take the water of life _freely_."
-The very same form of speech and style of language which removes the
-stumbling-block from the feet of the anxious inquirer snatches the
-plea from the lips of the careless rejecter. No one is shut out. All
-are invited. There is neither barrier on the one hand, nor a plea on
-the other. All are made welcome; and all are responsible. Hence, if
-any one presumes to excuse himself for refusing God's salvation, which
-is as clear as a sunbeam, by urging God's decrees, which are entirely
-hidden, he will find himself fatally mistaken.
-
-III. And now, in the third and last place, we have frequently seen
-with real sorrow of heart the earnest, loving, large-hearted
-evangelist damped and crippled by a false application of the truth of
-election. This should be most carefully avoided. We hold that it is
-not the business of the evangelist to preach election. If he is
-rightly instructed, he will _hold_ it; but if he is rightly directed,
-he will not _preach_ it.
-
-In a word, then, the precious doctrine of election is not to be a
-stumbling-block to the anxious--a plea for the careless--a damper to
-the fervent evangelist. May God's Spirit give us to feel the adjusting
-power of truth!
-
-Having thus briefly endeavored to clear away any difficulty arising
-from the misuse of the precious doctrine of election, and to show the
-reader, "whosoever" he be, that there is no hindrance whatever to his
-full and hearty acceptance of God's free gift, even the gift of His
-only-begotten Son, it now only remains for us to consider the result,
-in every case, of this acceptance, as set forth in the words of our
-Lord Jesus Christ: "God so loved the world, that He gave His
-only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
-but have everlasting life."
-
-Here, then, we have the result in the case of every one who believes
-in Jesus. He shall never perish, but possesses everlasting life. But
-who can attempt to unfold all that is included in this word "perish"?
-What mortal tongue can set forth the horrors of the lake that burneth
-with fire and brimstone, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is
-not quenched"? We believe, assuredly, that none but the One who used
-the word, in speaking to Nicodemus, can fully expound it to anyone;
-but we feel called upon to bear our decided and unequivocal testimony
-as to what He has taught on the solemn truth of eternal punishment. We
-have occasionally referred to this subject, but we believe it demands
-a formal notice; and inasmuch as the word "_perish_" occurs in the
-passage which has been occupying our thoughts, we cannot do better
-than call the reader's attention to it.
-
-It is a serious and melancholy fact that the enemy of souls and of the
-truth of God is leading thousands, both in Europe and America, to call
-in question the momentous fact of the everlasting punishment of the
-wicked. This he does on various grounds, and by various arguments,
-adapted to the habits of thought and moral condition and intellectual
-standpoint of individuals. Some he seeks to persuade that God is too
-kind to send anyone to a place of torment. It is contrary to His
-benevolent mind and His beneficent nature to inflict pain on any of
-His creatures.
-
-Now, to all who stand, or affect to stand, upon this ground of
-argument, we would suggest the important inquiry, "What is to be done
-with the sins of those who die impenitent and unbelieving?" Whatever
-there may be in the idea that God is too kind to send sinners to hell,
-it is certain that He is too holy to let sin into heaven. He is "of
-purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity" (Hab. i.
-13). God and evil cannot dwell together. This is plain. How, then, is
-the case to be met? If God cannot let sin into heaven, what is to be
-done with the sinner who dies in his sins? He must perish! But what
-does this mean? Does it mean annihilation--that is, the utter
-extinction or blotting out of the very existence of body and soul?
-Nay, reader, this cannot be. Many would like this, no doubt. "Let us
-eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," would, alas, suit many thousands
-of the sons and daughters of pleasure who think only of the present
-moment, and who roll sin as a sweet morsel under their tongue. There
-are millions on the surface of the globe who are bartering their
-eternal happiness for a few hours of guilty pleasure, and the crafty
-foe of mankind seeks to persuade such that there is no such place as
-hell, no such thing as the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone;
-and in order to obtain a footing for this fatal suggestion, he bases
-it upon the plausible and imposing notion of the kindness of God.
-
-Reader, do not believe the arch-deceiver. Remember, God is holy. He
-cannot let sin into His presence. If you die in your sins you must
-perish, and this word "perish" involves, according to the clear
-testimony of Holy Scripture, eternal misery and torment in hell. Hear
-what our Lord Jesus Christ saith, in His solemn description of the
-judgment of the nations: "Then shall the King say also to them on His
-left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into _everlasting_ fire,
-prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. xxv. 41). And while you
-harken to these awfully solemn accents, remember that the word
-translated "everlasting" occurs seventy times in the New Testament,
-and is applied as follows: "Everlasting fire"--"eternal
-life"--"everlasting punishment"--"eternal damnation"--"everlasting
-habitations"--"the everlasting God"--"eternal weight of
-glory"--"everlasting destruction"--"everlasting consolation"--"eternal
-glory"--"eternal salvation"--"eternal judgment"--"eternal
-redemption"--"the eternal Spirit"--"eternal inheritance"--"everlasting
-kingdom"--"eternal fire."
-
-Now, we ask any candid, thoughtful person, upon what principle can a
-word be said to mean _eternal_ when applied to the Holy Ghost or to
-God, and only _temporary_ when applied to hell-fire or the punishment
-of the wicked? If it means eternal in the one case, why not also in
-the other? We have just glanced at a Greek Concordance, and we should
-like to ask, Would it be right to mark off some half-dozen passages in
-which the word "everlasting" occurs, and write opposite to each these
-words: "Everlasting here only means for a time"? The very thought is
-monstrous. It would be a daring and blasphemous insult offered to the
-volume of inspiration. No, reader, be assured of it, you cannot touch
-the word "everlasting" in one case without touching it also in all the
-seventy cases in which it occurs. It is a dangerous thing to tamper
-with the Word of the living God. It is infinitely better to bow down
-under its holy authority. It is worse than useless to seek to avoid
-the plain meaning and solemn force of that word "perish" as applied to
-the immortal soul of man. It involves, beyond all question, the awful,
-the ineffably awful reality of burning forever in the flames of hell.
-This is what Scripture means by "perishing." The votary of pleasure,
-or the lover of money, may seek to forget this. They may seek to drown
-all thought of it in the glass or in the busy mart. The sentimentalist
-may rave about the divine benevolence; the skeptic may reason about
-the possibility of eternal fire; but we are intensely anxious that the
-reader should rise from this paper with the firm and deeply wrought
-conclusion and hearty belief that the punishment of all who die in
-their sins will be eternal in hell as surely as the blessedness of all
-who die in the faith of Christ will be eternal in the heavens. Were it
-not so, the Holy Ghost would most assuredly have used a different
-word, when speaking of the former, from that which He applies to the
-latter. This, we conceive, is beyond all question.
-
-But there is another objection urged against the doctrine of eternal
-punishment. It is frequently said, "How can we suppose that God would
-inflict eternal punishment as a penalty for a few short years of sin?"
-We reply, It is beginning at the wrong end to argue in this way. It
-is not a question of time as viewed from man's standpoint, but of the
-gravity of sin itself as looked at from God's standpoint. And how is
-this question to be solved? Only by looking at the Cross. If you want
-to know what sin is in God's sight, you must look at what it cost Him
-to put it away. It is by the standard of Christ's infinite sacrifice,
-and by that alone, that you can rightly measure sin. Men may compare
-their few years with God's eternity; they may compare their short span
-of life with that boundless eternity that stretches beyond; they may
-seek to put a few years of sin into one scale, and an eternity of woe
-and torment into the other, and thus attempt to reach a just
-conclusion: but it will never do to argue thus. The question is, Did
-it require an infinite atonement to put away sin? If so, the
-punishment of sin must be eternal. If nothing short of an infinite
-sacrifice could deliver from the consequences of sin, those
-consequences must be eternal.
-
-In a word, then, we must look at sin from God's point of view, and
-measure it by His standard, else we shall never have a just sense of
-what it is or what it deserves. It is the height of folly for men to
-attempt to lay down a rule as to the amount or duration of the
-punishment due to sin. God alone can settle this. And, after all, what
-was it that produced all the misery and wretchedness, the sickness and
-sorrow, the death and desolation, of well-nigh six thousand years?
-Just _one_ act of disobedience--the eating of a forbidden fruit. Can
-man explain this? Can human reason explain how one act produced such
-an overwhelming amount of misery? It cannot. Well, then, if it cannot
-do this, how can it be trusted when it attempts to decide the question
-as to what is due to sin? Woe be to all those who commit themselves to
-its guidance on this most momentous point!
-
-Ah, reader, you must see that God alone can estimate sin and its just
-deserts, and He alone can tell us all about it. And has He not done
-so? Yes, verily, He has measured sin in the cross of His Son; and
-there, too, He has set forth in the most impressive manner what it
-deserves. What, think you, must that be that caused the bitter cry,
-"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" If God forsook His
-only-begotten Son when He was made sin, must He not also forsake all
-who are found in their sins? But how can they ever get rid of them? We
-believe the conclusion is unavoidable. We consider that the infinite
-nature of the atonement proves unanswerably the doctrine of eternal
-punishment. That peerless and precious sacrifice is at once the
-foundation of our eternal life and of our deliverance from eternal
-death. It delivers from eternal wrath and introduces to eternal glory.
-It saves from the endless misery of hell and procures for us the
-endless bliss of heaven. Thus, whatever side of the Cross we look at,
-or from whatever side we view it, we see eternity stamped upon it. If
-we view it from the gloomy depths of hell or from the sunny heights of
-heaven, we see it to be the same infinite, eternal, divine reality.
-It is by the Cross we must measure both the blessedness of heaven and
-the misery of hell. Those who put their trust in that blessed One who
-died on the cross obtain everlasting life and felicity. Those who
-reject Him must sink into endless perdition.
-
-We do not by any means pretend to handle this great question
-theologically, or to adduce all the arguments that might be advanced
-in defence of the doctrine of eternal punishment; but there is one
-further consideration which we must suggest to the reader as tending
-to lead him to a sound conclusion, and that is the immortality of the
-soul.[15] "God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and
-man became a living soul." The fall of man in nowise touched the
-question of the soul's immortality. If, therefore, the soul is
-immortal, annihilation is impossible. The soul must live forever.
-Overwhelming thought! Forever! Forever! Forever! The whole moral being
-sinks under the awful magnitude of the thought. It surpasses all
-conception and baffles all mental calculation. Human arithmetic can
-only deal with the finite. It has no figures by which to represent a
-never-ending eternity. But the writer and the reader must live
-throughout eternity either in that bright and blessed world above or
-in that terrible place where hope can never come.
-
-  [15] For a full examination of this subject, the reader is referred to
-  "Facts and Theories as to a future state,--the Scripture doctrine
-  considered with reference to current denials of eternal punishment,"
-  by F. W. Grant, 640 pp., $1,50 (with full index of texts and subjects
-  examined.)
-
-May God's Spirit impress our hearts more and more with the solemnity
-of eternity, and of immortal souls going down into hell. We are
-deplorably deficient in feeling as to these weighty realities. We are
-daily thrown in contact with people, we buy and sell and carry on
-intercourse in various ways with those who must live forever, and yet
-how rarely do we seek occasion to press upon them the awfulness of
-eternity and the appalling condition of all who die without a personal
-interest in the blood of Christ!
-
-Reader, let us ask God to make us more earnest, more solemn, more
-faithful, more zealous in pleading with souls, in warning others to
-flee from the wrath to come. We want to live more in the light of
-eternity, and then we shall be better able to deal with others.
-
-It only remains for us now to ponder the last clause of the fruitful
-passage of Scripture which has been under consideration (John iii.
-16). It sets forth the positive result, in every case, of simple faith
-in the Son of God. It declares, in the simplest and clearest way, the
-fact that every one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a
-possessor of everlasting life. It is not merely that his sins are
-blotted out; that is blessedly true. Nor is it merely that he is saved
-from the consequences of his guilt, which is equally true. But there
-is more. The believer in Jesus has a new life, and that life is in
-the Son of God. He is placed upon a new footing altogether. He is no
-longer looked at in the old Adam condition, but in a risen Christ.
-
-This is an immense truth, and one of deepest possible moment. We
-earnestly pray the reader's calm and prayerful attention while we
-seek, in some feeble way, to present to him what we believe to be
-wrapped up in the last clause of John iii. 16.
-
-There is in the minds of many a very imperfect sense of what we get by
-faith in Christ. Some seem to view the atoning work of Christ merely
-as a remedial measure for the sins of our old nature--the payment of
-debts contracted in our old condition. That it is all this we need not
-say; blessed be God for the precious truth. But it is much more. It is
-not merely that the sins are atoned for, but the nature which
-committed them is condemned and set aside by the cross of Christ, and
-is to be "_reckoned_" dead by the believer. It is not merely that the
-debts contracted in the old condition are canceled, but the old
-condition itself is completely ignored by God, and is to be so
-accounted by the believer.
-
-This great truth is doctrinally unfolded in 2 Cor. v., where we read,
-"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
-away; behold, all things are become new" (ver. 17). The apostle does
-not say, "If any man be in Christ he is pardoned--his sins are
-forgiven--his debts paid." All this is divinely true; but the
-statement just quoted goes very much farther. It declares that a man
-in Christ is a new creation altogether. It is not the old nature
-pardoned, but completely set aside, with all its belongings, and a new
-creation introduced in which there is not a single shred of the old.
-"All things are become new; and all things are of God."
-
-Now this gives immense relief to the heart. Indeed, we question if any
-soul can enter into the full liberty of the gospel of Christ until he
-lay hold, in some measure, of the truth of the "new creation." There
-may be a looking to Christ for pardon, a vague hope of getting to
-heaven at the last, a measure of reliance on the goodness and mercy of
-God--there may be all this, and yet no just sense of the meaning of
-"everlasting life," no happy consciousness of being "a new
-creation"--no understanding of the grand fact that the old Adam nature
-is entirely set aside, the old condition in which we stood done away
-in God's sight.
-
-But it is more than probable that some of our readers may be at a loss
-to know what is meant by such terms as "the old Adam nature"--"the old
-condition"--"the flesh"--"the old man," and such like. These
-expressions may fall strangely on the ears of those for whom we
-specially write; and we certainly wish to avoid shooting over the
-heads of our readers. As God is our witness, there is one thing we
-earnestly desire, one object which we would ever keep before our
-minds, and that is the instruction and edification of our readers; and
-therefore we would rather run the risk of being tedious than make use
-of phrases which convey no clear or intelligible idea to the mind.
-Such terms as "the old man"--"the flesh," and the like, are used in
-Scripture in manifold places: for example, in Rom. vi. we read, "Our
-_old man_ is crucified with Him (Christ), that _the body of sin_ might
-be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (ver. 6).
-
-Now what does the apostle mean by the "old man"? We believe he means
-man as in that Adam nature which we inherited from our first parents.
-And what does he mean by "the body of sin"? We believe he means the
-whole system or condition in which we stood in our unregenerate,
-unrenewed, unconverted state. The old Adam, then, is declared to be
-crucified--the old condition of sin is said to be destroyed
-(annulled)--by the death of Christ. Hence the soul that believes on
-the Lord Jesus Christ is privileged to know that he--his sinful,
-guilty self--is looked upon by God as dead and set aside completely.
-He has no more existence as such before God. He is dead and buried.
-
-Observe, it is not merely that our sins are forgiven, our debts paid,
-our guilt atoned for; but the man in the nature that committed the
-sins, contracted the debts, and incurred the guilt, is put forever out
-of God's sight. It is not God's way to forgive us our sins and yet
-leave us in the same relations in which we committed them. No; He has,
-in His marvelous grace and vast plan, condemned and abolished forever,
-for the believer, the old Adam relationship, with all its belongings,
-so that it is no longer recognized by Him. We are declared, by the
-voice of holy Scripture, to be "crucified"--"dead"--"buried"--"risen"
-with Christ. God tells us we are so, and we are to "_reckon_"
-ourselves to be so. It is a matter of faith, and not of feeling. If I
-look at myself from _my_ standpoint, or judge by my feelings, I shall
-never, can never understand this truth. And why? Because I feel myself
-to be just the same sinful creature as ever. I feel that there is sin
-in me; that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing; that my old
-nature is in nowise changed or improved; that it has the same evil
-tendencies as ever, and, if not mortified and kept down by the
-gracious energy of the Holy Spirit, it will break out in its true
-character.
-
-And it is just here, we doubt not, that so many sincere souls are
-perplexed and troubled. They are looking at themselves, and
-_reasoning_ upon what they see and feel, instead of resting in the
-truth of God, and _reckoning_ themselves to be what God tells them
-they are. They find it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile what
-they feel in themselves with what they read in the word of God--to
-make their inward self-consciousness harmonize with God's revelation.
-But we must remember that faith takes God at His word. It ever thinks
-with Him on all points. It believes what He says because He says it.
-Hence, if God tells me that my old man is crucified, that He no longer
-sees me as in the old Adam state, but in a risen Christ, I am to
-believe, like a little child, what He tells me, and walk in the faith
-of it from day to day. If I look in at myself for evidences of the
-truth of what God says, it is not faith at all. Abraham "considered
-not his own body, now dead, when he was about an hundred years old;
-neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb; he staggered not at the
-promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
-to God" (Rom. iv. 19, 20).
-
-This is the great principle which underlies the whole Christian
-system. "Abraham believed God," not something about God, but God
-Himself. This is faith. It is taking God's thoughts in place of our
-own. It is, in short, allowing God to think for us.
-
-Now, when we apply this to the subject before us, it makes it most
-simple. He that believeth in the Son of God hath everlasting life.
-Mark, it is not he that believeth something about the Son of God. No,
-it is he that believeth in Himself. It is a question of simple faith
-in the person of Christ; and everyone that has this faith is the
-actual possessor of everlasting life. This is the direct and positive
-statement of our Lord in the Gospels. It is repeated over and over
-again. Nor is this all. Not only does the believer thus possess
-eternal life, but by the further light which the epistles throw upon
-this grand question he may see that his old self--that which he was in
-nature--that which the apostle designates "the old man"--is accounted
-by God dead and buried. This may be difficult to understand; but the
-reader must remember he must believe not because he understands, but
-because it is written in God's word. It is not said, "Abraham
-understood God." No; but he "believed God." It is when the heart
-believes that light is poured in upon the understanding. If I wait
-till I understand in order to believe, I am leaning to my own
-understanding, instead of committing myself in childlike faith to
-God's word.
-
-Reader, ponder this! You may say you cannot understand how your sinful
-self can be looked upon as dead and gone while you feel its workings,
-its heavings, its tossings, its tendencies, continually within you. We
-reply, or rather God's eternal Word declares, that if your heart
-believes in Jesus, then is all this true for you, namely, you _have_
-eternal life; you _are_ justified from all things; you _are_ a new
-creation; old things _are_ passed away; _all_ things _are_ become new;
-and _all_ things _are_ of God. In a word, you are "_in Christ_," and
-"_as_ He is, so _are_ you in this world" (1 John iv. 17).
-
-And is not this a great deal more than the mere pardoning of your
-sins, the canceling of your debts, or the salvation of your soul from
-hell? Assuredly it is. And suppose we were to ask you on what
-authority you believe in the forgiveness of your sins. Is it because
-you feel, realize, or understand? Nay; but because it is written, "To
-Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever
-believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts x. 43). "The
-blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John
-i. 7). Well, then, upon precisely the same authority you are to
-believe that your old man has been crucified, that you are not in the
-flesh, not in the old creation, not in the old Adam relation; but
-that, on the contrary, you are viewed by God as actually in a risen
-and glorified Christ--that He looks upon you as He looks upon Christ.
-
-True it is--alas, how true!--the flesh is in you, and you are still
-here, as to the fact of your condition, in this old world, which is
-under judgment. But then, hear what your Lord saith, when speaking
-about you to His Father: "They are not of the world, even as I am not
-of the world." And again, "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even
-so have I also sent them into the world."
-
-Hence, therefore, if you will just bow to God's word, if you will
-reason not about what you see in yourself, and feel in yourself, and
-think of yourself, but simply _believe_ what God says, you will enter
-into the blessed peace and holy liberty flowing from the fact that you
-are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; not in the old creation, but
-in the new; not under law, but under grace; not of the world, but of
-God. You have passed clean off the old platform which you occupied as
-a child of nature and a member of the first Adam, and you have taken
-your place on a new platform altogether as a child of God and a member
-of Christ.
-
-All this is vividly prefigured by the deluge and the ark, in the days
-of Noah. (See Gen. vi.-viii.) "And God looked upon the earth, and,
-behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the
-earth. And God said unto Noah, _The end of all flesh_ is come before
-Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I
-will destroy them with the earth." Here, then, was, in type, the end
-of the old creation. All was to pass under the waters of judgment.
-What then? "Make thee an ark of gopher wood." Here we have set forth a
-figure of the new thing. That ark, floating peacefully over the dark
-abyss of waters, was a type of Christ, and the believer in Him. The
-old world, together with man, was buried beneath the waves of
-judgment, and the only object that remained was the ark--the vessel of
-mercy and salvation, riding in safety and triumph over the billows.
-Thus it is now, in truth and reality. There is nothing before the eye
-of God but a risen, victorious and glorified Christ, and His people
-linked with Him. The end of _all_ flesh has come before God. It is not
-a question of some very gross forms of "flesh," or of nature, of that
-merely which is "vile and refuse." No; it is "the _end_ of _all_."
-Such is the solemn, sweeping verdict; and then--what? A risen Christ.
-Nothing else. All in Him are seen by God as He is seen. All out of Him
-are under judgment. It all hinges upon this one question, "Am I in or
-out of Christ?" What a question!
-
-Reader, are you in Christ? Do you believe in His name? Have you given
-Him the confidence of your heart? If so, you have "eternal life"--you
-are "a new creature"--"old things are passed away." God does not see
-a single shred of the old thing remaining for you. "All things are
-become new, and all things are of God." You may say you do not _feel_
-that old things are all passed away. We reply, God says they are, and
-it is your happy privilege to _believe_ what He says, and "_reckon_"
-yourself to be what He declares you are. God speaks according to that
-which is true of you in Christ. He does not see you in the flesh, but
-in Christ. There is absolutely nothing before the eye of God but
-Christ: and the very weakest believer is viewed as part of Christ,
-just as your hand is a part of your body. You have no existence before
-God apart from Christ--no life--no righteousness--no holiness--no
-wisdom--no power. Apart from Him, you have nothing, and can be
-nothing. In Him you have all and are all, He says; you are thoroughly
-identified with Christ. Marvelous fact! Profound mystery! Most
-glorious truth! It is not a question of attainment or of progress. It
-is the settled and absolute standing of the feeblest member of the
-Church of God. True, there are various measures of intelligence,
-experience, and devotedness; but there is only one life, one standing,
-one position before God, and that is Christ. There is no such thing as
-a higher or lower Christian life. Christ is the believer's life, and
-you cannot speak of a higher or a lower Christ. We can understand the
-higher stages of Christian life; but there is no spiritual
-intelligence in speaking of a higher Christian life.
-
-This is a grand truth, and we earnestly pray that God the Spirit may
-open it fully to the mind of the reader. We feel assured that a
-clearer understanding thereof would chase away a thousand mists,
-answer a thousand questions, and solve a thousand difficulties. It
-would not only have the effect of giving settled peace to the soul,
-but also of determining the believer's position in the most distinct
-way. If Christ is my life--if I am in Him and identified with Him,
-then not only do I share in His acceptance with God, but also in His
-rejection by this present world. The two things go together. They form
-the two sides of the one grand question. If I am in Christ and as
-Christ before God, then I am in Christ and as Christ before the world:
-and it will never do to accept the result of this union before God and
-refuse the result of it as regards the world. If we have the one, we
-must have the other likewise.
-
-All this is fully unfolded in John xvii. There we read on the one
-hand, "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may
-be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may
-be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast
-sent Me, and _hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me_" (vers. 22, 23).
-And, on the other hand, we read, "I have given them Thy Word; and _the
-world hath hated them_, because they are not of the world, even as I
-am not of the world" (ver. 14). This is as plain and positive as
-anything can be. And be it remembered that, in this wondrous
-scripture, our Lord is not speaking merely of the apostles, but, as He
-says, of "them also who shall believe on Me through their word," that
-is, of all believers. Hence it follows that all who believe in Jesus
-are one with Him as accepted above, and one with Him as rejected
-below. The two things are inseparable. The Head and the members share
-in one common acceptance in heaven, and in one common rejection upon
-earth. Oh that all the Lord's people entered more into the truth and
-reality of this! Would that we all knew a little more of the meaning
-of fellowship with a heaven-accepted, earth-rejected Christ!
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION
-
-     "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to
-     Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
-     of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ,
-     reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
-     trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
-     reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
-     though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's
-     stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be
-     sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
-     righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 18-21).
-
-
-The fifth chapter of second Corinthians is a most weighty section of
-Inspiration. Its closing lines contain the special thesis of the
-following pages; but ere we proceed with it, we must call the reader's
-attention to some most interesting and important points presented in
-the course of the chapter.
-
-And, first of all, let us dwell for a moment on the opening sentence,
-"_We know_." In it we have the language of Christian certainty. It
-does not say, "We _hope_." Still less does it say, "We _fear_," or "We
-_doubt_." No; such language would not express that unclouded certainty
-and calm assurance which it is the privilege of the very feeblest
-child of God to possess. And yet, alas, how few, even of the children
-of God, enjoy this blessed certainty--this calm assurance! Many there
-are who look upon it as the height of presumption to say, "We know."
-They seem to think that doubts and fears argue a proper condition of
-soul--that it is impossible for anyone to be sure--that the most we
-can expect is to cherish a vague hope of reaching heaven when we die.
-
-Now, it must be admitted that if we ourselves had aught to do with the
-ground of certainty or assurance, then it would indeed be the very
-height of folly to think of being sure; then assuredly our hope would
-be a very vague one. But, thanks be to God, it is not so. We having
-nothing whatever to do with the ground of our certainty, it lies
-entirely outside of ourselves, and it must be sought only and
-altogether in the eternal word of God. This renders it blessedly
-simple. It makes the whole question hinge upon the truth of God's
-word. Why am I sure? Because God's word is true. A shadow of
-uncertainty or misgiving on my part would argue a want of authority or
-security in the word of God. It really comes to this: Christian
-certainty rests on the faithfulness of God. Before you can shake the
-former, you must shake the latter.
-
-We can understand this simple principle by our dealings with one
-another. If my fellow man makes a statement to me, and I express the
-smallest doubt or misgiving, or if I feel it without even expressing
-it, I am calling in question his truthfulness, or credibility. If he
-is a faithful, competent authority, I have no business to entertain a
-single doubt. My certainty is linked with his credibility. If he is a
-competent authority, I may enjoy perfect repose as to the matter
-concerning which he has spoken. Now, we all know what it is to receive
-in the most unqualified way the testimony of man, and to repose with
-calmness therein. It is not a question of feeling, but of receiving
-without a single question a plain statement, and resting on the
-authority of a competent witness. Well, then, as we have it in the
-First Epistle of John, "If we receive the testimony of man, the
-testimony of God is greater." So, also, our Lord said to the men of
-His time, "If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" (John viii.)
-He appeals to the truth of what He says as the reason why, or the
-ground on which, He expected to be believed.
-
-This, Christian reader, is a very weighty principle, and one which
-demands special attention on the part of all anxious inquirers, as
-also on the part of all who undertake to deal with such. There is a
-strong and constant tendency to look _within_ for the ground of
-assurance--to build upon certain feelings, experiences, and exercises,
-either past or present--to look back at some special process through
-which we have passed, or to look in at certain impressions or
-convictions of our own minds, and to find in these the ground of our
-confidence, the warrant for our faith. This will never do. It is
-impossible to find settled peace or calm repose in this way.
-Feelings, however true and real, change and pass away. Experiences,
-however genuine, may prove defective. Impressions and convictions may
-prove utterly false. None of these things, therefore, can form a solid
-ground of Christian certainty. This latter must be sought and found in
-God's word alone. It is not in feelings, not in experiences, not in
-impressions or convictions, not in reasonings, not in human traditions
-or doctrines, but simply in the unchangeable, eternal Word of the
-living God. That Word which is settled forever in heaven, and which
-God has magnified according to all the stability of His name, can
-alone impart peace to the mind and stability to the soul.
-
-True, it is only by the gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost that we
-can properly grasp and ever hold fast to the word of God; but still it
-is His Word, and that Word _alone_, that forms the ground of Christian
-certainty and the true basis and authority for the Christian in the
-entire range of practical life and action. We cannot be too simple as
-to this. We can only adopt the opening sentence of our chapter, and
-say, "We know," when we take God's word as the all-sufficient ground
-of our personal confidence. It will not do to be in any wise propped
-up by human authority. Thousands of the people of God have been made
-to taste the bitterness of leaning upon the commandments and doctrines
-of men. It is sure to end in disappointment and confusion, sooner or
-later. The edifice which is built upon the sand of human authority
-must fall at some time or other; whereas that which is founded on the
-rock of God's eternal truth shall stand forever. God's word imparts
-its own stability to the soul that leans upon it. "Therefore thus
-saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a
-sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste" (Isa. xxviii.
-16).
-
-As is the foundation, so is the faith that builds thereon. Hence the
-solemn importance of seeking to lead souls to build _only_ upon God's
-precious Word. Look at the anxiety of the apostle Paul in reference to
-this matter. Hear what he says to the Corinthians who were in such
-danger of being led away by human leadership and human authority. "And
-I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or
-of wisdom, declaring unto you _the testimony of God_. For I determined
-not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
-And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
-And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
-wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your
-faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God"
-(1 Cor. ii. 1-5).
-
-Here is a grand model for all preachers and teachers. Paul declared
-the "testimony of God," nothing more, nothing less, nothing different.
-And not only so, but he delivered that testimony in such a way as to
-connect the souls of his hearers immediately with the living God.
-Paul did not want the Corinthians to lean upon him; nay, he "trembled"
-lest they should be tempted to do so. He would have done them a
-grievous wrong had he in anywise come in between their souls and the
-true source of all authority--the true foundation of confidence and
-peace. Had he led them to build upon himself, he would have robbed
-them of God, and this would have been a wrong indeed. No marvel,
-therefore, that he was among them "in fear and in much trembling."
-They were evidently very much prone to set up and follow after human
-leaders, and thus miss the solid reality of personal communion with
-and dependence upon the living God. Hence the jealous care of the
-apostle in confining himself to the testimony of God; in delivering to
-them _only_ that which he had received of the Lord (see 1 Cor. xi. 23,
-xv. 3), lest the pure water should suffer in its passage from its
-source in God to the souls of the Corinthians--lest he should in the
-smallest degree impart the color of his own thoughts to the precious
-truth of God.
-
-We see the same thing in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. "For
-this cause also," says the faithful servant of Christ, "thank we God
-without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye
-heard of us, ye received it _not as the word of men_, but, _as it is
-in truth, the word of God_, which effectually worketh also in you that
-believe" (chap. ii. 13). Had he been seeking his own things, he would
-have been glad to obtain influence over the Thessalonians by linking
-them on to himself and leading them to lean upon him. But no; he
-rejoices in seeing them in living connection, in direct and realized
-association with God Himself. This is always the effect of true
-ministry, as it is ever the object of the true minister. Unless the
-soul be livingly linked with God, there is really nothing done. If it
-be merely following men--receiving what they say because they say
-it--an attachment to certain preachers or teachers because of
-something in their style and manner, or because they seem to be very
-holy, very separated, or very devoted--all this will come to naught.
-Those human links will soon be snapped asunder. The faith that stands
-in any measure in the wisdom of men will prove hollow and worthless.
-Nothing will prove permanent, nothing will endure, but that faith
-which rests on the testimony and in the power of the only true God.
-
-Christian reader, we earnestly invite your attention to this point. We
-do indeed feel its importance at the present moment. The enemy is
-seeking diligently to lead souls away from God, away from Christ, away
-from the holy Scriptures. He is seeking to get them to build on
-something short of _the truth_. He does not care what it is, provided
-it is not Christ. It may be reason, tradition, religiousness, human
-priesthood, fleshy pietism, holiness in the flesh, sectarianism,
-morality, good works, service (so called), human influence, patronage,
-philanthropy, anything short of Christ, short of God's word, short of
-a lively, personal, direct faith in the living God Himself.
-
-Now it is the sense of this pressing home upon the heart that leads us
-to urge with earnestness upon the reader the necessity of being
-thoroughly clear as to the ground on which he is at this moment
-standing. We want him to be able to say in the face of all around him,
-"_I know._" Nothing less than this will stand. It will not do to say,
-"_I hope._" No; there must be certainty. There must be the ability to
-say, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
-dissolved, _we have_ a building of God, an house not made with hands,
-eternal in the heavens." This is the language of faith, the language
-of a Christian. All is calm, clear, and sure, because all is of God.
-There may be an "if" with regard to "the earthly house." It may be
-dissolved, it may crumble into dust. All that belongs to this scene
-may bear the stamp of death; it may change and pass away, but the Word
-of the Lord endureth forever, and the faith that grasps and rests upon
-that Word partakes of its eternal stability. It enables one to say,
-"_I know_ that _I have_." Naught but faith can say this. Reason can
-only say, "I doubt;" superstition, "I fear:" only faith can say, "I
-know and am sure."
-
-An infidel teacher once said to a dying woman whom he had
-indoctrinated with his infidel notions, "Hold fast, Mary." What was
-her reply? "I can't hold fast, for you have never given me anything to
-hold by." Cutting rebuke! He had taught the poor woman to doubt, but
-he had given her nothing to believe; and then, when flesh and heart
-were failing, when earthly scenes were passing away and the dread
-realities of eternity were crowding in upon her soul's vision,
-infidelity altogether failed her; its wretched cobwebs could afford no
-refuge, no covering, in view of death and judgment. How different the
-condition of the believer--of the one who, in all simplicity of heart
-and humility of mind, takes his stand on the solid rock of Holy
-Scripture! Such an one can calmly say, "_I am now ready_ to be
-offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
-fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth
-there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
-righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to
-all them, also, that love His appearing" (2 Tim. iv. 6-8).
-
-It is more than probable that some may find it difficult to reconcile
-the calm certainty expressed in the first verse of our chapter with
-the groan of ver. 2. But the difficulty will vanish the moment we are
-enabled to see the true reason of the groan. "For in this we groan,
-earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from
-heaven, if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For
-we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that
-we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be
-swallowed up of life."
-
-Here we see that the very certainty of having "a building of God, an
-house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," makes us groan to
-possess it. The apostle did not groan in doubt or uncertainty. He did
-not groan under the weight of guilt or fear. Still less did he groan
-because he could not satisfy the desires of the flesh or of the mind,
-or because he could not surround himself with this world's perishable
-possessions. No; he longed for the heavenly building--the divine, the
-real, the eternal. He felt the heavy burden of the poor, crumbling
-tabernacle; it was a grievous hindrance to him. It was the only link
-with the scene around, and as such it was a heavy clog of which he
-longed to be rid.
-
-But, most clearly, he would not, and could not, have groaned for the
-heavenly house if he had a single question on his mind with respect to
-it. Men are never anxious to get rid of the body unless they are sure
-of possessing something better; nay, they grasp this present life with
-intense eagerness, and tremble at the thought of the future, which is
-all darkness and uncertainty to them. They groan at the thought of
-quitting the body; the apostle groaned because he was in it.
-
-This makes all the difference. Scripture never contemplates such a
-thing as a Christian groaning under sin, guilt, doubt, or fear; or
-sighing after the riches, honors or pleasures of this vain,
-sin-stricken world. Alas, alas, they do thus groan through ignorance
-of their true position in a risen Christ and their proper portion in
-the heavens! But such is not the ground or character of the groan in
-the scripture now before us; Paul saw with distinctness his house in
-the heavens; and, on the other hand, he felt the heavy burden of the
-tabernacle of clay; and he ardently longed to lay aside the latter and
-be clothed with the former.
-
-Hence, then, there is the fullest harmony between "_we know_" and "_we
-groan_." If we did not know for a certainty that we have a building of
-God, we should like to hold our earthly house as long as possible. We
-see this constantly. Men cling to life. They leave nothing untried to
-keep body and soul together. They have no certainty as to heaven. They
-cannot say, "we _know_" that "we _have_" anything there. On the other
-hand, they have a terrible dread of the future, which to their vision
-is wrapped up in clouds and thick darkness. They have never committed
-themselves in calm confidence to God and His word; they have never
-felt the tranquilizing power of His love. They have viewed Him as an
-angry Judge instead of seeing Him as the sinner's Friend--a just God
-and a Saviour--the righteous Justifier. No marvel, therefore, if they
-shrink with terror from the thought of meeting Him.
-
-But it is a totally different thing with a man who knows God as his
-Father--his Saviour--his best Friend; who knows that Jesus died to
-save him from his sins, and from all the consequences thereof. Such an
-one can say:
-
-    "I have a home above,
-      From sin and sorrow free;
-    A mansion which eternal Love
-      Designed and formed for me.
-
-    "The Father's gracious hand
-      Has built this blest abode;
-    From everlasting it was planned,
-      The dwelling-place of God.
-
-    "The Saviour's precious blood
-      Has made my title sure;
-    He passed through death's dark, raging flood,
-      To make my rest secure."
-
-These are the breathings of simple faith, and they perfectly harmonize
-with the groans of a spirit "that looks beyond its cage and longs to
-flee away." The believer finds his body of sin and death a heavy
-burden, and longs to be free from the encumbrance, and to be clothed
-upon with a body suited to his new and eternal state--a new creation
-body--a body perfectly free from every trace of mortality. This cannot
-be until the morning of resurrection, that glorious moment, long
-looked for, when the dead in Christ shall rise and the living saints
-be changed, in a moment; when death shall be swallowed up in victory,
-and mortality shall be swallowed up of life.
-
-It is for this we groan, not that we would be unclothed, but clothed
-upon. The unclothed state is not _the_ object, though we know that to
-be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord; and to depart
-and be with Christ is far better. The Lord Jesus is waiting that
-glorious consummation, and we wait in sympathy with Him. Meanwhile,
-"the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
-now. And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits
-of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
-the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved in
-hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why
-doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we
-with patience wait for it" (Rom. viii. 22-25).
-
-Thus, then, beloved reader, we have before us a very distinct answer
-to the question, "Why does the believer groan?" He groans, being
-burdened. He groans in sympathy with a groaning creation, with which
-he is linked by means of a body of sin and death--a body of
-humiliation. He sees around him, day by day, the sad fruits of sin. He
-cannot pass along the streets of our cities and towns without having
-before his eyes a thousand proofs of man's sad state. He hears on one
-side the wail of sorrow; on another, the cry of distress. He sees
-oppression, violence, corruption, strife, heartless villany and its
-victims. He sees the thorn, and the briar. He notes the various
-disturbing forces which are abroad in the physical, the moral, and the
-political world. He marks the varied forms of disease and misery
-around him. The cry of the poor and the needy, the widow and the
-orphan, falls sadly upon his ear and upon his heart; and what can he
-do but send up from the deepest depths of his spiritual nature a
-sympathetic groan, and long for the blissful moment when "the
-creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into
-the liberty of the glory of the sons of God?" It is impossible for a
-true Christian to pass through a world like this without groaning.
-Look at the blessed Master Himself; did not He groan? Yes, verily.
-Mark Him as He approached the grave of Lazarus, in company with the
-two weeping sisters. "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the
-Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and
-was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him,
-Lord, come and see. Jesus wept" (Jno. xi. 33-35).
-
-Whence came those tears and groans? Was He not approaching the grave
-of His friend as the Prince of Life--the Quickener of the dead--the
-Conqueror of death--the Spoiler of the grave? Why, then, did He groan?
-He groaned in sympathy with the objects of His love, and with the
-whole scene around Him. His tears and groans emanated from the
-profound depths of a perfect human heart which felt, according to God,
-the true condition of the human family and of Israel in particular. He
-beheld around Him the varied fruits of sin. He felt for man, He felt
-for Israel. "In all their afflictions He was afflicted." He was a Man
-of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He never even cured a person
-without bearing upon His spirit the reality of that with which He was
-dealing. He did not, He would not, lightly bid away death, disease,
-and sorrow. No: He entered into it all, as man; and that, too,
-according to the infinite perfections of His divine nature. He bore it
-all upon His spirit, in the reality of it, before God. Though
-perfectly free from it all, and above it all, yet did He in grace
-voluntarily enter into it most thoroughly, so as to taste, and prove,
-and know it all, as none else could know it.
-
-All this is fully expressed in Matt. viii., where we read the
-following words: "When the even was come, they brought unto Him many
-that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His
-word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which
-was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, _Himself took our
-infirmities, and bare our sicknesses_" (vers. 16, 17).
-
-We have very little idea of what the heart of Jesus felt as He passed
-through this sorrowful, because sinful, world; and we are far too apt
-to miss the reality of His sufferings by confining them merely to what
-He endured on the cross, and also by supposing that because He was God
-over all, blessed for ever, He did not feel all that a human heart is
-capable of feeling. This is a sad loss. Indeed we may say it is an
-incalculable loss. The Lord Jesus, as the Captain of our salvation,
-was made perfect through sufferings. See Heb. ii., where the inspired
-writer distinguishes carefully between "the suffering of death," and
-the "sufferings" of the Captain of our salvation. In order to save
-sinners from _wrath_, "He tasted death for every man," and having
-done so, we see Him "crowned with glory and honor." But in order to
-"_bring many sons to glory_," He had to be "perfected through
-sufferings." And now all true believers have the unspeakable privilege
-of knowing that there is One at the right hand of the Majesty in the
-heavens who, when in this world of sin and woe, tasted every form of
-suffering and every cup of sorrow which it was possible for any human
-heart to know. He could say, "Reproach hath broken My heart, and I am
-full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was
-none, and for comforters, but I found none" (Ps. lxix. 20).
-
-How deeply affecting is all this! But we cannot pursue this subject
-here. We have merely touched upon it in connection with the question,
-"Why does the believer groan?" We trust that the reader will see
-clearly the true answer to this inquiry; and that it will be most
-evident to his mind that the groans of a Christian proceed from the
-divine nature which he actually possesses, and cannot therefore, by
-any possibility, be occasioned by doubts or fears, on the one hand,
-nor yet by selfish desires or the insatiable cravings of nature, on
-the other. But that, on the contrary, the very fact of his possessing
-everlasting life, through faith in Christ, and the blessed assurance
-of having a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, causes
-him to long for that blessed, indestructible building, and to groan
-because of his connection with a groaning creation, as well as in
-sympathy therewith.
-
-If any further proof were needed, on this deeply interesting question,
-we have it in verses 5 and 6 of our chapter (2 Cor. v.), where the
-apostle goes on to say, "Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame
-thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
-Therefore we are _always confident_ (not doubting or fearing), knowing
-that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord
-(for we walk by faith, not by sight), we are confident, I say, and
-willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the
-Lord" (vers. 5-8).
-
-Here we have two grand cardinal truths laid down, namely, first, The
-believer is God's workmanship; and secondly, God has given him the
-earnest of the Spirit. Most marvellous--most glorious facts! Facts
-which demand the attention of the reader. Everyone who simply and
-heartily believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is God's workmanship. God
-has created him anew in Christ Jesus. Clearly, therefore, there can be
-no possible ground for questioning his acceptance with God, inasmuch
-as God can never call in question His own work. He will, assuredly, no
-more do this in His new creation, than He did in the old. When God
-looked upon His work, in the opening of the Book of Genesis, it was
-not to judge it or call it in question, but to announce it very good,
-and express His complacency in it. So now, when God looks upon the
-very feeblest believer, He sees in him His own workmanship, and most
-assuredly, He is not going, either here or hereafter, to call in
-question His own work. God is a rock, His work is perfect, and the
-believer is God's work; and because he is His work He has sealed him
-with the Holy Ghost.
-
-The same truth is stated in Ephesians ii. where we read, "For we are
-God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God
-hath before ordained that we should walk in them." This, we may truly
-say, is a point of the weightiest moment. It claims the grave
-attention of the reader who desires to be thoroughly established in
-the truth of God as to what a Christian--what Christianity really is.
-It is not a ruined, lost, guilty sinner seeking to work himself up
-into something or other fit for God. It is the very reverse. It is
-God, in the riches of His grace, on the ground of the atoning death of
-Christ, taking up a poor, dead, worthless, condemned thing--a guilty,
-hell-deserving sinner, and creating him anew in Christ Jesus. It is,
-as it were, God beginning _de novo_--on the new, as we may say--to
-form man in Christ, to place him on a new footing altogether, not now
-as an innocent being on a creation basis, but as a justified one, in a
-risen Christ. It is not man's old condition improved by human effort
-of any sort or description; but it is God's new workmanship in a
-risen, ascended, and glorified Christ. It is not man's own garment
-pieced or patched by human device in any shape or form whatever; but
-it is God's new garment introduced in the person of Christ, who
-having, in infinite grace, gone down into the dust of death, and
-endured, on man's behalf, the judgment of sin, the righteous wrath of
-a sin-hating God, was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
-and is become the Head of the new creation--"The beginning of the
-creation of God" (Rev. iii. 14).
-
-Now, it must be perfectly clear to the reader, that if our Lord Jesus
-Christ be, in very deed "the _beginning_" of God's creation, then we
-must begin at the beginning, else we have done absolutely nothing at
-all. We may labor and toil--we may do our very utmost, and be
-perfectly sincere in our doing--we may vow and resolve--we may seek to
-improve our state, to alter our course, to mend our ways, to live in a
-different way--but all the while we are in the old creation, which has
-been completely set aside, and is under the judgment of God; we have
-not begun at "the beginning" of God's new creation, and, as a
-necessary consequence, we have gained nothing at all. We have been
-spending our strength for nought and in vain. We have been putting
-forth efforts to improve a thing which God has condemned and set aside
-altogether. We are, to use a very feeble figure indeed, like a man who
-is spending his time, his pains, and his money in painting and
-papering a house that has been condemned by the government surveyor,
-on account of the rottenness of the foundation, and which must be
-taken down at once.
-
-What should we say to such a man? Should we not deem him very foolish?
-Doubtless. But if it be folly to paint and paper a condemned house,
-what shall we say to those who are seeking to improve a condemned
-nature--a condemned world? We must say this, at least, they are
-pursuing a course which must, sooner or later, end in disappointment
-and confusion.
-
-Oh that this were understood and entered into! Would to God that
-Christians more fully entered into it! Would to God that all Christian
-writers, preachers, and teachers entered into it, and set it forth
-distinctly with pen and voice! At the least, we earnestly desire that
-the reader should thoroughly grasp it. We are most fully persuaded
-that it is pre-eminently "truth for the times." It is truth to meet
-the need of thousands of souls--to remove their burdens, relieve their
-hearts and consciences--solve their difficulties--chase away their
-clouds. There are, at this moment, throughout the length and breadth
-of Christendom, countless multitudes engaged in the fruitless work of
-painting and papering a condemned house--a house on which God has
-pronounced judgment, because of the hopelessly ruined condition of its
-foundations. They are seeking to do little jobs of repairs here and
-there throughout the house, forgetting, or perhaps not knowing, that
-the whole building is very shortly to be demolished by order of the
-divine government. Some are doing this with the utmost sincerity, amid
-much sore exercise of soul, and many tears, because they cannot
-succeed in satisfying their own hearts even, much less the claims of
-God. For God demands a perfect thing, not a patched-up ruin. There is
-no use in seeking to cover with paper and paint old walls tottering on
-a rotten foundation. God cannot be deceived by surface work, by
-shallow outside appearances. The foundations are bad, the whole thing
-must come down, and we must put our whole trust in Him who is "the
-beginning of the creation of God."
-
-Reader, pause here for a moment's calm and serious reflection. Ask
-yourself the question, "Am I seeking to patch up a ruin? Am I seeking
-to improve the old nature? Or have I really found my place in God's
-new creation, of which a risen Christ is the Head and Beginning?"
-Remember, we beseech you, that you cannot possibly engage in more
-fruitless toil than seeking to make yourself better. Your efforts may
-be sincere, but they must, in the long run, prove worthless. Your
-paper and paint may be all good and genuine enough, but you are
-putting them on a condemned ruin. You cannot say of your unrenewed
-nature that it is "God's workmanship;" and, most assuredly, _your_
-doings, _your_ good works, _your_ religious exercises, _your_ efforts
-to keep the ten commandments--nothing, in short, that _you_ can do,
-could possibly be called "God's workmanship." It is yours, and not
-God's. He cannot acknowledge it. He cannot seal it with His Spirit. It
-is all false and good for nothing. If you cannot say, "He that hath
-wrought us for the selfsame thing is God," you have really nothing.
-You are yet in your sins. You have not begun at God's beginning. You
-are yet "in the flesh:" and the voice of Holy Scripture declares that
-"they that are in the flesh _cannot_ please God" (Rom. viii).
-
-This is a solemn and sweeping sentence. A man out of Christ is "in the
-flesh;" and such a man cannot please God. He may be most religious,
-most moral, most amiable, most benevolent, a most excellent master, a
-generous friend, a liberal giver, a genial companion, a patron of the
-poor, upright and honorable in all his dealings, he may be an eloquent
-preacher and a popular writer, and all the while not be "_in Christ_,"
-but "in the flesh," and therefore he "cannot please God."
-
-Can aught be more solemn than this? Only to think of how far a person
-may go in all that is deemed excellent among men, and yet not be in
-Christ, but in his sins--in the flesh--in the old creation--in the
-condemned house. And be it noted that it is not a question of gross
-sins, of scandalous living, in all its varied, hideous shapes of
-immorality, in its deeper and darker shades; no, the declaration of
-Holy Scripture is, that "they that are in the flesh cannot please
-God." This, truly, is most soul-subduing, and calls for deep and
-solemn reflection on the part of every thoughtful and earnest soul.
-
-But it may be that, to the reader's view, difficulties and stumbling
-blocks still surround this most weighty subject. He may still be
-utterly at a loss to know what is meant by the expression, "In the
-flesh." If so it will, we fondly hope, help him not a little to
-remember that Scripture speaks of _two men_--"the first man" and "the
-Second Man." These two men are presented as the heads of two distinct
-races. Adam _fallen_ is the head of one race; Christ _risen_ is the
-Head of the other race. Now, the very fact of there being "a Second
-Man" proves that the first man had been set aside: for if the first
-man had proved faultless, then should no place have been sought for
-the second. This is clear and unquestionable. The first man is a total
-wreck--an irreparable ruin. The foundations of the old edifice have
-given way; and albeit, in man's view, the building seems to stand, and
-to be capable of being repaired, yet, in God's view it is completely
-set aside, and a Second Man--a new edifice--set up, on the solid and
-imperishable ground of redemption.
-
-Hence, we read, in Gen. iii., that God "_drove out the man_; and He
-placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming
-sword which turned _every way_, to keep the way of the tree of life."
-In other words, the first man was driven out, and every possible way
-of return was closed against him, as _such_. He could only get back by
-"a new and living way," namely, through the rent veil of the Saviour's
-flesh. The flaming sword "turned every way," so that there was
-positively no way by which the first man could ever get back to his
-former state. The only hope, now, was through "the seed of the
-woman"--"the Second Man." The flaming sword declared, in symbolic yet
-impressive language, the truth, which comes out in the New Testament
-divested of all symbol and shadow, namely, that "they that are in the
-flesh _cannot_ please God"--"Ye must be born again." Every unconverted
-man, woman, and child is part and parcel of the first man, fallen,
-ruined, set aside, and driven out. He is a member of the first
-Adam--the old race--a stone in the old condemned building.
-
-Thus it stands, if we are to be guided by Scripture. The head and his
-race go together. As is the one, so is the other; what is true of the
-one is true of the other. They are, in God's view, absolutely
-identical. Was the first Adam fallen when he became the head of a
-race? Was he driven out? Was he completely set aside? Yes, verily, if
-we are to believe Scripture; then the unconverted--the unregenerated
-reader of these lines is fallen, driven out, and set aside. As is the
-head, so is the member--each member in particular--all the members
-together. They are inseparable, if we are to be taught by divine
-revelation.
-
-But, further, was every possible way of return finally closed against
-the fallen head? yes, Scripture declares that the flaming sword turned
-"_every way_, to keep the way of the tree of life." Then it is utterly
-impossible that the unconverted--the unregenerate can improve himself
-or make himself fit for God. If the fallen head could not get back to
-the tree of life, neither can the fallen member. "They that are in the
-flesh cannot please God." That is, they that are on the old footing,
-in the old creation, members of the first Adam, part and parcel of the
-old edifice, cannot please God. "Ye must be born again." Man must be
-renewed in the very deepest springs and sources of his being. He must
-be "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
-God hath before prepared that we should walk in them." He must be able
-to say, in the language of our text, "He that has wrought us for the
-selfsame thing is God."
-
-But this leads us to another point. How is anyone to get into this
-marvellous position? How can any soul take up such language? How can
-anyone whose eyes have been opened to see his utter and hopeless ruin,
-as connected with the first man, as standing in the old creation, as a
-stone in the old edifice--how can such an one ever reach a position in
-which he can please God? The Lord be praised, Scripture gives an
-answer, full, clear, and distinct, to this serious question. A second
-Man has appeared upon the scene--the Seed of the woman, and, at the
-same time, God over all, blessed for ever. In Him all begins afresh.
-He came into this world born of a woman, made under the law, pure and
-spotless, free from every taint of sin, personally apart from every
-claim of sin and death, standing in the midst of a ruined world, a
-guilty race, Himself that pure, untainted grain of wheat. We see Him
-lying as a babe in the manger. We see Him growing up as a youth
-beneath the parental roof. We see Him as a man working in a
-carpenter's shop at Nazareth. We see Him baptised in Jordan, where all
-the people were baptised confessing their sins--Himself sinless, but
-fulfilling all righteousness, and, in perfect grace, identifying
-Himself with the repentant portion of the nation of Israel. We see Him
-anointed with the Holy Ghost for the work that lay before Him. We see
-Him in the wilderness faint and hungry, unlike the first man who was
-placed in the midst of a paradise of creature delights. We see Him
-tempted of Satan and coming off victorious. We trace Him along the
-pathway of public ministry--and such a ministry! What incessant toil!
-What weariness and watching! What hunger and thirst! What sorrow and
-travail! Worse off than the fowls and the foxes, the Son of man had
-not where to lay His head. The contradiction of sinners by day, the
-mountain-top by night.
-
-Such was the marvellous life of this blessed One. But this was not
-all. He died! Yes, He died under the weight of the first man's guilt,
-He died to take away the sin of the world, and alter completely the
-ground of God's relationship with the world, so that God might deal
-with man and with the world on the new ground of redemption, instead
-of the old ground of sin. He died for the nation of Israel. He tasted
-death for every man. He died the just for the unjust. He suffered for
-sins. He died and was buried, according to the Scriptures. He went
-through all--met all--paid all--finished all. He went down into the
-dust of death, and lay in the dark and silent tomb. He descended into
-the lower parts of the earth. He went down to the very bottom of
-everything. He endured the sentence passed on man. He paid the
-penalty, bore the judgment, drained the cup of wrath, went through
-every form of human suffering and trial, was tempted in all points,
-sin excepted. He made an end of everything that stood in the way, and,
-having _finished all_, He gave up His spirit into the hand of His
-Father, and His precious body was laid in a tomb on which the smell of
-death had never passed.
-
-Nor was this all. He rose! Yes, He rose triumphant over all. He rose
-as the Head of the new creation--"The beginning of the creation of
-God"--"The first-begotten from among the dead"--"The first-born among
-many brethren." And now the second Man is before God, crowned with
-glory and honor, not in an earthly paradise, but at the right hand of
-the Majesty in the heavens. This second Man is the last Adam, because
-there is none to come after Him, we cannot get beyond the last. There
-is only one Man before God now. The first is set aside. The last is
-set up. And as the first was the fallen head of a fallen race, so the
-last is the risen Head of a saved, justified, and accepted race. The
-Head and His members are inseparably identified--all the members
-together, and each member in particular. We are accepted in Him. "As
-He is, so are we in this world" (1 John iv. 17). There is nothing
-before God but Christ. The Head and the body, the Head and each
-individual member are indissolubly joined together--inseparably and
-eternally one. God thinks of the members as He thinks of the
-Head--loves them as He loves Him. Those members are God's workmanship,
-incorporated by His Spirit into the body of Christ, and in God's
-presence, having no other footing, no other rank, position, or station
-whatsoever but "in Christ." They are no longer "in the flesh, but in
-the Spirit." They can please God, because they possess His nature, and
-are sealed by His Spirit, and guided by His word. "_He that hath
-wrought them is God_," and God must ever delight in His own
-workmanship. He will never find fault with or condemn the work of His
-own hand. "God is a rock, His work is perfect," and hence the
-believer, as God's workmanship, must be perfect. He is "IN CHRIST,"
-and that is enough--enough for God--enough for faith--enough for ever.
-
-And, now, if it be asked, "How is all this to be attained?" Scripture
-replies, "BY FAITH." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
-My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, _hath_ everlasting life,
-and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life"
-(John v. 24).
-
-The reader who has traveled intelligently with us through the opening
-lines of our chapter will be in a position to understand something of
-the solemn and momentous subject to which we now approach, namely, the
-judgment-seat of Christ. If indeed it be true that the believer is
-God's workmanship--if he is actually a member of Christ--associated
-with the second Adam--bound up in the bundle of life with the risen
-and glorified Lord, if all this be true--and God's word declares it
-is--then it must be perfectly evident that the judgment-seat of Christ
-cannot, by any possibility, touch the Christian's position, or prove,
-in any wise, unfriendly to him. No doubt it is a most solemn and
-serious matter, involving the most weighty consequences to every
-servant of Christ, and designed to exert a most salutary influence
-upon the heart and conscience of every man. But it will do all this
-just in proportion as it is viewed from the true standpoint, and no
-further. It is not to be supposed that anyone can reap the divinely
-appointed blessing from meditating on the judgment-seat, if he is
-looking forward to it as the place where the grand question of his
-eternal salvation is to be settled. And yet how many are thus
-regarding it! How many of God's true people are there, who, from not
-seeing the simple truth involved in these words, "He that hath wrought
-us for the selfsame thing is God," are anticipating the judgment-seat
-of Christ as something that may, after all, condemn them.
-
-This is greatly to be deplored, both because it dishonors the Lord,
-and completely destroys the soul's peace and liberty. For how, let us
-ask, is it possible for anyone to enjoy peace so long as there is a
-single question about salvation to be settled? We conceive it is
-wholly impossible. The peace of the true believer rests on the fact
-that every possible question has been divinely and eternally settled;
-and as a consequence, no question can ever arise, either before the
-judgment-seat of Christ, or at any other time. Hear what our Lord
-Jesus Christ saith in reference to this great question: "Verily,
-verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him
-that sent Me, _hath_ everlasting life, and shall not come into
-condemnation [or judgment]; but is passed from death unto life" (John
-v. 24).
-
-It is important that the reader should understand that the word used
-by our Lord in the above passage is not "condemnation" but "judgment."
-He assures the believer that he shall never come into judgment; and
-this, too, be it observed, in immediate connection with the statement
-that "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
-the Son" (ver. 22). And, again, "For as the Father hath life in
-Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath
-given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of
-man" (ver. 26, 27).
-
-Thus, then, the One to whom all judgment is committed--who alone has
-authority to execute judgment, by the Father's just decree--this
-blessed One assures us that if we hearken to His Word, and believe on
-Him that sent Him, we shall never come into judgment at all.
-
-This is clear and conclusive. It must tranquillize the heart
-completely. It must roll away every cloud and mist, and conduct the
-soul into a region where no question can ever arise to disturb its
-deep and eternal repose. If the One who has all judgment in His hand,
-and all authority to execute it--if _He_ assures me that I shall never
-come into judgment, I am perfectly satisfied. I believe His Word, and
-rest in the happy assurance that whatever the judgment-seat of Christ
-may prove to others, it cannot prove unfriendly to me. I know that the
-word of the Lord endureth for ever, and that the Word tells me I shall
-never come into judgment.
-
-But it may be that the reader finds it difficult, if not impossible,
-to reconcile this entire exemption from judgment with the solemn fact
-stated by our Lord, that "for every idle word that men shall speak,
-they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." But there is
-really no difficulty in the matter. If a man has to meet judgment at
-all, he must give account for every idle word. How awfully solemn the
-thought! There is no escaping it. Were it possible for a single idle
-word to be let pass, it would be a dishonor to the judgment-seat. It
-would be a sign of weakness and incompetency which is utterly
-impossible. It were blasphemy against the Son of God to suppose that
-a single stain could escape His scrutinizing gaze. If the reader comes
-into judgment, that judgment must be perfect, and, hence, his
-condemnation must be inevitable.
-
-We would press this serious matter upon the attention of the
-unconverted reader. It imperatively demands his immediate and earnest
-consideration. There is a day rapidly approaching when every idle
-word, and every foolish thought, and every sinful act, will be brought
-to light, and he will have to answer for it. Christ, as a Judge, has
-eyes like unto a flame of fire, and feet like unto fine brass--eyes to
-detect, and feet to crush the evil. There will be no escape. There
-will be no mercy then: all will be stern and unmitigated judgment. "I
-saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the
-earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
-And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the _books_
-were opened; and another _book_ was opened, which is the book of life;
-and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the
-_books_, according to their _works_. And the sea gave up the dead
-which were in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead which were
-in them; and they were judged _every man according to their works_.
-And death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire. This is the
-second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
-was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. xx. 11-15).
-
-Mark here the difference between "the books" and "the book of life."
-The entire scene sets forth the judgment of the wicked dead--of those
-who have died in their sins, from first to last. "The book of life" is
-opened; but there is no judgment for those whose names are written
-therein by the hand of electing and redeeming love. "The books" are
-opened--those awful records written in characters deep, broad, and
-black--those terrible catalogues of the sins of every man, woman, and
-child, from the beginning to the end of time. There will be no
-escaping in the crowd. Each one will stand in his own most intense
-individuality in that appalling moment. The eye of each will be turned
-in upon himself, and back upon his past history. All will be seen in
-the light of the great white throne, from which there is no escape.
-
-The sceptic may reason against all this. He may say, "_How_ can these
-things be? _How_ could all the dead stand before God? _How_ could the
-countless millions, who have passed away since the foundation of the
-world find sufficient space before the judgment-seat?" The answer is
-very simple to the true believer, whatever it may be to the sceptic;
-God who made them, will make a place for them to stand for judgment,
-and a place to lie in everlasting torment. Tremendous thought? "God
-hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in
-righteousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath
-given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the
-dead" (Acts xvii. 31).
-
-And be it remembered that "_every man_ will be judged according to
-_his_ works." The solemn session of the judgment referred to in
-Revelation xx. will not be an indiscriminate act. Let none suppose
-this. There are "_books_"--rolls--records. "_Every man_" will be
-judged. How? "According to _his_ works." Nothing can be more precise
-and specific. Each one has committed his own sins, and for them he
-will be judged and punished everlastingly. We are aware that many
-cherish the notion that people will only be judged for rejecting the
-gospel. It is a fatal mistake. Scripture teaches the direct contrary.
-It declares that people will be judged according to their works. What
-are we to learn from the "many stripes" and the "few stripes" of Luke
-xii.? What is the force of the words "more tolerable" in Matthew xi.?
-Are we not plainly taught by these words that there will be a
-difference in the degrees of judgment and punishment? And does not the
-apostle most distinctly teach us in Ephesians iv., and Colossians
-iii., that the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience
-(or unbelief) "because of" certain sins against which he solemnly
-warns the saints?
-
-No doubt the rejection of the gospel leaves people on the ground of
-judgment, just as the true belief of the gospel takes people off that
-ground. But the judgment will be, in every case, according to a man's
-works. Are we to suppose that the poor ignorant savage, who has lived
-and died amid the gloomy shades of heathen darkness, will be found in
-the same "book," or punished with the same severity as a man who has
-lived and died in the total rejection of the full blaze of gospel
-light and privilege? Not for a moment, so long as the words "more
-tolerable" stand on the page of inspiration. The savage will be judged
-according to his works, and the baptized sinner will be judged
-according to his works, but assuredly it will be more tolerable for
-the former than the latter. God knows how to deal with people. He can
-discriminate, and He declares that He will give to each according to
-his works.
-
-Reader, think of this, we beseech you. Think deeply, think seriously.
-If thou art unconverted, think of it for thyself, for, assuredly, it
-concerns thee. And if thou art converted, think of it for others, as
-the apostle says, "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."
-It is impossible for anyone to reflect upon the great and awful fact
-of judgment to come, and not be stirred up to warn his fellows. We
-believe it is of the very last possible importance that the
-consciences of men should be acted upon by the solemn truth of the
-judgment-seat of Christ--that they should be made to feel the
-seriousness of having to do with God as a Judge.
-
-Should the reader, whoever he be, have been led to feel this--if he
-has been roused by this weighty matter--if he is, even now, asking the
-question, "What must I do?" the answer is blessedly simple. The
-gospel declares that the One who will, ere long, act as a Judge, is
-now revealed as a Justifier--even a Justifier of the ungodly sinner
-that believeth in Jesus. This changes the aspect of things entirely.
-It is not that the thought of the judgment-seat loses a single jot or
-tittle of its gravity and solemnity. Quite the contrary. It stands in
-all its weight and magnitude. But the believer looks at it from a
-totally different point of view. In place of looking at the
-judgment-seat of Christ as a guilty member of the first Adam, he looks
-at it as a justified and accepted member of the Second. In place of
-looking forward to it as the place where the question of his eternal
-salvation or perdition is to be decided, he looks to it as one who
-knows that he is God's workmanship, and that he can never come into
-judgment, inasmuch as he has been taken clean off the ground of guilt,
-death, and judgment, and placed, through the death and resurrection of
-Christ, on a new ground altogether, even the ground of life,
-righteousness, and cloudless favor.
-
-It is most needful to be clear as to this grand fundamental truth.
-Very many even of the people of God are clouded in reference to it,
-and hence it is that they are afraid when they think of the
-judgment-seat. They do not know God as a Justifier. Their faith has
-not grasped Him as the One who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
-They are looking to Christ to keep God out as a Judge, very much in
-the same way as the Israelites looked to the blood to keep out the
-destroyer. See Ex. xii. It is true and real enough, so far as it goes;
-but it falls very far short of the truth revealed in the New
-Testament. There is a vast difference between keeping God out as a
-Destroyer and a Judge, and bringing Him in as a Saviour and a
-Justifier. An Israelite would have dreaded, above all things, God's
-coming in to him. Why? Because God was passing through the land as a
-Destroyer. The Christian, on the contrary, delights to be in the
-presence of God. Why? Because He has revealed Himself as a Justifier.
-How? By raising up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
-
-There are three forms of expression used by the inspired apostle in
-Rom. iii. and iv. which should be carefully pondered. In chap. iii.
-26, he speaks of "believing in Jesus." In chap. iv. 5, he speaks of
-"believing in Him that justifieth the ungodly." And, ver. 24, he
-speaks of "believing in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the
-dead."
-
-Now, there is no distinction in Scripture without a difference; and
-when we see a distinction it is our business to inquire as to the
-difference. What then, is the difference between believing in Jesus,
-and believing in Him that raised up Jesus? We believe it to be this.
-We may often find souls who are really looking to Jesus and believing
-in Him, and yet they have, deep down in their hearts a sort of dread
-of meeting God. It is not that they doubt their salvation, or that
-they are not really saved. By no means. They are saved, inasmuch as
-they are looking to Christ, by faith, and all who so look are saved in
-Him with an everlasting salvation. All this is most blessedly true:
-but still there is this latent fear or dread of God, and a shrinking
-from death. They know that Jesus is friendly to them, inasmuch as He
-died for them; but they do not see so clearly the friendship of God.
-
-Hence it is that we find so many of God's people in uncertainty and
-spiritual distress. Their faith has not yet laid hold of God as the
-One who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. They are not quite
-sure of how it may go with them. At times they are happy, because by
-virtue of the new nature, of which they are assuredly the partakers,
-they get occupied with Christ: but at times they are miserable,
-because they begin to look at themselves, and they do not see God as
-their Justifier, and as the One who has condemned sin in the flesh.
-They are thinking of God as a Judge with whom some question still
-remains to be settled. They feel as if God's eye were resting on their
-indwelling sin, and as if they had, in some way or other, to dispose
-of that question with God.
-
-Thus it is, we feel persuaded, with hundreds of the true saints of
-God. They do not see God as the Condemner of sin in Christ on the
-cross, and the Justifier of the believing sinner in Christ rising from
-the dead. They are looking to Christ on the cross to screen them from
-God as a Judge, instead of looking to God as a Justifier, in raising
-up Christ from the dead. Jesus was delivered for our offences, and
-raised again for our justification. Our sins are forgiven; our
-indwelling sin, or evil nature, is condemned and set aside. It has no
-existence _before God_. It is in us, but He sees us only in a risen
-Christ; and we are called to _reckon_ ourselves dead, and by the power
-of God's Spirit, to mortify our members, to deny and subdue the evil
-nature which still dwells in us, and will dwell until we are passed
-out of our present condition, and find our place forever with the
-Lord.
-
-This makes all so blessedly clear. We have already dwelt upon the
-fact, that "they that are in the flesh cannot please God;" but the
-believer is not in the flesh, though the flesh be in him. He is in the
-_body_, and on the _earth_, as to the fact of his existence; but he is
-neither in the _flesh_, nor of the _world_, as to the ground or
-principle of his standing. "Ye," says the Holy Ghost, "are not in the
-flesh, but in the Spirit" (Rom. viii.). "They," says our blessed Lord,
-"are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John xvii.).
-
-What a sweet relief to a heart bowed down under a sense of indwelling
-sin, and not knowing what to do with it! What solid peace and comfort
-flow into the soul when I see God condemning my sin in the cross, and
-justifying me in a risen Christ! Where are my _sins_? Blotted out.
-Where is my _sin_? Condemned and set aside. Where am I? Justified and
-accepted in a risen Christ. I am brought to God without a single cloud
-or misgiving. I am not afraid of my Justifier. I confide in Him, love
-Him, and adore Him. I joy in God, and rejoice in hope of His glory.
-
-Thus, then, we have, in some measure, cleared the way for the believer
-to approach the subject of the judgment-seat of Christ, as set forth
-in ver. 10 of our chapter, which we shall here quote at length, in
-order that the reader may have the subject fully before him in the
-veritable language of inspiration. "For we must all appear (or rather,
-be manifested) before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may
-receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done,
-whether it be good or bad."
-
-Now there is, in reality, no difficulty or ground of perplexity here.
-All we need is to look at the matter from a divine standpoint, and
-with a simple mind, in order to see it clearly. This is true in
-reference to every subject treated of in the word of God, and
-specially so as to the point now before us. We have no doubt whatever
-that the real secret of the difficulty felt by so many in respect to
-the question of the judgment-seat of Christ is self-occupation. Hence
-it is we so often hear such questions as the following, "Can it be
-possible that all our sins, all our failures, all our infirmities, all
-our naughty and foolish ways, shall be published, in the presence of
-assembled myriads, before the judgment-seat of Christ?"
-
-Well, then, in the first place, we have to remark that Scripture says
-nothing of the kind. The passage before us, which contains the great,
-broad statement of the truth on this weighty subject, simply declares
-that "we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ."
-But how shall we be manifested? Assuredly, _as we are_. But how is
-that? As God's workmanship--as perfectly righteous, and perfectly
-holy, and perfectly accepted in the Person of that very One who shall
-sit on the judgment-seat, and who Himself bore in His own body on the
-tree all the judgment due to us, and made a full end of the entire
-system in which we stood. All that which, as sinners, we had to meet,
-Christ met in our stead. Our _sins_ He bore; our _sin_ He was
-condemned for. He stood in our stead and answered all responsibilities
-which rested upon us as men alive in the flesh, as members of the
-first man, as standing on the old creation-ground. The Judge Himself
-is our righteousness. We are in Him. All that we are and all that we
-have, we owe it to Him and to His perfect work. If we, as sinners, had
-to meet Christ as a Judge, escape were utterly impossible; but,
-inasmuch as He is our righteousness, condemnation is utterly
-impossible. In short, the matter is reversed. The atoning death and
-triumphant resurrection of our Divine Substitute have completely
-changed everything, so that the effect of the judgment-seat of Christ
-will be to make manifest that there is not, and cannot be, a single
-stain or spot on that workmanship of God which the saint is declared
-to be.
-
-But, then, let us ask, Whence this dread of having all our naughtiness
-exposed at the judgment-seat of Christ? Does not He know all about us?
-Are we more afraid of being manifested to the gaze of men and angels
-than to the gaze of our blessed and adorable Lord? If we are
-manifested to Him, what matters it to whom beside we are known? How
-far are Peter and David and many others affected by the fact that
-untold millions have read the record of their sins, and that the
-record thereof has been stereotyped on the page of inspiration? Will
-it prevent their sweeping the strings of the golden harp, or casting
-their crowns before the feet of Him whose precious blood has
-obliterated for ever all their sins, and brought them, without spot,
-into the full blaze of the throne of God? Assuredly not. Why then need
-any be troubled by the thought of their being thoroughly manifested
-before the judgment-seat of Christ? Will not the Judge of all the
-earth do right? May we not safely leave all in the hands of Him who
-has loved us and washed us in His own blood? Cannot we trust ourselves
-implicitly to the One who loved us with such a love? Will He expose
-us? Will He--can He, do aught inconsistent with the love that led Him
-to give His precious life for us? Will the Head expose the body, or
-any member thereof? Will the Bridegroom expose the bride? Yes, He
-will, in one sense. But how? He will publicly set forth, in view of
-all created intelligences, that there is not a speck or a flaw, a spot
-or wrinkle, or any such thing, to be seen upon that Church which He
-loved with a love that many waters could not quench.
-
-Ah! Christian reader, dost thou not see how that nearness to the heart
-of Christ, as well as the knowledge of His perfect work, would
-completely roll away the mists which enwrap the subject of the
-judgment-seat? If thou art washed from thy sins in the blood of Jesus,
-and loved by God as Jesus is loved, what reason hast thou to fear that
-judgment-seat, or to shrink from the thought of being manifested
-before it? None whatever. Nothing can possibly come up there to alter
-thy standing, to touch thy relationship, to blot thy title, or cloud
-thy prospect. Indeed we are fully persuaded that the light of _the
-judgment-seat_ will chase away many of the clouds that have obscured
-_the mercy-seat_. Many, when they come to stand before that
-judgment-seat, will wonder why they ever feared it for themselves.
-They will see their mistake and adore the grace that has been so much
-better than all their legal fears. Many who have hardly ever been able
-to read their title here, will read it there, and rejoice and
-wonder--they will love and worship. They will then see, in broad
-daylight, what poor, feeble, shallow, unworthy thoughts they had once
-entertained of the love of Christ, and of the true character of His
-work. They will perceive how sadly prone they ever were to measure
-Him by themselves, and to think and feel as if His thoughts and ways
-were like their own. All this will be seen in the light of that day,
-and then the burst of praise--the rapturous hallelujah--will come
-forth from many a heart that, when down here, had been robbed of its
-peace and joy by legal and unworthy thoughts of God and His Christ.
-
-But, while it is divinely true that nothing can come out before the
-judgment-seat of Christ to disturb, in any way, the standing or
-relationship of the very feeblest member of the body of Christ, or of
-any member of the family of God, yet is the thought of that judgment
-most solemn and weighty. Yes, truly, and none will more feel its
-weight and solemnity than those who can look forward to it with
-perfect calmness. And be it well remembered, that there are two things
-indispensably needful in order to enjoy this calmness of spirit.
-First, we must have a title without a blot; and, secondly, our moral
-and practical state must be sound. No amount of mere evangelical
-clearness as to our title will avail unless we are walking in moral
-integrity before God. It will not do for a man to _say_ that he is not
-afraid of the judgment-seat of Christ because Christ died for him,
-while, at the same time, he is walking in a loose, careless,
-self-indulgent way. This is a most dreadful delusion. It is alarming
-in the extreme to find persons drawing a plea from evangelical
-clearness to shrink the holy responsibility resting upon them as the
-servants of Christ. Are we to speak idle words because we know we
-shall never come into judgment? The bare thought is horrible; and yet
-we may shrink from such a thing when clothed in plain language before
-us, while, at the same time, we allow ourselves to be drawn, through a
-false application of the doctrines of grace, into most culpable laxity
-and carelessness as to the claims of holiness.
-
-All this must be sedulously avoided. The grace that has delivered us
-from judgment should exert a more powerful influence upon our ways
-than the fear of that judgment. And not only so, but we must remember
-that while we, _as sinners_, are delivered from judgment and wrath,
-yet, _as servants_, we must give account of ourselves and our ways. It
-is not a question of our being exposed here or there to men, angels,
-or devils. No; "we must give account to God" (Rom. xiv. 11, 12). This
-is far more serious, far more weighty, far more influential, than our
-being exposed in the view of any creature. "Whatsoever ye do, do it
-heartily, as _to the Lord_, and not unto men; knowing that of _the
-Lord_ ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve
-_the Lord_ Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong
-which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons" (Col. iii.
-23-25).
-
-This is most serious and salutary. It may be asked, "When shall we
-have to give account to God? When shall we receive for the wrong?" We
-are not told, because that is not the question. The grand object of
-the Holy Ghost in the passages just quoted is to lead the conscience
-into holy exercise in the presence of God and of the Lord Christ. This
-is good and most needful in a day of easy profession, like the
-present, when there is much said about grace, free salvation,
-justification without works, our standing in Christ. Is it that we
-want to weaken the sense of these things? Far be the thought. Yea, we
-would, in every possible way, seek to lead souls into the divine
-knowledge and enjoyment of those most precious privileges. But then we
-must remember the adjusting power of _truth_. There are always two
-sides to a question, and we find in the pages of the New Testament the
-clearest and fullest statements of grace, lying side by side with the
-most solemn and searching statements as to our responsibility. Do the
-latter obscure the former? Assuredly not. Neither should the former
-weaken the latter. Both should have their due place, and be allowed to
-exert their moulding influence upon our character and ways.
-
-Some professors seem to have a great dislike to the words "duty" and
-"responsibility;" but we invariably find that those who have the
-deepest sense of grace have also, and as a necessary consequence, the
-truest sense of duty and responsibility. We know of no exception. A
-heart that is duly influenced by divine grace is sure to welcome every
-reference to the claims of holiness. It is only empty talkers about
-grace and standing that raise an outcry about duty and responsibility.
-God deals in moral realities. He is real with us, and He wants us to
-be real with Him. He is real in His love, and real in His
-faithfulness; and He would have us real in our dealings with Him, and
-in our response to His holy claims. It is of little use to say "Lord,
-Lord" if we live in the neglect of His commandments. It is the merest
-sham to say "I go sir" if we do not go. God looks for obedience in His
-children. "He is a rewarder of them that _diligently_ seek Him."
-
-May we bear these things in mind, and remember that all must come out
-before the judgment-seat of Christ. "We must all be manifested" there.
-This is unmingled joy to a really upright mind. If we do not
-unfeignedly rejoice at the thought of the judgment-seat of Christ,
-there must be something wrong somewhere. Either we are not established
-in grace, or we are walking in some false way. If we know that we are
-justified and accepted before God in Christ, and if we are walking in
-moral integrity, as in His presence, the thought of the judgment-seat
-of Christ will not disturb our hearts. The apostle could say, "We are
-made manifest to God; and I trust also are made manifest in your
-consciences." Was Paul afraid of the judgment-seat? Not he. But why?
-Because he knew that he was accepted, as to his person, in a risen
-Christ; and, _as to his ways_, he "labored that whether present or
-absent he might be acceptable to Him." Thus it was with this holy man
-of God and devoted servant of Christ. "And herein do I exercise
-myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and
-toward men" (Acts xxiv. 16). Paul knew that he was accepted _in_
-Christ, and therefore he labored to be acceptable to Him in all his
-ways.
-
-These two things should never be separated, and they never will be in
-any divinely taught mind or divinely regulated conscience. They will
-be perfectly joined together, and, in holy harmony, exert their
-formative power over the soul. It should be our aim to walk, even now,
-in the light of the judgment-seat. This would prove a wholesome
-regulator in many ways. It will not, in any wise, lead to legality of
-spirit. Impossible. Shall we have any legality when we stand before
-the judgment-seat of Christ? Assuredly not. Well, then, why should the
-thought of that judgment-seat exert a legal influence now? In point of
-fact, we feel assured there is, and can be, no greater joy to an
-honest heart than to know that everything shall come clearly and fully
-out, in the perfect light of that solemn day that is approaching. We
-shall see all then as Christ sees it--judge of it as He judges. We
-shall look back from amid the blaze of divine light shining from the
-judgment-seat, and see our whole course in this world. We shall see
-what blunders we have made--how badly we did this, that, and the other
-work--mixed motives here--an under current there--a false object in
-something else. All will be seen then in divine truth and light. Is it
-a question of our being exposed to the whole universe? By no means.
-Should we be concerned, whether or no? Certainly not. Will it, can it,
-touch our acceptance? Nay, we shall shine there in all the perfectness
-of our risen and glorified Head. The Judge Himself is our
-righteousness. We stand in Him. He is our all. What can touch us? We
-shall appear there as the fruit of His perfect work. We shall even be
-associated with Him in the judgment which He executes over the world.
-
-Is not this enough to settle every question? No doubt. But still we
-have to think of our individual walk and service. We have to look to
-it that we bring no wood, hay, and stubble into the light of the
-coming day, for as surely as we do we shall suffer loss, though we
-ourselves shall be saved through the fire. We should seek to carry
-ourselves now as those who are already in the light, and whose one
-desire is to do what is well pleasing to our adorable Lord, not
-because of the fear of judgment, but under "the vast constraining
-influence" of His love. "The love of Christ constraineth us, because
-we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that
-He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
-themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again." This is
-the true motive-spring in all Christian service. It is not the fear of
-judgment impelling, but the love of Christ constraining us; and we may
-say, with fullest assurance, that never shall we have so deep a sense
-of that love as when we stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.
-
-    "When this passing world is done,
-    When has sunk yon radiant sun,
-    When I stand with Christ on high,
-    Looking o'er life's history,
-    Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
-    Not till then, how much I owe."
-
-There are many other points of interest and value in this marvellous
-chapter; but we feel we must bring our paper to a conclusion; and,
-most assuredly, we could not do this more suitably than by unfolding,
-as God's Spirit may enable us, that theme which has been before us all
-along, "The Ministry of Reconciliation," to which we shall now direct
-the reader's attention as briefly as we can.
-
-We may view it under three distinct heads; namely, first, the
-_foundation_ on which this ministry rests; secondly, the _objects_
-toward whom it is exercised; thirdly, the _features_ by which it is
-characterized.
-
-1. And first, then, as to the foundation on which the ministry of
-reconciliation rests. This is set before us, in the closing verse of
-our chapter.
-
-"For He (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no
-sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
-
-We have here three parties, namely, God, Christ, and sin. This latter
-is simply the expression of what we are by nature. There is in "_us_"
-nought but "_sin_," from the crown of the head to the sole of the
-foot, the whole man is sin. The principle of sin pervades the entire
-system of fallen humanity. The root, trunk, branches, leaves, blossom,
-fruit--all is sin. It is not only that we have committed sins; we are
-actually _born_ in sin. True, we have, all of us, our characteristic
-sins. We have not only, all of us, "gone astray," but "we have turned
-every one to his own way." Each has pursued his own specific path of
-evil and folly; and all this is the fruit of that thing called "sin."
-The outward life of each is but a stream from the fountain--a branch
-from the stem; that fountain is sin.
-
-And what, let us ask, is sin? It is the acting of the will in
-opposition to God. It is doing our own pleasure--doing what we like
-ourselves. This is the root--this the source of sin. Let it take what
-shape, or clothe itself in what forms it may; be it gross or be it
-most refined in its actings, the great root-principle, the parent
-stem, is self-will, and this is sin. There is no necessity for
-entering into any detail; all we desire is that the reader should have
-a clear and thorough sense of what sin is, and not only so, but that
-he, by nature, is sinful. Where this great and solemn fact takes full
-possession of the soul, by the power of the Holy Ghost, there can be
-no settled rest until the soul is brought to lay hold on the truth set
-forth in 2 Corinthians v. 21. The question of sin had to be disposed
-of ere there could be so much as a single thought of reconciliation.
-God could never be reconciled to sin. But fallen man was a sinner by
-practice and sinful in nature. The very sources of his being were
-corrupt and defiled, and God was holy, just, and true. He is of purer
-eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity. Hence, then,
-between God and sinful humanity there could be no such thing as
-reconciliation. True it is--most blessedly true--that God is good, and
-merciful, and gracious. But He is also holy; and holiness and sin
-could never coalesce.
-
-What was to be done? Hear the answer: "God hath made Christ to be
-sin." But where? Reader, look well at this. Where was Christ made sin?
-Was it in His birth? or in Jordan's flood? or in the garden of
-Gethsemane? Nay; though, most assuredly, in that garden the shadows
-were lengthening, the darkness was thickening, the gloom was
-deepening. But where and when was the holy, spotless, precious Lamb of
-God made sin? _On the cross, and only there!_ This is a grand cardinal
-truth--a truth of vital importance--a truth which the enemy of God and
-His Word is seeking to darken and set aside in every possible way. The
-devil is seeking, in the most specious manner, to displace the cross.
-He cares not how he compasses this end. He will make use of anything
-and everything in order to detract from the glory of the Cross, that
-great central truth of Christianity round which every other truth
-circulates, and on which the whole fabric of divine revelation rests
-as upon an eternal foundation.
-
-"He hath made Him to be sin." Here lies the root of the whole matter.
-Christ, on the cross, was made sin for us. He died, and was buried.
-Sin was condemned. It met the just judgment of a holy God who could
-not pass over a single jot or tittle of sin; nay, He poured out His
-unmingled wrath upon it in the person of His Son, when that Son was
-"made sin." It is a serious error to believe that Christ was bearing
-the judgment of God during His lifetime, or that aught save the death
-of Christ could meet the question of sin. He might have become
-incarnate--He might have lived and labored on this earth--He might
-have wrought His countless miracles--He might have healed, and
-cleansed, and quickened--He might have prayed, and wept, and groaned;
-but not any of these things, nor yet all of them put together, could
-blot out a single stain of that dreadful thing "_sin_." God the Holy
-Ghost declares that "without shedding of blood there is no remission"
-(Heb. ix. 22).
-
-Now, then, reader, if the holy life and labors of the Son of God--if
-His prayers, tears, and groans could not put away sin; how do you
-think that your life and labors, your prayers, tears, and groans, your
-good works, rites, ordinances, and ceremonies could ever put away sin?
-The fact is, that the life of our blessed Lord only proved man more
-and more guilty. It laid the topstone upon the superstructure of his
-guilt, and therefore left the question of sin wholly unsettled.
-
-Nor was this all. Our blessed Lord Himself declares, over and over
-again, the absolute and indispensable necessity of His death. "Except
-a corn of wheat fall into the ground and _die_, it abideth _alone_;
-but if it _die_, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John xii.). "Thus it
-is written, and thus _it behoved_ (or was necessary for) Christ to
-suffer" (Luke xxiv. 46). "How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled
-that thus it _must_ be" (Matt. xxvi.)? In a word, death was the only
-pathway of life, the only basis of union, the only ground of
-reconciliation. All who speak of incarnation as being the basis of our
-union with Christ deny, in the plainest way, the whole range of truth
-connected with a dead and risen Christ. Many may not see this; but
-Satan sees it, and he sees too how it will work. He knows what he is
-about, and surely the servants of Christ ought to know what is
-involved in the error against which we are warning our readers.
-
-The fact is, the enemy does not want souls to see that, in the death
-of Christ, sentence was passed on fallen human nature and upon the
-whole world. This was not the case in incarnation at all. An incarnate
-Christ put man to the test--a dead Christ put man to death--a risen
-Christ takes the believer into union with Himself. When Christ came in
-the flesh, fallen man was still under probation. When Christ died on
-the cross, fallen man was wholly condemned. When Christ rose from the
-dead, He became the head of a new race, each member of which, being
-quickened by the Holy Ghost, is viewed by God as united to Christ, in
-life, righteousness, and favor--he is viewed as having been dead, as
-having passed through judgment, and as being now as free from all
-condemnation as Christ himself. "He hath made Him to be sin for us,
-[He] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
-in Him."
-
-Now, it must be plain to the reader who bows to Scripture, that
-incarnation did not, and could not accomplish all this. Incarnation
-did not put away sin. Need we stop here to dwell upon the glories of
-the mystery of incarnation? Will anyone imagine that we take away from
-the value, or mar the integrity of that priceless fundamental truth,
-because we deny that it puts away sin, or forms the basis of our union
-with Christ? We trust not. That incarnation was essentially necessary
-for the accomplishment of redemption is plain to all. Christ had to
-become a man in order to die. "Without shedding of blood is no
-remission." He had to give His flesh for the life of the world. But
-this only goes to prove the absolute necessity of death. It was the
-_giving_ of His flesh, not the _taking_ of it, that laid the
-foundation of the whole fabric--life, pardon, peace, righteousness,
-union, glory, all. Apart from death, there is, and could be,
-absolutely nothing. Through death we have all.
-
-But we cannot pursue this profound subject any further now. Enough has
-been said to set forth its connection with our special thesis--the
-ministry of reconciliation. When we read that "God hath made Christ to
-be sin for us," we must see that this involved nothing less than the
-death of the cross. "THOU," says that blessed One, "hast brought ME
-into the dust of death" (Psa. xxii.). What an utterance! Who can
-fathom the mighty depths of those words--"Thou"--"Me"--and "death"?
-Who can enter into the question, "My God, My God, why hast _Thou_
-forsaken _Me_?" Why did a holy, righteous God forsake His only
-begotten, well-beloved, eternal Son? The answer contains the solid
-basis of that marvelous ministry whereof we speak. Christ was made
-sin. He not only bore our _sins_ in His own body on the tree; but He
-was made sin. He stood charged with the entire question of sin. He was
-"the Lamb of God bearing away the sin of the world." As such He
-gloriously vindicated God, in the very scene where He had been
-dishonored. He glorified Him in respect to that very thing by which
-His majesty had been insulted. He took upon Himself the whole
-matter--placed Himself beneath the weight of the whole burden, and
-completely cleared the ground on which God could lay the foundations
-of the new creation. He opened those eternal flood-gates which sin had
-closed, so that the full tide of divine love might roll down along
-that channel which His atoning death alone could furnish; so long as
-sin was _in_ question, reconciliation must be _out_ of the question.
-But Christ, being made sin died and put it away forever, and thus
-changed entirely the ground and character of God's dealing with man
-and with the world.
-
-The death of Christ, then, as we have seen, is the alone basis of
-reconciliation. That divine work has opened the way for placing men
-and things in their right relationship to God, and on their proper
-footing before Him. And this, be it remembered, is the true sense and
-meaning of reconciliation. Sin had alienated "men" from God, and set
-"_things_" entirely astray, and hence both men and things needed to be
-reconciled, or set straight; and the death of Christ has cleared the
-way for this.
-
-It is well to see clearly the distinction between "atonement" and
-"reconciliation." They are often confounded, through inattention to
-Scripture; and the honored translators of our excellent Authorised
-Version have not, with sufficient accuracy, marked this distinction.
-For example, in Rom. v. 11, they have the word "atonement" where it
-ought to be rendered "reconciliation" and in Heb. ii. 17, we have the
-word "reconciliation" where it ought to be "atonement."
-
-Nor is the distinction by any means unimportant. The word "atonement,"
-or "propitiation," occurs, in some one or other of its forms, six
-times in the Greek New Testament. (See carefully Luke xviii. 13; Rom.
-iii. 25; Heb. ii. 17; ix. 5; 1 John ii. 2; iv. 10.) The word
-"reconciliation" occurs, in one or other of its forms, thirteen times
-in the New Testament. (See Rom. v. 10, 11; xi. 15; 1 Cor. vii. 11; 2
-Cor. v. 18, 19, 20; Eph. ii. 16; Col. i. 20, 21.) If the reader will
-take the trouble of examining and comparing these passages, he will
-see that atonement and reconciliation are not the same thing, but that
-the former is the foundation of the latter. Sin had made man an enemy
-and thrown things into confusion; and in Col. i. 20, 21, we read,
-"And, having made peace through the blood of his cross (here is the
-foundation), by Him to reconcile all _things_ unto Himself; by Him, I
-say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And _you_,
-that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked
-works, yet now _hath he reconciled_, in the body of His flesh,
-_through death_, to present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable
-in his sight." Here we have the death of Christ set forth as the
-ground of the reconciliation of both men and things.[16]
-
-  [16] If the reader will turn, for a moment, to 1 Cor. vii. 11, he will
-  see the use of the word reconciliation. "But and if she depart, let
-  her remain unmarried, or be _reconciled_ to her husband." In classical
-  Greek the word is applied to the _changing_ money: the _exchanging_
-  one thing for another; _exchanging_ prisoners; the changing a person
-  from _enmity to friendship_. In short, everywhere the distinction is
-  maintained between "atonement," or "propitiation" and   "reconciliation."
-  The former is {~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, the latter, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}.
-
-Now this leads to another point of immense importance. We often hear
-it said that "the death of Christ was necessary in order _to reconcile
-God to man_." This is a pious mistake, arising from inattention to the
-language of the Holy Ghost, and indeed to the plain meaning of the
-word "reconcile." God never changed--never stepped out of His normal
-and true position. He abideth faithful. There was, and could be, no
-derangement, no confusion, no alienation, so far as He was concerned;
-and hence there could be no need of reconciling Him to us. In fact, it
-was exactly the contrary. Man had gone astray; he was the enemy, and
-needed to be reconciled. But this was wholly impossible if _sin_ were
-not righteously disposed of; and sin could only be disposed of by
-_death_--even the death of One, who, as being a man, could die, and
-being God, could impart all the dignity, value, and glory of His
-divine Person to the atoning sacrifice which He offered.
-
-Wherefore, then, as might be expected, Scripture never speaks of
-reconciling God to man. There is no such expression to be found within
-the covers of the New Testament. "God was in Christ reconciling the
-world (in its broad aspect--men and things) unto himself, not imputing
-their trespasses unto them." And again, "All things are of God, who
-hath reconciled _us_ to Himself by Jesus Christ." In a word, it is
-God, in His infinite mercy and grace, through the atoning death of
-Christ, bringing us back to Himself, and placing us not merely in the
-original place, or on the original footing, or in the original
-relationship; but, as was due to the work of Christ, giving us back
-far more than we had lost, and introducing us into the marvelous
-relationship of sons, and setting us in His presence, in divine and
-eternal righteousness, and in the infinite favor and acceptableness of
-His own Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
-
-Amazing grace! Stupendous and glorious plan! What a ministry! And yet
-need we wonder when we think of the death of Christ as the foundation
-of it all? When we remember that "Christ was made sin for us," it
-seems but the necessary counterpart that "we should be made the
-righteousness of God in Him." It would have been no adequate result of
-such a work as Christ accomplished, to have brought men and things
-back to the Adamic or old creation ground. This would never have
-satisfied the heart of God in any way, whether as respects Christ's
-glory or our blessing. It would not have furnished an answer to that
-omnipotent appeal of John xvii.: "I have glorified Thee on the earth:
-I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And _now_, O
-Father, glorify Thou Me, with Thine own self, with the glory which I
-had with Thee before the world was" (vers. 4, 5). Who can gauge the
-depth and power of those accents as they fell upon the ear of the God
-and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?
-
-But we must not enlarge, much as we should like to do so. Little
-remains to be said as to the _objects_ of the ministry of
-reconciliation, inasmuch as we have, in a measure, anticipated them by
-speaking of "men and things," for these are, in very deed, the
-objects, and they are included in that comprehensive word "world."
-"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." We would
-merely add here, that it is utterly impossible for any creature under
-heaven to exclude himself from the range of this most precious
-ministry. Before the reader can shut himself out from the application
-of all this grace to himself, he must prove that he does not belong to
-the world. This he cannot do, and hence he must see that God is
-beseeching him to be reconciled.
-
-But this leads us to look, for a moment, at the _features_ which
-characterize this glorious ministry.
-
-1. And first, let us mark God's attitude. He is beseeching sinners.
-What a thought! It seems too much for the heart to conceive. Only
-think, reader, of the Most High and Mighty God, the Creator of the
-ends of the earth--the One who has power to destroy both soul and body
-in hell--think of Him as beseeching and praying you to be friends with
-Him! It is not a question of your praying to Him and His hearing you.
-No: but the very reverse--He is praying you. And for what does He ask
-you? Is it to do anything or to give anything? Nay; He simply asks you
-to be friends with Him because He has befriended you at the cost of
-His own Son. Think of this. He spared not His only begotten and
-well-beloved Son, but bruised Him in your stead. He made Him to be sin
-for you. He judged your sin in the person of His Son, on the cross, in
-order that He might be able to reconcile you. And now He stretches
-forth His arms and opens His heart to you, and prays you to be
-reconciled--to be friends with Him. Surpassing grace! It really seems
-to us as though human language can only tend to weaken and impoverish
-this grand reality.
-
-We would only further suggest that the force of ver. 20 is greatly
-weakened by the word "you," which, as the reader will observe, ought
-not to be inserted. It makes it appear as though the apostle were
-beseeching the Corinthian saints to be reconciled, whereas he is only
-setting forth the terms and the style adopted by all "ambassadors" for
-Christ wherever they went through the wide world--the language in
-which they were to address "every creature" under heaven. It is not,
-"Do this or that"--"Give this or that." It was not command or
-prohibition; but simply, "Be reconciled."
-
-2. And then, what encouragement to the poor trembling heart that feels
-the burden of sin and guilt to be assured that God will not impute,
-will not reckon, one of his sins! This is another precious feature of
-the ministry of reconciliation. "_Not_ imputing their trespasses unto
-them." This must set the heart at rest. If God tells me that He will
-not count one of my trespasses to me, because He has already counted
-them to Jesus on the cross, this may well tranquilize my spirit and
-emancipate my heart. If I believe that God means what He says, perfect
-peace must be my portion. True, it is only by the Holy Ghost that I
-can enter into the power of this glorious truth; but what the Holy
-Ghost leads me to believe and rest in is, that God does not, and will
-not, blessed be His name, impute a single sin to me, because He has
-already imputed _all_ to Christ.
-
-But this leads us to the third feature of the ministry of
-reconciliation.
-
-3. If God will not impute my trespasses to me then what will He
-impute? Righteousness--even the righteousness of God. We cannot
-attempt to unfold the nature and character of this righteousness. We
-may do so on another occasion, if the Lord permit; but here we confine
-ourselves to the statement contained in the passage before us, which
-declares that God hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us
-who were all sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in
-Him. Most glorious truth! Sin is made an end of, as regards the
-believer. Christ lives as our subsisting righteousness, before God,
-and we live in Him. There is not so much as one single entry to our
-debit in the book of divine justice; but there is a risen and
-glorified Christ to our credit. Nor is this all. Not only are our sins
-gone, our guilt cancelled--our old self completely ignored--not only
-are we made the righteousness of God in Jesus; but we are loved by God
-as Jesus is loved--accepted in Him--one with Him in all that He is and
-has, as a risen, victorious, ascended, and glorified Man at God's
-right hand. Higher than this it is impossible to go.
-
-And now we must close, and we do it reluctantly. We do it with a
-certain painful consciousness of the feebleness and poverty of our
-handling of this lofty and comprehensive theme. But all this we must
-leave in the Master's hand. He knows all about the subject and the
-treatment thereof--all about the reader and the writer of these
-lines. To Him we commit all, while we make one solemn, closing appeal
-to the unconverted, unawakened reader.
-
-Dear friend, let us remind you that this glorious ministry will very
-soon close. The acceptable year, the day of salvation, shall ere long
-come to an end. The ambassadors shall soon be all called home and
-their embassy be closed forever. The door shall soon be shut, and the
-day of vengeance set in in terror and wrath upon a Christ-rejecting
-world. Let us entreat of you to flee from the wrath to come. Remember
-that the One who is now praying and beseeching you to be reconciled,
-has uttered the following awful words, "Because I have called, and ye
-refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded. But ye
-have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof; I
-also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh"
-(Prov. i. 24-26). May the reader escape the unutterable horrors of the
-day of wrath and judgment!
-
-                                                           C. H. M.
-
-
-
-
-THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONS
-
-    Some call Him a Saviour, in word,
-      But mix their own works with His plan;
-    And hope He His help will afford,
-      When they have done all that they can:
-    If doings prove rather too light
-      (A little they own they may fail),
-    They purpose to make up full weight,
-      By casting His name in the scale.
-
-    Some style Him "the Pearl of great price,"
-      And say, He's the fountain of joys;
-    Yet feed upon folly and vice,
-      And cleave to the world and its toys:
-    Like Judas, the Saviour they kiss,
-      And while they salute Him, betray:
-    Oh! what will profession like this
-      Avail in His terrible day?
-
-    If asked what of Jesus _I_ think,
-      Though still my best thoughts are but poor,
-    I say, He's my meat and my drink,
-      My life and my strength and my store;
-    My Shepherd, my trust and my Friend,
-      My Saviour from sin and from thrall;
-    My Hope from beginning to end,
-      My Portion, my Lord and my All.
-
-
-
-
-THE GREAT COMMISSION
-
-     "And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake
-     unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
-     fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
-     Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He
-     their understanding, that they might understand the
-     Scriptures, and said unto them, _Thus it is written_, and
-     thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead
-     the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins
-     should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning
-     at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And,
-     behold, I send the promise of My Father unto you: but tarry
-     ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power
-     from on high" (Luke xxiv. 44-49).
-
-
-This splendid passage of Holy Scripture sets before us the great
-commission which the risen Lord entrusted to His apostles just as He
-was about to ascend into the heavens, having gloriously accomplished
-all His blessed work upon earth. It is truly a most wonderful
-commission, and opens up a very wide field of truth, through which we
-may range with much spiritual delight and profit. Whether we ponder
-_the commission itself_, its _basis_, its _authority_, its _power_, or
-its _sphere_, we shall find it all full of most precious instruction.
-May the blessed Spirit guide our thoughts, while we meditate, first of
-all, upon
-
-THE COMMISSION ITSELF.
-
-The apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were specially
-charged to preach "repentance and remission of sins." Let us all
-remember this. We are prone to forget it, to the serious damaging of
-our preaching, and of the souls of our hearers. Some of us are apt to
-overlook the first part of the commission, in our eagerness, it may
-be, to get to the second. This is a most serious mistake. We may rest
-assured that it is our truest wisdom to keep close to the veritable
-terms in which our blessed Lord delivered His charge to His earliest
-heralds. We cannot omit a single point, not to say a leading branch of
-the commission, without serious loss in every way. Our Lord is
-infinitely wiser and more gracious than we are, and we need not fear
-to preach with all possible plainness what He told His apostles to
-preach, namely, "repentance and remission of sins."
-
-Now the question is, are we all careful to maintain this very
-important connection? Do we give sufficient prominence to the first
-part of the great commission? Do we preach "repentance?"
-
-We are not now inquiring what repentance is; that we shall do, if God
-permit. But, whatever it is, do we preach it? That our Lord commanded
-His apostles to preach it is plain; and not only so, but He preached
-it Himself, as we read it in Mark i. 14, 15: "Now after that John was
-put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the
-kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
-God is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel."
-
-Let us carefully note this record. Let all preachers note it. Our
-divine Master called upon sinners to repent and believe the gospel.
-Some would have us to believe that it is a mistake to call upon
-persons dead in trespasses and sins to do anything. "How," it is
-argued, "can those who are dead repent? They are incapable of any
-spiritual movement. They must first get the power ere they can either
-repent or believe."
-
-What is our reply to all this? A very simple one indeed--Our Lord
-knows better than all the theologians in the world what ought to be
-preached. He knows all about man's condition--his guilt, his misery,
-his spiritual death, his utter helplessness, his total inability to
-think a single right thought, to utter a single right word, to do a
-single right act; and yet He called upon men to repent. This is quite
-enough for us. It is no part of our business to seek to reconcile
-seeming differences. It may seem to us difficult to reconcile man's
-utter powerlessness with his responsibility; but "God is His own
-interpreter, and He will make it plain." It is our happy privilege,
-and our bounden duty, to believe what He says, and do what He tells
-us. This is true wisdom, and it yields solid peace.
-
-Our Lord preached repentance, and He commanded His apostles to preach
-it; and they did so constantly. Harken to Peter on the day of
-Pentecost. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every
-one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins,
-and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." And again, "Repent
-ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out
-when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
-Lord." Harken to Paul also, as he stood on Mars' Hill, at Athens: "But
-now _God commandeth all men everywhere_ to repent; because He hath
-appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by
-that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto
-all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." So also, in his
-touching address to the elders of Ephesus, he says, "I kept back
-nothing that was profitable, (blessed servant!) but have showed you,
-and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both
-to the Jews, and also the Greeks, _repentance toward God_, and faith
-toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And again, in his address to king
-Agrippa, he says, "Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient
-unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and
-at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the
-Gentiles, that _they should repent_, and turn to God, and _do works
-meet for repentance_."
-
-Now, in the face of this body of evidence--with the example of our
-Lord and His apostles so fully and clearly before us--may we not very
-lawfully inquire whether there is not a serious defect in much of our
-modern preaching? Do we preach repentance as we ought? Do we assign
-to it the place which it gets in the preaching of our Lord, and of His
-early heralds? It is vanity and folly, or worse, to talk about its
-being legal to preach repentance, to say that it tarnishes the lustre
-of the gospel of the grace of God to call upon men dead in trespasses
-and sins to repent, and do works meet for repentance. Was Paul legal
-in his preaching? Did he not preach a clear, full, rich, and divine
-gospel? Have we got in advance of Paul? Do we preach a clearer gospel
-than he? How utterly preposterous the notion! Well, but he preached
-repentance. He told his hearers that "God now commandeth all men
-everywhere to repent." Does this mar the gospel of the grace of God?
-Does it detract from its heavenly fulness and freeness? As well might
-you tell a farmer that it lowered the quality of his grain to plough
-the fallow ground before sowing.
-
-No doubt it is of the very last possible importance to preach the
-gospel of the grace of God, or, if you please, the gospel of the
-glory, in all its fulness, clearness, and power. We are to preach the
-unsearchable riches of Christ--to declare the whole counsel of God, to
-present the righteousness of God and His salvation, without limit,
-condition, or hindrance of any kind--to publish the good news to every
-creature under heaven.
-
-We should, in the very strongest possible manner, insist upon this.
-But at the same time we must jealously keep to the terms of "the great
-commission." We cannot depart the breadth of a hair from these
-without serious damage to our testimony, and to the souls of our
-hearers. If we fail to preach repentance, we are "keeping back"
-something "profitable." What should we say to a husbandman, if we saw
-him scattering his precious grain along the beaten highway? We should
-justly pronounce him out of his mind. The ploughshare must do its
-work. The fallow ground must be broken up ere the seed is sown; and we
-may rest assured that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in the kingdom
-of grace, the ploughing must precede the sowing. The ground must be
-duly prepared for the seed, else the operation will prove altogether
-defective. Let the gospel be preached as God has given it to us in His
-Word. Let it not be shorn of one of its moral glories; let it flow
-forth as it comes from the deep fountain of the heart of God, through
-the channel of Christ's finished work, on the authority of the Holy
-Ghost. All this is not only most fully admitted but peremptorily
-insisted upon; but at the same time we must never forget that our Lord
-and Master called upon men to "repent and believe the gospel;" that He
-strictly enjoined it upon His holy apostles to preach repentance; and
-that the blessed apostle Paul, the chief of apostles, the profoundest
-teacher the Church has ever known, did preach repentance, calling upon
-men everywhere to repent and do works meet for repentance.
-
-And here it may be well for us to inquire what this repentance is
-which occupies such a prominent place in "the great commission," and
-in the preaching of our Lord and of His apostles. If it be--as it
-most surely is--an abiding and universal necessity for man--if God
-commands all men everywhere to repent--if repentance is inseparably
-linked with remission of sins--how needful it is that we should seek
-to understand its true nature!
-
-What, then, is repentance? May the Spirit Himself instruct us by the
-word of God! He alone can. We are all liable to err--some of us have
-erred--in our thoughts on this most weighty subject. We are in danger,
-while seeking to avoid error on one side, of falling into error on the
-other. We are poor, feeble, ignorant, erring creatures, whose only
-security is in our being kept continually at the feet of our blessed
-Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can teach us what repentance is, as well
-as what it is not. We feel most fully assured that the enemy of souls
-and of the truth has succeeded in giving repentance a false place in
-the creeds, and confessions, and public teachings of Christendom; and
-the conviction of this makes it all the more needful for us to keep
-close to the living teachings of Holy Scripture.
-
-We are not aware of any formal definition of the subject furnished by
-the Holy Ghost. He does not tell us in so many words what repentance
-is; but the more we study the Word in reference to the great question,
-the more deeply we feel convinced that true repentance involves the
-solemn judgment of ourselves, our condition, and our ways, in the
-presence of God; and, further, that this judgment is not a transient
-feeling, but an abiding condition--not a certain exercise to be gone
-through as a sort of title to the remission of sins, but the deep and
-settled habit of the soul, giving seriousness, gravity, tenderness,
-brokenness, and profound humility, which shall overlap, underlie, and
-characterize our entire course.
-
-We seriously question if this aspect of the subject is sufficiently
-understood. Let not the reader mistake us. We do not mean for a moment
-to teach that the soul should be always bowed down under the sense of
-unforgiven sin. Far be the thought! But we greatly fear that some of
-us, in running away from _legality_ on the question of repentance,
-have fallen into _levity_. This is a serious error. We may depend upon
-it that levity is no remedy for legality: were it proposed as such, we
-should have no hesitation in pronouncing the remedy much worse than
-the disease. Thank God we have His own sovereign remedy for levity, on
-the one hand, and legality on the other. "_Truth_,"--insisting upon
-"repentance," is the remedy for the former. "_Grace_"--publishing
-"remission of sins," is the remedy for the latter. And we cannot but
-believe that the more profound our repentance, the fuller will be our
-enjoyment of remission.
-
-We are inclined to judge that there is a sad lack of depth and
-seriousness in much of our modern preaching. In our anxiety to make
-the gospel simple, and salvation easy, we fail to press on the
-consciences of our hearers the holy claims of truth. If a preacher
-now-a-days were to call upon his hearers to "repent and turn to God,
-and to do works meet for repentance," he would, in certain circles, be
-pronounced legal, ignorant, below the mark, and such like. And yet
-this was precisely what the blessed apostle Paul did, as he himself
-tells us. Will any of our modern evangelists have the temerity to say
-that Paul was a legal or an ignorant preacher? We trust not. Paul
-carried with him the full, clear, precious gospel of God--the gospel
-of the grace, and the gospel of the glory. He preached the kingdom of
-God--He unfolded the glorious mystery of the Church--yea, that mystery
-was specially committed to him.
-
-But let all preachers remember that Paul preached repentance. He
-called upon sinners to judge themselves--to repent in dust and ashes,
-as was meet and right they should. He himself had learnt the true
-meaning of repentance. He had not only judged himself once in a way,
-but he _lived_ in the spirit of self-judgment. It was the habit of his
-soul, the attitude of his heart, and it gave a depth, solidity,
-seriousness and solemnity to his preaching of which we modern
-preachers know but little. We do not believe that Paul's repentance
-ended with the three days and three nights of blindness after his
-conversion. He was a self-judged man all his life long. Did this
-hinder his enjoyment of the grace of God or of the preciousness of
-Christ? Nay, it gave depth and intensity to his enjoyment.
-
-All this, we feel persuaded, demands our most serious consideration.
-We greatly dread the light, airy, superficial style of much of our
-modern preaching. It sometimes seems to us as if the gospel were
-brought into utter contempt and the sinner led to suppose that he is
-really conferring a very great favor upon God in accepting salvation
-at His hands. Now we most solemnly protest against this. It is
-dishonoring to God, and lowering His gospel; and, as might be
-expected, its moral effect on those who profess to be converted is
-most deplorable. It superinduces levity, self-indulgence, worldliness,
-vanity, and folly. Sin is not felt to be the dreadful thing it is in
-the sight of God. Self is not judged. The world is not given up. The
-gospel that is preached is what may be called "salvation made easy" to
-the flesh--the most terrible thing we can possibly conceive--terrible
-in its effect upon the soul--terrible in its results in the life.
-God's sentence upon the flesh and the world gets no place in the
-preaching to which we refer. People are offered a salvation which
-leaves self and the world practically unjudged, and the consequence
-is, those who profess to be converted by this gospel exhibit a
-lightness and unsubduedness perfectly shocking to people of serious
-piety.
-
-Man must take his true place before God, and that is the place of
-self-judgment, contrition of heart, real sorrow for sin, and true
-confession. It is here the gospel meets him. The fulness of God ever
-waits on an empty vessel, and a truly repentant soul is the empty
-vessel into which all the fulness and grace of God can flow in saving
-power. The Holy Ghost will make the sinner _feel_ and _own_ his real
-condition. It is He alone who can do so: but He uses preaching to this
-end. He brings the word of God to bear on man's conscience. The Word
-is His hammer, wherewith He breaks the rock in pieces--His plowshare,
-wherewith He breaks up the fallow ground. He makes the furrow, and
-then casts in the incorruptible seed, to germinate and fructify to the
-glory of God. True, the furrow, how deep soever it may be, can produce
-no fruit. It is the seed, and not the furrow; but there must be the
-furrow for all that.
-
-It is not, need we say, that there is anything meritorious in the
-sinner's repentance. To say so could only be regarded as audacious
-falsehood. Repentance is not a good work whereby the sinner merits the
-favor of God. All this view of the subject is utterly and fatally
-false. True repentance is the discovery and hearty confession of our
-utter ruin and guilt. It is the finding out that my whole life has
-been a lie, and that I myself am a liar. This is serious work. There
-is no flippancy or levity when a soul is brought to this. A penitent
-soul in the presence of God is a solemn reality; and we cannot but
-feel that were we more governed by the terms of "the great
-commission," we should more solemnly, earnestly and constantly call
-upon men "to repent and turn to God and do works meet for
-repentance"--we should preach "repentance" as well as "remission of
-sins."
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-
-Since writing our last paper, we have been much interested in the way
-in which repentance is presented in those inimitable parables in Luke
-XV. There we learn, in a manner the most touching and convincing, not
-only the abiding and universal necessity,--the moral fitness in every
-case of true repentance,--but also that it is grateful to the heart of
-God. Our Lord, in His marvelous reply to the scribes and Pharisees,
-declares that "there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth."
-And again, "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of
-the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
-
-Now this gives us a very elevated view of the subject. It is one thing
-to see that repentance is binding upon man, and another and very much
-higher thing to see that it is grateful to God. "Thus saith the high
-and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in
-the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and
-humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the
-heart of the contrite ones." A broken heart, a contrite spirit, a
-repentant mind, gives joy to God.
-
-Let us ponder this fact. The scribes and Pharisees murmured because
-Jesus received sinners. How little they understood Him! How little
-they knew of the object that brought Him down into this dark and
-sinful world! How little they knew of themselves! It was the "lost"
-that Jesus came to seek. But scribes and Pharisees did not think
-themselves lost. They thought they were all right. They did not want a
-Saviour. They were thoroughly unbroken, unrepentant, self-confident:
-and hence they had never afforded one atom of joy in heaven. All the
-learning of the scribes, and all the righteousness of the Pharisees,
-could not waken up a single note of joy in the presence of the angels
-of God. They were like the elder son in the parable who said, "Lo,
-these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time
-thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make
-merry with my friends."
-
-Here we have a true specimen of an unbroken heart and an unrepentant
-spirit--a man thoroughly satisfied with himself. Miserable object! He
-had never touched a chord in the Father's heart--never drawn out the
-Father's love--never felt the Father's embrace--never received the
-Father's welcome. How could he? He had never felt himself lost. He was
-full of himself, and therefore had no room for the Father's love. He
-did not feel that he owed anything, and hence he had nothing to be
-forgiven. It rather seemed to him that his father was his debtor. "Lo,
-these many years do I serve thee; and yet thou never gavest me a kid."
-He had not received his wages.
-
-What egregious folly! And yet it is just the same with every
-unrepentant soul--every one who is building upon his own
-righteousness. He really makes God his debtor. "I have served Thee;
-but I have never gotten what I earned." Miserable notion! The man who
-talks of his duties, his doings, his sayings, his givings, is really
-insulting God. But on the other hand, the man who comes with a broken
-heart, a contrite spirit, repentant, self-judged--that is the man who
-gives joy to the heart of God.
-
-And why? Simply because such a one feels his need of God. Here lies
-the grand moral secret of the whole matter. To apprehend this is to
-grasp the full truth on the great question of repentance. A God of
-love desires to make His way to the sinner's heart, but there is no
-room for Him so long as that heart is hard and impenitent. But when
-the sinner is brought to the end of himself, when he sees himself a
-helpless, hopeless wreck, when he sees the utter emptiness, hollowness
-and vanity of all earthly things; when like the prodigal he comes to
-himself and feels the depth and reality of his need, then there is
-room in his heart for God, and--marvelous truth!--God delights to come
-and fill it. "To this man will I look." To whom? To the man who does
-his duty, keeps the law, does his best, lives up to his light? Nay;
-but "to him who is of a contrite spirit."
-
-It will perhaps be said that the words just quoted apply to Israel.
-Primarily, they do; but morally they apply to every contrite heart on
-the face of the earth. And, further, it cannot be said that Luke xv.
-applies specially to Israel. It applies to all. "There is joy in the
-presence of the angels of God over one sinner that"--What? Does his
-duty? Nay, it does not even say, "that believeth." No doubt believing
-is essential in every case; but the interesting point here is that a
-truly repentant sinner causes joy in heaven. A person may say, "I fear
-I do not believe." Well, but do you repent? Have your eyes been opened
-to see your true condition before God? Have you taken your true place
-before God as utterly lost? If so, you are one of those over whom
-there is joy in heaven. What gave joy to the shepherd's heart? Was it
-the ninety and nine sheep that went not astray? Nay, it was finding
-the lost sheep.[17] What gave joy to the woman's heart? Was it the
-nine pieces in her possession? Nay, it was finding the one lost piece.
-What gave joy to the father's heart? Was it the service and the
-obedience of the elder son? Nay, it was getting back his lost son. A
-repentant, broken-hearted, returning sinner wakens up heaven's joy.
-"Let _us_ eat and be merry." Why? Because the elder son has been
-working in the fields and doing his duty? No; but "This my son was
-_dead_, and is alive again; he was _lost_, and is found."
-
-  [17] Let the reader note that the "ninety and nine just persons that
-  need no repentance" and the elder son that "never transgressed his
-  father's commandment" is the expression of their own thoughts as to
-  themselves. When _God's_ judgment of man is expressed, the Scriptures
-  declare, "There is none righteous, no, not one.... They are all gone
-  out of the way; ... there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom.
-  iii. 10, 12).--_Ed._
-
-All this is perfectly wonderful. Indeed, it is so wonderful that if we
-had it not from the lips of Him who is the Truth, and on the eternal
-page of divine inspiration, we could not believe it. But, blessed be
-God, there it stands, and none can gainsay it. There shines the
-glorious truth that a poor, self-convicted, broken-hearted, penitent,
-though hell-deserving sinner, gives joy to the heart of God. Let
-people talk as they will about keeping the law and doing their duty:
-it may go for what it is worth; but be it remembered there is no such
-clause within the covers of the volume of God--no such sentence ever
-dropped from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ as "There is joy in
-heaven over one sinner that does his duty."
-
-_A sinner's duty!_ What is it? "God commandeth _all_ men _everywhere_
-to repent." What is it that can really define our duty? Surely the
-divine command. Well, here it is, and there is no getting over it.
-God's command to all men, in every place, is to repent. His
-commandment binds them to do it; His goodness leads them to it; His
-judgment warns them to it; and, above all, and most marvelous of all,
-He assures us that our repentance gives joy to His heart. A penitent
-heart is an object of profoundest interest to the mind of God, because
-that heart is morally prepared to receive what God delights to bestow,
-namely, "remission of sins"--yea, all the fulness of divine love. A
-man might spend millions in the cause of religion and philanthropy,
-and not afford one atom of joy in heaven. What are millions of money
-to God? A single penitential tear is more precious to Him than all the
-wealth of the universe. All the offerings of an unbroken heart are a
-positive insult to God; but a single sigh from the depths of a
-contrite spirit goes up as fragrant incense to His throne and to His
-heart.
-
-No man can meet God on the ground of duty; but God can meet any
-man--the very chief of sinners--on the ground of repentance, for that
-is man's true place; and we may say with all possible confidence that
-when the sinner, as he is, meets God as He is, the whole question is
-settled once and forever. "I said, _I will confess_ my transgressions
-unto the Lord, and _Thou forgavest_ the iniquity of my sin." The
-moment man takes his true place--the place of repentance--God meets
-him with a full forgiveness, a divine and everlasting righteousness.
-It is His joy to do so. It gratifies His heart and it glorifies His
-name to pardon, justify and accept a penitent soul that simply
-believes in Jesus. The very moment the prophet cried, "Woe is me; for
-I am undone,"--"Then _flew_ one of the seraphims with a live coal from
-off the altar," to touch his lips, and to purge his sins (Isa. vi.
-5-7).
-
-Thus it is always. The fulness of God ever waits on an empty vessel.
-If I am full of myself, full of my own fancied goodness, my own
-morality, my own righteousness, I have no room for God, no room for
-Christ. "He filleth the _hungry_ with good things; but the _rich_ He
-hath sent _empty_ away." A self-emptied soul can be filled with the
-fulness of God; but if God sends a man empty away, whither can he go
-to be filled? All Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, goes to prove
-the deep blessedness as well as the moral necessity of repentance. It
-is the grand turning-point in the soul's history--a great moral epoch
-which sheds its influence over the whole of one's after life. It is
-not, we repeat, a transient exercise, but an abiding moral condition.
-We are not now speaking of how repentance is produced; we are speaking
-of what it is according to Scripture, and of the absolute need of it
-for every creature under heaven. It is the sinner's true place; and
-when through grace he takes it, he is met by the fulness of God's
-salvation.
-
-And here we see the lovely connection between the first and second
-clauses of "the great commission," namely, "repentance and remission
-of sins." They are inseparably linked together. It is not that the
-most profound and genuine repentance forms the meritorious ground of
-remission of sins. To say or to think so would be to set aside the
-atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in that, and _in that alone_,
-have we the divine ground on which God can righteously forgive us our
-sins. This we shall see more fully when we come to consider the
-"_basis_" of "the great commission." We are now occupied with the
-commission itself; and in it we see those two divinely settled facts,
-repentance and remission of sins. The holy apostles of our Lord and
-Saviour were charged to preach among all nations--to declare in the
-ears of every creature under heaven "repentance and remission of
-sins." Every man, be he Jew or Gentile, is absolutely commanded by God
-to repent; and every repentant soul is privileged to receive, on the
-spot, the full and everlasting remission of sins. And we may add, the
-deeper and more abiding the work of repentance, the deeper and more
-abiding will be the enjoyment of remission of sins. The contrite soul
-lives in the very atmosphere of divine forgiveness; and as it inhales
-that atmosphere, it shrinks with ever-increasing horror from sin in
-every shape and form.
-
-Let us turn for a moment to the Acts of the Apostles, and see how
-Christ's ambassadors carried out the second part of His blessed
-commission. Hear the apostle of the circumcision addressing the Jews
-on the day of Pentecost. We cannot attempt to quote the whole of his
-address; we merely give the few words of application at the close.
-"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath
-made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ."
-
-Here the preacher bears down upon the consciences of his hearers with
-the solemn fact that they had proved themselves to be at issue with
-God Himself about His Christ. What a tremendous fact! It was not
-merely that they had broken the law, rejected the prophets, refused
-the testimony of John the Baptist; but they had actually crucified the
-Lord of glory, the eternal Son of God. "Now when they heard this,
-they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest
-of the apostles, Men, brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto
-them, _Repent_, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
-Christ, for _the remission of sins_, and ye shall receive the gift of
-the Holy Ghost" (Acts ii. 36-38).
-
-Here are the two parts of the great commission brought out in all
-their distinctness and power. The people are charged with the most
-awful sin that could be committed, namely, the murder of the Son of
-God; they are called upon to repent, and assured of full remission of
-sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost. What wondrous grace shines forth
-in all this! The very people that had mocked and insulted the Son of
-God, and crucified Him, even these, if truly repentant, were assured
-of the complete pardon of all their sins, and of this crowning sin
-amongst the rest. Such is the wondrous grace of God--such the mighty
-efficacy of the blood of Christ--such the clear and authoritative
-testimony of the Holy Ghost--such the glorious terms of "the great
-commission."
-
-But let us turn for a moment to Acts iii. Here the preacher, after
-charging his hearers with this awful act of wickedness against God,
-even the rejection and murder of His Son, adds these remarkable words:
-"And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did
-also your rulers. But those things, which God before had showed by the
-mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, _He hath so
-fulfilled._ _Repent ye_ therefore, and be converted, that _your sins
-may be blotted out_."
-
-It is not possible to conceive anything higher or fuller than the
-grace that shines out here. It is a part of the divine response to the
-prayer of Christ on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know
-not what they do." This surely is royal grace. It is victorious
-grace--grace reigning through righteousness. It was impossible that
-such a prayer should fall to the ground. It was answered in part on
-the day of Pentecost, It will be answered in full at a future day, for
-"All Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of
-Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."
-
-But mark particularly the words "Those things which God before had
-shewed ... He hath so fulfilled." Here the preacher brings in God's
-side of the matter: and this is salvation. To see only man's part in
-the cross would be eternal judgment. To see God's part, and to rest in
-it is eternal life, full remission of sins, divine righteousness,
-everlasting glory.
-
-The reader will doubtless be reminded here of the touching scene
-between Joseph and his brethren. There is a striking analogy between
-Acts iii. and Genesis xiv. "Now therefore," says Joseph, "be not
-grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God
-did send me before you to preserve life.... And God sent me before you
-to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a
-great deliverance. _So now it was not you that sent me hither, but
-God._"
-
-But when were these words uttered? Not until the guilty brethren had
-felt and owned their guilt. Repentance preceded the remission. "They
-said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in
-that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would
-not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us." Joseph "spake
-roughly" to his brethren at the first. He brought them through deep
-waters, and made them feel and confess their guilt. But the very
-moment they took the ground of repentance, he took the ground of
-forgiveness. The penitent brethren were met by a pardoning Joseph, and
-the whole house of Pharaoh was made to ring with the joy which filled
-the heart of Joseph on getting back to his bosom the very men that had
-flung him into the pit.
-
-What an illustration of "repentance and remission of sins!" It is ever
-thus. It is the joy of the heart of God to forgive us our sins. He
-delights in causing the full tide of His pardoning love to flow into
-the broken and contrite heart.
-
-Yes, beloved reader, if you have been brought to feel the burden of
-your guilt, then be assured it is your privilege this very moment to
-receive a divine and everlasting remission of all your sins. The blood
-of Jesus Christ has perfectly settled the question of your guilt, and
-you are now invited to rejoice in the God of your salvation.
-
-
-
-
-PART III.
-
-
-We shall now turn for a few moments to the ministry of the apostle of
-the Gentiles, and see how he fulfilled the great commission. We have
-already heard him on the subject of "repentance." Let us hear him also
-on the great question of "remission of sins."
-
-Paul was not of the twelve. He did not receive his commission from
-Christ on earth, but, as he himself distinctly and repeatedly tells
-us, from Christ in heavenly glory. Some have spent not a little time
-and pains in laboring to prove that he was of the twelve, and that the
-election of Matthias in Acts i. was a mistake. But it is labor sadly
-wasted, and only proves an entire misunderstanding of Paul's position
-and ministry. He was raised up for a special object, and made the
-depositary of a special truth which had never been made known to any
-one before, namely, the truth of the Church--the one body composed of
-Jew and Gentile, incorporated by the Holy Ghost, and linked, by His
-personal indwelling, to the risen and glorified Head in heaven.
-
-Paul received his own special commission, of which he gives a very
-beautiful statement in his address to Agrippa, in Acts xxvi.,
-"Whereupon, as I went to Damascus, with authority and commission from
-the chief priests,"--what a different "commission" he received ere he
-entered Damascus!--"at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from
-heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and
-them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the
-earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew
-tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? it is hard for thee to
-kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And He said,
-I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." Here the glorious truth of the
-intimate union of believers with the glorified Man in heaven, though
-not stated, is beautifully and forcibly implied. "But rise, and stand
-upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make
-thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast
-seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
-delivering thee from the people and the Gentiles, unto whom now I send
-thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and
-from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of
-sins" (the same word as in the commission to the twelve in Luke xxiv.)
-"and inheritance among them which are sanctified, by faith that is in
-Me."[18]
-
-  [18] "By faith" is connected with remission of sins and inheritance
-  among the sanctified.
-
-What depth and fulness in these words! What a comprehensive statement
-of man's condition! What a blessed presentation of the resources of
-divine grace! There is a very remarkable harmony between this
-commission to Paul and that to the twelve in Luke xxiv. It will
-perhaps be said there is nothing about repentance. True, the word does
-not occur; but we have the moral reality, and that with singular force
-and fulness. What mean the words, "_To open their eyes?_" Do they not
-most certainly involve the discovery of our condition? Assuredly. A
-man who has his eyes opened is brought to the knowledge of himself,
-the knowledge of his condition, the knowledge of his ways; and this is
-true repentance. It is a wonderful moment in a man's history when his
-eyes are opened. It is the grand crisis, the momentous epoch, the one
-turning-point. Till then he is blind--morally and spiritually blind.
-He cannot see a single divine object. He has no perception of anything
-pertaining to God, to Christ, to heaven.
-
-This is truly humbling to proud human nature. Think of a clear-headed,
-highly educated, deeply learned, intellectual man, a profound thinker,
-a powerful reasoner, a thorough philosopher, who has won the honors,
-the medals, the degrees, that this world's universities can bestow;
-and yet he is blind to everything spiritual, heavenly, divine. He
-gropes in moral darkness. He thinks he sees, assumes the right to
-judge and pronounce upon things, even upon Scripture and upon God
-Himself. He undertakes to decide what is fitting for God to say and to
-do. He sets up his own mind as the measure in the things of God. He
-reasons upon immortality, upon eternal life, and eternal punishment.
-He deems himself perfectly competent to give judgment in reference to
-all these solemn and weighty matters; and all the while his eyes have
-never been opened. How much is his judgment worth? Nothing! Who would
-take the opinion of a man who, if his eyes were only opened, would
-reverse that opinion in reference to everything heavenly and divine?
-Who would think for a moment of being guided by a blind man?
-
-But how do we know that every man in his natural, unconverted state is
-blind? Because, according to Paul's commission, the very first thing
-which the gospel is to do for him is "to open his eyes." This proves,
-beyond all question, that he must be blind. Paul was sent to the
-people and to the Gentiles--that is, to the whole human family--to
-open their eyes. This proves, to a divine demonstration, that all are
-by nature blind.
-
-But there is more than this. Man is not only blind, but he is in
-"darkness." Supposing for a moment that a person has his eyesight, of
-what use is it to him if he is in the dark? It is the double statement
-as to man's state and position. As to his state, he is blind. As to
-his position, he is in darkness; and when his eyes are opened, and
-divine light streams in upon his soul, he then judges himself and his
-ways according to God. He sees his folly, his guilt, his rebellion,
-his wild, infidel reasonings, his foolish notions, the vanity of his
-mind, his pride and ambition, his selfishness and worldliness--all
-these things are judged and abhorred. He repents, and turns right
-round to the One who has opened his eyes and poured in a flood of
-living light upon his heart and conscience.
-
-But, further, not only is man--every man--Jew and Gentile, blind and
-in darkness, but, as if to give the climax of all, he is under the
-power of Satan. This gives a terrible idea of man's condition. He is
-the slave of the devil. He does not believe this. He imagines himself
-free--thinks he is his own master--fancies he can go where he pleases,
-do what he likes, think for himself, speak and act as an independent
-being. But he is the bondslave of another, he is sold under sin, Satan
-is his lord and master. Thus Scripture speaks, and it cannot be
-broken. Man may refuse to believe, but that cannot in the least change
-the fact. A condemned criminal at the bar may refuse to believe the
-testimony from the witness table, the verdict from the jury-box, the
-sentence from the bench; but that in nowise alters his terrible
-condition. He is a condemned criminal all the same. So with man as a
-sinner; he may refuse the plain testimony of Scripture, but that
-testimony remains notwithstanding. Even if the thousand millions that
-people this globe were to deny the truth of God's word, that Word
-would still stand unmoved. Scripture does not depend for its truth
-upon man's belief. It is true whether he believes it or not. Blessed
-forever is the man who believes; doomed forever is the man who refuses
-to believe; but the word of God is settled forever in heaven, and it
-is to be received on its own authority, apart from all human thoughts
-for or against it.
-
-This is a grand fact, and one demanding the profound attention of
-every soul. Everything depends upon it. The word of God claims our
-belief because it is His word. If we want any authority to confirm the
-truth of God's word, we are in reality rejecting God's word
-altogether, and resting on man's word. A man may say, "How do I know
-that the Bible is the word of God?" We reply, It carries its own
-divine credentials with it; and if these credentials do not convince,
-all the human authority under the sun is perfectly worthless. If the
-whole population of the earth were to stand before me, and assure me
-of the truth of God's word, and that I were to believe on their
-authority, it would not be saving faith at all. It would be faith in
-men, and not faith in God; but the faith that saves is the faith that
-believes what God says because God says it.
-
-It is not that we undervalue human testimony, or reject what are
-called the external evidences of the truth of the Holy Scripture. All
-these things must go for what they are worth; they are by no means
-essential in laying the foundation of saving faith. We are perfectly
-sure that all genuine history, all true science, all sound human
-evidence, must go to establish the divine authenticity of the Bible;
-but we do not rest our faith upon them, but upon the Scriptures to
-which they bear witness; for if all human evidence, all science, and
-every page of history, were to speak against Scripture, we should
-utterly and absolutely reject them; reverently and implicitly believe
-it. Is this narrow? Be it so. It is the blessed narrowness in which we
-gladly find our peace and our portion forever. It is the narrowness
-that refuses to admit the weight of a feather as an addition to the
-word of God. If this be narrowness,--we repeat it with emphasis, and
-from the very centre of our ransomed being,--let it be ours forever.
-If to be broad we must look to man to confirm the truth of God's word,
-then away with such broadness; it is the broad way that leadeth
-straight down to hell. No, reader, your life, your salvation, your
-everlasting peace, blessedness and glory, depend upon your taking God
-at His word, and believing what He says because He says it. This is
-faith--living, saving, precious faith. May you possess it!
-
-God's word, then, most distinctly declares that man in his natural,
-unrenewed, unconverted state is Satan's bondslave. It speaks of Satan
-as "the god of this world," as "the prince of the power of the air,
-the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." It
-speaks of man as "led captive by the devil at his will." Hence, in
-Paul's commission, the third thing which the gospel is to do is to
-turn man from "the power of Satan to God." Thus his eyes are opened;
-divine light comes streaming in; the power of Satan is broken, and the
-delivered one finds himself, peacefully and happily, in the presence
-of God. Like the demoniac in Mark v., he is delivered from his
-ruthless tyrant, his cruel master; his chains are broken and gone; he
-is clothed and in his right mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus.
-
-What a glorious deliverance! It is worthy of God in every aspect of
-it, and in all its results. The poor blind slave, led captive by the
-devil, is set free; and not only so, but he is brought to God,
-pardoned, accepted, and endowed with an eternal inheritance among the
-sanctified. And all this is by faith, through grace. It is proclaimed
-in the gospel of God to every creature under heaven--not one is
-excluded. The great commission, whether we read it in Luke xxiv. or in
-Acts xxvi., assures us that this most precious, most glorious
-salvation is unto all.
-
-Let us, ere we close this paper, listen for a moment to our apostle as
-he discharges his blessed commission in the synagogue at Antioch of
-Pisidia. Most gladly would we transcribe the whole of his precious
-discourse, but our limited space compels us to confine ourselves to
-the powerful appeal at the end. "Be it known unto you therefore, men
-and brethren, that through THIS MAN" (Jesus Christ, crucified, risen,
-and glorified) "is preached"--not promised in the future, but preached
-_now_, announced as a present reality--is preached "_unto you_ the
-remission of sins. And by Him all who believe ARE justified from _all
-things_, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
-
-From these words we learn, in the clearest possible manner, that every
-soul in that synagogue was called upon, there and then, to receive
-into his heart the blessed message which fell from the preacher's
-lips. Not one was excluded. "_Unto you_ is the word of this salvation
-sent." If any one had asked the apostle if the message was intended
-for him, what would have been the reply? "Unto _you_ is the word of
-this salvation sent." Was there no preliminary question to be settled?
-Not one. All the preliminaries had been settled at the cross. Was
-there no question as to election or predestination? Not a syllable
-about either in the whole range of this magnificent and comprehensive
-discourse.
-
-But is there no such question? Not in that "great commission" whereof
-we speak. No doubt the grand truth of election shines in its proper
-place on the page of inspiration. But what is its proper and divinely
-appointed place? Most assuredly not in the preaching of the
-evangelist, but in the ministry of the teacher or pastor. When the
-apostle sits down to instruct believers, we hear such words as these:
-"Whom He did foreknow, He also did _predestinate_." And again:
-"Knowing, brethren beloved, your _election_ of God."
-
-But let it never be lost sight of, when he stands up as an ambassador
-of Christ, the herald of salvation, he proclaims in the most absolute
-and unqualified manner a present, a personal, a perfect salvation to
-every creature under heaven; and every one who heard him was
-responsible there and then to believe. And every one who reads him now
-is equally so. If any one had presumed to tell the preacher that his
-hearers were not responsible, that they were powerless, and could not
-believe--that it was only deceiving them to call upon them to
-believe--what would have been his reply? We think we are warranted in
-saying that a full and overwhelming reply to this, and every such
-preposterous objection, is wrapped up in the solemn appeal with which
-the apostle closes his address, "_Beware_, therefore, lest that come
-upon you which is spoken of in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and
-wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye
-shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you."
-
-
-
-
-PART IV.
-
-
-Having in the former papers dwelt a little upon the _terms_ of "the
-great commission," we shall now, in dependence upon divine teaching,
-seek to unfold the truth as to the _basis_. It is of the greatest
-importance to have a clear understanding of the solid ground on which
-"repentance and remission of sins" are announced to every creature
-under heaven. This we have distinctly laid down in our Lord's own
-words, "_It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
-third day_."
-
-Here lies, in its impregnable strength, the foundation of the glorious
-commission whereof we speak. God--blessed forever be His holy
-name--has been pleased to set before us with all possible clearness
-the moral ground on which He commands all men everywhere to repent,
-and the righteous ground on which He can proclaim to every repentant
-soul the perfect remission of sins.
-
-We have already had occasion to guard the reader against the false
-notion that any amount of repentance on the part of the sinner could
-possibly form the meritorious ground of forgiveness. But inasmuch as
-we write for those who may be ignorant of the foundations of the
-gospel, we feel bound to put things in the very simplest possible
-form, so that all may understand. We know how prone the human heart
-is to build upon something of our own--if not upon good works, at
-least upon our penitential exercises. Hence, it becomes our bounden
-duty to set forth the precious truth of the atoning work of our Lord
-Jesus Christ as the only righteous ground of the forgiveness of sins.
-
-True, all men are commanded to repent. It is meet and right that they
-should. How could it be otherwise? How can we look at that accursed
-tree on which the Son of God bore the judgment of sin and not see the
-absolute necessity of repentance? How can we hearken to that solemn
-cry breaking forth from amid the shadows of Calvary, "My God, My God,
-why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and not own, from the deepest depths of
-our moral being, the moral fitness of repentance? If indeed sin is so
-terrible, so absolutely hateful to God, so perfectly intolerable to
-His holy nature, that He had to bruise His well beloved and only
-begotten Son on the cross in order to put it away, does it not well
-become the sinner to judge himself, and repent in dust and ashes? Had
-the blessed Lord to endure the hiding of God's countenance because of
-our sins, and we not be broken, self-judged and subdued on account of
-these sins? Shall we with impenitent heart hear the glad tidings of
-full and free forgiveness of sins--a forgiveness which cost nothing
-less than the unutterable horrors and agonies of the cross? Shall we,
-with flippant tongue, profess to have peace--a peace purchased by the
-ineffable sufferings of the Son of God? If it was absolutely
-necessary that Christ should suffer for our sins, is it not morally
-fitting that we should repent of them?
-
-Nor is this all. It is not merely that it becomes us, once in a way,
-to repent. There is far more than this. The spirit of self-judgment,
-genuine contrition and true humility must characterize every one who
-enters at all into the profound mystery of the sufferings of Christ.
-Indeed, it is only as we contemplate and deeply ponder those
-sufferings that we can form anything approaching to a just estimate of
-the hatefulness of sin on the one hand, and the divine fulness and
-perfectness of remission on the other. Such was the hatefulness of
-sin, that it was absolutely necessary that Christ should suffer;
-but--all praise to redeeming love!--such were the sufferings of
-Christ, that God can forgive us our sins according to the infinite
-value which He attaches to those sufferings. Both go together; and
-both, we may add, exert a formative influence, under the powerful
-ministry of the Holy Ghost, on the Christian character from first to
-last. Our sins are all forgiven; but "it behooved Christ to suffer;"
-and hence, while our peace flows like a river, we must never forget
-the soul-subduing fact that the basis of our peace was laid in the
-ineffable sufferings of the Son of God.
-
-This is most needful, owing to the excessive levity of our hearts. We
-are ready enough to receive the truth of the remission of sins, and
-then go on in an easy, self-indulgent, world-loving spirit, thus
-proving how feebly we enter into the sufferings of our blessed Lord,
-or into the real nature of sin. All this is truly deplorable, and
-calls for the deepest exercise of soul. There is a sad lack amongst us
-of that real brokenness of spirit which ought to characterize those
-who owe their present peace and everlasting felicity and glory to the
-sufferings of Christ. We are light, frivolous, and self-willed. We
-avail ourselves of the death of Christ to save us from the
-consequences of our sins, but our ways do not exhibit the practical
-effect of that death in its application to ourselves. We do not walk
-as those who are dead with Christ--who have crucified the flesh with
-its affections and lusts--who are delivered from this present evil
-world. In a word, our Christianity is sadly deficient in depth of
-tone; it is shallow, feeble, and stunted. We profess to know a great
-deal of truth; but it is to be feared it is too much in
-theory--therefore not turned to practical account as it should be.
-
-It may, perhaps, be asked, What has all this to do with "the great
-commission?" It has to do with it in a very intimate way. We are
-deeply impressed with a sense of the superficial way in which the work
-of evangelization is carried on at the present day. Not only are the
-_terms_ of the great commission overlooked, but the _basis_ seems to
-be little understood. The sufferings of Christ are not duly dwelt upon
-and unfolded. The atoning work of Christ is presented in its
-sufficiency for the sinner's need--and no doubt this is a signal
-mercy. We have to be profoundly thankful when preachers and writers
-hold up the precious blood of Christ as the sinner's only plea,
-instead of preaching up rites, ceremonies, sacraments, good works
-(falsely so called), creeds, churches, religious ordinances, and
-such-like delusions.
-
-All this is most fully admitted. But at the same time we must give
-expression to our deep and solemn conviction that much of our modern
-evangelical preaching is extremely shallow and bald; and the result of
-that preaching is seen in the light, airy, flippant style of many of
-our so-called converts. Some of us seem so intensely anxious to make
-everything so easy and simple for the sinner that the preaching
-becomes extremely one-sided.
-
-Thanks be to God, He has indeed made all easy and simple for the
-needy, broken-hearted, penitent sinner. He has left him nothing to do,
-nothing to give. It is "to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him
-that justifieth the ungodly." It is not possible for any evangelist to
-go too far in stating this side of the question. No one can go beyond
-Rom. iv. 5 in setting forth salvation by free grace, through faith,
-without works of any sort or description.
-
-But then, we must remember that the blessed apostle Paul--the greatest
-evangelist that ever lived, except his divine Master--did not confine
-himself to this one side; and neither should we. He pressed the claims
-of divine holiness. He called upon sinners to judge themselves, and he
-called upon believers to subdue and deny themselves. He did not
-preach a gospel that left people at ease in the world, satisfied with
-themselves, and occupied with earthly things. He did not tell people
-that they were saved from the flames of hell and were therefore free
-to enjoy the follies of earth.
-
-This was not Paul's gospel. He preached a gospel which, while it fully
-met the sinner's deepest need, did also most fully maintain God's
-glory--a gospel which, while it came down to the very lowest point of
-the sinner's condition, did not leave him there. Paul's gospel not
-only set forth a full, clear, unqualified, unconditional, present
-_forgiveness of sins_, but also, just as fully and clearly, the
-_condemnation of sin_, and the believer's entire deliverance from this
-present evil world. The death of Christ, in Paul's gospel, not only
-assured the soul of complete deliverance from the just consequences of
-sins, as seen in the judgment of God in the lake of fire, but it also
-set forth, with magnificent fulness and clearness, the complete
-snapping of every link with the world, and entire deliverance from the
-present power and rule of sin.
-
-Now, here is precisely where the lamentable deficiency and culpable
-one-sidedness of our modern preaching are so painfully manifest. The
-gospel which one often hears nowadays is, if we may be allowed the use
-of such a term, a carnal, earthly, worldly gospel. It offers a kind of
-ease, but it is fleshly, worldly ease. It gives confidence, but it is
-rather a carnal confidence than the confidence of faith. It is not a
-delivering gospel. It leaves people in the world, instead of bringing
-them to God.
-
-And what must be the result of all this? We can hardly bear to
-contemplate it. We greatly fear that, should our Lord tarry, the fruit
-of much of what is going on around us will be a terrible combination
-of the very highest profession with the very lowest practice. It
-cannot be otherwise. High truth taken up in a light, carnal spirit
-tends to lull the conscience and quash all godly exercise of soul as
-to our habits and ways in daily life. In this way people escape from
-legality only to plunge into levity, and truly the last state is worse
-than the first.
-
-We earnestly hope that the Christian reader may not feel unduly
-depressed by the perusal of these lines. God knows we would not pen a
-line to discourage the feeblest lamb in all the precious flock of
-Christ. We desire to write in the divine presence. We have entreated
-the Lord that every line of this paper, and of all our papers, should
-come directly from Himself to the reader.
-
-Hence, therefore, we must ask the reader--and we do so most faithfully
-and affectionately--to ponder what is here put before him. We cannot
-hide from him the fact that we are most seriously impressed with the
-condition of things around us. We feel that the tone and aspect of
-much of the so-called Christianity of this our day are such as to
-awaken the gravest apprehension in the mind of every thoughtful
-observer. We perceive a terribly rapid development of the features of
-the last days, as detailed by the pen of inspiration. "This know also
-that, in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be
-_lovers of their own selves_, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
-_disobedient to parents_, unthankful, unholy, without natural
-affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce,
-_despisers of those that are good_, traitors, _heady, high-minded,
-lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of
-godliness, but denying the power thereof_: from such turn away" (2
-Tim. iii. 1-5).
-
-What an appalling picture! How solemn to find the same evils that
-characterize the heathen, as recorded in Rom. i., reproduced in
-connection with the profession of Christianity! Should not the thought
-of this awaken the most serious apprehensions in the mind of every
-Christian? Should it not lead all who are engaged in the holy service
-of preaching and teaching amongst us to examine themselves closely as
-to the tone and character of their ministry, and as to their own
-private walk and ways? We want a more searching style of ministry on
-the part of evangelists and teachers. There is a lack of hortatory and
-prophetic ministry. By prophetic ministry we mean that which brings
-the conscience into the immediate presence of God. (See 1 Cor. xiv.
-1-3, 23-26.)
-
-In this we are lamentably deficient. There is a vast amount of
-objective truth in circulation amongst us--more, perhaps, than ever
-since the days of the apostles. Books and periodicals by hundreds and
-thousands, tracts by thousands and millions, are sent forth annually.
-
-Do we object to this? Nay; we bless God for it. But we cannot shut our
-eyes to the fact that by far the largest proportion of this vast mass
-of literature is addressed to the intelligence, and not enough to the
-heart and conscience. Now, while it is quite right to enlighten the
-understanding, it is quite wrong to neglect the heart and conscience.
-We feel it to be a most serious thing to allow the intelligence to
-outstrip the conscience--to have more truth in the head than in the
-heart--to profess principles which do not govern the practice. Nothing
-can be more dangerous. It tends to place us directly in the hands of
-Satan. If the conscience be not kept tender, if the heart be not
-governed by the fear of God, if a broken and contrite spirit be not
-cultivated, there is no telling what depths we may plunge into. When
-the conscience is kept in a sound condition, and the heart is humble
-and true, then every fresh ray of light that shines in upon the
-understanding ministers strength to the soul and tends to elevate and
-sanctify our whole moral being.
-
-This is what every earnest spirit must crave. All true-hearted
-Christians must long for increased personal holiness, more likeness to
-Christ, more genuine devotedness of heart, a deepening, strengthening
-and expanding of the kingdom of God in the soul--that kingdom which is
-righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
-
-May we all have grace to seek after these divine realities! May we
-diligently cultivate them in our own private life, and seek in every
-possible way to promote them in all those with whom we come in
-contact! Thus shall we in some measure stem the tide of hollow
-profession around us, and be a living testimony against the powerless
-_form_ of godliness so sadly dominant in this our day.
-
-Christian reader! art thou one with us in this current of thought and
-feeling? If so, then let us most earnestly entreat thee to join us in
-earnest prayer to God that He will graciously raise our spiritual tone
-by drawing us closer to Himself, and filling our hearts with love to
-Him and earnest desire for the promotion of His glory, the progress of
-His cause, and the prosperity of His people.
-
-
-
-
-PART V.
-
-
-In pursuing our subject, we have yet to consider the _authority_ and
-the _sphere_ of "the great commission;" but ere proceeding to treat of
-these we must dwell a little longer on the _basis_. The commission is
-truly a great one, and would need a solid foundation on which to rest
-it; and such it has, blessed be God, in the atoning death of His Son.
-Nothing less than this could sustain such a magnificent fabric; but
-the grace that planned the commission has also laid the foundation; so
-that a full remission of sins can be preached among all nations,
-inasmuch as God has been glorified, in the death of Christ, as to the
-entire question of sin.
-
-This is a grand point for the reader to seize. It lies at the very
-foundation of the Christian system. It is the keystone of the arch of
-divine revelation. God has been glorified as to sin. His judgment has
-been executed upon it. The claims of His throne have been vindicated
-as to it. The insult offered to His divine majesty has been flung back
-in the enemy's face. If the sweet story of remission of sins had never
-fallen upon a human ear or entered a human heart, the divine glory
-would none the less have been most perfectly maintained. The Lord
-Jesus Christ did, by His most precious death, wipe off the stain which
-the enemy sought to cast upon the eternal glory of God. A testimony
-has been given in the Cross, to all created intelligence, as to God's
-thoughts about sin. It can there be seen, with all possible clearness,
-that a single trace of sin can never enter the precincts of the divine
-presence. God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on
-iniquity. Sin, wherever found, must be met by divine judgment.
-
-Where, we may ask, does all this come most fully and forcibly out?
-Assuredly in the Cross. Harken to that solemn and most mysterious cry,
-"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" What means this wondrous
-inquiry? Who is the speaker? Is he one of Adam's fallen posterity? Is
-he a sinner? Surely not; for were he such, there would be no moral
-force whatever in the question. There never was a sinner on the face
-of this earth who, so far as he was personally concerned, did not
-richly deserve to be forsaken of a holy, sin-hating God. This must
-never be forgotten. Some people entertain most foolish notions as to
-this point. They have, in their own vain imagination, invented a god
-to suit themselves--one who will not punish sin--one who is so tender,
-so kind, so benevolent, that he will connive at evil and pass it over
-as though it were nothing.
-
-Now, nothing is more certain than that this god of the human
-imagination is a false one, just as false as any of the idols of the
-heathen. The God of the Bible, the God of Christianity, the God whom
-we see at the cross, is not like this. Men may reason as they will;
-but sin must be condemned--it must be met by the just and inflexible
-judgment of a sin-hating God.
-
-But we repeat the question, Who uttered those words at the opening of
-Psa. xxii.? If he was not a sinner, who was he? Wonderful to declare,
-He was the only spotless, perfectly holy, pure and sinless Man that
-ever trod this earth. He was more. He was the eternal Son of the
-Father, the object of God's ineffable delight, who had dwelt in His
-bosom from all eternity, "the brightness of His glory and the exact
-expression of His substance."
-
-And yet He was forsaken of God! yes, that holy and perfect One, who
-knew no sin, whose human nature was absolutely free from every taint,
-who never had a single thought, never uttered a single word, never did
-a single act that was not in the most perfect harmony with the mind of
-God; whose whole life, from Bethlehem to Calvary, was a perfect
-sacrifice of sweetest odor presented to the heart of God. Again and
-again we see heaven opening upon Him, and the voice of the Father is
-heard giving expression to His infinite complacency in the Son of His
-bosom. And yet, He it is whose voice is heard in that bitter cry, "My
-God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
-
-Marvelous question! It stands alone in the annals of eternity. No such
-question had ever been asked before; no such question has ever been
-asked since; and no such question can ever be asked again. Whether we
-consider the One who asked the question, or the One of whom it was
-asked, or the answer, we must admit that it is perfectly unique. That
-God should forsake such an One is the most profound and marvelous
-mystery that could possibly engage the attention of men or angels.
-Human reason cannot fathom its depths. No created intelligence can
-comprehend its mighty compass.
-
-Yet there it stands, a stupendous fact before the eye of faith. Our
-blessed Lord Himself assures us that it was absolutely necessary.
-"Thus it is written, and thus it _behooved_ Christ to suffer." But why
-was it necessary? Why should the only perfect, sinless, spotless Man
-have to suffer? Why should He be forsaken of God? The glory of God,
-the eternal counsels of redeeming love, man's guilty, ruined, helpless
-condition--all these things rendered it indispensable that Christ
-should suffer. There was no other way in which the divine glory could
-be maintained; no other way in which the claims of the throne of God
-could be answered; no other way in which heaven's majesty could be
-vindicated; no other way in which the eternal purposes of love could
-be made good; no other way in which sin could be fully atoned for, and
-finally taken away out of God's creation; no other way in which sins
-could be forgiven; no other way in which Satan and all the powers of
-darkness could be thoroughly vanquished; no other way in which God
-could be just, and yet the Justifier of any poor ungodly sinner; no
-other way in which death could be deprived of its sting, or the grave
-of its victory; no other way in which any or all of these grand
-results could be reached save by the sufferings and death of our
-adorable Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.
-
-But, blessed forever be His holy name, He went through it all. He went
-down under the heavy billows and waves of God's righteous wrath
-against sin. He took the sinner's place, stood in his stead, sustained
-the judgment, paid the penalty, died the death, answered every
-question, met every demand, vanquished every foe; and having done all,
-He ascended into the heavens and took His seat on the throne of God,
-where He is now crowned with glory and honor as the divine and
-all-glorious Accomplisher of the entire work of man's redemption.
-
-Such, then, reader, is the _basis_ of "the great commission" whereof
-we speak. Need we wonder at the _terms_, when we contemplate the
-basis? Can there be anything too good, anything too great, anything
-too glorious, for the God of all grace to bestow upon us poor sinners
-of the Gentiles, seeing He has been so fully glorified in the death of
-Christ? That most precious death furnishes a divinely righteous ground
-on which our God can indulge the deep and everlasting love of His
-heart in the perfect remission of our sins. It has removed out of the
-way every barrier to the full flood-tide of redeeming love which can
-now flow through a perfectly righteous channel, to the very vilest
-sinner that repents and believes in Jesus. A Saviour-God can now
-publish a full and immediate remission of sins to every creature under
-heaven. There is positively no hindrance. God has been glorified as
-to the question of sin; and the time is coming when every trace of sin
-shall be forever obliterated from His fair creation, and those words
-of John the Baptist shall have their full accomplishment, "Behold the
-Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Meanwhile, the
-heralds of salvation are commanded to go forth to the ends of the
-earth and publish, without let or limitation, perfect remission of
-sins to every soul that believes. It is the joy of God's heart to
-pardon sins; and it is due to the One who bore the judgment of sin on
-the cross that in His name forgiveness of sins should be thus freely
-published, fully received, and abidingly enjoyed.
-
-But what of those who reject this glorious message--who shut their
-ears against it and turn away their hearts from it? This is the solemn
-question. Who can answer it? Who can attempt to set forth the eternal
-destiny of those who die in their sins, as all must who refuse God's
-only basis of remission? Men may reason and argue as they will; but
-all the reasoning and argument in the world cannot set aside the word
-of God, which assures us in manifold places, and in terms so plain as
-to leave no possible ground for questioning, that all who die in their
-sins--all who die out of Christ--must inevitably perish eternally,
-must bear the consequences of their sins, in the lake that burneth
-with fire and brimstone.
-
-To quote the passages in proof of the solemn truth of eternal
-punishment would require a small volume. We cannot attempt it here;
-nor is it necessary, inasmuch as we have gone into the subject again
-and again in other places.
-
-But we would here put a question which arises naturally out of our
-present thesis. It is this: Was Christ judged, bruised and forsaken on
-the cross--did God visit His only begotten and well beloved Son with
-the full weight of His righteous wrath against sin--and shall
-impenitent sinners escape? We solemnly press this question on all whom
-it may concern. Men talk of its being inconsistent with the idea of
-divine goodness, tenderness and compassion that God should send any of
-His creatures to hell. We reply, Who is to be the judge? Is man
-competent to decide as to what is morally fitting for God to do? And
-further, we ask, What is to be the standard of judgment? Anything that
-human reason can grasp? Assuredly not. What then? _The cross on which
-the Son of God died, the Just for the unjust_--this, and this only, is
-the great standard by which to judge the question as to sin's desert.
-Who can harken to that bitter cry emanating from the broken heart of
-the Son of God, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and
-question the eternal punishment of all who die in their sins? Talk of
-tenderness, goodness, and compassion! Where do these shine out most
-brightly and blessedly? Surely in "the great commission" which
-publishes full and free forgiveness of sins to every creature under
-heaven. But would it be just, or good, or compassionate, to suffer
-the rejecter of Christ to escape? If we would see the goodness,
-kindness, mercy and deep compassion of God, we must look at the cross.
-"He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." "It
-pleased Jehovah to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief." "He hath
-made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the
-righteousness of God in Him."
-
-But if men reject all this, and go on in their sins, in their
-rebellion, in their infidel reasonings and impious speculations--what
-then? If men maintain that suffering for sin is not necessary, and
-that there is another and a better way of disposing of the
-matter--what then? Our Lord declared in the ears of His apostles that
-"it was necessary that Christ should suffer"--that there was no other
-way possible by which the great question could be settled. Whom are we
-to believe? Was the death of Christ gratuitous? Was His heart broken
-for nothing? Was the Cross a work of supererogation? Did Jehovah
-bruise His Son and put Him to grief for an end which might be gained
-some other way?
-
-How monstrous are the reasonings, or rather the ravings, of
-infidelity! Infidel doctors begin by throwing overboard the word of
-God--that peerless and perfect revelation; and then, when they have
-deprived us of our divine guide, with singular audacity, they present
-themselves before us, and undertake to point out for us a more
-excellent way; and when we inquire what that way is, we are met by a
-thousand and one fine-spun theories, no two of which agree in anything
-save in shutting out God and His Word.
-
-True, they talk plausibly about a God; but it is a God of their own
-imagination--one who will connive at sin--who will allow them to
-indulge in their lusts, and passions, and pleasures, and then take
-them to a heaven of which they really know nothing. They talk of
-mercy, and kindness, and goodness; but they reject the only channel
-through which these can flow, namely, the Cross of our Lord Jesus
-Christ. They speak not of righteousness, holiness, truth, and judgment
-to come. They would fain have us to believe that God put Himself to
-needless cost in delivering up His Son. They would ignore that
-marvelous transaction which stands alone in the entire history of the
-ways of God--the atoning death of His Son. In one word, the grand
-object of the devil, in all the skeptical, rationalistic and infidel
-theories that have ever been propounded in this world, is to shut out
-completely the word of God, the Christ of God, and God Himself.
-
-We solemnly call upon all our readers, specially our young friends, to
-ponder this. It is our deep and thorough conviction that the harboring
-of a single infidel suggestion is the first step on that inclined
-plane which leads straight down to the dark and terrible abyss of
-atheism--down to the blackness of darkness forever.
-
-We shall have occasion to recur to the foregoing line of thought when
-we come to consider the _authority_ on which "the great commission"
-comes to us. We have been drawn into it by the sad fact that in every
-direction, and on every subject, we are assailed by the contemptible
-reasonings of infidelity; and we feel imperatively called upon to warn
-all with whom we come in contact against infidel books, infidel
-lectures, infidel theories in every shape and form. _May the inspired
-word of God be more and more precious to our hearts! May we walk in
-its light, feel its sacred power, bow to its divine authority, hide it
-in our hearts, feed upon its treasures, own its absolute supremacy,
-confess its all-sufficiency, and utterly reject all teaching which
-dares to touch the integrity of_ THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
-
-
-
-
-PART VI.
-
-
-We have seen that the _basis_ of "the great commission" is the death
-and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This must never
-be lost sight of. "It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the
-dead the third day." It is a risen Christ that sends forth His heralds
-to preach "repentance and remission of sins." The incarnation and the
-crucifixion are great cardinal truths of Christianity; but it is only
-in resurrection they are made available for us in any way.
-Incarnation--precious and priceless mystery though it be--could not
-form the groundwork of remission of sins, for "without shedding of
-blood is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22). We are justified by the _blood_,
-and reconciled by the _death_ of Christ. But it is in resurrection
-that all this is made good unto us. Christ was delivered for our
-offenses, and raised again for our justification (Rom. iv. 25; v. 9,
-10). "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
-received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
-Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third
-day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. xv. 3, 4).
-
-Hence, therefore, it is of the very last possible importance, for all
-who would carry out our Lord's commission, to know in their own souls,
-and to set forth in their preaching, the grand truth of resurrection.
-The most cursory glance at the preaching of the earliest heralds of
-the gospel will suffice to show the prominent place which they gave to
-this glorious fact.
-
-Harken to Peter on the day of Pentecost, or rather to the Holy Ghost,
-just come down from the risen, ascended and glorified Saviour. "Ye men
-of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God
-among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by Him in
-the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him being delivered by
-the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and
-by wicked hands have crucified and slain: _whom God hath raised up_,
-having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He
-should be holden of it.... _This Jesus hath God raised up_, whereof we
-all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,
-and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He
-hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear" (Acts ii.). So also in
-chapter iii.: "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God
-of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up,
-and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to
-let Him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a
-murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, _whom
-God hath raised from the dead_; whereof we are witnesses.... Unto you
-first _God, having raised up His Son Jesus_, sent Him to bless you, in
-turning away every one of you from his iniquities.... And as they
-spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and
-the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the
-people, and _preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead_."
-
-Their preaching was characterized by the prominent place which it
-assigned to the glorious, powerful and telling fact of resurrection.
-True, there was the full and clear statement of incarnation and
-crucifixion, with the great moral bearings of these facts. How could
-it be otherwise? The Son of God had to become a man to die, in order
-that by death He might glorify God as to the entire question of sin;
-destroy the power of Satan; rob death of its sting, and the grave of
-its victory; put away forever the sins of His people, and associate
-them with Himself in the power of eternal life in the new creation,
-where all things are of God, and where a single trace of sin or sorrow
-can never enter. Eternal and universal homage and adoration to His
-peerless name!
-
-But let all preachers remember the place which resurrection holds in
-apostolic preaching and teaching. "With great power gave the apostles
-witness." Of what? Incarnation or crucifixion merely? Nay; but "of the
-resurrection of the Lord Jesus." This was the stupendous fact that
-glorified God and His Son Jesus Christ. It was this that attested, in
-the view of all created intelligences, the divine complacency in the
-work of redemption. It was this that demonstrated, in the most
-marvelous way, the complete and eternal overthrow of the kingdom of
-Satan and all the powers of darkness. It was this that declared the
-full and everlasting deliverance of all who believe in Jesus--their
-deliverance, not only from all the consequences of their sins, but
-from this present evil world, and from every link that bound them to
-that old creation which lies under the power of evil.
-
-No marvel, therefore, if the apostles, filled as they were with the
-Holy Ghost, persistently and powerfully presented the magnificent
-truth of resurrection. Hear them again before the council--a council
-composed of the great religious leaders and guides of the people. "The
-God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, and hanged on a
-tree." They were at issue with God on the all-important question as to
-His Son. They had slain Him, but God raised Him from the dead. "Him
-hath God exalted with His right hand, a Prince and a Saviour, for to
-give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins."
-
-So also in Peter's address to the Gentiles, in the house of Cornelius,
-speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, he says, "whom they slew, and hanged on
-a tree, _Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly_: not
-to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, to us who
-did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead."
-
-The Holy Ghost is careful to set forth the weighty and, to us,
-profoundly interesting fact that "God raised up His Son Jesus." This
-fact has a double bearing. It proves that God is at issue with the
-world, seeing He has raised, exalted and glorified the very One whom
-they slew and hanged on a tree. But, blessed throughout all ages be
-His holy name, it proves that He has found eternal rest and
-satisfaction as to us, and all that was or could be against us, seeing
-He has raised up the very One who took our place and stood charged
-with all our sin and guilt.
-
-But all this will come more fully out as we proceed with our proofs.
-
-Let us now listen for a moment to Paul's address in the synagogue at
-Antioch. "Men, brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and
-whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation
-sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they
-knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every
-Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though
-they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He
-should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of
-Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre.
-_But God raised Him from the dead._ And He was seen many days of them
-which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His
-witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how
-that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled
-the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus; as
-it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art My Son, this day have
-I begotten Thee. And as concerning that _He raised Him up from the
-dead_, no more to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will
-give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore He saith also in another
-psalm, Thou shalt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. For
-David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell
-on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but _He
-whom God raised again_ saw no corruption."
-
-Then follows the powerful appeal which, though not bearing upon our
-present line of argument, we cannot omit in this place. "Be it known
-unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is
-preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and _by Him_ all that
-believe _are justified from all things_, from which ye could not be
-justified by the law of Moses. _Beware_ therefore, lest that come upon
-you which is spoken of in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and
-wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye
-shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you" (Acts
-xiii. 26-41).
-
-We shall close our series of proofs from the Acts of the Apostles by a
-brief quotation from Paul's address at Athens. "Forasmuch then as we
-are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
-like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
-And the times of this ignorance God overlooked; but now commandeth
-all men everywhere to repent; because He hath appointed a day in the
-which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He
-hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all, _in that He
-hath raised Him from the dead_" (Acts xvii.).
-
-This is a very remarkable and deeply solemn passage. The proof that
-God is going to judge the world in righteousness--a proof offered to
-all--is that He has raised His ordained Man from the dead. He does not
-here name the Man; but at verse 18 we are told that some of the
-Athenians deemed the apostle a setter forth of strange gods, "because
-he preached unto them _Jesus and the resurrection_."
-
-From all this it is perfectly plain that the blessed apostle Paul gave
-a most prominent place in all his preachings to the glorious truth of
-resurrection. Whether he addresses a congregation of Jews in the
-synagogue at Antioch, or an assembly of Gentiles on Mars' Hill at
-Athens, he presents a risen Christ. In a word, he was characterized by
-the fact that he preached not merely the incarnation and the
-crucifixion, but the resurrection; and this, too, in all its mighty
-moral bearings--its bearing upon man in his individual state and
-destiny; its bearing upon the world as a whole, in its history in the
-past, its moral condition in the present, and its certain doom in the
-future; in its bearing upon the believer, proving his absolute,
-complete and eternal justification before God, and his thorough
-deliverance from this present evil world.
-
-And we have to bear in mind that in apostolic preaching the
-resurrection was not presented as a mere doctrine, but as a living,
-telling, mighty moral fact--a fact, the magnitude of which is beyond
-all power of human utterance or thought. The apostles, in carrying out
-"the great commission" of their Lord, pressed the stupendous fact that
-God had raised Jesus from the dead--had raised the Man who was nailed
-to the cross and buried in the grave. In short, they preached a
-resurrection gospel. Their preaching was governed by these words, "It
-was necessary that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead the
-third day."
-
-We shall now turn for a moment to the Epistles, and see the wondrous
-way in which the Holy Ghost unfolds and applies the fact of
-resurrection. But ere doing so we would call the reader's attention to
-a passage which is sadly misunderstood and misapplied. The apostle, in
-writing to the Corinthians, says, "We preach Christ crucified." These
-words are continually quoted for the purpose of casting a damper on
-those who earnestly desire to advance in the knowledge of divine
-things. But a moment's serious attention to the context would be
-sufficient to show the true meaning of the apostle. Did he confine
-himself to the fact of the crucifixion? The bare idea, in the face of
-the body of Scripture which we have quoted, is simply absurd. The fact
-is, the glorious truth of resurrection shines out in all his
-discourses.
-
-What, then, does the apostle mean when he declares, "We preach Christ
-crucified?" Simply this, that the Christ whom he preached was the One
-whom the world crucified. He was a rejected, outcast Christ--one
-assigned by the world to a malefactor's gibbet. What a fact for the
-poor Corinthians, so full of vanity and love for this world's wisdom!
-A crucified Christ was the one whom Paul preached, "to the Jews a
-stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but to those that
-are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the
-wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
-the weakness of God is stronger than men."
-
-Remarkable words! words divinely suited to people prone to boast
-themselves in the so-called wisdom and greatness of this world--the
-vain reasonings and imaginations of the poor human mind, which all
-perish in a moment. All the wisdom of God, all His power, all His
-greatness, all His glory, all that He is, in short, comes out in a
-crucified Christ. The Cross confounds the world, vanquishes Satan and
-all the powers of darkness, saves all who believe, and forms the solid
-foundation of the everlasting and universal glory of God.
-
-We shall now turn for a moment to a very beautiful passage in Rom.
-iv., in which the inspired writer sets forth the subject of
-resurrection in a most edifying way for us. Speaking of Abraham, he
-says, "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the
-father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall
-thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own
-body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the
-deadness of Sarah's womb: _he staggered not_ at the promise of God
-through unbelief,"--which is always sure to stagger,--"but was _strong
-in faith, giving glory to God_"--as faith always does; "and being
-_fully persuaded_ that what He had promised He was able also to
-perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." And
-then, lest any should say that all this applied only to Abraham, who
-was such a devoted, holy, remarkable man, the inspiring Spirit adds,
-with singular grace and sweetness, "Now it was not written for his
-sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it
-shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that"--what? Gave His Son?
-Bruised His Son on the cross? Not merely this, but "_that raised up
-Jesus our Lord from the dead_."
-
-Here lies the grand point of the apostle's blessed and powerful
-argument. We must, if we would have settled peace, believe in God as
-the One who raised up Jesus from the dead, and who in so doing proved
-Himself friendly to us, and proved too His infinite satisfaction in
-the work of the Cross. Jesus, having been "delivered for our
-offenses," could not be where He now is if a single one of these
-offenses remained unatoned for. But, blessed forever be the God of all
-grace, He raised from among the dead the One who had been delivered
-for our offenses; and to all who believe in Him righteousness shall
-be reckoned. "It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead
-the third day." See how this glorious theme, the _basis_ of the great
-commission, expands under our gaze as we pursue our study of it!
-
-One more brief quotation shall close this paper. In Heb. xiii. we
-read, "_Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead_ our
-Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
-everlasting covenant."
-
-This is uncommonly fine. The God of judgment met the Sin-bearer at the
-cross, and there, with Him, entered thoroughly into and definitively
-settled the question of sin. And then, in glorious proof that all was
-done--sin atoned for--guilt put away--Satan silenced--God
-glorified--all divinely accomplished--"the God of peace" entered the
-scene, and raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, that "great Shepherd
-of the sheep."
-
-Beloved reader, how glorious is all this! How enfranchising to all who
-simply believe! Jesus is risen. His sufferings are over forever. God
-has exalted Him. Eternal Justice has wreathed His blessed brow with a
-diadem of glory; and, wondrous fact, that very diadem is the eternal
-demonstration that all who believe are justified from all things, and
-accepted in a risen and glorified Christ. Eternal and universal
-hallelujahs to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!
-
-
-
-
-PART VII.
-
-
-We are now called to consider the deeply important subject of the
-_authority_ on which the great commission proceeds. This we have
-presented to us in that one commanding and most comprehensive sentence
-"_It is written_"--a sentence which ought to be engraved in characters
-deep and broad on the tablet of every Christian's heart.
-
-Nothing can possibly be more interesting or edifying than to note the
-way in which our blessed Lord on all occasions and under all
-circumstances exalts the Holy Scriptures. He, though God over all,
-blessed forever, and as such the Author of all Scripture, yet, having
-taken His place as man on the earth, He plainly sets forth what is the
-bounden duty of every man, and that is to be absolutely, completely
-and abidingly governed by the authority of Scripture. See Him in
-conflict with Satan! How does He meet him? Simply as each one of us
-should meet him--by the written Word. It could be no example to us had
-our Lord vanquished him by the putting forth of divine power. Of
-course He could, there and then, have consigned him to the bottomless
-pit or the lake of fire, but that would have been no example for us,
-inasmuch as we could not so overcome. But on the other hand, when we
-find the blessed One referring to Holy Scripture, when we find Him
-appealing again and again to that divine authority, when we find Him
-putting the adversary to flight simply by the written Word, we learn
-in the most impressive manner the place, the value and the authority
-of the Holy Scriptures.
-
-And is it not of the very last possible importance to have this great
-lesson impressed upon us at the present moment? Unquestionably it is.
-If ever there was a moment in the history of the Church of God when it
-behooved Christians to bow down their whole moral being to this very
-lesson, it is the moment through which we are just now passing. On all
-hands the divine authority, integrity, plenary inspiration and
-all-sufficiency of Holy Scripture are called in question. The word of
-God is openly insulted and flung aside. Its integrity is called in
-question, and that too in quarters where we should least expect it. At
-our colleges and universities our young men are continually assailed
-by infidel attacks upon the blessed word of God. Men who are in total
-spiritual blindness, and who therefore cannot possibly know anything
-whatever about divine things, and are utterly incompetent to give an
-opinion on the subject of Holy Scripture, have the cool audacity to
-insult the sacred volume, to pronounce the five books of Moses an
-imposture, to assert that Moses never wrote them at all!
-
-What is the opinion of such men worth? Not worth the weight of a
-feather. Who would think of going to a man who was born in a coal
-mine, and had never seen the sun, to get his judgment as to the
-properties of light, or the effect of the sun's beams upon the human
-constitution? Who would think of going to one who was born blind to
-get his opinion upon colors, or the effect of light and shade? Surely
-no one in his senses. Well, then, with how much more moral force, may
-we not ask, who would think of going to an unconverted man--a man dead
-in trespasses and sins--a man spiritually blind, wholly ignorant of
-things divine, spiritual, and heavenly--who would think for a moment
-of going to such a one for a judgment on the weighty question of Holy
-Scripture? And if such a one were audacious enough, in ignorant
-self-confidence, to offer an opinion on such a subject, what man in
-his sober senses would think of giving the slightest heed?
-
-It will perhaps be said, "The illustration does not apply." Why not?
-We admit it fails in force, but most certainly not in its moral
-application. Is it not a commonly received axiom amongst us that no
-man has any right to give an opinion on a subject of which he is
-totally ignorant? No doubt. Well, what does the blessed apostle say as
-to the unconverted man? We quote the whole context for the reader. It
-is morally grand, and its interest and value just now are unspeakable.
-
-"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of
-speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I
-determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him
-crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much
-trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words
-of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
-_that your faith_"--mark these words, beloved reader--"_should not
-stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God_. Howbeit we speak
-wisdom among them that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world,
-nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught. But we speak
-the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God
-ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of
-this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified
-the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear
-heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
-God hath prepared for them that love Him. _But God hath revealed them
-to us by His Spirit_;"--otherwise they could not possibly be
-known;--"for the Spirit, searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
-God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man
-which is in him? Even so _the things of God knoweth no man_, but the
-Spirit of God. Now we"--all true believers, all God's children--"have
-received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God;
-that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
-Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
-teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual
-things with spiritual"--or, communicating spiritual things through a
-spiritual medium. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of
-the Spirit of God; neither can he know them,"--be he ever so wise and
-learned,--"because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is
-spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For
-who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we
-have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. ii. 1-16).
-
-We dare not offer an apology for giving so lengthened an extract from
-the word of God. We deem it invaluable, not only because it proves
-that it is only by divine teaching that divine things can be
-understood, but also because it completely withers up all man's
-pretensions to give judgment as to Scripture. If the natural man
-cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, then it is perfectly
-plain that all infidel attacks upon the word of God are absolutely
-unworthy of the very smallest attention. In fact, all infidel writers,
-be they ever so clever, ever so wise, ever so learned, are put out of
-court; they are not to be listened to for a moment. The judgment of an
-unconverted man in reference to the Holy Scriptures is more worthless
-than the judgment of an uneducated plowman as to the use of the
-differential calculus, or the truth of the Copernican system. As to
-each, we have only to say, he knows nothing whatever about the matter.
-His thoughts are absolutely good for nothing.
-
-But how truly delightful and refreshing to turn from man's worthless
-notions, and see the way in which our blessed Lord Jesus Christ prized
-and used the Holy Scriptures! In His conflict with Satan, He appeals
-three times over to the book of Deuteronomy. "_It is written_" is His
-one simple and unanswerable reply to the suggestions of the enemy. He
-does not reason. He does not argue or explain. He does not refer to
-His own personal feelings, evidences, or experiences. He does not
-argue from the great facts of the opened heavens, the descending
-Spirit, the voice of the Father--precious and real as all these things
-were. He simply takes His stand upon the divine and eternal authority
-of the Holy Scriptures, and of that portion of the Scriptures in
-particular which modern infidels have audaciously attacked. He uses as
-His authority that which they are not afraid to pronounce an
-imposture! How dreadful for them! What will be their end, unless they
-repent?
-
-But not only did the Son of God--Himself, as God, the Author of every
-line of Holy Scripture--use the word of God as His only weapon against
-the enemy, but He made it also the basis and the material of His
-public ministry. When His conflict in the wilderness was over, "He
-returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a
-fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their
-synagogues, being glorified of all. And He came to Nazareth, where He
-had been brought up; and, _as His custom was_, He went into the
-synagogue on the Sabbath day, and _stood up for to read_"--_His custom
-was to read the Scriptures publicly_. "And there was delivered unto
-Him the book of the prophet Esaias." Here He puts His seal upon the
-prophet Isaiah, as before upon the law of Moses. "And when He had
-opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit
-of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the
-gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to
-preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
-blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
-acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke iv.).
-
-Let us turn now to that most solemn parable of the rich man and
-Lazarus, at the close of Luke xvi., in which we have a solemn
-testimony from the Master's own lips to the integrity, value and
-surpassing importance of "Moses and the Prophets"--the very portions
-of the divine Word which infidels impiously assail. The rich man in
-torment--alas, no longer rich, but miserably and eternally
-poor!--entreats Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brethren,
-lest they also should come into that place of torment. Mark the reply!
-Mark it, all ye infidels, rationalists, and skeptics! Mark it, all ye
-who are in danger of being deluded and turned aside by the impudent
-and blasphemous suggestions of infidelity! "Abraham saith unto him,
-They have Moses and the Prophets; _let them hear them_." Yes; "hear
-them"--hear those very writings which infidels tell us are not
-divinely inspired at all, but documents palmed upon us by impostors
-pretending to inspiration. Assuredly the rich man knew better;
-indeed, the devil himself knows better. There is no thought of
-calling in question the genuineness of "Moses and the Prophets;" but
-perhaps "if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." Hear
-the weighty rejoinder! "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses
-and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from
-the dead."
-
-Now we must confess we rejoice exceedingly in the grandeur of this
-testimony. Nothing can be clearer, nothing higher, nothing more
-thoroughly confirmatory as to the supreme authority and divine
-integrity of "Moses and the Prophets." We have the blessed Lord
-Himself setting His seal to the two grand divisions of Old Testament
-Scripture; and hence we may with all possible confidence commit our
-souls to the authority of these holy writings; and not only to Moses
-and the Prophets, but to the whole canon of inspiration, inasmuch as
-Moses and the Prophets are so largely and so constantly quoted
-everywhere, are so intimately, yea, indissolubly, bound up with every
-part of the New Testament, that all must stand or fall together.
-
-But we must pass on, and turn for a moment to the last chapter of
-Luke--that precious section which contains "the great commission"
-whereof we speak. We might refer with profit and blessing to those
-occasions in which our blessed Lord, in His interviews with Pharisees,
-Sadducees, and lawyers, ever and only appeals to the Holy Scriptures.
-In short, whether in conflict with men or devils, whether speaking in
-private or in public, whether for His public ministry or for His
-private walk, we find the perfect Man, the Lord from heaven, always
-putting the very highest honor upon the writings of Moses and the
-Prophets, thus commending them to us in all their divine integrity,
-and giving us the very fullest and most blessed encouragement to
-commit our souls, for time and eternity, with absolute confidence, to
-those peerless writings.
-
-But we turn to Luke xxiv., and listen to the glowing words uttered in
-the ears of the two bewildered travelers to Emmaus--words which are
-the sure and blessed remedy for all bewilderment--the perfect solution
-of every honest difficulty--the divine and all-satisfying answer to
-every upright inquiry. We do not quote the words of the perplexed
-disciples; but here is the Master's reply. "Then said He unto them, O
-fools and slow of heart to believe _all that the prophets have
-spoken_!" Alas! nowadays a man is counted a fool if he does believe
-all that the prophets have spoken. In many learned circles, yea, and
-in not a few religious circles likewise, the man who avows--as every
-true man ought--his hearty belief in every line of Holy Scripture, is
-almost sure to be met with a sneer of contempt. It is deemed clever to
-doubt the genuineness of Scripture,--fatal, detestable cleverness,
-from which may the good Lord deliver us!--cleverness which is sure to
-lead the soul that is ensnared by it down into the dark and dreary
-abyss of atheism, and the darker and more dreary abyss of hell. From
-all such cleverness, we again say, from the profoundest depths of our
-moral being, may God, in His mercy, deliver us and all our young
-people!
-
-Beloved reader, have we not much cause to bless the Lord for these
-words of His addressed to His poor perplexed ones on their way to
-Emmaus? They may seem severe; but it is the necessary severity of a
-pure, a perfect, and a divinely wise love. "O fools, and slow of heart
-to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have
-suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And"--mark these
-words!--"beginning at _Moses and all the Prophets_, He expounded unto
-them _in all the Scriptures_ the things concerning Himself." He
-Himself--all homage to His glorious person!--is the divine centre of
-all the things contained in the Scriptures from cover to cover. He is
-the golden chain that binds into one marvelous and magnificent whole
-every part of the inspired volume, from Genesis to Revelation. Hence
-the man that touches a single section of the sacred canon is guilty of
-the heinous sin of seeking to overthrow the word of God; and of such a
-man even charity itself must say he knows neither the Christ of God
-nor God Himself. The man who dares to tamper in any way with the word
-of God has taken the first step on that inclined plane that leads
-inevitably down to eternal perdition. Let men beware, then, how they
-speak against the Scriptures; and if some _will_ speak, let others
-beware how they listen. If there were no infidel listeners, there
-would be few infidel lecturers. How awful to think that there should
-be either the one or the other in this our highly favored land! May
-God have mercy upon them, and open their eyes ere it be too late! Five
-minutes in hell will quash forever all the infidel theories that ever
-were propounded in this world. Oh, the egregious folly of infidelity!
-
-We return to our chapter, which furnishes one more proof of the place
-assigned by our risen Lord to the Holy Scriptures. After having
-manifested Himself in infinite grace and tranquilizing power to His
-troubled disciples, having shown them His hands and His feet, and
-assured them of His personal identity by eating in their presence, "He
-said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was
-yet with you, that _all things must be fulfilled which were written in
-the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms_, concerning
-Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the
-Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus _it is written_."
-
-Here again we have the divine seal put upon all the grand divisions of
-the Old Testament. This is most comforting and strengthening for all
-pious lovers of Scripture. To find our Lord Himself on all occasions,
-and under all circumstances, referring to Scripture, using it at all
-times and for all purposes, feeding upon it Himself and commending it
-to others, wielding it as the sword of the Spirit, bowing to its holy
-authority in all things, appealing to it as the only perfect standard,
-test and touchstone, the only infallible guide for man in this world,
-the only unfailing light amid all the surrounding moral gloom--all
-this is comforting and encouraging in the very highest degree, and it
-fills our hearts with deepest praise to the Father of mercies who has
-so provided for us in all our weakness and need.
-
-Here we might close this branch of our subject, but we feel bound to
-furnish our readers with two more uncommonly fine illustrations of our
-thesis; one from the Acts, and one from the Epistles. In Acts xxiv.
-the apostle Paul, in his address to Felix, thus expresses himself as
-to the ground of his faith: "But this I confess unto thee, that after
-the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers,
-_believing all things which are written in the Law and in the
-Prophets_." So, then, he reverently believed in Moses and the
-Prophets. He fully accepted the Old Testament Scriptures as the solid
-foundation of his faith, and as the divine authority for his entire
-course. Now how did Paul know that the Scriptures were given of God?
-He knew it in the only way in which any one can know it, namely, by
-divine teaching. God alone can give the knowledge that the Holy
-Scriptures are His own very revelation to man. If He does not give it,
-no one can; if He does, no one need. If I want human evidence to
-accredit the word of God, it is not the word of God to me. The
-authority on which I receive it is higher than the Word itself.
-Supposing I could by reason or human learning work my way to the
-rational conclusion that the Bible is the word of God, then my faith
-would merely stand in the wisdom of man, and not in the power of God.
-Such a faith is worthless; it does not link me with God, and therefore
-leaves me unsaved, unblessed, uncertain. It leaves me without God,
-without Christ, without hope. Saving faith is believing what God says
-because _He_ says it, and this faith is wrought in the soul by the
-Holy Spirit. Intellectual faith is a cold, lifeless, worthless faith,
-which only deceives and puffs up; it never can save, sanctify, or
-satisfy.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We turn now to 2 Tim. iii. 14-17. The aged apostle, at the close of
-his marvelous career, from his prison at Rome, looking back at the
-whole of his ministry, looking around at the failure and ruin so sadly
-apparent on every side, looking forward to the terrible consummation
-of the "last days," and looking beyond all to "the crown of
-righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give _in that
-day_," thus addresses his beloved son: "But _continue thou_ in the
-things which thou hast learned and _hast been assured of_, knowing of
-whom thou hast learned; and that _from a child thou hast known the
-Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation_
-through faith which is in Christ Jesus. _All Scripture is given by
-inspiration of God_, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
-correction, for instruction in righteousness; that _the man of God may
-be perfect_ (complete), _thoroughly furnished unto all good works_."
-
-All this is unspeakably precious to every true lover of the word of
-God. The place here assigned, and the virtues here attributed, to the
-Holy Scriptures are beyond all price. In short, it is utterly
-impossible to overstate the value and importance of the foregoing
-quotation. It is deeply touching to find the revered and beloved old
-veteran, in the full power of the Holy Ghost, recalling Timothy to the
-days of his childhood, when, at the knees of his pious mother, he
-drank at the pure fountain of inspiration. How did the dear child know
-that these holy writings were the word of God? He knew it just in the
-same way that the blessed apostle himself knew it, by their divine
-power and effect upon his heart and conscience through the Holy Ghost.
-Did the Holy Scriptures need man's credentials? What an insult to the
-dignity of Scripture to imagine that any human seal or guarantee is
-necessary to accredit it to the soul! Do we want the authority of the
-Church, the judgment of the Fathers, the decrees of councils, the
-consent of the doctors, the decision of the universities, to accredit
-the word of God? Far away be the thought! Who would think of bringing
-out a rushlight at noon to prove that the sun shines, or to bring home
-its beams in their genial virtue to the human frame? What son would
-think of taking his father's letter to an ignorant crossing-sweeper to
-have it accredited and interpreted to his heart?
-
-These figures are feebleness itself when used to illustrate the
-egregious folly of submitting the Holy Scriptures to the judgment of
-any human mind. No, reader, the word of God speaks for itself. It
-carries its own powerful credentials with it. Its own internal
-evidences are amply sufficient for every pious, right-minded, humble
-child of God. It needs no letter of commendation from men. No doubt
-external evidences have their value and their interest. Human
-testimony must go for what it is worth. We may rest assured that the
-more thoroughly all human evidence is sifted, and the nearer all human
-testimony approaches to the truth, the more fully and distinctly will
-all concur in demonstrating the genuineness and integrity of our
-precious Bible. And further, we must declare our deep and settled
-conviction that no infidel theory can hold water for a moment; no
-infidel argument can pass muster with an honest mind. We invariably
-find that all infidel assaults upon the Bible recoil upon the heads of
-those who make them. Infidel writers make fools of themselves, and
-leave the divine volume just where it always was, and where it always
-will be, like an impregnable rock, against which the waves of infidel
-thought dash themselves in contemptible impotency.
-
-There stands the word of God in its divine majesty, in its heavenly
-power, in its beautiful simplicity, in its matchless glory, in its
-unfathomed because unfathomable depths, in its never-failing freshness
-and power of adaptation, in its marvelous comprehensiveness, in its
-vastness of scope, its perfect unity, its thorough uniqueness. The
-Bible stands alone. There is nothing like it in the wide world of
-literature; and if anything further were needed to prove that that
-book which we call "The Bible" is in very deed the living and eternal
-word of God, it may be found in the ceaseless efforts of the devil to
-prove that it is not.
-
-"_Forever_, O Lord, Thy word is _settled in heaven_." What remains,
-beloved reader, for thee? Just this: "Thy word have I _hid in my
-heart_, that I might not sin against Thee." Thus it stands, blessed be
-His holy name; and when we have His Word hid in the depths of our
-hearts, the theories and the arguments, the reasonings or the ravings,
-the questionings and the conclusions of skeptics, rationalists and
-infidels, will be to us of less moment than the pattering of rain upon
-the window.
-
-Thus much as to the weighty question of the "_authority_" upon which
-the great commission proceeds. The immense importance of the subject,
-and the special character of the moment through which we are passing,
-must account for the unusual length of this article. We feel
-profoundly thankful for an opportunity of bearing our feeble testimony
-to the power, authority, all-sufficiency and divine glory of "the Holy
-Scriptures." "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!"
-
-
-
-
-PART VIII.
-
-
-In full keeping with all that has passed in review before us is the
-_sphere_ of "the great commission," as set forth in that comprehensive
-clause, "_Among all nations_." Such was to be the wide range of those
-heralds whom the risen Lord was sending forth to preach "repentance
-and remission of sins." Theirs was emphatically a world-wide mission.
-In Matt. x. we find something quite different. There the Lord, in
-sending forth the twelve apostles, "commanded them, saying, Go not
-into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans
-enter ye not."
-
-This was to be a mission exclusively to the house of Israel. There was
-no message for the Gentiles, no word for the poor Samaritans. If these
-messengers approached a city of the uncircumcised, they were on no
-account to enter it. The ways of God--His dispensational
-dealings--demanded a circumscribed sphere for the twelve apostles sent
-forth by the Messiah in the days of His flesh. "The lost sheep of the
-house of Israel" were to be the special objects of their ministry.
-
-But in Luke xxiv. all is changed. The dispensational barriers are no
-longer to interfere with the messengers of grace. Israel is not to be
-forgotten, but the Gentiles are to hear the glad tidings. The sun of
-God's salvation must now pour its living beams over the whole world.
-Not a soul is to be excluded from the blessed light. Every city, every
-town, every village, every hamlet, every street, lane and alley, hedge
-and highway, must be diligently and lovingly searched out and visited,
-so that "every creature under heaven" might hear the good news of a
-full and free salvation.
-
-How like our God is all this! How worthy of His large, loving heart!
-He would have the tide of His salvation flowing from pole to pole, and
-from the river to the ends of the earth. His righteousness is unto
-all, and the sweet tale of His pardoning love must be wafted far and
-wide over a lost and guilty world. Such is His most gracious purpose,
-however tardy His servants may be in carrying it out.
-
-It is of the greatest importance to have a clear view as to this
-branch of our subject. It brings out the character of God in a very
-magnificent light, and it leaves man wholly without excuse. Salvation
-is sent to the Gentiles. There is absolutely no limit, and no
-obstacle. Like the sun in the heavens, it shines on all. If a man will
-persist in hiding himself in a mine or in a tunnel, so that he cannot
-see the sun, he has none but himself to blame. It is no defect in the
-sun if all do not enjoy his beams. He shines for all. And in like
-manner, "the grace of God that bringeth salvation unto all men hath
-appeared." No one need perish because he is a poor lost sinner, for
-"God will have all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the
-truth." "He willeth not that any should perish, but that all should
-come to repentance."
-
-And then, that not a single feature might be lacking to set forth with
-all possible force and fulness the royal grace which breathes in "the
-great commission," our blessed Lord does not fail to point out to His
-servants the remarkable spot which was to be the centre of their
-_sphere_. He tells them to "begin at Jerusalem." Yes, Jerusalem, where
-our Lord was crucified; where every indignity that human enmity could
-invent was heaped upon His divine person; where a murderer and a
-robber was preferred to "God manifest in the flesh;" where human
-iniquity had reached its culminating point in nailing the Son of God
-to a malefactor's cross--there the messengers were to begin their
-blessed work; that was to be the centre of the sphere of their
-gracious operations; and from thence they were to travel to the utmost
-bounds of the habitable globe. They were to begin with "Jerusalem
-sinners"--with the very murderers of the Son of God, and then go forth
-to publish everywhere the glorious tidings, so that all might know
-that precious grace of God which was sufficient to meet the crimson
-guilt of Jerusalem itself.
-
-How glorious is all this! The guilty murderers of the Son of God were
-the very first to hear the sweet tale of pardoning love, so that all
-men might see in them a pattern of what the grace of God and the blood
-of Christ can do. Truly the grace that could pardon Jerusalem sinners
-can pardon any one; the blood that could cleanse the betrayers and
-murderers of the Christ of God can cleanse any sinner outside the
-precincts of hell. These heralds of salvation, as they made their way
-from nation to nation, could tell their hearers where they had come
-from; they could tell of that superabounding grace of God which had
-commenced its operations in the guiltiest spot on the face of the
-earth, and which was amply sufficient to meet the very vilest of the
-sons of Adam.
-
-    "Sovereign grace o'er sin abounding:
-      Ransomed souls the tidings swell;
-    'Tia a deep that knows no sounding;
-      Who its length or breadth can tell?"
-
-Precious grace of God! May it be published with increased energy and
-clearness throughout the divinely appointed sphere. Alas, alas, that
-those who know it should be so slow to make it known to others! That
-slowness is, most surely, not of God. He absolutely delights in the
-publication of His saving, pardoning grace. He tells us that the feet
-of the evangelist are beautiful upon the mountains. He assures us that
-the preaching of the Cross is a sweet savor to His heart. Ought not
-all this to quicken our energies in the blessed work? Ought we not in
-every possible way to seek to carry out the gracious desire of the
-heart of God? Why are we so slow? Why so cold and indolent? Why so
-easily discouraged and repulsed? Why so ready to make excuses for not
-speaking to people about their souls?
-
-There stands the great commission shining on the eternal page of
-inspiration in all its moral grandeur--its _terms_, its _basis_, its
-_authority_, its _sphere_! The work is not yet done. Nearly nineteen
-hundred years have rolled past since the risen Saviour sent forth His
-messengers; and still He waits, in sweet, long-suffering mercy, not
-willing that any should perish. Why are we not more willing-hearted in
-carrying out the gracious desire of His heart? It is not by any means
-necessary that we should be great preachers, or powerful public
-speakers, in order to carry on the precious work of evangelization.
-What we want is a heart in communion with the heart of God, the heart
-of Christ, and that will surely be a heart for souls. We do not, and
-cannot, believe that one who is not led out in loving desire after the
-salvation of souls can really be in communion with the mind of Christ.
-We cannot be in His presence and not think of the souls of those
-around us. For whoever cared for souls as He did? Mark His marvelous
-path!--His ceaseless toil as a teacher and preacher!--His thirst for
-the salvation and blessing of souls!
-
-And has He not left us an example that we should follow His steps? Are
-we doing so in this one matter of making known the blessed gospel? Are
-we seeking to imitate Him in His earnest diligence in seeking the
-lost? See Him at the well of Sychar! Mark His whole deportment! Listen
-to His earnest, loving words! Note the joy and refreshment of His
-spirit as He sees one poor sinner receiving His message! "I have meat
-to eat that ye know not of;" "Lift up your eyes, and look on the
-fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth
-receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he
-that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."
-
-We would earnestly entreat the Christian reader to consider this great
-subject in the divine presence. We deeply feel its importance. We
-cannot but judge that, amid all the writing and reading, all the
-speaking and hearing, all the coming and going, there is a sad lack of
-deep-toned, earnest, solemn dealing with individual souls. How often
-do we rest satisfied with inviting people to come to the preaching,
-instead of seeking to bring them directly to Christ? How often do we
-rest content with the periodical preaching, instead of earnestly
-seeking, all the week through, to persuade souls to flee from the
-wrath to come? No doubt it is good to preach, and good to invite
-people to the preaching; but we may rest assured there is something
-more than all this to be done, and that something must be sought in
-deeper communion with the heart and mind of Christ.
-
-Some there are who speak disparagingly of the blessed and holy work of
-evangelization. We tremble for them. We feel persuaded they are not in
-the current of the Master's mind, and hence we utterly reject their
-thoughts. It is to be feared that their hearts are cold in reference
-to an object that engages the heart of God. If so, they would need to
-humble themselves in His presence, and seek to get their souls
-restored to a true sense of the magnitude, importance and interest of
-the grand question before us. At least let them beware of how they
-seek to discourage and hinder others whose hearts the Lord has moved
-to care for precious, immortal souls. The present is most assuredly
-not the time for raising difficulties, and starting questions which
-can only prove stumbling-blocks in the pathway of earnest workers. It
-becomes us to seek in every right way to strengthen the hands of all
-who are endeavoring, according to their measure, to publish the glad
-tidings, and make known the unsearchable riches of Christ. Let us see
-that we do so, so far as in us lies; and above all things, let us
-never utter a sentence calculated to hinder any one in the blessed
-work of winning souls to Christ.
-
-But we must draw this paper, and this series of papers, to a close. We
-might do so here, were it not that there is one more point in our
-subject which we feel must not be omitted, and that is the _power_ by
-which "the great commission" was to be carried out. To leave this out
-would be a great defect, a serious blank indeed; and we are the more
-anxious to notice it, inasmuch as the special form in which the power
-was communicated links itself, in a very remarkable way, with that
-which has been before us in this paper. If the _sphere_ was to be "all
-nations," the _power_ must be adapted thereto; and, blessed be God, so
-it was.
-
-Our blessed Lord, in closing His commission to His disciples, said,
-"And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise
-of My Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye
-be endued with power from on high." This promise was fulfilled, this
-power was communicated on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Ghost came
-down from the ascended and glorified Man, to qualify His servants for
-the glorious work for which He had called them. They had to "tarry"
-until they got the power. How could they go without it? Who but the
-Holy Ghost could speak adequately of the love of God, of the person,
-work and glory of Christ? Who but He could enable any one to preach
-repentance and remission of sins? Who but He could properly handle all
-the weighty subjects comprehended in "the great commission?" In a
-word, the power of the Holy Ghost is absolutely essential in every
-branch of Christian service, and all who go to work without it will
-find it to be barrenness, misery, and desolation.
-
-But we must call the reader's special attention to the form in which
-the Holy Ghost came down on the day of Pentecost. It is full of
-deepest interest, and lets us into the precious secret of the heart of
-God in a most touching manner.
-
-Let us turn to chapter ii. of the Acts of the Apostles.
-
-"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were _all with one
-accord in one place_"--instructive and suggestive fact!--"And suddenly
-there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it
-filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto
-them _cloven tongues_, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
-And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost"--He had full possession
-of their hearts and minds, full sway over their whole moral
-being--blessed condition!--"And they began to speak with _other
-tongues_" (not in the absurd and unintelligible jargon of cunning
-impostors or deluded fanatics, but), "as the Spirit gave them
-utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, _out
-of every nation under heaven_." Note this fact. "Now when this was
-noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded,
-because that _every man heard them speak in his own language_."--How
-real--how telling!--"And they were all amazed, and marveled, saying
-one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And
-how _hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born_?"--not
-merely wherein we were educated--"Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites,
-and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in
-Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of
-Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes
-and Arabians, _we do hear them speak in our tongues_ the wonderful
-works of God."
-
-What a marvelous occurrence! How marked the coincidence! God so
-ordered it, in His infinite wisdom and perfect grace, that there
-should be assembled in the city of Jerusalem, at the exact moment,
-people from every nation on the face of the whole earth, in order
-that--even should the twelve apostles fail to carry out their
-commission--all might hear, in the very dialect in which their mothers
-first whispered into their infant ears the accents of a mother's love,
-the precious tidings of God's salvation.
-
-Can anything exceed this in interest? Who can fail to see in the fact
-here recorded that it was the loving desire of the heart of God to
-reach every creature under heaven with the sweet story of His grace?
-The world had rejected the Son of God, had crucified and slain Him;
-but no sooner had He taken His seat at the right hand of God than down
-came the august Witness, God the Spirit, to speak to man--to every
-man--to speak to him, not in accents of withering denunciation, not in
-the thundering anathemas of judgment, but in accents of deep and
-tender love, to tell him of full remission of sins through the blood
-of the Cross.
-
-True, He called on man to judge himself, to repent, to take his only
-true and proper place. Why not? How could it be otherwise? Repentance
-is--as we have already fully shown and earnestly insisted upon in
-these papers--a universal and abiding necessity for man. But the
-Spirit of God came down to speak face to face with man, to tell him in
-his own mother tongue of the wonderful works of God. He did not speak
-to a Hebrew in Latin, or to a Roman in Greek; but He spoke to each in
-the very dialect in which he was born, thus proving to a
-demonstration--proving in the most affecting manner possible--that it
-was God's gracious desire to make His way to man's heart in deepest,
-richest, fullest grace. All homage to His name!
-
-How different it was when the law was to be published from mount
-Sinai! If all the nations of the earth had been assembled round that
-fiery mount, they could not have understood one word--unless, indeed,
-any one happened to know the Hebrew tongue. The law was addressed to
-one people, it was wrapped up in one language, it was enclosed in the
-ark. God took no pains to publish the record of man's duty in every
-language under heaven. But when grace was to be published, when the
-glad tidings of salvation were to be sounded abroad, when testimony
-was to be borne to a crucified, risen, ascended and coming Saviour and
-Lord, then, verily, God the Holy Ghost came down, for the purpose of
-fitting His messengers to speak to every man in a tongue which he
-could understand.
-
-Facts are powerful arguments, and assuredly the above two facts, in
-reference to the law and the gospel, must speak to every heart, in a
-manner the most convincing, of the matchless grace of God. God did not
-send forth heralds to publish the law to "all nations." No--this was
-reserved for "the great commission" on which we have been dwelling,
-and which we now earnestly commend, with all its great subjects, to
-the serious attention of every reader.
-
-                                                           C. H. M.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
-except in obvious cases of typographical error.
-
-
-
-
-
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-C. H. (Charles Henry) Mackintosh
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