Hebrews 1:1-3 God … hath … spoken … by His Son.Personal reserve The Epistle to abruptly, like 1 John, without either greeting from the author, address to the church, or words of introduction. This omission distinguishes these two from every other epistle in the New Testament, and creates of itself a strong presumption that St. Paul was not the author. It is obviously not due to any attempt at concealment; for the tone of personal authority occasionally assumed, and the personal allusions towards the close, show that the author was well known to his readers, and affected no disguise. The character of the Epistle supplies an obvious explanation: the dignity of an oratorical address demanded Some personal reserve; and this dignity is especially conspicuous in the measured rhythm and elaborate antitheses of the opening period. (F. Rendall, M. A.) Apostolic tact The wisdom of the apostle is strikingly displayed in the manner of commencing this letter. He is writing to Jews for the purpose of removing their misconceptions and allaying their prejudices; and the line of argument which he intends to pursue, requires him first of all to treat of the native and essential dignity of Jesus Christ. But he so constructs the opening sentence of his letter, that on the wry fore-front of it there stands a spontaneous acknowledgment of the heavenly origin of the system which they so much admired. The Jews were apt to imagine then Christians undervalued the ancient institutions. Paul does not wait to state his views afterwards in the shape of a concession; but the very first words that flow from his pen do homage to Moses and the prophets. In dealing with an adversary, if it is your wish to persuade him, if you are not merely actuated by the empty desire of gaining a triumph over him, by all means frankly and at once acknowledge whatever you believe to be good and sound in his views. The same acknowledgment, afterwards made and viewed as a concession, will not produce the same effect. The Scriptures display a profound knowledge of human nature. (W. Lindsay, D. D.) Christ and the prophets This long, sonorous sentence forms the introduction to the whole Epistle if as it were, the portico of an august temple, its many weighty clauses being as rows of stately ornamental pillars supporting the roof. This temple front has a most imposing aspect! It fills the mind with awe, and disposes one to enter the sacred edifice in religious silence, rather than to indulge in critical remarks. In these opening verses the writer announces at once the theme of his discourse, and introduces the leading thoughts on which he intends to expatiate. The first point to be noticed in the proem is the contrast drawn, in anithetic terms, between the Old and the New Testament revelations. By “ the prophets” may be meant those strictly so called, but more probably the phrase is meant to cover the whole Old Testament revelation, including the law-giving; the recognition of the angels as the agents by whom the law was given being rather a concession to Jewish opinion than the expression of the writer’ s own view. To be noted is the use of the phrase “ the fathers” absolutely, as the recipients of the ancient revelation. It implies that the Epistle is meant solely for Jewish readers. Very remarkable are the terms employed to describe the character of the Old Testament revelation. It is characterised as a piecemeal multiform revelation. For what purpose are these epithets employed? Hardly for the purpose of mere literary description, to suggest, for example, the picturesque nature of the Hebrew literature; still less for the purpose of pointing out its spiritual excellences. Rather, to indicate the inferiority of the earlier revelation, that the Hebrew Christians might not cling to it as something final. This end these epithets are well fitted to serve. The first of the two points to a fact with which the first readers of the Epistle were perfectly familiar. They knew that the Divine communications to Israel came bit by bit: the promise by Abraham; the law by Moses; the song of the sanctuary by David and other poets; the wisdom of life by Solomon and the other sages of Israel; and by the prophets commonly so called, to relieve the gloom of the present, successive rays of light concerning Messiah and the Messianic kingdom. And of course they understood that no one of these partial fragmentary revelations could be regarded as complete or final. Each successive piece of revelation proved the incompleteness of all that went before. But might not all the pieces taken together, when the last had been given, and the Hebrew canon was complete, amount to a full, adequate revelation, possessing the character of finality? The presumption was the other way. The likelihood was that the prophets collectively, including under that category all the men by whom the Hebrew books were written, were but luminaries of the night--street lamps set in a row to show travellers their way through the gloom; stars set in the spiritual firmament to mitigate the darkness till the sun should arise, bringing in the day. This presumption is converted into certainty by the second epithet, which greatly strengthens the argument against finality suggested by the first. It gives us to understand that the ancient revelation was communicated, not only in many parts, but in many modes. The general idea intended is plain. It is that the revelation made to each prophet was relative--relative to him temperament, circumstances, and historical position. This relativity or subjectivity of the ancient revelation makes it impossible to add together the separate pieces of revelation, and so bring out the whole final revelation. For the pieces are not homogeneous fragments of one whole. They are heterogeneous wholes, often incapable of combination. This is most clearly seen in the Messianic prophecies uttered by successive prophets, which are not separate fragments of one picture of the future capable of being combined into a harmonious whose, but independent pictures, each exhibiting the future from its own point of view. Of Him by whom the much needed new revelation was made the writer next proceeds to speak. “ God hath, in the end of these days, spoken unto us in (His) Son.” The revelation made in the Son is not qualified by descriptive epithets, as in the case of the earlier revelation, the reason being that such epithets in this case are not needed. The finality of the revelation made through the Son is expressly taught by the phrase “ in the end of these days.” The writer expresses himself in accordance with the Jewish mode of viewing the history of the world as divided into two great periods, the present age, and the age to come. He conceives of Christ as the divider and maker of the ages (as of the worlds), coming at the end of the old time and inangurating the new. Having made mention of the Son, the writer proceeds to invest Him with all due honours, Divine and mediatorial, to win for His word fitting attention. The elaborate encomium which follows presents a very high view of the Person of Christ. It ascribes to Him (by implication) pre-existence, an essential and therefore eternal relation to God, universal heirship, participation in the Divine functions of making and upholding the world. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) God’ s revelation of Himself I. The revelation of the will of God, as to all things which concern His worship and our faith and obedience, IS AND IN A WAY OF FROM THE FATHER. 1. The whole mystery of His will antecedently to the revelation of it, is said to be hid in God, that is, the Father (Ephesians 3:9), it lay wrapt up from the eyes of men and angels, in His eternal wisdom and counsel Colossians 1:26-27). 2. The revelation of the mystery of the will of God, so hidden in the counsel of His will from eternity, was always made and given out in the pursuit, and for the accomplishment of the purpose of the Father; or of that eternal purpose of the will of God, which is by the way of eminence ascribed unto the Father (Ephesians 1:8-9). 3. This purpose of God being communicated with, and unto the Lord Christ, or the Son, became the counsel of peace between them both Zechariah 6:13). The Son, rejoicing to do the work that was incumbent on Him for the accomplishment of it (Proverbs 8:30-32; Psalms 40:7-8), it became peculiarly the care and work of the Father to see that the inheritance promised Him upon His undertaking (Isaiah 53:10-12) should be given unto Him. This is done by the revelation of the will of God unto men, concerning their obedience and salvation, whereby they are made the lot, the seed, the portion and inheritance of Christ. 4. The whole revelation and dispensation of the will of God in and by the Word, is, as was said, eminently appropriated unto the Father. “ Eternal life (the counsel, the purpose, ways, means, and procurer of it) was with the Father, and was manifested to us by the Word of truth” (1 John 1:1-2). And it is the Father, that is, His will, mind, purpose, grace, love, that the Son declares (John 1:18); in which work He speaks nothing but what He heard from, and was taught by the Father (John 8:28). And thence He says, “ the doctrine is not Mine,” that is, principally and originally, “ but His that sent Me” (John 7:16). And the gospel is called, the “ gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11), which is a periphrasis of the person of the Father, who is the “ Father of glory” (Ephesians 1:17). And from the appropriating of this work originally and principally to the Father, there are three things that are particularly intimated unto us. 1. The authority that is to be considered in it; the Father is the original of all power and authority; of Him the whole family in heaven and earth is Ephesians 3:15). 2. There is also love. It was out of infinite love, mercy, and compassion, that God would at all reveal His mind and will unto sinners. This mixture of authority ant love, which is the spring of the revelation of the will of God unto us, requires all readiness, willingness, and cheerfulness in the receipt of it, add submission unto it. 3. There is care eminently seen in it. The great care of the Church is in, and on the Father. He is the husbandman that, takes care of the vine and vineyard (John 15:1-2). What directions from these considerations may be taken for the use both of them that dispense the word, and of those whose duty it is to attend unto the dispensation of it, shall only be marked in our passage. For the dispensers of the Word, let them 1. Take heed of pursuing that work negligently, which hath its spring in the authority, love, and care of God (see 1 Timothy 4:13-16). 2. Know to whom to look for support, help, ability, and encouragement in their work (Ephesians 6:19-20). 3. Not to be discouraged, whatever opposition they meet with in the discharge of their duty, considering whose work they have in hand (2 Corinthians 4:15-16). 4. Know how they ought to dispense the Word, so as to answer the spring from whence it comes; namely, with authority, love to, and care for ,he souls of men. 5. Consider to whom they are to give an account of the work they are called to the discharge of, and entrusted with (Hebrews 13:7). And for them to whom the Word is preached, let them consider 1. With what reverence and godly fear they ought to attend to the dispensation of it, seeing it is a proper effect and issue of the authority of Heb 12:25). 2. How they will escape if they neglect so great salvation declared unto them from the love and care of God (Hebrews 2:3). 3. With what holiness and spiritual subjection of soul unto God, they ought to be conversant in and with all the ordinances of worship, that are appointed by Him (Hebrews 12:28-29). II. THE OF GOD IN AND BY THE PENMEN OF THE , IS THE SOLE BOTTOM AND OF OUR TO THEM, and what is contained in them, with faith divine and supernatural. He spake in them: He then continues to speak by them, and therefore in their word received (2 Peter 1:20-21). III. GOD’ S GRADUAL OF HIMSELF, His mind and will unto the Church, was a fruit of infinite wisdom and care towards His elect. 1. He over-filled not their vessels; He gave them out light as they were able to bear. 2. He kept them in a continual dependence upon Himself, and waiting for their rule and direction from Him, which, as it tended to His glory, so it was exceedingly suited to their safety, in keeping them in an humble waiting frame. 3. He so gave out the light and knowledge of Himself, as that the great work which He had to accomplish, that lay in the stores of His infinitely wise will, as the end and issue of all revelations, namely the bringing forth of Christ into the world, in the way wherein He was to come, and for the ends which He was to bring about, might not be obviated. 4. He did this work so that the pre-eminence fully and ultimately to reveal Him, might be reserved for Him, in whom all things were to be gathered unto a head. All privileges were to be kept for, and unto Him, which was principally done by this gradual revelation of the mind of God. 5. And there was tender care conjoined with this infinite wisdom. None of His elect in any age were left without that light and instruction which were needful for them in their seasons and generations. And this so given out unto them, as that they might have fresh consolation and support as their occasions did require. IV. We may see hence the absolute perfection of the revelation of the will of God by Christ and His apostles, as to every end and purpose whatever, for which God ever did, or ever will in this world reveal Himself, or His mind and will. For as this was the last way and means that God ever designed for the discovery of Himself, as to the worship and obedience which He requires, so the person by whom He accomplished this work, makes it indispensably necessary that it be also absolutely perfect; from which nothing can be taken, to which nothing must be added under the penalty of the extermination threatened to him that will not attend to the voice of that prophet. (John Owen, D. D.) The method of the Divine Teacher I. THE DIVINE METHOD AS TO TIME. 1. As the ages passed on, first one and then another truth was revealed; first one and then another aspect of a truth was made known, until, in the fulness of time, the glory of God shone in the face of Jesus Christ. There is in the East an anticipatory dawn, a sort of premature twilight, which always disappears before the true dawn commences. So in the history of the world, especially in the history of Israel, have there been many dawnings of light, to be followed perhaps by periods of obscurity, yet graciously illumining the successive ages, and heralding the coming of the Light of the world. 2. Is there not even fuller light for the individual, even fuller light for the Church, until we come to that city where the glory of God shall shine forth with unclouded splendour? God always gives light as we are able to (1) Bear, (2) Use it. II. THE DIVINE METHOD AS TO MODE. 1. God presents the truth to the individual in such a form as may best secure his obedience. The Spirit of God shows the things of Christ in an intellectual, ethical, imaginative, emotional light, according to the genius of those to whom He may appeal. 2. God influences the preacher, that in the selection and presentment of his themes he may best win his congregation. 3. God knows the special truths for the times; or the particular aspect in which the truth needs to be recognised. III. THE DIVINE METHOD AS TO ORGAN. Not any men, but certain men, of spiritual susceptibility and force were selected to be the organs in which God would “ speak to the fathers” ; and the same rule of selection obtains still, for Christ makes Himself known to the world through certain spiritual agents a d holy ministries. Lessons: 1. Let unconverted men learn the greatness of their responsibility. 2. Let the Church take encouragement touching the salvation of the word. 3. Let the Church be more faithful, that she may increase in the knowledge of Christ. 4. Let the Church be more pure, that she may the better make Christ known. (The Metropolitan Pulpit.) God’ s revelation of Himself I. THE WE POSSESS OF GOD WAS . Language--the words we use to utter our thoughts and feelings must have been a supernatural gift in the first instance. If the casket came from hearers, much more the jewel. ‘ l he mind of man was created as much to receive the thoughts of God, as the eye was to receive the light of the sun, and to behold the many beauties of creation. All the truest and best thoughts of our mind are heaven-inspired. II. THE WE POSSESS OF GOD WAS AND . There was, first of all, the morning star, then the soft grey dawn, which spread itself by degrees over the horizon, until, in these latter days, the whole world was overtaken by the fuller light of the meridian sun. III. IN CHRIST WE HAVE A FULL AND FINAL OF GOD’ S TRUTH. We sometimes find the light in our houses small and feeble, not because there is an insufficient quantity of the means of lighting manufactured, but because a large portion of it is shut up in the meter; only a small quantity is allowed to run into our dwellings, consequently the light is faint, and only illuminates a very small space; but when it is turned on in full force, the light is abundant, lighting up every nook and corner of the apartments in which it is kindled. When men depended on the amount of light which was in the prophets, they could not see far; only a small quantity of Heaven’ s light was allowed to flow, or could flow into them, and therefore they could only emit a faint glimmer upon those who wooed to them for illumination; they only saw through “ a glass darkly” themselves, and so their power to impart light could not be great. But of Christ it was said, “ In Him was life, and the life was the light of none.” Between the measure of light that came by the first prophets and that which came by Christ there is no comparison, but a perfect contrast. Just as there is no comparison between the degree of the light of a star and the sun; the star has just enough light to show the darkness, but the sun chases the night away and makes it day. It is our inestimable privilege to live in the meridian light of Him who said, “ I am the Light of the world.” (D. Rhys Jenkins.) The manner of revelation I. TIME. Centuries were required to complete the scheme, Man was to be taken at a low and infantile point, and raised up to the fulness of the stature of a perfect manhood; from “ a living soul” to “ a quickening spirit.” By no one sudden blow could the benevolent design of giving man the true knowledge of God, and his own duty and destiny, be executed. The laws of progress, gradation, and periodicity must be observed in regard to our higher nature. One age was to witness one attainment, and another, another. It has much to establish the unity of the Deity; it was more to develop the Idea of the Father. II. AGENTS AND . Again, the manner of revelation is not abstract, but concrete. The ordinary as well as supernatural agencies are employed. If angels are sent, so are men; if the special messenger raised up, sanctified, and commissioned be the Son of God by excellence, yet a long line of the good and the great bear up the ark of God; and patriarch, king, and priest, and prophet, and apostle, are seen at different intervals along the majestic procession. In selecting men to act so distinguished a part in the designs of God towards His children, we perceive a part of the same system which we witness in business, art, science, government, and literature. For if “ History be philosophy teaching by example,” then is revelation religion teaching by example. In this feature of the mode of communication we see the wise adaptation of means to ends, the use of causes to produce effects, such as we should anticipate from so great a Designer. III. AND BOOKS. In two principal languages, Hebrew and Greek, with a few passages in the Chaldee--in sixty-six books, written by at least thirty-nine authors--the Jewish and Christian Scriptures present that fertility of human genius, as well as of sacred truth, that fitly entitles it to be called the Bible--The Book. Here are flowers of every hue and fragrance, fruits of every taste and nut iment. The sinner cannot read far without meeting with his warning, nor the saint without hearing his beatitude nor the sad without alighting upon his consolation, nor the weak without touching the wand of spiritual strength, nor the poor without opening the mine of heavenly treasures, nor the rich without being reminded that they brought nothing into this world, and that they can carry nothing out. IV. . Most of us are so earthly-minded that some extraneous means to arouse us from indifference are needed. We want a bell rung to call us to the temple of the Lord to receive His gracious message. Miracles are that tell. They prove nothing by their solitary selves. It would be hard to defend miracles in general, but not the Christian miracles; for they subserve a great and good end, worthy of the interposing finger of God. All along, too, in speaking of His signs and wonders, Jesus very remarkably and clearly points out their office. It was that men might believe on Him, and believing, have life. They added no weight to the truth as truth, but they did add weight to truth, as received by the ignorant, the degraded, and the inattentive. V. AND . The institution of Moses, however puerile they may seem to a Christian, were yet admirably adapted to raise up a low and barbarous people, and give a race of idolators the knowledge and we, ship of the One True and Living God. But if we turn to the Christian revelation, the institutions are more simple, as becomes a more perfect faith and spirituality. Forms are not absolute, but relative; not essential, but important; they have place, but it is not the first place. They are a species of gigantic language, whose letters are facts and whose sentences are customs. They are to be observed, not for their own sake, but for the spiritual purport they imply and convey. (A. A. Livermore.) The various classes of prophetical announcement I. DREAMS were a frequent mode by which the future was opened up to the minds of the prophets. There is something peculiarly solemn in the thong it of these revelations of the future made to the mind, whilst the body is in a state of repose and temporary insensibility. They illustrate the capabilities and susceptibilities of the human mind, independent of the corporeal frame: the power of the Most High and His grace and condescension in thus communicating to man H s counsels and purposes. They prove the fact of God’ s interest in what concerns the human race, and His constant intercourse with a family of His intelligent creatures, perhaps the most unworthy of His notice. The state of the body, too, when these revelations were made, may be regarded as a type of the respective conditions of the mind and body, when death has severed the bond that unites them. The body asleep in the grave, the mind conversant with the plans of the Almighty, and blessed with the vision of His glory. The body at rest--the cares of life, its scenes, its passions all hushed--its conflicts and struggles succeed, d by repose; the mind released from its attention to what was immediate and temporary; but in that solemn hour of release, God, its Creator, appears; the future is unveiled, and truth revealed leaves its right and unqualified impression. II. The second class of prophetical announcements may be ranged under the head of VISIONS. Dreams and visions are not always distinguished in sacred scripture. Sometimes the same revelation is said to be made by a dream and a vision. Thus Nebuchadnezzar’ s dream is called the visions of his head (Daniel 2:28). A vision, then, may be defined as a representation of things made to the mind of the prophet while he was awake. The eyes rest on the object, the impression is not only as distinct and vivid as if the object were present to the senses in an ordinary way, but more so, from the extraordinary manner, of its appearance. The most terrible elements of nature--the most beautiful of its inanimate objects--all that is magnificent and costly in art, all that is dignified in personal form, formed scenes surpassing in splendour the conceptions of the most brilliant fancy. They were fitted and intended to produce a due measure of impression on minds like ours, necessarily more affected by what is thus clothed and presented to the eye and the imagination in vivid forms, in order to its awakening attention, and giving a just conception of the importance of the events thus represented. Our responsibility is great, and our gratitude ought to be intense. III. Another method in which these announcements were made, and to which we must advert, is AN AUDIBLE VOICE. Moses at bush. Giving of law. Elijah in cave. IV. But although it pleased the Lord to communicate His will to men, and the knowledge of His purposes, by such direct addresses to the senses, or to the imagination, yet a great part of the sacred Scriptures was written under A MORE DIRECT OF THE HOLY GHOST, communicating immediately to the mind, the doctrines and facts to be recorded. 1. From them all we learn that the communications thus made, various as they were--sometimes judgments, and at others most signal mercies--all furnish striking illustrations of the providence and government of God. 2. The condescension of God. 3. Our responsibilities. 4. The unbroken continuity of the Divine government, and unity of God’ s purposes. (J. Robinson.) A revelation from God to man both probable and necessary I. The infidel meets us with this --A FROM GOD IS TO ALL THE AND OF OUR COMMON HISTORY. Now I maintain, in the first place, that a revelation is not contrary even to fact. For how was Adam instructed? Where got he language?’ God must have taught him. And now we proceed, further, to maintain that a revelation is not contrary to our experience or to the analogies of nature. We allege that there is every probability that God would give a revelation of His will. Can we believe that the God of nature is benevolent, yet leaves millions of the family He fashioned to grippe in “ darkness that may be felt” ? I say, the surprise should not be that God has given a revelation; the matter of surprise would be if He had not. Observe that such a revelation of God’ s will is not contrary to the analogies of nature. Now, observe how we are taught. You find the child is taught by its father; the scholar is taught by his tutor; the inexperienced taught by the experienced. Now what is a revelation but just the extension of this plan, just the addition of another link? If the young be taught by the aged, the stripling by the patriarch, the inexperienced by the experienced, you have only to add another link to the chain, and you come to the inference that the world may be taught by its Creator, the human family by its Almighty Father. Let me ask, in the next place, what is the nature of the instruction that we derive one from another. Is it not of an experimental and a moral kind? In other words, when you see the patriarch or the aged teaching the group that is around him, what is the nature of his teaching? He is teaching them all the dangers and the difficulties through which he had come; he is telling them how to withstand this peril, how to overcome that trial, how to meet this emergency, how to unravel that perplexity. Now what else is God doing in revelation? Just teaching us how we are to meet the difficulties, to overcome the trials, to vanquish the foes, and to inherit the glory and the happiness which lie before us. II. I observe, in the second place, that a revelation is not only probable, but THAT IT WAS BY THE STATE OF THE WORLD. Here I might show you that there are wants in man’ s heart, which all the philosophy of a Plato cannot satisfy; that there are feelings and perplexities in man’ s moral constitution, which all the writings of all the moralist, in the world cannot meet. I might show you that there is a consciousness of sin and a dread of punishment, which cannot be stilled unless by the pages of the oracles of God. But I forbear from that, and I take facts; and I will show you, first, from the admitted state of the ancient heathen; secondly, of the modern heathen; and, lastly, of infidels themselves, that a revelation from God was a desiderarum, for which all creation groaned, and for which all mankind earnestly (though unintentionally) prayed. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The reasonableness of a Divine revelation The question before us is, whether the great Author of truth, the inexhaustible source of pure celestial light, can--and if He can, whether it be probable that He would--and if it be probable that He would, whether He has--rolled back the veil that hangs between Himself and us; whether it be true that “ He giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding,” and whether “ He revealeth the deep and secret things.” I. In entertaining this grave inquiry, it will be proper, in the first place, to ascertain WHETHER IT BE FOR THE SUPREME MIND TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO MEN. Two things must be proved. First, that there is a Supreme Being, the Maker and Preserver of all being. And, secondly, that we are rational creatures, capable of entertaining the question at present in debate. It is then admitted that we all are the offspring of God. Such is the testimony of reason, or rather of the common sense of mankind. But surely it will not be denied that He who made us can influence and inform our under-standings--can, in one word, operate up ,n our souls, in any manner that shall be suitable to its faculties. II. Presuming that we are agreed on the possibility, let us advance another step in the argument. Let us cart fully inquire whether there are not considerations us, THAT RENDER IT HIGHLY THAT THE SUPREME WOULD FAVOUR MAN WITH A . The question is this: whether, taking into our consideration the character of the Supreme Being, our necessary connection with Him, the peculiar capacities with which we are endowed, and the deplorable condition in which we find the human family, it be not most probable that this infinitely benevolent Being would make important communications to mankind. 1. It cannot be rationally denied, that the human spirit is capable of enjoying intercourse with “ the Father of our spirits.” Minds correspond with fellow-minds, and hearts sympathise with kindred hearts. But who will say that that noble spirit, with which the Almighty has distinguished us, is not formed for communion with Him who is a pure spirit, and who has been sublimely defined as Light and Love. Now if it cannot reasonably be denied that man is formed for such lofty communion, then it is highly irrational to deny that God would impart such instructions to him as would lay the foundation for this communion. 2. But if it be rational to suppose that the chief end of our being is to know, and love, and obey our Maker, to glorify God, is it not equally rational to suppose that God would make such communications to His creature as should enable him at once to fulfil the end of his being? Can it be rationally, believed that God would create the first man, or the first men, capable of religion, and designed for its obligations and its exercises, and then abandon him to gather up the necessary information as best he might? 3. We must not, however, overlook the real condition of mankind. Indeed, who can deny that man is the subject of moral derangement--the child of misery? Ask yourself whether it be, or be not, an improbable thing that his compassionate Creator should mercifully make some discoveries that should enlighten and relieve him in relation to his condition, the means of his restoration to happiness, and his final destiny? III. I would ascend another step in the argument, and endeavour to show THAT SUCH A IS . 1. It has been the practice amongst a certain portion of the community, to speak of those who are believers in a Divine revelation as being, on that account, weak and irrational persons, seduced by prejudice, and overreached by designing and self-interested men. Now it may be as well to remind those who thus judge of their fellow-countrymen, that men of all ages and all creeds--Heathens, Jews, Christians, and disbelievers in Christianity--have not thought it a proof of an irrational weakness to believe that our Creator has made some revelations to us, His creatures. Nay, many in each of these classes of persons have entertained the conviction that a revelation is even necessary to teach men language. Even Hobbes gives it as his decided opinion, that God taught Adam this useful invention. 2. But I am to show that God has given to men something more than the faculty of receiving knowledge, and reasoning upon such knowledge. I contend that He has actually unveiled to our race His own character and His law. The constitution of our nature renders the knowledge of these great things absolutely necessary. But was it possible that this knowledge could have been originally acquired otherwise than by revelation? 3. But the necessity of such revelation is most fully sustained by facts. Read history, and learn what man has been; look around you, and see what man is; and turn your eyes within, and analyse yourself; and then candidly say whether such a process has not induced the conviction that revelation is necessary. IV. In conclusion, I would DIRECT TO THE BIBLE. WHICH TO BE GIVEN BY OF GOD. 1. I remark that the disclosures which the Bible makes, relating to the character of the Supreme Being, are such as commend themselves to right reason. Let not those who live in a country where the revelations of the Bible are known forget the manifold information which, whether they think so or not, they cannot but have derived from this source. 2. Again, the disclosures which the Bible makes to us, relating to the Divine Law, are such as commend themselves to right reason. That Jaw, which this book records as coming from God, will be found to accord with the characters which it ascribes to God. There is no discrepancy between the Lawgiver and His enactments. This law is well deserving the description of “ holy, just, and good.” It has, moreover, the high advantage of being spiritual; insinuating itself into the soul--reaching the heart--and convincing the understanding. It is further possessed of the character of universal adaptation. It suits men in all conditions, ages, and circumstances. And then it ought, to be particularly remarked of it, that it possesses two points of excellence which every other code must be acknowledged to want--it exhibits a fixed standard, and adequate motives. 3. Once more; I argue, that the things which the Bible reveals, relating to the system of reconciliation, commend themselves to right reason. We are accustomed to trace out the fitness of things in the works of nature. The soil of the earth is made for its vegetable productions, and those vegetables are fitted to the soil in which they grow--the fish is made for the waters, and the waters for the fish; the eye is made for the light, and the light for the eye; and the lungs are made for the air, and the air is adapted to the lungs. Now if we are accustomed to trace these contrivances of the material avid visible world to an all-wise Contriver, can we refuse to allow that a system, which, like nature, is adapted to the end it seeks to accomplish, is likewise from God? A few instances may be sufficient to bring out this fitness of Christianity to the wants of man. Are we not ignorant? And does not this revelation impart all necessary knowledge? What is there necessary to be known about the Supreme Being--our relation to Him--our own nature and responsibilities--our immortality--our death--the final judgment and our ultimate destiny--which this book does not unfold? Jesus Christ is the light of the world; and he that believeth in Him shall not walk in darkness. Have we not broken the Divine Law? In other words, are we not guilty? Do not our consciences accuse us of guilt? And does not the doctrine of Christ’ s substitution meet our ease? Yet again; are we not conscious of being in a state of moral pollution? Must not all agree that our minds are darkened, and our hearts depraved? Can anything, then, be more rational than the doctrine of a spiritual influence--the influence of God” the Spirit renewing us in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, after the image of Him that created us? This the scheme of redemption provides. (H. Christmas, M. A.) God’ s revelation to man I. HE HAS MADE A OF HIMSELF TO MAN. 1. Man has a capacity to appreciate, to some extent, God’ s thoughts. 2. Man stands in need of God’ s thoughts. 3. Man is bound to study God’ s thoughts. II. HE HAS HIMSELF TO MAN THROUGH MAN. 1. To increase the intelligibility of God’ s thoughts. 2. To increase the attraction of God’ s thoughts. III. HE HAS HIMSELF TO MAN IN A VARIETY OF WAYS. 1. The necessity of modesty in pronouncing concerning the methods of Divine influence. 2. The importance of keeping the soul ever in a waiting attitude. IV. HE HAS MADE CHRIST THE FINAL OF HIMSELF. Christ, as the final organ of Divine revelation to man, transcends all preceding organs 1. In His relation to the universe. (1) He is the inheritor of the creation. “ Appointed heir of all things.” (2) He is the creator of the universe. “ By whom also He made the worlds.” (3) He is the sustainer of the universe. “ Upholding all things,” &c. (4) He is the Sovereign of the universe. On the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 2. In the completeness of His Divine manifestations. Represents Him more accurately than the impression on the wax represents the seal that produced it. 3. In the moral service He has rendered to humanity. 4. In His superiority to all angelic intelligences. (1) In His position. (2) In His reputation. (Homilist.) Revealed truth I. THE OF THE TENTH. It is impossible for nature to reveal 1. The spiritual Deity. 2. The special truths needed for fallen man. II. THE OF THE TRUTH. It is truth about 1. The unchangeable God. 2. The immutable law. 3. The eternal universe. III. THE UNITY OF THE TENTH. The Divine revelation is a plant of life and healing in which the different parts are not essentially different, but variously developed according to the will of God and the differing conditions of the human race in successive generations. IV. THE FULNESS OF THE TRUTH. In Christ we have the truth 1. Fully. 2. Finally. (W. L. Watkinson.) The superiority of the Christian revelation over the prophetic I. ITS IN THE AND EXTENT OF THE MADE. 1. In reference to the perfections of God. His existence, unity, holiness, goodness, love, &c. 2. In reference to the doctrine of providence. 3. In reference to a future life. 4. In reference to the method of salvation. II. ITS IN THE MODE OF MAKING THESE . 1. The authority of the medium. 2. The finish and perfection stamped upon it. 3. The simplicity, clearness, mildness, and benignity which characterise it. 4. The superior energy and influence with which it is accompanied. (James Bromley.) The old and new covenants one in Christ The great object of the Epistle is to describe the contrast between the old and the new covenant. But this contrast is based upon their unity. The new covenant is contrasted with the old covenant, not in the way in which the light of the knowledge of God is contrast d with the darkness and ignorance of heathenism, for the old covenant also is of God, and is therefore possessed of Divine glory. Great is the glory of the old covenant; yet greater is the glory of the new dispensation, when in the fulness of time God sent forth His own Son and gave unto us the substance of those things of which in the old times He had shown types and prophecy. “ God hath spoken unto the fathers” ; and by that expression “ unto the fathers” the apostle reminds us that without a church, without a union of believers, without a manifestation of God in grace, historically, among a people whom He had set apart for His service, there would have been no Scripture; and that there was a congregation of the Most High from the very beginning of the world. “ Unto the fathers “ whom He had chosen that they might have fellowship with Him, God spake in old times, even as in the last times unto the Church--unto those who are called both from among Jews and Gentiles--He has made fully known His purpose in Christ Jesus. This, then, is the great resemblance. The Father is the author of revelation in both. The Messiah is the substance and centre of the revelation in both. The glory of God’ s name in a people brought nigh unto Him, to love and to worship Him, is the end of the revelation in both. The two are one. Martin Luther has quaintly compared it to the two men who brought the branch with the cluster of grapes from the promised land. They were both bearing the same fragrant fruit; but one of them saw it not, yet he knew what he was carrying. The other saw both the fruit and the man who was helping him. Thus is it that the prophets who came before Jesus testified of Him, although they did not yet behold Him; and we who ,ire in the fulness of limes see both the Christ of whom they testified and themselves who were sent by God to witness of Him. But let us consider the marvellous unity of the two covenants. “ Sod hath spoken.” This is the first point. Oh, how little do we think of the grandeur and majesty and all-importance of this simple declaration, “ God hath spoken.” A living God and a loving God must needs speak. The god of the philosophers is a silent god, for he hath neither life nor affection; but our God, who created the heavens and the earth, who is and who loves, must speak. Even in the creation, which is an act of the condescension of God, He utters His thoughts; and when He created man as the consummation of the world, it was for this purpose, that man should hear Him and love Him, and should rejoice in His light and in His life. When sin enters into the world silence ensues. Man dreads God, and the melody of praise and prayer ceases; but the need of a revelation remains continually the same. When man forsakes the fountain of living water he cannot get rid of the thirst, and he cannot divest himself of the nature with which God had endowed him; so that there is still within man the same absolute necessity for a revelation of God from on high. And God does speak. Often we read the words and do not realise what marvel of condescending love they reveal, what great and central mystery they unfold. Unless God speaks we do not know the thoughts of God. But notice, secondly, man having by his own sin fallen away from God, and silence reigning now, it is only the infinite compassion and love of God that induces Him to speak. If there was no redemption, there would be no revelation. The love of the Father, and the blood of Jesus Christ, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; behold, these are the three” necessary foundations upon which the Scripture rests. God, the Triune Covenant God, hath spoken. God hath spoken: in old times unto the fathers by the prophets; fully and perfectly unto us by His Son. In both dispensations the same God, on account of the same sacrifice, impelled by the same love, and for the same sublime and gracious purpose. Both Old and New Testaments are of God; the New Testament, as the Church-father Augustine said, is enfolded in the Old, and the Old Testament is unfolded in the New. Nor can we, who live in the times of fulfilment, dispense with the record of the preceding dispensation. As an old author writes: “ As the brilliancy of the sun appears far greater when contrasted with the darkness of the shade, so this epistle compares the light of the gospel with the shadows and types of the Old Testament, and by this means displays the glory of the gospel in full relief; for as shadows are images of bodies, so the ancient shadows are images of Jesus Christ, of His power and of His graces, and assist us to recognise more and more the substance and the truth; but from hence we derive also this additional advantage, that although the shadows of other bodies serve only to obscure them, the shadows of the Old Testament are so many reflectors, contributing light to the gospel.” But now let us consider the contrast. Jesus Christ was not born till four thousand years after the creation of the world. “ At sundry times and in divers manners” did God speak unto the fathers by the prophets. These three things constitute a prophet: direct commission from God Himself, gift of the Holy Ghost, and being entrusted with the very thoughts and words of the Most High. It is not merely by the prophets that God spake. They were chosen not merely as the channels of separate and isolated revelation. God spake in them. They were the personal bearers of the message, the representatives and exponents of Divine truth, Their words and typical actions were inspired, and in them the word of the Lord came unto Israel. Yet let us consider what were the imperfections of these messengers. The first imperfection was this--that they were numerous; they were many. One succeeded another. They lived in different periods. Another imperfection was, that it was “ in divers manners,” in dreams, in similitudes, in visions, in symbols. Each prophet had his peculiar gift and character. Their stature and capacity varied. They were men of different temperament and tone of mind. The manner in which the revelation of God was given to them varied; even in the case of the same prophet the One Spirit appeared in various manifestations. Another imperfection was that they were sinful men. Another imperfection was that they did not possess the Spirit constantly. Of a sudden, after a long pause, the Spirit of God came upon them. God spake unto them’ , and gave unto them His message. But it was not like a continuous river. The word came to them from time to time; they did not possess the word. Another imperfection was this, that of that message that was entrusted to them they did not understand the heights and the depths. They themselves had to search diligently, and to inquire what the Spirit that was in them did signify of the sufferings and glory that should come. Another imperfection was that, as they did not understand adequately that portion of the message that was given unto them, they could still less comprehend and contain the whole message. They saw only one aspect of it, only one portion of it in connection with the peculiar history and the peculiar trials of the people at the period to which they were sent. Another imperfection was, that they all testified, like John the Baptist, “ I am not the light. I am only sent to witness of the light.” They were only finger-posts directing the pilgrim, as he was in pursuit of the heavenly city, to go on further, until he would come to the pearly gates of the new Jerusalem. We notice the imperfect and fragmentary character of the old dispensation, when we consider n,4 merely the words, but the types, which are living prophecies. There was not a single one which could stand by itself, it had always to be supplemented. Wherever we go we find it is in fragments. There is an altar; there is a sacrifice. There is a fourfold sacrifice, a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, a peace-offering, a meat-offering. There is a high priest; there is a tabernacle; there is a holy of holies; there is a candlestick; there is a shewbread; there is a veil. Everything a fragment; everything in itself showing unto us some aspect of truth, some portion of the pressure, without which we would be poor; but we must combine them all to see the fell and blessed truth. But now the time of fragmentary, imperfect, and temporary revelation is past. God speaks to us now in another and more glorious manner. Look now at the contrast. The whole contrast is in one word--in our language in one syllable--“ by the Son.” The prophets were many: the Son is one. The prophets were servants: the Son is the Lord. The prophets were temporary: the Son abideth for ever. The prophets were imperfect: the Son is perfect, even as the Father is perfect. The prophets were guilty: the Son is not merely pure, but able to purify those that are full of sin and pollution. The prophets point to the future: the Son points to Himself, and says, “ Here am I.” God has spoken to us “ by His Son.” He is the true and faithful witness, whose testimony is co-xtensive, if I may so say, with the counsel and the things of God: the Prophet whose mind is adequate to understand the mind of the Father. He is not merely the true and faithful witness because He is from everlasting, He is also the beloved of God. Notice this in the word “ Son.” “ The only begotten,” says John, “ who was in the bosom of the Father,” who is His treasure and delight, the infinite object of His love in whom from all eternity was His rejoicing, who shares with Him all His counsels. This beloved one of God--oh surely He is the true messenger who will reveal all the secrets of the Father’ s heart, and who will tell unto us all the fulness of His counsel, and all the purposes of His grace! God hath spoken to us by His Son. Let me remind you how in the Son all the message of God is contained. You who know the Scripture, and you especially who have come through the law unto the gospel, will understand me when I say that if the sinner knew nothing else but this, “ God has sent a messenger, and this messenger is His own Son,” he might discover in this the whole gospel; for, in order to send unto us condemnation, in order to give unto us the knowledge of our sin and of our desert, His own Son is not needed. Any angel would suffice for this work; any servant could proclaim this message. When God sends His own Son into the world, when God makes the stupendous sacrifice of allowing His only begotten to take upon Him our flesh and blood, there can be only one meaning in it--salvation. It can only have one purpose--our redemption. It can only have one motive--the overwhelming love of God. God has spoken to us by His Son, and therefore we know that He has spoken peace to us. But notice, secondly, as the Sonship is the beginning of the gospel, so it is also the end and purpose of God’ s message. God, speaking to us by His Son, shows unto us that we also are to become the sons of God. In the Incarnate Son the Father has brought many sons unto glory. The only begotten of the Father has, after His death on the cross, become the firstborn among many brethren. The Holy Ghost, coming through the glorified humanity of Jesus, unites us to Him, who is the beloved Son, and in whom the eternal and it, finite love of the Father zests upon all His believing people. In the Son we know and have the Father; in the Son we also are the children of God. Lastly, remember this is the ultimate revelation. There can be nothing higher; there can be nothing further. If Christ is our life, then, when the Son of God shall appear, we also who are the sons of God--nosy in weakness, suffering, temptation--shall be made manifest with Him in glory. (A. Saphir.) The prophetic revelation contrasted with the filial revelation made by Jesus Christ I. First let us note and consider well, touching this doctrine which we are taught, by Christ--THE OF IT, WHICH IS FIRST IN THE AUTHOR, WHO IS GOD HIMSELF, EVEN THE SAME GOD OF OUR FATHERS, which so many times and ways spake ever by His prophets; even He, in assured truth, hath also spoken by His Son. Thus giving the authority of the word of Christ to God the Father, that it might be confessed true, and to take away all vain quarrelling of contentious men, who under pretence of the name of God, would easily have disputed against our Saviour Christ, and said: We know God is true, and He spake to Moses, He spake to the prophets; but this man speaketh of Himself, and we will not hear Him. II. Now, as our Saviour Christ is our certain teacher of undoubted truth, so HOW FAR THIS TRUTH IS TAUGHT BY HIM ALSO IN THE WORDS, “ many times,” “ many ways,” “ by many prophets,” “ of old,” “ to our forefathers.” Of all these we must set the contrariety in our Saviour Christ, that God spoke by Him, not many times, revealing His will by measure, now some, then more; but once He has sent Him, filled with all treasure of wisdom and understanding. And before God spake many ways, either by angels, or by the cloud, or between the cherubims, or by Urim, or by visions, or by dreams; but now He hath spoken one way, even by Christ made our brother, with the voice of a man, in the midst of the congregation, plain and evident in all men’ s hearing, and all variety shall cease for evermore. Likewise before God spake by many prophets; now He doth not so, but hath sent His Son alone instead of all, that all His people should hear him. Likewise those times they are old and past; but the time of Christ’ s teaching passeth not, but is for ever. And that was to the fathers, men of divers calling, but this is to us all of, one condition. 1. Now let us see the difference here spoken of between our Saviour Christ and all other prophets, what we may learn of them was at divers times revealed, but that which Christ teacheth is reveal d but once. And this is twice after expressly noted by the apostle (Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 22:26.) And thus it is which St. Jude saith of the Christian faith, “ that once it w is given to the saints” ; which once doth mean the time of Christ in earth; for so he saith it was by His Son. 2. The second difference, that the doctrine of Christ is taught after one sort. For though first were miracles, and now none; first apostles, now none: these were but means to confirm the preaching, the Word only was the power of salvation, which is the same it was then. Which because it is but one, therefore it is perfect. 3. The third difference here is, that that was old, and therefore abolished; for it cannot be but that which waxeth older and older must at last vanish. But the testament of Christ, it is still new, yea, through it were from the beginning, yet it is still the same, and the day passeth not in which it was given, but it endureth with the age of man. 4. The fourth difference is in the fathers with whom the first covenant was made, who though they were all called in Jesus Christ, yet was there a difference of their honour, and every one more exalted, as God approached more near unto them. So Abraham and His posterity were a more honourable people than the others before him. So the Israelites that had received the law, and dwelt in the land of promise, had greater blessing than their fathers in Egypt. So John Baptist more than all Israel. But now they that are called of Jesus Christ by His own voice, and in Him crucified before their eyes, have attained a singular honor, and the least of them touching their calling are greater than all patriarchs and prophets. And these all in like precious faith, like spirit, like promises, like covenants, like accepted of God, every man in his own measure of grace. 5. The fifth difference is, that God then spake by His prophets, now by His Son: by prophets, meaning the continual succession of prophets in all ages. For as they were men taken away by death, so it was necessary for others to come in their places: and because no prophet was able to give his grace to other, or of his fulness make other learned in the mysteries of God, but they were all taught of the Lord; therefore they had the credit of their word every one in himself, and none judged by another’ s gifts. But so it is not with the Son of God; for both He liveth to appoint us teachers still, and of His fulness He giveth all other their continual increase of grace; for which cause now the warrant of all dependeth upon Him alone; and the greatest apostle that ever was hath no other glory but only to be His servant and messenger; for He is that Redeemer whose word must be in the mouth of His seed, and in the mouth of His seed’ s seed after Him for evermore. (E. Deering, B. D.) Divine revelation under the law, and under the gospel I. THE MATTER OF THE . It was given them by piecemeal, now a part, then a part. They had one part of it in Adam’ s time, another in Noah’ s; one in Abraham’ s, another in Moses” time; one in David’ s time, another in Jeremiah’ s, Isaiah’ s, and the rest of the prophets. It was parcelled out to them as the capacity of the people in sundry times did require; but we bare the doctrine of salvation at one lamp propounded to us, in one whole and entire sum. Thus God hath dealt more graciously and bountifully with us. They had one flower now and another anon; we have all the flowers in God’ s garden sweetly smelling all at once in our nostrils. They had now a loaf and then a loaf; now a draught and then a draught of the Lord’ s wine; the whole magazine of God Almighty is open to us. Then Low thankful ought we to be to God above them! And how careful should we be to enrich ourselves with these heavenly wares, that may freely enter the whole storehouse of the Lord of Hosts! II. THE MANNER. God delivered His will to them after divers manners: to Abraham by angels in the shape of men; to Moses in a bush and a cloud; to Samuel in a dream; to Ezekiel in visions; by the oracles and answers of the priests, in soft wind, etc. To us He hath delivered His will in one manner, by the sweet, comfortable, powerful voice of His own Son. This one manner far surpasses all the manners whereby God spake to them. Those were dark and obscure, this plain; many of those were terrible to the hearers, this was a rues, mild and amiable manner. III. THE TIME. He spake to them of old time, in the first and oldest age of the world; He speaks to us in a now time, whereto all things are made green, fresh, and flourishing by our Saviour Christ. IV. THE PERSONS by whom and in whom it was delivered. They were men; Christ, by whom God speaks to us, is God and man; thy were wise, could foretell things to come, aptly and pithily interpret the Word of God, yet all their wisdom and knowledge was berry wed; Christ was wise of Himself, clad with His own feathers; they mortal, dust and ashes; Christ never saw, corruption but abideth for ever and ever; they were servants m the House of God; Christ is the Son, yea, the Lord and owner of the house. Therefore wonderfully hath Go, honoured ,.s in the time of the gospel above them in the time of the law. If a king should speak to us by one of his privy council, it is much; but if he speak to us by his son and heir apparent to the crown, it is a greater dignity. Many (prophets and kings) have desired to see these things which we see, and have not seen them. God give us grace ,to use our happiness to His glory and the salvation of us all. (W. Jones, D. D.) The progressiveness of revelation In these few words are set forth the relation in which the two dispensations stand to one another, the light in which the revelation as a whole is to be regarded. No words can more strongly lay down a principle which was for long regarded with suspicion. That revelation was given by degrees. This truth is necessary in order to prove the necessity or even the allowableness of Christianity; the incompleteness of the first covenant must be admitted ere the reason for the existence of the second could be perceived. God had undoubtedly spoken, but how had He spoken? He had spoken at sundry times and in divers manners. 1. At sundry times, or rather, by divers portions. It was by degrees--fragmentarily--one truth at one time another at another. And the degree in which God was known, in which He had been manifested to successive generations, was clearly not the same in all. There might be faith, there might be obedience in all ages to Him who was invisible; but unquestionably, though the men of one generation might not be better than the men of another--though,, unfortunately, in all sin and unbelief had prevailed, yet who could not see that, as time went on, there were new truths insisted on, new discoveries made as to His holiness and His spirituality; that while it was the same eternal One whom men served or dishonoured, the way in which His will revealed itself varied from age to age; that the knowledge of David or of Jeremiah was different from the knowledge of Noah or of Abraham? This difference--this evolution, we might almost call it--lies upon the surface of the Old Testament. The history which is recorded there is, as has frequently been pointed out, like the biography of an individual life. It narrates so palpably the childhood, the youth, the manhood of a race; the education in Divine things, the development of spiritual truth. There were times when there were no Scriptures and no solemn ceremonies; there were times when men observed the complicated ritual of the law; there were times when men worshipped amid the splendours of the Temple; there were days when in exile they could not sing the Lord’ s song in a strange land. Thus gradually, thus at different times, as they were able to bear it, they heard God speaking. 2. And varied as were the times in which He had spoken to men, equally varied were the modes which He had employed to make them listen. How diversified was that volume in which they thought they had eternal life. By what different means were its lessons conveyed: by commandments and by promises, by similitudes and by symbols, by prophecy and by visions. History, psalms, proverbs, poetry, philosophy, all were in turn employed; the heart, the mind, the imagination were in turn appealed to. How different also from one another were those to whom the Word of the Lord came. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 1:4-14 Being made so much better than the angels The superiority of Christ to the angels I. THE OF HIS NATURE. II. THE OF HIS . III. THE OF HIS OFFICE. IV. THE OF HIS . Learn: 1. The error of those who would confound Christ with the angels. 2. The error of those who would bide Christ by the angels. 3. The error of those who would expect the success of Christianity from the intervention of the angels. 4. The error of those who think the Christian Church weak because it lacks angelic phenomena. We have the Cross; we have Pentecost; we need not seraphs or archangels. (W. L. Watkinson.) Christ’ s excellences above angels 1. Christ’ s Divine nature is infinitely more excellent then an angelical spirit; yea, His human nature, by the hypostatical union of it with the Divine, hath likewise a dignity infinitely surpassing an angel’ s nature. 2. Christ is the express image of the person of His Father, which is more than to be created, as angels were, after God’ s image. 3. Christ is the brightness of God’ s glory: therefore more glorious than the most glorious angels. 4. Christ is in heaven at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty: therefore in place of residency higher than angels. Christ’ s function, to be a Mediator between God and man, is greater than any of the functions of angels. 6. Therefore Christ is more excellent than angels in their greatest excellences. Yet there is a greater excellency, wherein Christ doth further excel angels, comprised under this phrase, “ a more excellent name.” This is that name which is above every name, at which every knee should bow Philippians 2:9-10). By virtue of this name He became a fit Mediator between God and man, and fit Saviour and Redeemer of man, a fit King, Priest, and Prophet of His Church; yea, and by virtue of this name, absolute dominion over all creatures, infinite majesty, Divine dignity, and all honour and glory is His; all worship, service, subjection, and duty is due unto Him. This name therefore must needs be beyond all comparison a most excellent name: and in this respect Christ may well be said to have a more excellent name than angels, because there is no comparison between them. The comparative epithet, translated “ more excellent,” is derived from a compound verb that signifieth to “ differ in excellency, or to excel” (1 Corinthians 15:41). It is translated “ to be better “ (Matthew 6:26), or” to be of more value” (Matthew 10:31). The positive of this comparative, signifieth divers or different (Romans 12:6). This word of comparison “ more excellent,” is not to be taken of an exceeding in the same nature and kind, as one man is more excellent than another, but in different natures and kinds for Christ, as the Son of God, is of a Divine nature, even the Creator of all, and preferred before all created spirits; which though they be the most excellent of created substances, yet not to be compared with the Son of God. His name is infinitely more excellent then theirs; for by reason of this name He is the Lord of angels. 1. As He is the true, proper, only begotten Soil, by eternal generation. For the Father in communicating His essence to Him, communicated also this excellent name here intended. 2. As His human nature was hypostatically united to His Divine nature. For though according to the flesh He was not born of God the Father (in that respect He was, without Father, born of a Virgin), yet that flesh being personally united to the only begotten Son of God, He was born the Son of Luk 1:35). He was not then by grace and favour of no Son made the Son of God; but as God, and as God-man, He was the true begotten Son of God; and in both these respects the name here spoken of, by right of inheritance belonged to Him. (W. Gouge.) The angels Scripture speaks often of the angels. Let me remind you of some of the doctrines which the Bible contains concerning them. In the first place, human beings know nothing about angels except what God pleases to tell them. Hence all that human poets have imagined about them is of no value, unless it agrees with the Scripture. With regard to the angels, I may notice three tendencies to error. The first tendency to error we see in the Epistle to the Colossians, and we may call it “ the Gnostic error,” when men, following their own speculative reason, endeavour to penetrate mysteries which are not revealed, and form erroneous views of the angels as to their nature, and their relation to God and to Christ. Secondly, the Romish error, according to which the angels are placed in a false mediatory position, and are invoked, when men rely upon their intercession, or call upon their aid. And the third tendency is what I may call the Protestant one--to think too rarely and in too isolated a manner about them, and not to remember vividly that they are constantly with us, that we and they are members of one great family. 1. Notice the multitude of angels: “ We have come to an innumerable company of angels.” 2. This innumerable multitude is a polity, a state. There are gradations in it, groups, orders, legions of angels. There is a kingdom with gradations, with order. This kingdom is intimately connected with the kingdom of grace. When a sinner is converted, the angels rejoice; and when Jesus comes again, the angels will come with Him. They will last for ever, though they are not yet seen by us; and when all that is unreal and shadowy shall disappear, then they shall be made visible at the appearing of our great God and Saviour. Whenever there is a crisis in the history of God’ s kingdom the angels appear, as at the giving of the law, and at the incarnation of the Son of God. When He conies again multitudes of angels shall come with Him and separate the evil from the good; before the angels Jesus shall confess His people. Angels are connected not merely with salvation and with the spiritual kingdom of God, but with all the kingdom of God; with all physical phenomena. God does not move and rule the world merely by laws and principles, by unconscious and inanimate powers, but by living beings full of light and love. His angels are like flames of fire; they have charge over the winds, and the earth, and the trees, and the sea. Through the angels He carries on the government of the world. Now, glorious as the angels are, they are in subjection to Jesus as man; for in His human nature God has enthroned Him above all things. Their relation to Jesus fixes also their relation to us. We know they love us; for they rejoice when a sinner turns from ungodliness and takes hold of salvation as it is in Jesus. They watch us in our dangers, in our difficulties. And after having ministered unto God’ s people to the end of this age, they shall rejoice when they hear His voice saying unto the children, “ Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” For Jesus’ sake, “ are they not all ministering spirits?” Oh, how great is Jesus! How great is the covenant of grace! How great is the glory of the Son, and how wonderful is our position as children of the Father! (A. Saphir.) Thou art My Son The eternal Sonship of Christ In the Divine generation these distinct points following are observable 1. God as a Father, even the first Person in Trinity, begetteth. In this respect the Son of God is called the begotten of the Father (John 1:14). 2. God the Father begat the Son of His very substance, very God of very God. The title God properly taken and frequently applied to this Son, gives proof hereto (John 1:1; Romans 9:5), and especially the title Jehovah, which is given to none but the true God (Genesis 19:24; Joshua 5:14). 3. God the Father communicateth His whole essence to the Son. He begat another self of Himself, even that which He Himself is. In which respect this Son of God saith, “ I and My Father are one. The Father is in Me, and I in Him” (John 10:30; John 10:38). 4. God the Father’ s begetting His Son is truly and properly eternal. It was before all time, it continueth throughout all times, it shall never have any date, or end. In relation hereunto saith this Son of God, “ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth: before the hills was I brought forth,” etc. Proverbs 8:23-25). In this sense He was called the firstborn Colossians 1:15). Firstborn, because He was begotten before all things; and only-begotten, because He alone was properly begotten of God. 5. God the Father’ s begetting His Son, manifesteth an equality of Father and Son. For if the nature of both be inquired after, it will hereby be found to be God, and not one greater than another. This also did the Son receive of the Father. He did not beget Him equal, and then add to Him, when He was begotten, equality, but in begetting Him He made Him equal. For being in the form of God, to be equal with God was no robbery Philippians 2:6), but nature: because He obtained it by bring begotten, He did not usurp it by a proud advancing of Himself. Where equality is, there is the same nature, and one substance. (W. Gouge.) This day have I begotten TheeSonship in the resurrection I. THE SENSE IN WHICH WE ARE TO THE DIVINE . “ I have begotten Thee.” Says Meyer: “ I think that neither His eternal generation alone, as He is God, nor His temporary generation, as He is man, is here meant, but both. I have begotten Thee from eternity, in respect of Thy Divinity, and in time, as set forth by the term ‘ this day.’ I have, by the overshadowing of My Spirit, begotten Thee of the Virgin Mary, according to Thy humanity, so as it may appear to all the world that Thou art both God and man, and so My most noble Son and the Prince of heaven; this being made evident sundry ways, but especially by Thy rising again from death to life.” That is, the resurrection was the day in which God made manifest that He had begotten the Lord Jesus as His Son; not that He was that particular day begotten, but the fact was then made patent, and proclaimed as the grand evidence of that article of faith which teaches us to say, “ I believe in the resurrection of the dead.” Thus the act of our Lord’ s resurrection presents the proof alike of His natural and eternal Sonship, being both divinely begotten. It sheds an equal lustre upon His eternal Deity and glorified humanity; and while the power which effected His resurrection exhibits Him as truly God, His condescension to the flesh, and death which preceded it, discovers Him as really Man; for who but man could die? and who but God could rise again? Death was the peculiar, and for aught I know, the exclusive sentence which was passed on man; life which could triumph over death, which is God’ s ordinance, is the sole prerogative of God. II. WHY WE THINK THE TERM “ THIS DAY” THE DAY OF HIS , 1. Our first reason is, the position which the words occupy in the second Psalm, and the seventh verse, from which they are quoted. It is after “ the heathen had raged, and the people had imagined a vain thing,” namely, that they could annihilate the pretensions of Jesus by His death; it is after the conspiring of the kings of the earth and their rulers that the decree is uttered, “ Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.” That is, the resurrection which succeeded the crucifixion manifested in the most signal manner, that notwithstanding the enmity, apparent success, and short-lived triumph of the Jews, “ Truly,” after all, as the centurion confessed, “ this man was the Son of God.” 2. Our second reason for considering this day the resurrection, is because the assembled apostles so applied the Psalm in the fourth chapter of Acts, the twenty-fifth and following verses, where, having pointed out the accomplishment of the former verses of the second Psalm, in the conspiracy of the rulers and people against Christ, it is added in the thirty-third verse, “ And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection.” 3. A third reason we find in the Epistle to the Romans, the first chapter and the fourth verse, where St. Paul draws the distinction between Christ’ s “ being made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, but declared (not made) to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of holiness, by His resurrection from the dead.” The word “ declared,” in this place, is of the same force as the Hebrew word which is translated “ begotten,” and which also means “ exhibited, or manifested” ; or as Paul saith “ declared.” “ Thou art My Son; this day have I declared Thee” --that is, this day of Thy resurrection, I have owned Thee, manifested Thee, as the Son of God. 4. If there be any remaining doubt as to the application of this passage, I refer you fourthly, to the thirteenth chapter of Acts, and the thirty-third verse, where, after speaking of the promises of God made to the fathers, Paul adds, “ God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm--Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee” ; that is, the raising up of Jesus was the evidence of His Sonship, and His Sonship is the pledge for the fulfilment of the promises. 5. Once more: in the fifth chapter of Hebrews, and the fifth verse, where it is asserted that Aaron, the first high priest under the legal dispensation, and Christ the first High Priest of the gospel, took not this office upon Himself till He was called, the calling of Christ is referred to the same event and in the same terms as in the text are employed to prove the superiority of His nature over that of the angels. Then the day of His resurrection was the day of His ordination to the high priesthood. III. WHAT WAS THE OFFICE AND UPON THE LORD JESUS BY THE DIVINE ? “ Thou art My Son.” Angels needed not this attestation. They had often heard the grand acknowledgment in heaven. The eternal Sonship of the Christ was no secret there. But as Jesus said of the answer which mysteriously reached Him from the clouds at the raising of Lazarus, so might He have said of the testimony which accompanied His own resurrection--“ Because of the people who stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me” ; that is, God condescended visibly and audibly to acknowledge His Son on earth, that man might believe that He was sent from heaven. 1. The title of the Son of God imports dignity. Hence the apostle’ s argument in the text” Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son?” 2. The title of the Son of God imports office. It implies, in connection with His other title, “ the Son of man” --which is applied to Christ about eighty times by the evangelists--a mediatorial office; that the Son of man, equally as the Son of God, is the connecting link between God and man, both natures being reconciled by His office as the two are united in His person. 3. Again: as the Son of God, Christ is our Prince and Judge. Henceforth, said He, “ the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” ; and Peter adds, “ He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” This is His present office; His sovereignty is now wholly exercised in grace. It now deals in love, mercy, and forbearance. Now He pleads at the throne--hereafter He will sentence from the throne. 4. Once more: as the Son of God, Christ is “ the Firstborn among many brethren.” The term “ firstborn” does not necessarily infer that the person to whom the epithet is applied is a creature; it often imports no more than excellency, or supremacy, or peculiar favour. Thus Job speaks of “ the firstborn of death” --that is, the chief strength of death; so Christ is called in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians, and the fifteenth verse, “ the Firstborn of every creature,” “ the Firstborn from the dead” --that is, the chief and supreme of all the creatures, as the Rabbins themselves spoke of Jehovah as “ the Firstborn of the creation,” or at the bead of the universe. It is also a term of endearment and special favour. Thus the Lord said in the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah, and the ninth verse--“ Ephraim is My firstborn” ; in other words, that His people were very dear to Him. In all these senses Christ is to us the Firstborn of God. He is our Strength and Excellency, our “ Firstfruits from the dead” ; and “ because He lives, we shall live also” ; for we are said to be “ begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” And further, “ He is Head over all things to His Church” ; and as there is a name given unto Him which is above every name, so that name is ours. Christ’ s people are called Christians. “ I will write upon you,” said He, “ My new name” ; and that is “ the everlasting name which shall not be cut off.” (J. B. Owen, M. A.) The First-begotten Christ the First-begotten I. We understand by this title, THE ETERNAL AND SONSHIP OF OUR LORD; His possession of a seed and family made like unto Him here in holiness and hereafter in glory; His rule and preeminence in the house and family of God; His character, as head over all things to the Church. II. We understand by the bringing in of the First-begotten into the world--THE OF THE ETERNAL SON OF GOD IN OUR FLESH--His birth, according to the prophet, of the Virgin Mary. Great indeed is this mystery: let us adore it reverentially! The joy which should pervade our hearts must be a holy joy; the feelings that should possess cur minds should be of lively gratitude and ready obedience. III. But let us notice WHAT IS TO BE FROM THE UPON THE ANGELS: this adoration we find rendered at the birth of this wondrous personage; at His agony in the garden they waited on Him; at His resurrection and ascension they were in attendance upon His Majesty; and still they worship and adore. What can we conclude from the adoration of angels, but that He whom angels adore is God and Lord? Again, may we not conclude that the work of our redemption has been undertaken by One who is altogether equal to the task? May we not thus far be of good courage, and place our entire confidence in the virtue of His redemption? Lessons: 1. The unspeakable humiliation of our Lord. How low has He stooped to do us service! Are we filled with the opinion of our own importance? Let us turn to the manger and the stable; let us dwell upon the matchless humility of the Lord of life and glory; let us learn from it to be lowly in our own eyes. 2. Though we cannot copy the act, yet we can copy the motive, the spirit which brought the First-begotten into the world. By love we must serve one another. 3. Again, we are instructed hereby to deny self. (H. J. Hastings, M. A.) Christ the First-begotten That which the apostle here intendeth under this title “ first-begotten,” is to set forth the excellency of the person of Christ, as God-man, and that 1. In His priority, which is eternity, as He is God (Proverbs 8:24-25). 2. In His dignity, being the most excellent of all (Genesis 49:3). 3. In regard of His dominion over all (Psalms 2:6-7). 4. In regard of the largeness of His inheritance (Psalms 2:8). (W. Gouge.) And let all the angels of God worship Him These words are an exact quotation from Deuteronomy 32:4, as it stands in the LXX. version, but are not found in the original. The use of that passage as a Jewish liturgy of praise probably led to its expansion into a fuller song of triumph by additions borrowed from other parts of Scripture; and these words may have been taken from Psalms 97:7, as it stands in LXX. version--“ Worship Him all ye His angels.” In the farewell song of Moses, the verse is introduced on occasion of a majestic prophecy of the Lord’ s appearance to judge the enemy and avenge His people. All such prophecies were interpreted in a Messianic sense; therefore the Epistle makes the reappearance of the firstborn the occasion for that angelic worship. In Deuteronomy the adoration is rendered to Jehovah; in the Epistle it is not clear whether it is rendered to Him or to the firstborn; it is therefore right to follow the Old Testament meaning the passage is quoted by way of exhibiting the subordinate position of angels as mere worshippers. (F. Rendall, M. A.) Christ the object of angelic worship I. IF ANGELS WORSHIP CHRIST, HIS CLAIMS TO WORSHIP ARE . There are only two conceivable causes for the worshipping of false gods: 1. The want of intelligence. 2. The want of right sympathies. II. IF ANGELS WORSHIP CHRIST, THEN THE OF MEN TO DO SO MUST . Besides being the brightness of His Father’ s glory, He is the expiator of human sin, &e. III. IF ANGELS WORSHIP CHRIST, THEN A WITH HIM IS THE YOU HEAVEN. It is even connected with two things: 1. An appreciative knowledge of Him. 2. An unreserved concurrence with Him. (Homilist.) Christ worshipped by angels I. THE FIRST THING WHICH THE TEXT TEACHES IS THAT CHRIST IS A PROPER OBJECT OF DIVINE WORSHIP. We know who has said, “ Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10), and we know also, from St. John’ s description in the Apocalypse, of the worship of heaven, that the Church universal, saints and angels, will pay Divine honours to Him who appeared upon earth as the gentle Babe of Bethlehem (Revelation 5:13). Thus speaks the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity (Isaiah 42:8). If Christ Jesus be not God, how can the Almighty Father contradict Himself, and say even to the bright intelligences that minister about His throne, “ Let all the angels of God worship Him?” If Christ be not a proper object of Divine adoration, how is it that we hear the meek and lowly Son of Mary declare, without hesitation or reserve, that “ All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” ? (John 5:23). If Christ Jesus be not one with the Father and the Blessed Spirit, in the glory of the Eternal Trinity, why did the disciples who met Him after the resurrection bow themselves down and worship Him? Matthew 28:9; Luke 24:52). II. The text suggests another point--THAT THE AFFORDS A SPECIAL CALL UPON ALL IN EARTH AND HEAVEN TO ASCRIBE UNTO HIM THE HONOUR WHICH IS DUE UNTO HIS NAME. During the reign of Theodosius the Great, in the fourth century, the Arians put forth their strongest efforts to undermine that all-important doctrine of the divinity of our blessed Lord. The interesting event of making his son Arcadius the sharer with him of his throne was happily overruled to his discovering the fearful error which was thus sapping the foundations of the faith. Among the bishops who came to congratulate Theodosius on the occasion was Amphilochus, Bishop of Iconium, a man most highly esteemed. Approaching the emperor, the bishop addressed him in fitting words, and was about to withdraw from the presence chamber, when the angry father exclaimed, “ Do you take no notice of my son? Have you not heard that I have made him a partner with me in the empire.” The good old bishop gave no direct answer, but going up to Arcadius, a lad of sixteen, he laid his hands upon his head, saying, “ The Lord bless thee, my son!” and once more turned to depart. Even this did not satisfy the emperor, who inquired, in a tone of surprise and displeasure, “ Is this all the respect you pay to a prince that I have made of equal dignity with myself? “ The bishop indignantly answered, “ Do you so highly resent my apparent neglect of your son, because I do not treat him with equal honour with yourself? What, then, must the eternal God think of you, who have allowed His co-equal and co-eternal Son to be degraded from His proper divinity in every part of your empire?” Theodosius felt that the withering rebuke was well deserved, and he ceased from that moment to show the least indulgence to such as ventured to cast dishonour upon the Son of God. It is not only our duty, but our precious privilege, to worship our Divine Saviour. (L N. Norton, D. D.) Worship due to Christ from all If the angels worship Christ, shall not we men that be dust and ashes worship Him? If the lords of the privy council stand bare to the king, shall not we silly men of the country do it? The angels that dwell in the court of heaven with God worship Christ; and shall not we on earth do it? Let us worship Him, and Him alone; let us not worship our gold and silver as covetous men do, and come within compass of idolatry; let us not worship our pleasures as epicures do, but let us worship Christ as the angels do. We worship Christ with our lips, we have His name in our mouth, but we worship Him not with our hearts and lives. A great number of Christians are like the soldiers that set a crown of thorns on Christ’ s head, put a reed instead of a sceptre into His hand, clothed Him with a purple garment, and in the end did nothing but mock Him. So we talk gloriously of Christ and of His kingdom; in words we profess Him to be our King; but we do not worship Him in truth and sincerity, and serve Him in holiness and righteousness as we ought to do. (W. Jones, D. D.) Who maketh His angels spiritsAngelic life and its lessons It is true there are many who deny the existence of any spiritual beings save God and man. The wide universe is to them a solitary land without inhabitants. There is but one oasis filled with living creatures. There is something pitiable in this impertinence. It is a drop of dew in the lonely cup of a gentian, which imagines itself to be all the water in the universe. It is the summer midge which has never left its forest pool, dreaming that it and its companions are the only living creatures in earth or air. There is no proof of the existence of other beings than ourselves, but there is also no proof of the contrary. Apart from revelation, we can think about the subject as we please. But it does seem incredible that we alone should represent in the universe the image of God; and if in one solitary star another race of beings dwell, if we concede the existence of a single spirit other than ourselves, we have allowed the principle; the angelic world of which the Bible speaks is possible to faith. Our life with nature has lost its beauty, its joy, its religion. It was different with the ancient Jew and with the apostles and their followers. They lived in a world peopled with spiritual beings. They believed in invisible assistants, who were doing God’ s pleasure and sympathising with His children. The hosts of heaven moved in myriads in the sky. The messengers of God went to and fro working His righteous will. The sons of God shouted for joy when the creation leaped to light. In every work of nature, in the summer rain and the winter frost, in the lifting of the billow on the sea and the growth of the flower on the plain, there were holy ones concerned who sang the hymn of continued creation to the Eternal Love. The very winds themselves were angels, and the flaming fires ministers of God. I. Take first, THE OF GOD TO ANGELIC LIFE. 1. The first thing we understand of the angels is that in distant eternities God created them. God gave of His own life to others, and filled His silence with living souls. Here we have the principle of the social life of God. He listened with pleasure to the song of joy which filled His universe, and received and gave back in ceaseless reciprocation the offered love of the spirits He had made. And in that thought all social life on earth should be hallowed by being made like to that of God; we should be as gods and angels one to another, interchanging ever love and service. Is that the ideal which in society you strive to reach? Again 2. The angelic creation reveals to us the very principle of God’ s proper life. He would not have a life which began and ended in Himself. His life was life in others. In giving of His life He lived. II. I pass on to THE OF THE ANGELIC LIFE OF GOD. It is described as a life of exalted praise. The angels are pictured as employed in ceaseless adoration. The nearer that you live to God here, the nearer you will approach the angelic life. Our state of imperfection is characterised by prayer, the state of perfection is characterised by praise; and it is curious to mark in the history of some of the noblest of God’ s saints, how, as they drew near the close of life and entered more into communion with the heavenly existence, prayer seems to be replaced by a sacred awe, and a deeper knowledge of holiness breaks forth into continual praise. So far for angelic life in connection with God. III. We pass on to consider, AS IT IS IN THE BIBLE, ANGELIC LIFE IN WITH NATURE. The Hebrew religious feeling always retained some traces of its connection through Abraham with Chaldaea. The old pastoral faith which was born on the wide plains of the East, with a magnificent arch of sky above, in which the sun and moon and stars walked cloudless with what seemed the stately step of gods, was always breaking through the pure monotheism which God revealed to the patriarchs. And not only the ordering of the stars, but all manifestations of the forces of nature were, in the poetry of the Hebrews, directed by the angels. Certain masters in science will smile at all this, and ask if that be philosophy? And I answer, No, not philosophy, but something higher--poetry; and as such, not disclosing the relations of phenomena, but revealing, through symbolic phrase, a principle. It matters very little whether the angels be the directing powers of the elements and their combinations or not; but it does much matter to us as spiritual beings with what eyes we look upon the universe--as a living whole informed and supported by a living will, or as dead matter drifting on in obedience to dead laws. So do we grasp the truth of these old Hebrew sayings of the angels--that nature in essence, or rather, in that actual world of which it is the witness, is not inanimate, but living. Then the universe becomes clothed in a more glorious form. “ The dead heavy mass which did but block up space is vanished, and in its place there flows forward, with the music of eternal waters, a stream of life and power and action “ which issues from the source of all life--the living will of God. Then it happens that to us the whole course of nature, and each separate thing within it, give up to us the secrets they half conceal and half express They speak not to intellect only or to feeling only, but to the entirety of our being. All God s living spirits are doing within the sphere of His life a portion of this redeeming work. The angels do it perchance as He performs it, finding a perfect joy in sacrifice; we are doing it in agony, finding every sacrifice a pain, and yet learning through the very pain to realise the sacrifice as joy; giving up our life with strong crying and with tears, but strangely discovering that we have been led into life: till at last the secret smites upon our heart in an ineffable light which transfigures all our being, and looking up to where, upon the cross of Calvary, all humanity was sacrificed and all life given away in infinite love that the life of the world might be, we know at last in Him the mystery of the universe. We see the very Life itself in the love which, in giving His Son, gave Himself. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.) Angels and their alliance with nature His angels spirits; better, His angels winds. The quotation is from Psalms 104:4, according to the Greek translation. Two things are expressed: first, the service of the angels; and second, their alliance in this service to the material elements; under God’ s transforming hand they suffer a change into winds and a flame of fire. This idea is not to be pressed so far as to imply that the angelic essence undergoes a transformation into material substance, but only that the angels are clothed with this material form, and in their service assume this shape to men. Illustrations of the idea from the Rabbinical writers are not wanting. “ The angel said unto Manoah, I know not after what image I am made, for God changes us every hour; why, therefore, dost thou ask after my name? Sometimes He makes us fire, at other times wind; sometimes men, at other times again angels.” God is named God of hosts because He does with His angels as He pleases; He makes them sometimes sitting (Judges 6:11), sometimes standing (Isaiah 6:2), sometimes to resemble women (Zechariah 5:9), sometimes men (Genesis 18:2), &c. “ When His angels are sent forth as messengers they are made winds Psalms 104:4), when they minister before the throne of His glory they are flames of fire” (cf. Exodus 3:2) . (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.) A flame of fireAngels likened to fire. 1. Fire is lightsome and strikes a terror into men, so do the angels when they appear. 2. Fire is of a subtle and piercing nature: so are the angels, they are quickly here and there. 3. Fire consumes and burns up; so do they the wicked, our enemies. This is the greatest honour of the angels to be God’ s ministers and messengers; so must we count it the greatest dignity of all men on the face of the earth. Though thou beest a rich tradesman, a wealthy merchant, a gentlemen of great revenues, a knight, a lord, or a king; yet the most magnificent style thou canst have is this, to be God’ s minister and servant, to be His messenger and to go on His errands. (W. Jones, D. D.) Thy throne, O God, Is for ever and ever Christ’ s throne and sceptre I. THE THRONE. 1. It is a mercy throne. 2. It is a rich throne. 3. It is a throne of plenty. II. THE SCEPTRE. 1. Righteously acquired. 2. Christ makes war in righteousness. 3. Christ maintains the rights of heaven. (James Wells.) Messianic regalia I. THE. THRONE OF MESSIAH. The power of Christ Isaiah 1. Divine. 2. Supreme. (1) Moral, not secular. (2) Personal, not derived. (3) Universal, not local. 3. Everlasting. II. THE SCEPTRE OF MESSIAH. The righteousness of His 1. Character. 2. Gospel. 3. Reign. III. THE CROWN OF MESSIAH. (W. L. Watkinson.) Divinity of Christ So thoroughly intermingled with the whole texture of New Testament Scripture is the Godhead of the Saviour, that no criticism which does not destroy the book can altogether extinguish its testimony. We have seen a copy of the Gospels and Epistles which was warranted free from all trace of the Trinity, but it was not the Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We beheld it, and we received instruction. It did not want beauty; for the Parables and the Sermon on the Mount, and many a touching passage, still were there. But neither would a garden want beauty if the grass plats and green bushes still remained, though you had carefully culled out every blossoming flower. The humanity of Jesus still is beautiful, even when the Godhead is forgotten or denied. Or rather it looked like a coronation tapestry, with all the golden threads torn out; or an exquisite mosaic from which some unscrupulous finger had abstracted the gems and only left the common stones: you not only missed the glory of the whole, but in the fractures of the piece and the coarse plaster with which the gaps were supplied, you saw how rude was the process by which its jewels had been wrenched away. It was a casket without the pearl. It was a shrine without the Shekinah. And yet, after all, it was not sufficiently expurgated; for, after reading it, the thought would recur--how much easier to fabricate a Gnostic Testament exempt from all trace of our Lord’ s humanity, than a Unitarian Testament ignoring His divinity! (James Hamihon, D. D.) Christ is God Think of all that is represented by that great word “ God” ; who can fathom it? Nothing is easier than to say the word “ universe,” and yet it would take us millions of millions of years to bestow one hasty glance upon the surface of that small portion of it which lies within the range of our glasses. But what are all suns, comets, earths, moons, atmospheres, seas, rivers, mountains, valleys, plains, woods, cattle, wild beasts, fish, fowl, grasses, plants, shrubs, minerals, and metals, compared with the meaning of the one name God!” (C. Stanford, D. D.) The dominion of Jesus Christ I. The conferring and OF IS AN MEANS OF COMING TO AN WITH THE MIND AND WILL OF GOD IN THEM. Thus dealeth the apostle in this place; he compareth what is spoken of angels in one place, and what of the Son in another, and from thence manifesteth what is the mind of God concerning them. II. IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL TO REJOICE IN THE GLORY, HONOUR, AND OF JESUS CHRIST. 1. Herein God is glorified. The kingdom of Christ is the glory of God; thereby is His name and praise exalted in the world; and therefore upon the erection and setting of it up are all His people so earnestly invited to rejoice and triumph therein (Psalms 95:1-3; Psalms 96:1-4; Psalms 97:1; Psalms 79:2). 2. Herein doth the honour and glory of Christ as Mediator consist, which is a matter of great rejoicing unto all that love Him in sincerity. 3. Our own concern, safety, present and future happiness, lie herein: our all depends upon the kingdom and throne of Christ. He is our King, if we are believers; our King to rule, protect, and save us; to uphold us against opposition, to supply us with strength, to guide us with counsel, to subdue our enemies, to give us our inheritance and reward, and therefore our principal interest lies in His throne, and in the glory and stability thereof. While He reigneth, we are safe, and in our way to glory. 4. The whole world, all the creation of God, are concerned in this kingdom of Christ. Except His enemies in hell, the whole creation is benefited by His dominion; for as some men are made partakers of saving grace thereby, so the residue of that race, by and with them, do receive unspeakable advantages in the forbearance of God; and the very creature itself is raised, as it were, into a hope thereby of deliverance from that state of vanity whereunto now it is subjected (Romans 8:20-21). III. IT IS THE DIVINE NATURE OF THE LORD CHRIST THAT GIVES , , AND TO HIS THRONE AND KINGDOM. IV. ALL THE LAWS, AND THE WHOLE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST BY HIS WORD AND SPIRIT, ARE ALL EQUAL, , AND HOLY. “ His sceptre is the sceptre of righteousness.” The world indeed likes them not; all things in its rule seem to it weak and foolish (1 Corinthians 1:20-23), but they are otherwise, the Holy Ghost being Judge, and such they appear unto them that do believe; yea, whatever is requisite to make laws and administrations righteous, it cloth all concur in those of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. Christ is vested with sufficient authority for the enacting of laws and rules of administration in His kingdom. 2. Christ is abundantly furnished with wisdom for this purpose. He is the foundation-stone of the Church, that hath seven eyes upon Him Zechariah 3:9). A perfection of wisdom and understanding in all affairs of it; being anointed with the Spirit unto that purpose (Isaiah 11:3-4). Yea, in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Colossians 2:3), it having pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell (Colossians 1:19), so that there can be no defect in His laws and administrations on this account. 3. They are righteous, because they are easy, gentle, and not burdensome. (1) His commands are all of them reasonable, and suited unto the principles of that natural obedience we owe to God; and so not grievous unto anything in us, but that principle of sin and darkness which is to be destroyed. (2) His commands are easy, because all of them are suited to that principle of the new nature, or Dew creature, which He worketh in the hearts of all His disciples. (3) His commands are easy, because He continually gives out supplies of Life Spirit, to make His subjects to yield obedience to them. (4) This rule and administration of Christ’ s kingdom is righteous, because useful and profitable to His subjects. They make them holy, righteous, such as please God and are useful to mankind. (5) Their end manifests them to be righteous. The worth and equity of laws are taken off when low and unworthy ends are proposed to induce men to observe them. But these of the Lord Christ direct unto the highest end, propose and promise the most glorious rewards. V. (see Isaiah 11:1-7). VI. GOD IS A GOD IN WITH THE LORD CHRIST, AS HE IS , GOD THY GOD. VII. THE OF THE SPIRIT ON THE LORD CHRIST, AND HIS , ARE THE WORKS OF GOD THE FATHER. “ God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee.” VIII. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS IN THIS UNCTION. This is that which the apostle proves in sundry instances, and by comparing Him with others who in the most eminent manner were partakers of it. IX. ALL THAT SERVE GOD IN THE WORK OF THE CHURCH, TO HIS , ARE BY HIS SPIRIT, AND SHALL BE BY HIS POWER (Daniel 12:3). X. THE OF CHRIST, THOSE WHO SERVE HIM IN HIS CHURCH , ARE HIS IN ALL HIS GRACE AND GLORY, (John Owen, D. D.) Christ’ s kingdom Christ is an eternal King, so is no angel, therefore is to be honoured above them. Thus having made mention of His kingdom, then He describeth it more at large, that though we could imagine easily that angels in honour deserved the name of kings, yet such a kingdom no angel could ever have; an everlasting throne, a righteous sceptre, exalting troth, beating down iniquity: in worthiness whereof God hath anointed this king with gladness above all other, and hath called Him by the name of God Himself. In this Scripture there are four special things spoken. First, He is called God alone, and without additions, even as the prophet Isaiah Isaiah 9:7) also calleth Him the mighty God. By which warrant of the prophets being a most sure word, the apostles are bold to give to our Saviour Christ the name and power of the living God (John 1:2; John 1:20.; 1 John 5:20; Romans 9:4; Colossians 2:6). The second thing here attributed to Christ is, that His kingdom is everlasting, So the prophet Isaiah had said (Isaiah 9:7). The same testimony the angel gave of Hiskingdom when he came to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:33). And how can this be possibly applied unto Solomon so directly against the Scripture, that the sceptre should be taken once away, not only from the house of Solomon, but from all the tribe of Judah? And how could they not see with their eyes the ruin of that kingdom and the throne of Solomon quite forgotten. The third thing attributed here to Christ is, that the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of His kingdom, according as David saith Psalms 97:2). And the meaning of these words is after expressly added - “ Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.” This is the sceptre ofrighteousness which He speaketh of, that is, that His government shall be without all respect of persons, a ministry of justice, and true judgment, even according to the will of God His Father, with whom there is no acceptation of the person of a man. And how can they attribute this to Solomon? They know how Solomon did fall away so far from righteousness, and hated iniquity so little ere he died, that he became a notable idolater. And how was his government in such justice when the whole people came after to Rehoboam his son, and said: “ Thy father did make our yoke grievous, now therefore make thou the grievous servitude of thy father lighter, and we will serve thee” (1 Kings 12:4). The fourth thing here spoken of our Saviour Christ is, that for this cause God hath anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows. For this cause, saith the Scripture, because Thou lovedst so much justice, what mean they still to think here upon Solomon, and of such reward of his righteous rule, except they would have the Scriptures false that bear witness of Him. “ He had turned has the prophet saith judgment into wormwood.” And how standeth it that he was anointed with the oil of gladness? that is, with gifts of the Holy Ghost above his fellows, when many kings of Judah have greater praise of God than he? and: scarce any did fall from God so grievously as he. Now one refuge behind, which they think they have, is nothing at all. They will say that all this was spoken in respect of his beginning, in which he was famous, with this oil of gladness above his fellows, and above all the world. True it is in respect of his government at the first; but are not the words plain that they are not meant of any that should begin well and then fall back? For saith not the text, that this sceptre of justice shall be in His kingdom for ever? know, where Christ is set out thus a King for ever, we are taught not by days and times to measure His commandments, but to hold them without change as the government for ever of His eternal kingdom, for it is too gross folly for us to say He is still our King if we dare abrogate His laws, for He is our Ruler for ever, and yet without Him we will make laws continually? Was it ever heard among earthly kings that subjects could either repeal or change their prince’ s laws? or make laws without them in their own kingdom? or can there be greater treason than to conspire for such a lewd liberty? And now to the end we may the more willingly do this, both we and our kings whom God hath set over us, let us mark this further which the apostle addeth of our Saviour Christ, that “ His sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness” ; meaning (as I said) that His government is all in truth and righteousness. And here let us also mark how the apostle setteth out this righteousness of Christ. “ Thou hast [saith he] loved transgression and sin So the prophet David saith: “ I hate vain inventions, but Thy law I love.” And again, “ Thy law I love, but I hate falsehood and abhor it” (Psalms 119:113; Psalms 119:163). Even so must we hate iniquity if we love righteousness, and abhor falsehood if we love the truth. And this is that eternal law which God gave from the beginning. I will, saith He, set enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It followeth in the end of this seventh verse, “ Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” In this we may learn another notable cause why we should acknowledge Christ our only King and Lawgiver. Because He is thus anointed, that is, in Him dwelleth all fulness of grace, and the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge are hid in Him; so that leave Him, leave His laws, leave His sceptre, we leave instruction, we leave righteousness, we leave eternal life. And here note that the oil of gladness is the gift of the Spirit of God; gladness to ourselves, because it filleth us with joy in the Lord, and gladness to others because it poureth grace into our lips, to comfort the weak-hearted, and to make us a sweet savour of life unto life, to all that hearken unto us. (E. Deering, B. D.) The Messiah’ s throne I. A THRONE suggests many a sad and yet many a brilliant contrast. When one thinks of thrones, one cannot but compare how frail have been the noblest thrones that emperors and kings have sat on, but how enduring that throne on which the Lamb is enthroned for ever and ever. Alexander’ s throne is a mere word in history; the throne of Caesar has passed into the hands of a miserable superstitious priest. Thrones that once awed the world by their majesty, and from which voices came that shook the nations, are relics stored in museums, or studied by inquisitive antiquaries. The occupant of this throne, we read in this passage, is God. If Deity were not the occupant, if Omnipotence were not its foundation, the past history of this throne would be a prophecy of its everlasting duration. Sin rushed against it at the Fall; Satan predicted its overthrow; one would have thought it could scarcely withstand the force of an element that had thrust itself into the world in spite apparently of God. Infidelity has ass ,fled it with all its might. “ He must reign,” it is truly said, “ till he has made all His enemies His footstool.” II. But, in the second place, let me notice a great element in this throne--ITS . “ A sceptre of righteousness.” We are told in Scripture that all the laws that come from it are righteous laws; that its mercy is righteous, that its blessings are righteous, that its whole economy is righteous. And all thrones on earth partake of the strength of this just in the ratio in which they reflect its glorious character. What a great truth, that just in proportion as true religion saturates the masses of Great Britain, in the same proportion does it become strong, united, lasting! Let us now see where and over whom Christ reigns. 1. He reigns in the world; His throne is in the midst of the nations. Over the world He does not yet reign, for it is not yet universally reclaimed. In the world He does reign, or the world would go absolutely to ruin. Things that are wrong He restrains; things that He permits He overrule to His own glory. Depend upon it, Christ is in history; Christ is in its every chaplet, His presence in its every winding, His power giving direction to its every movement; and the explanation of all that is inexplicable now, He tells us that we shall know hereafter. 2. But Christ’ s throne, or His reigning or governing presence, is not only in the world, it is also in the Church. What is good in it He inspires; what is evil in it He overrules. Again, every open door for the spread of the gospel in the visible Church results from the influence of the throne. The free course that is given to the Scripture is also the creation of Him who watches over the destinies of His own, and provides for the spread of the everlasting gospel. Because Christ’ s throne is in that Church, we expect the increase of tidal Church. The darkness that now broods over the magnificent lands of the East shall one day be dissipated, and the rays of a rising sun of Righteousness shall be reflected from mosque and minaret, over the length and breadth of Eastern Christendom. The deadly superstition that now broods over the Western nations of the earth is soon to be scattered. 3. Let me ask now, in conclusion, is this throne, so precious in the world and in the Church--that makes us see all things adverse or friendly, co-operating or contributing only to its greater grandeur and magnificent. in your hearts? Is Christ , our Prophet that teaches you, your Priest that pleads for you, your King that rules over you? Do you see Him in all that betides you as individuals, present in the tiniest rivalet of private life as truly as in the great cataracts of national history; in the individual Christian’ s heart a presence as precious as in the government of the world; in the development of the Church, in the spread of His kingdom and the glory among all nations? Do you find your afflictions sanctified to you? do you feel your losses and your crosses weaning you from earth and winning you to God? (J. Cumming, D. D.) Hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladnessChrist’ s holiness and unction Jesus as mediator is advanced by God, not only above all men, but also above all angels. In handling of this point--I shall speak of the holiness of Christ; His unction, which is the consequent and fruit of it. I. THE OF CHRIST, BOTH AS TO HIS PERSON AND OFFICE. 1. AS to His person. There we must consider the original holiness of His natures, Divine and human. Divine; He is called “ A just God and a Saviour” (Isaiah 45:21). Human; He was wholly free from that original contagion wherewith others that come of Adam are defiled (Luke 1:35). Now add to this His perfect actual obedience to God both in heart and life, and this either to the common law of duty that lieth upon all mankind, for it “ became Him to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), or that particular law of mediation which was proper to Himself Hebrews 5:8), “ Though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things He suffered” ; by which He answered the end of the law which we have broken, and was also the meritorious cause of the covenant of grace, by which all blessings are conveyed to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Well, then, His personal holiness did make Him acceptable to God, and should make Him amiable to us. 2. Now let us see how He showeth this love to holiness and hatred to iniquity in His office as well as in His person. The general term whereby this office is expressed is mediator. The three particular functions are those of prophet, priest, and king. (1) As to the general term mediator, whose work it is to make peace between God and man, all that He did therein was out of His love to righteousness and hatred of iniquity. So much we are told (Daniel 9:24). Now, because His heart was so much set upon this, God “ anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.” (2) Come we to those three particular functions wherein this office is exercised, those of prophet, priest, and king. (a) As a Prophet, by His doctrine He showeth that He loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity, for the whole frame of it diseovereth and breatheth out nothing else but a hatred against sin and a love to holiness (John 17:17; Psalms 119:140). All the histories, mysteries, precepts, promises, threatenings, aim at this one business, that ,in may be subdued in us, and brought into disrepute in the world. (b) His priestly office consists in His oblation and intercession, as the High Priest under the law did both offer sacrifice and intercede for the people. Now what was the intent of Christ’ s sacrifice but to put away sin? Hebrews 9:26). (3) The next thing is a King. He is one whose heart was so set upon the love of righteousness, and the hatred of all iniquity, that He would come ,s a prophet Himself to teach the lost world how to become holy again. And as a priest to die for the guilty world to reconcile them to God. Surely He was fit also to rule the world. There are two parts of government--laws and actual administration. His laws are all good and equal, the same with His doctrine. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 2:1-4 Give the more earnest heed.--This exhortation reveals the purpose of the foregoing comparison between Christ and the angels. It is to establish Christ’ s superior claim to be heard when He speaks in God’ s name to men. Law and gospel might have been compared on their own merits, as is done by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:6 in a series of contrasts. But the power of appreciating the gospel being defective in the Hebrew Christians, it is the merit of the speakers that is insisted on, though the incomparable worth of the gospel is implicitly asserted in the phrase, “ so great salvation.” Respecting as we do the word of angels, let us respect more His word. Why should there be any difficulty in acting on such reasonable counsel? Because the word of Christ is new, and the word of angels is old, and has the force of venerable custom on its side. This difference is hinted at in the words “ lest at any time (or haply) we drift away.” The figure is a very significant one. It warns the Hebrews to beware lest they be carried away from the salvation preached by Christ, the blessings of the kingdom of God, as a boat is carried past the landing-place by the strong current of a river. The current by which the Hebrews were in danger of being carried headlong was that of established religious custom, which in transition times is specially perilous. By this current they were in danger of being carried away from the gospel and Christ and the eternal hope connected with faith in Him down to the Dead Sea of Judaism, and so of being involved in the calamities which were soon to overwhelm in ruin the unbelieving Jewish nation. The exhortation to give heed to Christ’ s teaching is enforced by three reasons. It is the teaching of the Lord; the penalty of neglect is great; the teaching is well attested. The word of the great salvation began to be spoken “ by the Lord.” The word spoken through angels may appear a very solemn matter. Yet after all it was a word at second-hand. The law was given by God to angels, then by angels to Moses, who in turn gave it to Israel. The gospel came from God immediately, for Jesus was God incarnate speaking to men in human form. The penalty of neglecting this last word of God is great. “ How shall we escape?” The penalty is enhanced by the nature of the word. It is a word of grace, of salvation. The old word was a word of duty. But it is far more culpable to sin against love than against law, to despise God’ s mercy than to break His commandments. If breaches of the law had penalties attached, what must be the consequence of despising the gospel? For those who scorn arguments drawn from fear of consequences a more genial inducement is added. The teaching of Christ is well attested. The writer means to say that he and those to whom he writes, though not enjoying the advantage of having heard Jesus Himself speak the words of salvation, arc put practically by this attestation in the same position as those who did hear Him. It is obvious that the claim thus made to he virtually in the position of personal hearers of Jesus implies a knowledge of His teaching such as we possess by means of the Synoptical Gospels. The impression created by a perusal of the Epistle bears out this view. The image of Christ presented therein rests on a solid basis of fact. The writer knows of the temptations of Jesus, of His life of faith, and the scope that His experience afforded for the exercise of faith, of His agony in the garden, of the contradictions He endured at the hands of ignorant, evil-minded men; of His compassionate bearing towards the erring; of the fact that He occupied Himself in preaching the gospel of the kingdom; and also of the fact that He was surrounded by a circle of friends and disciples, whose connection with Him was so close that they could be trusted to give a reliable account of His public ministry. Of course the man who knew so much had the means of knowing much more. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Watchfulness Every one who has made the least endeavour to live for God, will know by experience how many are the temptations which hinder his progress--temptations to acquiesce in some secondary end, to relax the strenuousness of labour, to follow the promptings of his own will to look earthwards. He will know, therefore, that the spirit of the Christian towards himself must be watchfulness--the most open-eyed and the most far-seeing. I. HE WILL BE OVER HIS AIM. There is, indeed, one aim for all men--to grow into the likeness of God; but this general aim becomes individualised for every man. The complete likeness, so to speak, belongs to humanity, and each man contributes his peculiar part to the whole. His resemblance to others lies in the completeness of his consecration; and his difference from others follows directly from it. Something he has, however insignificant it may seem, which belongs to himself alone; and this he brings to Christ in sine trust that it represents the fulfilment of his special office. Few temptations are more subtle and perilous than that which leads us to a restless search for some task which is more fruitful, as we think, or more conspicuous, or more attractive than that which lies ready before us; and it may happen that a self-chosen path will bring us renown and gratitude. But no splendid labours in other fields can supply the defect which must henceforth remain for ever through our faithlessness, if we leave undone just that tittle thing which God has prepared for us to do. II. THE WILL BE ALSO OVER HIS EFFORTS. It is as true that God gives nothing, as it is that He gives all. He accords to man the privilege of making his own that which He bestows freely, and He requires man to use the privilege. Nothing avails us which we have not actually appropriated. Life, indeed, brings to us the rudiments of spiritual teaching; but these need to be carefully studied, and, above all, to be brought into the light of our faith, not once only or twice, but as often as we are called to act or to judge; for though every attainment which is conformed to our ideal partakes of its eternal nobility, no solution of yesterday can be used directly to-day. Life, with all its questions, is new every morning. At the same time, the solution of yesterday leaves us in a favourable position to deal with the novel data. The Christian, then, will ask himself again and again whether his work costs him serious exertion; whether it exercises the fulness of his powers; whether he faces fresh duties as they arise with more and more strenuous endeavour because he uses the experience of the past to assist his thought, and not to supersede it; whether at every point he has gained the highest within his reach, or has at least refused to rest on a lower level; and whether he has taken to heart day by day the words of the psalm which from time immemorial has given the keynote of public worship: “ To-day, if ye will hear His voice” ; for that Voice is not, as we are too ready to believe, a tradition only, a sweet memorial enshrined in sacred books, but a living voice sounding in our ears with messages of truth, which earlier generations could not hear, and calls to action which we first are able to obey. (Bp. Westcott) The true attitude of the soul toward Christ I. THE DUTY ON WHICH THE APOSTLE INSISTS. An attitude of indifference is not the true attitude of the soul to Christ; nor of mere curiosity; nor of a cold professionalism. It is only by earnest thought that we can understand, realise, and retain the gospel of Christ. II. THE BY WHICH THE IS . The exhortation is based upon a twofold comparison; i.e., between the heralds of the two covenants, and the natures of the two covenants. III. THE WARNING BY WHICH THE APOSTLE SEEKS TO AROUSE TO HIS . 1. The possibility of losing our hold. 2. The occasions of losing our hold. 3. The manner of losing our hold. The idea is not of a sudden and total renunciation of Christian doctrine--we are not in much danger of that; but of an unconscious giving up of that doctrine. (W. L. Watkinson.) Diligent attention to the gospel I. Diligent attention unto the word of the gospel IS UNTO IN THE OF IT. Such a profession I mean as is acceptable unto God, or will be useful unto our own souls. 1. A due valuation of the grace tendered in it, and of the word itself on that account. 2. Diligent study of it, and searching into the mind of God in it, that so we may grow wise in the mysteries thereof 3. Mixing the word with faith (see chap. 4:2). As good not hear as not believe. 4. Labouring to express the word received in a conformity of heart and life unto it. 5. Watchfulness against all opposition that is made either against the truth or power of the word in us. II. THERE ARE SUNDRY TIMES AND SEASONS WHEREIN, AND SEVERAL WAYS AND MEANS WHEREBY, MEN ARE IN DANGER TO LOSE THE WORD THAT THEY HAVE HEARD, IF THEY ATTEND NOT UNTO ITS . 1. Some lose it in a time of peace and prosperity. That is a season which slays the foolish. Jeshurun waxes fat and kicks. According to men’ s pastures they are filled, and forget the Lord. They feed their lusts high, until they loathe the word. 2. Some lose it in a time of persecution. “ When persecution ariseth,” saith our Saviour, “ they fail away.” Many go on apace in profession until they come to see the cross; this sight puts them to a stand, and then turns them quite out of the way. 3. Some lose it in a time of trial by temptation. The means also whereby this wretched effect is produced are innumerable: some of them only I shall mention. As (1) Love of this present world. This made Demas a leaking vessel (2 Timothy 4:10), and chokes one-fourth part of the seed in the parable (Matthew 13:1-58.). (2) Love of sin. A secret lust cherished in the heart will make it “ full of chinks,” that it will never retain the showers of the word; and it will assuredly open them as fast as convictions stop them. (3) False doctrines, errors, false worship, superstition, and idolatries will do the same. III. The word heard IS NOT LOST WITHOUT THE GREAT SIN AS WELD AS THE RUIN OF THE SOULS OF MEN. The word of its own nature is apt to abide, and to take root: but we pour it forth from us and they have a woeful account to make on whose soul the guilt thereof shall be found at the last day. IV. It is in the nature of the word of the gospel TO ALTER BARREN HEARTS, AND TO MAKE THEM UNTO GOD. Hence it is compared to water, dews, and rain. Where this word comes, it makes the “ parched ground a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water” (Isaiah 35:7). These are thewaters of the sanctuary, that “ heal the barren places of the earth,” and make them fruitful (Ezekiel 47:1-23.). The river that “ makes glad the city of Psa 46:7). With the dew thereof doth God “ water His Church every moment” (Isaiah 27:3). And then doth it “ grow as a lily, and cast forth its roots as Lebanon” (Hosea 14:5-7). V. The consideration of the revelation of the gospel by the Son of God is A MOTIVE UNTO THAT UNTO IT. 1. And this is most reasonable upon many accounts. 1. Because of the authority wherewith He spake the word. 2. Because of the love that is in it. There is in it the love of the Father in sending the Son, for the revealing of Himself and His mind unto the children of men. There is also in it the love of the Son Himself, condescending to instruct the sons of men, who by their own fault were cast into error and darkness. 3. The fulness of the revelation itself by Him made unto us is of the same importance. He came not to declare a parcel, but the whole will of Go,t, all that we are to know, to do, to believe: “ In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). 4. Because it is final. No farther revelation of God is to be expected in this world but what is made by Jesus Christ. To this we must attend, or we are lost for ever. VI. THE TRUE AND ONLY WAY OF THE LORD CHRIST AS THE SON OF GOD IS BY AND UNTO HIS WORD. (J. Owen, D. D.) Taking heed In this exhortation, first the apostle setteth down his doctrine: then his reason by which he will persuade us unto it: his doctrine is this. I. THAT IT US NOWMORE TO HEARKEN TO THE WORDS OF CHRIST, THAN IT BEHOVED OUR TO HEARKEN TO THE LAW OF MOSES. And here we must consider why we ought to be more careful than they; not that they might omit any care to add nothing, to take away nothing, to change nothing, not to depart neither to the right hand nor yet to the left, but day and night, at home and abroad, to do always this, to study it continually, as appeareth in Deuteronomy 4:6; Deuteronomy 5:32; Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 11:18; Deuteronomy 12:32; Deuteronomy 28:14; Joshua 1:8; Joshua 33:6, &c. Nor is it saidthat we be more bound than they, as though the authority of God were changed; but because now Christ hath spoken by Himself, then by angels; now plainly, then in figures: therefore we ought more carefully to hearken, but because our punishment shall be more than theirs, even as we be despisers of the greatest grace. II. After this, the apostle added HIS REASON TO US TO THIS ABOVE ALL OTHER PEOPLE, to hearken to the voice of Christ; and that is, of the peril that ensueth, lest, saith he, we run out. The apostle useth a metaphor, taken of old tubs, which run out at the joints, and can hold no liquor. (E. Deering, B. D.) The gospel requires the more earliest attention The duty here intended is a serious and fixed setting of the mind upon that which we hear: a bending of the will to yield unto it: an applying of the heart to it, a placing of the affections upon it, and bringing the whole man into a holy conformity thereunto. Thus it compriseth knowledge of the Word, faith therein, obedience thereto, and all other due respect that may any way concern it (2 Timothy 2:7; Matthew 15:10; Matthew 13:23; Acts 4:4; Acts 16:14). The comparative degree addeth much emphasis, and intendeth a greater care and endeavour about the matter in hand, than in any other thing; as if he had said, More heed is to be given to the gospel than to the law; more to the Son than to any servant; for he speaks of the gospel preached by Christ. It may be here put for the superlative degree, and imply the greatest heed that may possibly be given; and the best care and diligence that can be used. Thus it is said of the Scriptures, “ We have a more sure word” ; that is, a most sure word (2 Peter 2:19); thus this very word in my text is often put for the superlative degree. As where Paul saith of himself, "In labours more abundant, in prisons more frequent," that is, most abundant, most frequent (2 Corinthians 2:23). Hereby as he doth incite them for the future, to make the best use that possibly they can of the gospel that had been preached unto them, so he gives a secret and mild check to their former negligence, implying that they had not given formerly such heed, as they should have done, to so precious a word as had been preached unto them, but had been too careless thereabouts, which he would have them redress for the future. (W. Gouge.) Earnest attention to salvation To “ give earnest heed to the things which we have heard,” comprehends several particulars. 1. There is the earnestness itself--that state of mind which is so graphically described (Proverbs 2:3-4). Such earnestness, from the nature of the case, has much to do with the attainment of the object; and the importance of that object requires such earnestness. 2. There must be the decided and vigorous application of the mind to the things propounded. They must be understood, if they are to be cordially embraced and practically applied. It is needful, accordingly, that the thinking powers should be attentively directed towards them. 3. By being believed and applied, they must be turned to practical account. Without this they will miss their end. Subservient to the attainment of this threefold object, might be reckoned such rules and principles as these: 1. That the “ new heart,” the” Divine nature,” which beats in sympathy with Christian truth, should be sought. 2. That men should watch against inward tendencies and outward influences, which are in danger of withholding them from earnest attention to the things of salvation. 3. That they should seriously ponder the relations of Divine truth to God, to their own souls, and to the destinies of the world to come. 4. That they should implore the Father-Spirit to teach and incline them to “ give earnest heed” to these momentous truths, and to these high concerns. (A. S.Patterson.) Fastening the impression Physiologists say that the retina of the eye has a wash which, like the chemical used by the photographer, prepares the retina to receive the image and impress it for a moment, and then the image is gone. The mind must catch it instantly. So we must photograph the Word, and have our souls aroused to fasten the impression for ever. How many retain no impression, and let go their hold upon eternal things! (J. B. Thomas, D. D.) To the things which we have heard For the evening of the Lord’ s Day I. THE CAUSES OF . 1. The indifferent manner in which we too often resort to the House of God. 2. The indifference which precedes is often carried into the House of God itself. II. THE REASONS WHY THE GOSPEL ABOVE SHOULD BE . 1. It is the message of heaven to mankind and therefore well deserves a place in the memory. 2. The peculiar character of the gospel. “ The things” are of no common import, no temporary consequence, but of the highest possible moment. 3. The advantages which flow from this duty. Who enjoy the consolations of the gospel, and whose conduct is regulated by its influence? They, undoubtedly, who pay the greatest attention to it, and whose minds retain its instructions. 4. If we slight the message of truth, it will bear testimony against us, and aggravate our final condemnation. (Homilist.) In attentive hearers It is said of Demosthenes that, speaking to the Athenians on a very serious subject, and finding them to be inattentive, he paused, and told them that he had something of special importance to relate, which he was anxious that they should all hear. Silence being thus obtained, and everyone fixed upon him, he said that two men, having bargained for the hire of an ass, were travelling from Athens to Megara on a very hot day and both of them striving to enjoy the shadow of the ass, one of them said that he hired the ass and the shadow too; the other said that he hired the ass only and not the shadow. Having made His grave statement, Demosthenes retired; when the people pressed him with great eagerness to return and finish his tale. “ O ye Athenians,” said he, “ will ye attend to me when speaking about the shadow of an ass; and will ye not attend to me when I address you on the most important affairs?” This reproof does nut apply exclusively to the “ men of Athens.” English people are deeply concerned in it; and the ministers of Christ who are accustomed to discourse upon subjects immensely more important than any that called forth the eloquence of the Athenian orator, have reason to urge the same complaint. Many persons have an ear for vanity, but none for the truth; they will listen to folly, but not to the words of wisdom. To the things of this world they will pay a fixed attention, bat to Christ and His salvation they are criminally indifferent. (J. Thornton.) Redemptive truths I. They are things . “ We have heard” them from parents, teachers, ministers. II. They are things TO BE . Should be held, not merely in memory as facts, but in heart as forces. III. They are things the retainment of which requires MOST EFFORT. 1. The loss of them would be the greatest calamity. 2. A possible calamity. Many things tend to relax the soul’ s hold upon them remaining depravity within, seductive influences without. (Homilist.) The gospel demands attention I. By “ the things which we have heard,” may be fairly presumed are meant, THE GRAND AND OF THE GOSPEL. II. From the text we may fairly conclude that it is the clear duty of all who have the dispensation of the gospel to give A SERIOUS AND FIXED to it. III. From the text we may fairly conclude that THE OF TO NEGLECT THE WORD OF GOD will he distressing and awful. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.) Art attentive hearing to be given to the gospel of Christ Especially now in the time of the gospel: what attention is there in the Star Chamber when the Lords of the Privy Council speak? But if either the prince or the king himself make an oration, then there is wonderful attention. In the time of the Law the prophets spake, which indeed were of God’ s counsel, by whom God revealed His will to the people: but now the Prince of peace, the Everlasting Counsellor, the King’ s own Son, that lay in His own bosom, in whom all the treasures of wisdom are hid, speaketh to us. Therefore let us listen with all diligence to the things which He speaketh. And how doth Christ now speak? Not daily from heaven, as He did to Saul, but by the mouth of His ambassadors. “ He that heareth you heareth Me.” Will ye have an experience of Christ that speaketh in me? Christ spake in Paul when he preached; and He speaks in us when we preach. The pearl is precious though it be an earthen vessel that brings it to you: therefore receive it with all reverence. (W. Jones, D. D.) Lest at any time we should let them slip Letting the truth slip I. THE GREAT THINGS WE HAVE HEARD. There are no words of s profound moment as the truths of the gospel. They warn of hell, they welcome to heaven; they take from eternity its terror, and use it to measure their benefit. II. THE EASY PERIL OF THEIR LOSS. NO better word for easy getting away than “ slip.” “ He gave the officers the slip.” “ His foot slipped, and he sustained a fatal fall.” “ The whole company of travellers suddenly slipped into the deceptive, snow-filled precipice.” “ The hour slipped away so rapidly in easy conversation, that I missed my train and lost the opportunity of a lifetime.” “ While shipwrecked on a desert island, we saw a vessel. Supposing it was coming directly to us we went away after our treasure, and quickly returning, found it had slipped away far past the hearing of our wild outcries.” We read every day sentences like the above. How easily are the most valuable things in this world’ s life lost by reason of neglect! III. THE INTENSE . It is wonderful that we can see every day the utmost pains taken to keep earth’ s valuables from slipping away, and can yet treat the pearl of great price so recklessly! We see the careful cooper tightening his casks; the miner watching his ores as they pass the smelting furnace; the farmer in his cultivation; the vigilant policeman; the anxious physician; the scholar strengthening his memory so as to keep knowledge from slipping away. And yet we “ cram” for the great “ examination” of eternity. (C. M. Jones.) Drifting from Christ I. MOORED TO JESUS CHRIST. It is a long while now since men began to represent their life as a running stream. It was inevitable the figure should suggest itself to them as soon as they began to think--we air feel its appropriateness as often as we reflect upon the ceaseless vicissitude that laps our own lives round, and that is bearing us so quickly away. How remorseless the current is that flows beneath us, sometimes so noiseless, sometimes rippling in laughter against the sides of our bark, sometimes rising in foam and wrath and threatening our destruction, yet always bearing us onward upon its bosom, steadily onward to the unknown! And, when we consider it, not only how remorseless but also how rapid the movement is! How many scenes we pass through on our way! How many new reaches of experience we discover, then leave behind! How many faces flit and fade around us! How fast we all live! Of course, it would be sinful to think of this ceaseless movement in which we are all involved as if it were a mere brute fate to which we must perforce submit. This constant chance to which we are all committed is, for one thing, the condition of progress. Without it life would not become the deeper, broader, larger thing which somehow it does become as our years go on. And, besides, how flat and stale it would otherwise he! And yet every one must feel that were there only ceaseless change in our earthly lot--no anchor sure and steadfast for us anywhere--life would be terrible indeed. It is only children that seek perpetual novelty--children, and those who, though they have become men, have not laid aside childish things. Wiser men begin to perceive ere long that life is not a pleasure ,all after all, that the currents are stronger than they think, and may carry them away. Only Christ abides! Christ--the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever! Christ--who outlives the seeming changeless heavens themselves. Christ the True, the Unalterable Love, the Immovable Friend. II. FROM CHRIST. 1. A storm may have broken out in your life, and driven you away from Christ. (1) It may have been a storm of doubt. There are always some minds for whom it is peculiarly difficult to bold on to Jesus Christ. They find it hard to accept implicitly those half-revealed truths, like the incarnation, and the Cross, and the working of God’ s Spirit in the heart of man, much harder than others find it. They cannot help themselves. Their mind works speculatively. They must peer over the edge of the known truth into the unknown abysses beneath, and there they stand amazed, affrighted. Also, perhaps, in our own lime it is more difficult than ever for such persons to believe. A vast number of new ideas have been thrown lately into the general mind which there has hardly been time as yet to estimate and assign to their proper place; and then, perhaps, men, becoming acquainted with these ideas, as they must, are at a loss to know how exactly to adjust the old view of things to them. (2) Or the storm may have been a storm of trouble. Sometimes, I know, a storm of this kind may drive men to Christ rather than away from Him. But sometimes, too, it happens that the tempest that sends one man to Jesus Christ drives another away. He cannot see the meaning of a visitation so sore, or the righteousness of it, or any light upon it at all. Existence darkens round the man, and everything he once was sure of slips away from him- everything, including Christ. 2. Or, again, it may be an influence less obvious that does it. I question very much whether we make a much allowance as we should for what you may call the ebb and flow of the tide of life in us all. Perhaps it is because we understand so little about it. The fact appears to be that it is with man as with Nature. We know how the heart of Nature beats time to a mysterious mighty rhythm, and how regularly recurring arc those deep respirations of her life which we name summer and winter, and night, and day. But we forget how our own tiny being seems to share in this hidden law. Our very body is attuned to it; there are periods in our life at which our vitality is greater; others at which it is less; nav,in every twenty-four hems a wave of life-force rises within us, then falls again--so that a doctor will tell you beforehand at what),our the sufferer’ s strength will flicker up most brightly, when it will be spent and die. Now, on this physical basis I believe more of the moral phenomena of our lives depend than we are aware. Our temptations mix themselves up strangely with this ebb and flow that ceaselessly goes on within. Our animalism takes advantage of the flowing tide of lustihood in youth to come in upon us like a flood. With the ebb of manhood’ s early vigour enthusiasm and the capacity of an ardent faith and love are apt to ebb also. And even at intervals much more frequent the same sort of thing occurs. If you will watch your temptations--especially the more notable of them--carefully you will find they almost obey a law of periodicity. As hunger and thirst assert themselves (roughly speaking) at regularly recurring intervals, so do our temptations. Our sins, like ourselves if they slumber for a time, awake with renewed energy. 3. If it has been neither of these, then it may have been something more slow and subtle and secret still. You have seen a vessel, owing to no sierra or the rise of any tide, but simply through the restlessness of the element in which it floats, gradually loosen from it- moorings, and little by little be borne out to sea. And even when lie more powerful currents are passing around us there is this infinite restlessness in all our lives which may of itself be fatal, Repose is an impossibility here. A thousand varying cares and moods and occupations agitate the surface of our lives. And with this there comes a chafing which may by slow degrees wear out the strands of loyalty that bind us to our Lord. Indeed, when Christians drift from Christ it is probably, in the vast majority of cases, due to this very cause. III. ONE’ S . You will observe that the counsel the writer gives is with a view rather to prevent so sad a lapsing. It is the same prescription that apples here, whether the case be one of prevention or of cure. And certainly no prescription could well be simpler. It is by no violent efforts, no beating up against the adverse forces of his life, that any man will regain his old attachment to Jesus Christ, but just by giving “ earnest heed--the more earnest, heed to things he has heat d about Him.” It is contemplation of the truth that brings him back again, and contemplation, not so much of any new discoveries he may make concerning Jesus Christ, but just of those familiar aspects of His person and His work that first won his trust. There is that in Jesus Christ which, if He is pondered humbly, has the power to draw the heart as with the force of gravity to centre and stay itself once more on Him. It is a great thing to keep near the old familiar fruit s--to keep near the old familiar Christi The stable Christian is always the simple Christian. Think of the staunchest believer you know, the least moved by any strums; how, you a-k, has this steadfastness come to him? Infallibly thus: through going much apart with God to muse and pray; through often saying within his heart, “ Jesus, my Friend, is God” ; through kneeling at the cross till the conviction has begun to stir within him, “ He loved me, He gave Himself for me” ; through pondering the vastness of forgiveness; through much looking in the Spirit towards that crown of righteousness which is laid up for him against that day. Such a believer has many an anchor to hold him. Neither things present not things to come will separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Alex. Martin, M. A.) Soul drifting I. WHAT IS THIS DRIFT? It is the dying out of impression, the decay of faith, the gradual loss of force. The writer is not contemplating a change of attitude towards the gospel brought about by a preview as intellectual movement to which the man himself had been a party, but one which very slowly, but very certainly, reflects the silent action of unseen and unrecognised forces which are at work within and around him, and the ultimate effect of which may be an utter loss of all which once he most valued, and an abandonment to influences which once he regarded with mingled hatred and dread. 1. There is here clearly an anticipation of drift both in doctrine and practice. The two re regarded as so united that the one cannot suffer and the other be uninjured. The truth which holds a man rules his life, and the only way of getting rid of the effect, is to remove the cause. 2. The survival of Christian life after the loss of Christian faith is a contingency the sacred writer does not contemplate. The drift is a drift of the entire man--affections, aims, motives, as well as principles. 3. Drift is always to evil. It is by struggle that we advance heavenward; but there are countless influences inclining us to a retrograde course. Wit, out a strong force within, and without constant communications of Divine grace to maintain and strengthen it, we shall infallibly go back. II. MARK THE SOURCES OF THIS EVIL. 1. It is not easy--if it be not impossible--for a Christian to live in the world without being exposed to influences unfriendly to his faith and loyalty. 2. It is in the tendencies o the age--tendencies which may have much in them that is beautiful and admirable--that this peril lies They assail us on the side where we least expect danger, and they have so fair and winning an aspect that it is hard to meet them with stern resistance. 3. These tendencies often, in their more exaggerated form, shape public sentiment, and the fear is lest we yield to the influence which they unconsciously exercise without sufficient discrimination between the good and the evil which may be in them. The spirit ,.f the age is against severity, whether in doctrine or practice; is easily moved by an appeal for Christian charity, and, with equal readiness, is excited to a righteous indignation against bigotry, and if it can itself be guilty of any approach to intolerance, is intolerant only of intolerance. The drift is to change; to greater breadth of thought, sympathy, and action; to creeds less elaborate and minute; to laws of conduct less exacting and severe, to enlarged freedom everywhere. III. Is it necessary to point out THE AND EVEN . A little vessel which has been torn from its moorings, and is being carried far out to sea by the strong currents which are bearing it whithersoever they will, may be engulfed in some hidden quicksand, dashed to pieces on some rugged rock, carried thousands of miles away and stranded on a distant shore. The possibilities of evil are limitless to the ship which has lost helm and rudder, or has no one capable of using them wisely, and is at the mercy of wild winds and waves. There need be no truer picture of a soul that is drifting. It has elasped from the truths which once held it with a certain degree of force, which was a restraint from evil and a stimulus to good. Day by day they are receding into the distance, and becoming more dim and uncertain, while the soul, acted upon, by all varieties of influence, is borne hither and thither, uncertain in its aims, unstable in its course, unconscious of the fat to which it may be hastening. One thing only is sure about it--it is every day being carried further and further from all which once it loved and valued. Rocks of barren unbelief, or whirlpools of seductive pleasure and indulgence, may be in the path on which it is advancing, but there seems no power to arrest its course. The man has left himself to be the sport and plaything of outside circumstances or influences harmonising only too well with inclinations within, and now he is drifting before them to a miserable shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.) Drifting from Christ I. THIS A STATE WHICH IS (Hosea 1 Timothy 5:15). 1. Tide is so in part because we are not always moored to Christ when we are brought to Him. A ship may be skilfully guided into the harbour, her crew may be able to leap ashore, and there she will remain till the tide turns; but then, unless her cables are thrown out and she is fastened there, she will drift to sea again. So we may be brought to Christ, a number of influences may lead us to Him, we may be so affected by religious emotion and reverence for Him and even a belief in our personal salvation as to be ready to endure “ reproaches and afflictions,” and we may seem to be Christians, yet we may not have joined ourselves to the Redeemer by an act of living faith. Whilst the tide runs that way (and that may be for years) our safety is unsuspected even by ourselves; but let a change come, and slowly we slip away, and at length on some distant coast others come across the fragment of a wreck that bears our name. We may be close to Christ for long without the cable of faith binding us to Him, and thus the soul may drift away even from Him and be lost. 2. Besides which there are powerful adverse currents which tend to carry us from the Saviour. Difficulties occur, the fear of man begins to tell, the winds of temptation blow, the current of worldly custom runs strong, the unseen force of old habits and depraved inclination increases, and then I well, however strong the came, it will creak and strut., and every fibre of it be needed to bold the ship. But what if there be no cable--no vital faith? Why, then the soul will inevitably part company with Christ. 3. And this drifting away is more likely, because our departure from Christ may be for some time inperceptible. How many Christians there are whose religion once a delightful reality has become poor, who think distressingly, “ Oh, that, I were as in days that are past! “ who can see how tar they have drifted, but did not know they were drifting at the time, and who scourge themselves because of it! II. TO DRIFT AWAY FROM CHRIST IS TO DRIFT TO RUIN. 1. To drift away from Christ is to forsake the only refuge for sinful men. The blessings we so sorely need are there alone, away from Him is but the wintry shoreless sea of doom. 2. To drift away from Christ is to disregard the supreme claims of Christ. For there is another aspect of drifting away from the Saviour; it isn’ t simply how it affects us, but how it affects Him. Oh, could we have but a glimpse of Him and of His authority, great horror would seize us at the thought of departing from Him. But when we further see this glorious One for us men pour out His soul in the anguish of the cross, and still cleave to us notwithstanding our worthlessness and sin, we are self-condemned to the lowest perdition if we suffer anything to let us drift away from Him, and may well ask in awe, “ How shall we escape?” 3. To drift away from Christ is to resist the grace that has brought us close to Him. III. THIS, THEN, IS A LOUD CALL TO EARNEST HEED LAST WE DRIFT AWAY. 1. If we are moored to Christ our blessedness consists in the maintenance of close fellowship with Him. 2. Though we are close to Christ, we are in great peril till we are anchored here. 3. If we are drifting away from Christ, everything depend, on our returning before we get further off. (C. New.) Drifting I prefer the rendering given by the revisers: “ least we should drift away from them” ; it is a more exact translation of the Greek term, and brings into prominence a truth which is almost entirely concealed by the common version. The writer is anxious to warn his readers of something which might happen to them before they were aware. On my first tour through Switzerland I visit d the quaint old city of Thun, along with three intimate friends. We stay, d at a hotel built on the side of the lake, just at the place where the Aar runs rapidly out of it, and we went to amuse ourselves for a season by rowing about in a little boat. After awhile a difference of opinion sprang up among us as to the direction we should take. One said, “ Let us go yonder” ; another answered, “ No; let us rather make for that other point” ; a third had another suggestion, and we ceased rowing until we should make up our minds; but meanwhile the current was settling the question for us, and unless we had speedily bent to the oars with all our might, we should have been hurried along into a dangerous place, out of which we could only have been rescued, if rescued at all, by the assistance of others. The influences, therefore, against which we are warned by the text are these of currents which are flowing just where we are, and which may operate so insidiously that we may not know of their effect until perhaps it is too late to resist their power. I. Take then, first, that which I may call THE AGE-CURRENT, or what a re-eat English essayist, borrowing from the German, has called the “ Time-spirit.” A physical science which has taken up with the doctrine of development, and has insisted that what is at best an ingenious hypothesis shall be accepted as a demonstrated fact, has prepared the way for an agnostic philosophy which refuses to believe that anything can be known save that which can be perceived by the bodily senses, aided by the scalpel and the microscope, and that, in its turn, has given birth to a rank atheism, which has adopted as its creed the terrible negation, No God. If it be true that the standard of piety and morality is lower among Christians than it was formerly; if it be the case that the Church is less of an aggressive force in our large centres of population than it was a generation ago; if the numbers of those enrolling themselves in its ranks are smaller than they have bees in other days, may it not be owing to the fact that we have not been taking heed to guard against this age-drift which has been flowing beneath us? Let us get back to Christ, and anchor fast on Him. II. The second current to which I would refer is that of THE PLACE IN WHICH WE DWELL. Every city bus its own peculiar influence. We must guard against the slightest backsliding; and to succeed in that we must constantly test ourselves by the things which we have heard from Jesus. The navigator is saved from danger from unknown currents by his daily observations. The tides of ocean do not affect the heavenly bodies; and by testing himself by these he knows precisely where he is. So the principles of the temper are not shifted by the tendencies of anyplace; and when we measure-ourselves by them, we may discover how it is with us. Let us not take it for granted that because we are making some effort in the right direction, therefore we must be going forward. For these efforts may not be enough to resist the force of the current, and we may be drifting backward after all. You remember the case of Sir Edward Parry’ s crew in the Arctic regions. They set out one day to draw a boat over the ice, expecting thereby to get farther northward and in the open water, but after they had journeyed thus far, if I remember rightly, a day and a half or two days, they took an observation, which revealed to their surprise that they were farther south than they had been when they set out, because while they had been going toward the pole, the ice on which they were had been carried by the drift of an under-current in the opposite direction. I fear that in this great business mart, where we are so exclusively occupied in buying and selling, and getting gain, many Christians among us are like these northern voyagers: they make exertions, and they seem, too, to be making progress; but, alas I the drift that carries the whole place has carried them with it, and in reality they are not so far advanced as they were, it may be, years ago. III. A third current, to the influence of which we are exposed I would call THE DRIFT, the drift in each of us individually. In making astronomical observations, one operator is never precisely the same as another. Some are quick, others are slow; some are exceedingly precise, and others not so perfectly exact; and these differences, of course, affect the results at which they arrive. Therefore, to neutralise, as far as possible, any error which may be thereby occasioned, there is what is known as a “ personal equation” for each, and by that his conclusions are rectified before they are sent forth for general acceptance. Now, in a similar way, spiritually, each man has his individual tendencies, which easily carry him in one direction or another. This personal drift, as I have named it, is the same thing as the writer of the Epistle from which my text is taken calls in another place the “ sin that doth most easily beset us,” and by yielding to that many are carried at last into perdition. How easy it in to acquire an evil habit! (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) How to keep the Word from slipping from us We must let the Word slip at no time, though we have never such weighty business: one thing is necessary. This one thing necessary is to be preferred before all others: never let a sermon slip from you without some profit. But how shall we keep them from slipping away? There be four things to hold the Word from slipping from us 1. A meditation in that which we have heard: blessed is the man that meditateth in the law of God. When thou hast heard a sermon, take some time to meditate on it, that thou mayest imprint it on thy memory. This is a common fault among us. The Word of God preached to us passeth away. When we are once out of the Church, we never think on it again, therefore no marvel though it slip away from us. 2. Conference with others. The disciples that travelled to Emmaus conferred together the Bereans that came from St. Paul’ s sermon, took their Bibles and conferred together of the sermon. Many eyes see more than one; that which one hath forgotten, another may remember. Therefore let Christians recount the things they have heard, and that repetition will be as a nail to fasten the things they heard. 3. Prayer. 4. A care to practise that which we have heard. This is the digesting of our spiritual meat, and the converting of it into our substance. Many hear, but few care to practise that which they hear; it is never our own truly and indeed, till it be practised; that will make us grow up as perfect men in Christ Jesus. We hear swearing reproved, yet we swear still; drunkenness inveighed against, yet we are drunk still; envy and malice centre led, yet malicious still, yea, against the preachers, that are as God’ s arm to pull us out of our sins: a manifest argument that we hold not that which we hear, but suffer it without fruit to slip from us. (W. Jones, D. D.) Men ruined by drifting Life’ s ocean is full of currents, any one of which will sweep us past the harbour mouth even when we seem nearest to it, and carry us far out to sea. It is the drift that ruins men: the drift of the religious world; the drift of old habits and associations; the drift of one’ s own evil nature; the drift of the pressure of temptation. The young man coming from a pious home does not distinctly and deliberately say, “ I renounce my father’ s God.” But he finds himself in a set of business associates who have no care for religion; and, after a brief struggle, he relaxes his efforts and begins to drift, until the coastline of heaven recedes so far into the dim distance that he is doubtful if he ever really saw it. The business man, who now shamelessly follows the lowest maxims of his trade, was once upright and high-minded. But he began by yielding in very trivial points to the strong pressure of competition; and when once he had allowed himself to be caught by the tide, it bore him far beyond his first intention. The professing Christian, who now scarcely pretends to open the Bible or pray, came to so terrible a position, not at a single leap, but by yielding to the pressure of the constant waywardness of the old nature, and thus drifted into an Arctic region, where he is likely to perish, benumbed and frozen, unless rescued, and launched on the warm Gulf Stream of the love of God. It is so easy, and so much pleasanter to drift. Just to lie back, and renounce effort, and let yourself go whither the waters will, as they break musically on the sides of the rocking boat. But, ah, how ineffable the remorse, how disastrous the result! Are you drifting? You can easily tell. Are you conscious of effort, of daily, hourly resistance to the stream around you, and within? Do the things of God and heaven loom more clearly on your vision? Do the waters foam angrily at your prow as you force your way through them? If so, rejoice; but remember that only Divine strength can suffice to maintain the conflict, and keep the boat’ s head against the stream. If not, you are drifting. Hail the strong Son of God. Ask Him to come on board, and stay you, and bring you into port.(F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The influences that cause men to drift frets Christ The forces that with a continuous action tend to move men away from the faith of Christ, and were especially strong in the ease of the Hebrews, are--the many influences of life; the feeling of isolation in the world, or, the other side of this, sympathy with national sentiment and thought; the hardships and slights undergone at the hands of those without; and the monotonous uniformity of the world, where all things continue as they were and give no signs of the Lord’ s coming: while the resistance offered to such forces is but feeble, owing to the sluggishness of the mind which permits it to take but a loose hold of truth, and the weakness of faith which makes it but dimly present to itself the hope of our calling. (A. B, Davidson, LL. D.) Slipping back prevented It would produce a wonderful change if men did all they knew they ought to do. There would then be a new encouragements to labour. The preaching of the Word would then make steady progress. I have seen the waggons of Pennsylvania armed with a stout, iron-shod stake trailing behind. Whenever in ascending a hill the horses stopped, the stake at once held the waggon fast and prevented it from slipping back. A device worthy of imitation in spiritual things! It is discouraging to press up the hill on the Sabbath-day and then keep slipping back through the week; to make large advance in a time of religious interest, and then slip downward through long succeeding months of deadness in the Church. Cannot this be prevented? Yes, by obedience to the suggestion before us we may hold ourselves firm. If each deed of life is faithfully performed according to our knowledge of duty, then are we going steadily on in spiritual blessing, losing no ground in our advance. We shall at last reach the summit of our hopes and stand in Christ’ s presence “ complete in Him.” Hebrews 2:2 The Word spoken by angels: The ministry of angels in the delivery of the law is directly asserted by St. Galatians 3:19), and by Stephen (Acts 7:53), as well as here. It was an article of faith amongst the later Jews, but the mention of their agency is less distinct in the Pentateuch. The presence of the heavenly host is proclaimed in Deuteronomy 33:2, and Psalms 68:17, and an important function in the guidance and government of Israel was assigned to the angel of the covenant (Exodus 23:20; Exodus 23:23); but the Divine presence and heavenly voice manifested at Sinai are not identified with angelic agency, as they are by Stephen in the case of the burning bush and of Sinai (Acts 7:30; Acts 7:38). The Pentateuch is content to give the voice as an utterance of God, as does also this Epistle in Hebrews 12:26, without associating any angel with the utterance. And this mode of speaking agrees with the ordinary language of this Epistle, which attributes the words of the prophets to God speaking in them. But the simple language of Exodus was open to misinterpretation; men inferred from it a visible presence of God, and a strong protest against this idolatrous tendency was pronounced in Deuteronomy 4:12. Hence the expediency of explaining the material voice that spoke from heaven by the definite introduction of angelic mediators, m whom God made His revelation to man. (F. Rendall, M. A.) The difference between transgression and disobedience The verb from whence the first word in Greek is derived, properly signifieth “ to pass over a thing” : metaphorically having reference to a law, or any other rule, it signifieth to swerve from that rule, or to violate and break that law Matthew 15:8). In this metaphorical sense this word is often used in relation to the law of God, and put for any breach thereof (Ro Galatians 3:19). It is put for the first sin of Adam (Romans 5:14), and for Eve’ s special sin (l Timothy 2:14). The other word according to the notation of it in Greek, intimateth a turning of the ear from that which is spoken; and that with a kind of obstinacy and contumacy, as where Christ saith of an obstinate brother if he neglect to Matthew 18:7), or obstinately refuse to bear. I find the word here translated disobedience, twice opposed to a willing and ready obedience, namely, of true saints (2 Corinthians 10:6), and of Christ (Romans 5:19). This opposition importeth a wilful disobedience, or a contumacy as some here translate the word. Others under the former word “ transgression,” comprise sins of commission, and under the latter word “ disobedience,” sins of omission. For the verb from whence the latter word is derived signifieth to neglect or refuse to hear (Matthew 18:17). There is, beyond question, a difference betwixt these two words, either in the degrees or in the kinds of disobedience, in which respect the universal, or (as it is here used), distributive particle “ every” is premised, to show that no transgression, great or mean, in one or other kind passed unpunished. Let not any think, by mincing his sin, to escape punishment. A prophet having reckoned up a catalogue of sins, some greater, some lighter, maketh this inference--“ If a man do the like to any one of these things … he shall surely die” (Ezekiel 18:10; Ezekiel 18:13). Every particular branch of God’ s law is as a distinct link of a chain; if any one link fail, the whole chain is broken. The will of the Law-maker is disobeyed in every transgression (James 2:10-11). Herein lieth a main difference betwixt a faithful servant of God and a formal professor: the former makes conscience of every sin, the latter of such only as are less agreeable to his own corrupt humour, or such as he conceiveth most damageable to himself. (W. Gouge.) God’ s retributive justice If men trifle with the law of God, the law will not trifle with them; it has taken hold of the sinners of former ages, and will take hold of them in all ages. (M. Henry.) The equity of retribution The severest punishment God ever inflicted upon sinners is no more than what sin deserves; it is “ just recompense of reward.” Punishments are as just, and as much due to sin as rewards are to obedience; yea, more due than rewards are to imperfect obedience. (M. Henry.) Warnings A very skilful bowman went to the mountains in search of game. All the beasts of the forest fled at his approach. The lion alone challenged him to combat. The bowman immediately let fly an arrow, and said to the lion, “ I send thee my messenger, that from him thou mayst learn what I myself shall be when I assail thee.” The lion thus wounded rushed away in great fear, and on a fox exhorting him to be of good courage, and not to run away at the first attack: “ You counsel me in vain, for if he sends so fearful a messenger, how shall I abide the attack of the man himself?” If the warning admonitions of God’ s ministers fill the conscience with terror, what must it be to face the Lord Himself? (C. H. Spurgeon) Hebrews 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect The sinfulness and the danger of neglecting the gospel The great salvation of which the apostle testifies is not the salvation which the gospel reveals, but the gospel itself, even the good news of the kingdom, which, by His Son, God in these last days hath spoken unto us (Hebrews 1:2). The salvation which is in Christ Jesus may, with the most obvious propriety, be denominated great, if we compare it with the deliverance which was wrought for the house of Israel, when the Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt. The former was a temporal deliverance, the latter is a spiritual salvation, including deliverance from sin and wrath--from everlasting destruction; and not only deliverance from all evil, but also the enjoyment of eternal life. What is it to neglect so great salvation? “ All things are ready, come unto the marriage,” is the intimation which the servants of the King, according to His commandment, gave to those who were bidden to the marriage of His Son. Did they regard this kind, this generous invitation as duty and interest required? No. “ They made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise.” They who neglect so great salvation, make light of the gospel. They do not regard it as the way of eternal life; they do not give to it that cordial reception to which it is entitled. The great salvation is neglected by all who enjoy the means of religious knowledge, and yet remain ignorant of the faith once delivered to the saints; by all who do not with the heart believe unto righteousness, how much knowledge soever they may have attained; by all who continue in the love and practice of sin, who profess to know God, but in works deny Him--who do not give to the salvation of their souls the preference to every other object of pursuit. I. To NEGLECT SO GREAT IS A VERY HEINOUS SIN. 1. The dignity of Him by whom the great salvation has been made known to us, illustrates the wickedness of neglecting it. 2. The wickedness which is included in rejecting the gospel of the blessed God our Saviour, is illustrated by the clear and full revelation which it makes of the way of eternal life. The mystery of salvation by the obedience and the death of the Son of God, which was hid from ages and generations, is clearly revealed, and hath appear, d unto all men. The gospel proclaims tidings so good and so interesting, that, on the acknowledged principles of human nature, it seems at first view reasonable to conclude, that to a very faint discovery of them, all whom they concern must give the most earnest heed. How inexcusable, then, must be they who turn away from Him who now speaketh from heaven, proclaiming in the clearest manner, “ Peace on earth, and good-will to men!” 3. The wickedness of neglecting so great salvation is illustrated by the infallible proofs of its Divine origin by which it is recommended to our acceptance. That the gospel is indeed the Word of the living God is established by the most abundant evidence. Do you require evidence to convince you that the gospel which the apostles preached, is, indeed, the great salvation which, at the first, began to be spoken by the Lord? What you require. ,he text supplies in rich abundance. “ So, then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God; and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word by signs following.” That the God who cannot lie will not attest what is false, is a self-evident truth. He cannot be deceived, and He will not, He cannot deceive. If, therefore, the God of heaven bears testimony to the doctrine which the apostles published, it must be the great salvation which, at, the first, began to be spoken by the Lord. II. THE JUST OF REWARD WHICH AWAITS THOSE WHO REJECT THE COUNSEL OF GOD AGAINST . 1. The righteousness of God renders it necessary that, on them who make light of that mercy which the gospel reveals, judgment shall be executed. 2. The condemnation of those who neglect so great salvation must be dreadful beyond conception. 3. The condemnation of those who neglect so great salvation is most certain. (W. Kidston, D. D.) The inexcusableness of rejecting the gospel 1. Here is the intrinsic goodness and excellency of the thing itself, which wicked men reject; intimated as a just ground why they should not escape unpunished. 2. This further consideration, that the gospel is n express and positive revelation of the will of God, is a very high aggravation of the sin of neglecting so great a salvation. 3. The dignity and excellency of the Person, by and through whom this great salvation is proposed to us is a further aggravation of the sin of rejecting it. 4. The strength and clearness of the evidence, and the number and greatness of the proofs, made use of to assure us of the truth of the gospel, is the highest aggravation of the guilt of those who neglect or disobey it, and that which of all other things renders them the most absolutely inexcusable. (S. Clark. , D. D.) The guilt of the unconverted in neglecting the offered salvation I. THE OF THE , which every unconverted person despises. It is a deliverance from the eternal ruin due to our sins; from the dominion of sin and Satan on earth, and from the doom of Satan after death; from present terror and from eternal remorse; from the wrath of an infinite Avenger; from a sorrow, which is near at hand, inevitable, intolerable, eternal; from all that thought shrinks to contemplate, and more than the imagination ever conceived. It is, on the other hand, an admission to blessings as vast. To adoption into the family of God; to all the privileges of His believing people; to be loved by Him, watched over, provided for, cheered, consoled, sustained, and guided to glory. It is an invitation to accept the blessings, given after the greatest provocation--a guilt which is incalculable. It is a salvation offered to those, who by the obduracy of their hearts and the ungodliness of their lives, persevered, d in through long years, have deserved that the Lord should exclude them from His favour for ever. It is a salvation provided for such rebellious transgressors at the cost of the death of Christ. II. WHAT IS IT TO NEGLECT IT? It might seem that it was impossible to neglect a mercy such as this. The traveller, when he is dying of thirst in the desert, does not reject the gushing spring, which, bubbling at his feet, gives him refreshment and life. The prisoner does not hug his chain, and draw back from the sunshine and liberty offered him, to the damps and darkness of his dungeon. The sick man never scorns health. The poor dejected and homeless wanderer would never refuse proffered wealth. Yet it is not only possible to neglect this salvation, but it is too certain that it is very generally neglected--that while the road to perdition is crowded by multitudes, the road to glory is straight and narrow “ and few there be that find it.” To neglect this great salvation is, evidently, not to obtain the blessings which it proposes; by whatever mode that neglect is manifested, in whatever way those blessings are lost, to lose them s to neglect this “ great salvation.” God has offered them to sinners freely; He has set before you plainly the way in which they may be made yours; tie has offered them only in that one way; and therefore if either another way of obtaining them is preferred, or if they are not sought in this way, then is such a person chargeable with neglecting this great salvation. III. THE GUILT OF IT. That guilt is clearly implied in the expression in our text, “ How shall we escape “ if we neglect it? “ How shall we escape?” --it evidently implies, that there is in it such a guilt as must provoke the severest punishment. 1. In the first place, you despise these blessings. Heaven, and the pardon of your sins, and the renewal of your hearts, and the indwelling Spirit the love of God, a holy and a blameless life, a glorious crown, an immortality of holiness and happiness--all this you despise, But I have a heavier charge to bring against you. 2. It is evil enough to disregard these mercies, but every unconverted person is also guilty of inconceivable ingratitude towards God. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) The danger of neglecting Christ and salvation I. THE GOSPEL IS GREAT. 1. The deliverance of Noah from the general destruction brought upon the old world was wonderful; but the deliverance of our souls from the deluge of God’ s wrath, by the gospel, is greater. The preservation of Lot from the destruction of Sodom was great; but the salvation we obtain by the gospel, from the vengeance of eternal fire, is greater. 2. The Author of this salvation (Isaiah 9:6), God manifest in the flesh 1 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 59:16). 3. The means (Romans 8:3; Isaiah 53:8; Hebrews 9:22). 4. The salvation itself, or the benefits that accrue to believers through Jesus Christ. (1) We are saved from the guilt of all our sins (Romans 8:1; Acts 13:39). (2) Believers are saved from the power of sin (Romans 6:6; Romans 6:14). (3) Believers are saved from the contagion of sin (1 John 3:9; Ezekiel 36:25; Ezekiel 36:29). (4) They that are delivered from the body of sin and death, are saved, likewise, from fear; from all fear that hath torment (1 John 4:18; 1 Corinthians 15:55; Isaiah 12:1). (5) Believers are saved from the power of the grave (1Co Philippians 3:21). (6) The saints shall be saved from hell and all misery (Revelation 7:17; Psalms 16:11). II. WHO ARE THEY THAT NEGLECT IT? 1. Those who live in any known sin. 2. Those who trust in their own righteousness (Romans 10:3.) 3. Those who do not seek this salvation more than other objects. III. THOSE WHO PERSIST IN THE NEGLECT OF THIS CANNOT ESCAPE . 1. In this life conscience condemns them; therefore are they like the troubled sea (Isaiah 57:20-21). There is a curse on them, and on whatsoever they do. 2. At judgment justice will seize upon them (Revelation 6:15-16; Romans 14:12; Proverbs 2:22). 3. In hell the vengeance of God will still pursue them (Psalms 9:17, Revelation 21:8). Application: 1. How glorious is the gospel-scheme of salvation, how far superior to all those wonderful deliverances which God wrought in old times! Christ is our only refuge (Isaiah 32:2). 2. It is easy to see how heinous a thing sin is in the sight of God; how infinite and inconceivable the love of God is towards sinners (John 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18). 3. Consider the great, the glorious salvation, which is offered to you by the gospel. Seek it while it may be found (Isaiah 55:7; Hebrews 3:7-8; 2 Corinthians 6:2). 4. Remember how it shall happen to all those who forget God (Romans 2:8-9; Psalms 50:22). Speedily give up all for Christ (Philippians 3:8). 5. Though you may have neglected this great salvation to the present moment, God is willing and ready to pardon. Great salvation for great sinners (1 Timothy 1:15; John 6:37). 6. Never rest till you lest in Christ. (J. Hannam.) The certainty that punishment in eternity awaits the unconverted I. THE WORD OF GOD THAT GOD WILL PUNISH SINNERS. II. THE OF GOD, HIS , NO LESS SECURE THE OF THE SINNER . III. We have another and an independent proof that the impenitent sinner must look for a severe retribution when he comes before the judgment of his Maker, derived from THE PAST WHICH HE HAS ON ACCOUNT OF SIN. 1. Often have individuals been made to experience the instant vengeance that God takes upon iniquity. Under the Mosaic law the provisions were exceedingly severe, to mark to that people that God abhors transgression. 2. On many occasions God has manifested His anger against sin, towards multitudes at once. 3. Once agate; contemplate a more awful wreck, and a worse disaster yet. Think of those angelic beings, that once were in the presence of God, loving, holy, happy beyond fear, who seemed in their Maker’ s favourite have a shield that would secure them to eternity. Those angels transgressed the wilt of God. And “ keeping not their first estate” they ,re now visited by no mercy, reserved to an eternity of horror. What God has done, why, sinner I should He not do again? How can you plead an exemption from the curse that has rested upon so many? IV. But there is another fact, still more awful than all--another argument still more potent than these. If every other proof that God will visit iniquity were lost, if His Word were silent, if we otherwise knew not His attributes, if there were no past judgments to point at, still in THE CROSS OF CHRIST YOU would read a manifestation of the wrath of God against iniquity, which must reduce to hopelessness every considerate person still living in sin, or must reduce to silence at the last day every sinner that will cling to delusive hope. For why did Christ die, Because God will manifest how He hates iniquity; because He must--because holiness, justice, truth, goodness, and mercy require that He must--show that He hates sin. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) The danger of neglecting the great salvation. I. THE ONLY WAY OF FOR SINNERS IS BY THE GOSPEL 2 Timothy 1:10). 1. They must needs be strangers to the great salvation, who slight the gospel that brings the good tidings of it. 2. If the gospel alone brings the tidings of salvation for lost sinners, how thankful should you be to God for this revelation. 3. If the gospel alone brings you the tidings of salvation for lost sinners--a salvation we all needed to hear of and be interested in--then how worthy is it of all acceptation. II. WHAT THE IS, WHICH THE GOSPEL ALONE REVEALS. III. WHY THE BY THE GOSPEL IS CALLED “ GREAT.” 1. It is great salvation, as it is the product of infinite wisdom and unerring counsel. 2. From the dignity of the Person that wrought it out. 3. It is a fruit of a great price, even of the obedience and death of Jesus Christ. 4. It is applied by almighty power, against all the opposition, of Satan, of an evil world, and even of the very soul itself who is made partaker of it. 5. It delivers the soul from everything that is evil. 6. It brings the soul from darkness to light, from death to life, from the power of Satan unto God. 7. It is a fruit of great grace. IV. SOME UNDER THE GOSPEL NEGLECT THE GREAT . 1. Notice how the greatest and most dangerous sin under the gospel is described. “ Neglect” not the only remedy, the true riches. It is an injury to Father, Son, and Spirit. It is a high affront offered to the wisdom of God, and to His goodness and grace in Christ. 2. Notice the misery of those that neglect the great salvation. They are condemned already (John 3:18). 3. Who are they, among all the hearers of the gospel, that neglect the great salvation? (1) Such as satisfy themselves with notions of the gospel, and take no care about the transforming virtue of the Word of God upon their souls (1 Thessalonians 1:5). (2) Such as have often heard of the danger of sin, yet live in the love and practice of it. (3) Such as hear of the necessity of an interest in Jesus Christ, but take no care to win Christ and be found in Him. (4) Such as know their Master’ s will, and have no heart to do it. (5) Such as have but a low esteem of the gospel of Christ, and the ordinances of it. (6) Such as never inquire what they shall do to be saved, how they may escape the wrath to come. 4. Whence is it that some, who are placed by kind Providence under the gospel and ministry, neglect the great salvation? (1) From the blindness of their minds, and ignorance of their hearts. They are not sensible of their misery, the guilt, bondage, defilement, and poverty that sin has brought them to. (2) From the atheism of their hearts. (3) From their natural aversion to the Word and ways of God. V. THERE IS NO WAY FOR THEIR ETERNAL MISERY WHO TO NEGLECT THE GREAT . 1. Some impenitent sinners hope to escape the wrath of God, Though they neglect the great salvation. 2. Every one under the gospel should exercise their own judgment, reason, and conscience about their present behaviour, under their present trusts, and seriously think what will be the issue of their present carriage. 3. There is no mercy to be shown to impenitent sinners after this life, if they die in their sins. 4. Neglecting the great salvation is the only damning sin. (1) It is a high affront to each of the Persons in the Holy Trinity. (2) It is a slight of the only remedy. 5. The punishment that shall be inflicted, at last, upon impenitent sinners, for their neglect of the great salvation, will be found to be just. (1) God has given them fair warning by His word. (2) They will receive nothing at the great day but the just fruit of their rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) They will receive nothing but their own wishes and a retaliation of their own language (Job 21:14). Uses: 1. Inferences. (1) Hence we see how wonderfully rich the goodness of God is to poor lost mankind, in providing this great salvation for them. (2) The goodness of God is further displayed in revealing this great salvation to us by the gospel. (3) We learn hence the sin and folly, the danger and misery of such as sit under the gospel and yet neglect the great salvation. (4) Such as neglect the great salvation will be found the greatest losers; a greater loss never was or can be sustained. (5) Those of you who are partakers of this great salvation, you see where your treasure lies, and there your hearts should be also. 2. Examination: Ask your own souls what entertainment the gospel and its salvation have with you. It has been brought to your door; has it been brought to your heart? 3. Exhortations: (1) Give yourselves time, closely and seriously, to consider the state and wants of your own souls. (2) Take care and pains to clear up your interest in the great salvation, by the power of the Word of God upon the heart, and by the esteem of the Word of God upon your souls; by your hatred of sin and love of holiness, and by your hungering and thirsting after God the living God, and hearty concern for the salvation of others. (3) Attend the ministry of the gospel with your affectionate prayers, that God would reveal His arm therewith, and powerfully apply His great salvation to the souls of your poor relations and neighbours. (4) If you can make out to yourselves that you are partakers of the great salvation, then (a) Give God the glory of what He has wrought. (b) Take care to live agreeably to this great grace. (c) Commend the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation to others; endeavour to show them the necessity of it. (d) Put this great salvation into the balance against all the great afflictions, losses, disappointments, and unkindnesses that you may meet with in the world (2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18). (W. Notcutt.) The danger of neglect I. OUR . 1. The inquiry, “ How shall we escape?” implies it: bitten, depraved, dead, lest. 2. We need relief--salvation (Isaiah 53:6; Ezekiel 37:11). 3. We cannot relieve or save ourselves (Job 36:18-19;Psalms 49:7). 4. Christ brings salvation to us (John 3:16; Matthew 1:21; Luke 9:56; 1 Timothy 2:6). II. IT IS A GREAT . 1. God in Christ is its Author. 2. Jesus is its Finisher. 3. It is plenteous and full (Psalms 130:7). 4. It saves from great sins. 5. It saves from greatest dangers. 6. It is free. 7. It is the only salvation. “ None other name.” 8. It is great in heaven. Infinite honours, eternal crown. “ Kings and priests.” 9. It is everlasting (Isaiah 45:17). III. THERE IS DANGER OF LOSING IT. Not great sinfulness alone, but simple neglect will destroy your soul. The man in business has but to neglect it to be ruined. The sick man neglects the means of recovery, and he dies. The man on Niagara neglects at the proper time to use the oar, and he plunges over the cataract. Ah, ruinous neglect! Let no one infer because he is moral and truthful, is not a drunkard, an adulterer, a murderer, or some redhanded, black-hearted criminal, that he is safe. Why, if your own morality and goodness were enough to save you, then Jesus need not have suffered and died. Salvation is n t forced upon us. We must make an effort to secure it. We may neglect to make that effort, and be lost. (B. F.Whittemore.) Neglect of the great salvation I. THE SUBJECT COUCHED IN THE FEW BUT WORDS, “ SO GREAT .” 1. Its heavenly origin. 2. The extraordinary means by which it is effected. 3. Its boundless fulness and freeness. 4. Its deliverances from evils 5. Its choice and extensive blessings. II. THE NEGLECT , AND CHARGED UPON US. III. THE AWFUL THAT MUST ENSUE TO ALL FOUND GUILTY OF SO GREAT . (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.) Do not neglect the great salvation I. The word of the gospel which is preached to us, is THE WORD OF . 1. It reveals and announces salvation. It tells us of God’ s method of recovery for lost, guilty, sinful man. The gospel is the only revelation of saving mercy. Reason could never have discovered it. Philosophy never could have descried a scheme like this. Nature could never have given us any just conceptions of this subject. We see much of the goodness of God in the brightness of the sun, and in the descent of the shower; in the flowers which cover the earth; but not one word of salvation; not a syllable which relates to the restoration of man, and his deliverance from the deserved wrath which his apostasy has incurred. 2. Instrumentally it effects salvation. It brings salvation near, both to the understanding and to the heart. 3. It is the ordained means of perfecting and preparing the soul for the enjoyment of consummate bliss. II. This salvation, announced and revealed and brought near in the gospel, is inconceivably GREAT. The apostle does not attempt to describe its greatness; but he wraps up the whole magnificence of his theme in this expression, “ so great salvation.” 1. Think of the stupendous contrivance in which it originated; and it will be found a great salvation. 2. Look at the methods which have been adopted in order to render this salvation sure. Nothing less than the achievements of the eternal Son. 3. Think of the agency employed in securing the application and saving efficacy of this salvation--the Holy Spirit. 4. Think of the all-sufficient credentials and Divine attestations, by which the gospel is recommended to us; and you will easily perceive that it is, ill my text, most justly described. 5. Consider the richness and amplitude of its provisions. 6. I only refer, finally, to the ultimate end which it proposes to effect on behalf of all who are interested it, its benefits. That end is the resurrection of the body from the dust; the glorification of the entire Church; the subjugation of all evil; an eternity of unimaginable bliss. III. I am to prove to you that THOSE who NEGLECT IT have not the remotest prospect of escape from the entire and hopeless ruin which such neglect inevitably involves. 1. Everything in the reason of the case forbids the hope of escape. Because God Himself has devised this method of recovery; He has revealed it; He has offered it; He has told us plainly, “ Neither is there salvation in any other” than Christ. They who neglect this salvation, then, most perish, upon every principle of equity, and upon every principle of reason. There is a storm gathering. Divine mercy has provided a shelter. You neglect it; and the thunderbolt strikes you prostrate to the ground. 2. Everything in the character of God forbids the hope of an escape. He is a God of justice; and will never compromise the claims of equity in complaisance to the negligence and unbelief of His creatures. 3. There is, moreover, nothing in the Word of God which affords the slightest ground of expectation that this method of salvation discarded any other will be provided. (Hebrews 10:26.) Lessons: 1. Admire and adore the riches of Divine grace in having provided such a salvation for lost man. 2. How full of terror is this subject to you who are neglecting this salvation. 3. How happy are they who have reached the final end and ultimate enjoyment of that salvation of which we have been hearing; who have “ believed to the salvation of the soul.” (G. Clayton.) The superiority of Christianity as seen in its claims I. THE NATURE OF ’ S CLAMS. 1. Their imperativeness. 2. Their personal character. II. THE OF THE CLAIMS OF . 1. These consequences are suggested analogically. 2. These consequences are based on the intrinsic excellence of Christianity. 3. The character of the sin on account of which these consequences will be inevitably inflicted. 4. That such a sin as neglect must inevitably be followed by serious consequences is very obvious from the laws of our nature. (1) That of relation between moral appreciation and moral advantage. (2) That of free agency. 5. That these consequences will follow this sin is seen from the veracity of God. Lessons: 1. We learn that there are two sides to salvation. (1) The Divine side, viz., the providing salvation for a lost world. (2) The human side, viz., the personal acceptance by faith of the salvation thus divinely provided. 2. We learn that, for all practical purposes, the human side is as important as the Divine. 3. We learn that, infinitely great and glorious as salvation is, there is no manifestation of the goodness of lied more easily sacrificed. 4. We learn the unspeakable importance of giving practical heed to the voice of God’ s Spirit as He speaks in His Word. (1) Because neglect is followed by such sad and irretrievable consequences. (2) Because of the law of habit. (a) Birds which build their nests in a belfry become habituated to the loudest and longest clangour. (b) Those who live ill the vicinity or Niagara and cataracts of the Nile become so habituated to the roar of their waters that they do not mind it at all. (c) Alas! is not this the explanation of the heedlessness to the gospel of thousands in Christendom--they have become too familiar with its sound. (3) Because of this life being our probationary sphere. (a) If we die in a state of unbelief we cannot hope for another opportunity. (b) As we are liable to die any hour, to neglect salvation is of all follies the greatest. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.) The sin and danger of neglecting the great salvation of the gospel Whether we look at the source from which salvation originates, or the objects to whom it is extended; at the depth of misery from which it delivers, or at the height of glory to which it exalts; at the long train of prophecies by which it was introduced, or at the stupendous display of miracles by which it was established, we cannot but be deeply impressed with its magnitude and importance. There is one circumstance, however, which wonderfully augments these impressions, the unparalleled excellence and dignity of the Person by whom this salvation was perfected. I. The first argument which I shall adduce results from THE VERY NATURE AND OF THINGS. They who neglect the great salvation of the gospel must, from the necessary connection between causes and effects, he involved in everlasting destruction. For what is the salvation of the gospel? It is salvation from sin. Should the drowning man neglect to lay bold of the only hand stretched out to save him; should the sick man neglect to follow the only prescription which can administer a cure: what, in all these several instances, must be the inevitable consequence? Death. Neglecting to improve the only opportunity vouchsafed to them of procuring the removal of their guilt, they must sink down for ever under the curse and burden of unpardoned sin. II. Another argument arises from THE AND GUILT OF SO GREAT . The gospel is a remedy which we are constrained by the most powerful obligations to apply: a remedy, the neglect of which argues not only the most daring folly, but the most malignant wickedness, and consequently involves a degree of criminality which exhibits in a still stronger light the impossibility of escaping. To neglect the salvation of the gospel is to violate a positive command of God. It is also to pour contempt on His most glorious perfections. The gospel is the richest display of mercy to fallen man, the consummation of the Divine wisdom and love. (E. Cooper, M. A.) How shall we escape? I. “ ” is the grand thought. 1. Consider salvation in its origin. May it not be termed “ so great salvation” ? God is its Author. It was planned in the councils of eternity; it is the fruit of infinite wisdom. Great, we own, is creation; greater far is redemption. God creates by the word of His power; He redeems by the blood of His Son; new-creates by the power of His Spirit. 2. Salvation is so great: when we remember its nature. It saves from great sins. Christ is “ able to save unto the uttermost.” 3. It saves from great dangers. 4. There is salvation from great enemies. But we have given only one side of salvation--deliverance. Positive blessings belong to it. Salvation might be termed “ so great,” if it were only for the blessedness it brings to the heart now; in this life; Christ’ s peace, Christ’ s joy, Christ’ s wondrous love. But man has a destiny reaching away into the great eternity. When we think of man as he is, what be deserves, what he well may fear, guilty, depraved, condemned--as he shall be, when purified, glorified--is not salvation rightly styled “ so great “ ? II. Think now of the word “ NEGLECT.” Easy were it to show that such “ neglect” is a great calamity, and a great crime. 1. This neglect is common. Alas! how many ,how their neglect in their lives--by open sin, by contempt of God’ s Word, God’ s day, God’ s house. 2. It is inexcusable. Vain and flimsy as a spider’ s web are all excuses. The real reason why men neglect so great salvation is because they love this world more than God; time more than eternity; their sins more than their souls. 3. Neglect is foolish. What should we think of a prisoner who should bug the chains that bind him? 4. Neglect is easy. In one sense, it in hard for sinners to perish. God in mercy sets barriers in the way. In another sense, it is an easy thing. “ Neglect!” The man in business does not need to gamble in order to go bankrupt; all he needs is to neglect his business. 5. When we add it is fatal, this brings us to the third word III. “ ESCAPE.” “ How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (D. S.Brunton.) The vital question I. THE . The man who, amidst the multitude of other anxieties, sets the invitation to a banquet aside, and altogether neglects it, is just as sure of being found absent as the man who distinctly rejects it. There are many who idle a whole lifetime away in a sort of passive indifference to the gospel, and go down to the grave utter strangers to its Saving power. The man who is not diligent in the prosecution of his worldly business is said to neglect it; and so, in like manner, if you do not esteem the salvation of the soul as the one thing needful, if you do not strive to enter in at the straight gate, and give diligence to make your calling and election sure, then know, of a truth, that you are found among those woo are guilty of neglecting it. II. THE HERE PUT. More evil is done, and more injury sustained, through neglect than from any other cause. Escape is utterly and altogether impossible. 1. From the very nature of the case; for the neglect of salvation is just the rejection of the remedy, and if the remedy be releced, what but ruin can await us? 2. From the history of the Divine denyings. If God brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, so that they escaped not, how shall we escape? Say not that God is too merciful to inflict the penalty He has threatened; for was God not merciful then, and yet He did not permit them to escape? 3. From the very means employed for our deliverance. If sin were trivial, if the law were flexible, if God were changeable, Christ would never have suffered, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. III. THE GUILT OF THIS GREAT . The mariner who refuses to cast his anchor on the rock deserves to suffer shipwreck. The man who declines to accept the bread that is offered to him deserves to die of famine. God has not provided this great salvation at such a mighty expenditure, and left men to sport and trifle with it at their pleasure. (Thos. Mair, D. D.) Neglect I. THE MISERY ARISING FROM NEGLECT. 1. In the lower or material realm, e.g., industrial, sanitary, commercial. 2. In the higher or mental and moral realm, e.g., education, religion. (1) The signs of neglect. Listlessness and dulness, or profligacy and obduracy. (2) The temptation to neglect. Example, spirit of procrastination, pressure of other claims. II. THE GUILT OF NEGLECT. 1. It is spiritual suicide. 2. It is ruinous in its influence on others. You say, “ No danger,” when the peril is terrific. 3. It is practical atheism. 4. It is in gratitude to the Redeemer. (Homlist.) The only plan I. GOD HAS MADE FOR THE WELFARE OF THE WORLD. “ So” --the descriptive word of a child when failing to set forth in detail an object beyond its ability. 1. Salvation is God’ s highest achievement. 2. Supplies all the wants of mankind. 3. Is all-powerful in its influence. 4. Is destined to be universal in its success. 5. Is everlasting in its duration. II. GOD’ S FOR THE WELFARE OF THE WORLD MAY BE IGNORED. “ If We neglect” implies 1. The freedom of the human will. 2. The deluding power of sin. 3. The futility of mere knowledge. 4. The evil of contempt. 5. The power of self-righteousness. 6. The actual prevalence of carelessness. (1) Some are totally indifferent. (2) Some are idly procrastinating. (3) Some by hoping for the best. (4) Some because others do. III. GOD’ S FOR THE WELFARE OF THE WORLD, IF IGNORED, LEAVES MAN . “ How shall we escape?” 1. Man bears in himself the elements of destruction. Born a sinner. Sin will never destroy itself. Powder train laid. 2. Salvation the only remedy. Ark, Brazen Serpent, Cities of Refuge. “ No other name.” “ Jesus only.” 3. Man’ s effort to appropriate the appointed means is essentially necessary. Wrecked sailor must enter lifeboat; manslayer flee to city of refuge; patient take prescribed medicine. 4. Non-compliance on man’ s part will result in endless misery. (B. D. Johns.) The regret of lost souls In the palace at Versailles as if by the irony of fate, is a famous statue of Napoleon in exile. His noble brow is lowered in thought, his mouth is compressed, his chin is resting upon his breast, and his grand eye gazes into space as if fixed on some distant scene. There is something inexpressibly sad in that strong, pale face. It is said that the sculptor represented Napoleon at St Helena, just before his death. He is looking back upon the field of Waterloo, and thinking how its fatal issue was the result of three hours’ delay. Those three short hours seem ever to write on the walls of his memory--“ The summer is ended, the harvest is past!” Years rolled on, but the memory of that neglected opportunity follows the great emperor through his life, and haunts him through midnight hours in his sea-girt home. I have sometimes imagined that I could see on some remote and lonely shore of the Lake Avernus a soul haunted by its memories. The battle of lit e is long past, centuries have rolled away, but memory lives. Some lost soul wanders from the rest, where the waves of that gulf beat hopelessly on the far-off shore. The absent eye that gazes over the starless deep, is looking with longing unutterable to the precious time when those who are now in glory held up the blood-stained cross and pointed to the joys of heaven, then so near, now so tar. And a bitter sigh, and a sob as bitter as despairing love, fills the solitude; but it reaches no ear, touches no sympathy, awakes no echo. Such is the vengeance of neglected opportunity. (R. S. Barrett.) How shall we escape? By our wealth? Its currency is condemned at the judgment-seat. By our own good deeds? Those deeds have been weighed in the balance, and found wanting. Then how shall we escape? By concealing ourselves? God’ s eye penetrates, with its burning glance, all space. Shall we escape in the crowd? Each individual shall be so insulated, as if there were no other creature besides at the judgment-seat. Then how shall we escape? There is but one way, and that escape is incompatible with neglecting the great salvation. Thus he says the gospel is the great salvation. “ How shall we escape” --not, mark you, if we reject so great salvation, but if we neglect so great salvation? The sceptic rejects Christianity; the nominal believer neglects Christianity. Now, I very much question if it be not a greater insult to God to neglect religion than it is to reject it. I can understand that man who says, I have examined all the evidence, and I have come to the conclusion that the Bible is a fable, that Christianity is a romance; eternity, and death, and judgment the visions of a mere baseless dream. I pity him, I deplore his conclusion, but I can understand it; there is consistency about it. But the man that neglects such a religion, if it be true that God has spoken, if it be true that Christ has died for us, if it be true that we must stand at the judgment-seat, if it be true that by His righteousness alone we are justified, is guilty indeed. Such neglect is in the sight of God and man altogether inexcusable. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The danger of neglect During the terrible fire in the Ring Theatre at Vienna, a large crowd striving to reach one of the exits saw a sideway marked “ Emergency Door, in case of Fire.” This was just what they needed. They turned aside from the main passages, and rushed to use this special way. But the bolts could not be drawn, the locks could not be turned, and the hinges were choked with rust; because the door had never been used, it could not now be suddenly put into requisition when urgently needed. A heap of dead soon lay before that gate. So, lips which never pray on earth will be speechless in the great day; the prayer for mercy will die unuttered, and the excuse which has been framed on earth will never be offered, when the King asks, “ How art thou come in hither all unprepared?” An unanswerable question Many years ago a Welsh minister, a man of God, beginning his sermon, leaned over the pulpit, and said with a solemn air, “ Friends, I have a question to ask. I cannot answer it. You cannot answer it. If an angel from heaven were here he could not answer it. If a devil from hell were here he could not answer it.” Death-like silence reigned. Every eye was fixed on the speaker. He proceeded, “ The question is this, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Folly of neglect A certain man had a long journey before him, which must needs be made in one day, for it would be impossible for him to journey a mile in that country after nightfall, neither was there any place wherein he could lodge on the road. He knew right well that this journey was appointed him, and that it was his duty to perform it; and, moreover, he told his best friends that he was fully determined to set out thereon: but he thought the matter was easier than they seemed to imagine. In his stable there was a fine stud of strong and swift horses suitable for the road, and a carriage stood ready for his riding. The traveller did not set out in the early morning, for he said that there was time enough. Meanwhile, by a certain custom of the country, two of his best horses were taken for the king’ s service, and this caused the traveller to look about him; but he soon quieted down, sat down to his dishes and his cups, and cried, “ What’ s the good of haste?” While thus engaged, more of his horses were lost, or stolen, or else they strayed, and had he then set out and kept well to his journey, he had scarce the means left to accomplish it. Still he waited with his boon companions till one way or another his horses were gone, and he had nothing left to ride upon but a single wretched jade. Then he made much ado about setting out, and meant to fly along the road at a great rate; only it so happened that while he was resolving the sun went down, and he never reached the place where he would have been rewarded with honour and profit. The explanation of the riddle is easy. A man in his early days, with his best years before him, is so foolish as to put off the concerns of his soul till he is older. Years follow years, and yet he delays--delays even when his last worn, and feeble age is all that remains to him, and death comes before it is welcome. Alas, that men should think to perform the most important business of all at a time when all their powers and faculties are failing! God’ s service requires all our abilities in the prime of their strength, and it is wicked as well as foolish to put Him off with our leavings, and endeavour to reach heaven on a worn-out steed at the fagend of the day. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Neglect A traveller always provided himself with a life-preserver, which he kept in constant readiness for use. On the Mississippi an accident occurred which led him to dream of the advantages of precaution. He dreamed that the vessel was disabled, and rushing upon a lee-shore. The passengers, in different moods, awaited the result. Those who had life preservers were composed; while those who had none rushed to and fro in terror and dismay. Some cursed themselves because they did not buy them before they started; others did not apprehend danger; others had them laid away in their trunks, but found them useless through long neglect; others found themselves cheated with a counterfeit article; others were uselessly trying to escape by resting on the life-preservers of others, which could barely support their owners. The scene is one only too common in life. When the storms come, and the frail vessel is a wreck, how many have secured the true life-preserver, and wait the result in good confidence? How many are dismayed because unready? (New Cyclopedia of Illustrations.) Opportunity must be grasped Some years ago a large river in America became greatly swollen, and a rapid current was thus produced which was very dangerous to venture on, as a terrible fall was only a few miles distant. A man who had some valuable timber in the stream got into a boat to rescue it. He was, however, soon drawn into the rushing tide. He had not the slightest power to stop or turn the boat, but rapidly it floated down the stream, hurrying him on to a certain destruction. A friend saw his peril, and mounting a fleet horse started for a bridge a few miles below as the only chance to rescue him. Reaching the bridge before the skiff, which came like an arrow towards the arch, he dropped a rope over the surface of the stream and called to the imperilled man to seize it as his only chance of escape. The trembling hand was extended, and with the firmness of a death-grasp clutched the rope as the boat shot by, and soon he was in the arms of his deliverer. This was the arch of mercy to him, which, if once passed, it would have been certain death. How shall we escape? It is an appeal to universal reason, to the consciences of sinners themselves; it is a challenge to all their power and policy, to all their interest and alliances, whether they, or any of them, can find out, or can force out, a way of escape from the vindictive justice and wrath of God. It intimates that the neglecters of this great salvation will be left not only without power, but without plea and excuse at the judgment day. (M. Henry.) Neglect leads to deterioration Let a certain number of pigeons, of different colours and varieties, be collected and carried to a desert island. Let them fly wild in the woods and found a colony there. After the lapse of many years let the collector return to the island, when he will find The pigeons all of one colour--a black and white dun, or a dark slaty hue. All the beautiful colours will have vanished. Why? Because they have been neglected. The variations and improvements had been the result of care, nurture, and domestication: neglect has simply had the effect of letting them drop into their original state. So with plants--a rose--a strawberry; it is a natural law. So with man. By neglect his body will lapse into a savage state; his mind to imbecility; his conscience to lawlessness and vice; his soul to atrophy, ruin, and decay. “ Let him alone,” and all the rest will follow. (Proctor’ s Gems of Thought) Unconscious of peril As the inhabitants of a little, narrow street in Paris looked out at their doors one morning, they were astonished to see a young woman pacing backward and forward on the top of a six-story house. Their astonishment was changed into alarm when it was discovered that she was unconscious of her peril, and was walking in her sleep! The young creature seemed to be dreaming of an approaching gala day, and was humming a lively air. Again and again she drew near to the very verge of the parapet, and again and again crossed over to the other side of the roof, always smiling, and unconscious of danger. Suddenly her eye was attracted by a light in the house opposite. She awoke instantly; there was a piercing cry, a heavy fall, and all was over. Alas! that this sad incident should have a counterpart in things spiritual still more appalling. The despisers of God’ s mercy, who are now dreaming away the brief remaining portion of their existence, will be aroused suddenly from their guilty slumber by the light which bursts in upon them from the other world, but only to discover the fearful precipice on which they have so long been standing, and when escape from ruin will be impossible. (J. N. Norton, D. D.) Neglect--not gathering up Bear in mind the teaching that lies hid in the derivation of the word “ neglect.” It signifies “ not to gather up.” It paints to us the blind man walking through a valley of diamonds, and in his ignorance gathering up none. And when, in their ignorance, men do not avail themselves of “ the riches of God’ s grace,” placed within their reach, how can they “ escape” the results of their folly? Danger of delay A lady had a very important lawsuit on hand for which she needed the services of an advocate. She was strongly urged to secure the help of a verse eminent and well-known lawyer, but she could not make up her mind to entrust her case to any one. Time passed on, and at last she was compelled to take steps to secure an advocate, and called upon the great lawyer who had been mentioned to her. He listened whilst she expressed her wish to engage his help, but in a few minutes he said with a grave face, “ Madam, you are too late; had you come to me before, I would gladly have been your advocate, but now I have been called to the bench, and am a judge, and all I can do is to pass judgment upon your case.” Now is the day of grace, and the Lord Jesus Christ is our Advocate, ever pleading the merits of His precious blood (1 John 2:1-2), but the day will come when He will be the Judge of sinners, and must pass sentence upon them (2 Timothy 4:1). Neglect It is the neglected wheel that capsizes the vehicle, and maims for life the passengers. It is the neglected leak that sinks the ship. It is the neglected field that yields briers instead of bread. It is the neglected spark near the magazine whose tremendous explosion sends its hundreds of mangled wretches into eternity. The neglect of an officer to throw up a rocket on a certain night caused the fall of Antwerp, and postponed the deliverance of Holland for twenty or more years. The neglect of a sentinel to give an alarm hindered the fall of Sebastopol, and resulted in the loss of many thousand lives. So great salvation Great salvation--an appeal I. AS SINNERS YOU ARE EXPOSED TO IMMENSE DANGER 1. Ever augmenting. 2. Self-created. 3. For ever unavoidable after death. II. TO DELIVER YOU FROM. THIS DANGER HEAVEN HAS A . “ Great,” because of 1. The great facts it involves. 2. The immense influence it exerts upon the universe. 3. The infinite blessings it secures to those who will accept it. III. THE NEGLECT OF THIS BENDERS . 1. Because it is the only expedient now on earth that can effect your deliverance. 2. Because it is the only expedient that will ever be presented to you by Heaven for the purpose. (Homilist.) The gospel and its Rejectors I. THE OF THE GOSPEL . This appears if we consider 1. Its gratuity. 2. Its greatness. 3. Its endurance. 4. Its relation to us. 5. Its singleness. II. THE FOR GOSPEL TO ESCAPE ETERNAL . 1. The inseparable connection between sin and punishment. 2. God’ s veracity. 3. God’ s almightiness. 4. God’ s justice. 5. The nature of Heaven. (Homilist.) Great salvation 1. It was a great thought in the heart of God. 2. It required a great preparation. 3. It exhibited great condescension. 4. It gives occasion to study a great mystery. 5. It exacted great sufferings. 6. It ensures a revenue of great glory. (H. T. Miller.) The greatness of salvation The word “ salvation” occurs in the Bible under a variety of significations. When the children of Israel had just been delivered out of Egypt, and were brought to a stand-still before the Red Sea, Moses said to them--“ Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Now, in what did that salvation consist? It consisted in this--in a temporary delivering of them out of their trouble, by making a path through the depths of the sea. The Lord delivered them then with a great salvation. Further, you remember that our Lord, on His visit to Zacchaeus, seeing how he was escaping from the bonds of that passion for ill-gotten lucre, exclaims, “ This day is salvation come unto this house.” That was a great salvation--a deliverance from the thraldom of sin, by the introduction of the freedom wherewith Christ makes His people free. And there remains another appropriate use of the term. We are kept by faith unto salvation: to be redeemed and brought into that glorious state, where the white-robed ones stand--that city, in which we shall not only be saved, as we are now, but in a perfect state of salvation. That, also, is meant at times in the Scripture, when the word salvation is employed. Now, it becomes us to inquire which of these three senses are here conveyed by the words of our text. It seems to me that it comprehends all three; that is to say, all that is needed for the first liberation of man from sin; all that is needed of temporal deliverance to keep him from failing, and to enable him to persevere unto the end; and all that is comprehended in the hereafter, and not-to-be-revealed glory that remaineth for the people of God. Each of the three are great salvation, and, combined, they make the so great salvation. “ How shall we escape, if we neglect this so great salvation?” Now, I think there are several things which will plainly prove that this is a great salvation. I. First of all--as A SCHEME, a plan, to work out a Divine purpose--as a Divine scheme and plan, I maintain it is a great salvation. 1. If I examine the wisdom of the scheme--the plan of the scheme--here I come in contact with a wisdom of no finite being: it is the wisdom of the Divine Being Himself; it is infinite wisdom; the mint-mark has Heaven’ s royal stamp, and the image and superscription are more than Caesar’ s; they are those of the King of kings Himself. Now this wisdom is displayed in a threefold manner. (1) First, in grappling with a difficulty in which no man can succeed. We can deal with our fellow-creatures’ bodies; we can deal with their minds; but their souls are encased as in triple steel; and whenever man has begun to touch sin, the only thing he has done has been to burn his own fingers, without putting that firebrand out of the world. Sin is everywhere, and man has never been able to cast it out. It stands, and ever will stand, till a Divine power shall come to cast it out. Now God has found out the way of accomplishing this, and He has devised a scheme which, in His hand, shall make this wide world to be covered with His glory, even as the waters cover the deep. That is one thing in which I detect the wisdom of God; He has accomplished that which has ever defied the wisdom of the wisest, and the might of the mightiest. (2) Something further is to be noticed--God has done this with a wisdom so great, that He has foreseen all that He has purposed to do, and everything He has done, and has not left undone anything that He has purposed. (3) Let me observe, again, that the wisdom of this scheme is something so great, that not a single wrong is done to any one. God has rest ,red the false note in the great organ of the universe, without staying its tune, or hindering the harmony of the music of the spheres; and He has done it all with a wisdom so infinite, that we must exclaim. “ This is indeed a s, great salvation.” 2. But now, join that wisdom with love--think of the low, as well as the wisdom, and then you will have further heightened the thought. II. Now, it is a great salvation, not only because of the scheme, but also because of THE AIM IN VIEW, and the objects which it purposes to perform. Christ came, not merely to save man from sin, and from Satan--not merely to save man from going down to the pit without ransom, though that would ha, e been a great salvation. Christ comes, we say, to destroy sin; but how? By bringing in a righteousness that shall far surpass the righteousness of men. He comes to destroy death; but how? By bringing life and immortality to light. He comes to destroy the works of the devil; and how? By doing the works of Him that sent Him, and the great salvation He brings in, has, for its end and aim, not merely the putting of man into the garden of Eden, where he was before the Fall but to put him in possession of life and immortality itself. III. We exclaim again, “ It is a great salvation,” from THE MEANS that have been used for the working-out of the scheme, and from the original end and aim proposed. And here I might begin at the beginning, but how can we go back to the countless ages of eternity? and time would certain, fail us, if I were to begin at the creation of the world, for it all has been but the theatre for the working-out of this great salvation. I would come down to the time of the Jews, and would see there all the wonders of the life of Abraham, and of Abraham’ s descendants. All these things formed part of the working-out of the scheme, for the Jews were like the scaffolding which needed to be erected, that there might be raised, inside of it, a true and living structure, which is to abide for ever. The Jewish race, with its wondrous history, has but served as the pinnacle for the erection and for the display of the cross thereupon. But we must narrow our limits again. Let us now start from Bethlehem; and there, in the stable of a lowly inn, we see a babe; small it is, but yet great ; the Son of Mary, and the Son of the Highest. He whom even the heaven of heavens cannot contain, is there, wrapped in that veil of our inferior clay. As I look upon that deep mystery, and see there that Child of God, I see also and adore “ the man my fellow” --Christ in the flesh--God incarnate. I see there a mighty deed thatstamps this salvation with a greatness of His own. I pass by all the after-wonders of His life, and come to the cloning scene, when He hangs upon the cross. I look at that bleeding man, and I exclaim, “ How is it?--it is the blood of God” --for I find the Scripture saying, “ The Church of God, which He has purchased with His blood.” How it is I cannot tell; but there is a Divine efficacy in the death and blood of Christ. IV. Fourthly, let us look at these facts taken as a whole, and as LYING AT THE OF OUR . Now reason could never discover a religion; I say that reason does tell us this--it is the best religion the world ever has seen, or can see. There are three things that we must find in every religion to make it great. It must reveal a God, worthy of the highest honour ; it must give benefits to the worshippers ; and it must establish a connection between the two. If it does not reveal a God, it is worthless. If it reveals a God, but He is not worthy of the highest honour, I say it is a weak religion--away with it. Now our religion is this: “ Glory to God in the highest” --glory in the scheme, glory in the working-out, glory in the end proposed. (C.H. Spurgeon.) The great salvation I. THE OF THIS . 1. It is worthy of the character given to it, if you consider the method of its contrivance. 2. It is a great salvation in the manner of its execution. Amazing love! 3. It is a great salvation in the blessing it secures. 4. In the manner of its bestowment. It regards us as we really are, “ poor and wretched” ; and without insulting us in our poverty, it invites us--nay more, it commands us--to “ come and take of the water of life freely.” Were the smallest good required of you in exchange for this blessing, we might then calculate on your neglecting this great salvation, on the plea that you were destitute of what you were required to give for it. But you are invited to receive it “ without money and without price” 5. In the countless multitudes who shall be brought to participate in it. II. ITS TO US. 1. It demands great attention. 2. It should be embraced with great thankfulness. 3. Its refection will be accompanied with great condemnation. God could devise no method more safe, more honourable, more glorious for a sinner's salvation, than the method exhibited in the gospel. Grace in its richest character, mercy in its brightest form are here displayed. But the greater the grace, the richer the mercy, and the more free and generous the invitation, the greater will be the guilt of him who rejects it. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer,) The great salvation I. . Now, suppose that I were on the bank of a river, and were to see some child or some fellow-man struggling in the stream; if I were to use my best endeavour to help that fellow-creature out of the water, and if I were successful in that attempt, it would be a salvation. Or, if I were to find some fellow-man suffering from a dreadful disease for which I had a specific, and I were to come and administer this specific to that man, and he were to recover from that disease, that would be a salvation. I am about to speak to you of a salvation of a different kind--not f a salvation from mere bodily death not of a salvation from bodily disease--but of a salvation from all the ills which soul, and spirit, and body are heirs to--a salvation from everything that blights and blasts our fallen human nature. 1. The salvation upon which I speak is the deliverance from ignorance of the true God. That ignorance, you know, is just like a dense darkness at a time when a man wants light, and in the place where a man wants light, and under circumstances where the shining of light is essential to a man. The man who is saved knows something of God, of our Father in heaven: t e knows enough of God for his present well-being, and for his present well-doing. That is one part of salvation. Now there is another. 2. I do not know how it is, but so it is, as we believe, that every one born into, this world is inclined to do wrong. God made such an arrangement when He created our first parents, that if they had done right, right dispositions would have been communicated. You sometimes see a very amiable mother and a very amiable daughter ; there is a disposition communicated the one from the other. Now, on account of that arrangement, when our first parents went wrong and they had children, the children received from them a wrong disposition--a disposition to do that which is had-that which is evil and it is within us all. Is there anything more common than to hear people say, “ I shall do as I like; don't meddle with me, I shall do as I please” ? Now that is the very essence of sin. Any creature who begins to say, “ I will do as I like,” falls immediately. If the brightest and best of the angels from around God’ s throne were at this moment to say, “ I will do as I like,” and were to begin to turn to his own way and to carry out the desired devices of his own heart, he would be immediately a fallen angel, and heaven would be no paradise to that being. What is this salvation? It is a salvation from the “ I’ ll do as I like” principle,--from the “ I’ ll do what I please” principle. It is deliverance from that. Itis the creation within us of another spirit, and of a new heart in that matter, and the question then is, “ Saviour, what shall I do? Saviour, how shall I speak? Saviour, how shall I live? Saviour, what shall I work at? Saviour, where shall I abide? Where shall I travel? What will be my occupation? Saviour, in all things what shall I do?” That also is part of salvation. Some people, you know, especially some people with a profession of religion, think that their consciences always are right. You see such an one doing something that you think is very bad, something that the Bible condemns. You open the Bible and point to a text, and say to him, “ There, that passage says you are wrong.” But he will probably really, “ I cannot be very wrong, for I did such and such a thing conscientiously.” Now, suppose I were in the position of some of you who have places of business, and that I employed errand-boys to assist me in that business, and I required of a lad that he should always be at the shop at six o’ clock in the morning; and suppose he had a miserable sort of time-piece that was always two hours behind the time of day. I chide the lad for being two hours behind time, and he brings forth to me his old wretched thing of a watch, and shows me that its hands point to the hour of six, but I tell him that, according to the position of the sun in the skies, it is eight o’ clock. He argues with me, “ But my watch says it is six!” Then, what I should say to him would he, “ Unless you are mocking me I require that you get your watch regulated, and take care that on the face of that watch there is always a correct index of the true time.” Just so I say to people who do wrong, and justify their wrong-doing by reference to their conscience. Conscience is a thing amongst mankind which is as often wrong as a bad clock or as a bad watch, and consciences need mending--need rectifying. Now, salvation is to put a man’ s conscience right, so That it answers to the will of God, and to the pleasure of God, and is an index of what is right and of what is wrong. That is another part of salvation. I need not say to you that we are all hurrying onward to the grave, and that after death comes the judgment. Now, we carry with us, unless we are saved the guilt of the first sin we committed when we begin to say “ I will” and “ I won’ t,” and the guilt of all the sins committed throughout life. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 2:4 With signs and wonders, and with divers miracles Signs, wonders, and miracles 1. Signs, according to the notation of the word, imply such external visible things as signify and declare some memorable matter which otherwise could not be so well discerned, nor would be believed. “ We would see a sign from Thee” say the Pharisees to Christ (Matthew 12:38). And they desired Him that He would “ show them a sign” (Matthew 16:1). These two words, “ see,” “ show,” imply that a sign is of some external visible thing that may be showed and seen. And extraordinary it must be, because it useth to be for confirmation of s me secret and Divine matter. Thus the Pharisees would have a sign from heaven (Matthew 16:1), which must needs be extraordinary. Thereupon signs and wonders arc oft joined together (John 4:48; Acts 2:43; Acts 4:30; Acts 7:36). 2. The word translated “ wonder” is used by all sorts of authors for some strange thing, that may seem to foretell some other thing to come. “ I will shew wonders in heaven,” saith the Lord (Acts 2:19). Those strange things which by the ministry of Moses were done in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, are set out under this word “ wonders” (Acts 7:36). Our English doth fitly translate the Greek word “ wonders,” by reason of the effect, they cause wonder; and by reason of the strangeness of them, they are wonderful (Matthew 15:31; Mark 6:51; Acts 3:10). Our English word “ miracle,” according to the notation of the Latin word, whence it is taken, signifieth a matter of wonder. 3. The Greek word here translated “ miracles,” properly signifieth powers. It is derived from a verb that signifieth to be able. This word in the singular number is put for a man’ s ability (Matthew 25:15); for his strength 2 Corinthians 1:8); and also for strength in the sun (Revelation 1:16); and in sin (1 Corinthians 15:56). It is also put for virtue in one Mark 5:30); and for the power or man (1 Corinthians 4:19); of a prophet (Luke 1:17); of the Spirit (Ephesians 3:16); of Christ 2 Corinthians 12:9); and of God (Matthew 22:29). In the plural number it is put, for angels (Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22), which excel in strength(Psalms 103:20). And for the firm and stable things in heaven (Matthew 24:29); and for extraordinary works. Hereupon they are styled in our English, “ mighty deeds” (2 Corinthians 12:12) “ mighty works” (Matthew 11:20-21; Matthew 11:23); “ wonderful works” (Matthew 7:21); and frequently, as here in this text “ miracles” (Acts 2:22; Acts 19:11; 1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 12:28-29). For miracles cannot be wrought but by an extraordinary power, even the power of God Himself. Fitly, therefore, is this word “ powers” used to set out miracles, and fitly is it here, and in other places, translated “ miracles.” (W. Gouge.) Of the miracles wrought in confirmation of Christianity Miracles are a Divine testimony given to a person or doctrine. I. WHAT A MIRACLE IS. The shortest and plainest description I can give of it is this: that it is a supernatural effect, evident and wonderful to sense. 1. That it be a supernatural effect. By a supernatural effect I mean such an effect as either in itself or in its own nature, or in the manner and circumstances of it, exceeds any natural power that we know of to produce it. 2. There is another condition also required to a miracle, that it be an effect evident and wonderful to sense; for if we do not see it, it is to us as if it were not, and can be no testimony or proof of anything, because itself stands in need of another miracle to give testimony to it, and to prove that it was wrought; and neither in Scripture, nor profane authors, nor in common use of speech, is anything called a miracle, but what falls under the notice of our senses; a miracle being nothing else but a thing wonderful to sense; and the very end and design of it is to be a sensible proof and conviction to us of something which we do not see. II. IN WHAT , AND WITH WHAT AND , GIVE TO THE TRUTH AND OF ANY . 1. The entire proof of the Christian doctrine or religion, consisting of many considerations, when taken together, make up a full demonstration of the truth of it, when perhaps no one of them, taken singly and by itself, is a convincing and undeniable proof. 2. But yet miracles are the principal external proof and confirmation of the divinity of a doctrine. 3. Especially if miracles have all the circumstances of advantage given to them which they are capable of; if they be many and great, public and unquestionable, and universal and of long continuance. 4. It cannot be denied, but that God doth sometimes permit miracles to be wrought for the countenancing of a false doctrine. So our Saviour tells us that the elect, that is, the true and sincere Christians, should not be deceived by the” signs and wonders of the false Christs and false prophets.” And therefore He was not afraid of having the credit of His doctrine weakened by foretelling that false prophets should work miracles; because He knew when the devil had done his utmost, the difference would be apparent enough between the confirmation which He had given to the Christian doctrine, and what the devil should be able to give to his instruments. As (1) Either the doctrine would be absurd in itself, and such as no miracles can confirm. Or (2) It would be contrary to that doctrine which had already bad a far greater and more Divine confirmation. Or (3) The miracles which false prophets work are presently confuted, and upon the spot. Thus Moses confuted and conquered Pharaoh’ s magicians, by working miracles which they could not work, which forced them to yield the cause, and acknowledge that it was “ the finger of God.” And so likewise Simon Magus. Or else (4) The miracles wrought, or pretended to be wrought, to confirm false doctrines, are such as do, some way or other, confute themselves; or if they be real, are sufficiently detected to be the pranks of the devil, and not the great and glorious works of God. Such were the miracles of the heathen deities, wrought so privately and obscurely, and confessedly mixed with so much of imposture, as to bring a just suspicion upon them that, when they were real, the devil was the author of them. And such were the miracles which are attributed to Mahomet. 1. What hath been said may satisfy us of the truth and divinity of the Christian doctrine, which had so eminent a testimony given t, it from heaven, and did at first so strangely prevail in the world, contrary to all human probability, “ not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2. From hence we may judge how groundless the pretences are, which men nowadays make to inspiration and infallibility, because this is not to be proved and made out any other way but by miracles. For either we must believe every pretence of this kind; and then we are at the mercy of every crafty and confident man, to be led by him into what delusions he pleases; or we must only believe those who give Borne testimony of their inspiration; but the evidence of inspiration was always miracles. 3. You see what an immediate testimony from heaven God was pleased to give to the first preachers of the Christian doctrine, to qualify them with any probability of success, to contest with violent and almost invincible prejudices of men educated in a contrary religion, and which had the secular authority and laws on its side. For having this Divine seal given to their commission, they did as it were carry the letters-patents of heaven in their hands, and an authority paramount to that of human laws. 4. The consideration of what has been said, doth justly upbraid us, that our religion, which hath such evident marks of divinity upon it, and comes down to us confirmed by so many miracles, should yet have so little efficacy upon the lives of the greatest part of those who call themselves Christians. Secondly, that God gave testimony to the apostles and first publishers of Christianity, in a very eminent manner. 1. At this time the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles in miraculous powers and gifts; when this new law was “ to come forth out of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” And among these gifts, the first we find mentioned was the gift of tongues, without which the gospel must of necessity have been very slowly propagated in the world. 2. The next miraculous gift I shall mention after the gift of tongues is the gift of prophecy, or foretelling things future, which was always looked upon as an evidence of inspiration. 3. The next gift is that of healing all manner of diseases. 4. The power of raising the dead, which hath always been esteemed one of the greatest and most unquestionable miracles of all other. 5. Another miraculous gift was that of discerning spirits, the principal use of which was to try and judge who were true prophets. 6. And, besides these which I have mentioned, there was likewise a power of inflicting corporal punishments and diseases upon scandalous and obstinate Christians, which in Scripture is called, “ a delivering men up to Satan, for the destroying or tormenting of their bodies, that their souls might be saved at last.” And of this kind were those diseases which befel the Christians for their disorderly and irregular carriage at the sacrament, of which the apostle speaks (1 Corinthians 11:30). 7. There was the power of casting out devils in the name of Christ, which was common to the meanest Christian, and continued in the Church a long time after most of the other gifts were ceased, as Tertullian, Minucius Felix, and Arnobius, do most expressly testify concerning their times. III. THE REASON WHY THESE ARE NOW CEASED IN THE CHURCH, and have been for a long time, so that there have been no footsteps of this miraculous power for many ages. I. THESE POWERS AND GIFTS HAVE CEASED IN THE CHURCH FOR SEVERAL AGES. II. THERE IS NOT THE LIKE AND FOR THEM THAT THERE WAS BEFORE. They were at first in a great degree necessary to introduce the gospel into the world, which was destitute of all other helps and advantages, to recommend it to the esteem and liking of mankind; to give credit to a new doctrine and religion, so contrary to the inveterate prejudices of men, bred up in another religion very different from this, and so opposite to the lusts and interests of men. III. I come now TO ANSWER THAT from the innumerable miracles which have been, and still are pretended to be, wrought in the Church of Rome. And so indeed we find that, the Arians and other heretics in former times pretended to miracles, for the confirmation of their errors, a good while after miracles were generally ceased in the Christian Church, which shows that this is no new or strange thing. 1. The most learned and judicious writers of the Roman Church do acknowledge that there is no necessity of miracles, s now, and that Christianity is sufficiently established by the miracles which were wrought at first to give testimony to it; and therefore, not being necessary, without manifest evidence of fact, it, is not necessary to believe that they are continued. 2. The miracles pretended to by the Church of Rome are of very doubtful and suspected credit, even among the wisest persons of their own communion. 3. The miracles of the Church of Rome, supposing several of them to be true, have such marks and characters upon them, as render it very suspicious that they are not operations of God, or good spirits, but the working of Satan. 4. The miracles of the Church of Rome, taking them for true, are very impertinently and unseasonably wrought. When and where there is no need and occasion for them, they are very rife and frequent; but where there is greatest occasion for them and most reason to expect them, they are either not at all, or very rarely so much as pretended to. 5. Be from whom of all persons in that Church we might expect the most and greatest miracles, does not, so far as I can learn, pretend at all to that gift; I mean the head of their church, the Pope. 6. Most of the doctrines in difference between us and the Church of Rome, which they chiefly pretend to confirm by these miracles, are not capable of being confirmed by them. There are three sorts of doctrines, two of which are in their own nature incapable of being confirmed by a miracle, and a third upon supposition of its cent, artery to the Christian doctrine, which hath already had an unquestionable Divine confirmation. (1) No doctrine which is contrary to sense, is capable of being confirmed by a miracle, as transubstantiation. (2) No doctrine that does countenance or enjoin idolatry is capable of being confirmed by a miracle. This is evident from Deuteronomy 13:1-18. (3) No doctrine contrary to any part of the Christian doctrine, which hath already received an unquestionable Divine confirmation, is capable of being confirmed by the miracles pretended to in the Church of Rome, if they were real. 7. The chief Prophecies of the New Testament, which are concerning false prophets, and concerning antichrist, have marked Him out by this character, that He should be a great worker of miracles and magnify Himself upon this pretence (Matthew 24:24). (Archbp. Tillotson.) Miracles not needed now Now that the use of miracles is performed unto us and we do believe the gospel, in token that our faith is accepted of God, now He hath taken signs from us which served us before when we were unbelieving. And surely our faith is never so honourable, nor God so well pleased with us, as when we have said both to heaven and earth, we seek no signs from them: when the Word of God hath such a persuasion in our hearts, that we have now taken hold of all the good promises of God and said unto miracles, get you hence. The Jews seek a sign, saith St. Paul surely we that be Christians seek for none; when they were offered of God, He showed His compassion upon our infirmity; now He hath taken them away, He showed greater mercy that He accepteth our faith, and let us hearken to the Word of Christ; by it we shall live; if we believe it not, we would not believe all miracles in the world, no, though dead men should rise to preach unto us. For great miracles have been already done, not only by the apostles, but by Christ Himself, to confirm His word. If We believe not them it is too much childishness to think we would believe other. Signs were when doctrine was more obscure; now it is so clear the signs are gone. The Son of God once revenged the transgression of His law with the earth opening, with waters, with fire, with whirlwinds, that the people might fear. He doth not so now, because His threatenings have been heard of all flesh: Go ye cursed into eternal fire--a voice that pierceth between the marrow and the bones, with greater fear than the rage of earth or water. And Christ once showed loving signs to make His people put their trust in Him, but now He hath spoken in our hearts: Come ye blessed of My Father into everlasting life--a voice that goeth deeper into the soul and spirit than the hearing of all the miracles, by which Israel was led into the land of Canaan. And we shall do injury to our Saviour Christ if now we will ask that to these words He should add miracles, for if we bring faith to that which is spoken, it will fill our hearts with all fulness, and will sell the sight of all the miracles in the world to buy but one grain of a constant faith in Christ; wherein whosoever shall stumble, let him accuse himself if God give him over to his own blindness, that because he had no love to believe the truth, therefore he should be led with lies and deceivable things. (E. Deering, B. D.) Gifts of the Holy Ghost The gifts of the Holy Ghost Gifts of the Holy Ghost were extraordinary qualities and powers given to such as heard the apostles’ doctrine and believed it; as power to heal, to speak in strange languages, to prophecy, to do miracles. They are said to be gifts and effects of the Holy Ghost, because they had them not by nature, or industry, or instruction by man, but from the power of God-Redeemer, and the Spirit of Christ. They are called in the original, “ distributions” or “ divisions,” because they were 1. Communicated to divers persons. 2. Were many of different kinds. 3. Were given in several degrees. They were distributed according to His own will. (1) Freely. (2) To whom He will. (3) What gifts He will. (4) In what measure He will. For there are diversities of gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4). But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will (Hebrews 2:11). The effect of these miracles and gifts was the confirmation of the doctrine of the apostles, which they did confirm by word and deed. For 1. They did most certainly affirm and assert this doctrine, as baying heard it immediately of Christ, and as having received the immediate knowledge thereof from Him. 2. They did these signs, wonders, and mighty deeds, and upon the imposition of their hands, believers received the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, yet they neither did these miracles, nor gave these gifts by their own power or holiness. But the works were done, and the graces given by them as instruments, in the name of Christ as risen and glorified and from God. So that the power of God, the merit of Christ, their ministration, did all concur to the production of these glorious effects. God was the principal cause, therefore is it said, that by these God did bear them witness and attest their doctrine to he true, and from Him; so that this confirmation was a giving credibility to the doctrine of the gospel, so far as it was new,. and delivered the positive truths concerning Jesus of Nazareth, dying for our sins, rising again, sitting at the right hand of God, and the dependence of justification before the tribunal of God, and eternal glory upon faith in Him making intercession in heaven. For there was no need thus to cut, firm the ceremonials of Moses, and the covenant of God with Israel before Mount Sinai to the Jew; for these things He made no doubt of, nor was this confirmation needful for to persuade the Gentile of the equity and justice of the morals of the Scripture, for the natural light of reason did approve them. These miracles and gifts were proofs very strong and powerful, for they were no juggling impostures or delusions, but real demonstrations of the Divine will, and clear to the senses. (G. Lawson.) According to His own will Of God’ s will in ordering works and gifts The forementioned diversity of miracles and distribution of gifts, were ordered and disposed according to the will of God. This act of distributing is attributed to God (1 Corinthians 7:17); to His Son (Ephesians 4:7); and to His Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:11). And for kind, number, and measure of gifts, all are ordered by the will of this one God according to His own will, not another’ s; the Greek word intends as much. The will of God is that rule whereby all things are ordered that He Himself doth, and whereby all things ought to be ordered that creatures do. Hereupon God’ s will is distinguished into His secret and revealed will (Deuteronomy 29:29). The secret will of God is called His counsel (Isaiah 46:10); the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11); His purpose (Romans 13:23): His pleasure (Isaiah 46:10); His good pleasure (Ephesians 1:9); the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:5). The other is commonly called God’ s Word, and that after the manner of men, because the ordinary means whereby men make known their minds is the word of their mouth, therefore the revelation of God’ s will is called God’ s Word, whether it be by an audible voice from God Himself (Matthew 3:17), or by the ministry of angels (Hebrews 2:2), or by the ministry of men (Hosea 1:2). This is also called the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). This revealed will of God is that which is principally intended in the second petition of the Lord’ s prayer. Here God’ s secret will is meant. This is that supreme and absolute will of God, by which all things are, and without which nothing can be (Psalms 115:3; Ephesians 1:11; Romans 11:34). This is God’ s only rule; He hath nothing else to regulate any purpose or act of His but His own will. As therefore He disposeth all things, so in special the gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His will. The grounds following do demonstrate the equity hereof. 1. God is the fountain whence all gifts flow (James 1:17). All are His; hereupon He thus presseth His right against such as were not contented with that portion which He gave them (Matthew 20:15). 2. God is the most supreme Sovereign over all. He is the Lord and Master of all; He therefore hath power to order the places and duties and parts of all as He pleaseth, according to His own will (1 Chronicles 28:4-5). 3. God is the wisest of all. He is wise in heart (Job 9:4); yea, mighty in wisdom (Job 36:5); His understanding is infinite (Psalms 147:5); He is only wise (Romans 16:27). He therefore best knoweth what is fittest for every one, and He is fittest to order it according to His will. 4. God’ s will is the rule of righteousness. Whatsoever is ordered thereby and agreeable thereto is righteous, and whatsoever cometh from it is altogether righteous. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, His ordering therefore of matters must needs be according to right and equity. 5. The Lord fitteth gifts and functions one to another. Such gifts as are needful for such a function and such a function as is fittest for such gifts Matthew 25:15; Exodus 31:2; Exodus 31:8). This teacheth us every one to be content with our own measure which God hath proportioned to us, for we may be assured thereupon that it is the fittest and best Jot us. Hast thou a small measure? bear it patiently, that measure is fittest for thee. Hast thou a great measure? use it conscionably, that is fittest for thee. We are exhorted earnestly to covet the best gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31), and to seek to 1 Corinthians 14:12), and to grow up in all things (Ephesians 4:15). None of these, nor any such like exhortations are contrary to Christian contentedness. For 1. Though a man covet a more excellent gift than God hath Ordained for him, yet when he seeth that God hath bestowed such and such a gift upon him less than his desire, he may quietly subject himself to God’ s wise disposition and rest contented therewith. For the will of God being nosy made known unto him, he may persuade himself that the gift he hath is b,-st for him. 2. Seeking to excel is not ambitiously to strive for the highest places and greatest offices in the Church (as Diotrephes did, 3 John 1:9), but every one to strive in his one place to do most god in God’ s Church. This, therefore, is the full exhortation: “ Seek that you may excel to the edifying of the Church” (1 Corinthians 14:12). So as this teacheth us how to make the bent use of the place wherein God hath set us, and of the parts which He hath given us. 3. A continual growth in grace is no more opposite to Christian contentedness than the growth of the little tinge, is to the place wherein it is set. Growth and contentedness may well stand together, yea, they always go together. Growth in grace received showeth our good liking thereof, and that we think it the fittest for us; and are thereupon stirred up to nourish and cherish it, to keep it from decay, and to increase it more and more. (W. Gouge.) Hebrews 2:5 Put in subjection the world to come The sovereignty of the future I. IF CHRIST IS THE OF THE FUTURE, WE SHOULD HOLD STRONG FAITH IN THE OF HIS SYSTEM. 1. He has plentitude of power for the accomplishment of His promises. 2. Plenty of time. II. IF CHRIST IS THE OF THE FUTURE, WE MAY INFER THAT OUR FUTURE WELL-BEING IS EVER UPON PRESENT WELL-DOING. Otherwise 1. The good would have no guarantee that present obedience would ensure future well-being. 2. And the evil might hope for approval hereafter. III. IF CHRIST IS THE OF THE FUTURE, HIS LOYAL SHOULD BE TO THE EVENTS OF THE PRESENT, AND CALMLY AWAIT THOSE OF THE FUTURE. IV. IF CHRIST IS THE OF THE FUTURE, THE OBVIOUS OF EVERY HUMAN BEING, IS TO HIS NOW. 1. Because, without this friendship, His control will run contrary to all the feelings, aspirations, and purposes of the soul. 2. Because without this friendship, His control in the future will be exercised with positive reference to punishment. (Homilist.) The world to come The greatest difficulty is to know what is meant by “ the world to come,” which many think refers to the state of glory, and the word which follows the resurrection. Thus Lapide, and some of the ancients. Rivers understands the Church-Christian as opposed to the Church of former times, especially under the law. This is the more probable sense; for the apostle speaks of these last times, wherein God spake unto men by His Son; and it is opposed to the times wherein He spake by His prophets and angels. Yet we must not understand it of the Church exclusively, as though God had not subjected other things, even angels, for the good of the Church. That world and those times whereof the apostle speaks are here meant, but he speaks of the times of the gospel. The proposition is negative. God subjected not the world to come to angels. In former times God had used very much the ministry of angels in ordering the Church, and put much power in their hands to that end. Yet now in this last time He made Christ His Son (who by reason of His suffering was a little lower then the angels) to be the administrator-general of His kingdom, the universal Lord, and subjected the very angels unto Him. The expression seems to be taken from Isaiah 9:6, for whereas there, amongst other titles given to Christ, one is, everlasting Father; the Septuagint turn it, the Father or Governor of the world to come, which seems to be the genuine sense of the Hebrew words. The sum is, that God did not subject the Church in the times of the gospel, nor the world of those times to angels but to Christ. The words thus understood may inform us 1. That Christ is more excellent than the angels. 2. If the law and Word spoken by angels, when neglected and disobeyed, was so severely punished, much more severely shall they who neglect the gospel spoken by Christ be punished. 3. That if it was the duty of the fathers and those who lived in former times to hearken to the Word spoken by angels, which are but servants, then it is much more the duty of us, who live in these last times, to hearken unto the Word of so great salvation spoken by Christ, made Lord of all. From hence we may understand the scope of the words to be the same with that of the former, and that may be considered either as part of the former reason why we should hearken to Christ and not neglect the gospel; or they may, with the latter words following, contain another distinct reason, and in this manner, that seeing God hath not to the angels subjected the world to come, but to Christ, who, by His suffering and death, was for a little time made lower than the angels, and for that suffering, afterwards made Lord of all, even of angels, then we ought to give the more earnest heed to His doctrine. (G. Lawson.) The world to come The phrase “ to come” does not seem here merely to express the antithesis between “ this world” and the new order of things introduced through Christ; with this there is at least included the idea that this new order is still future: compare city to come (Hebrews 13:14; Hebrews 6:5). Throughout the Epistle the great antithesis is “ this world” and the “ world to come.” The former, visible, material, transient, to which belongs, as part of it, the first covenant; the other, real, heavenly, and eternal, access into which is through the new covenant. The first is subjected to angels, particularly as revealers of the law; but under their rule seems embraced the whole pre-Christian condition of things, embracing man in his earthly and mortal condition. Salvation is escape from this and possession of the heavenly world. In this world to come the angels have no more rule, all things without exception are put in subjection to man (Hebrews 2:8). From the Old Testament point of view, the world to come is the world from the coming of the Messiah, for the Old Testament drew no lines in the Messianic salvation, the Messianic world was perfect from the moment of Messiah’ s coming. But in the view of this Christian writer, though powers from the world to come made themselves felt here (Hebrews 2:4; Hebrews 6:5), and though through hope (Hebrews 6:19) and faith believers might be said to be come to it (Hebrews 12:22), it was still no more than ready to be revealed. It belonged to a sphere transcending this earth, out of which it would be revealed and descend, and then all that was promised by God’ s holy prophets would be fulfilled, when the meek should inherit the earth Psalms 37:11; Matthew 5:5; Romans 4:13), and the dominion under the whole heaven should be given to the people of the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:27)--for then earth and heaven would be one. This “ world to come” is identical with the “ all things” of the Psalm (verse 8), being “ all things” in their final and eternal condition--whereof we speak means, which is the subject of my writing, rather than, which is the theme of hope and converse among us Christians. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.) Christ the Genius of the future Strauss, in writing of the Emperor Julian’ s attempt to restore the old paganism, and to put away the new Christianity, says: “ Every Julian, i.e.. every great and powerful man who would attempt to resuscitate a state of society which has died, will infallibly be vanquished by the Galilean, for the Galilean is nothing less than the genius of the future.” To say that “ the Galilean is nothing less than the genius of the future,” is to say of Him what it would be ridiculous to say of any one else. Strauss felt that the spirit of the Galilean was so great add good, so rich, as to give to the future its noblest inspirations. (T. Sherwood.) The world to come As a man plants his estate, and plants for far-off years, and gives to each tree the soil and situation it requires--so has the Lord planted this earth, and certainly with reference to a time not yet fulfilled. (Miss S. F. Smiley.) The hope of a golden age The hope of a future golden age, when the whole world should be renewed and evil banished, is very plainly expressed in the old German legends of the gods. Baldr, the good, the holy and the wise, the favourite of the gods and of men, is slain through the crafty stratagem of the wicked Loki. The gods and all creatures lament: men and beasts, trees and rocks weep. Evil times afterwards come upon the earth; strife and bloodshed increase; and in the fight between the giants and the gods, Odin and the Ases (the good gods) are subdued, and the world destroyed by fire. But Vidar the victorious will restore the golden age; a new world is to arise, clothed with perpetual spring and plenty; there will no longer be any Loki, and Baldr will return from the dead: while gods and men, recovering from their overthrow, will dwell peacefully together. Kindred traditions are familiar also, in Mexico and the South Sea Islands. In short, everywhere in the heathen world, the prediction and the hope are indigenous, that when evil shall have reached its climax, these iron times of sin and misery will come to an end, and even the gods who have ruled during this age of the world will be overthrown. For this purpose a royal hero, of heavenly descent, will appear to crush the head of the demon and to bring back the primitive age of happiness and innocence. (Prof. C. E. Luthardt.) Hebrews 2:6 What is man?What is man? To answer this question with anything like completeness it would be necessary to discourse upon it in much detail. Reference would have to be made to various sciences--psychology, physiology, anthropology, sociology; and even then the answer would be inadequate, for all the scientists together are unable to take the full measure of man. It is possible, however, to ponder the question with reference to one or two of the more salient points that it suggests, in such a way as to arrive briefly at an answer that may suffice for a moral purpose. Naturally, the question at the outset throws us back on history and the records of the past. What has man been? what was his beginning? It is almost lost in the dimness of remote antiquity. All we can say is, that, like every other living thing, his course has been upward and onward from a lower form, that in strength, in beauty, in intellect, in moral power, he has progressed by a slow development. On any supposition there must have been a period when he first acquired personality, when, to his sensuous and instinctive impulses, there were superadded reason and will, and those higher emotions and faculties which we commonly speak of as pertaining to the soul. There must have been a time when man first knew what right and wrong were, and what sin was; and there must have been a time when man first committed sin and experienced the sense of shame. So that whether chaps, 2. or 3. of Genesis are historical or not, they are spiritually true. Theyfurnish an exact description of what man was, and what he did, in that early stage of his being, when he acquired the power of choosing between good and evil. They narrate that change in the evolution of the race which corresponds to the change in the evolution of the man when he arrives at years of discretion, and can be treated as a moral being, having a sense of moral responsibility. And it does not require the slightest remission of candour, or fancy of interpretation, to read the Biblical description of man’ s origin in correspondence with the suggestions of science: “ And the Lord God formed man of the dust … and man became a living soul.” Here we have a statement of the lowest possible origin of man, from “ the dust of the ground,” with the addition that there was infused into him afterwards by the Almighty that quality of his nature which made him like the Almighty, and capable of what the best men have attained. It existed only in the germ at first, this principle of the higher life; but it was a germ having a power of development which was almost inexhaustible--a germ that has gone on working marvellously ever since; so that, from the teaching of experience only, we do not know what limits to set to the possible development of man. There was once a wise king, as Jeremy Taylor tells us, who was raised to the throne from the position of a ploughman, and kept his country shoes always by him to remind him from whence he had sprung. It would be well if we would in like manner often think of what we were, and what, in many respects, we still are, with the traces of our lower birth still about us. We should be less disposed to think that all things exist for man, and that “ man is the measure of all things.” We should assume an attitude of more reverent and waiting humility towards Him from whom we and all things are sprung. Again, the recollection of our low beginning would tend to produce a salutary effect on our moral conduct. What more common pretext for their mode of life is offered by the sensual and intemperate than that they are following the dictates of their nature? Yes; but which nature? The lover? that which they share with the brute, and have perhaps inherited from the brute? Does ever humanity fall so low as when it makes such an appeal? Remember, then, from whence you have sprung, or at any rate what you have been, and you will not be forward to plead for liberty to do what “ your nature” dictates. For man only became man, and deserved to be styled man, when he learnt bow to control his appetites. But further, for those even who are cognizant of the higher nature in man and who are striving to live according to that, nature, it is useful to remember the other side of their being. The higher nature has been evolved out of the lower. We are the products of evolution from various ancestors; we have inherited our several dispositions, whether good or bad; we are, to a large extent, the creatures of our circumstances; our higher life is governed by precisely the same laws which control the lives of plants and animals; we are subject in our higher nature to similar conditions of degeneration and mortification. We cannot, then, be what we like to be without regard to the environment in which we are placed. Though we boast of our free-will, we act on the greatest number of occasions simply on the impulse of the strongest motive. And therefore it is absolutely needful for our spiritual well-being that we place our-elves in a favourable environment, that we put ourselves in the way of being actuated by good motives, that we cultivate habits of prayer and watchfulness. Thus we are admonished by the laws of the animal life, which we share with the brutes. And, moreover, the higher nature of man is not only subject to the laws which govern the animal life, but it is inextricably interwoven with the animal nature in himself. His goodness from day to day depends on what use he makes of his lower nature. Bodily ill-health will weaken his self-control, and curtal(his spiritual powers: bodily indulgence will enervate his will, and expose him to special temptations. So that a great part of the activity of the higher nature depends on a proper treatment of the lower. Hence the necessity for exercising self-discipline, in order to keep the lower passions under proper control. It needs no asceticism, no going out rote the wilderness to feed on locusts and wild honey to accomplish this. It needs not that the lower feelings should be crushed, but rather that they should be made sublime by becoming the ready instruments of the higher self. And then the man becomes a harmonious, a dignified, a noble being, armed and fully equipped to do God’ s bidding at all times. Then he can indeed lift up his head above the animal creation, and feel that he is a being of a different mould from them. Then he can find in himself the working of a spirit of life to whose continuance the destruction of the body is no impediment. Then he can even dare to claim kindred with God Himself Romans 8:13-14). (W. L. Paige Cox, M. A.) What is man? The question of all antiquity, and perhaps the question around which for years to come the greatest theological and scientific strife will take place, is this: What is man? The answer that the Christian Church will give will not of course accord in all points with the answer of the scientist who denies the revelation which comes from God. Yet, strange to say, though by different paths, and for every different purposes, we come in one sense to the same conclusion as the scientist: that there are possibilities in man which, if only they be evolved, will raise him to an infinite height, and bestow upon him a power that is possessed by no other creature in the universe. We hold that man is intended by God to be elevated step by step by the power of the gospel, until he becomes a partaker of the very glory of God. The scientist holds--if he denies revelation, I mean--that man is gradually, by a process of evolution, and by the development of the species, to be so elevated that at last all that is called God shall be found in him, and that man thus becomes a God to himself and to creation. But there is little question that the answer will be that “ the earth is the Lord’ s and the fulness thereof” ; that man is but the deputy or vicegerent of his God; and that if man can be elevated to the position to which Almighty God intended him to attain, he shall be one with God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; he shall be elevated, step by step, by the gospel power, until he shall attain to the highest glory of God: “ The glory that 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.” I know no motive power that can touch man’ s nature when it be elevated above the self-consciousness of self-seeking, so much as the inquiry what God meant man to be, what God made man for originally, what He considers him to be now, and what are the possibilities God has put before man in and through the glorious Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord. My purpose, therefore, is to inquire whether, if God’ s revelation be the power by which mankind can be elevated to its highest possible destiny, we are prepared to carry out that purpose, and to glorify God as our Saviour in all things, by giving up ourselves to His service, to live the devoted live that the Church should live and to rise above the selfishness of mere personal salvation; remembering that there is a still more glorious aim than merely to be saved, and to enter personally into the glory of God, and it is this--that in her corporate, capacity, the Church should see that the individual life and personality is in one sense to be lost, and that when the individual soul forgets even its own personal salvation and its aspirations to everlasting happiness, then, and then only, does it really attain to the highest possible dignity of man; and that when the Church as a whole becomes, as she should be, greatly thoughtful on behalf of the individuals or units that one by one make up the perfection of the body of Christ which is His Church, then only will she fulfil her high destiny upon earth. Now let us proceed to the inquiry, taking our answer from God’ s own Word. What is man? Can anything more magnificent be conceived than the dignity wherewith God originally endowed him? Whole step by step God evolved the glories and beauties of creation, one and one only purpose was in the Master-Maker, and that was to prepare the wonderful sphere in which man as the top stone of all should be happy and blessed, and should glorify his Maker. And when that wonderful series of preparations was completed, we find that even the Almighty Maker, the great Creator, has to pause as it were, in order that He may give greater dignity and greater glory to the creation of the creature which is to be possessor of all!--and instead of that mere fiat, “ Let there be” and “ there was,” we hear the Triune God saying, “ Let Us make man in Our own image and after Our own likeness.” And then “ God made man,” as the apostle Paul says, “ the image and glory of God” ! Surely from that moment we should expect the sphere of man to be great. But suddenly all the glory is swept away, and the creature for whom God had worked so long ceases to enjoy his original position; for by one act of folly he has severed himself from God, and, sin entering into the world, and death by sin, all the greatness of man would seem to be lost for ever. Nor from that time forward, as far as physical manifestation goes, has there ever been a recovery of the creature’ s lost dignity; and if now (however much modern science rejects the doctrine of the fall) the inquiry rings through the vault of heaven “ What is man? “ the answer would appear to be that man has become a thing of naught. Yea, “ ye, fly every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” Man is even “ like a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Yet, though this his fallen condition urges one to think with pain of the creature, let me invite you to pause before you condemn humanity after that modern fashion which is at the opposite extreme to that which speaks of man rising upwards and becoming God. Let me ask you to look at the fallen creature and see how, even after the fall, there are magnificent proofs in him of the original power of God, and that he is by no means to be condemned as a hopeless cripple. We gaze upon the ruins of a city and, from these ruins we gather is former magnificence and greatness; and it is by the style of these ruins that we judge of the city. So let me ask you to look at man for a moment, and as you see in this fallen creature powers that never were found in any other, you shall be compelled to give him your admiration, and honour him for the possibilities that lie buried beneath the surface, and which may elevate him into something almost Divine if only he can be delivered from the dominion of sin. Look, for instance, at the power or revenge as inherited in the vilest and worst of men. We find no other creature in the world who, for the mere sake of obtain-ink vengeance on its own behalf, will determine to sacrifice its own life. Look at the power of covetousness--that ambition and yearning after money and place, which the apostle describes as idolatry; and observe the wondrous powers there are in the creature who, for the mere sake of advancing himself, will slave and toil in order that he may be elevated above his fellows. Look again on that awful power of remorse, which comes over those who have fallen and sunk into despair. Can anything prove more clearly than the workings of remorse the very magnificence of the creature who is capable of such conditions and emotions? It would seem, if we watch a man in the activities of remorse, as if we were able to stand on a height within himself and so contemplate the utter misery of his own ruined, fallen slate. Surely there is no other creature in the world such as this. Therefore, as we look at man in his fall, again we are compelled to say, What is man? and to answer back, Man is not merely the wreck of his former self-though that we believe most solemnly--but a wonderful creature, a marvellous being, fitted, if only liberated from his fallen condition, to stand once more in the presence of God. At length, after four thousand years, during which God had from time to time been essaying to reveal Himself unto men, the oracle would seem to have become altogether dumb, when an angel appears to a virgin in Nazareth, and tells that a “ holy thing shall be born of her which shall be called the Son of God” ; and there bursts from the inspired lips of Zacharias the cry that “ God hath visited and redeemed His people,” and that “ the Dayspring from on high hath visited us” ; and the Lord Jesus, as the true “ Word made flesh,” appears among men. And now, what see we as the result of Jehovah deigning to appear in the flesh? First, the manifestation of what mall should be and could be if only the purpose of God was fulfilled; secondly, the manifestation of what God still determined to accomplish in man, because in Christ Jesus He would purchase humanity to Himself; and, thirdly, the manifestation of what may be done by those brought into personal contact and union with Him, being made one with the Son of God, by the faith which He requires us to exercise. We also see that in place of limitation, which had appeared to be working for so many centuries, expansion commenced, and has been wondrously proceeding from the day that the Lord Jesus returned to His Father in heaven. For when about to pass back to the glory of God, arid to be hidden from men’ s eyes for a little while, we hear from His lips the blessed truth that “ Ye shall receive power” and “ Ye shall be witnesses unto Me,” and in ten days from that time a third great series of manifestations commences. No longer ,in men see the form of the Son of God, but the power of the Holy Ghost in the sons of God. Jehovah-Elohim had appeared unto man; Jehovah Jesus had appeared for man; and now, in the Church of God, and in the fulness of His power, the Jehovah Spirit would appear in man. From that day forward the work of expansion commences, and for eighteen hundred years the great power of the Lord, the Holy Ghost, has been exhibit d in this world working out the complete man (Ephesians 4:13; Ephesians 5:25, &e.). The Second Man, who is the Lord from heaven, will not be complete until His Bride be brought unto Him, His glorious Church, wit; out spot or wrinkle or any such thing; and so each sinner that is joined to Jesus Christ by His Spirit is made a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, and we live in Him, we live by Him, and we may now live for Him, in order that hereafter we may live with Him in the manifested glory that awaits God’ s Son. And now when we see “ the Man Christ Jesus” made perfect through suffering, and then lifted up to the throne of God that by His Spirit He may draw men into absolute unity with Himself, say, oh say, “ What is man?” What is man, as we see him in the person of God’ s Son? What is man, as we see him in the purpose of God, which is to be carried out in soul after soul of those that are redeemed and united vitally unto the Lord Jesus Christ? And “ what is man” when we consider the triumphs of this gospel? What but this truth, as the truth is in Jesus, has made man such as he has occasionally been seen? What but this could have made a Paul, a Peter, or a John? What but this could have given us an Augustine, a Wycliffe, a Huss, a Savonarola, a Luther? What but this in these latter days could give us those blessed missionaries who have stood before the world as witnesses for the power of Christ? What but this, the purpose of God, to glorify man, the purpose of God that man should have dominion in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all may bee-me workers together with Him, if only they he vitally united to the Man? (H. W.Webb Peploe, M. A.) What is man? We need not only a true philosophy of God but a true philosophy of man, in order to right,, thinking of the gospel. The idolater thinks man inferior to birds and beasts and creeping things, before which he prostrates himself. The materialist reckons him to be the chance product of natural forces which have evolved him, and before which he is therefore likely to pass away. The pseudoscience of the time makes him of one blood with ape and gorilla, and assigns him a common origin with the beasts. See what gigantic systems of error have developed from mistaken conceptions of the true nature and dignity of man! I. MAN AS GOD MADE HIM 1. the Divine likeness (Genesis 1:27). Our mental and moral nature is made on the same plan as God’ s: the Divine in miniature. Truth, love, and purity, like the principles of mathematics, are the same in us as in Him. If it were nut so, we could not know or understand Him. But since it is so, it has been possible for Him to take on Himself our nature, and that we should be one day transformed to the perfect image of His beauty. 2. Royal supremacy (Genesis 1:28). Man was intended to be God’ s vicegerent and representative. King in a palace stored with all to plea-e him, monarch and sovereign of all the lower orders of creation. The sun to labour for him as a very Hercules; the moon to light his nights, or lead the waters round the earth in tides, cleansing his coasts; elements of nature to be his slaves and messengers; flowers to scent his path; fruits to please his taste; birds to sing for him; fish to feed him; beasts to toil for him and carry him. Not a cringing slave, but a king, crowned with the glory of rule, and with the honour of universal supremacy. Only a little lower than angels, because they are not, like him, entangled with flesh and blood. This is man as God made him to be. II. MAN AS SIN HAS MADE HIM (Hebrews 2:8). His crown is rolled in the dust, his honour tarnished. His sovereignty is strongly disputed by the lower orders of creation. If trees nourish him, it is after strenuous care, anal they often disappoint. If the earth supplies him with food, it is in tardy response to exhausting toil. If the beasts serve him, it is because they have been laboriously tamed and trained, whilst vast numbers roam the forest glades, setting him at defiance. If he catch the fish of the sea, or the bird of the air, he must wait long in cunning concealment. Some traces of the old lordship are still apparent in the terror which the sound of the human voice and the glance of the eye side inspire into the lower orders, in the feats of lion-tamer or snake-charmer. But for the most part anarchy and rebellion have laid waste his fair realm. So degraded has man become that he has bowed before the objects that he was to command, and has prostrated his royal form in shrines dedicated to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. III. MAN AS CHRIST CAN MAKE HIM (Hebrews 2:9).--“ What help is that? “ cries an objector;” “ of course He is crowned with glory and honour, since He is the Son of God.” But, notice, the glory and honour mentioned here are altogether different from the glory of Heb 1:3. That was the incommunicable glory of His Deity. This is is the acquired glory of His humanity. 1. “ We behold Him.” --Behold Him, Christian. The wreaths of empire are on His brow. The keys of death and Hades swing at His girdle. The mysterious living creatures, representatives of creation, attest that He is worthy. All things in heaven, and earth, and under the earth, and in the seas worship Him; so do the bands of angels, beneath whom He stooped for a little season, on our behalf. 2. And as He is, we too shall be. He is there as the type and representative of redeemed men. We are linked with Him in indissoluble union. Through Him we shall get back our lost empire. We to, shall be crowned with glory and honour. The day is not far distant when we shall sit at His side; joint heirs in His empire; comrades in His glory, as we have been comrades in His sorrows; beneath our feet all things visible and invisible, thrones and principalities and powers; whilst above us shall be the unclouded empyrean of our Father’ s love, for ever and for ever. Oh, destiny of surpassing bliss! Oh, rapture of saintly hearts! Oh, miracle of Divine Omnipotence! (F. B.Meyer, B. J.) God’ s special care of man 1. God’ s special care of man, and His singular love towards him. 2. The same manifested in a most glorious manner, in the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. 3. The admiration, or rather amazement at such a stupendous manifestation of such stupendous love. All the works of God are in themselves excellent and wonderful, but the work of redemption by Christ is matter of greatest wonder and astonishment even to the angels. (G. Lawson.) What is man? He doth not speak of man in his first creation--he retained that estate but a while--therefore he would rather have deplored than admired it. He doth not speak of man as be is after his fall, for in that respect he is most miserable, not glorious; therefore he must needs speak of man as he is ingrafted into Christ, by whom he is advanced to wonderful and unspeakable glory. What is man? Not only considered in his first creation, but even in his renovation, what is the best man that ever was, that God should have any respect to him? By creation indeed he is the workmanship of God, the image of God Almighty; yet for all that., in respect of his original, he was taken out of the ground. He is but a piece of earth; since the Fall he is a mass of sin; though he be regenerate, and by faith ingrafted into Christ, yet still he hath sin in him and must die. Therefore what is this man, that Thou shouldest pour down so many blessings on him? that the sun, moon, and stars, should give him light? that the birds of the air, fishes of the sea, the casts of the field should be his meat? that be should walk as a king on earth? especially that Thou shouldest send Thy only Son to die for him, make him a member of His body, and provide an everlasting kingdom for him in the life to come? What is vile, wretched, sinful, corrupted man, that Thou shouldest be so far mindful of him? protect him with the shield of Thy favours from all dangers? That Thou shouldest vouchsafe him Thy Word and sacraments? That Thou shouldest give him Thy Holy Spirit to help him to pray, and to comfort him in all miseries? We should not be like the peacock spreading forth our golden feathers, and say within ourselves, What goodly men be we! We ought to think basely of ourselves--what are we that God should regard us? “ What am I and my father’ s house,” said that regal prophet, “ that Thou hast brought me hitherto?” What are we miserable wretches, that God Almighty should do anything for us? we are less than the least of all His mercies. Yet we are wont to vaunt of ourselves, do ye not know who I am? Dost thou not consider to whom thou speakest? yes, very well. I speak to dust and ashes. Let no high conceit of ourselves enter into our minds, let us think basely of ourselves, What am I, O Lord, that Thou shouldest give me the least thing in the world? A drop of drink, a crust of bread, a hole to hide my head in, especially that Thou shouldest give me Thine only Son, and together with Him all things that be good? What is any man in the world? Art thou a rich man? God can puff away thy riches and make thee poor. Art thou a wise man? God can take away thy senses and make thee a fool. Art thou a beautiful man? God can send the pox and many diseases to take away thy beauty Art thou a strong man? God can send sickness and make thee weak. Art thou a gentleman, a knight, a lord? yet thy breath is in God’ s hand. This night He can take away thy soul from thee, and what art thou then? Therefore let us all have an humble opinion of ourselves, let us cast down ourselves at God’ s feet, and say, What are we, O Lord, that Thou art mindful of us, that Thou so graciously visitest us, especially with Thy everlasting mercies in Christ Jesus. (W. Jones, D. D.) The littleness of man The intense beauty of the Arctic firmament can hardly be imagined. It looked close above our heads, with its stars magnified in glory and the very planets twinkling so much as to baffle the observations of our astronomer. I am afraid to speak of some of these night-scenes. I have trodden the deck and its floes when the life of earth seemed suspended, its movements, its sounds, its colouring, its companionships; and as I looked on the radiant hemisphere circling above, as if rendering worship to the unseen Centre of light, I have ejaculated in humility of spirit, “ Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? “ And then I have thought of the kindly world we bad left, with its revolving sunshine and shadow and the other stars that gladden it in their changes, and the hearts that warmed to us there, till I lost myself in memories of those who are not, and they bore me back to the stars again. (Dr. Kane’ s Arctic Explorations.) Hebrews 2:7A little lower than the angels Humiliation the way to exaltation All the forementioned branches of Christ’ s advancement, which are here and Isaiah 53:12; Eph Philippians 2:10, audio sundry other places inferred upon His humiliation, afford unto us sundry considerable observations, as 1. That working and suffering are the way to glory and honour. 2. That works of service and suffering were requisite for man’ s redemption and salvation (verse 10). 3. That God was mindful of His Son in His meanest and lowest estate, according to that which is written of the Son in relation to His Father,” Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell: neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show Me the path of life,” &c. (Psalms 16:10-11). 4. That all the members of Christ’ s body have good ground to be confident, that after they have done and endured what God shall call them unto, they shall be recompensed with a crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4). Christ therefore is to be looked on, as well advanced as debased; in His exaltation and in His humiliation; in heaven at His Father’ s right hand, as well as on the cross, or in the grave; crowned with glory, as well as with thorns (Hebrews 12:1). Thus will our faith be better settled and more strengthened, as Stephen’ s was, when he “ saw the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Thus shall we with much patience, contentedness and cheerfulness, do and endure what God by His providence calleth us unto, knowing that if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12). (W. Gouge.) Christ for a little lime made lower than the angels It is not material, whether we understand by little, a little measure of inferiority, or little time; for both are true. But the principal thing in these words is, wherein He was made lower than the angels; and that was in this, that He was man and mortal. Man is inferior to an angel as man; and much more as mortal, because the angels never die. Now Christ had the body of a man, and a soul separable from His body till the resurrection; and that was the little time here meant, the time of His mortality. Both might be joined in one divine axiom thus. We see, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that Jesus who for a little time was made lower than the angels. (G. Lawson.) Dignity of man Science may prove the insignificance of this globe in the scale of creation, but it cannot prove the insignificance of man. (B. D’ Israeli.) Descent of man The subject of a conversation at which Carlyle was present, but took no part, was the theory of evolution. At length a pause occurring, Carlyle emphatically and with solemnity observed, “ Gentlemen, you are well pleased to trace your descent froth a tadpole and an ape but I would say with David, ‘ Lord, Thou hast made me but a little lower than the angels.” (Leisure Hour.) Greatness of man But how is man “ little” ? He has competent knowledge of the character of God; he is only” a little lower than the angels,” and has dominion over all the works of God. He can comprehend the starry heavens; he is Godlike in his original nature; for “ in the image of God made He him.” The sublime truths which God has revealed to man show what estimate God has of man’ s capacity and responsibility. A finite creature can insult the majesty of heaven as deliberately and intelligently as the archangel; he can annihilate the authority of God in his own soul, and wherever he has influence; if all finite creatures should do this--and there are no creatures who are not finite--there would be no moral universe, no Divine government. (N. Adams.) Man’ s greatness I cannot reach the stars with my hands but I pierce beyond them with my thoughts, and if things go on in the illimitable depths of the skies which would shrivel up the imagination like a dead leaf, I am greater than they, for I ask “ Why,” and look before and after, and draw all things into the tumult of my personal life--the stars in their courses, and the whole past and future of the universe, all thing, as they move in their eternal paths, even as the tiniest pool reflects the sun and the everlasting hills. (Arnold Toynbee.) Dignity of man Man would not be the most distinguished being upon the earth if he were not too distinguished for it. (Goethe.) Man’ s superiority Too much stress has been laid upon the proud upright position of man, and a great deal has been said and written concerning the sublime aspect of his countenance, and the Godlike dignity of his carriage. A moment’ s consideration will be sufficient to show that though he looks upwards with ease and facility, he cannot, in this respect, claim any superiority. The eagle, which gazes on the sun with undazzled eye, and makes his pathway among the clouds, yields not in dignity of appearance or power of locomotion to man, who merely walks upon the ground. Can man measure his beauty with the antelope, his speed with the horse, or his strength with the-elephant? It is in virtue of his intellect, of his reason, and not of his bodily form that he ranks above his fellows. It was in mind, not in body, that “ God made man in His own image.” (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) Preparation for man How in the household are garments quilted and wrought, and curiously embroidered, and the softest things laid aside, and the cradle prepared to greet the little pilgrim of love when it comes from distant regions we know not whence! Now, no cradle for an emperor’ s child was ever prepared with such magnificence as this world has been for man. It is God’ s cradle for the race, curiously carved and decorated, flower-strewn and star-curtained. (H. W. Beecher.) All things in subjection The rulership of man I. GOD WAS MINDFUL, OF THE LIMITS IN WHICH MAN WOULD . All God’ s inanimate creatures serve Him and us by keeping within the limits prescribed for them. The planets have their orbits, the sea its boundary. The limits in which man was to exercise dominion over nature were love and obedience to God. So long as he could say: “ O Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth” and render the service flowing from such a homage, so long could it be said of him: “ Thou hast put all things under his feet.” II. WHEN MAN STEPPED OUT OF THESE LIMITS, THE WORLD REFUSED TO BE LIMITED BY HIM. Truly, we see not yet, or “ not now,” all things under him. The physician dies of the disease which he studies to cure; the seaman finds his grave in the ocean he has spent his life in learning to rule. Even the body of the Christian is subject to the laws of death and decay. III. ONE MAN HAS KEPT WITHIN THE LIMITS OF LOVE AND TO THE FATHER AND GOD, AND NATURE OWNS HIM AS HER LORD, He could say: “ My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me,” and therefore He could move amongst disease without danger of contamination, navigate the sea as its Master, and suspend old laws, or create new ones, at His will. The grave could not hold Him; but, from dominion over this world, He ascended to the throne of the universe, even the “ right hand of the Majesty on high.” How true of Him: “ Thou hast set Thy glory above the heavens.” Lessons: 1. If we would rule, we must be ruled. 2. All may find their way back to their lost limits by the generous love of Christ. “ He tasted death for every man.” 3. Every Christian, in his glorified condition, will have dominion according to his ability to exercise it for his own good, and that of others Matthew 26:21). (W. Harris.) Christ the chief Lord of the world This agreeth to all men in general, to the faithful in special, whom God hath made kings and lords over all His creatures by Christ But principally it Is to be understood of our Saviour Christ, who is the chief Lord of the world, the King and the Mediator of the Church; He hath all power in heaven and earth. All things, yea, even the devils themselves, are put in subjection under His feet. God hath given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should Philippians 2:9). We also by Him; because, we are members of His body and His brethren, we have an interest to all creatures: all things throughout the wide world are ours. The heaven, the earth, the birds, the beasts, the fishes, the trees, the flowers are ours; death is ours; the very devil himself is our slave and subject; God hath put him under our feet. 1. Here we may behold the dignity of Christians; all things by Jesus Christ are under our dominion. Oh, what a bountiful God is this, that hath given us so large a possession! Let us sound forth His praises lot it, and use His liberality to His glory. As God said to Peter, “ Arise, kill, and eat” ; when the sheet full of all kind of creatures was let down to him from heaven; so doth He say to us all, we may freely eat of all creatures whatsoever; but let us not abuse God’ s creatures to His dishonour and our destruction. Let us use them soberly, religiously, to make us more cheerful in the service of our God. 2. Let us not stand in a slavish scare of any creature; of the stars, the winds, no, not of the devils themselves; for all are put in subjection under our feet by Jesus Christ that loved us, and hath given us a superiority over all; we shall be conquerors over them all; a singular comfort to the faithful! Satan may tempt and assault us, but God will tread him under our feet. 3. For this dominion let us thank the Lord Jesus Christ. Of ourselves we are worth nothing, stark beggars; in Christ and by Christ we have all that we have. Let us magnify Him for it. (W. Jones, D. D.) Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus The coming sovereignty of man I. “ WE SEE NOT YET ALL THINGS IN TO MAN.” “ Not yet” ; but we are to see it. It has to come, this sway of man over “ things,” over all things--over the material forces of the world, the powers that largely affect, if they do not actually make, life and progress. The key of the energies of the universe hangs at his girdle, and he will one day “ be so learned in love” as to know how to use it to open all the doors of all the mansions of nature, and make their treasures supplements to, and continuations of, the spiritual creation. It has to come, this rule of the Spirit over sense and sin and Satan, over all that touches the invisible essence that constitutes the true man, and therefore over Satan, who works through “ things” to deceive the nations and destroy souls. This supremacy is the final goal of humanity. II. “ NOT UNTO ANGELS HAS GOD THE COMING WORLD.” Angels filled and crowded Hebrew thought for a long time, as God’ s “ mighty ones,” the swift-winged messengers who delighted to do His will; agents of deliverance, as for the imprisoned Peter, and of punishment, as for Sennacherib. But not to these “ men in lighter habit clad” had God subjected the coming world of manhood, the advancing goodness and perfecting character and service of the sons of God. Not to them, but to men like ourselves, who have to do with sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field, with cotton and calicoes, with science and art; whose life is as “ fragile as the dewdrop on its perilous way from a tree’ s summit.” and yet so strong that it destroys itself by sin; men “ made a little lower than God, and crowned with the glory” of a present participation in His nature, and therefore by and by to be invested with the “ honour” of sharing His rule. III. BUT IF TO MAN, TO WHAT IS THIS SCEPTRE OF FINALLY GRANTED? To all and sundry, and to them all alike, simply as men, or to particular races or one race of men? To whom is the ultimate leadership of the world to be given? God is no respecter of persons or of nations. Colour of skin is nothing to Him. Geography does not determine His choices. The conquering race is the godly race, of any colour, or country, or time. It is the “ new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him; where there cannot be” --it is ruled out for evermore” where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian,” African, Hindoo, Chinaman, Briton; “ but Christ is all and in all.” It is the manhood of “ kind hearts,” not-f “ coronets,” of “ simple faith,” and not of “ Norman blood.” IV. Though eighteen centuries have elapsed since that forecast of the destiny of man was quoted, endorsed, and explained by the writer to the Hebrews, amid the wreck and overthrow of Judaism, WE HAVE, ALAS! TO ADOPT THE WRITER’ S LAMENT, AND SAY, AS WE LOOK ON MAN AND HIS WORLD TO-DAY, “ NOT YET WE SEE ALL THINGS UNTO HIM’ .” Indeed, his mastery “ of things,” though advanced and advancing, is woefully incomplete. He is only slowly learning that he is a spirit, and is for large breadths of his time and in wide areas of his life the slave of “ things.” The animal is in command. Prometheus is still bound. “ The mystery of waste” and suffering and wrong confronts us day and night with its terrible menace, and the self-multiplying and intensifying power of sin drives us to carry our despair into our facts, until there is neither faith nor hope left in us, and, like the Hebrews, “ we fall away from the living God,” and find it impossible “ to hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.” V. But surely that is not all we see! There is more, much more. On this earth and amongst men--“ WE SEE JESUS” ; and though, in seeing Him, our first glimpse may only confirm the impression that man has not yet fully entered on his inheritance; yet the deeper look assures us that he is on his way to it, has already been anointed with the oil of joy above his predecessors and contemporaries, and, though suffering, is really ascending by suffering to the throne from which He shall rule for evermore. That sight explains the ages’ long delay; the dissolution and disappearance of the ancient and illustrious Jewish religion, and is the indefeasible pledge and guarantee that the sovereignty of man shall yet be realised, and all things be put under His feet. Seeing Jesus, we see these four paths to the sovereignty of the Christian race, and of the Christian religion through that race; the path of history, of Divine revelation, of saintly character, and of self-suppressing enthusiasm for the welfare of the world. 1. The past rules. It is alive; for many people more alive than the present. In Jesus that past is interpreted; its religious yearning and hope, effort and failure, explained; its programme in law and prophecy filled out; its long and painful discipline vindicated. Now, the case being so, I maintain that the experience the world has had of Christianity forms a piece of logic of irresistible cogency; an argument compact, four-square, fixed deep and for ever in the solid fastnesses of fact, in favour of the success of our present endeavour to save the world by the gospel of Christ; that indeed, as Christ in the conscience is the stronghold of missions, so Christ in the experience of men of like passions and hopes, faiths and fears with ourselves, all through the ages, is an unimpeachable voucher for the triumph of the missionary enterprise; a witness that cannot be denied that the movement is a living, saving, and conquering one, and destined to end in nothing short of the universal establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth. 2. Ideas rule. Thinkers make and mould the ages. Religious revolutions are effected by ideas. In Jesus we see the simplest and highest thought on the highest and most absorbingly vital themes: God and salvation, sin and forgiveness, duty and holiness. Great is the truth as it is in Jesus, and it shall prevail through and over Moses and Isaiah, over Buddha and Mahomet, and make all men free and good. We know the gospel to be the light and conquering message for India and the world. Judging man according to the spiritual necessities of his nature, we are sure this is the only message he can abidingly accept. Treating him, not simply as a keen intellectual thinker, eager to frame a definition of the Divine, and reduce his notions of the Godhead to the cramping boundaries of a four-page catechism--not as a clever and ingenious artist flinging the pictures of his fancy on the canvas, and creating things of perennial beauty and joy--not as a cleverly-constructed money-making machine, but as a man with a fevered restlessness born of sin, and an irrepressible aspiration for righteousness and goodness born of the God that is in him; taking him thus, I declare that no message can soothe him but Christ’ s, no medicine heal but the great Physician’ s, no good satisfy but that which make him a partaker of the Divine nature, and enables him to escape the corruption that is in the world by lust. 3. This is a moral world; and no rule lasts that is not based on holy character. It is not enough to have the right message; we need also the right method, the method that has conquered from the beginning. Jesus Christ wrote no books. He made men, filled them with His Spirit and trained them in His service, and trusted the founding of His kingdom to them. All the great epochs of revived life and extended power in the history of the Church have been introduced by men of signal goodness, of massive power, of radiant holiness, of unusual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When Dr. Judson went amongst the poor and benighted Karens, and passed through their villages and jungles, he was called by the natives “ Jesus Christ’ s man” ! That is it. Nothing can resist that power. A Woolwich steam-hammer is not better adapted for making iron-plated ships than Christ in men as a living experience, and at work in the rescue of the perishing, is fitted for the regeneration of the world. 4. The earliest sovereignty we know is that of love. No monarchy is so sure as a mother’ s, none so inward and lasting. “ Love never fails.” It is the p-wet that keeps your Christian man fresh, earnest, eager, real, enthusiastic, and hopeful; sustains him at high-pressure in spite of defeat; gives him the power of content, and the victory of joy in his work through, instead of obtaining the common rewards of labour, he suffer the heaped-up scorns and bitter hates of men. David Hume is reported to have said, “ Fifty years hence, where will your Christianity be?” Well, where is it? Contrast the dominion of Jesus at this hour, and in the days when the great sceptic spoke. Note our Lord’ s conquest since that taunt was flung at His chariot! Where has He not gone? Into what province has He not penetrated? What evils has He not attacked? Assuredly our survey of the past warrants the largest hopefulness and the strongest faith. Now, “ Fifty years hence,” we may ask, “ where will Christianity not be?” VI. Disraeli said, “ THE YOUNG DO THE REAL WORK OF THE WORLD.” Ruskin writes, “ The most beautiful works of all art were done in youth.” Rome was founded by Romulus before he was twenty. Lord Shaftesbury began his fight with social misery in the freshness of his young manhood. William Lloyd Garrison girt himself with the sword of freedom whilst the hot blood of youth was coursing through his veins. Moffat and Livingstone, Comber and Hannington, and an exceeding great army of missionaries said, like young Isaiah in response to God’ s summons, “ Here am I, send me.” The messenger of the Highest, John the Baptist, finished his work as a young man, and the Christ whom he pioneered was six months his junior. Wherefore, seeing that you are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, shirk no task, seize every opportunity of helping the needy, and run with patience the race of missionary service, “ looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith.” Hear Carey’ s wish, and help to realise it. “ I hope,” said he, in 1793, “ the Society will go on and increase, and that the multitudes of heathen in the world may hear the glorious words of truth. Africa is but a little way from India, Madagascar but a little way further; South America, and all the numerous and large islands in the Indian and China Seas, I hope will not be passed over. A large field opens on every side, millions of perishing heathens are pleading … with every heart that loves God, and with all the ,hutches of the living God.” Heed that prophetic message, and give to the work of saving the world a daily, d finite, and large place in the thought and prayer and work of your life! (J. Clifford, D. D.) Manhood crowned in Jesus One of our celebrated astronomers is said to have taught himself the rudiments of his starry science when lying on the hill-side, keeping his father’ s sheep. Perhaps the grand psalm to which these words refer had a similar origin, and may have come from the early days of the shepherd king, when, like those others of a later day, he abode in the field of Bethlehem, keeping watch over his flock by night. The magnificence of the Eastern heaven,, with their “ larger constellations burning,” filled his soul with two opposite thoughts--man’ s smallness and man’ s greatness. I suppose that in a mind apt to pensive reflections, alive to moral truths, and responsive to the impressions of God’ s great universe, the unscientific contemplation of any of the grander forms of nature produces that double effect. Thus David felt man’ s littleness. And yet--and yet, bigness is not greatness, and duration is not life, and the creature that knows God is highest. So the consciousness of man’ s separation from, and superiority to, these silent stars, springs up strong and victorious over the other thought. These great lights are not rulers, but servants; we are more than they, because we have spirits which link us with God. The text, then, brings before us a threefold sight. I. LOOK AT THE SIGHT AROUND US. “ We see not yet all things put under man.” Where are the men of whom any portion of the Psalmist’ s words is true? Look at them--are these the men of whom be sings? Visited by God! crowned with glory and honour! having dominion over the works of His hands! Is this irony in fact? Let consciousness speak. Look at ourselves. If that plan be God’ s thought of man, the plan that He hangs up for us His workmen to build by, what a wretched thing my copy of it has turned out to bet Is this a picture of me? How seldom I am conscious of the visits of God; how full I am of weaknesses and imperfections--the solemn voice within me tells me at intervals when I listen to its tones. On my brow there gleams no diadem; from in life, alas! there shines at the best but a fitful splendour of purity, all striped with solid masses of blackness. And as for dominion over creatures, how superficial my rule over them, how real their rule over me! I can make machinery, and bid the lightning do my errands, and carry messages, the burden of which is mostly money, or power, or sorrow. But all these, and the whole set of things like thorn, are not ruling over God’ s creation. That congests in using all for God, and for our own growth in wisdom, strength, and goodness; and be only is master of all things who is servant of God. If so what are most of us but servants, not lords, of earth and its goods? And so against all the theories of the desperate, school, and against all our own despondent thoughts, we have to oppose the sunny hopes which come from such words as those of our text. Looking around us, we have indeed to acknowledge with plaintive emphasis,” we see not yet all things put under Him” --but, looking up, we have to add with triumphant confidence that we speak of a fact which has a real bearing on our hopes for men--“ we see Jesus.” II. So, secondly, LOOK UPWARDS TO JESUS. Christ is the power to conform us to Himself, as well as the pattern of what we may be. He and none lower, He and none beside, is the pattern man. Not the great conqueror, nor the great statesman, nor the great thinker, but the great love, the perfectly good--is the man as God meant him to be. But turn now to the contemplation of Christ in the heavens, “ crowned with glory and honour,” as the true type of man. What does Scripture teach us to see in the exalted Lord? 1. It sets before us, first, a perpetual manhood. Grasp firmly the essential, perpetual manhood of Jesus Christ, and then to see Him crowned with glory and honour gives the triumphant answer to the despairing question that rises often to the lips of every one who knows the facts of life, “ Wherefore hast Thou make all men in vain? “ 2. Again, we see in Jesus, exalted in the heavens, a corporeal manhood. Heaven is a place as well as a state; and, however, for the present, the souls that sleep in Jeans may have to “ wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body,” and, being unclothed, may be wrapped about with Him, and rest in His bosom, yet the perfect men who shall one day stand before the Lord, shall have body, and soul, and spirit--like Him who is a man for ever, and for ever wears a human frame. 3. Further, we see in Jesus transfigured manhood. For Him, as for us, flesh here means weakness and dishonour. For us, though not for Him, flesh means corruption and death. For Him, as for us, that natural body, which was adequate to the needs and adapted to the material constitution of this earth, must be changed into the spiritual body correspondent to the conditions of that kingdom of God which flesh and blood cannot enter. For us, through Him, the body of humiliation shall be changed into likeness of the body of His glory. We see Jesus, and in Him manhood transfigured and perfected. 4. Finally, we see in Jesus sovereign manhood. He directs the history of the world, and presides among the nations. He is the prince of all the kings of the earth. He wields the forces of nature, He directs the march of providence, He is Lord of the unseen worlds, and holds the keys of death and the grave. “ The government is upon His shoulders,” and upon Him hangs “ all the glory of His Father’ s house.” III. Finally, LOOK FORWARD. Christ is the measure of man’ s capacities. He is the true pattern of human nature. Christ Is the prophecy and pledge of man’ s dominion. It were a poor consolation to point to Christ and say, “ Look what man has become, and may become,” unless we could also say, “ A real and living oneness exists between Him and all who cleave to Him, so that their characters are changed, their natures cleansed, their future altered, their immortal beauty secured.” He is more than pattern, He is power; more than specimen, He is source; more than example, He is redeemer. He has been made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that we may be in the likeness of His body of glory. He has been made “ sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” The fact we know, the contents of the fact we wait to prove. “ It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Enough, that we shall reign with Him, and that in the kingdom of the heavens dominion means service, and the least is the greatest. Nearness to God, knowledge of His heart and will, likeness to Christ, determine superiority among pure and spiritual beings. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The vision of Jesus in the Church through all ages Did you ever know the power of a picture, the portrait of some beloved friend, over the life and the heart? Did you ever hang the portrait of some cherished darling in the household room--a departed friend, a mother, a wife, a husband, or a child--some friend especially related to your sympathies and affections? And have you not noticed and felt what a character that portrait gives to the room? If the memory is especially prized, how the eye turns to it as it enters the room, and how the eye out of the portrait seems to follow you, not so much spectrally as spiritually, while in the room! That portrait will quiet the heart when it is in its state of fever, heat, and impulse. Mighty over the heart is the portrait, of the loved departed friend. But what is that compared with the power of the portrait of Jesus hung up in the human soul? For is not the soul, too, a mighty chamber--a room through which the powers and faculties wander and stray? There are some men whose souls are exchanges, money markets, or shops; but holy souls hang up within, the charmed and charming portrait of Jesus, and the, the spirit of the portrait turns the chamber into a palace--say rather into a dear household room. “ We see Jesus.” I. THE WHOLE OF THIS EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IS A TRIBUTE OF HOMAGE TO THE OF OUR LORD. How richly it abounds in “ strong consolations” to believing souls, founded on the sympathy of His nature and character! How it meets our human necessities! For, while it is true that we could not do without the strength of the eternal Divinity of our Lord, we feel it to be no less true that we could not do without the tenderness of His humanity; and this is the relation which, throughout the whole of this Epistle, is put by the apostle with such forcible beauty--“ Seeing then that we have a great High Priest” (Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 7:24-26 : again, in that magnificent peroration to the Hebrews 11:1-3). II. AND THIS PRESSED OUT OF THE SIGHT OF JESUS ARISES FROM THE OF HIS POWER, It is very beautiful to divide His character in His relation to us as it has been divided by Scripture, and by the experience of Christians of all ages into Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Priest, and Jesus the King. And we receive Him in this order. We see Jesus the Prophet in all the actions of His life as He went about doing good. “ Rabbi, I know Thou art a teacher sent from God.” “ We see Jesus.” He is our Priest” Harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” At once Priest and Sacrifice. “ On Him is laid the iniquity of us all.” I see Him standing vested in the beauties of His own holiness--nor have I any desire to own a righteousness which is nut His; it is not less happy than safe to hide in the foldings of His robe, and to feel that in His purity there is power--power to make “ the scarlet crime whiter then snow.” “ We see Jesus” as our King. It is our privilege and pride to see Him moving among and over the affairs of the world, “ walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,” and proclaiming, “ I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Thus everywhere, and in all ages, Jesus is power. Oh! what a chronicle is ,flat, the history of things and deeds wrought in “ the name of Jesus.” All beings know Jesus. “ Jesus we know, and Paul we know, hut who are ye?” There is power in the name of Jesus. There is power in the vision of Jesus. The value of all Christian service is there. The value of all worship rendered is in this: “ We see Jesus.” III. THE EVER-PRESENT OF THE TEXT, “ We See JESUS” --“ JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME , TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER.” “ We See Jesus,” says Paul, perhaps, in prison at Rome. There is something very striking in the contempt expressed by Festus on the trial of Paul: “ one Jesus” I said he. Ah, how little a person to poor Festus seemed “ one Jesus” ; but this “ one Festus” has quite passed away from the world’ s knowledge, and his name would not be known, his shadow would not be seen if it were not for this “ one Jesus” saving it from utter obscurity. Names are the signs of things, and the name of Jesus has survived all shocks; it has passed almost unchanged into all languages. All else seems to perish, it never; like a conservative element it leavens all languages without losing its own identity. (E. Paxton Hood.) Seeing Jesus I. WHY FAITH IS TO THE SIGHT. IS not sight, in many respects, the noblest of all the senses? To be deprived of any of our senses is a great loss, but perhaps the greatest deprivation of all is the loss of sight. They who lose sight lose the noblest of human faculties. 1. For observe that sight is marvelously quick. How wondrously fast and far it travels! We know not where heaven may be, but faith takes us there in contemplation in a single moment. We cannot tell when the Lord may come; it may not be for centuries yet, but faith steps over the distance in a moment, and sees Him coming in the clouds of heaven, and hears the trump of resurrection. It would be very difficult, indeed it would be impossible for us to travel backward in any other chariot than that of faith, for it is faith which helps us to see the creation of the world, when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy. Faith takes us to Calvary’ s summit, and we stand and see our Saviour as plainly as did His mother when she stood sorrowfully at the cross-foot. 2. Is not faith like sight, too, for its largeness? What a faculty faith has for grasping everything, for it layeth hold upon the past, the present, and the future. It pierceth through most intricate things, and seeth God producing good out of all the tortuous circumstances of providence. And what is more, faith does what the eye cannot do--it sees the infinite; it beholds the invisible; it looks upon that which eve hath not seen, which ear hath not heard. 3. Is not faith wondrously like sight from its power to affect the mind and enable a man to realise a thing? If it is real faith, it makes the Christian man in dealing with God feel towards God as though he saw Him; it gives him the same awe, and yet the same joyous confidence which he would have if he were capable of actually beholding the Lord. Faith, when it takes a stand at the foot of the cross, makes us hate sin and love the Saviour just as much as though we had seen our sins placed to Christ’ s account, and had seen the nails driven through His hands and feet, and seen the bloody scourges as they made the sacred drops of blood to fall. II. FAITH, THE SIGHT OF THE SOUL, IS HERE SPOKEN OF AS A THING. “ We see Jesus.” It does not say, “ We can see Jesus” --that is true enough: the spiritual eye can see the Saviour; nor does it say, “ We have seen Him” ; that also is a delightful fact, we have seen the Lord, and we bays rejoiced in seeing Him; nor does the text say, “ We shall see Him,” though this is our pride and our hope, that “ when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” ; but the text says, “ We see Jesus” ; we do see Him now and continually. This is the common habit of the Christian; it is the element of his spiritual life; it is his most delightful occupation; it is his constant practice. “ We see Jesus.” I am afraid some of us forget this. 1. For instance, we see Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we being sinners still. And is it not a delightful thing always to feel one’ s ,elf a sinner, and always to stand looking to Christ as one’ s Saviour, thus beholding Him evermore? 2. Should not this, also, be the mode of our life in another respect? We are now disciples. Being saved from our former conversation, we are now become the disciples of the Lord Jesus; and ought we not, as disciples, to be constantly with our Master? Ought not this to be the motto of our life, “ We see Jesus “ ? Let us carry Christ on our heart, still thinking of Jesus, seeing Him at all times. 3. Would it not also be very much for our comfort if we were ,o see Jesus always as our Friend in our sojourn here? We should never be alone if we could see Jesus; or at least, if we were it would be a blessed solitude. We should never feel deserted if we could see Jesus; we should have the best of helpers. I know not if we should feel weak if we always saw Him, for He would be our strength and our song, He would become our salvation. 4. Would it not be much better for us if we were to see Jesus as our Forerunner? If our faith could see Jesus as making our bed in our sickness, and then standing by our side in the last solemn article, to conduct us safely through the iron gates, should we not then look upon death in a very different light? 5. If we see Jesus, being always with us, from morn till eve, in life and in death, what noble Christians it will make us! Now we shall not get angry with each other so quickly. We shall see Jesus; and we cannot be angry when that dear loving face is in view. And when we have been affronted, we shall be very ready to forgive when we see Jesus. Who can hate his brother when he sees that face, that tender face, more marred than that of any man? When we see Jesus, do you think we shall get worldly? III. OUR FAITH, LIKE OUR SIGHT, IS NOT QUITE CLEAR. Everything that has life has variations. A block of wood is not affected by the weather, but a living man is. You may drive a stake into the ground, and it will feel no influence of spring, summer, autumn, or winter; but if the stake be alive, and you drive it into the soil where there is moisture, it will soon begin to sprout, and you will be able to tell when spring and winter are coming by the changes that take place in the living tree. Life is full of these changes; do not wonder, then, if you experience them. IV. FAITH, LIKE SIGHT, HAS GREAT GROWTH. Our children, in a certain sense, see as truly when they are a day old as when they are grown up to be twenty years old; but we must not suppose that they see as accurately, for they do not. I think observations would teach us that little children see all things as on a level surface, and that distant objects seem to them to be near, for they have not yet received experience enough to judge of the relative position of things. That is an acquired knowledge, and no doubt very early acquired, but still it is learned as a matter of mental experience. And let me say, though you may not have noticed it, all our measures of distance by the eye are matters which have to be gained by habit and observation. When I first went to Switzerland, with a friend, from Lucerne we saw a mountain in the distance which we were going to climb. I pointed out a place where we should stop half-way up, and I said, “ We shall be there in about four hours and a half.” “ Four hours and a half!” my friend said, “ I’ d undertake to walk it in ten minutes.” “ No, not you.” “ Well, but half an hour!” He looked again and said, “ Anybody could get there in half an hour!” It seemed no distance at all. And yet when we came to toil up, the four hours and a half turned into five or six before we reached the place. Our eyes were not accustomed to mountains, and we were not able to measure them; and it is only by considerable experience that you get to understand what a mountain is, and how a long distance appears. You are altogether deceived, and do not know the position of things till you become wiser. And it is just so with faith. Faith in the Christian when he first gets it, is true and saving; but it is not in proportion. Let us ask, then, of the Lord, that He will increase our faith till the mental eye shall become clear and bright, and we shall be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, to be with Christ, and to see Him as He is. If you have but little faith, remember that that will save you. The little diamond is as much a diamond as the Koh-i-noor. So little faith is as truly the faith of God’ s elect as the greatest faith. If you do but see Jesus, though it be but by the corner of your eye, yet if you see Him, you shall be saved; and though you may not see as much of Christ as advanced saints do, yet if you see enough of Him to trust Him, to rely on Him entirely, your sins which are many are forgiven, and you shall yet receive grace for grace, until you shall see Him in His glory. V. IT IS AT ALL TIMES A VERY SIMPLE THING TO LOOK. If there be life in a look, glory be to God for such a provision, because it is available for each one of us! Sinner, if thou wouldst be saved, there is nothing for thee to think upon but Christ. Do thy sins trouble thee? Go to Him, and trust in Him, and the moment thou lookest to Him thou art saved. “ Oh,” says one, “ but I cannot do that; my faith is so weak.” Well, when I walk about and see a beautiful sight, very seldom do I think about my own sight; my mind is occupied with the sight, and so let it be with you. Never mind that eye; think more about the vision to be seen. Think of Christ. It would be a pitiful thing if, when there were some great procession in the streets, all you thought about was your own eye; you would see but very little. Think less about your faith, and more about Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The best of all sights I. Regard the glorious sight of Jesus as a . We do not yet see Him acknowledged as King of kings by all mankind, and this causes us great sorrow. “ But,” saith the apostle, “ we see Jesus,” and this sight compensates for all others, for we see Him now, no longer made a little lower than the angels, and tasting the bitterness of death, but “ crowned with glory and honour.” We see Him no more after the flesh, in shame and anguish; far more ravishing is the sight, for we see His work accomplished, His victory complete, His empire secure. He sits as a priest upon the throne at the right hand of God, from hence forth expecting till His enemies are made His footstool. 1. This is a Divine compensation for the tarrying of His visible kingdom, because it is the major part of it. The main battle is won. 2. The compensation is all the greater because our Lord’ s enthronement is the pledge of all the rest. The putting of all things under Him, which as yet we see not, is guaranteed to us by what we do see. This is the antidote to all depression of spirit, the stimulus to hopeful perseverance, the assurance of joy unspeakable. II. Nor is this sight a mere compensation for others which as yet are denied us, it is in itself the cause of present . This is true in so many ways that time would rail us to attempt to enumerate them. 1. “ We see Jesus,” and in Him we see our former unhappy condition for ever ended. We were fallen in Adam, but we see in Jesus our ruin retrieved by the second Adam. We weep as we confess our transgressions, but we see Jesus and sing for joy of heart, since He hath finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. 2. The same is sweetly true of the present, for we see our present condition to be thrice blessed by virtue of our union with Him. 3. We see self, and blush and are ashamed and dismayed; “ but we see Jesus,” and His joy is in us, and our joy is full. What a vision is this for you, when you see Jesus, and see yourself complete in Him, perfect in Christ Jesus? 4. Such a sight effectually clears our earthly future of all apprehension. It is true we may yet be sorely tempted, and the battle may go hard with us, but we see Jesus triumphant, and by this sign we grasp the victory. III. “ We see Jesus” with gladdest . 1. His glorious person is to us the picture and the pledge of what we shall be; for “ it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” 2. Nor may we alone derive comfort as to our future from His person, we may also be made glad by a hope as to His place. Where we see Jesus to be, there shall we also be. His heaven is our heaven. His prayer secures that we shall be with Him, where He is, that we may behold His glory. 3. The glory of Jesus strikes the eye at once, and thus we are made to exult in His position, for it, too, is ours. He will give to us to sit upon His throne, even as He sits upon the Father’ s throne. He hath made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign for ever and ever. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Of the title Jesus The apostle had before called Christ the Son of God, the first begotten, God, Lord, which are titles proper to His Divine nature. But here he speaketh of His excellency as man, and thereupon giveth Him that title which setteth out the distinct reason why, being God, He assumed man’ s nature: namely, that He might be a fit and able Saviour of man. Fit, as He was man; able, as He was God. Well may this title Jesus, in regard of the signification of it, be given unto Christ. For 1. He was a true Saviour (Hebrews 8:2), not a typical Saviour, as Joshua and other like saviours (Nehemiah 9:27). 2. He was a most free Saviour. According to His mercy He saved us Titus 3:5). Not for price (1 Peter 1:18). 3. He was an all-sufficient Saviour. He satisfieth Divine justice, endured the infinite curse of the law, overcame death, hell, and him that had the power of them (verse 14; Revelation 1:18). 4. He was an universal Saviour. The Saviour of all that ale or shall be 1 Timothy 4:10). 5. He was a total Saviour. He sayeth soul and body (1 Corinthians 15:20). 6. He was an everlasting Saviour. He brings all that believe in Him to everlasting life. As He is, so He was from the beginning, and ever will continue so (Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 13:8; Hebrews 7:24). 7. He was a perfect Saviour (Hebrews 7:25). He leaves nothing simply in the case of salvation for any other to do. 8. He is the only Saviour (Acts 4:12 : Isaiah 63:5). On these grounds it becomes us 1. To consider the need that we have of a Saviour. This will make us inquire how we may be saved (Acts 16:30). 2. To fly to Christ for salvation. He invites all so to do (John 7:37). He casts away none that come unto Him (John 6:37). 3. To trust on Him (Acts 16:31; 1 Timothy 4:10). 4. To rejoice in Him (Luke 1:47). 5. To bless God for Him (Luke 1:68). 6. To serve Him who sayeth us (Luke 1:74-75). 7. To do all in His name (Colossians 3:17). (W. Gouge.) Christ’ s condescension In the history of Moravion missions we read of a missionary who undertook to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ to the suffering, despised, and down-trodden slaves of the West Indies. So cruelly we, re they treated, so hard were they worked, so mercilessly were they flogged, that their spirits rankled with bitterest hostility to the more favoured race which doomed them to this hopeless condition. Under these unhappy circumstances the missionary could not get a hearing. It was a grave problem how to reach their hearts, win their sympathies, and thus fulfil the purposes of his mission. At last he saw a way to overcome the difficulty. How? By selling himself into servitude. He because a slave, he shared the same fare, and endured the same privations as his dusky brethren. Thus he won his way to their hearts. Even so, it was needful that God should show sympathy by stooping to our low estate, and making Himself one with us. So Christ the Eternal Word was born in helplessness like us, He hungered and thirsted like us, He toiled and suffered like us, He was tempted and tried like us, He wept and prayed like us. (F. Marts.) Christ’ s condescension That He might be in a condition to suffer death, this Sun of Righteousness went ten degrees backward, not only below His Father (John 14:28), but below the angels; for man (as man) is inferiort,, the angels. (J. Trapp.) For the suffering of death crowned Jesus crowned for death It is Jesus, Son of Mary, Child of man, whose appearance we hail; not now, as in chap. 1., the Son of God, resplendent in His Father’ s glory with His holy angels, sustaining creation by His word. The writer is approaching the Redeemer’ s person from the opposite side, and adopting quite a different line of reflection from that with which the Epistle commenced. He will afterwards unite both conceptions in his definition of “ our great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God.” We must allow him to work out his argument in his own way. Here is a Man, then, in whom humanity is lifted from the dust, and once more grows conscious of its primal dignity. The advent of Jesus raises immeasurably our conception of the possibilities of human nature, and supplies a new and magnificent answer to the old question, “ What is man?” Prophecy is outdone by what we see in Jesus of man’ s greatness as the object of the Divine regard. And this Leader of our salvation is “ forerunner” of His brethren’ s exaltation, both in earth and heaven. On every ground we find ours, lees compelled to refer the predicate “ crowned with glory and honour,” to the earthly life and human relationship of our Saviour. Surely it is in this environment that we see Jesus. We to-day “ see Jesus” in the story of the Four, as the readers of Ibis letter saw Him in the living words of His eye-witnesses and ministers. And “ we see Him for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour.” No words could more fitly express the strange blending of glory and suffering visible throughout the earthly course of Jesus,--glory ever leading on to suffering, and finding in death its climax and hidden purpose. If man’ s ideal greatness is the starting-point of the writer’ s thought, the death of the cross is always its centre. The former, for sinful (Hebrews 1:3) and death-bound man, can only win its realisation through the latter. Jesus is crowned for death. Willingly would Israel have given Him in life the Messiah’ s crown. They could not understand why One so high in the grace of God, so rich in kingly qualities and powers, did not take the last remaining step and mount to David’ s throne. Their fury against Him at the last was in the breasts of many who cried, “ Away with Him!” the rage of a bitter disappointment. They did not see that the higher He was raised in favour with God and men, the nearer and the more needful became His death. It is enough to refer to the scene of the transfiguration, and of the royal entry into Jerusalem, to show the profound connection which existed alike in the mind of Jesus, in the purpose of God, and in the sequence of history between Christ’ s human glorification and His sacrificial death. (G. G. Findlay.) Exaltation in humiliation The plain meaning of the text seems to be that Jesus was crowned with glory and honour with reference to the suffering of death, in order that by the grace or favour of God He might taste death for men. This rendering makes the crowning antecedent to death, a fact occurring in the earthly life of Jesus, an exaltation in the humiliation, a higher even in the lower, a glory consummated in heaven b,t begun even on earth. If I am met with the sceptical question, With what glory and honour can the man Jesus be said to have been crowned on earth? I reply, With just such glory and honour as are spoken of in the third and fifth chapters of this same Epistle: with the glory of a Moses and the honour of an Aaron; the glory of being the leader of the people out of Egypt into the promised land, that is, of being the “ Captain of Salvation” ; the honour of being the High Priest of men, procuring for them, through the sacrifice of Himself, life and blessedness. The glory and honour spoken of as conferred by Jesus may thus quite well be those connected with His appointment to the honourable and glorious office of Apostle and High Priest of our profession. This, accordingly, is the thought I find in this text: Jesus, “ crowned for death,” by being appointed to an office whereby His death, instead of being a mere personal experience of the common l-t, became a death for others, and a humiliation, was transmuted into a signal mark of Divine favour. This crowning had a twofold aspect and relation; a subjective and an objective side, a relation to the will of Christ and a relation to the will of God. It would not have been complete unless there had been both an act of self-devotion on the part of Christ and an act of sovereign appointment on the part of God. The subjective aspect is in abeyance here, though it is not forgotten in the Epistle; it receives full recognition in those places where it is taught that Christ’ s priestly offering was Himself. Here it is the objective Godward aspect that is emphasised, as appears from the remarkable expression, “ by the grace of God,” and from the line of thought contained in the following verse, to be hereafter considered. There was a subjective grace in Christ which made Him willing to sacrifice His individual life for the good of the whole, but there was also conferred on Him by His Father the signal favour that His life, freely given in self-sacrifice, had universal significance and value. Kindred to this famous text, understood as explained, is Christ’ s beatitude pronouncing the persecuted for righteousness happy; Paul’ s statement to the Philippian Church, “ Unto you it is given as a favour (ἐχαρίσθη) in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake” ; and Peter’ s declaration to the strangers scattered abroad, “ If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you.” Kindred also in import are all the texts in which Christ speaks of His approaching passion as His glorification, a mode of viewing the Passion very common in the Johannine report of our Lord’ s sayings. I only add to these citations a mere reference to the voices from heaven pronouncing Jesus God’ s beloved Son when He manifested at the Jordan and on the Mount of Transfiguration His willingness to endure suffering in connection with His Messianic vocation, and in connection therewith to the reflection occurring in the Second Epistle of Peter relating to the latter event, “ He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” With these Divine voices stand in contrast the voices from hell uttered by Satan in the temptation. The God sent voices say in effect, “ Thou art My beloved Son because Thou devotest Thyself to the arduous career of a Saviour, and I show My favour unto Thee by solemnly setting Thee apart to Thy high and holy office.” The Satanic voices say, “ Thou art the Son of God, it seems; use Thy privilege, then, for Thine own advantage.” God shows His grace unto His Son by appointing Him to an office in which He will have an opportunity of doing a signal service to men at a great cost of suffering to Himself. Satan cannot conceive of Jesus being the Son of God at unless sonship carry along with it exemption from all arduous tasks and irksome hardships, provocations, and pains. God puts a stamp of Divinity on self-sacrifice, Satan associates Divinity with selfishness. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the crowning, as I conceive it, is an idea familiar to the New Testament writers. The only question that may legitimately be asked is, whether the thought I find in the text is relevant to the connection of thought in the passage, and serviceable to the purpose of the Epistle, that of instructing in Christian truth readers who needed to be again taught the merest elements of the Christian faith. To this question I can have little hesitation in giving an affirmative answer. Was it not desirable to show to men who stumbled at the humiliating circumstances of Christ’ s earthly lot that there was not merely a glory coming after the humiliation, compensating for it, but a glory in the humiliation itself? This ethical instruction was much more urgently needed than a merely theological instruction as to the purpose and effect of Christ’ s exaltation to heaven, viz., that it made His death already endured have universal significance and value. The exaltation needed no apology, it spoke for itself; what was needed was to remove the stigma from the state of humiliation, and such, I cannot but think, is one of the leading aims of the Epistle. The blinded Jew said, “ How dishonourable and shameful that death of Jesus; how hard to believe that He who endured it could be Messiah and God’ s well-beloved Son!” The writer replies, “ Not disgrace, but grace, favour, honour, and glory do I see there; this career of suffering as one which it was honorable for Christ to pass through, and to which it well became the sovereign Lord to subject His Son. For while to taste death in itself was a humiliation to the Son of God, to taste it for others was indeed most glorious.” It is a recommendation of the interpretation here advocated, that under it the crowning is not subsequent to the being made lower than angels, but, as in the Psalm, contemporaneous with it. It scarcely requires to be added that the glory in the humiliation is not exclusive of the glory after it. The full thesis of the Epistle on this theme is: “ First lower, then higher; nay, a higher in the lower.” (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Crowned with glory and honour On the ascension of Christ Who is it that, “ for the suffering of death, is crowned with glory and honour” ? Undoubtedly the Being in whom existed the wonderful union of the human and the Divine natures. It was not solely the Divinity of the Son returning to its pristine abode. That was never “ made lower than the angels.” That being incapable of passion, never tasted “ he suffering of death.” Of the place and state, to which our Redeemer is exalted, we can form no adequate conceptions. Here let us pause and reflect; what glory to the fallen nature of man, that the Eternal Son should assume it, even to dwell in it on earth, and say of its humble offspring, “ My brethren are these” ! How immeasurably great, then, its honour and advancement when He is exalted in it to the right hand of the Father; “ angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” ! While we perceive that it was in our nature our Saviour passed into His glory, our advancement hereby will be more impressive if we consider that in entering upon His joy He “ opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” What surer pledge of our inheritance in heaven can we have than the exaltation of Him, in our nature, to the possession of “ all power in heaven and in earth” ? But of this interesting and stupendous event of the Ascension, where are the evidences? How shall we believe that this great thing hath been done for us; this thing so wonderful, and of such amazing consequences? 1. Behold, I bring to you the types which “ at sundry times, and in divers manners,” God vouchsafed to give of what He would accomplish in the great Redeemer. See Enoch translated to heaven under the Patriarchal dispensation, and Elijah under the Mosaic. See the leaders of Israel, after the sojourning of the people in the wilderness, conducting them through the flood of Jordan to the Canaan of rest and felicity. See the high priest passing through the vail into the holy of holies, after baying made the great expiation with the blood of the sacrifice, there to appear in the presence of God in behalf of the people. 2. Again: I bring to you that venerable evidence which the Almighty hath so often employed in the service of truth--prophecy (see Daniel 7:13, Psalms 24:7; Psalms 68:18). What is this but prophecy on one side of the event, as history on the other, giving evidence to times past, present, and future, of the ascension of men’ s Saviour into heaven? 3. This brings me to observe that we have the historical evidence of those who were eye-witnesses of the fact. These were not a few men; they were the whole company of the apostles; these were men worthy of all credit, for they were eminently honest, consistent, scrupulous, explicit, and unvarying. (1) Our first emotion upon contemplating the ascension of our Lord is amazement. The lustre of His virtue in life, and His sublime equanimity in death, transport us with the perfectibility of our nature. (2) But from amazement at this precious part of the Christian dispensation let us rouse ourselves to consider our obligations to respect a nature which God has so highly exalted and destined for such n-bin felicity. Are we members of a body of which the Son of God is the head, and shall we not fear to pollute so illustrious a fellowship? Have we a representative in the inmost presence chamber of heaven, and shall we sink into a mean commerce with vice or debase, by folly and wickedness, the nature He has exalted? (3) We may further observe the wisdom and propriety of raising our affections, and directing our pursuits, to the great realities of the future existence. (Bp. Dehon.) The coronation of our King It was long ago predicted that the Lord Jesus should reign in Zion. Of the greatness of His power, of the glory of His majesty, of the extension of His kingdom, of the perpetuity of His government, prophets spake and poets sang. They saw the days of the exalted Messiah afar off, and were glad. I. THE REGAL OF OUR EXALTED LORD. Much of the happiness of a nation, especially if the authority of a monarch be absolute and his will is the law, depends upon his intellectual and moral character. Let this sentiment be applied with all reverence and humility to our exalted Redeemer, and we shall instantly exclaim, “ Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord of the people, whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.” To sway the sceptre of universal dominion, the King of Zion possesses every perfection in an eminent degree. 1. “ In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” At one comprehensive glance He beholds every creature and every event, past, present, and to come, and can either permit or prevent, excite or restrain, according to the counsel of His unerring will. 2. He is also the Lord of all power and might, whose kingdom cannot be moved, and whose dominions are the unlimited expanse of universal nature. 3. His goodness is equal to His greatness, and forms a material part of it. How unnumbered are its manifestations, how numerous and various its recipients. “ The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works.” 4. And what shall we say of His grace and love? What king has ever been so ill-required by his ungrateful subjects? And yet, instead of laying righteousness to the line, and truth to the plummet, instead of exerting His authority, and putting forth the thunder of His power in the execution of His justice, and the fulfilment of His threatenings, He laid down His life for us. 5. Nor can we forget His mercy. What crimes it has pardoned, what insults it has endured. 6. And is He not the faithful, compassionate, and unchangeable friend of His people? How near are they to His heart! How tenderly does He pity their afflictions, and sympathise with their sorrows! 7. And who has not been impressed with the Lord’ s condescension? Although He is “ the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity,” He is nigh unto all that call upon Him in truth. “ He dwells with the humble.” II. THE KINGDOM OVER WHICH HE . In one sense the entire universe is His vast domain, comprehending the numerous worlds which shine in yonder firmament. But we speak now not of His essential government, but rather of His mediatorial authority, as our Redeemer and Saviour, who, having purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is a spiritual, not a temporal, jurisdiction, unless it be so far as the latter is subservient to the former. It is a religious dominion i, the soul and among the society of good men, which our Lord came from heaven to establish, and which appears when the enmity of the carnal mind is subdued, and when “ grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life” in the conversion of sinners, and in the establishment of the saints upon their holy faith. In this spiritual and restricted sense the regal authority of our Lord includes the church on earth, composed of all His devoted followers of every period of time, of every part of the world, of every name and denomination, of every age and condition--and the church in heaven, constituted of “ the spirits of just men made perfect.” To govern this spiritual empire “ our Lord hath established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all.” Upon that throne He sits, receiving the homage of angels, archangels, and glorified spirits, accepting the prayers and praises of His saints on earth; supplying all our wants, guarding, guiding, and governing His people, both in their individual, domestic, and religious capacity; extending and upholding His cause in the world by the agency of His Spirit, His providence, and His servants; and overruling all the movements of nature, all the revolutions of nations, all the occurrences of individuals, families, and churches, for His own glory, for the welfare of the soul, for the success of His gospel, for the subjugation of sin and Satan, and for the accomplishment of His purposes which are all in verity and faithfulness. III. HIS . 1. The period selected for Jesus to be “ crowned with glory and honour “ was the termination of His Messiahship upon earth and His ascension to haven. 2. But how shall we describe the diadem which He wears? It is not a wreath of laurels, it is not a garland of flowers which encircled the brow of the heroes of antiquity; nor does it resemble the crowns worn by the monarchs of modern times. These, though costly and splendid, are but corruptible and fading, composed only of burnished metal and polished stones extracted from the recesses of the earth which we tread beneath our feet, whereas the Redeemer’ s crown is a beautiful circle of celestial light, a concentration of luminous beams above the brightness of the sun, a crown of glory which fadeth not away. 3. A part of the ceremony of coronation consists of anointing the monarch with holy oil. In concert with this ancient usage, we read prophetically of Jesus being “ anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows” ; in allusion to His mediatorial superiority, and to the unmeasured unction of the Holy Ghost, which descended upon Him, for “ God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” 4. How exalted is His throne: the seat of happiness and glory (see Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4:2-4). 5. How untarnished is His sceptre, emphatically called “ a right sceptre,” rightly obtained and rightly employed, the rod of universal authority, the staff of mercy surmounted by the dove, and held forth to encourage our approach. 6. Much has been said of the attire of kings at their coronation, but Christ’ s are not formed of the frail and lowly produce of the ermine and the silkworm, nor adorned with glittering stars of burnished metal; nor made by human art, nor assailable by the moth or the rust, nor likely to survive the wearer: no, Christ’ s robes are vestments of unsullied purity and uncreated light. 7. The last particular to be noticed is the attendants--the spectators of His glory. They are described as a number that no man can enumerate. In improving this subject 1. Let us join the hallelujahs of the heavenly best, and hail the exaltation and coronation of our Lord. 2. Let us recollect the peculiar privileges of His subjects. They are “ fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God.” As such they have a share in their Lord’ s affection, they have constant access to His throne, to His house, to His table; He protects them, He communes with them, supplies their wants, and will make them happy. 3. Let us not forget the duty of His people. It is incumbent on us, if we sustain this honourable appellation, to be very observant of His commands, to be very zealous for His honour, and for the extension of His kingdom upon the earth, and to be very devoted to His fear. 4. What shall we say of the enemies of our Lord the King? What I has He enemies? Is it possible that the Son of God can have a foe? Can He be opposed who laid down His life for us? Yes, there are thousands of adversaries averse to the peaceful and holy reign of the Redeemer. Who are they? I see them, not merely the ranks of avowed infidels and scoffers, but in the character of drunkards, sabbath-breakers, swearers, liars, the lewd, lovers of pleasure more than of God, self-righteous Pharisees, and the like. Oh, throw aside the weapons of)our rebellion, come as penitents to His footstool. (W. B. Leach.) Crowned with glory of saving life This crown of Jesus is no glittering gilt rim; this glory is no glare and splendour of a palace, and the honour is no mere courtliness of courtiers and subordinates and pomp of a heavenly state. The great break into cries of praise to Him because He is greater; the grand, because He had done more grandly than they all. Now come with me and let us understand what is Divine glory and honour. Come with me to a great hall in London. It is the anniversary of Homes and Refuges for Boys. Sweeping circles of seats rise on the platform one above another, all full of boys. Before the platform is the hill crossed by multitudes of seats, all filled, crowded with people. In the centre, f the great circles of the boys wonder, and right in the front of the platform, is a little table, behind the table is a chair, and in it sits a peer of the realm. My story begins at the moment when the prizes are given. Now fancy the scene. The earl rises. The table is piled up with articles, and certain boys approach one by one. First comes the winner of the prize for punctuality. Then comes the prize for writing. Its winner advances to the front and receives it. Next came the thrift prize for the boy who had spent the least of his pocket money, and saved the most in his box. His thrift might have been the act of self-denial, but I fear it had in it some element of meanness, for the cheers hast a little of their swing. Others came, and as each carried off his prize hands and voices fell to clapping and shouting, and hearts seemed to bound and sing. Then the next boy came. Suddenly all the joy went out of the place as light goes when the gas is put out. And there was a dead silence. To everybody it seemed as if something was going to happen What was the matter? What we saw was a little figure standing at one end of the table, evidently timid, and screwing up his courage, for he was very pale, and had put out his fingers on to the edge of the table, as it would seem to steady himself. The earl said, “ I have now the honour--“ and he paused, and drew himself up as if making room for a great swell of feeling, at the same time lifting something up from the table almost reverently (it was a little box). He opened it, and took into his hand a small round medal. The earl continued in a subdued tone, “ This boy has saved life!” That boy? A something went right through the place. The audience could restrain itself no longer, and broke out in tumultuous cheers again and again, hands and feet and voice. Handkerchiefs were waved, and hundreds of strong men were in tears. Meanwhile the earl was pinning a medal on the child’ s jacket, and the child himself was lifting the hand he had put out to the table, and drawing the backer it across his eyes. He could save life, it seemed, but he could not stand praise, and he quietly sidled away. But his comrades behind thee chair would not allow that. They gave great cries of ,” hurrahs,” which quivered with feelings that had been in no shouts before, standing on the seats, and looking over one another’ s heads. And the boys who had won the writing-desks and accordions, as he went by, put them down and clapped him on the back. He had undoubtedly done better than they all. Now those lads felt something of the grand sacred feeling with which all heaven casts down its crowns, and shouts the supreme triumphant glory of Jesus; for that boy had in him some of the glory sacred with the sanctity of God, and which all creatures were made to do homage to, the glory which is the especial glory of the Saviour of the world. (B. Waugh.) Crowning Jesus The ancient story runs that when Roman ambassadors paid a visit of ceremony to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, he presented each of his visitors with a crown of gold. But on the morrow the crowns were found on the beads of the various statues of the king which adorned the royal city. The ambassadors thus at once refused personal reward and did honour to the monarch. The dearest joy we have is to put the crown of our ministry on the head of Jesus. The best event that can befall heaven’ s promised crown will be that it be accepted of Him. (W. B. Haynes.) Taste death for every man Christ tasted death for all I. Let us consider that the Lord TASTED death. A man may die in a moment, and then he does not taste death. Men may die in a moment of excitement, and, as extremes meet, almost m unconsciousness, or with calmness and intrepidity, with lion-like courage, as many a warrior; but that is not tasting death. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was a slow and painful death; He was “ roasted with fire,” as was prefigured by the Paschal Lamb. Moreover He came, as no other finite creature can come into contact with death. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 2:11-13 He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.The unity of Christ and His people 1. A description of the work which Christ has come to accomplish for His people. He is described as “ He that sanctifieth,” and His people as “ they who are sanctified.” Jesus sanctifies both Himself and His people with His own blood, expiating and purging away their sins, and fitting them, and Himself as their Surety, for coming with acceptance into the presence of the holy God. This is the great end of the Saviour’ s mighty undertaking, to bring His people near to God. To a creature with a moral nature like man, distance from God is misery--it is death. Thus He is in our text most comprehensively, as well as appropriately, described as “ He that sanctifieth.” We say, most comprehensively; for this is the sum of all that He accomplishes as the Saviour of His people--most appropriately, for the word as here used carries us back to the shedding of blood needful for sanctification under the law, and suggests the necessity of the fact which the apostle is expounding, that Jesus, in sanctifying Himself and His people, should in common with them both suffer and die. 2. The declaration of the reason why the Son of God, in sanctifying His people, must Himself of necessity be a sufferer. The ordinance of consecration for the priesthood under the law suggests this necessity; yet the question remains, whence the necessity of the shedding of blood? Our text answers this question--“ He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.” Here is the essence of the Divine scheme for sinners’ redemption. I. IS THEIRS IS MADE HIS. 1. Their sin. One man may spontaneously make himself liable for his neighbour’ s debt but a husband is necessarily liable for the debts of his wife, because they are “ all of one.” This is only a shadow of Christ’ s hability for the sin of His people. Like the husband, Christ may be regarded as having spontaneously assumed the relation of unity with His spouse, but having become one flesh with her, He is, voluntarily indeed, yet necessarily, liable for her debts. 2. Jesus having thus become chargeable with the guilt of His people’ s sin, became subject to its penal effects. With their sin their suffering also is made His. 3. With their sin their death also is made His. Death was from the beginning the appointed penalty of sin. II. WHAT IS CHRIST’ S IS TO HIS PEOPLE. 1. His righteousness is made theirs (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus the holy God can look with complacency on “ the ungodly” believing in Jesus. Not that He esteems less hateful their sin. Not that He esteems less honourable His own law, but He accepts them “ in the beloved,” and He is “ the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” 2. His death is made theirs. He had obeyed as His people’ s surety and head. In the same capacity He died. Thus, when He died on the Cross, His people died in Him. “ If one died for all, then were all dead,” or “ then have all died.” This is the glorious security of His people, that having died in their surety, their salvation, in the most important some of the word, is already accomplished. 3. Christ’ s resurrection, as well as His death, is made theirs. In the person of their Head they have already risen and taken possession of their inheritance. (Alex. Anderson.) Sanctification I. OF TWO ACTIONS. 1. Separation. 2. Renovation. II. IS CARRIED ON BY TWO AGENTS. 1. “ He that sanctifieth.” The Holy Spirit works in man to will and to do. 2. “ They who are sanctified.” There must be acquiescence on our part. The Spirit influences: we act. He teaches: we believe. (Homilist.) Man’ s Redeemer--His humanity, function, and fraternalness I. THE OF CHRIST. “ All of one” --one nature. His humanity serves to 1. Enlist our sympathies. 2. Encourage our hopes. II. THE OF CHRIST. TO make man holy. “ He that sanctifieth.” This work of His 1. He has undertaken in sovereign love. 2. Is indispensable to our well-being. III. THE OF CHRIST. “ Not ashamed to call us brethren.” Then 1. Let us not be afraid to approach Him. 2. Let us not be ashamed of His followers, however humble. (Homilist.) Christ and His brethren This word “ for” noteth a cause of that which was said before; and he had said this. He that leadeth other into the glory of God by the same way he must enter also himself. He addeth now the cause and ground of that saying, because they must be of one nature, both He that leadeth and they that are led into this salvation. A proof and declaration that it is so is added by the apostle in the residue of the verse, “ And for this cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren” : whereunto is straight addled the testimony of Psa 22:1-31., out of which he proveth it, “ I will show forth Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee.” Now where it is said here, “ He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one,” we have to consider that even in the manhood of our Saviour Christ is virtue and grace, in which He doth sanctify us. For not only as He is God He sanctifieth us, but also in His human nature He hath this virtue and power to make us holy; not taking His nature such from the Virgin Mary, but making it such by pouring into it the fulness of His Spirit. The holiness which the apostles had in their calling they had it from Jesus Christ, made man, and walking in that vacation before them. Even so it is with us. All that is good in us, and all the righteousness that can be in us, we have it neither out of the east, nor west, but from the body of Jesus Christ, neither is there in the world any other sanctification. Even as our hands and arms and other members are not nourished but only by the meat received of the head, so our spiritual meat of righteousness and life is not given us but from our Head, Jesus Christ. And as the veins are moans by which nourishment is conveyed to every part, so faith is the means by which we receive from Christ all that is healthful unto us. And as by joints and sinews our members are really knit and made a body unto the head, so really, by one Spirit we be knit unto Christ as perfectly one with Him as our members are one with our head. And where it is said here, He that doth sanctify, showing the present time and the work still doing, it teacheth us that our sanctification hath a daily increase, and when it is fully accomplished, then God calleth and our days are at an end. And let us note this well, if we be Christians we are still sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, for so it was in Him. He grew still in grace before God and men. If thou be grafted into His body thou hast His Spirit, and it will have His work in thee. Thou shalt not be weary of well-doing, nor cease to rejoice in God thy Saviour, but still increase in spiritual grace till thou come to the age of the fulness of Christ. It followeth, “ For this cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren.” Upon good cause the apostle saith, “ He is not ashamed,” for if He humbled not Himself in great love of us, how justly might He account it shame to be as we are? He that made heaven and earth, He that is the immortal and glorious God, one with His Father, before whom all angels do obey and all princes ate earth and ashes; ought we not to say, seeing it pleaseth Him to acknowledge us, that are but poor ,creatures, that He is not ashamed of us? And if His highness abased itself to our low estate, and was not ashamed, let us learn to be wise and know what the Lord requireth of us for all the good which He hath done unto us. He saith in the gospel, “ He that is ashamed of Me and My words before men, I will be ashamed of him before My Father which is in heaven. Pride, or flattery, or covetousness, or vanity, or fear, or what you will, may make us now ashamed to confess him, or to dissemble that ever we know Him; but when all this corruption is taken from us, and the grave and death shall take their own, our former foolishness will make us so afraid that we will pray unto the hills to hide us, but vows and wishes shall be but foolish thoughts. It followeth, “ I will declare Thy name unto My brethren.” We are called the brethren of Christ, not in society of flesh and blood, for that the wicked have with Him as well as we, who are yet no brethren, but strangers even from the womb. But as they are natural brethren, which are born of the same parents, so we are brethren with Christ, that are burn of God, through the same Spirit, by which we cry, “ Abba, Father,” the fruit whereof is in glorifying His name, even as our Saviour Christ saith, “ He that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven, he is My brother” (Matthew 12:48). And when it is further said, “ In the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee.” First, here we must needs confess what duty is among men, even that they edify one another; for as many as are of Christ are called in this covenant: “ I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee.” The graces of God are not such that they can be looked up in our hearts or kept secret, but they will burn within like fire, and make us speak with our tongues, that we may make, many brethren partakers of our joy. And tell me, I beseech you, what man excelleth in anything, and hath not a delight to speak of his cunning? Doth not the shipman talk of the winds, the ploughman of his oxen? Will not the soldier be reckoning up his wounds, and the shepherd telling of his sheep? So it is with us if we be the brethren of Christ. The covenant of our kindred is, “ I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee.” Let them know this, all to whom it is spoken, and let them discern between hypocrites and true Christians. Some think it a praise to be close men, secret to themselves, that by their words you shall never know them, of what religion they be. Those men, where they think they hide themselves most, there they lay widest open their shame, and while they think to keep it secret of what religion they are, this their dissimulation proclaimeth it louder than the blast of a trumpet that they be of no religion at all; at all, I say, touching any religion of God; for if it were of Him it would show forth His praise, and what their heart believed their mouth would confess it. We are ashamed to exhort men to do well; we are not ashamed to provoke them to sin. We are ashamed to minister talk of faith and religion; we are not ashamed of rotten and unclean works of wantonness. We are ashamed to speak to the praise of God; we are not ashamed to blaspheme His name. We are ashamed of Christ; we are not ashamed of the devil. The prophet David was a good scholar in this doctrine. When he opened his mouth unto God and vowed, “ I will speak of Thy name before kings, and will not be ashamed” (Psalms 145:21; Psalms 119:46). Pray, dearly beloved, that we may be partakers of the same grace. It followeth now in the 13th verse, “ And again, I will put my trust in Him.” This psalm the prophet made when he was delivered from the layings of wait of Saul and from all his enemies; wherein, as he was a figure of Christ, so it is most properly and truly verified in Christ that he said of himself. Now, because the apostle allegeth this to prove our Saviour Christ to be man like unto us, mark how the argument followeth. Christ saith, “ I will put My trust in God” ; but it were a very improper speech, and such as the Scripture never useth to say, God will trust in God. Therefore there must be a nature in our Saviour Christ inferior to His Godhead, in which he speaketh thus: “ I will trust in Him,” and that was His perfect humanity like unto ours, in which we saw Him subject to peril, and how, according to His trust, God His Father delivered Him. And here the apostle allegeth such Scripture for proof of the manhood of Christ, as also proveth that He is our King; for where he saith, “ I will trust in Him,” it noteth that Christ was not weak in faith, but assuredly trusted in the power of God His Father, that He should overcome the devil. And let us here learn for our instruction when we have had experience of God’ s benefits, as the prophet had, let us vow as he did--we will pat our trust in Him. When David remembered how God had delivered him from a lion and a bear, he was not afraid of the uncircumcised Philistine. When St. Paul had reckoned so many calamities out of which God had delivered him, he boasted of a holy hope, and said he was sure that ever God would deliver him. Another testimony yet followeth to prove the humanity of our Saviour Christ, and it is this: “ Behold Me, and the children which Thou hast given Me.” This is written in the eighth of Isaiah, in which chapter the prophet foretelleth the captivity of the Israelites by the king of Ashur, how it is determined of God that the people, for all their rebellions, should surely perish; but yet so that God, for His Church’ s sake, would bridle their rage, and save some who might praise His name. These threatenings and promises both, while the people contemptuously reject, the Lord biddeth the prophet cease, and bind up these promises for another people that should believe; and then the prophet answering again to God, in acknowledging all His truth and goodness, saith thus: “ Behold, I and the children that God hath given me.” Now, here we must learn as the apostle teacheth. Was the prophet Isaiah a man like unto his children, that is, like unto those which obeyed his word? Then was our Saviour Christ perfect man, like unto us, whom He hath delivered from sin and death. And if He have saved us He hath saved those whom God hath given Him, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone; for this is His intercession unto His Father, “ Behold Me and My children” One other thing we must learn in this. There was an apostasy of all men, so that they which believed were made as signs and wonders; yet howsoever the world was the prophet saith, “ Behold me and my children.” Such shall be the days of Christ, many shall fall away, religion and faith shall be persecuted, iniquity shall abound. What, then? Our Saviour Christ saith, “ Lo, I and My children.” If the whole world fall away, we would not regard their multitude to follow them to do evil, but we would alone stand with the Lord our God. We must further mark in these words that the prophet saith, “ Behold the children which Thou hast given me.” In that it is said, God hath given us to His Son Christ, it teacheth us to acknowledge His free gift and grace; and let none of us think there was any wisdom in ourselves why we would choose Him, nor any constancy in us, by which we could cleave unto Him; but God in His grace drew us, that we might come unto Him, and with His power He strengthened us, that we should abide with Him. (E. Deering, B. D.) Unity of Sanctifier and sanctified The assertion that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one may be conceived of as answering two questions naturally arising out of Heb 2:10, to which it furnishes no explicit answer. First, Christ is called the Captain or Loader of salvation: how does He contribute to salvation? Is He simply the first of a series who pass through suffering to glory? or does He influence all the sons whom God brings to glory so as to contribute very materially to the great end in view, their reaching the promised land? Second, what is the condition of His influence? what is the nexus between Him and them, the Leader and the led, that enables Him to exert over them this power? The answer to the former question is, Christ saves by sanctifying; the answer to the latter, that He and the sanctified are one. The answer in the first case is given indirectly by the substitution of one title for another, the “ Leader of salvation” being replaced by the “ Sanctifier” ; the answer in the second ease is given directly, and forms the doctrine of the text: the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. This statement I regard as the enunciation of a principle; by which is meant that the unity asserted is involved in the relation of Sanctifier to sanctified. Whether there be only one or many exemplifications of the relation is immaterial. Though only one Sanctifier were in view or possible, the proposition would still continue to be of the nature of a principle. The point is, that Christ, as Sanctifier, must be one with those whom e sanctifies, could not otherwise perform for them that function. The Sanctifier is holy, the sanctified when He takes them in hand are unholy. That being so, it needs to be said that, notwithstanding the separation between the parties, there is a unity between them surmounting the difference. And that can be said with truth, for otherwise the two parties could not stand in the relation of Sanctifier to sanctified; they could only stand permanently apart as holy and unholy. Unity is involved in the nature of the case. That is precisely what the writer means to say. He states the truth as an axiom, which he expects even his dull-minded readers to accept immediately as true; and he means to use it as a key to the cardinal facts of Christ’ s human experience. Unity to some extent or in some sense is involved, that is clear. But in what sense, to what extent? This is not plainly indicated. The style at this point becomes noticeably laconic; the sentence lacks a verb, and is worn down to the fewest words possible, after the manner of a proverb, “ For the Sanctifier and the sanctified of one all.” Does it not look as if his purpose were to lay stress, not on descent from one God, one Divine Father, bat rather on the result, the brotherhood or comradeship existing between the two parties? Is not his idea that Sanctifier and sanctified are all “ of one piece, one whole,” two parties welded into one, having everything in common except character? From whatever point of view, the ritual or the ethical, we regard the Sanctifier’ s function, this becomes apparent on reflection. Conceive Christ first as Sanctifier in the ethical sense, as Captain or Leader of salvation; it is evident that in that capacity it behoved Him to be in all possible respects one with those He took in hand to sanctify. For in this case the sanctifying power of Jesus lies in His example, His character, His history as a man. Be makes men beloving in Him holy by reproducing in His own life the lost ideal of human character, and bringing that ideal to bear on their minds; by living a true, godly life amid the same conditions of trial as those by which they are surrounded, and helping them to be faithful by inspiration and sympathy. The more genuinely human He is, and the more closely the conditions of His human life resemble ours, the greater His influence over us. His power to sanctify depends on likeness in nature, position, and experience. Conceive Christ next as Sanctifier in the ritual sense, as a Priest, consecrating us for the service of God by the sacrifice of Himself; and the same need for a pervading, many-sided unity is apparent. The Priest must be one with His clients in God’ s sight, their accepted representative; so that what He does is done in their name and avails for their benefit. He must be one with them in death, for it is by His death in sacrifice that He makes propitiation for their sins. He must be one with them in the possession of humanity, for unless He become partaker of human nature He cannot die. Finally, He must be one with them in experience of trial and temptation, for thereby is demonstrated the sympathy which wins trust, and unless the Priest be trusted it is in vain that He transacts. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) All men are brethren in Christ If Christ and we are all of one, much more are we among ourselves. A king and a beggar are of one; a rich man and a poor man are of one; a fair and beautiful man or woman and they that want beauty are of one. We descended all of Adam, and were taken out of the dust of the ground; therefore let us not insult one over another. The wax that hath the print of the king’ s seal on it is the same in substance with the wax that hath the point of the seal of a mean man; yet it is honoured in that the king’ s seal is set on it. So we are all of one weak and waxy nature, save that it pleaseth God to set a more honourable print upon one than on another. Therefore, let us not think highly of ourselves, and condemn our brethren, but submit to them of low degree, using the greatness that God hath given us, to the glory of the Giver. (W. Jones, D. D.) Christ not ashamed to call us brethren 1. As Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren, so let us do nothing so near as we can that may shame this our Brother. Is it not a shame that the king’ s brother should be a common drunkard, whoremaster, or such like? Doth not the king take himself disgraced by it? And shall we that are brethren to the King of kings take such courses as that great ignominy should redound to Christ by it? As He is not ashamed to call us brethren, so let us do nothing that may pull a shame on Him and His gospel. 2. Can a brother that is a wealthy man, of fair revenues, and ample possessions, see any of his brethren go begging? Will he not rather receive him to his own house, and set him at his table? Christ, which is the Lord of heaven and earth, is our brother; therefore let us fear no want so long as we fear Him. This may be a comfort to us in all our calamities, that Christ and we are brethren. (W. Jones, D. D.) Christ the Restorer of the Divine ideal of humanity As some noble ruin can be best restored by one who possesses the original model or some other key to the builder’ s design, so the Saviour’ s fitness for His office is partly found in the fact that He has in Himself the perfect type of regenerated humanity. The presentation of His life at once shows men what they ought to become, and summons and incites them to its attainment. (W. Landels, D. D.) Not ashamed to call them brethren Christ not ashamed to call us brethren I. CHRIST OUR BROTHER. “ In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” Human nature was divided by the ancients into body, soul, and spirit. Take this tripartite nature of man and see how like He is to us in all things. 1. The body. “ He was an hungered.” All the pains and anguish of intense hunger were felt by Him--Brother then to all the poor and hungry! He thirsted. On the Cross He said, “ I thirst” --Brother then to all who in any way thirst! He knew what the pleasures of life were. He was a guest at feasts--Brother then of these who know the dangers of plenty! He was weary. He was asleep in the boat after His long toil. He sat weary with travel and heat by the well--Brother then to all who are weary! He suffered bodily pain--Brother then of every sufferer! He died--Brother then to each of us in that He died! 2. The soul. He was our Brother in experiencing a shrinking from death in manifesting human benevolence, compassion, and sympathy; in associating with humanity; in displaying love for children; in having private and special friendship for a few; in knowing the anguish of unrequited affection; and in manifesting human self-respect. 3. The spirit. There was that wonderful depression that came upon Him at different times. We have the agony of spirit in Gethsemane and on the Cross. He felt what it is to seem to be forsaken of God and all we can comprehend by being apprehensive of spiritual gloom, and the fear of being deserted by God. Again, He was tempted, and He had all the faculties and capacities to which temptations are applied and adapted. Once more, He “ was made perfect through sufferings.” “ For both He that sanctifieth” --Jesus--“ and they who are sanctified” --the followers of Jesus--“ are all of one.” He was a sharer with us in discipline by the salve Father, and in sanctification by the same Spirit, journeying to the same heavenly glory. Thus “ in all points He was made like unto His brethren.” II. CHRIST IS NOT ASHAMED OF THE . Two brothers may be born in the same cottage, fed from the same breast and trencher, trained at the same school, and one of them may rise in social position, but with seeming greatness unite real littleness and be ashamed of his brother who continues a humble cottager. Or one may live a life of sensuality and bring disgrace on the family name, and the other be distinguished for virtue and benevolence, and the virtuous man may be ashamed of his brother. Or, one may have shown kindness continually to his brother and the other have repelled it by constant hostility and ingratitude, so that at last the other may be ashamed of him. Judging after the manner of men might not Christ be ashamed of us? But He is not. 1. Because of His mighty disinterested love. He loved us when we were unlovely and had no love to Him. Human love, when deep and true, is never ashamed of the lowliness of its object. A truly noble nature recognises a friend the more he needs help 2. Because He knows us thoroughly. Nothing is hidden from Him. He knows all our imperfections, and is not ashamed of us. 3. Because He knows what good is in us, for He put it there. He knows that at the bottom of our hearts, in spite of infirmities and shortcomings, we do love Him. Beneath the faded exterior and withered blossom and leaf He sees the living germ that shall bud and blossom and bear fruit. He sees the first homeward step of the prodigal, the first fear, and hears the first stammering prayer. And is this the Jesus that some of you are rejecting? Is this the Christ that some of you are ashamed to own? Surely you do not know who it is you thus treat with neglect. He is man’ s best friend, our true Brother. Accept His salvation and rejoice in His love. What an honour it is to have such a Brother! We may be obscure in the world, but we may look up and say,” The King of kings upon the throne of the heavenly Majesty is one who is not ashamed of me; He calls me His brother. How safe we are! What harm can come to us when He who rules the universe is our Brother?” (Newman Hall, LL. B.) Christians joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, the elder Brother, gets nothing apart from those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. “ The law of primogeniture does not appear in the statute-book of heaven.” We, the rightful heirs of wrath, are made heirs in common with Jesus. He will have nothing that He will not share with us. We are even now highly exalted with Him, “ far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” ; for we are “ the Church, which is His body.” (T. W. Medhust.) The Brother born for adversity One main work of the gospel is to give men the right to claim the sympathy, the care, and the help of God. A right. God has brought Himself by His own act within the region of rights and obligations. The relation of Creator and creature is superseded; that of Father and child, Saviour and saved, is substituted in its room. And into these relations new obligations enter, based upon purposes, promises, and hopes which God has announced or inspired. It now becomes Him to do that which, under no conception of His rectoral duty as Creator, could be claimed from Him. God has set forth Christ as the Man with whom He treats; the perfect Man, who explains the manward thoughts and hopes of God. It is the Son of His love who is concerned in the fulfilment of our hope. The Son of His love has interests profounder even than our own in our forgiveness, renewal, and growth to perfection. Realising what we are in Christ, we dare to use great boldness of access, we dare to plead rights and claims, which yet are not ours, save through a love which humbles while it exalts us, and chastens while it inspires. I. THE OF A BROTHER. There is a oneness which precludes the idea of separate interests. II. IT IS THIS WHICH BY HIS AND PASSION THE SAVIOUR CLAIMS. He seeks to give us a relation that we can rest upon; which will draw us by the bands of fraternal sympathy to His strength when we are weak, to His bosom when we are weary and long for rest. III. It is said in a passage of the Book of Proverbs that “ A BROTHER IS BORN FOR .” That He might know our souls in adversities surely, the elder Brother of the great human family was born in the human home, tasted all pure human experiences, and made Himself familiar with all forms of human pain. God is born unto us, a Saviour. We are of His kindred, the brethren of His Christ. It is no pity that moves Him to us; it is pure and perfect love. God is pleading His own cause in pleading against our sins; He is striving against His own enemies in striving against our tempters and lusts. (T. B. Brown, B. A.) Brotherhood with Christ I. There are three particulars which require to be stated; the first of which is, THAT THEY WHO ARE PARTAKE OF ONE NATURE. Thus then, it is said of Christ. “ Forasmuch, then, as the children” --that is, God’ s children, the family in heaven and earth--“ are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death” --or through dying--“ He might destroy him that had the power of death,” &c. It is also said of Christ, that “ He was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.” And further: “ What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” &c. Thus, then, we have the fact clearly revealed to us, that Christ laid the foundation of brotherhood by actually assuming the nature of those whom He now condescends to call brethren. The next particular to be mentioned is, that they who are brethren are so by natural birth, or they become so by adoption into a family. Now, no sinful descendant of Adam can, by virtue of his birth in the flesh, become a member of God’ s family; it is utterly impossible. Nor can he be adopted into God’ s family unless born again--born of water and of the Spirit. He partakes of the spirituality of Christ, as Christ possesses his human flesh. The next particular is, that between those who are brethren in heart, as well as in fact, there is a family likeness and sympathy. Hence believers are enjoined to “ let this mind be in them which was also in Christ Jesus” ; and are said also to have put on the “ new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him.” Thus, also, Christ is revealed to us as One who “ can have compassion on us,” and as One “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” II. From these three particulars we may infer that Christ, becoming our Brother, by taking on Him our nature, and linking that nature on to His deity, HAD POWER OVER TREAT NATURE, first, to redeem, and then, by His Spirit, to infuse life--His own spiritual life--into it. Next, that, as the Elder Brother, He had the disposition, as well as the power, to put aside every obstacle in the way of our full and tree adoption into His Father’ s family; so that, knowing Him as their Brother, they might exercise the spirit of adoption when received, and at once look up and call God Father. And lastly that, as a sympathising Brother, communicating His likeness to all the members of the household of faith, He must be the great object of our faith and the foundation of all our hopes as members of the family of God. Thus, then, is Christ set before us, under this symbol, in that very aspect which is most attractive; but when we see all His offices proceeding out of this central fact of brotherhood--when we spiritually know that the great Prophet of the Church is our Brother, that the great “ High Priest of our profession “ is our Brother, that the King of an unspeakably glorious kingdom is our Brother--when we are assured that the teaching of the Prophet is the teaching of our Brother, that the sacrifice offered by the Priest was the Brother Himself, that the blood which is shed for us was the blood of our Brother, that the grave wherein death became powerless, and from which emerged life and immorality, was the grave of our Brother; oh I what a ground do we then stand on for the realisation and enjoyment of the blessings of salvation, and for looking forward to the coming of the glorious King, who, with all the tenderness of a brother’ s faithful love, shall gather together the whole family of heaven in manifested union with Himself. (G. Fisk, LL. B.) Some reasons why the Word because flesh “ Ashamed to call them brethren.” Why should He be? It is no condescension to acknowledge the fact of brotherhood with humanity, any more than it is humiliation to be born. But there was a Man who emptied, and humbled Himself by being “ found in fashion as a man,” and for whom it was infinite condescension to call us His brethren. We can say of a prince that he is not ashamed to call his subjects friends, and to sit down to eat with them; but it would be absurd to say so of one of the subjects in reference to his fellows. The full, lofty truth of Heb 1:1-14. underlies that word “ ashamed,” which is meaningless unless Jesus was “ the effulgence of the Father’ s glory, and the very image of His substance.” The writer quotes three Old Testament passages which he regards as prophetic of our Lord’ s identifying Himself with humanity. These three cited sayings deal with three different aspects of Christ’ s manhood and of the purpose of His incarnation; and they unitedly give, if not a complete, yet a comprehensive answer to the question, Why did God become Man? I. JESUS IS MAN, THAT HE MAY DECLARE GOD TO MEN. All other sources of knowledge of God fail in certainty. They yield only assertions which may or may not be true. At the best, we are relegated to peradventures and theories if we turn away from Jesus Christ. Men said that there was land away across the Atlantic for centuries before Columbus went and brought back its products. He discovers who proves. Christ has not merely spoken to us beautiful and sacred things about God, as saint, philosopher, or poet might do, but He has shown us God; and henceforward, to those who receive Him, the Unknown Root of all being is not a hypothesis, a great Perhaps, a dread or a hope, as the case may be, but the most certain of all facts, of whom and of whose love we may be surer than we can be of aught besides but our own being. II. JESUS IS MAN, THAT HE MAY SHOW TO MEN THE LIFE OF DEVOUT TRUST. Perfect manhood is dependent manhood. A reasonable creature who does not live by faith is a monster arrogating the prerogative of God. Christ’ s perfect manhood did not release Him from, but bound Him to, the exercise of faith. Nor did His true deity make faith impossible to His manhood. Christ’ s perfect manhood perfected His faith, and in some aspects modified it. His trust had no relation to the consciousness of sin, and no element either of repentance or of longing for pardon. But it had relation to the consciousness of need, and was in Him, as in us, the condition of continual derivation of life and power from the Father. Christ’ s perfect faith brought forth perfect fruits in His life, issuing, as it did, in obedience which was perfect in purity of motive, in gladness of submission, and in completeness of the resulting deeds as well as in its continuity through His life. Out of His example we may take both shame and encouragement: shame, when we measure our poor, purblind, feeble, and interrupted faith against His; and encouragement when we raise our hopes to the height of the revelation in it of what ours may become. III. JESUS IS MAN, THAT HE MAY BITING MEN INTO THE FAMILY OF SONS OF GOD. 1. That through Him men may receive a new life which is His own. He can only impart His life on condition of His death. The alabaster box must be broken, though so precious, and though the light of the pure spirit within shone lustrous and softened through it, in order that the house may be filled with the odour of the ointment. 2. That men may, by the communication of His life, become sons of God. They are God’ s children, being Christ’ s brethren. They are brought into a new unity, and, being members of one family, are one by a sacreder oneness than the possession of a common humanity. 3. That men may become sharers in His prerogatives and offices. He becomes like us in our lowliness and flesh of sin, that we may become like Him in His glory and perfection. 4. That He may present His family at last to God. If we love and trust Him, He will hold us in His strong and tender grasp, and never part from us till He presents us at last, faultless and joyful, before the presence of His and our Father. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The graciousness of Christ In the verses immediately preceding, the writer had set forth the incarnation, suffering, and death of Christ Jesus, as an indispensable condition of the great work of lifting the race of man into the Divine nature. Then he identifies and unites the two parties. Those for whom Christ suffered, for whom he became perfect through suffering, are lifted into His household, and are become one with Him. This idea runs through the whole New Testament. Men are adopted, we are told. They are of God’ s household. And that meant more in those days than it now means, by a difference of social arrangements in life. They are sons; they are heirs; they are Christ’ s brethren; they are united to Him as the branch to the vine. Now, the absolute inferiority of the human soul and mind to the Divine would lead one, in his meditations, to suppose that God could not well other than be ashamed. Adult companionship does not demand equality. It demands, however, some moral proportion. The Divine nature is illustrated here in this--that the feeling of God toward men, in their inferiority, is apparently feeling without regard to the coming character. God sustains toward the whole human race, we may believe, just the feeling which a true parent sustains toward a new-born child, while it is as yet neither good or bad, but is certainly feeble, weak, infinitely out of proportion to the parent. The feeble, the ignorant, the low--God loves them, and has infinite compassion for them, and is not ashamed of them. But quite beyond and different from this, are presumptive reasons why God should be ashamed--namely, in moral delinquency. The child, when it knows it has done unworthily, imputes to the parent a sense of shame in its behalf. And every Christian has times of despondency, not only, but of sober conviction that he has dishonoured himself, and that he has brought scandal upon the name of his Master. And in these hours one goes to Christ with the feeling that He must be ashamed too. We are ashamed to pray, and afraid to commune. And yet it is of just such that Christ says He is not ashamed. He is not ashamed to call them brethren, as we shall see. The shame spoken of is not simply a generous feeling. It is to be interpreted by its relation to the idea of personal communion. Christ is not ashamed to call men even brethren. Conceive of the most advanced and noble Christians that ever have lived in this world--of Martyn and Brainerd, as missionary martyrs; of Fenelon and Pascal, as contemplative Christians--and compare these, not with their own kind, but with the character and condition of the just made perfect. Compare the most peerless saint that walks among men with your ideal of the just and the perfect before God. “ Hardly,” one would say, “ would God be willing to identify Himself with any human being--with even the highest and best.” Yet so it is. He is not ashamed to call them brethren. If you consider, now, how far below these ordinary Christians live; how little there is that enters into the Christian experience; how the Divine life is, as it were, but in the germ; if you reflect how far from that ideal which Christ set before us the ordinary, average Christian experience is, men might well express surprise that Christ should be willing to call such Christians brethren. And yet He points to those that stand in the ordinary lot of life, the ordinary Christian experience, and says, “ I am not ashamed to call them brethren.” Far below this level there is a throng who can scarcely be thought to have even a beginning; and yet there is a single spark. There are occasional impulses as if their souls would turn toward God. Bold are they for the world, but timid for righteousness, and hardly daring to say to their fellow-men, “ I am a Christian.” Ah! can it be that Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren? He is not. He has been made in the likeness of men, and has entered into the full temptation of men, that He might know to the uttermost, and to the very bottom, what man suffers. The lowest, poorest, meanest of Christian attainments find in Christ Jesus a spirit that is not ashamed. Banish from your minds an oriental monarchy. Banish the conception of such glory as lies in external appearances and external adjuncts. Consider what it is for God to be glorious. It is the glory of pity unfathomable. He considers glory to lie in long-suffering love. It is because He knows how to work for men that are ungrateful, that His heart swells with consciousness of its power. Look, then, upon the work to be done in this world. We can understand, if we consider it in its entirety, that this world is a school; that it is a healing hospital; that it is a training ground; that the Divine problem is, how to take the germ of life and bring it steadily up through all its transmutations, from age to age, until it becomes Divine; and to do it through suffering, through long-suffering, and through patience; to do it by inspiration; to do it by pain and by joy, by sorrow and by gladness, by all means. So to teach the human soul, and lit t upon it time light of Divine glory, that it shall become like God--that is the work to he done in this world. Christ is not ashamed of this work. He is not ashamed of His scholars, neither of those in the lowest, the intermediate, or the highest form. He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Not because there is not much that is repulsive to a pure and high nature; but for His own reasons (Ephesians 5:25-27). Without further unfolding this great, this wonderful truth, I ask whether any one need fear to begin a new Christian life with such a Saviour. If, when his prayers go up, they go into the hands of such an One; if all the invitations to a Christian life are those that come from a Brother’ s lips--from the lips of One who is not ashamed of our poorness, our vileness, our dullness, or our remissness--then any man can be a Christian. Need any one be discouraged who has begun to live a Christian life, because so often he has failed and fallen into backsliding? Is a true pupil discouraged because so many of his lessons are imperfect? There is encouragement, since we have One that is not ashamed of us, in spite of our many defections and inferiorities. Why should we not, therefore, gird up our loins, and take a fresh hold, with new consecration, on the Christian life? Will not every day’ s experience give reason and argument for gratitude to such a Lord as this? I think I have learned more of the nature of my Master from my bad than from my good. We learn both ways. But it is the sense of God’ s graciousness that impresses me. (H. W. Beecher.) In the midst of the Church win I sing praise Christ singing We have the record of Christ’ s use of some words of this psalm on the Cross; the author of this Epistle affirms that these words were also adapted by the Saviour. They illustrate I. CHRIST’ S IN GOD’ S SERVICE. In all ages, Christ is serving God in the midst of the Church, by His precepts, example, spirit. II. CHRIST’ S SOCIAL IN GOD’ S SERVICE. In fellowship with the whole assembly of the good, whom He is not ashamed to call brethren, Christ serves God. But if their brother, He is their Leader in this praise. III. CHRIST’ S IN GOD’ S SERVICE. Singing is no slavish act; real singing is not even perfunctory; probably, ideal song is spontaneous. Such is Christ’ s service. IV. CHRIST’ S JOYOUS IN GOD’ S SERVICE. AS soon as ever we can sing of our sadness, even the sadness is sweetened, and song is the very symbol of joy. Lessons: 1. The highest engagement of our life is serving God. 2. The true method of serving God is socially, willingly, joyfully. (U. R. Thomas.) The children which God hath given MeChildren to be brought to heaven There was a mother lay dying some time ago, and she requested her children to be brought to her bedside. The eldest one came in first, and putting her loving bands on his head, she gave him a mother’ s parting message. Then came another, and then another. To all of them she gave her parting message, until the last--the seventh one, an inlay,--was brought in. She was so young she could not understand the message of love; so the weather gave it to her husband for her; and then she took the child to her bosom, and kissed it, and caressed it, until her time was almost up. Then, turning to her husband, she said: “ I charge you to bring all these children home to heaven with you.” (D. L. Moody.) Children a life.work I was in the company of a talented Christian lady, when a friend said to her, “ Why have you never written a book?” “ I am writing two,” was the quiet reply. “ Have been engaged on one for ten years, the other five.” “ You surprise me,” cried the friend; “ what profound works they must be!” “ It doth not appear yet what we shall be,” was her reply; “ but when He makes up His jewels, my great ambition is to find them there.” “ Your children?” I said. “ Yes, my two children; they are my life work.” (Christian Age.) Hebrews 2:16 The nature of angels Angels It must be a spiritual one,--for “ He maketh His angels spirits. ” It must be very pure,--for they are “ the holy ones.” Very lofty,--for they “ stand before the throne, and always behold God’ s face.” Very powerful, too, they must be,--for “ they excel in strength.” And very busy they must be, and very humble,--for “ each has six wings, and with twain he covers his face, with twain he covers his feet, and with twain he does fly.” And very accurate they must be,--for they bear their messages so faithfully. And very unselfish,--for they always give all the glory to God alone. They are not entirely spotless,--for “ He chargeth His angels with folly” ; and some did once fall. And they never seem to originate anything-they go where they are sent, they say what they are instructed, they do whatever they are told. Neither does their love appear to be so much their own love, as a love with which they are commissioned. And their office is not, for the most part, so much with the souls of men, to convert, or to influence, Or to comfort them, as with the outer circumstances of men--to minister to them in their dangers, in their wants, in their difficulties. And how does “ the nature of angels” stand related to our own? Is it higher or lower? Originally, in Eden, I do not know; but I should say the angelic nature was then the lower, because that is said of man which is never said of angels, that he was “ made in the likeness of God,” and because to man was given what was never given to angels--supremacy and sovereignty over all the works of God. The fallen nature of man is, on the whole, lower. But only a little--“ a little lower than the angels.” But how is it with man’ s redeemed and renewed nature? Beyond a doubt, it is above angels; for such as Christ’ s present glorified nature is, such is that. The angels never sing our song’ --theirs is jubilant, but ours is triumphant, their theme is creation, ours is grace; they praise God in His works, we adore and love Him in His Son. And do not you know that we shall “ judge angels,” and that we shall reign with Christ for ever and ever. We bless God for His holy angels! We bless Him that there is anything so pure and beautiful in His creation for us to think of and to love. We bless Him that we have such presences, so stilling, so assuring, so restful. We bless Him for that incentive to all propriety in our solitary hours--an angel’ s ear, and an angel’ s eye. We bless Him for the debts we owe to those ethereal beings, of which we are yet but dimly conscious. We bless Him that they take charge of our daily walk, and our midnight slumbers, live bless Him that He commits it to creatures so lovely to exercise His merciful providences. We bless Him that they ministered so tenderly to their and our dear Lord in the days of His sojourn here, and that now they do all they do for us for that Jesus’ s sake. We bless Him that they take such pious interest in our spiritual welfare, and rejoice in the tears of which they know that the sadness is joy. We bless Him that those who look on us so kindly do also behold His face. We bless Him that when we come to die, it is they, those heavenly watchers, who shall waft our spirits on their wings to heaven. We bless Him that we with them, and they with us, we shall mingle our songs and our services, and encircle the throne together with our common praise. We bless Him that when Christ, and we with Christ, shall come back again to this earth, we shall be attended by The glory of the holy angels. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) He took on Him the seed of Abraham Christian sympathy We are all of one nature, because we are sons of Adam; we are all of one nature, because we are brethren of Christ. All those common feelings, which we have by birth, are far more intimately common to us, now that we have obtained the second birth. Our hopes and fears, likes and dislikes, pleasures and pains, have been moulded upon one model, have been wrought into one image blended and combined unto “ the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Yes, and one thing needful; one narrow way; one business on earth; one and the same enemy; the same dangers; the same temptations; the same afflictions; the same course of life; the same death; the same resurrection; the same judgment. All these things being the same, and the new nature being the same, and from the same, no wonder that Christians can sympathise with each other, even as by the power of Christ’ s sympathising in and with each of them. Nay, and further, they sympathise together in those respects too, in which Christ has not, could not have, gone before them; I mean in their common sins. This is the difference between Christ’ s temptation and ours: His temptations were without sin, but ours with sin. Temptation with us almost certainly involves sin. We have still earthly principles in our souls, though we have heavenly ones, and these so sympathise with temptation, that, as a mirror reflects promptly and of necessity what is presented to it, so the body of death which infects us, when the temptations of this world assail it--when honour, pomp, glory, the world’ s praise, power, ease, indulgence,sensual pleasure, revenge are offered to it--involuntarily responds to them, and sins--sins because it is sin; sins before the better mind can control it, because it exists, because its life is sin; sins till it is utterly subdued and expelled from the soul by the gradual growth of holiness and the power of the Spirit. Of all this, Christ had nothing. He was “ born of a pure Virgin,” the immaculate Lamb of God; and though He was tempted, yet it was by what was good in the world’ s offers, though unseasonable and unsuitable, and not by what was evil in them. He overcame what it had been unbecoming to yield to, while He felt the temptation. He overcame also what was sinful, but He felt no temptation to it. And yet it stands to reason, that though His temptations differed from ours in this main respect, yet His presence in us makes us sympathise one with another, even in our sins and faults, in a way which is impossible without it; because, whereas the grace in us is common to us all, the sins against that grace are common to us all also. We have the same gifts to sin against, and therefore the same powers, the same responsibilities, the same fears, the same struggles, the same guilt, the same repentance, and such as none can have but we. I do not of course mean to say that we are one and all at the same point in our Christian course, or have one and all had the same religious history in times past; but that, even taking a man who has never fallen from grace, and one who has fallen most grievously and repented, even they will be found to be very much like each other in their view of themselves, in their temptations, and feelings upon those temptations, than they might fancy beforehand. This we see most strikingly instanced when holy men set about to describe their real state. Even bad men at once cry out, “ This is just our case,” and argue from it that there is no difference between bad and good. They impute all their own sins to the holiest of men, as making their own lives a sort of comment upon the text which his words furnish, and appealing to the appositeness of their own interpretation in proof of its correctness. And I suppose it cannot be denied, concerning all of us, that we are generally surprised to hear the strong language which good men use of themselves, as if such confessions showed them to be more like ourselves, and much less holy than we had fancied them to be. And on the other hand, I suppose, any man of tolerably correct life, whatever his positive advancement m grace, will seldom read accounts of notoriously bad men, in which their ways and feelings are described, without being shocked to find that these more or less cast a meaning upon his own heart, and bring out into light and colour lines and shapes of thought within him, which, till then, were almost in visible. Now this does not show that bad and good men are on a level, but it shows this, that they are of the same nature. They have common ground; and as they have one faith and hope, and one Spirit, so also they have one and the same circle of temptations, and one and the same confession. (J. H. Newman, D. D.) On the Incarnation of Christ I. WHAT IS from Christ’ s “ taking on Him the seed of Abraham.” 1. The Divine nature of Christ. 2. The reality of Christ’ s human nature. 3. The truth of His office, and the divinity of His mission. 4. His voluntary choice and design, to assume a condition here upon earth low and contemptible. II. WHY CHRIST TOOK UPON HIM THE NATURE OF MAN, AND NOT OF ANGELS. 1. The transcendent greatness and malignity of the sin of the angels above that of men. (1) As being committed against a much greater light, which is to be the proper guide and ruler of the will in all its choices. (2) The sin of the angels commenced upon a greater liberty of will and freedom of choice. There was no devil to tempt them to become devils; no seducer of a stronger reason to impose upon theirs; they moved entirely upon the motives of an intrinsic malice. 2. The next, and perhaps the grand cause, that induced Christ to take upon Him the nature and mediation of men, and not of angels, might be this; that without such a Redeemer, the whole race and species of mankind had perished, as being all involved in the sin of their representative; whereas, though many of the angels sinned, yet as many, if not more, persisted in their innocence; so that the whole kind was not cashiered by a universal ruin, nor made unserviceable to their Creator, in the nobler instances of active obedience. (R. South, D. D.) The Incarnation I. The general scope of this passage you will all apprehend to be this, that the children of Adam, being now all children of wrath, ALL NEEDED A SAVIOUR; and the Saviour they needed must not be in the form of God, or of an angel; He must be in the likeness of sinful flesh; whatever else He is, HE MUST BE MAN. Accordingly, Jesus Christ, the Mediator, who was God from eternity, became man, in the fulness of time. Concerning God, even the Father, we know something from other sources than Revelation. Nature and Providence declare His eternal power and Godhead; whereas our acquaintance with the Son of God is derived from Revelation alone. But the Bible assures us that Jesus Christ is God--and it assures us also that He is man; and the assertion of His Godhead is equally positive as that of His manhood. As we are told, the Word was made flesh--that the Divine, and not any angelic nature, was incarnate; so, we may confidently infer, that the assumption of manhood by any inferior, or created spirit, would not have answered the mighty purposes of God’ s mercy in our redemption. For the Divine wisdom will never employ a mightier agency than the occasion demands. Having thus stated the necessity, as this is evidently asserted in the Word of God, that our Saviour should unite in His person the nature of God and the nurture of man, I would proceed II. To inquire, WHEREIN THAT ? 1. I do not propose to inquire into the propriety of this dispensation, as it regards the Divine nature or the Divine government. We are, indeed, assured of the fact, that the incarnation of the divinity, and the atonement made by the God-man, were requisite, in order that the expression of mercy to sinners might not be inconsistent with the glorious character, which unites perfect holiness and rectitude with boundless love and compassion. God reveals these things to us only as far as our present necessities require; and further, with certainty of truth, we cannot go. 2. But, as regards ourselves, and their bearing on our interests, our Father in heaven is as liberal in His communications, as He is reserved in the other case. And I propose to suggest a few of the reasons which make it apparent, that, in order to perform the part of a Saviour to us, it behoved Christ, the Son of God, to take on Him the nature of man. That are our wants, our miseries, as sinners? We have broken the Divine law; and of course we are condemned. We need therefore, pardon or justification. This can be obtained only by a sacrifice. Therefore, we need a priest who may offer the sacrifice and reconcile us. Then, we are very weak; we need support. We are very stubborn; and therefore we need to have our hard hearts broken. We cannot regulate our actions; therefore, we need a law and a lawgiver: and we are exposed to powerful enemies, from whom, unless protected, we perish; and for all these reasons, it is manifest we need One who has the authority and power of a King. And yet further, we are most ignorant of that which we are infinitely concerned to know, which we are most unwilling to learn, and most ready to forget; which needs to be demonstrated to us, and impressed upon us with the most striking evidence; and so Christ is our Prophet. What is necessary to be shown is, that our Redeemer must be both Divine and human, otherwise He could not discharge any one of these three offices. (1) It was needful that, in order to be a Priest, our Redeemer should be both God and man. If the Word had not become man, He could not have died mile could not have offered up a sacrifice, nor made expiation. A priest implies a sacrifice, as a father implies a child, a master a servant, a governor subjects. Wherefore He took human nature, and made it part of Himself, that He might have something to offer up to God. We need to advert here to two distinct and important considerations: the essence of a sacrifice, a real sacrifice, is obedience, contrary to the natural inclination or will of that which is sacrificed. The Divine nature of the Son could not be a sacrifice to God, having the very will of God itself. But every man has that distinct will which is of the essence of freedom and responsibility. The man Jesus had that will. It is impossible those sufferings He needed to endure that He might make His soul an offering for sin, should have been inflicted on our Priest, had He appeared to the world in the form of God. But that He might suffer from man whatever was necessary for man’ s redemption, He hid Himself under their own form, so that nothing of God might be visible but His moral glory, His holiness, His power, His rectitude, His unspeakable love, His unfathomable mercy: and men dared to inflict upon the Son of God so disguised, whatever the Divine government and their eternal salvation required. Our Priest, then, must be man. That He must be God, is too plain to need proof. A Divine sufferer alone could be a worthy sacrifice for the sins of the world. And now, oh, sinners, this wonderful Person is your Priest. The God-man made atonement, the God-man maketh intercession for you. Cling to His sacrifice; accept His mediation; plead His obedience with the Father. 2. But, secondly, because we are weak and wayward, and exposed to many foes, and powerful, therefore, we need a King. And none can be such a King as we need, but One who is both God and man. Almighty is His power, infinite His knowledge and wisdom, immeasurable His love, unfailing His rectitude; and He is “ bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.” In all your frailties and ignorances and temptations manifold, remember that He your Divine Sovereign is man, and has suffered being tempted, and is qualified to succour you when ye are tempted. Let the almightiness and infinite love of your most gracious King, God’ s Son, your Brother, assure your hearts that following Him, ye shall be conquerors, yea, more than conquerors. 3. It was necessary that our Prophet, He who should effectually teach us, should be not simply God, or mere man, but both: and none could so teach us who was not both God and man. It is a gross mistake to suppose that what mankind needed most was knowledge of good and evil; or that the possession of this knowledge, in even the highest perfection, is sufficient of itself to subdue the heart to the obedience and love of God. The Jews possessed this knowledge as much as we do. Even regarding the heathens themselves, I will make bold to affirm, there is scarcely a duty or rule of morality, laid down in the New Testament, but may be found expressed, with more or less clearness, in the writings of some one or more of their poets or philosophers. It was not necessary, therefore, that another temple of God should be reared of stones, or that, from that dead temple, the same dead law, the mere letter of outward and verbal instruction, should be promulgated. But when righteousness had grown a stranger upon earth, then God sent that Teacher, His Son, who should found a new, a living temple, of which He was the Foundation; and should be Himself a Living Law, not only informing men, but showing them, in His own life, what they should be; and overturning the notion that what He enjoined was impossible, by the undeniable performance of it by Himself in their own nature. He is an effectual Teacher, for He has power not only Himself to work the works of God, but to communicate that to others whereby they also may work them. His instruction is quickening and saving: He is the true light, for it is light which is the life of men. A perfect teacher of righteousness could neither be mere man, nor in the form of God. A mere man could not, as is evident from two plain reasons. He could not exemplify His own precepts--He could not prove that obedience was possible, and He could not give the Spirit, for the Spirit is God, and how could a man, a creature, communicate God the Creator? And yet, without the Spirit of God, no man can be taught of God. And now, let us suppose that Christ, the Prophet of the Church, had delivered His teaching to us in the form of God, that He taught us without being incarnate: might not the human heart have raised these plausible objections? “ Thou commandest me to keep Thy law, but Thou art God, and I am dust and ashes. Thou dost promise me the aid of Thy Spirit; but I have not seen or heard of any one in whom, by that aid, this end was accomplished.” To prevent this murmur, and the reasons on which it might have rested, God became man, and, as man spoke to men from the same level on which they stood. We saw Him in humiliation, in sorrow, in the struggles of temptation, in the fears and agonies of death, “ ever in the battle, but ever aloft” ; and then finally victorious, when He seemed for ever vanquished, for, by yielding to death He conquered him and his ruler, in the irresistible might of weakness quelling all the powers of hell. This is our Redeemer, this our Saviour. This is He announced from of old, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. How wonderful, how glorious His person; uniting the majesty of the eternal God with the meanness of mortal man; qualified to do whatever was necessary to be done, to suffer whatever needed to be endured for the honour of God and the salvation of man! How mysterious is His condescension, how sublime His humility--the pure streams of His mercy overflowing the world, while the flames of His zeal consumed Himself. (R. Lee, D. D.) On passing by angels to redeem wen If He who made all things took upon Him man’ s nature, we may feel sure that there is in that nature some intrinsic excellence and greatness, one proof of which is that it is capable of being united with the Person of the Word who was in the beginning with God, and was God. But so, unquestionably, was the angels’ nature; for man is a little lower than the angels. Here were two fallen races before the eye of the Redeemer, and we cannot doubt that it was optional with Him to redeem either of them, or both. Why He did not redeem both must be left to sovereign wisdom. I. FALLEN ANGELS, IF , WOULD NO DOUBT BECOME AS GREAT AND AS BEFORE. We see in this world enough of degradation made by sin to keep us from doubting the power or sin to degrade fallen angels into devils, and devils into alliance with swine. But the memory of innocence and of bliss in heaven no doubt remains in them. What a good work it would have been to redeem that memory and restore that angel. How sad, one might say, to think that Christ would not redeem him, but went after South Sea Islanders and the aborigines of the British Isles, than whom none was ever more lost to shame, or more distant from God. And what a wicked world this, which He redeemed, has proved. Thus far the few are saved; the many hate God. II. But in reply it may be said, HIS SUCCESS MIGHT HAVE BEEN NO BETTER HAD CHRIST MADE FOR ANGELS INSTEAD OF FOR MEN. Angels might have invented objections to Him as men did; some might go so far as to deny His Godhead and incarnation, and ask whether a good God would let His innocent Son visit such an abode, to suffer and die for devils; and what virtue there could be in the sufferings of one for the sins of others; and whether it is just to substitute an innocent being for the guilty? It is the great mystery of wisdom that while God does His pleasure, it is in such a way that every man exercises his free choice. III. THOSE WHOM DO NOT ACCEPT FOR THEM BY THE SON OF GOD ARE TO BE WITH A RACE OF SINNERS WHOM CHRIST DID NOT REDEEM. Nothing surely is better adapted to make us accept the offers of the gospel; for if Christ passed them by and came to save us, no fancy can picture what it must be to receive from His lips a consignment to their abode and to their society. IV. THE SUBJECT OPENS TO US A VIEW OF HUMAN FOR ALL WHO ACCEPT OF . If the Redeemer sought the greater amount of happiness in those for whom He decided to make atonement, He surely will find it in us who enter heaven, not as a recovered seat from which we were ignominiously expelled, but a world new, untried, awakening in us sensations of wonder and joy which now it doth not enter into the heart of man to conceive. There will be a quality in our joy which could never be known to those who fell from heaven. And shall we lose it? Are we looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God? (N. Adams, D. D.) Fallen humanity elected to redemption in preference to fallen angels I. THERE ARE STRONG REASONS WHICH BLIGHT NAVE LED US TO SUPPOSE THAT GOD WOULD HAVE GIVEN THE TO FALLEN ANGELS. 1. The superiority of angelic natures. 2. The probability of their greater misery. 3. Their greater competency of appreciating the redemptive act. II. THERE RIGHT APPEAR STRONG REASONS FOR THE CHOICE OF FALLEN ANGELS, WE CAN MOST REASONS FOR THE OF FALLEN MEN. 1. The election of men in preference to fallen angels furnishes a more striking manifestation of Divine justice. 2. A more striking manifestation of Divine independence. 3. A more striking manifestation of Divine condescension. Lessons: 1. How cautious should we be in pronouncing judgment upon the conduct of God. 2. How devoutly earnest should man’ s acceptance of this redemption be. 3. How zealously should those who have become participaters of this redemption seek to extend it to others. (Homilist.) Men chosen--fallen angels rejected I. In the first place, the translation of our authorised version runs thus: “ HE TOOK NOT ON HIM THE NATURE OF ANGELS.” Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did not take upon Himself the nature of angels, this condescension dictated to Him, that if He did stoop, He would descend to the very lowest degree; that if He did become a creature, He would become, not the noblest creature, but one of the most ignoble of rational beings, that is to say, man, therefore, He did not stoop to the intermediate step of angelship, but He stooped right down and became a man. Let us notice the wisdom and the love of this, and I think there will be something to cause us to glorify God for so doing. 1. If Christ had taken upon Himself the nature of angels, He could never have made an atonement for man. 2. Had our Saviour become an angel, He would never have been a fitting example for us. I cannot imitate an angelic example. If you would give me something to imitate, give me a man like myself, then I may attempt to follow him. 3. Sweetly, also, let us remember that if Christ had been an angel, He could not have sympathised with us. In order to sympathise with our fellow creatures we must be something like them. Suppose a man made of iron, or of brass, could he sympathise with our wearied lungs, or with our aching bones? 4. Once more, Christ became a man, and not an angel, because He desired to be one with His dear Church. 5. Again, if Christ had not taken upon Him the nature of man, then manhood would not have been so honourable or so comfortable as it is. II. The literal translation, according to the marginal reading, is, “ HE TOOK NOT UP ANGELS, BUT HE TOOK UP THE SEED OF ABRAHAM,” by which is meant, that Christ did not die to save angels, though many of them needed salvation, but He died to save fallen man. 1. I do not think it is because of any difference in the sin. When two criminals are brought before a judge, if one of them is to be saved, and the other punished, very likely the judge will say, “ Let the greatest offender die, and let the less offender be saved.” Now, I do not know that Satan was a greater offender than man; I am not sure that the fallen angels sinned more than man did. “ Why, sir,” you say, “ man’ s sin was a very little one; he only stole some of his Master’ s fruit.” Aye, but if it was such a little thing to do, what a little thing it would have been not to do it! If it were so little a thing, how easily he might have avoided it I and, therefore, because he did it, it became all the greater sin. 2. But suppose there is not much difference in their sin, the next question is, which of those two beings is the most worth saving? Which would serve his Maker most, if his Maker should spare him? And I defy any of you to hold that a sinful man is a more valuable creature than an angel. 3. Sometimes the government will say, “ Well, here are two persons to be executed; we desire to save one; which of the two would be the most dangerous character to allow to continue an enemy?” Now, which could hurt God the most, speaking as man would speak, a fallen angel, or a man? I answer, that fallen man can do but little injury to Divine government, compared to a fallen angel. 4. Perhaps it would be said, if one is to be saved, let that one be saved who would take the least trouble to save. Now, which could be saved with the greatest ease, should you suppose a fallen angel, or a fallen man? For my part, I can see no difference; but if there be any it strikes me that a restoration does not put things one-half so much out of order as a revolution; and to have restored the angels to the place from which they had fallen, speaking as a man must speak, would not have been so hard as to have taken fallen man out of the place from which he had fallen, and placed him where fallen angels bad once stood. 5. But, you may say, God saved man because He pitied him. But then why did not He pity the devils? I know two men living on three or four shillings a week. I pity one of them very much, indeed; but the other, who is no better off, I pity him the most, for he once knew better times. Man, it is true, fell out of Eden; but Satan fell out of heaven, and is the more to be pitied on account of the greatness of his fall; and, therefore, if pity had ruled the day, God would have decided for the fallen angels, and not for fallen men. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Kindred aids rescue There is no sympathy like that of those who are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Let some stranger see a child fall into yonder river, and his irresistible impulse is to plunge in and rescue that child. But his zeal to do so is mere indifference compared with the heartrending agony that tears the soul of the child’ s mother. Some years since, in a wild valley of Dauphine, in France, an eagle, we are told, swooped down from its lofty eyrie, clutched a helpless infant in its sharp talons, and soared aloft with it to the peak of an almost inaccessible mountain. The peasants, looking on with horror at the sight, in confusion and excitement, knew not what to do. But not so the mother. Hearing of the disaster, love gave wings to her feet, and so she leaped, nay, flew almost, from crag to crag, until, mounting higher and higher, she reached the summit and clasped the uninjured captive to her bosom. Kinship intensifies sympathy. It is just of that the apostle would have us to gather a clear and strong idea. Christ is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, one of ourselves; bound up with us in the bundle of life, bound to us by ten thousand close and tender ties, along which there thrill and throb the vibrations of a strength--a Divine, a supernatural strength, that flows down indeed to the heart of even the feeblest and lowliest of His sufferers upon earth. (Bp. of Algoma.) Humiliation of Jesus The founder of the Russian empire left his palace and capital, the seductive pleasures and all the pomp and royalty, to acquire the art of ship-building in the dockyard of a Dutch sea-port. He learned it that he might teach it to his subjects; he became a servant, that he might be the better master, and lay in Russia the foundations of a great naval power. Nor has his country been ungrateful; her capital, which bears his name, is adorned with a monument to his memory, massive as his mind; and she has embalmed his deathless name in her heart and in her victories. Yet, little as men think of Jesus, lightly as they esteem Him, a far greater sight is here. There, in a king becoming a subject that his subjects might find in him a king, there was much for men; but here there is much both for men and angels to wonder at, and praise through all eternity. The Son of God stoops to toil. What an amazing scene! (T. Guthrie. D. D.) The secret of true philanthropy Great philanthropic programmes must begin at Bethlehem, and comprehend the mysteries of Golgotha, if ever they would ascend from Bethany into the heavens. He who would make life redemptive mission must go to the very base of society, and begin his work there. Men invariably fail when they begin at the high twig rather than the buried root. To serve man, Christ became man. So in serving others we must identify ourselves with them. Christ was in the darkness, but the darkness was not in Him. This identification of Himself with the human race made Christ accessible to all classes. Man needed for a season--only for a season, as one summer in the year is enough--a visible manifestation of God. So by coming to us, and being like us, trod humbling Himself to the death of the Cross, He saved us. We, too, in our philanthropic work must go down. Kings are only the blossomings of the great communal tree. “ Down to the roots” is the cry of the true philanthropy. (J. Parker, D. D.) Christ’ s close contact with humanity You remember that happy story of the wild negro child who could never be won till the little lady sat down by her, and laid her hand upon her. Eva won poor Topsy by that tender touch. The tongue failed, but the hand achieved the victory. So was it with our adorable Lord. He showed us that He was bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; He brought Himself into contact with us, and made us perceive the reality of His love to us, and then He became more than a conqueror over us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ He was one of its” On the centenary of the birth of Robert Stephenson there was a very large demonstration at Newcastle. The town was paraded by a vast precession who carried banners in honour of the distinguished engineer. ]n the procession there was a band of peasants, who carried a little banner of very ordinary appearance, but bearing the words, “ He was one of us.” They were inhabitants of the small village in which Robert Stephenson had been born, and had come to do him honour. They had a right to a prominent position in that day’ s proceedings, because he to whom so many thousands did honour was one of them. Even so, whatever praise the thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers can ascribe to Christ in that grand celebration when men shall be no more, we from earth can wave our banners with the words written upon it, “ He was one of us.” Hebrews 2:17 Made like unto His brethren A sermon preached on Christmas Day This high feast of the nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by St. Chrysostom “ the great metropolitan feast.” For, as to the chief city the whole country resorts (Psalms 122:4); so all the feast-days of the whole year meet and are concentred in the joy of this feast. If we will draw them into a perfect circle, we must set the foot of the compass upon this, “ God was made like unto man.” My text is laid down unto us in the form of a model proposition; which consists of two parts, the dictum and the modus. Here is, first, the proposition, “ Christ is made like us.” Secondly, the modification or qualification of it, “ It behoved Him so to be.” First, in the proposition, our meditations are directed to Christ and to His brethren. And we consider “ what Christ is, and what we were.” God He was from all eternity, but in the fulness of time “ made like unto as.” But we were miserable sinners, enemies to God. But now, by Christ’ s assimilation to us, we are made like unto God. Secondly, the modification carries out thoughts to those two common heads--the convenience, and the necessity of it. Now this again looks, equally on both--on Christ, and on His brethren. If “ in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto His brethren,” which is the benefit, heaven and earth will conclude, men and angels will infer, that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ, which is the duty. My text, ye see, is divided equally between these two terms, “ Christ,” and “ His brethren.” That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is, first, His divine; secondly, His human, nature; thirdly, the union of them both. First, His divine nature; for we cannot but make a stand, and inquire who He was who ought to do this. Secondly, His human nature; for we find Him here “ flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones,” made like unto us in our flesh, in our souls. “ What can we say more?” Our apostle tells us, “ in all things.” And then, thirdly, will follow the union, expressed in the passive “ to be made.” in His assimilation, and the assumption of our nature. All these fill us with admiration; but the last raiseth it yet higher. Fourthly, the end of all is the end of all--our salvation; the end of our creation, of our redemption, of this assimilation; and the last end of all, the glory of God. Then “ His brethren “ and He will “ dwell together in unity.” I. In the first place, in an holy ecstasy we cry out with the prophet,” Who is He that cometh?” (Isaiah 63:1). “ Who is He that must be made likeunto us?” What is done? and, Who did it? “ are of so near relation that we can hardly abstract one from the other. We, who are children of time, have need of a captain who must be born in time. We were sick of a bold and foolish ambition to be gods. And this disease became epidemical: we all would be independent, our own lawgivers, our own God. Pride threw us down; and nothing but humility, the exinanition of the Son of God, could raise us. II. Therefore, in the next place, as Christ is “ God of His Father,” so He is “ man of His mother” ; the Son of God, and the Son of Mary. That He appeareth in the likeness of our flesh, that He appeareth and speaketh and suffereth in our flesh, is the high prerogative of the gospel. And here He publisheth Himself in every way of representation. 1. “ In our image or likeness,” --“ In the form” of a servant, our very picture, a living picture, such a picture as one man is of another. 2. “ By way of comparison.” For how hath He dilated Himself by a world of comparisons! He is a “ Shepherd,” to guide and feed us; a “ Captain,” to lead us; a “ Prophet,” to teach us. He is a “ Priest,” and He is “ the Sacrifice” for us. He is “ Bread,” to strengthen us; a “ Vine,” to refresh us; a “ Lamb,” that we may be meek; a “ Lion,” that we may be valiant; a “ Door,” to let us in; and “ the Way,” through which we pass into life. He is anything that will make us like Him. Sin and error and the devil have not appeared in more shapes to deceive and destroy us than Christ hath to save us.3. By His “ exemplary” virtues; and those raised to such a high pitch of perfection, that neither the heretic, nor the Turk, nor the devil himself could leach and blemish it. III. We must now, with a reverent and fearful hand, but touch at the passive “ to be made,” which pointeth out the union of both the natures in one person. The apostle telleth us that “ it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren. ” And “ to the apprehension of this union” (as to the knowledge of God), as Ambrose saith, “ we arc led by weak and faint representations drawn from sensible things,” and by negations. “ Not after this manner. ” He was made like unto us, it is true: but not so as flesh and blood may imagine, or a wanton and busy wit conceive. His glory did not take from Him the form of a servant, nor did this assimilation lessen or alter Him in that by which He was equal to His Father. This is “ a great mystery” (1 Timothy 3:16); and mysteries cannot be searched nor sounded to the depth. It fareth with us in the pursuit of profound mysteries as with those who labour in rich mines. When we dig too deep, we meet with poisonous fogs and damps instead of treasure; when we labour above, we find less metal, but more safety. Humility and purity of soul are the best convoys in the ways of knowledge. Be not then too inquisitive to find out the manner of this union. That Christ “ was made like unto us,” is the joy of this feast; but that He ought to be so, is the wonder and ecstasy of our joy. That He would descend, is mercy; but that He must descend, is our astonishment. Had the apostle said, “ It behoved us that He should be made like unto us” it had found an easy belief; the “ it behoved” had been placed “ in its proper place” on the face of a captive. All will say, “ It behoved us much.” But to put a aebet upon the Son of God, and make it a beseemming thing for Him to become flesh, “ to be made like unto us,” is as if one should set a ruby in clay, a diamond in brass, a chrysolite in baser metal, and say they are placed well there. To give a gift, and call it a debt, is not our usual language. On earth it is not; but in heaven it is the proper dialect, fixed in capital letters on the mercy-seat. It is the joy of this feast, the angels’ anthem, “ A Saviour is born! “ And if He will be a Saviour, an Undertaker, a Surety, such is the nature of fidejussion and suretyship, debet, “ He must,” “ it behoveth Him” ; He is as deeply engaged as the party whoso Surety He is. 1. Let us look on the aptness of the means, and we shall soon find that this “ foolishness of God” (1 Corinthians 1:25), as the apostle calls it, “ is wiser than man, and this weakness of God is stronger than men” ; and that the debt, it is right set. For “ if you will have extremes meet, you must have a middle line to draw them together” : and, behold, here they meet, and are made one! The properties of either nature being entire, yet meet and concentre as it were in one person. Majesty putteth on humility; Power, infirmity; Eternity, mortality. By the one our Saviour dieth for us, by the other He riseth again; by the one He suffereth as man, by the other He conquereth as God; by both He perfecteth and consummateth the great work of our redemption. 2. So then here is an aptness and conveniency: but the words, “ It behoved Him,” imply also a kind of necessity. That God could be made like mortal man, is a strange contemplation; that He would, is a rise and exaltation of that; that He ought, super-exalteth, and sets it at a higher pitch; but that He must be so, that necessity in a manner should bring Him down, were not His love infinite as well as His power, would stagger and amaze the strongest faith. It is true, this condescension of His, this assimilation, was free and voluntary, with more cheerfulness and earnestness undertaken by Him titan received now by us. But if we look back upon the precontract which passed between His Father and Him, we shall then see a debuit, “ a kind of necessity,” laid upon Him. Our Saviour Himself speaketh it to His blessed mother, “ I must go about My Father’ s business” (Luke 2:49). We may measure His love by the decree; that is, we cannot measure it: for the decree is eternal. Application: 1. If Christ be like unto us, then we also ought to be like unto Him, and to have our assimilation, our nativity, by analogy and rules of proportion answerable unto His. To be like unto Him! Why, who would not be like unto Him? “ Like Him” we all would be in His glory. But to be like Him in the wilderness, like Him in His daily converse with men, like Him in the high-priest’ s hall, like Him in the garden, like Him on the Cross: this we like not; hero we start back, and are afraid of His countenance. But if we will be His brethren, this is the copy we must take out, these be our postures, these our colours: bathed in His blood, it is true; but, withal, bathed in the waters of affliction, bathed in our tears, bathed in our own blood. 2. As He was made like unto us, so are we made like unto Him. We are not born so, nor so by chance. This resemblance is not drawn out with a thought or a word. How many be there who bear Christ’ s name, yet are not like unto Him, because they will not be made so! 3. As there was a debuit upon Christ, so there is upon us. As “ it behoved Him” to be made like unto us, so it behoveth us to be made like unto Him. A humble Christ, and a proud Christian; a meek Christ, and a bloody Christian; an obedient Christ, and a traitorous Christian; Christ in an agony, and a Christian in pleasure; Christ fasting, and a Christian rioting; Christ on the Cross, and a Christian in a Mahometical Paradise, there is no decorum in it, nothing but solecism and absurdity. 4. This duty is not only becoming, but necessary. For if a kind of necessity lay upon Christ, by His contract with His Father, “ to be made like unto us” ; a great necessity will lie upon us, by our covenant with Him, to be like unto Him; and woe unto us, if we be not! It is “ that one thing necessary” : there is nothing necessary for us but it. (R. Farindon, J. D.) Like to His brethren I. THE DETAILS OF THIS . 1. Similarity of natures. 2. Similarity of circumstances. He took His place as one item in the great mass of humanity, and assumed no position inconsistent with manhood. II. THE OF THIS . “ It behoved Him.” Even sovereignty is bound by law. 1. We must not deny or dispute the fact because we cannot understand the reasons on which it is founded. 2. Can we, who are less than God, complain if we also are under restraints of law? III. THE OBJECT OF THIS URGENT AND PURPOSE OF GOD, 1. “ Merciful” sympathy can only flow from experience. 2. “ Faithful.” (1) To all the types and promises that had gone before. (2) To the work He undertook. (3) In His character. (Homilist.) What behoved Christ I. Note, first of all, THE OF THAT “ IT BEHOVED HIM TO BE MADE IN ALL THINGS LIKE UNTO HIS .” And observe that the “ all things” here, concerning which our Lord’ s likeness to mankind is predicated, are not the ordinary properties of human nature, but emphatically and specifically man’ s sorrows. That will appear, I think, if you notice that my text is regarded am being a consequence of our Lord’ s incarnation for the help of His fellows. “ He laid not hold upon ante)s, blot He laid hold upon the seed of Abraham.” Wherefore, “ in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” Now, if the likeness here be the possession of true manhood, then my text is mere tantology, and it would simply be saying, “ He became a man, wherefore it behoved Him to become a man.” The same conclusion is, I think, fairly to be deduced from the last words of our chapter, where the fact of His suffering being tempted, is stated as His preparation to help, and as His qualification as a merciful and faithful High Priest. That is to say, the “ all things” of which our Lord became partaker like us His brethren, are here the whole mass--in all its variety of pressure and diversity of nauseousness and bitterness--the whole mass of human sorrow which ham ever made men’ s hearts bleed and men’ s eyes run. Christ, in His single Manhood, says the writer, gathered unto Himself every form of pain. All the miseries of all men forced themselves into, and filled His heart. You and I have but a drop given to us; He drank the whole cup. Our natures are not capable of sorrow as varied, as deep, as the sorrow of Jesus Christ; but for each of us surely the assurance comes with some subtle power of consolation and strength. II. So that brings me to the next point suggested here, viz., OUR LORD’ S VARIED, ALL- SORROW WAS A IMPOSED UPON HIM BY THE PURPOSE WHICH HE HAD IN VIEW. “ He taketh hold, not of angels, but of the seed of Abraham” ; and therefore He must have a hand like theirs, that can grasp theirs, and which theirs can grasp. Unless the Master had Himself been standing on the heaving surges, and Himself been subjected to the beating of the storm, He could not revive and hold up the sinking disciple. And so our Lord’ s bitter suffering, diffused through life and concentrated on the Cross, was no mere necessary result of His humanity; was not simply borne because, being a Teacher, He must stand to His principles whatever befell Him because of them; but it was a direct result of the purpose He had in view, that purpose being our redemption. Therefore to say, “ It behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren,” is but to declare that Christ’ s sufferings were no matter of physical necessity, but a matter of moral obligation. We know not by what mysterious process the Son learned obedience by the things which He suffered, nor can we understand how it was that the High Priest who would never have become the High Priest had He not been merciful, became yet more merciful by His own experience of human sorrow. But this we know, that somehow the pity, the sympathy of Christ, was deepened by His own life; and we can feel that it is easier for men to lay hold of His sympathy when they think of His sufferings, and to be sure that because in all points He was tempted like as we are “ He is able to succour them that are tempted.” Comfort drops but coldly from lips that have never uttered a sigh or a groan; and for our poor human hearts it is not enough to have a merciful God far off in the heavens. We need a Christ that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ere we can come boldly to the Throne of Grace, assured of finding there grace in time of need. III. Lastly, we have here THE OF THE MAIN PURPOSE OF OUR LORD’ S SORROWS--“ that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest.” Christ’ s help is not merely the help of a wise Teacher. Men do not want only teaching. Their need goes far deeper than that. Christ is not the Helper whose help goes down to the depths and the roots of men’ s necessity, unless He is Priest as well as Prophet and King. He comes to do something as well as to say something; comes to alter our relations to God, as well as to declare God’ s heart to us. And then, notice again how here we have Christ’ s priestly office extended over His whole life of suffering. The popular representations of the gospel, and the superficial grasp of it, which many good people have, are accustomed to draw broad line of demarcation between Christ’ s life and Christ’ s death, and to concentrate the whole of the sacrificial and expiatory character of His work in His death only. My text goes in the other direction. It says that all that long-drawn sorrow which ran through the whole life of Jesus Christ, whilst it culminated in His death, was His sacrifice for the sins of the world. For all sorrow, according to Scriptural teaching, is the fruit of sin; and the sinless Christ, who bore the sorrows which He had not earned, in bearing them bore them away. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ s likeness unto His brethren Likeness is asserted without qualification, and yet there are limits arising out of the nature of the case. One limit of course is that there can be no likeness in moral character. This limit is implied in the very titles applied to the two parties, Sanctifier and sanctified, and it is expressly stated in the place where Christ is represented as “ tempted in all respects similarly, apart from sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Another limit, nowhere referred to in words, but tacitly assumed is, that the likeness is in those respects only in which our life on earth is affected by the curse pronounced on man for sin. Overlooking this principle, we might fail to be impressed with the likeness of Jesus to other men in His experience; we might even be impressed with a sense of unlikeness. There are respects in which Christ’ s life was unlike the common life of men. He was a celibate; He died young, and had no experience of the temptations of middle life, or the infirmities of old age; in outward lot He was the brother of the poor, and was well acquainted with their griefs, but of the joys and temptations of wealth He had no experience. But these features of difference do not fall under the category of the curse. Family ties date from before the fall. The doom pronounced on man was death immediate, and prolonged life is a mitigation of the curse. Wealth too is a mitigating feature, another evidence that the curse has not been executed in rigour, but has remained to a considerable extent an unrealised ideal, because counteracted by an underlying redemptive economy. It will be found that Christ’ s likeness to His brethren is closest just where the traces of the curse are most apparent: in so far as this life is (1) afflicted with poverty, (2) exposed to temptations, to ungodliness, (3) subject to death under its more manifestly penal forms, as when it comes as a blight in early life, or as the judicial penalty of crime. Jesus was like His brethren in proportion as they need His sympathy and succour, like the poor, the tempted, the criminal. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Advantages of Christ’ s manifestation in the flesh Let us consider the design of our Saviour’ s mission, that Be came into the world to save sinners by turning us away from our iniquities, and thereby purifying to Himself a people zealous of good works; and we shall find that the manifestation of Christ in the flesh did more effectually answer this end than any other means could. 1. The first advantage that occurs is the simplicity of the character which the Deity assumed from whom the precepts of eternal life might issue with all the sanction of the Godhead, without the terror of its majesty. 2. As the end of Christ’ s coming was to turn us to the Lord, and as no obedience to His laws can be truly acceptable, but that which springs from love, so no scheme could possibly engage so strongly our gratitude as that which so manifestly declared His abundant love to us in sending His Son to take our nature upon Him. (H. Usher, D. D.) Christ like His brethren I. IT IS AN ACT OF DIVINE TO HUMAN . Our thoughts of God are imperfect and obscure, because He is invisible and cannot be perceived by any of the senses. The incarnation of Christ conducts man to the knowledge of God and to communion with Him. Let it awaken our gratitude, that the new and living way is open to us; that we are not assembled before a lifeless image, practising vain impure and cruel rites; that the purpose of our solemn assembly is to celebrate the love of our Creator. II. Christ’ s being made in all things like His brethren renders Him A FIT EXAMPLE FOR THEM TO IMITATE. It is by beholding the glory of the Lord that we are changed into the same image, and this is agreeable to the principles of human nature. Imitation is one of our first and strongest principles. The example of Christ is every way fitted for our instruction. From His humility we learn that pride was not made for man. From His meekness towards those who injured Him we learn to repress anger and revenge. The young may learn from Him subjection to their parents; the wise may learn to employ their wisdom in instructing the ignorant; the great may learn to be good; the poor may learn contentment, and the afflicted resignation. In imitating His devout retirement we perceive that man is made for devotion, and that in the exercise of it our souls return unto their rest. III. Christ was made in all things like His brethren THAT HE MIGHT WITH THEM. He took not upon Him the nature of angels, for then He could not have sympathised with men. As in circumstances of distress and danger we most need the sympathy of a friend, so Christ became “ a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” (S. Charters.) The Father’ s pity and the Son’ s sympathy (in conjunction with Psalms 103:13):--The thought which I desire, by the comparison of these texts, to suggest is this--How the compassion of God for men, disclosed in the Old Testament, has grown in the New into the fellow-feeling of Christ. We have not lost our Father’ s pity; we have gained a brother’ s sympathy. 1. Both halves of revelation agree in giving impartial prominence to two aspects of God’ s moral attitude towards us--to His aspect of displeasure towards the sinner as identified with his sin, and His aspect of grace towards the sinner as separable from his sin. Whatever the Old Testament discloses of Divine kindness to men, of gentle forbearance, and enduring watchful care, and abundant forgiveness, and healing helpfulness, seems all of it to be the condescension of One who is too great to be anything else than nobly pitiful. 2. There is no doubt whatever that some souls, fed on such views of God as these, did grow up to a spiritual stature quite heroical Long and close meditation on the greatness and on the pity of Jehovah produced very noble men of God. Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Daniel, were men in whom was united rare spiritual strength with rare spiritual tenderness. To grow familiar with the vastness and unmaginableness of the Divine nature through the habit of laying one’ s soul alongside the lofty One who inhabiteth eternity makes the soul wax great. For true greatness of soul is near of kin to a manly lowliness of soul; and he who frankly and profoundly worships Him who is alone noble enough for worship will find himself ennobled. 3. At the same time, the characteristic tendency of Old Testament saints to look at the Divine goodness as coloured by His pity and as having a constant reference to His distance above His creatures implied an imperfect appreciation of His love. Compassion is not the perfection of love. Love, when it is perfect, vanquishes what it cannot obliterate, the distinctions of high and low, of great and small. It refuses to be separated from its loved one. It can no longer be at ease while he suffers, or rich while he is poor, but bridges the gulf of difference, identifies itself with its object, and forgets to pity that it may learn to sympathise. By doing this new thing, which no Old Testament believer had dared to credit Him with doing, God disclosed a manner of love for men for which the name of pity is too weak. The Creator has become also a creature; and with us He has henceforth in Jesus Christ one nature, common; a common history; one life, one death. In brief, to the paternity of God has been added the fraternal tie. 4. Now, what is the worth to us of this new relation which God has acquired to man? There are three directions at least in which actual experience must be held to modify even the compassions of the Must Merciful. (1) For one thing, it gives such knowledge of every similar sufferer’ s case as no mere spectator can have. (2) If anything could induce us thus to make God the confidant of our life, it would be this further result of His incarnation, that in this respect at least, so far as human experience goes, He has put Himself on our own level. He has abolished at His own choice the gulf which parted us. He is our equal; He is our Fellow. (3) There is still another fruit of the incarnation more striking than all. -4. chord which has been once set in unison with another vibrates when its fellow is sharply struck. God has set His heart through human suffering into perpetual concord with human hearts. Strike them, and the heart of God quivers for fellowship. If this is compassion, it is so in a more literal sense than when we use the word as a mere synonym for pity. It is sympathy, in the Greek and New Testament sense; it is, as our version has it, being “ touched” with the same feeling. It is the remembrance of His own human past which stirs within the soul of Christ when, now, from His high seat, He sees what mortal men endure. Ah! that a world of weary sufferers only knew what beatings of heart are answering back from within the unseen where the Eternal hides! (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Human nature of Christ Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old gaols, and there is a person desirous to do them good; imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, “ Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves.” “ Well,” they say, “ but have you done aught that is wrong?” “ I will not answer you that,” saith he; “ but if you will just refer to the calendar, you will find my name there. I am written down there among you as a criminal.” Oh, how they open their hearts newt They opened their eyes with wonder first, but now they open their hearts, and they say, “ Art thou become like one of us? Then we will talk with thee.” And he begins to plead with them. Sinner, dost thou see this? Christ put Himself as near on a level with thee as He could. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A merciful and faithful High Priest Christ’ s priestly office Christ as God could have been merciful unto us, although He had not been made like unto us; but not as our High Priest. There is an ability of sufficiency, and of power; and so Christ as God was able to succour those that are tempted, although Himself had never been tempted. But there is an ability of idoneity or fitness, or aptness and disposition; and so the apostle says here, “ For in that Himself bath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” The priestly office of Christ is the great storehouse of all that grace and comfort which we have on this side heaven: it is that whereby we are reconciled to God the Father and relieved against temptation. I. WHEN THE LEND JESUS CHRIST DIED UPON THE CROSS, HE DID OFFER UP HIMSELF A UNTO GOD THE FATHER. Yea, as if all sacrifices were met in Him; all those titles that are given unto other sacrifices, they are given unto Him. There are three sorts of sacrifices: some were living; others were not living, and those were either solid, as bread and the like; or else they were liquid, as wine and oil. There was always a destroying of the thing offered. II. WHEN THIS WAS UPON THE ALTAR, THEN THE SINS OF ALL , PAST, PRESENT, AND TO COME, WERE ALL LAID UPON JESUS CHRIST (Isaiah 53:6). III. WHEN THESE SINS WERE THUS LAID UPON CHRIST, HE DID THEREBY GIVE FULL UNTO GOD THE FATHER, UNTO DIVINE JUSTICE. IV. ALL THIS HE DID AS OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST, AND IN A MORE AND EMINENT MANNER THAN EVER ANY HIGH PRIEST DID BEFORE HIM. V. HOW DOES ALL THIS CONDUCE TO OUR COMFORT OR ? 1. Is it not a comfortable thing in the ears of a poor sinner that there is a storehouse of mercy set up? that the Lord hath erected an office of love, and of mere compassion for poor sinners? Is it not a comfortable thing that God the Father is satisfied, and so your sins pardoned? 2. But you will say, “ Does it not much conduce to our grace or holiness too?” Yes, this truth does conduce much to our holiness too. The new covenant of grace is founded upon the satisfaction of Jesus Christ upon the cross, upon that oblation (see Hebrews 9:13-15). But again, that we may see how this doth conduce to our holiness: strengthen faith, and we strengthen all. If faith be weakened, all grace is weakened: strengthen)our faith, and you strengthen all your holiness and all your graces. 3. The more a man does deny his own righteousness, the more holy he is with gospel holiness. (W. Bridge, M. A.) The work of our High Priest If we now inquire further what the work of the high priest was and is, that accordingly we may address ourselves unto Jesus Christ for succour, we shall find that it is also to pray and intercede for the people. I. WHEREIN THIS OF JESUS CHRIST? 1. It consists in this: His appearing for us in heaven, His owning of our cause and of our souls to God the Father (Hebrews 9:24). 2. He doth not only appear for us, but by virtue of His priestly office he does carry the power, merit, and virtue of His blood into the presence of God the Father in heaven, and sprinkles the mercy-seat with it seven times. Seven is a note of perfection. Those that Christ suffered for He does intercede for. He takes all their bonds, and He carries them in unto God the Father, and He says, “ Father, I have paid these bonds, I have satisfied Thy justice for these poor sinners, and now My desire is that they may be acquitted from these debts” (Hebrews 9:11-12). 3. He doth not only carry the power and virtue of His blood and present it to God the Father for our discharge, but He does also plead our cause in heaven, answering unto all those accusations that are brought against us Romans 8:33). 4. He doth not only plead our cause and take off accusations that are brought against us, but He does also call for absolution and pardon of poor sinners at the hand of God the Father in a way of justice and equity; and therefore He is called our Advocate (1 John 2:1). II. THE OF CHRIST’ S WITH THE FATHER will appear if we consider the inclination and disposition that God the Father hath unto the same things that Christ intercedeth for If a child should come and intreat his father in a matter that the father hath no mind to, or that the father is set against, possibly he might not prevail; but if a beloved child shall come and pray the father in a business that the father likes as well as the child, surely then the child is very like to speed. We have a notable expression to this end in John 10:17 : “ Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again.” “ I lay down My life” : here is His suffering and His satisfaction. “ That I may take it again” : go up to heaven and take it again and intercede. The Father loves the world in giving Christ; the Son loves the world in dying for us; and the Father loves Christ again for loving us. III. DOSE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR US IN HEAVEN AS OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST? Yes, and He does do this in a more eminent way than ever any high priest did before Him. 1. He hath gone through more temptations than ever any high priest did. 2. In sympathy and compassion He goes beyond all the high priests that ever were before Him. 3. He is more faithful in His office and place than ever any high priest was. IV. HOW DOTH ALL THIS CONDUCE NOW TO OUR COMFORT OR OUR , TO OUR GRACE OR PEACE? 1. To our comfort. Is it not a comfort to a poor man to have a Friend above, near the King that may be able to do him kindness? A man sometimes says, “ I had a friend indeed in the court, but now he is dead.” Aye, but here is a Friend that never dies: He ever lives to make intercession. Friends may alter and turn enemies; but He changeth not, But you will say unto me, “ This is exceeding good, and very comfortable in itself; but what is this to me? for I am afraid that the Lord Christ does not intercede for me.” (1) It is no presumption for us to bear ourselves upon the intercession of Jesus Christ (see Matthew 15:22-28). (2) Who those are that the Lord Christ does intercede for in heaven (see 1 John 2:1). (3) How willing, how infinitely willing He is to intercede for us t Now if a man do receive money for to lay out for the benefit of others, poor orphans, or the like; if a man be faithful, certainly he will lay out the money for them, according to the intention of him that did trust him with the money. The Lord Jesus Christ is anointed as our great High Priest to do the work of the priestly office: and this is one work, to intercede, and therefore He must needs be very willing to do it. Again, the more anything is the work of a man’ s relation, wherewithal he is clothed, the more (if he be faithful) is he willing to do the work. When men are exalted and come to greatness or honour, then they give down the comforts of their relation unto those that depend upon them: if a father come to any great preferment, the comfort of the relation of the father then falls down upon the children. And so, if one friend do come unto preferment, the comfort of the relation (or friendship)falls down. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, He is our High Priest; and He is now exalted, He is gone to heaven: and therefore all the comforts of all the relations that He stands in towards us do now fall upon us. And therefore He is very willing, because this is the work of His relation. And further, It is the work of His office. What a man does by office, that he does willingly; what a man does by office, he does industriously; what a man does by office, he does it readily; according unto a man’ s place, or office, so will his interpretation be. 2. This intercession of Jesus Christ; this work of the priestly office of Christ, and the consideration thereof, it does conduce exceedingly unto our grace and holiness. For (1) What a mighty encouragement is here unto all poor sinners for to come unto Jesus Christ. (2) The more I see that the Lord Jesus appears in heaven for me, the more am I engaged to appear on earth for Him. (3) The more I consider or apprehend that the Lord Jesus Christ does lay out Himself for me, the more am I engaged to lay out myself for Him. (W. Bridge, M. A.) Our High Priest’ s offering Now if we inquire further, we shall find also that the work of the High Priest was and now is to offer up the gifts of the people unto God; to present our prayers, praises, duties, services, and all spiritual performances unto God the Father, and to procure acceptance of Him. I. WHAT DOTH OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR CHRIST, OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST, WHEN HE OFFERS UP OUR GIFTS UNTO GOD THE FATHER? 1. He doth take our persons, and carries them in unto God the Father in a most unperceivable way to us. He knows that if our persons be not first accepted our duty cannot be accepted: Love me, and love my duty; love me, and love my service: hate me, and hate my service. 2. As He doth take our persons, and lead and carry us into the presence of God the Father, so, when we perform any duty, He doth observe what evil or failing there is in that duty, and draws it out, takes it away before He presents the duty to God the Father. 3. As He takes away the iniquity of our holy things, so He observes what good there is in any of our duties or performances; and with that He mingles his own prayers and intercessions, His own incense, and presents all as one work mingled together unto God the Father. II. WHAT OF FAVOUR AND THIS OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST HIMSELF HATH IN HEAVEN. 1. It was an agreement between God the Father and Christ, the second Person, before the world was, that in due time He should come into the world, take flesh upon Him, and die for sinners: and He did so. But before Christ came into the world there were thousands of souls saved; how came they to be saved? They came to be saved by the blood of Christ, and before Christ died. So then, God the Father saved them upon Christ’ s bare word, that He would come into the world and die for them. What a mighty trust was here! 2. Again, the trust appears in this: that He was made, when Be came into the world, the great Lord Treasurer of all the grace and comfort that should be given out unto the children of men. 3. But yet further, when our Lord and Saviour Christ died, and ascended unto God the Father to heaven, as soon as ever He came into heaven, saith the Father to Him, Thou hast now suffered, “ Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession” ; all the world at one word. It was a mighty and a great trust that the Father did put upon Him. 4. Yea, as if all this were not enough, the Father did put the keys of heaven and of hell into His hand: the keys of heaven and hell into the hand of Christ (Revelation 1:18). III. HE DOTH IMPROVE ALL THAT HIS OWN , FOR OUR ; ALL OUR DUTIES UPON HIS OWN , UPON THAT THAT HE HATH WITH THE FATHER. The favour and acceptance which the high priest had, in the time of Moses, was not for himself: he did improve it all for the people: he was to lay it out all for the people, and not for himself. Our High Priest goes beyond all other high priests in this particular also: for now, as for other high priests, though they went in with their incense, and covered the mercy-seat with a cloud, yet it was but once in the year; but our High Priest is always in the holy of holiest, and never goes out of it, ever covering the mercy-seat with His intercessions. Take their high priest, and though he was very holy as Aaron was, yet sometimes he made the people naked unacceptable; but our great High Priest never makes His people naked, but always clothes them with His own righteousness. Take their high priest, and though he did go into the holy of holiest for the people, yet he never led the people into the holy of holiest, they stood without; but our great High Priest is not only gone into the holy of holiest Himself but doth also lead every poor believer into the holy of holiest (Hebrews 10:19). IV. WHAT OF WE HAVE IN ALL OUR DUTIES BY HIM. Yes, we know that the pair of turtles were accepted in the time of the law by those that could offer no more. Surely much more now will a poor turtle be accepted in the time of the gospel, and those that could but bring goats-hair towards the making of the Tabernacle, they were welcome: and shall it not be so now much more in the times of the gospel? That which is little in regard to quantity, it may be great in regard of proportion; as the widow’ s mite was. Christ takes that lovingly that comes from love, whatever it be, though it be never so weak. Well, but suppose that a man’ s duty or service be performed with many failings, infirmities, hardness of heart, straitness of spirit, distracting thoughts; this is my case: Oh I is there any acceptance for such a duty as this is? We know how it was with Nicodemus, and the woman that came trembling and touched the hem of Christ’ s garment. And we must know that in every duty that we do perform there are two things: there is the sacrifice, and there is the obedience in offering the sacrifice. Though the sacrifice may be imperfect, yet your obedience in offering the sacrifice may be perfect, with gospel-perfection. V. BUT HOW DOTH ALL THIS MAKE FOR OUR COMFORT, OR FOR OUR GRACE? 1. Surely, we cannot but see already how it doth make for our comfort. Is it not a comfortable thing for a man to know that his duties are not lost? that his prayer is not lost? that his hearing the Word is not lost? that his searching the Scriptures is not lost? that his communion is not lost? A man is unwilling to lose anything: and the more precious it is the more unwilling to lose it. Further, is it not a comfort for a man to have liberty to go unto the mercy-seat and there for to meet with God? Besides, is it not a great comfort to a man for to know how it shall go with him at the day of judgment? Once more; is it not a comfort for a poor beggar to be relieved at a rich man’ s door? 2. But how doth this make unto our holiness, unto holiness of life? Much every way: 1. In case I be ungodly, here is that that may for ever keep me from opposition to the good ways of God. I have said sometimes (may a wicked man say) concerning godly men’ s duties, that it was their hypocrisy; and I have said concerning such and such professors, this is your pride, and this is your singularity; and I have opposed, with all earnestness, the prayings of some of God’ s people; but is this true, that the Lord Jesus Christ takes every prayer of the meanest of God’ s children and carries it into the bosom of God the Father? and shall I dare to oppose that that the Lord Jesus Christ presents unto His Father? The Lord in mercy pardon me. I will never speak one word against the persons, meetings, or supplications of the godly again. 2. In case a man be a wicked man, here is mighty encouragement for to come unto Jesus Christ; aye, and to come presently. For is Jesus Christ the ladder that Jacob saw, by whom we go up to heaven? Then, till I do come to Christ, all is nothing, all is lost. 3. In case a man be godly, this truth doth conduce to our further holiness and growth in grace. If I be godly, then here I see infinite reason why I should be much in duty; not only pray, but be much in prayer. Why? for the Lord Christ taketh all, and carries all into the bosom of the Father, mingles His own odours, intercessions with it, although it be but a sigh and a groan. Further, the more evangelical you are in your obedience, the more holy ye are in your lives. I conclude all with this, if that the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, offers up all our gifts unto God the Father, whereby we have acceptance, what infinite cause have we all to be thankful to God for Christ, and to love Jesus Christ for ever! (W. Bridge, M. A.) Our High Priest’ s blessing I shall speak of one work more of our great High Priest, and that is, to bless the people. I. WHAT THE OF CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST IS, WHEREIN IT , AND WHAT CHRIST DOTH WHEN HE DOTH BLESS THE PEOPLE. I answer in the general, that the blessing of the gospel, and of Christ, consisteth in spiritual things especially, and not in temporal (Ephesians 1:3). But more particularly, if ye ask me wherein this consisteth, I shall name but two things: 1. First, This blessing of the gospel, or of Christ, it consists in a supernatural and spiritual enjoyment of God in Christ: the love and favour of God in Christ. Again, it consists also in the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts: the giving out of the Holy Ghost unto the hearts of men. And therefore it is added: “ And the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” II. DOES THIS OR BELONG UNTO JESUS CHRIST? Yes, for He and none else was made a curse for sin; and therefore it belongs unto Him above all the world for to bless. III. IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WILLING FOR TO BLESS POOR SINNERS AND UNTO IT? Yes, He is very willing: this blessing of the people, it is a work whereunto He is most delighted. Ye shall observe, therefore, what abundance of blessings Christ scattered among the people when He was here upon the earth. IV. BUT DOTH HE DO IT? Yes, He doth do it, and doth it fully. “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Not only meritoriously but by the hand of Christ. And, saith he, He hath done it with all spiritual blessings, and He hath done it by Jesus Christ. 1. When Christ our High Priest doth see that a man is weak in grace or weak in gifts, and hath some work or service for him to do, then the Lord doth bless him. Oh, soul, increase and multiply, increase in thy gifts and graces. 2. As the Lord doth bless weak gifts and graces when He intends to use them, so also when as He hath made use of a man, when a man hath done the work of God, then the Lord blesses that man. 3. As He does bless at this time, when a man hath done His work, so also when a man is willing for to leave all His relations and natural engagements for to follow Him, to cleave close unto Him, and to His ways and ordinances. 4. The Lord Christ, our High Priest, does bless when the would curses; a special time of Christ’ s blessing is when the world curses. 5. In the fifth place, the Lord Christ does also bless when His people do graciously enjoy the ordinances purely and evangelically administered. V. HOW DOES ALL THIS CONDUCE UNTO OUR COMFORT AND UNTO OUR ? 1. First for comfort: is it not a comfortable thing to be blessed by Jesus Christ? Is it not a comfortable thing for a man to have all his cursers to be blessers? 2. How does this make unto our holiness? Very much: this holds forth great encouragement unto all poor sinners for to come to Christ without delay. But yet further, as there is an encouragement for to come unto Christ, so this argument does also encourage us to go on in the good ways of Christ, notwithstanding all opposition that we meet. Times of opposition are Christ’ s blessing time. 3. Again, this argument does not only speak encouragement against all opposition, but it does also encourage us to go on in the good ways of God when we are called unto it, though we have but little strength and weak parts. Though there be but little oil in the cruse, though there be but little meal in the barrel, if Christ call to the work He will bless a man in it: and when Christ blesses, He does multiply and increase a man’ s parts in the using of them. 4. And yet further, if all this be true, why should not a man be contented with his condition, though he be never so mean? Truly he is too covetous, whom the blessing of Christ will not satisfy. Well, whatever my condition be, yet I may be blessed by Jesus Christ; and hath the Lord blessed me? then will I be contented with my condition, though it be never so mean, I have all, as Jacob once said, I have all. 5. Yea, in the fifth and last place: Here is that, which if well studied and considered, will provoke us all for to bless the Lord, and continually to bless the Lord! What is the life of a Christian here but a continual blessing of God? (W. Bridge, M. A) Our High Priest The strong point in the Hebrew economy was the high priest. His whole office and function was mercy, compassion. He stood between weakness, or sinfulness, or want, and the remedy; and mercy was the appointed channel through which to the imagination and the affection of the people God’ s grace flowed down to them; so that all their associations with him were those of lenity, of compassion, of mercy. He was the one great benefactor. He was an emancipator. He was, in the Jewish system, a central point out of which came light, and never scowls nor darkness. No other name, therefore, whether of king or of prophet, would be likely to strike the Israelite with such a feeling of religiousness, with such an elevating influence, or with such welcomeness, as that of high priest; and that is the reason why it was planted on the Saviour. It was a heart reason. How different was this mode of presenting the function of Christ Jesus from that which came up in after times! The view of an executive God; the view of a law-giving and law-executing God, that repels men by fear more than it draws them by love; the view of an abstract God, epitomised in philosophy--how few there are that can accept such views! It was a historical person, a personal person, a national person, that the Jews were prepared to accept; and when Jesus Christ was presented to them as really their Redeemer, under the figure of the high priest, it brought round about Him all those romantic, enthusiastic, and national feelings for which they were so famous. The whole function of the Saviour was founded upon the ignorance, the sinfulness, and the helplessness of men; and no revelation was needed to make these known. There is not a man who is not satisfied that he sins with every part of his being; and there is a concatenation of sinfulness running through his whole life. There is not a man who, when he undertakes to do anything in the direction of purity, is not conscious of his helplessness. There is not a man who, when he strives to be true and noble in his better nature, is not conscious that everything goes against him. And it was on this consciousness that high priest-ship was founded. Sin, then, is a matter of universal consciousness; and the only question is, is there any belief, any remedy for mankind who are subject to it? By way of preface, I may say first, that the human race has come to its ideal of God through growth. In the earlier period men came in conflict, first with the natural law of the globe; and fate and force were the more useful interpretations of that great law. When men developed near the animal line, the qualities of nature transcendently filled the heavens to their conception. The earlier thought of God as something separable from nature was that He was a Being that thundered and smote; that He was a Being possessed of great power; that He was a Being of tremendous avenging ability and force. Such were the elements that were earliest appreciable to the human race in their conception of the Divine Being. But as men grew civilised, and enlarged their experience, their capacities and their civic life, there grew up in them what I might almost call physical qualities of the Divine Being--namely, the moral elements. The warrior, more nearly than the brute giant, began to take on qualities which attracted admiration. Out of the warrior grew the king; and he represented the sense of public justice and of restraint for the benefit of his kingdom. Then came in the notion of the judge. Joined closely, also, with the idea of the executive, was the idea of the executioner to carry out his edicts. And all these elements were tinged somewhat with the conception of a king. It was not until we came down to as late a time as the earlier periods of the Old Testament history that the disclosures of the Divine nature began to be more ample. There was a state of receptivity, at last, in the human race by which you could bring to the conception of men, though very imperfectly, a larger notion of God. Then came the revelation of God as a universal Father. But when we come to the latest disclosure, even the fatherhood of God stood aside, as it were, that it might be represented to men by an intermediate conception. Christ came to give to the word “ Father” its true and full meaning. Christ took on the human body, and He took it on with all its relations to matter. He came into the world to represent the Divine humility, the Divine helpfulness, the Divine sympathy with infirmity and sin. He came into life at the very lowest point; and He understood from the standpoint of compassion every conceivable human experience. There was not a thought or a feeling possible to human nature, that our Saviour did not have a knowledge of it, so that He is able to succour those who are tempted in those respects. There is not a single passion, a single inclination, a single hunger, a single fear, a single bitterness, a single experience of the human mind, in which He has not been schooled. He so gave Himself to human nature that it might be said that from the crown to the lowest dungeon, from the rich man’ s mansion to the ditch of the beggar, there is not a faculty with whose workings He was not familiar. In order to be a good artist I do not need to play every tune: I simply need to know each string, and what its possible combinations are, and how to make them; and although our Saviour did not go through all the various phases of experience which men go through, His education in the knowledge of humanity was perfect. Now, this very conception is itself Divine. Divinity stands not in the red right-hand of power; it is not omnipotence and omniscience: it is goodness; and goodness centres in love. So, then, we are to find the Divine nature manifested in goodness, which is the very highest conception of Divinity. I do not want any man to explain to me how Christ is equal to the Father: all I want is to know that His character is a disclosure of character of God. We should bear in mind that, according to the teaching of the New Testament, Christ is the High Priest that has ascended into heaven. He is close to every one. The man who is murmuring his last prayer in a dungeon can think himself rote the very presence of the High Priest in heaven. He who is wounded on the battle-field thinks, as the army thunders away, and his companions leave him, “ The High Priest is close at hand.” The poor miserable creature of degraded conditions “ can, by thinking, bring himself into Christ’ s presence. He is accessible to all; and there is no need of any one’ s saying, “ Who shall ascend up into the heavens and bring the Saviour down?” He is near to each man. The central force of the universe, then, according to this representation, is compassion; it is helpfulness, and over those who have run through the whole range of wrong-doing, and who are seeking to rise out of cruelty, and lust, and pride, and selfishness, and every sort of degradation, there broods--what? Wrath? No. There broods over them the High-Priesthood of Christ Jesus--the compassion of One who knows how to feel for those that are out of the way; the enriching power of Christ’ s heart. That is the tractive power of the universe. If it be in your power, conceive of Christ as such a High Priest as He was to the Jewish imagination, as a being set apart from among mankind because He had compassion on those who were out of the way, who was tried and condemned, and who suffered like His fellow-men so that He could have compassion on them. He descended from heaven and took upon Himself the nature of man, and was made in the likeness of man. He came into life at the bottom and partook of the experiences of men, and passed through every conceivable state of the human mind in order that He might stand and say, “ Oh, fallen, weak, sinful, guilty, wretched creatures, I am your brother; and I am clothed with God’ s nature; I am in the Father and He is in Me; and I bring to you the tidings of summer on your winter. The God whose I am, and whom I represent, who abides in Me and in whom I abide, is a God of tender love, who would not that any should perish, but would that all should live.” That is the message which the Lord Jesus Christ brings to men. If there be men who are afraid to worship Christ, I have two things to say. In the first place, when you worship the Father you worship exactly the same being that I do when I worship Christ. Men had no knowledge of what to put into the fatherhood of God until it was proclaimed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, really what you call “ Father” and what I call “ Jesus” are just the same thing. In the next place, if there were a difference, do you suppose God would be angry if you made a little mistake and worshipped the Son instead of the Father? If a postman handed to my wife a letter which was directed to me, do you suppose there would be a scene? Would we scold him because he handed it to the wrong person when he thought he was handing it to the right one? Where two are united in perfect love a mistake like that does not make any difference. Another thing. When you say that you cannot worship Christ as you do the Father, what do you mean by worship? What is it but giving to another all the enthusiasm which you are capable of feeling? You cannot love supremely without worshipping; for love is the highest worship; and all this riddle about dynastic notions vanishes into space. When you worship Christ and pray to Him, you worship and pray to the Father; and when you worship the Father and pray to Him, you worship and pray to Christ. Then, there are those whom a consciousness of guilt and imperfection keeps back from venturing upon one who is set forth in the Scriptures as their God. Many persons feel, “ Oh, if I were not living in the way that I am, I would be willing to pray to God” ; but as represented by the High Priest Christ Jesus, God stands before you and recognises you; and the foundation of His recognition of you is that you are weak, guilty, out of the way, and continually sinning. He came to call sinners. There were none so wicked that He was not willing to minister to them. The worse a man is the more he needs a Saviour, and the more the heart of Christ yearns towards him. Not only so, but He is gentle and tender in His dealings toward those who are out of the way. He says, “ A bruised reed I will not break, and the smoking flax I will not quench, until I bring forth judgment unto victory.” You know that when you first kindle a lamp there is just a little bit of a blue flame; that it quivers on the wick as if to see whether it can expand into a full flame; and that it is not safe for you even to breathe upon it, so that you must turn your face aside lest you blow it out; but Christ says that when a man has fallen so low that the spiritual life in him is as feeble as the flame of a newly-lighted lamp, He will not put it out. The all-merciful love of Jesus Christ, who is the atonement of the world, and who reveals in Himself the nature of the Divine Father, is curative by its very moral character. It represents the love of Him who is for ever giving His life to make life in those whom He has created. (H. W.Beecher.) Christ a merciful and faithful High Priest 1. He must be merciful; for He must deal with God for sinful and miserable man, for to relieve him. And He is then merciful, when He doth not only know man’ s misery, but is inwardly sensible of it, so as to be moved and that effectually to succour him. This mercifulness is opposed not only to ignorance of others’ misery, and senselessness, but also to harshness, severity, cruelty. And Christ was more merciful than ever any man or angel was, and there was great need He should be so; for if every offence, nay, if many and great offences, should move Him to passion, and enrage Him so as to reject them and their cause, or proceed to plead against them, or condemn them, how many thousands should perish everlastingly? 2. As He is merciful, so He must be faithful, and such as poor sinners may safely trust unto, and depend upon, when they commit their cause concerning their eternal estate into His hands. Christ may be said to be faithful, either to God, who hath given the office of high priest, and a command to discharge it, or unto man, who, according to the rules of God’ s Word, believes in Him, and commits Himself and all that he hath unto Him. And then He is actually faithful, when He performs all things belonging to His sacerdotal office, and goes through with His work until He hath perfectly finished, and sinful man attains that for which he trusted Him. Man may be merciful and not faithful; Christ is both, and will be sensible of our case and cause, will mind it, and do it as His own. In this respect our hope is firm and our comfort is unspeakable. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 2:18 Himself hath suffered, being tempted A tempted Saviour, our best succour I. MANY SOULS ARE TEMPTED--CHRIST WAS TEMPTED. 1. They are tempted from all quarters. 2. They are tempted in all positions. 3. Every age has its temptations. II. AS THE TEMPTED OFTEN SUFFER, CHRIST ALSO . Temptation, even when overcome, brings with it to the true child of God a great degree of suffering. The suffering consists in two or three things. 1. It lies, mainly, in the shock which sin gives to the sensitive, regenerate nature. A man who is clothed in armour may walk through the midst of tearing thorns and brambles without being hurt; but let the man be stripped of his garments, and how sadly will he be torn. Sin, to the man who is used to it, is no suffering; if he be tempted, it is no pain to him; in fact, frequently temptation yields pleasure to the sinner. To look at the bait is sweet to the fish which means to swallow it by and by. But to the child of God, who is new-made and quickened, the very thought of sin makes him shudder; he cannot look at it without detestation. Now, in this case, Christ indeed has fellowship, and far outruns us. 2. Suffering, too, arises to the people of God from a dread of the temptation when its shadow falls upon us ere it conies. At times there is more dread in the prospect of a trial than there is in the trial itself. We feel a thousand temptations in fearing one. Christ knew this. What an awful dread was that which came over Him in the black night of Gethsemane! 3. The suffering of temptation also lies often in the source of it. Have you not often felt that you would not mind the temptation if it had not come from where it did? “ Oh!” say you, “ to think that my own friend, my dearly beloved friend, should try me!” Ah! but the Man of Sorrows knew all this, since it was one of the chosen twelve who betrayed Him. And, besides, “ it pleased the Father to bruise Him.” 4. I have no doubt, too, that a portion of the sorrow and suffering of temptation may also lie in the fact that God’ s name and honour are often involved in our temptation. III. THEY THAT ARE TEMPTED HAVE GREAT NEED OF SUCCOUR, AND CHRIST IS ABLE, HAVING HIMSELF BEEN TEMPTED, TO SUCCOUR THEM THAT ARE TEMPTED. Of course this is true of Christ as God. The Christos, the anointed One, the High Priest of our profession, is in His complex character able to succour them that are tempted. How? 1. Why, first, the very fact that He was tempted has some succour in it to us. If we had to walk through the darkness alone, we should know the very extremity of misery; but having a companion, we have comfort; having such a companion, we have joy. 2. But, further, the fact that He has suffered without being destroyed is inestimably comforting to us. If you could see a block of ore just ready to be put into the furnace, if that block of ore could look into the flames, and could mark the blast as it blows the coals to a vehement heat, if it could speak it would say, “ Ah! woe is me that ever I should be put into such a blazing furnace as that! I shall be burnt up; I shall be melted with the slag; I shall be utterly consumed!” But suppose another lump, all bright and glistening, could lie by its side, and say, “ No, no, you are just like I was, but I went through the fire and I lost nothing thereby; see how bright I am; how I have survived all the flames.” Why, then, that piece of ore would rather anticipate than dread the season when it too should be exposed to the purifying heat, and come out, all bright and lustrous, like its companion. 3. And you will remember, too, that Christ, in going through the suffering of temptation, was not simply no loser, but He was a great gainer; for it is written, it pleased God “ to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” It was through His suffering that He obtained the mediatorial glory which now crowns His head. 4. But more, in that Christ hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour us who are tempted by sending His grace to help us. He was always able to send grace, but now as God and man He is able to send just the right grace at the right time, and in the right place. You know a doctor may have all the drugs that can be gathered, but an abundance of medicine does not make him a qualified practitioner; if, however, he has been himself and seen the case, then he knows just at what crisis of the disease such and such a medicine is wanted. The stores are good, but the wisdom to use the stones--this is even more precious. Now it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell; but where should the Son of Man earn His diploma and gain the skill with which to use the fulness aright? Beloved, He won it by experience, b. Having suffered Himself, being tempted, Christ knows how to succour us by His prayers for us. There are some people whose prayers are of no use to us, because they do not know what to ask for us. Christ is the Intercessor for His people; He has prevalence in His intercession, but how shall He learn what to ask for? How can He know this better than by His own trials? He hath suffered, being tempted. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christ’ s temptability We could not have a more unmistakable declaration than that respecting the reality of our Lord’ s temptations on earth. His conflict in the wilderness, and His agony in the garden, were not dramas acted on the stage of life by one who assumed our role, but facts in the real experience of One who was true to the core. His life was our life in its surroundings and in its conflicts, and therefore, when He ascended to heaven victorious over death, He appeared there for us as our representative, as a Man in whom, once and for ever, God’ s ideal of human nature was absolutely realised and fulfilled. Hence, in this passage, He is spoken of as our High Priest, who was taken from among the people; although being without sin, He was able to stand on their behalf as the holiest of all, nearer to God than they. From the wilderness to the Cross--nay, from the cradle to the Cross--Jesus suffered, being tempted. I. Now the use we may make of that FOR OUR appears in many forms. 1. For example, a tempted yet triumphant leader implies future victory for those who follow Him. It is not always easy to believe in the coming triumph of good over evil. There is a sort of backwater of temptation which some of us have experienced, which is more dangerous than the direct current of evil which we breasted so bravely at first. We seem to get the better of some sin; but then, when the strain of vigilance relaxes, a stream of evil tendency comes from another direction and takes us unawares. Thus some of our best moments have appeared afterwards to be the precursors of our worst; and it is at such a time that we lose heart and think of giving up the struggle, till we learn to look beyond ourselves to Him, who Himself suffered being tempted--who was content to fight with our weapons, and with them won the victory. Then the hope is aroused that even yet we shall come off more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. 2. Besides this, another difficulty of ours is swept away by the inflowing of our thought about this temptable yet victorious Saviour--namely, the difficulty that arises from the notion that the higher the life the freer it must be from assault. If that were true, Christ Jesus would never have been tempted at all. The wind blows strongest on the hill-tops. Our Lord was on loftier heights than we ever reach, yet from the beginning to the end of His career on earth “ He Himself suffered, being tempted.” 3. There is yet another message of comfort from this verse to tempted Christians--namely, that they may be quite sure of their Lord’ s sympathy. It is this which is specially insisted upon in the passage before us, and it was partly with a view to make Divine sympathy manifest and appreciable to us that “ the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” I remember reading somewhere of a little child whose dead body was washed up on the shore during a gale. It was taken by loving, reverent hands, and buried amid the tears of strangers in the village churchyard. There was no clue to the birth, or to the name, or to the parentage of that little waif--it was just “ somebody’ s darling,” that was all; and when they put up a tombstone, they did not know what inscription to choose, till at last they thought of two words, which were carved on the marble slab--“ God knows.” Aye, and there is no wreck of your hopes, no struggle amid the blasts of temptation, about which you may not say to yourself “ God knows,” and the assurance of His sympathy will be to you as life from the dead. II. Turning now from the encouragements which we may hope to gain from the truth here enunciated, let us try to look more closely into THE NATURE OF THESE . About many of them we probably know nothing. They are out of our range, as in some respect Jesus Himself was. A sensualist cannot understand the more subtle suggestions of the Evil One, and ordinary Christians have no conception of Paul’ s consciousness of sin when he cried, “ Of sinners I am the chief.” Still more unsearchable are certain temptations which came to the Saviour of sinners--for they were too keen and subtle for us--just as there are sounds in the world which our gross hearing cannot catch, and sights our dull eyes cannot see. But though temptations are the more subtle in proportion to the holiness of the one who is tempted, and vary in form according to his circumstances and conditions, it may be taken as approximately true that the three avenues by which evil approaches human nature are summed up in these words: “ the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” This summary, indeed, is the revelation of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth; and it is complete in itself. 1. Take an example or two of His own inward struggles to illustrate the first of these. No doubt Jesus was free from some of the baser and more animal suggestions of the adversary, but His physical frame laid Him open to others. (1) We read that after He had fasted forty days, He was hungry; and at once a temptation to supply His wants addressed itself to His weakness. Who of us would have hesitated to do what was thus suggested? Jesus did hesitate and decisively refused, because it would be using for self power which He had come on earth to use for others. But cannot our Lord understand, from that experience of His, those numberless temptations which address themselves now to such a sense of want in us? The miserable little starveling who lives like an Ishmael amid our boasted civilisation, seeing and smelling abundance of good things in shops, with only a pane of glass between his hunger and its satisfaction; the unfortunate man who is out of work because trade is bad or has changed its locality, and who comes home after a weary, useless, all-day tramp, to see a starving wife and pale, pinched children, till he curses the injustice which he cannot despise or defy; and the still more wretched woman left with children dependent on her, who even when in work cannot get them bread, and is tempted to do anything for food. These, whom we forget, Jesus remembers, while we, who never had a day without food in all our lives, cannot understand that conflict. He does understand the desperate temptation, and the glorious triumph over it. (2) But there are other temptations which assail us through the physical life. We read that Jesus was weary with His journey; that He slept heavily from sheer fatigue directly the boat set sail; and we find in the Gospels other indications that He shared our experiences of tiredness and weakness. Some of you are often oppressed by a sense of this. It not infrequently brings about spiritual depression, which you seem powerless to shake off. Tired ones, look up to your Lord! He knows all about this, and stands beside you in it; and it may be that in answer to your prayer He will give you such a sense of His presence that you will be able to say with Paul, “ When I am weak, then am I strong. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.” 2. There is a second set of temptations which our Lord well understands--I allude to those which come through the distastefulness of our surroundings. The patience of our Lord appears the more marvellous when we think of the absolute repulsiveness to His holy nature of much that He was in contact with every day. 3. Now, we are taught by our Lord’ s example that it is not always God’ s will that we should seek to escape uncongenial surroundings. Jesus could have done so at any moment; but although He sighed deeply in spirit and said, “ O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you,” yet He did not leave the world, and would not leave it till His mission was fulfilled. It may be that you have to bear witness for Christ just where you are; that if you retreat from your post, no voice will there be uplifted for Him, and no life will silently check the growth and spread of evil. 4. We have not time now to speak at any length of other temptations which came to our Lord through His energies and capacities. Whenever you forego the opportunity you have to take a thing wrongly when it is easy to take it, you are in fellowship with Christ, who resisted that temptation victoriously over and over ,gain. (A. Rowland, LL. B.) The trials of Christ the trials of the serious I. We learn from these words ONE END OF THE OF OUR DIVINE . It was to give us an assurance of sympathy and aid under the pressure of such trials as we must all of us expect. 1. Now I am speaking only to those who believe in the Divinity of the Saviour, and that what He took upon Him was “ human nature.” Now, the nature which our Divine Redeemer took upon Him was not that nature which Adam had after his fall. It was not a nature in which the higher principles were in bondage, and from which the light of the Divine presence was withdrawn, but the original human nature which Adam had in the early days before his fatal disobedience. 2. The trials He underwent were the trials incident to such a nature. There are, you know, some circumstances which we cannot imagine to present temptation to any but a very badly constituted being. There are other circumstances which cause trial quite independently of such considerations, and others, again, which can be afflicting only in proportion to the completeness of the subordination of the rest of the principles to the conscience, and of the whole to Divine influence. For instance, to say that a man was severely tried by being placed in circumstances in which he would have to abstain from theft, would be to express a low opinion of him. But to say that he was severely tried by being placed in a position where he should do without food, would imply no such estimate of his character. Why not? Because it would be natural to him to desire food. II. From what has been said, it will appear THAT OUR TRIALS CHRIST’ S, JUST IN THE SAME DEGREE THAT OUR NATURE HIS. Our Divine Redeemer came to do very much more than save us from the punishment of sin. He came to save us from its power. He came to renew our nature by restoring to it what it had lost. We Christians are spoken of as “ renewed in the spirit of our mind” --as “ having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” St. Paul exhorts the Colossians to the abandonment of certain sins on this distinct ground--“ seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds,” &c. Now, it is just in proportion to our progress towards this ideal of a Christian that our trials will resemble those of our Lord and Master. In a word, the trials of the serious are those which resemble Christ’ s. These trials are principally of two kinds. One kind is that which consists in the patient endurance of afflictions, which must, from the nature of the case, cause pain and sorrow--afflictions which no degree of holiness could prevent us from feeling while they last. In cases of this kind the Saviour’ s example certainly teaches us the power of endurance with which man is endowed. The other class of trials peculiar to the serious are those which address themselves to their zeal for the service of the Most High. In trials of this kind, where serious men fear, that they may be hindering, the spread, of God’ s dominion” among men--by not going with the times (as men say) in religious matters of doctrine or worship--the history of our Redeemer’ s temptation is peculiarly instructive. Every one of the proposals of Satan seemed for the glory of God and the furtherance of the ends the Redeemer had in view. To work a miracle was not merely to appease the pangs of hunger, but to prove Himself the Son of God. To cast Himself from a pinnacle of the temple was at once to give evidence of His reliance upon the Most High and to impress the assembled Jews with the belief that their Messiah had appeared among them, as they expected, from heaven, and had “ suddenly,” as was predicted, “ come to His Temple.” To secure the kingdoms of the world was an end which might for a moment seem to justify the use of almost any means. And yet it was in this proposal--the proposal to secure the greatest ends by the adoption of unlawful means--that the tempter was unmasked. In a word, we are supported by the remembrance of the Redeemer’ s trials in all cases where we have declined to” make the end sanctify the means?--where we have declined to “ do evil that good may come.” We are taught that when God has appointed means to an end, we cannot gain that end--His end--by other means; that when He has ordained a time, we must not--while acting in accordance with His regular appointments--be impatient of delay. We are taught to endure the constant taunts--the utterances of zeal without knowledge, or of thoughtlessness without either--to endure being called indifferent to our Master’ s cause! We are taught to hope on, and to be firm, amid all the clamorous calls to encourage disorder, ecclesiastical lawlessness, heresy, schism, to promote what we think wrong--or else, forsooth, see “ sin triumphant and Jehovah conquered!” We are taught, I say, to reject the temptation, as we hear the voice of our Divine Redeemer saying to us through the record of His trials, “ Be still, then, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen; and I will be exalted in the earth.” (J. C. Coghlan, D. D.) The higher the life, the more open to assault The wind blows strongest on the hilltops. As you climb some mountain you may find that for a time you lose the breeze which hindered you lower down, because you are sheltered by the mountain itself; but when you have climbed higher, and peered over the jagged edge, you can hardly keep your feet or gain your breath, for the awful wind howls and screams across the ravine below to buffet you remorselessly. Our Lord was on loftier heights than we ever reach; yet from the beginning to the end of His career on earth “ He Himself suffered, being tempted.” (A. Rowland, LL. B.) Able to succour them that are tempted The efficient sympathy of Christ I. THE . 1. It was personal suffering. 2. It was positive and most painful suffering. 3. In all its reality, variety, and extent, it bore the special character of temptation. II. THE SUCCOUR. 1. This succour is accompanied with the truest sympathy. “ If ever I fall into a surgeon’ s hands with broken bones,” is a remark which has become almost proverbial, “ give me one whose own bones have been broken.” How can those who have never known what illness is enter with the tenderness of a perfect fellowship into the chambers of the sick? or how can those who have never known a want understand with a matter-of-fact experience the anxieties of the poor and needy? 2. This succour is imparted with the utmost promptitude. 3. This succour is conveyed in the form of actual deliverance or effective relief, or at least adequate support. (E. A. Thomson.) The suffering Saviour’ s sympathy I. JESUS . 1. The feeling. It was a trying thing to Him even to dwell here among men. He suffered in being placed where He could be tempted. 2. The fact that He was tempted--tempted up to the suffering point. 3. The fruit. He was made perfect through His sufferings, and fitted for His solemn office of High Priest to His people. (1) Temptation to sin is no sin. (2) Temptation does not show any displeasure on God’ s part: (3) Temptation really implies no doubt of your being a son of God. (4) Temptation need not lead to any evil consequences in any case. (5) Do not make it any cause of complaint that you are tempted. (6) Far from your hearts be the idea that any temptation should lead you to despair. Jesus triumphed, and so shall you. II. JESUS . “ He is able to succour them that are tempted.” 1. In this we note His pity, that He should give Himself up to this business of succouring them that are tempted. He lays Himself out to succour them that are tempted, and therefore He does not hide Himself from them, nor pass them by on the other side. What an example is this for us! He devotes Himself to this Divine business of comforting all such as mourn. He is Lord of all, yet makes Himself the servant of the weakest. Whatever He may do with the strongest, He succours “ them that are tempted.” He does not throw up the business in disgust; He does not grow cross or angry with them because they are so foolish as to give way to idle fears. 2. The text treats of His fitness also. (1) He has the right, acquired by His suffering, to enter in among sufferers, and deal with them. (2) He has also the disposition to succour them. He obtained that tender temper through suffering, by being Himself tempted. (3) And then He has the special ability. Our Blessed Master, having 284 lived a life of suffering, understands the condition of a sufferer so well that He knows how to make a bed for him (Psalms 41:3). 3. His methods of succouring them that are tempted. (1) Usually by giving a sense of His sympathy. (2) Sometimes by suggesting precious truths, which are the sweet antidote for the poison of sorrow. (3) Sometimes He succours His people by inwardly strengthening them. (4) I have known the Lord bless His people by making them very weak. The next best thing to being strong in the Lord is to be extremely weak in yourself. They go together, but sometimes they are divided in experience. It is grand to feel, “ I will not struggle any more; I will give all up, and lie passive in the Lord’ s hand.” III. JESUS SOUGHT AFTER. 1. Where else can you go? 2. Where better can you got (C. H. Spurgeon.) The suffering Succourer 1. His sufferings were many and cruel, and such as never any did endure; yet His greatest sufferings were reserved to the last. And though He never sinned, yet He knew and felt the woeful consequences of sin, and the punishments it deserves. 2. He was tempted; for no sooner was He baptized, and publicly initiated and declared in the sight of heaven and earth to be the Son of God, but Satan, the great enemy, set upon Him, and attempted His ruin; yea, all His sufferings, as from Satan, were temptations; and it is very likely he did assault Him most violently in the end. By both these He knew what a sad and woeful thing suffering for sin is and how hard a thing it is to be tempted and not to sin, and how much such as being violently tempted do sin are to be pitied. For if He, who had the greatest power that ever was to overcome temptations, was hardly put to it, He could not be ignorant how dangerous man’ s condition is, and how easily a frail sinner may be foiled. 3. This suffering and temptation made Him more merciful and faithful, and able to succour. To succour is to do all things for the procuring the reconciliation of His people: and His ability to succour is His mercifulness and fidelity, whereby He is every way fitted, powerfully inclined, and effectually moved to succour them. To be able sometimes is to be fit, as Varinus observeth; and so it may be here taken. And the more fit, the more able. The saying is, “ None so merciful as those who have been miserable” ; and they who have not only known misery, bat felt it, are most powerfully inclined, not only to inward compassion, but to the real relieving of others miserable. And this was a contrivance of the profound wisdom of that God, who is infinitely knowing and merciful, to find a way how to feel misery and be merciful another way. This was by His Word assuming flesh, that in that flesh He might be tempted violently and suffer most grievously; and all this that He might be more merciful and effectually succour sinful man. (G. Lawson.) The Lord Jesus Christ a succouring Christ to tempted souls I. JESUS CHRIST IS ABLE TO SUCCOUR TEMPTED SOULS. I will say nothing of the great power that He hath with the Father, or in His own hands. He is able by conquest for to succour you that are tempted; He is able by conquest for to raise the siege that is laid against our souls; He hath beaten through the enemy--as now, if a town be besieged by an enemy, and the enemy abroad in the field, having an army in the field, if any one will come to raise the siege, they must fight through the army, they must beat through the army before they can raise the siege. Never a tempted soul but is thus besieged with temptation, closely begirt, and the devils were abroad in the field, were masters of the field till Christ came, and no man nor angel was able to beat through; but Jesus Christ beat up the quarters all along, beat through the enemy, cast out devils all along, overcame. II. But you will say, We will grant Christ is able to succour tempted souls; but Is HE WILLING? Yes, He is infinitely willing to succour poor tempted souls. Our great succour lies in reconciliation with God the Father, as by comparing these two verses together doth appear. God the Father hath set Him forth to be a propitiation; it was the will of God the Father that Jesus Christ should come and make propitiation; it was His will. Now, look into the fortieth Psalm, and see what Christ saith concerning the will of the Father (Psalms 40:7). Again, it argues that He is very willing to succour poor tempted souls, because He was so willing to cure diseased bodies; when He was upon the earth He was willing to cure them, so willing, as though it did cost a miracle, yet He would do it. III. But though He be able and willing, yet IT MAY BE HE IS NOT . Yes, saith the former verse, faithful; merciful and faithful High Priest. Faithful in all His house as Moses was. What honest man will break his word, go contrary to his oath? He is sworn into this office of the High Priest. Yea, we have not only His promise and His oath, but the Father’ s bond for the Son’ s performance: “ The seed of the woman shall break the serpent’ s head” ; it shall bruise his heel; she shall break his head. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. This is the work that is in His hand, to succour tempted ones: it shall prosper in His hand. IV. But suppose He is faithful, HOW DOTH HE SUCCOUR those that are tempted in the day and time of their temptation? 1. Christ succours tempted souls before the temptation comes sometimes, by a special manifestation of Himself, His love and fulness, to them. Again, He succours before the temptation by filling the heart with the Holy Ghost. When the vessel is filled with one liquor, it keeps out another. 2. He succours also under temptation by opening the eyes of him that is tempted to see that it is but a temptation. A temptation is half-cured when a man knows that it is but a temptation: when a man’ s eyes are open to see the tempter and the temptation. Therefore men are so hardly cured, because they are hardly persuaded that it is a temptation. When they see that, then they say, “ Get thee behind me, Satan.” Christ opens their eyes. Again, He succours under temptation, by letting fall some glimpse of His love, some love-look upon a tempted soul. And so, when Peter was in the high priest’ s hall, Christ looks upon him, and he went out and wept bitterly. 3. After temptation He succours: by filling the heart with joy unspeakable and full of glory; by sending the angels to minister: as when the devil left Christ, had tempted Him and left Him, then came the angels and ministered to Him. Every way--before temptation, and in temptation, and after temptation--the Lord Jesus Christ is a succouring Christ to tempted souls. He was a Man of Sorrows that He might be a God of succours; His heart is full of succours. V. . 1. Whilst I stand upon this truth, methinks I hear a solemn and gracious invitation to all poor tempted souls to come unto Jesus Christ, to come for succour. (1) He will succour tempted sinners most when they are most tempted. (2) He will not only succour thus, but He will succour you that are tempted when you cannot succour yourselves; when your own thoughts cannot succour you, when your own thoughts dare not succour you, or when your own thoughts trample upon your evidences, and when your own thoughts shall make a mutiny in your hearts, and set all on fire: “ In the multitude of my thoughts Thy Word comforts my soul.” (3) He will not only succour thus, but He will succour poor tempted souls with a notwithstanding: notwithstanding all their failings and infirmities. 2. If this doctrine be true, what ground of strong consolation is here unto all the saints? 3. If Jesus Christ be a succouring Christ, then let us be succouring Christians. Shall the Lord Jesus Christ carry a poor tempted soul upon His shoulder, by way of succour, and shall I carry him upon my shoulder as a burden? 4. If the Lord Jesus Christ be a succouring Christ, then why should we yield unto our sins and to our temptations? 5. If there be a truth in this--Christ is a succouring Christ--let us all labour to answer Christ. It is the duty and the property of the people of God to observe what God is doing upon their hearts, and to help on that work. If Jesus Christ be succouring of any of your souls against your temptations, oh! help on the work; it is your duty to help it on, and to answer Him. (W. Bridge, M. A.) Of experience of suffering causing succour to others that suffer This effect following upon Christ’ s suffering, being tempted, namely, that He is fit and ready to succour others that are tempted, giveth evidence of an especial benefit of God’ s providence in suffering His only-begotten Son and also His adopted children to be so far tempted as to suffer thereby. By this means they are brought to afford mutual succour one to another in like case. Thus saith the apostle, “ God comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Corinthians 1:4). The Lord, to stir up the Israelites to succour strangers, rendereth this reason, “ Ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9) A like reason is rendered of showing mercy to servants (Deuteronomy 5:15). It is found by experience that childbearing women are more pitiful to others in their travails than such women as are barren. The like may be said of such as are afflicted with any painful malady. Much more humanity used to be shown in the city to such as are visited with the plague than in the country, because in the city more used to be infected therewith. 1. From hence it appears that it is expedient that ministers of God’ s Word be men of like passions with others (as the apostles say of themselves, Acts 14:15), that so they may more commiserate others. If ministers themselves had never been in a natural state, but always entire, they could not so pity others as now they do. The like may be said of magistrates, and of all that have power and authority over others. 2. God’ s wisdom is herein manifested, in that He suffers flesh to remain in the best, that thereby they may be moved the more to bear with others. Christ suffered Satan to sift Peter, that when he was converted he might strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:31-32). This is a good use which saints may make of their slips. 3. Oh! how great is the inhumanity of such as, having tasted misery, and being delivered from the same, are hard-hearted to those that fall into the like misery and refuse to succour them; yea rather deal hardly with them, and add to their affliction. This was it which Nehemiah upbraided to the Jews after their return from captivity (Nehemiah 5:7, &c). The like doth Jeremiah while the Jews were besieged (Jeremiah 34:18, &c.). The like may be upbraided to such as have power among us, in commonwealth, Church, or family. 4. For our parts, as God by His providence hath made us able and fit to succour others, let us herein show ourselves like unto Christ. Let us open our bowels to such as are in distress (note Galatians 6:1; Titus 3:3). Let all of all sorts--magistrates, ministers, masters, rich men, old men, men in health, and such as have been tempted or afflicted--learn to succour others. (W. Gouge.) The Succourer of the tempted I. THE HOLY HIMSELF. Who is He? It is the co-equal, co-eternal Son of the Father, assuming the nature of His brethren upon earth; a human nature in the covenant line, on purpose to bear our sins, and bring in everlasting salvation for our rejoicing. Our text holds forth His being “ tempted,” as a peculiar feature of His sufferings: “ He suffered, being tempted” ; and it may not be unprofitable if I advert to the temptations that He endured. Temptation, you know, was addressed to Him in a threefold form; and in all these we are called to tread in His steps. The first was care, the second was covetousness, and the third was presumption. Now, before I go to other parts of the subject, I think the prominent point of Christ’ s sufferings in consequence of temptation was its contrast to the holiness of His nature. The nearer a Christian lives to God, the more his soul thus aspires after spiritual and holy things, the more hateful and distressing is every temptation. And this, I think, is the only fair way of answering all objection upon the point: that the suffering in consequence of temptation arose from the contrast of temptation with holiness--the hatefulness of sin to the mind that is bent on the holiness of God. “ He suffered, being tempted,” because temptation was the very antipodes to the holiness of His nature. But we pass on to remark yet further upon His unparalleled sufferings; and whether we glance at the sufferings of His body or the sufferings of His soul, or unite them in one contemplation, we may utter the exclamation of the prophet, personating Christ, “ Behold and see, all ye that pass by, if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger.” Unparalleled sorrows were sustained by Christ. And oh! how did He suffer? We do not hear one word of complaint while He is suffering only from creatures; the malice of Pharisees He braves silently; the temptations of the devil He vanquishes with “ Get thee hence” ; but when He at length feels the curse of a broken law entering His very soul, then He opens His mouth: “ O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” “ He suffered, being tempted.” And all this as covenant Head, as the Representative of His Church; all this in His Suretyship character. II. His . And really I am quite ashamed that you and I should make any complaints about it at all. It is true His people have to endure the malice of the same enemies now; but then they have an indemnity; they have a holy security that they cannot perish, that they shall none of them “ be tempted above that they are able,” and that “ with the temptation also He will make a way of escape.” Why, I wonder what they are to do without temptations, without trials. They are expressly designed for the purpose of calling out the graces of the Holy Spirit, and giving occasion for the triumphs of Christian experience, to the consummation of time. But look we, further, to the position of the real child of God when the tempter aims at the very same point that he did all along with Christ. “ If Thou be the Son of God” : if thy Christianity be real. I like, if he brings me an if, to meet him with one of God s shalls” and” wills” and they are always more powerful and impressive than “ ifs.” There are no “ its” in Scripture respecting the children of God, except they be “ ifs” of demonstration; they are all “ shalls” and “ wills” there. “ I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” If Jehovah has put a cry in your heart for mercy and pardon and peace wholly in Christ, under a consciousness of your need, be assured of this, that He will never abandon the work of His own hands. He will go on to be gracious. Now shall I tell you how our Lord “ is able to succour” you? It is just simply by revealing Himself. “ I am thy salvation” ; “ It is I; be not afraid.” It comforts, it cheers, it upholds. Just observe what encouragement here is for faith to the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having Himself “ suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” He has the fulness of grace; “ all power is given to Him in heaven and in earth” ; it is in His own hands, and he is “ full of grace and truth.” “ He is able to succour them that are tempted.” “ Well,” say you,” is He willing?” Suppose I reverse the question: Are you willing that He should? or are you looking somewhere else for succour? Are you willing that He should do it in His own way? (J. Irons.) Christ’ s succour to the tempted I. HAVING UNDER , CHRIST KNOWS THE FORCE OF , AND CAN WITH OUR OF IT. He knows by experience the most thorough, realistic kind of knowledge. 1. He has seen the nature of the evil. 2. He has suffered from the assaults of temptation. II. KNOWING THE FORCE OF , AND WITH THE IT CAUSES, CHRIST IS ABLE TO SUCCOUR THE TEMPTED. 1. His sympathy is itself succour. 2. By His knowledge and sympathy He can give just such grace as is needed. Pathology must precede therapeutics. The diagnosis of disease is the first duty of the physician, and it is the most difficult; when that is successfully accomplished, the prescription follows almost as a matter of course. 3. His knowledge and sympathy encourage our trust. III. BEING THUS ABLE TO SUCCOUR THE TEMPTED, CHRIST IS A FIT BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. This is not stated in the text, but it is the inference towards which the writer is leading us. And the connection of thought is apparent. The Mediator has a twofold relationship. He represents God to man and man to God as “ Apostle” and as “ High Priest” Hebrews 3:1). 1. The ability to succour is, of course, of primary importance in the representative of God to man; for He comes not merely as an ambassador to declare the mind of God, but as a Saviour to redeem the world to God and preserve the redeemed from falling into further sin. 2. It is also important in the representative of man to God. (W. F.Adeney, M. A.) Succour in Christ for the tempted The Divine Son of God, before His incarnation in our flesh, was, in His own personal being, separate from the sons of men. He knew, He felt, as a Creator, all that we suffer. But one link was wanting to bind Him to us; in fact, a gulf of vast extent lay yet between us. He had not undergone these things--we had undergone them. No cry of suffering had ever arisen from Him; from man, every hour since the Fall had sent up its utterance of woe. This distinction no Divine knowledge can overstep; this gulf no tender love of the Creator for His creature can ever bridge over. Personal experience is the prerogative of personal being, with which none can intermeddle, and which God Himself infringes not. Ever since the dawn of thought its exercise has been enriching each one of us. Its fruits are our own, in a manner in which nought else is our own. Ask the poor victim of suffering and pain where lies the charm in that one face, pale and wan, and with no outward charm, which above all others he loves to see bending over his bed and ministering to him? Others bring gifts; she, it may be, can bring none: others speak many words of studied kindness; she, perhaps, speaks but little and seldom, but there is that in the calm usual face, the ordinary casual word, the help better and more precious, and more powerful, and more beloved than all on earth besides. Yes; because that face has known sorrow--that sympathy, flowing so still, comes from the deep fountains of personal suffering; because that one, having suffered, knows how to succour them that suffer. Thus, then, Christ’ s temptation was His training; and we have now to consider how it may be our help. The question for us is, How may we dwelling in the midst of temptation day by day, make use of our Lord’ s temptation, as an element in His course for our redemption, to help us in our conflict? I would say, then, to the tempted, first--Strive to understand Christ; not in the self-sufficient, lower sense of the word “ understand,” but in its higher and humbler sense--to take in a living idea of the length and depth and breath and height of that marvellous sympathising humanity which Christ bears about Him How, as He did then. Watch it growing broader and deeper by sorrow and suffering and temptation; watch it taking into itself, as a great world-wide stream, all those lesser drops, those tributary rills, of thy sorrows and mine, thy surf-rings and mine, thy temptations and mine. Nay, more; follow in the wonderful gospel record day by day the onward course of the Son of God. Bear in mind who He was and whence He came. See the calm surface of the ocean of Divine love and Divine wisdom becoming ruffled by the disturbing forces of our troubled humanity, till at length His whole being is torn into the fierce waves of the tempest, and He cries, “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” and claims the sympathy of those who were so unequal to console Him: “ Tarry ye here and watch with Me.” And all this for the very purpose that He might be touched with a feeling of thine infirmities--all this that He might in His present ascended state bear every temptation and suffering of every man on earth in His heart. (Dean Alford.) On temptation 1. There is a vexing, corroding, afflictive disposition in every temptation, when it takes least, though it do not prevail. These fire-balls, fire-darts of Satan have a danger with them; though they do not burn down our spiritual building to the ground, there is somewhat of a suffering with them. Paul calls his buffetings a thorn, or a prick in the flesh, and therefore afflictive (see also Luke 22:31). Satan comes to meet us, and though we do not consent to him, yet a gracious heart cannot but look upon it as an affliction to be thus followed and hunted with a temptation. And the Holy Ghost alludes to ibis practice when He saith here in the text, Jesus Christ is able to succour. The word succour signifies such a succouring as brings in help unto those that cry out. 2. Doth God suffer His own children thus to suffer? Yes, and many times the best are most tempted; those that are most eminently godly are most foully assaulted. David, Job, Peter, Paul, and Christ Himself was. Yes, God doth not only suffer Satan to come and present evil objects before His servants, but suffers him to go so far as to solicit, to follow on his temptation. Yea, God doth not only suffer this, but at that very time when the saints have had most of God then they have suffered by the hand of temptation. When Paul had been taken up into the third heaven, then a messenger (Satan) was sent to buffet him. And would you know the reason? Good authors say that God suffers His own dear children to be tempted that they may be more enlightened. Temptation enlightens the tempted; thereby they are more experienced. God suffers His children thus to be tempted that they may be cleansed. These are God’ s scullions to make His golden pots of the sanctuary the brighter. God suffers His own children to be tempted that they may be conserved or kept: He preserves them from one sin by being tempted to another. And Paul says that he received that messenger of Satan twice, that he might not be exalted. God suffers His children to be tempted that their graces may be increased. As the fire is blown up by the wind of the bellows, and the strength of an argument draws out the strength of the answerer, so do these temptations draw out the strength of the tempted. God suffers His children to be tempted that they may be discovered to themselves and o, hers, what their sins and graces are. You do not know what the liquor is until the vessel be bored; then you know it. And the word that is here used for temptation originally signifies to bore, as a vessel is bored. God suffers His children to be tempted that occasionally they may be made more fit to receive the fulness of Christ as a Saviour. A man not tempted may receive the fulness of Christ as the head; but unless a man be tempted he is not fit to receive the fulness of Christ as a Saviour. Hereby they are made like unto Jesus Christ. Christ was made like to us, that He might be tempted: and we are tempted that we may be made like to Him. 3. But you will say, “ If God’ s own people, His children, be sorely tempted, how is that true which you have in 1 John 5:18 : “ Whosoever is born of God sins not: he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not” ? The devil toucheth him not; and if the devil does not so much as touch him, how can this be true that he suffers thus by the hand of his temptation? For answer hereunto ye must know that this word touching, in Scripture phrase, besides the literal sense, sometimes notes an hurting or harming of one. So in Psalms 105:15 : “ Touch not Mine anointed” ; which is explained in the following words: “ and do My prophets no harm.” Again this same word touching, in Scripture phrase, sometimes notes communion; and so when the apostle forbids the Corinthians fellowship and communion with idolaters, saith he, “ Be ye separate, and touch no unclean thing” ; touching there noting communion and fellowship with them in their worship: do not in the least measure have any communion with them. So now, although it pleases God to suffer Satan thus to vex His children with temptation, yet notwithstanding they have not fellowship or communion with him. (W. Bridge, M. A.) Sympathy the fruit of suffering Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, in the midst of the suffering caused by his complaint, said to his physician, “ Tell me, doctor, are there any who suffer as much as I do?” “ Yes, your highness,” replied the doctor; “ I have a patient afflicted with the same disease, and lying on a bed of straw.” “ On straw!” cried Leopold. With a trembling hand he rang the bell, and ordered his servants to have the best bed in the castle taken to the sick man, as well as all other necessaries. Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren The heavenly calling “ Wherefore” connects generally with chaps, 1. , if., where Christ is Apostle (Hebrews 1:1-3) and High Priest Hebrews 2:9, &c.), though immediately with “ faithful” (Hebrews 2:17) and the closing words of chap. if. The author had in view this comparison with Moses, and prepared the way for it by using “ faithful” in Hebrews 2:17. The author had called believers “ sanctified” and “ sons” Hebrews 2:11-13); recalling this, and realising what it implied, he addresses the Hebrews as “ holy brethren.” Further, he had set before them what the great salvation was to which they were destined (Hebrews 2:3), and to which the Captain of their salvation had attained, even lordship over all things in the world to come (Hebrews 2:5, &c.); and as called to this heavenly world and already tasting its powers (Hebrews 6:5; Hebrews 2:4), he addresses them as partakers of “ a heavenly calling” ; that is, sharing in a call to the possession of the heavenly world to come. In the word “ heavenly” there is struck for the first time, in words at least, an antithesis of great importance in the Epistle, that of this world and heaven; in other words, that of the merely material and transient and the ideal and abiding. The things of this world are material, unreal, transient; those of heaven are ideal, true, and eternal. Heaven is the world of realities, of things themselves (Hebrews 9:23), of which the things here are but “ copies.” There is the true Tabernacle (Hebrews 8:2); the city that bath the foundations (Hebrews 11:10); the heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion Hebrews 12:22); the kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:27-28); the true “ country” which the patriarchs sought (Hebrews 11:16)--all the eternal real things of which the things of this world are but shadows (Hebrews 10:1); and to these things we are called and are come, for this heavenly world projects itself into this present life like headlands of a new world into the ocean. This world of realities has been revealed, for Christ, who belongs to it, has come from it, and has opened up the way to it by entering it through death as our Forerunner Hebrews 6:20) and High Priest (Hebrews 10:19). This real world is the abode of God, where He is as He is in Himself. It is that which He has destined to be put in subjection to man as his final possession Hebrews 2:5-8). Being true and consisting of things themselves, it cannot be shaken, but remains after the great convulsions under which things that are made pass away (Hebrews 12:27). Then it may be called earth or heaven, for earth and heaven coincide. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.) The causes of men’ s being holy, and of calling them so This excellent prerogative of being holy cannot arise from men’ s selves. “ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:4). “ But every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). This Father of lights communicateth holiness to men two ways. 1. By imputing unto them the righteousness of His Son. Thus we are said to be “ made the righteousness of God in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and Christ is said to “ be made of God righteousness unto us” (1 Corinthians 1:30). 2. By conveying His Spirit into us, who altereth our nature and disposition, and enableth us to perform the works of righteousness. In this respect He is not only called the Holy Ghost, but also the Spirit of holiness Romans 1:4); and sanctification is said to be of the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13), because it is wrought in us by the Spirit of God. Thus this excellent title “ Holy” gives no matter of boasting unto man (2 Corinthians 4:7); but it giveth great cause of glorying in God. The apostle here giveth these Hebrews this title not so much in regard of their parentage, because the root from whence they sprouted was holy Romans 11:16); for the partition wall betwixt Jew and Gentile was now broken down, and all that were of the faith of Abraham were counted to be of Abraham’ s seed (Galatians 3:7). The apostle therefore here gives them this title 1. In regard to their profession, whereby they were distinguished from profane persons. 2. In regard of his opinion of them; for he judged them to be true members of the holy Church (1 Corinthians 6:11). Thus he usually styleth all to whom he wrote “ saints” ; that is, holy ones. How did the apostle know that they were holy? By their holy profession; for the ground of judging others is not certainty of knowledge, but the rule of love (1 Corinthians 13:7). (W. Gouge.) Directions to be holy That we may be such “ holy brethren” as are here set down 1. Be well informed in the nature of holiness. If the mark be mistaken, the more diligence we use, the further we shall be off from it. The faster a traveller goes in a wrong way, the farther he may be from the place to which he desires to go. The Jews, being ignorant of God’ s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, were farthest off from true holiness. 2. “ Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” Thus may you “ perfect holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). It is a course which all of all sorts observe for perfecting a thing, namely, first to remove the impediments; thus physicians purge out peccant humours, chirurgians draw out festering matter, husbandmen stock up broom, briars, thorns, and all noisome weeds. 3. Have special care of your company. Avoid the society of unholy ones Psalms 16:3). That this means is very powerful is evident (Proverbs 13:20; Proverbs 22:24-25). 4. Be constant in using such means as God hath sanctified for attaining holiness; for God will be found in His own way. The means are (1) Public; (2) private; (3) secret. Public means are the Word and Sacraments. 5. Be instant and constant in prayer, and that for the Holy Spirit which is promised to those that ask Him (Luke 11:13). This Spirit it is which makes us holy. 6. Be patient under crosses; for God cloth chasten His, that they might be “ partakers of His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). (W. Gouge.) Partakers of the heavenly calling The heavenly trilling The calling of saints is here commended unto us by this attribute “ heavenly.” It is here in this place attributed to saints’ calling 1. To distinguish it from earthly callings. 2. To show the excellency thereof; for excellent things are called heavenly; great, deep, excellent mysteries are called heavenly (John 3:12). 3. To declare the end of this calling, which is to bring us to a heavenly kingdom (1 Thessalonians 2:12), namely, an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4). This particular excellency here mentioned by the apostle is of force to raise up our hearts unto heaven, seeking the things that are above. It doth also instruct us how to walk worthy of this calling, namely, by an inward heavenly disposition and an outward heavenly conversation. (W. Gouge.) The superiority of Christianity I. THE BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND IN RESPECT TO THEIR NATURE. 1. This distinction of nature is set forth in the word by which the apostle designates the Christian’ s vocation. He terms it “ the heavenly calling.” (1) The word rendered here “ calling” must not be confounded with the gospel’ s general invitation to salvation, but refers to that to which believers are entitled through Christ Jesus. (2) It is termed “ heavenly,” not in respect to its source, for Judaism and Christianity have a common origin. Both are of God, in respect to the nature of the blessings proffered and the sphere where the blessings are to be enjoyed. (3) The intimate and exalted fellowship of those united under the banner of this “ heavenly calling” is here noticeable: “ Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” (a) “ Brethren” by kinship closer and more enduring than that formed by natural bonds. (b) “ Holy,” in the sense of being set apart by God the Father, through Christ His Son by the Holy Spirit, to one heavenly and sacred aim--the service of God alone. (c) “ Partakers” ; literally, “ holding things in common.” Sharers together of the privileges of the “ heavenly calling.” (4) Noticeable also are the terms applied to the Lord in connection with the heavenly calling, and the earnest exhortation of the apostle to due consideration of Christ in these offices. “ Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” (a) The word rendered “ consider “ means to observe well, to consider attentively, to ponder thoughtfully. (b) The word “ apostle” , as applied to our Lord here, is peculiar, this being the only place where this special term is applied to Him. We may regard the word “ apostle” as used to avoid ambiguity, and also at the same time to set forth our Lord as having been “ sent” of God, and therefore divinely authorised, as was Moses. (c) The expression “ the High Priest of our profession,” suggestively represents the Divine authority, and also the redemptive feature so prominent in the Christian system. II. THE BETWEEN CHRIST AND MOSES IN THE THEY TO THEIR . I. Christ is here represented as being the owner of the “ house” He served, Moses being only servant of the “ house” he served. (1) Notice the significance of the term “ house.” Its meaning, as applied to Christ’ s house, is given in Hebrews 3:6. (2) The sense in which Christ is, and Moses was not, owner of the “ house” each respectively served thus becomes obvious. The apostle, however, even here, holds still prominently before us that it was in His capacity as “ Son “ He also redeemed. 2. This ownership in the “ household of faith” sustains the apostle in his next position--that Christ has a higher claim to homage and honour than Moses. 3. The prominent and practical characteristic here mentioned should not be lost sight of in connection with Christ’ s superiority to Moses, namely, His faithfulness. III. AND SOLEMN FROM THE . 1. An earnest lesson from the history of the past (Hebrews 3:7-12). 2. Practical counsel as to what they should do (Hebrews 3:13). 3. The only reliable evidence of our union with Christ (Hebrews 3:14). 4. The essential importance of every-day religion (Hebrews 3:15-18). (1) To prevent hardness of heart. Heedlessness is the beginning and the sure evidence of hardness (Hebrews 3:15). (2) To avoid that grieving of the Holy Spirit which is inevitably followed by Divine judgment (Hebrews 3:16-17). 5. The fearful cause of all defection from God and of all sin against God--“ unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19). (1) It was the cause of the first sin of our first parents in Eden. (2) It was the cause of the first murder on record. (3) It was the prolific cause of all those terrible effects which culminated in the destruction of all religious life in the antediluvians, with the exception of one man, and led to the destruction of the whole race of mankind save Noah and his family. Oh, what a hydra-headed, destructive monster is unbelief! (D. C. Hughes, M. A.) Consider the High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus Christ to be appreciated A young lady, a novice in art, said to her father, who was an accomplished man of taste, “ Father, I cannot enjoy the works of the old masters.” “ Then,” said he “ look at them till you can.” Even so, if one were to say, “ I cannot appreciate the Cross,” our earnest reply would be, “ Study it till you can.” (C. Clemance, D. D.) Christ should be contemplated It is recorded of a celebrated philosopher that, pursuing his investigations on the subject of light, he ventured on a bold experiment. Without the protection of smoked glass, he turned his naked eye on the sun, and kept it fixed there for awhile. When he removed it, such was the impression made upon his eyes, that whichever way he looked, upwards, downwards, right or left, he saw nothing but the sun. The last thing he saw at night, the first thing he saw in the morning, was the sun. What a blessed thing it would be for us if we had some such view of Christ, if the glory and love of Him who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, was thus impressed upon our souls! (A. C. Price, B. A.) Consider Jesus Hazlitt once copied a painting of Titian’ s, and showed it one evening to his friends, Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke. It was fine, but as he held the light to it, and thus unconsciously showed his own intellectual head, square “ potential forehead,” and eyes full of earnest fire, they felt that he was really the picture to gaze at. In like manner, Jesus lifts the light of truth to the picture of duty, but He also grandly embodied it in His daily life. (T. R. Stevenson.) Consider Jesus and banish frivolity The wise picture-dealer at Oxford was right, who, handing to an undergraduate the fine engraving of an ancient master, said, “ Hang this on your wails, sir, and it will soon banish all the pictures of jockeys and ballet-girls.” (F. W. Farrar, D. D.) Priesthood of Christ About a hundred years ago a Welsh boy heard a sermon upon the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It was a new idea to the boy, filling him with astonishment and delight. The doctrine was so excellent and sweet to him, that without delay he opened his heart to it. To this day all the Welsh revere his memory, for that boy became the Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala, the apostle of his native land, the founder of day and Sabbath schools and of the Bible Society. And such a faith in Christ will give you, too, a true and fruitful life. (J. Wells, M. A.) The advantages derived from considering Jesus I. The solemn consideration of Jesus Christ may well YOU TO ANY OR TRYING in which you may be placed. Compared to His what are all the duties which we have to perform, or any sufferings which we have to endure? How few have to “ resist unto blood, striving against sin.” Every repining thought must be subdued. II. “ Consider the Apostle and High Priest of your profession,” and you will see in Him A MODEL FOR YOUR CONDUCT, and will learn how to act in circumstances of difficulty or distress. Amid injustice and ill-treatment, which so easily discompose the mind and render one’ s duty so peculiarly difficult, Jesus has taught us how wisdom, integrity, and goodness would act. Now the principles which formed the character and governed the whole conduct of Jesus are evidently these two--faith in God and love to mankind. Clearly discovering in His character and conduct the wonderful efficacy of these principles, we must fix them in our souls if we wish to fulfil the more difficult duties of life or rest in composure and peace of mind amid its various ills. III. To consider Jesus will ANIMATE AND YOU AMID THE AND ILLS OF LIFE. He foresaw all the extent of His sufferings, and “ in all things made like unto His brethren,” He felt all the depression natural to the human mind in such disheartening prospects; but declining any exertion of supernatural powers, He resigns Himself to the violence of wicked men, with no other defence but that Divine grace and those heavenly principles which the humblest of His followers may through His mediation attain. And can His admirable conduct be exhibited to us in vain? Can it be contemplated without exciting our efforts and prompting our imitation? (R. Boog, D. D.) The Christian and his Redeemer I. A OF TRUE . 1. A common character: “ Holy.” 2. A common relationship: “ Brethren.” 3. A common privilege: “ Partakers,” &c. A call from heaven and to heaven. II. A OF THE GREAT . 1. The Apostle of our profession. Sent from God to us. 2. The High Priest of our profession. By Him we draw near to God, even as by Him God draws near to us. 3. The Christ Jesus--the anointed Deliverer. III. THE OF TRUE TO THE GREAT , it Consider.” Men’ s characters are formed by their thinkings. Meditation is the most constant and influential operation of our nature. (U. R. Tibetans.) The Advent call “Consider,” then, it is here directed, “ the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” Seeing what He is, according to the statements of the two previous chapters; how great, how Divine, how human, how merciful, and how faithful; how sufficient in His atonement for sin, how experienced in His sympathy with the tempted; consider Him, fix your thoughts upon Him. Now in what aspects are we here charged to consider Christ? 1. As “ the Apostle of our profession” ; that is, of our confession, or common faith. An apostle means an emissary, or ambassador, or representative--one who comes to us with a message or commission, in this case from God Himself. We ought to be transacting business with Him, if I might so express it, every day; dealing with Him as to the concerns of our life, inward and outward, and conscious that, in so doing, we are dealing also with God Himself. 2. Again, the High Priest of our confession. You know how large a part of this Epistle is occupied with the subject thus introduced: the priesthood of Jesus Christ as satisfying all those wants which any other priesthood could only indicate and impress. “ Hark the glad sound! the Saviour comes” --why is it a glad sound? It is not because we wanted an Apostle, and because we wanted a High Priest? Put Christ out of sight altogether for a moment, and then see how dark life is, the present and the future. See what it is to be conscious of sin, and then suppose that there were no Christ, no Saviour, no Propitiation, and no Intercessor! Yes, we know that we shall all want Him; as our Apostle, as God’ s representative, that is; as our all-wise Teacher, our Revealer of God as He is, as the Person in whom as well as by whom God deals with our souls, and bids us also to deal with Him; want Him also as our High Priest, our Sacrifice and Propitiation for sin, our merciful Intercessor, our faithful Advocate with God. (Dean Vaughan.) Christians invited to consider Christ I. THE : “ Holy brethren.” 1. All real Christians are (1) Partakers of the same spiritual nature. (2) Members of the same family. (3) Interested in each other’ s welfare. 2. Christians are “ holy” (1) By the dedication which they have made of themselves to God. (2) By the purification of their minds, 3. They are partakers of a calling (1) Heavenly in its origin. (2) Heavenly in its end. II. THE ADVICE GIVEN. 1. Christ was a Divine Messenger. He is a Divine Person. He was divinely John 4:34; John 5:23; John 7:16). 2. Christ was a voluntary messenger. He came willingly (Hebrews 10:5-9). The undertaking was arduous, but “ He gave Himself for us.” 3. Christ was a merciful messenger. He came not to destroy, but to save; and it was all free, unparalleled mercy. 4. He is the High Priest of our profession. (1) He made an atonement for sin (Hebrews 9:28). (2) The Jewish high priest blessed the people (Numbers 6:23-27). (3) The Jewish high priest interceded for the people; and Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us. 5. The advice given is, “ Consider the apostle,” &c. Consideration is the exercise of thought, not a hasty glance at an object, but a deliberate exercise of the mind. Hence we should consider Christ. (1) That we know Him. The knowledge of Christ is the most beneficial we can possess; but no man can know Christ who will not consider Him. (2) That we may be grateful to Him. Our obligations to Christ should bind us to be grateful to Him; but these obligations can be known only by consideration. (3) That we may keep His commandments. No man can keep Christ’ s commandments who neglects the advice in the text. (4) That we may emulate His example. (Sketches of Sermons.) The consideration of the apostle-ship and priesthood of Christ inculcated I. THE HERE . 1. “ Holy brethren.” Every one must possess holiness, not indeed in perfection: but, as it were, the Christian’ s element, where he breathes with freedom and with peace. Sin is the Christian’ s aversion, and therefore he looks forward with joy to that period when he shall put off this body of sin, and be in possession of a holy and blessed state in heaven. 2. The characters here addressed are described as “ Partakers of the heavenly calling.” Here we speak of the manner in which such are brought to this brotherly love. II. THE HIGH GIVEN IN THE TEXT OF CHRIST JESUS 1. “ Apostle.” The Redeemer of mankind, though one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is declared to have come out from God in the capacity of a servant. In His commission to His disciples after the Resurrection, He acknowledged His own apostleship. He says, “ As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you.” 2. “ High Priest.” The high priest was to offer up the evening sacrifice and prayer. Christ Jesus appears offering Himself a perfect sacrifice for sin. III. THE DUTY . “ Consider.” As if he had said, do not turn away from Him, as though you had no interest in this great subject; but let your attention be drawn off from everything else, that your soul may be found resting here. (F. H. Fell, M. A.) The Apostle and High Priest of our profession I. THE AGENTS. Who are exhorted to consider Christ? The “ holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” “ Holy brethren.” The terms define sufficiently the class of persons to whom this exhortation is directly addressed. It is a word, not for those who are without, but for those who are within. The two terms are interesting separately, and in their union. If they do not certify what all the worshippers are, they certainly declare what each ought to be. You may detect here the twofold division of duty, which from its fountain in the decalogue flows down, and penetrates all the moral teaching of the Scriptures. Christians get both the first and the second commandments printed on their life. They love the Lord with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves. They are “ holy” to God, and “ brethren “ to men. Further, they are “ partakers of the heavenly calling.” It comes from above, and invites them thither. II. THE OBJECT. Whom should the holy brethren regard? “ The Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” “ Our profession” is the religious system which we adopt -the confession which we make and maintain. It indicates profession to God, and confession one with another. We hold the truth, and we hold it together. We hold to God by faith, and to our brethren in love. It is not the truth in type and shadow, but the truth Himself unveiled--God manifest in the flesh. Our profession, finally, is not self-righteousness, but faith. It is not what I am able to do, but what God is willing to give. Our plea is, not that our sins are small, but that our Saviour is great. “ By grace are ye saved through faith.” Of this profession, the Apostle and High Priest is Christ Jesus. Either office is important in itself; and the union of both in the person of the Lord Jesus has a distinct and peculiar importance of its own. An apostle is one sent out. Missionary, with which we have become so familiar in our days, is the same word in another language. An inexpressible dignity is connected with the mission of this Apostle. The sender, the sent, and the errand, are all great. All our missions are copies of this great original. He is High Priest too. It is His office to go into the holiest with atoning blood, and there plead for the rebellious. With His own blood our High Priest has entered into the heavens, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. In His own personal ministry He was first Apostle and then High Priest. In the order of time His mission as God’ s representative sent out to us was first accomplished, and thereafter His mission as our representative sent in to God. Throughout His personal ministry in the body He acted as Apostle; at His death and resurrection and ascension He became High Priest. When Jesus as our High Priest passed into the heavens, His personal ministry as our Apostle ceased; but He has not left Himself without a witness. He has left that work to His servants. He prescribed their task, and promised them Matthew 28:20). Not only every preacher, but every believer of the Word, is an apostle, charged and qualified to make it known. When He ascended He left on earth a multitudinous ministry. Nor is Divine commission wanting to the meanest: “ Let him that heareth say, Come.” In a similar manner the intercession of the High Priest in heaven is reduplicated on the earth. “ Brethren, n, pray for us,” expresses the true instinct of the new creature in a time of need. All who preach in any form to men also pray for them; and, besides these, a great number of the Lord’ s little ones, who lack courage or skill to spake a word for Christ, speak in secret to Him, for their neighbours and for the world. In view of both these offices He said to His disciples, “ It is expedient for you that I go away.” His ascension into heaven spreads both the apostleship and the priesthood over the world. In contact with the earth’ s surface the sun would be only a consuming fire; from the height of heaven it sheds down light and heat on every land. So Christ, after the days of His humiliation were done, was a “ Light inaccessible and full of glory.” III. THE ACT. How the holy brethren should regard Christ: “ Consider Him.” Consider Him the Apostle. Well we may. When the heavens must open, and a messenger come forth bearing the mind of God to men, we have cause to rejoice that the mission is intrusted to a partaker of our nature. It was necessary that we should meet God; to make the meeting possible, God became man and dwelt among us. Consider Him who has brought out the message, for He is “ gentle and easy to be entreated.” Consider Him the High Priest. He is before the throne, charging Himself with all the interests of His people. He has power with God, and pity for man. (W. Amos.) Consider Christ I. We have here ONE GREAT COMMAND. The word “ consider” implies in the original an earnest, fixed, prolonged attention of mind. 1. The first remark that I would make is that a Christian man’ s thoughts should be occupied with his Saviour. How do you Christian people expect to get any blessing from Jesus Christ? Does He not work by His truth? And can that truth which sanctifies and saves produce effects if it is not appropriated by the meditative occupation of our minds with it? What is all the gospel to you unless it is consciously present to your understanding, and through your understanding is ruling your affections, and moulding your will, and shaping the outgoings of your life? 2. Then, that being premised, note how much practical direction as to the manner of that occupation of mind and spirit with Christ lies in that single emphatic word “ consider.” (1) There is surely implied, to begin with, that such occupation must be the result of conscious effort. Why, you cannot even make money until, as you say, “ you give your minds to business.” A man sitting at a desk cannot even add up a column of figures correctly if he is thinking about a hundred other things. And do you think that the Divine glories of Christ are to flow into a man’ s soul on condition of less concentration and attention? (2) But, still further, our gaze on Him must be the look of eager interest; it must be intense as well as fixed. I do not wonder at so many people thinking that there is nothing to interest them in the gospel. There is nothing--and that because they do not come to it with awakened eagerness, and so because they have no hunger it is tasteless. If we would hear Christ, we must keep our ear attent unto His voice. To superficial investigation no treasures are disclosed, we must dig deep if we would find the vein where the gold lies. Still further, another requisite of this occupation of mind with Christ and His work may be suggested as included in the word. (3) Our consideration must be resolute, eager, and, also, steady or continuous. A hurried glance is as profitless as a careless one. You do not see much on first going into a dark room out of the light; nor do you see much on first going into the light out of the dark. It was Newton, I think, who, when asked as to his method of working in attacking complicated problems, had only the simple answer to give, “ I keep it before me.” Yes, that is the way to master any subject of thought. The steady gaze will, by slow degrees, see order where the random glance saw only chaos. And we shall never see the glory of that light which dwells between the Cherubim if our visits to the shrine arc brief and interrupted, and the bulk of our time is spent outside the tabernacle amidst the glaring sand and the blazing sunshine. Let us fix our eyes on Him, our Lord. Surely there is enough there to draw and satisfy the most prolonged eager gaze. He is our Example, our Redeemer, our Prophet. In Him we see all of God that man can apprehend, and all of man. In Him we behold our wisdom, our strength, our righteousness. II. THE GREAT ASPECTS OF CHRIST’ S WORK WHICH SHOULD FIX OUR GAZE. We have Himself proposed as the object of our thoughts. 1. He is the Apostle of our profession. No declaration was more common on our Lord’ s lips when on earth than that He was “ sent of God.” He is the sent of God. And our loving thoughts are to lay hold upon this aspect of His nature avid work, not to tarry in the simple manhood, fair and blessed as that is, but to discern in Him the complete expression of the Divine Will, the complete fulfilment of the slow marching revelations of God, the perfect, final, eternal word spoken of God among men. 2. Then we are to think of Him as our High Priest. “ As Apostle,” it has been well said, “ He pleads God’ s cause with us: as High Priest He pleads our cause with God. The Apostolate and the Priesthood of Christ are both included in the one word--Mediator.” III. THE GREAT REASONS FOR THIS OF MIND AND HEART WITH CHRIST, OUR . These are to be found in the remaining portion of this verse. 1. Our relation to Christ and the benefit we derive from it should impel us to loving meditation on Him. “ Holy brethren.” 2. The calling of which we are partakers should impel us to loving meditation. God in Christ calls us to His service, to His love, to His heaven. Of this call all Christian souls are recipients. Therefore it becomes them to set their thoughts and love on that Saviour, through whom they receive it at the first, and continue to feel its quickening impulse and its immortal hopes. 3. Further, the avowal which we have made concerning Him should impel us to loving, steadfast contemplation. He is “ the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,” or, perhaps, more accurately “ of our confession.” Our creed avows that Christ is everything to us. Alas! alas! how many of us proclaim in our lives that He is nothing. If these tremendous sentences are believed at all by us, what means this languid, occasional half-hearted gaze upon Him? Surely, if we believe them, we should never turn away from beholding that face, so gentle and so Divine, radiant with the brightness of God, and soft with the dewy pity of a brother and a priest! Is your life in accordance with your confession? If not, what is the confession but a blasphemy or a hypocrisy? And what does it avail except to make the life more criminal in its forgetfulness of your Saviour? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Consider Christ When a traveller passes very rapidly through a country, the eye has no time to rest upon the different objects in it, so that, when he comes to the end of his journey, no distinct impressions have been made upon his mind. This explains how it is that death, judgment, eternity, make so little impression upon most men’ s minds. More souls are lost through want of consideration than in any other way. The reason why men are not awakened is, that the devil never gives them time to consider. He beguiles them away from simply looking to Jesus: he hurries them away to look at a thousand other things. But God says, Look here, consider the Apostle and High Priest of your profession; look unto Me, and be be saved. I. SHOULD LIVE IN DAILY OF THE AND GLORY OF CHRIST, OH, could I lift you away back to that wonderful day, and show you Jesus calling all the angels into being, hanging the earth upon nothing; consider Him, and see if you think He will be a sufficient Saviour. I can as little doubt the sureness and completeness of my salvation as I can doubt the sureness of the solid earth beneath my feet. And where is Jesus now? All power is given to Him in heaven and on earth. Oh, could you and I pass this day through these heavens, and see what is now going on in the sanctuary above--could you see the Lamb, surrounded by all the redeemed, the many angels round about the throne, and were one of these angels to tell you, “ This is He that undertook the cause of lost sinners--consider Him--look long and earnestly upon His wounds--upon Hisglory--and tell me do you think it would be safe to trust Him? Do you think His sufferings and obedience will have been enough?” Yes, yes, every soul exclaims, Lord, it is enough! Oh, rather let me ever stand and gaze upon the Almighty, all-worthy, all-Divine Saviour, till my soul drinks in complete assurance that His work undertaken for sinners is a finished work. II. CHRIST AS THE APOSTLE, OR OF GOD. NOW Christ is an Apostle, for God ordained and sent Him into the world. Oh, could I lift you away to the eternity that is past;--could I bring you into the council of the Eternal Three; and as it was once said “ Let us make man” ;--could I show you how God from all eternity designed His Son to undertake for poor sinners;--could I show you the intense interest with which the eye of God followed Jesus through His whole course of sorrow, and suffering, and death. Oh, sinner, will you ever doubt any more whether God the Father be seeking thy salvation? III. CHRIST AS THE HIGH PRIEST OF OUR . 1. Consider Him making atonement. Now the atonement has been made, Christ has died, His sufferings are all past. And how is it that you do not enjoy peace? It is because you do not consider. 2. Conisider Christ as making intercession. (R. M. McCheyne.) The Apostle and High Priest I. THE OF CHRIST. In its exact and original signification an apostle is “ one who is sent,” i.e., the bearer of a message from some one. There have been many revelations of God, differing in kind, differing in degree and completeness. The greatest and most complete revelation of God is in Jesus Christ. In the teaching of Christ, in pregnant saying, or parable, or discourse, we have a revelation concerning God which it had not entered the mind of man to conceive. II. THE HIGH- OF CHRIST. The essential idea of a priest is that he comes between man and God; and the essential idea of a priesthood is that of a class of men who act as mediators between God and men. The priest offered sacrifices, or conducted religious ceremonies, but he did these things not for himself, but for the worshippers. If it be true that without blood there is no remission of sins, it is also true that without an intervening priest, there was no shedding of sacrificial blood, and therefore no remission. Carry these thoughts with you then, and you will see why Christ is called the High Priest of our profession. High Priest, because He stands for mankind before God: High Priest, because He has made one all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of men: High Priest, because He does for men what they could not and cannot do for themselves. Christ’ s priesthood means that we have a way by which we may approach the eternal and all-holy Father. They who are conscious of their own unworthiness may plead the worthiness of Christ, may rest with confidence on the sympathy of Him who wore our humanity as a brother-man. Christ’ s priesthood further means that a sacrifice bus been made by which the defilement of sin is removed, and a new relation begun between men and God. Christ’ s priesthood means that in His crucifixion, from which He did not shrink, there was given to men a means of reconciliation with God. And, once more, Christ’ s priesthood means that there is in heaven One who pleads continually for pardon for sinful men. To what now, I ask, should these considerations of the apostleship and priesthood of Christ tend? The writer of this Epistle uses them to add point to his exhortation, and to warn against unbelief. I know that some among you are fully aware of the responsibilities of belief, and shrink from doing or professing anything which seems to go beyond your power to practise. Have you ever thought of the responsibilities in which the want of belief may involve you? Have you ever, amid your doubts and hesitations, considered this, that by your doubts and hesitations you are practically denying that the revelation of God in Christ is a revelation to you; that you are practically saying, “ Christ’ s sacrifice was no sacrifice, so far as I am concerned.” True it is that they who enter into the temple, have their responsibilities; but are they free from responsibility who stand at the threshold and will not enter in? And the same considerations may be used to quicken and sustain our faith. Christ is our Apostle; therefore we have a sure knowledge of God. Christ is our High Priest; therefore, we have in our hearts the assurance of Divine love, and the abiding hope of Divine forgiveness. (D. Hunter, B. D.) The study of Jesus I. THE SUBJECT FOR STUDY. 1. Consider the person of Jesus. Christianity is Christ; and if Christ be not God. Man our religion is the dream of sanguine enthusiasts or the fraud of ingenious impostors. 2. Consider the offices of Jesus. (1) In His Divine-human capacity Jesus is the Apostle of our confession. (2) As Apostle Jesus has a mission. He is High Priest. II. THE . 1. Confessors. Practical confession is the living up to all we believe, and the carrying out of all that that belief involves. 2. Holy brethren. Christ was born and died that He might communicate His Holy Spirit, by whose regenerating, adopting, and sanctifying work we arc made holy, the sons of God, and His brethren. 3. Partakers of a heavenly calling. (1) Walk worthy of it. (2) Make it sure. III. THE METHOD OF STUDY AND THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT IS TO BE PURSUED. 1. As for the method, the word “ consider” is descriptive of the posture of the earnest student who abstracts his attention from every other object, and pores over the thing in hand with unflagging industry until he has mastered it. (1) To our study of Jesus we must give undivided attention. We know so little of Christ, in spite of all our prayer and meditation, because we think of so much else while we are trying to think of Him. (2) Our study must be deep. Just as nature is grand or commonplace according as our reading is profound or superficial, so is it with the great subject of Christian study. (3) Our study must be patient and persistent. That knowledge is not worth much, and is often worth less than nothing, which is acquired in a few weeks’ scamper over a mighty continent. 2. The spirit. (1) Reverential. (2) Humble boldness. (J. W. Burn.) Consider Christ fully If you wish to look at a portrait of Raphael’ s, what would you think to see only the forehead uncovered, and then only the eyes, and so on, until all the features had been separately seen? Could you gain a true idea of the picture as a whole? Yet this is the way men look at the picture of Christ in the Gospels, reading a few verses and mottoes here and there, and never considering the life in its wholeness and harmony. (H. W. Beecher.) Consider Christ intently Consider not lightly, as they that do not mind the thing they look upon. Their eyes are upon it, but their mind is on another matter. Look on Him with the sharp eye of your mind. Consider that in Him all the treasures of wisdom lie hid. He is a rich storehouse, in whom ye may find all the pearls and jewels of wholesome doctrine. In Him there is salvation, and in no other; therefore all other teachers set aside, listen to Him. When the judge of assizes gives the charge, all that be in the shire-house, especially they that be of the great inquest, consider seriously what is spoken. When the king makes a speech in the Parliament-house, the whole House considers earnestly what he says. Christ Jesus, the King of kings, speaks to us in the ministry of the Word, yet few consider the excellent things that be spoken. The Queen of Sheba considered Solomon well, all that he spake or did. Behold, here is a greater than Solomon. Therefore let us diligently consider what He says. If they were matters of no moment, we were not to be blamed, though we did not consider them; but being of such weight, touching the eternal salvation of our souls, what madmen be we, that we consider them no better. If one should talk to us of gold and silver, we would consider what he says. Christ speaks to us of that which surpasseth all the silver in the world, yet we regard Him not. Let us consider Him now, that He may consider us hereafter when He comes with His holy angels. (W. Jones, D. D.) Of Christ as an Apostle I. THE GENERAL OF CHRIST, as a Prophet, Apostle, and Minister of the Word of God, was to make known the will of the Father unto His people. II. HIS SPECIAL CALL to that function was immediate from the Father. Christ thus saith of Himself (John 20:21). Oft does Christ make mention of this that His Father sent Him. Where Christ saith to the Jews John 5:37; John 6:46; John 1:18). III. THE which belonged to an apostolical function, and in a most eminent manner appertained unto Christ, were these. 1. Christ laid the foundation, for He first preached the gospel (Genesis 3:15). Yea, Christ Himself was the very foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11). He is also the chief corner-stone (Ephesians 2:20). 2. The whole world was Christ’ s jurisdiction. No limits were set to His function (Psalms 2:8; Ephesians 2:17). 3. He had His gifts immediately by the Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; Luke 2:20). 4. He received the Spirit more abundantly than any other (John 3:34; Colossians 2:3; Colossians 2:9; John 1:16). 5. He could not but have infallible assistance in that He was the very truth itself (John 14:16; Luke 4:18). 6. He also must needs have power of giving gifts, in that He was the prime Author of all gifts (Ephesians 4:7; John 20:22). 7. About miracles He had mote power than ever any other. 8. Vengeance especially belongeth unto Christ (Romans 12:19). When the apostle delivered the incestuous person over to Satan, he did it in the name and with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 5:4). (W. Gouge.) Christ the only Apostle and High Priest of our profession Where Christ is said here to be the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, we must learn this: that we that be Christians profess no other teacher, nor no other Saviour, but that Christ is both our wisdom and our justification; His word is ours, His doctrine is ours, His wisdom is ours, we profess not one jot whereof He hath not been an Apostle unto us; and whosoever he be that teacheth us other things than what Christ hath taught us already, he is not of our profession nor of our brotherhood. And more than this, we are sure he teacheth nothing but vain illusions and imaginations of men; for all treasures of wisdom and true knowledge are hit” in Christ. And seeing it hath pleased Him to be our Apostle, who is the Son of God, the brightness of His glory, the ingraven form of His substance, the Heir of all things, the Maker of heaven and earth, far greater than angels, how unthankful be we if His doctrine be not our profession; nay, how mad be we, if we will change Him for any other or for all other. Whatsoever glorious names they bring, of fathers, doctors, councils, we neither know them nor their names. If they be ministers of Christ unto us, their feet are beautiful, and their names are honourable, it they be their own ministers, we know them not, nor all their glory. Now where the apostle calleth Christ the High Priest of our profession, as we have learned before, if He be our Apostle, we have no other teacher. So we learn here, if He be the Priest of our profession, no part of the office of His Priesthood we may give to another, but profess it clearly that He is our priest alone. And as the priest is ordained to make sacrifice for sin, and to be a mediator between God and man, so all this work we must leave wholly unto Him, receive no other, upon whom we will lay this reconciliation, to purge our sins, and to bring us to God, but Christ alone. (E. Deering, B,D.) Open Christian profession Let us look at the word “ profession.” We are very apt to undervalue things with which abuse and danger are connected, and which may be easily counterfeited. There is such a thing as a mere outward hypocritical profession; but is that a reason why we should not attach importance to confessing Christ? With the heart we are to believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth we are to confess that Jesus is the Lord. It may be a mere lip-utterance to say, “ I believe in Jesus” ; it may be only a form to sit down at the Lord’ s table; but as the outward expression of an inward reality, it is a great and blessed fact. Let us not be secret disciples; let us not come to Jesus merely by night, ashamed to bear testimony to the gospel. Our confession of Christ in the outward Church, in the congregation of professed disciples, in the ordinances of Christ’ s institution, let us not undervalue it! Remember with gratitude that you have publicly professed Christ; that into the Church of Christ you have been received by baptism, and acknowledged at the Lord’ s Supper as a brother and partaker of the heavenly calling. Let the remembrance of this be to us continually helpful, and stimulate us to adorn the doctrine of the gospel by a Christ-like life and walk. (A. Saphir.) Hebrews 3:2 Faithful to Him that appointed Him Fidelity in personal duties The general prosperity of human life and the peace and comfort of individuals greatly depend on the diligence, the cheerfulness, and the spirit with which our personal duties are fulfilled. I. I mention as the first, AN AND THAT GOD HATH US OUR , and that a proper discharge of the duties resulting from them, from a regard to His authority, is service due and done to God. Christianity thus brings religion home to the most minute departments of human life, to the house and to the field, to the shop and to the farm; and intimately unites earth to heaven. II. Personal fidelity includes HONEST AND TO THE DUTIES OF OUR SEVERAL OR , AND TO ACQUIRE THE TALENTS TO PERFORM THEM WELL. But I must observe that a knowledge of the duties of a calling, and even the best talents for discharging them, are not sufficient. Personal fidelity chiefly consists in the diligence, animated by religious motives, which produces the activity which our separate duties require; and therefore I remark III. That men discover their fidelity when they MARE OF THE MORE AND , as well as of the more easy duties of their particular callings. IV. Men show their fidelity in their personal duties, when they do NOT NEGLECT, FOR THE SAKE OF , THEIR PROPER OR . V. Fidelity to Him who hath appointed men their respective callings, requires that they shall Do AS MUCH GOOD IN THEM AS THEY HAVE THE MEANS OR TO DO; and that they shall manage them to the best advantage, for which their knowledge or abilities have qualified them. VI. Personal fidelity requires that men REGARD AND FULFIL ALL THE DUTIES OF THEIR OR , AND NOT MERELY A PART OF THEM. VII. Personal fidelity requires that men shall do the duties of their proper stations, EVERY WORLDLY MOTIVE SHOULD TEMPT THEM TO NEGLECT OR TO VIOLATE THEM. VIII. Fidelity in the duties of our proper callings ought ever to be WITH PRAYER TO GOD, AND AN AND DEVOUT ON HIM FOR HIS . I conclude with observing, that if a faithful discharge of social duties were the whole of religion, even on such terms no man could be justified by works. In fidelity to conscience, and in zealous endeavours for promoting the glory of God and the good of mankind, Archbishop Usher was perhaps exceeded by few of his own, or of any other order, Yet we find among his last, what were certainly none of his worst words, “ Lord, forgive my sins of omission.” Even in the discharge of their secular callings, men of the worthiest characters are far from being already perfect, and after all their best attainments have need to pray, “ Lord, enter not into judgment with Thy servants.” (John Erskine, D. D.) Christ the Son and Moses the servant 1. And here that it is said, “ God appointed Him,” we see the root of this love, that Christ should come a Saviour among us. And as we must give unto our Saviour Christ the glory of our redemption, in the sacrifice of His body, so we must give unto the Father the praise of His mercy, that hath freely loved us, and predestinated us eternally unto life; for as this is our profession, that Christ hath done the deed, so this is our profession, that God the Father hath appointed Him unto it. 2. The second thing here witnessed of Christ, and in which we are assured He is our only Prophet, and are provoked to hearken unto Him, is “ that lie was faithful in all the house of God.” This faithfulness is truth and integrity in discharge of this office committed to Him, wherein He set all His care and industry, that He might be found faultless, that like as He was sent of God to be a Prophet to reveal His will, so He did faithfully perform it, teaching only doctrine and ordinances of His Father (John 7:16; John 8:28; John 17:8). How diligently then ought we to hear such a Prophet as hath so faithfully spoken. And here we have all a very good lesson taught us, in the person of Christ, to what calling soever we be called of God, in the same let us be faithful; if we be preachers, faithful preachers; if we be princes, faithful princes; if we be judges, faithful judges; if we be treasurers, faithful treasurers; if we be merchants, faithful merchants; whatsoever we be, faithfulness must be our praise. 3. It followeth, “ He was faithful as Moses in all His house.” What was the faithfulness commended in Moses? That he did in every point according to that which God had commanded. This was then the faithfulness of Christ, to do nothing but at the will of His Father; and this St. John witnesseth expressly in many places. Here is the image of this faithful minister, like unto Christ, one that preacheth nothing but the Word of God, nor for any cause but God’ s glory. Now, more touching this comparison here made between Christ and Moses, there is no doubt but the apostle useth it to join the Hebrews unto Christ; for how they accounted of Moses he knew well, and whatsoever was spoken of him they did willingly apply themselves to mark, and his praise did win their affections to be more equally bent to learn Christ. Taking this occasion, he beginneth his comparison, making this as common both to Christ and Moses: that either of them ruled in the house of God, and either of them was faithful in his charge, but yet so, as Christ was much more honourable, and therefore to be of us acknowledged our only Prophet. Now, lest the comparison should seem equal, or Moses should be accounted as great as Christ, he showeth the great excellence of Christ above Moses, that the Jews may also learn to honour their Messias as it becometh them. It followeth now in the fifth verse, “ And Moses was faithful in all His house, as a servant for the testimony of the things which should be spoken, but Christ as the Son is Ruler of His house.” Now, how much more honour the son hath in his father’ s house than he that is a servant, so far Christ is above Moses, and above all. And in this the apostle needed not use many words, for that Moses was a servant, all confessed that God calleth him oft His servant Moses. And that Christ was the Son no man doubted, and the Scripture giveth Him plainly the title of the Son of God. Here we have all taught us a lesson of good humility, and how to know ourselves, and what place we have in the Church of God. It followeth, “ For a testimony of the things which should after be spoken.” For this purpose Moses was a servant, and in the performance of this duty was faithful: he was a servant to bear witness unto the people of all the words which God should speak unto them, that is, a servant faithfully declaring all the law of God. And Moses also himself did bear witness of Christ. And Moses, the most renowned of all prophets, what was he? a servant to declare unto the people all that the Lord had spoken. Who is he now will presume above Moses, to speak of his own head, ordinances, and laws? Who will establish decrees of his own in the house of God? Whosoever he be he shall carry his judgments. He is not a servant, as Moses was; but he exalteth himself to be a master; for if he were a servant he would do the work of a servant, and bear witness what his Master had said. It followeth, “ But Christ as the Son is over His house.” So that, being the Son of God, who is heir of all things, He ruleth in this house as Lord and Governor, whose commandment alone doth stand. And again, being the Son of God, eternally begotten of His Father, He ever did, and shall do to the end, rule and have the sovereignty in His own house. Therefore, even as before the apostle made his exhortation, that they would consider this Apostle and High Priest of their profession, even so let us humble ourselves under this High Lord in the House of God; let us obey His voice, let us be all faithful in our calling, that before Him we may have a good account, especially the minister, that he will be a faithful servant, keeping his fellowship in the Church of God, and bearing witness of all that the Lord hath spoken. (E. Deering, B. D.) Christ and Moses Every word here is an echo of something going before, and is instinct with persuasive virtue. “ Brethren” of Him who in a fraternal spirit identified Himself with the unholy, and for their sakes took flesh and tasted death. “ Holy,” at least in standing, in virtue of the priestly action of the Sanctifier; and because holy in this sense, under obligation to make their consecration to God a reality by living a truly Christian life. “ Partakers of a heavenly calling” --thus described, at once with truth and with rhetorical skill, with a backward glance at the greatness of the Christian’ s hope as the destined lord of the future world, and with a mental reference to the contrast between that glorious prospect and the present state of believers as partakers of flesh and blood, and subject to death and the fear thereof; reminding them at the same time of the blessed truth that as Christ became partaker of their present lot, so they were destined to be partakers of His glorious inheritance, the unity and fellowship between Him and His people being on both sides perfect and complete. The titles here ascribed to Jesus also arise out of the previous context, and are full of significance. Specially noteworthy is the former of the two, “ Apostle,” here only applied to Christ. The basis for the title is such a text as Exodus 3:10 : “ Come now therefore, and I will send thee [ἀποστείλω, Sept.] unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” Moses was an apostle, as one sent by God on the important mission of leading the enslaved race of Israel out of Egypt into Canaan. Christ was our Apostle, as one sent by God to be the Leader in the great salvation. The Apostle of our Christian confession and the “ Captain of salvation” are synonymous designations. “ Consider the Apostle” means, consider for practical purposes a subject already sufficiently understood; “ consider the High Priest” means, consider the doctrine of Christ’ s priesthood, that ye may first understand it and then prove its practical value. Christ the Apostle is the immediate subject of contemplation. That aspect is in view throughout the third and fourth chapters, the priestly aspect being presented at the close of the latter, as an introduction to the long discussion which commences with the fifth chapter and extends to the tenth. “ Consider the Apostle of our confession” is the rubric of this new section. To guide consideration, a point of view is suggested congruous to the practical aim. The aim being to promote steadfastness in the Christian faith and life, the selected point of view is the fidelity of Jesus our Apostle. God made Jesus by giving Him His unique place in the world’ s history, as the chief agent in the work of redemption. And Jesus was faithful to God by discharging faithfully the high duties entrusted to Him. What the Hebrews are invited to do, therefore, is to consider Jesus as the faithful Captain of salvation, who never betrayed His trust, shirked His responsibilities, or neglected duty to escape personal suffering, and who at the last great crisis said, “ Not My will, but Thine be done.” For of course the theatre in which Christ’ s fidelity was displayed was His earthly life of trial and temptation. He has already held up Jesus as Priest, as one who is faithful to the interests of those for whom He transacts before God, and therefore entitled to their confidence. The two views supplement each other, and complete the picture of the Faithful One. Faithful as Priest to men in virtue of sympathies learned on earth, faithful as Apostle to God in the execution of the arduous mission on which He was sent to the world; in the one aspect inspiring trust, in the other exciting admiration and inciting to imitation. The following comparison between Christ and Moses at once serves the general end of the Epistle by contributing to the proof of the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, and the special end of the present exhortation by affording the opportunity of extracting wholesome lessons from the fate of the people whom Moses led out of Egypt. In doing this, he simply does justice to the familiar historical record of the Jewish hero’ s life, and to God’ s own testimony borne on a memorable occasion, the substance of which he repeats in the words, “ as also Moses [was faithful] in His house.” “ My servant Moses, faithful in all My house, he,” God had said emphatically, to silence murmuring against him on the part of his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam. He lays hold of the suggestive words “ house” and “ servant,” and turns them to account for his purpose, saying in effect, “ Moses was as faithful as any servant in a house can be: still he was only a servant, while He of whom I now speak was not a mere servant in the house, but a Son; and that makes all the difference.” Verses 3 to 6 are substantially just the working out of this thought. But it may be asked, the subject of comparison being the respective fidelities of the two apostles, is not a reference to their positions irrelevant? What does it matter whether Moses was son or servant, if he was faithful in all God’ s house, in all parts of his work as the leader of Israel? If one were comparing two commanders in respect of bravery and military genius, would it not be an irrelevance to say of one of them, he was the better man, for he was the king’ s son? The question is pertinent, but it admits of a satisfactory answer. Reference to the superior dignity of Christ is relevant, if His position as Son tended to enhance His fidelity. That it did the writer doubtless meant to suggest. Farther on we find him saying. “ Though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience.” Similarly he says here in effect: “ Christ, though a Son, was faithful to His vocation amid trial.” It is a just thought. Beyond doubt we have in Christ as Son a more sublime moral spectacle of fidelity than in any ordinary man called to play a great and responsible part in history. To the fidelities which He has in common with other men, the Son adds this other: resolute resistance to the temptation to use His sonship as an excuse for declining arduous heroic tasks. But there is more than this to be said. The reference to the dignity of Christ looks beyond the immediate parenetic purpose to the ultimate aim of the whole Epistle It is designed to insinuate the great truth that Christianity is the absolute, eternal religion. This idea casts its shadow on the page at three different points 1. In the contrast between Moses and Jesus as respectively servant and Son. 2. In the representation of the Ministry of Moses as being for a testimony of things to be spoken afterwards (Hebrews 3:5). 3. In the representation of Christians as pre-eminently though not exclusively God’ s, Christ’ s, house (Hebrews 3:6). The assertion manifestly implies the transiency of the Mosaic system. It suggests the thought that the house aa it stood m the time of Moses was but a rude, temporary model of the true, eternal house of God; good enough to furnish shelter from the elements, so to speak, but unfit to be the everlasting dwelling place of the children of the Most High, therefore destined to be superseded by a more glorious structure, having the Spirit of God for its architect, which should be to the old fabric as was the “ magnifical” temple of Solomon to the puny tabernacle in the wilderness. At Hebrews 3:6 transition is naturally made from Moses to the lessons of the wilderness life of Israel. The writer is haunted by the fear lest the tragic fate of the generation of the Exodus should be repeated in the experience of the Hebrew Christians. He hopes that the powerful motives arising out of the truths he has stated may bring about a better result. But he cannot hide from himself that another issue is possible. For the future fortunes of Christianity he has no anxiety; he is firmly persuaded that it will prosper, though the Hebrew Church, or even the whole Hebrew nation, should perish. That fatal catastrophe he dreads; therefore with great solemnity he proceeds to represent retention of their position in the house of God as conditional: “ Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the boasting of the hope.” (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Faithful services What God requires is faithfulness to that which He has entrusted to us. A poor man is responsible for the little of his poverty, and sins if he withhold his mite. The Church needs the gifts of the poor; the gifts of the industrial and labouring classes. She needs the influence of those who think they have no influence. She needs the sympathies and prayers of those who can only stammer out of their sin-burdened hearts, “ God be merciful to me a sinner.” The most fertile summer showers are composed of unpretending little drops. Water-spouts are farless beneficial than the steady, soaking, noiseless rain. Importance of fidelity in the Christian life Though in the life and character of Moses there are many striking excellencies, the faithfulness of Moses is the feature on which the apostle dwells. It is, indeed, the most important feature in our character as servants of God. And well were it for us if we laid more stress on faithfulness, and thought less of gifts and talents, or of success and results. For while it belongs to God to appoint unto each of us severally our positions, to distribute gifts according to His wisdom, and to reward us with results hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold, it belongs to us to be faithful to God wherever He has placed us, and in the gift and task which His love assigns. We see the summary and result of the true disciple’ s life in the decisive words of the Master (Matthew 25:21). (A. Saphir.) Moses and the Jews More than Luther is to Germany, more than Napoleon is to France, more than Alfred, or Elizabeth, or Cromwell, or William III. is to England, Moses was to the Jewish people--prophet, patriot, warrior, lawgiver, all in one. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) A faithful mother The Bishop of Machester was giving the prizes one day to the scholars, in a school with which he is connected. A large number of the parents and friends of the scholars were present. They all knew and loved the bishop, as a good, and learned, and very useful man. In the midst of their exercises, as he stood surrounded by the scholars, the good bishop was led to speak of his mother. “ She was a widow,” said he, “ with some children to support and educate. God helped her to be faithful. She sacrificed her own ease and comfort for the good of her children. Her home was a poor one. She had to struggle hard for our support. But she managed to make that home the brightest and the happiest place to us. Her children through her faithful efforts have since risen to positions of honour and usefulness, where they are helping to make the world better. She is now,” said the bishop, and here his voice was broken with deep feeling--“ She is now living in my house, paralysed, speechless, helpless, but every time I look at her dear face, I thank God for giving me such a mother. All that I am, and all that I have I owe to her.” Faithful to duty In the terrible April gale of 1851, the lighthouse on Minor’ s Ledge, near Boston, was destroyed. Two men were in it at the time, and a vast multitude were gathered upon the shore, waiting in anxious distress for the expected catastrophe. Every hour, however, the bell tolled the time, and ever the light pierced the dark rating storm, and bid the sailor beware. No howling blast could silence the one nor rising wave extinguish the other. At last one giant wave, mightier than the rest, rose up and threw its arms around the tower, and laid it low in the waves. Then alone was the bell silent, then alone did the light cease to shine. (J. M.Reid.) Hebrews 3:3-6 He that hath built all things is God Divine socialism 1. “ He that built all things is God.” He began in the undated past, and He keeps on in sundry ways and with diverse materials from generation to generation. To-day is built up out of yesterday and all its predecessors, and the vast and prolific morrow will be constructed out of the incomprehensible and mighty to-day. 2. “ Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He who hath made us and not we ourselves.” “ We are His workmanship,” created of old, with a body that is a finely built machine, opulent in resources, and apt for our uses; with a mind of surprising capacities; perception and reason, memory and conscience, hope and trust, reverence and love, and above all with a spirit that links us with the Infinite, makes us susceptible of being “ created anew in Christ Jesus,” after the type of His holy life. The home is His work, built as the primary institution for choking in the germ the destructive self-seeking of the human race, and developing that love which forgets self, considers all, and creates an atmosphere of domestic and social ozone that refreshes and exhilarates everybody who breathes it. 3. But God’ s supreme building work goes very far beyond that unit of civilisation, the home, and seeks to construct out of the individuals of which the world is composed one vast moral commonwealth, a spiritual republic, a divine “ house,” in which selfishness shall be killed outright, and God and freedom, righteousness and love, reign for ever and ever; a “ house” with servants like Moses, sons like Jesus, faithful in all things; a free, aggressive, and holy spiritual community; a perfect form of society, into which nothing enters that defiles, or makes a lie. This is the Divine ideal, the sum and crown of the long and patient labours of God upon men, the image and pattern of the things, towards the realisation of which all the pulling down and plucking up of nations, and states, and churches, and all the reconstructing of systems and societies, stedfastly and assuredly tend. 4. “ Whose house are we” --we Hebrews recently become followers of Jesus, but not the less belonging to God’ s building; for He goes forward amid the wreck of systems, the sacking of Jerusalem, with unbroken persistence, calm and sure, though not swift, towards the eternally pre-ordained top-stone. The fires of God (Hebrews 12:29) sweep through the structure with a fierce and cleansing blast, not a grain of gold is lost; but lo! here I an ampler edifice, on a wider foundation, richer in its architectural beauty, rises into sight as the dwelling-place of the sons of men. 5. Whence it follows, if you are able to hear it, that in the truest sense God is the first Socialist the Author of that gospel which has done more to create motive and inspire practical enthusiasm for the real welfare of men, than all other systems and agencies and persons put together. 6. Two workers of unapproachable greatness stand out with decisive significance as social creators and organisers. Many builders have done excellently, hut Moses, a faithful servant in the house of the Father, and Jesus, a faithful Son, have excelled them all. The making of Israel was in the hands of Moses. The making “ of all things new” is the work of Christ. 7. Moses, indeed, was faithful in all His house as a servant, and built up, as Ewald says, “ for the first time in all human history a whole nation, prepared to put itself under obligation to live hereafter only in accordance with true religion and her requirements, and to look for salvation in all time to come only from loyalty in its religious life, and the love of the true God, which this loyalty pre-supposes.” Better foundation than that can no man lay--God, freedom, righteousness, love; and on every part of it is prophetically written the name of the coming Christ. 8. But the chief purpose of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is to show that Christ is a greater Builder than Moses. In what, then, was Jesus greater than Moses? In the basis on which He built? No: for both built on the same. In the spirit in which He did His work? No; for both could say, ‘“ It is my meat to do the will of my Father, and to finish His work.” In fidelity to His trust? Yes; but this is not in the writer’ s mind: but rather the fact that Christ proves Himself to be nearer the founts and sources of spiritual power. (1) Did Moses speak of a “ definite Deity” ? Christ’ s view of God as the Father and Saviour of all men, and of all alike, is the fullest gospel men have yet seen, and makes the amplest provision for all the needs of the individual and social life of mankind. (2) Did Moses build on the heights of freedom? Christ much more! It is to His incarnation and sacrifice we owe the knowledge of the unutterable worth of one soul, the marvellous possibilities of one corrupted and lost human being! From him comes the impulse to liberty. (3) Is Moses a legislator? so also is Christ. He did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fill out and realise their plan; not to demolish their often-dropped ideal, but to take it up and embody it in the life of men. He leads to higher ways of action; to patience, forbearance, forgiveness and self-devotion, for the sake of the weakest and worst; and what men could not do or suffer under “ the law” they accomplish with ease and grace under the gospel. (4) Since Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, is greater than Moses the servant of God, in that He furnishes the one thing that was lacking, viz., motive-power; and furnishes it on a scale of limitless magnitude, and with a fitness for human need that leaves nothing to desire, “ let us hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope to the end,” and so prove that we are of this Divine house. God’ s commonwealth is as sure to be established as the heavens and earth are built. Only let us give His gospel free play; treat it as containing the key to all our social problems as well as to our individual uses, and it will prove itself as victorious over the difficulties of humanity as it has signally triumphed in the experience of numberless individuals. (5) But recollect, we only belong to that “ house” in so far as “ we hold fast our boldness” and do not fail in bravo deeds, in bold initiative, in courageous persistence, in the speech and work that vindicate and back our confidence. God has no room for cowards and idlers. (6) Partnership in that “ house” requires another quality, viz., that of holding fast “ the glorying of our hope,” i.e., our exulting hopefulness. “ In social things,” says John Morley, “ we may be sure undying hope is the secret of vision,” and it is also the secret of patient work. “ We are saved ‘ socially ‘ by hope.” Amid all this conflict of human passion and opinion, God’ s work of salvation and regeneration goes on, “ without haste and without rest,” towards its long since predicted consummation. (John Clifford, D. D.) The being and attributes of God proved from His works I. THIS WORLD MIGHT HAVE HAD A . There is nothing absurd in this supposition. We can easily conceive that there was a time when the heavens and earth mid not exist; and consequently that there was a time when they first came into existence. Now, if the world existed of necessity, it would be absolutely immutable, or incapable of change. II. If this world might have begun to exist, then IT MIGHT HAVE HAD A CAUSE OF ITS . Upon this principle the apostle supposes that “ every house is builded by some man,” or owes its existence to some cause. And this mode of reasoning from the effect to the cause, is perfectly agreeable to common sense. Should the greatest sceptic travel two or three hundred miles into a wild wilderness, and there discover a very ancient and elegant house, he would instantaneously draw the conclusion in his own mind that that house was built by some man. III. If the world might have had a cause, then IT MUST HAVE HAD A CAUSE. When a number of men walk in procession, they bear the relation of antecedent and consequent to each other, but not the relation of cause and effect. The motion of those who walk before is no cause of the motion of those who walk behind. The operation of our own minds gives us a clear and distinct perception of cause and effect. When we walk, we are conscious of a power to produce motion. Our idea of cause and effect is as clear and distinct as our idea of heat and cold, and is as truly correspondent to an original impression. This being established, the way is prepared to show, that if the world might have had a cause, it must have had a cause. IV. THE CAUSE WHICH THIS WORLD MUST BE EQUAL TO THE EFFECT . No cause can produce an effect superior to itself. For just so far as an effect surpasses the cause, it ceases to be an effect, and exists of itself. 1. The Creator of all things must be possessed of almighty power. This is the first attribute of the first cause which His great and marvellous works impress upon the mind. 2. The Author and Framer of the world must be supremely wise and intelligent. Mankind have always admired the beauty of the world. Uniformity amidst variety appears through every part of creation. 3. The builder and upholder of the world must be everywhere present. It is the nature of all created beings and objects to be constantly and absolutely dependent upon their Creator. 4. The Maker and Governor of the world must be a being of boundless knowledge. He must necessarily know Himself, and be intuitively acquainted with all His natural and moral perfections. And by knowing these, He must necessarily know all possibles; that is, all things which lie within the limits of omnipotence. 5. The first, supreme and intelligent Cause of all things must be eternal. To suppose the first Cause had a cause of His existence, is to suppose there was a cause before the first Cause; or to suppose He was the cause of His own existence, is to suppose that He existed and operated before He did exist; or to suppose that He came into existence without any cause, is to suppose what has been proved to be impossible. 6. The Framer of our bodies and the Father of our spirits must be a being of moral rectitude. The moral faculty of man carries in it a clear demonstration of the moral rectitude of his Maker. Besides, the whole world bears innumerable marks of the Divine goodness. Deductions: 1. If it be true that the visible world displays the being and perfections of the Deity, then all who reason themselves into atheism are guilty, of extreme folly. 2. If there be a being of supreme power and intelligence, who is the Creator and Proprietor of the world, then there is great reason to think that He will dispose of all things to His own glory. 3. If there be a being who hath made us, and who will absolutely dispose of us, then it is very desirable to receive a revelation of His will. 4. It there be a God who is possessed of every natural and moral perfection, then it is fruitless for those who believe and acknowledge His existence to deny the divinity of the Scriptures in order to get rid of their disagreeable doctrines. 5. If there be a God, then all His reasonable creatures are bound to be religious. Our capacity to know God obliges us to glorify Him as God. (N. Emmons, D. D.) God in History There is a God in history. The undevout historian, like the undevout astronomer, is mad. Every house is built by some one, but He that built all things is God. There is a house, a structure that fills the ages, its foundations laid millenniums ago. Great events are like columns in their structure, like arches, like graceful pinnacles, and a glorious dome shall complete it by and by. And it must be a fool that can look on the structure of history, with all its marvellous adjustments and adaptations, its many and varied apartments, its evidence of architecture, symmetry, and beauty, and say there is no Architect in history. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Christ as a Son over His own house Christ the Lord, and Moses the servant To speak of Moses to the Jews was always a very difficult and delicate matter. It is hardly possible for Gentiles to understand or realise the veneration with which the Jews regard Moses, the servant of God, Think of the history of Moses. It was wonderful from the very commencement. His whole life was a sacrifice of love and of obedience to the God of His fathers Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; a life of self-denial and affection to the people of his choice. Look at his peculiar position. He was mediator of the covenant, the ambassador (apostle) and plenipotentiary (as it were) of God. All God’ s dealings with Israel were transacted through him. Look, again, at the work Moses accomplished; at the great things which the grace of God performed through him. Through him God brought Israel out of Egypt, and led them through the Red Sea; He gave the ten commandments and the whole law b v him; by him the whole national life of Israel was organised. But after admitting fully the excellence of Moses, the apostle proceeds to show the still greater glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It must have struck you that in many respects Moses was a type of Jesus. But yet, what a difference! The zeal of Moses was not free from earth-born elements, and had to be purified. But there was nothing in Jesus that was of the earth earthy; no sinful weakness of the flesh was in Him who condescended to come in the likeness of sinful flesh. But notice the imperfection of Moses as a servant. How different was Jesus! He declared the full, perfect, and free love of God. The house, the building, means the children of God, who by faith, as lively stones, are built upon Christ Jesus the Foundation, and who are filled with the Holy Ghost; in whom God dwells, as in His temple, and in whom God is praised and manifested in glory. A Christian is like the tabernacle; he is a sanctuary. There is the holy of holies, the holy place, and the outer court. But in all the glory of God is to be revealed; the holiness of God to be shown forth. His body is the Lord’ s; the members of his body are Christ’ s members. God is to walk in it, to dwell in it, to rest in it. He is to be not merely a visitor, but an indwelling guest, “ abiding in him.” How manifold are the mansions in which He dwells! As there are many mansions in the Father’ s house above, as there are many mansions in His Church below, so also are there many rooms in the spiritual house of the individual believer; in various manifestations of grace, strength, and love, does God dwell in us. But the apostle adds-shall I call it a condition? shall I call it an encouragement? “ If you hold fast the confidence and the rejoining of your hope unto the end.” And with the exhortation is the word of promise: “ Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” “ They that trust in the Lord shall be like Mount Sion, which cannot be moved, but standeth fast for ever.” Oh, blessed word and promise of God, that He will keep us unto the end I “ Hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end.” Faith is the mother of Hope; but how often is the mother strengthened and cheered by the daughter! Cherish the hope which in Christ Jesus is given unto you who believe in the Saviour. (A. Saphir.) Christ as a Son over His own house I. AS A SON OVER HIS OWN HOUSE, CHRIST THE OF . II. CHRIST AS A SON OVER HIS OWN HOUSE IS ITS ONLY . III. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS A SON OVER HIS OWN HOUSE HAS FOR IT THE GIFTS AND THE GRACES OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT. 1. During His personal ministry, our Lord instructed “ His own house” in the things which pertained to the kingdom of God. As the Prophet of the Church, He made known the whole counsel of God for the obedience of faith. 2. Our Lord was, moreover, even in His estate of humiliation, “ a Son over His own house,” as its Sovereign from whom emanate all the laws which regulate both its internal economy and “ the outward business of the house of God.” 3. Christ is no longer visibly present in that house over which He presides as a Son. “ The heavens must retain Him until the times of the restitution of all things.” Still, He is truly and ever present by His Spirit, whom He sends forth in every age to carry forward many of the sublime designs of His mission into the world. (John Smyth, D. D.) The spiritual house I. First of all, THE HOUSE? WHAT HOUSE IS THIS? “ Whose house are we.” It is a house composed of all true believers. It is a spiritual edifice. Only look at the contrast; the house of bondage and the house of light and liberty; the former under Moses as a servant, and yet a master--the latter under Jesus the Son, and He also the Master. Oh I what a precious truth it is, that the believer passes from the one to the other. II. Now, let us THE PROOF THE TEXT GIVES TO US WHEREBY A MAN MAY KNOW WHETHER HE REALLY BELONGS TO THIS . It does not say, “ If you hold fast your confidence and the rejoicing of the hope,” you shall belong to this house; but it says, “ Whose house we are” if we do so and so. That is the proof of my being a member of that house. Observe here the contrast is not between belonging to the house of Christ and no house. Observe, it is not between having religion and no religion. It does not say, “ If you have confidence, and if you have hope, you prove that you are religious, as contrasted with those who have no religion” ; but you prove that you belong to the house of Christ, as contrasted with the house of Moses. That shows us that whatever a man may say about his religion, yet if he has not confidence, he has gone back to the Mosaic dispensation. Now I do say to you, this house of Christ, as contrasted with the house of Moses, is a glorious house. It has no parallel in the universe. There is nothing like the household of God, belonging to Christ; even angelic intelligences, though a part of that household, are eventually not to be compared to the members of Christ’ s household. The believer is brought into such a union with God’ s own Son, as communicates to him a blessedness unknown to any other creature. Even now, look at the wonderful privileges to which believers are called--fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and Community of nature with Christ; Christ having humanity, we having the Divine nature! Only conceive what is held out to us--the glorious promise that we shall behold the glory that He had with the Father before the world was! The apostle says, “ whose house are we, if we hold this fast” ; if this is manifest in our feelings and deportment. We must get that kind of confidence that neither hell nor earth can shake, and that is to be got by implicit trust in the promises of the Lord. So again the expectation: you are to hold fast the confidence “ and the rejoicing of the hope.” What hope? That He will come again; “ the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ” ; that is the hope. There is a rejoicing of common expectation; but the expectation of the Christian must be definite. Let me give you two or three important practical rules for retaining this confidence and hope. 1. First of all, thoroughly understand the relationship into which you enter when you enter the house of Christ. Understand thoroughly your relation to God the Father. It is in proportion as you see that, together with your relationship to the Son and Holy Ghost, that you feel confidence that you shall hold fast. Feel this: if God be my Farther, will He give me a stone if I ask Him for bread? Certainly not. Then how much more will He not give me His own Spirit if Christ be my own Saviour? Will He withhold the robe of righteousness in which I may stand before Him? Certainly not, if Christ died that I might have it. If the Holy Ghost be an indweller of my soul, will He quit me? Certainly not. 2. Then another thing bear in mind that you should hold fast; that this work is the work of the Holy Ghost, through whatever instrumentality the Holy Ghost may operate on you. Learn, therefore, to exercise an unqualified dependence on the Holy Ghost. While you are using every possible means, learn to be always dependent on the Holy Ghost, as completely as though you did nothing, at the same time remembering that the Holy Ghost does work by means. 3. Another thing: remember that the path of duty is the path in which all these things are met with and enjoyed. (C. Molyneux, M. A.) The Church Christ’ s house No less power was requisite to make the Church than to make the world. The world was made out of nothing, the Church made out of materials altogether unfit for such a building. Christ, who is God, drew the platform of the Church, provided the materials, and by almighty power disposed them to receive the reform. He has compacted and united this His house, and has settled the orders of it, and crowned all with His own presence, which is the true glory of this house of God. (M. Henry.) Christ in relation to the true Church I. HE OWNS IT. 1. This proprietorship is founded on His creative work. 2. His redemptive work. II. HE IT. 1. As a permanent Resident. 2. As a hospitable Host. 3. As A Master. (Homilist.) Whose house are weChristians are God’ s house What a singular honour is this, that we should be God’ s house--yea, His dwelling-house. I. A nobleman hath many houses, which he dwells not in himself, but letteth them forth to other men. We are not houses to let, but God Himself dwelleth in us; we are His mansion-house. It pleaseth Him of His infinite mercy to dwell in such base houses as we are. 2. If God dwell in us, and we be His house, then bow neat and handsome should it be kept. Shall a king’ s house be overgrown with weeds Shall there be filthy corners in a king’ s palace? And shall we that profess ourselves to be God’ s house he full of pride, envy, and malice? The devil found his house swept and garnished to his mind, and shall not God’ s house be swept for the entertaining of Him? Let us garnish ourselves, which are God’ s house, with the sweet flowers of faith, love, hope, zeal, humility, temperance, patience, sobriety, that God may take delight to dwell in us. 3. There is no man, especially if he dwell in a house, and it be his own, but will bestow needful reparations on it; and do you think God will suffer His house to lie unrepaired? Nay, being God’ s house, we shall want nothing for soul or body. If we decay in faith, zeal, and other graces of His Spirit, He will in due season repair them again; He will keep His house wind-tight and water-tight; He will preserve it from wind and weather--yea, the gates of hell shall never prevail against His house. 4. A man may have a house and be defeated of it: some wrangling lawyer may wring it out of his hand, or he may be weary of his house, and make it away. None can snatch God’ s house out of His hand; He is no changeling; He will keep His house for ever. What? are we the house of God simply? Live as we list, and do what we will? No, verily; but if we hold fast the confidence, &c. One special quality of a good house is to be firm and stable. If it be a tottering house, ready to shake in every wind and tempest, a man will have small joy to dwell in it; even so, we that be the house of God Almighty must not be wavering and inconstant, but we must stand sure, and hold fast the graces we have received. There be two things which we must hold fast: faith and hope; the boldness that we have by faith to come into the presence of God, to whom we have access by Christ, apprehended by faith, and by virtue whereof we may boldly call God Father, and open our minds freely to Him--that is the nature of the word. (W. Jones, D. D.) Of those who are the house of Christ This pronoun (we) may be taken two ways 1. Jointly, for the whole Catholic Church, which is the society of all that ever did or shall believe in Jesus Christ. 2. Distinctly, for every particular believer. For the body of a particular professor is said to be the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19). Fitly are saints styled a house. For 1. As stones and timber, they are brought together and fitly laid, and that for God to dwell among them (2 Corinthians 6:16). 2. As a house is set upon a foundation (Luke 6:48), so are saints built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone (Ephesians 2:20). 3. As Solomon’ s temple was beautified and adorned with silver, gold, variety of pictures, and other ornaments (2 Chronicles 3:4; 1 Kings 6:29), so saints are decked and adorned with the various graces of God s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). 4. As a house inhabited hath a governor over them, so the society of saints have one over them who is called the Master of the house (Matthew 10:25). 5. As in a house there is a household which consisteth of children, servants, and others, so in the Church of God (Matthew 15:26; Luke 11:7). 6. As in a great house there are variety of officers, so in the Church there are stewards, ministers, and others (2 Corinthians 12:28). 7. As in a house all needful provision useth to be stored up, so in this house of Christ there is bread of life, water of life, and needful food and refreshing. Singular comforts must needs hence arise to those that are parts and members of this house; and that by reason of 1. The sure foundation whereon it is settled (1 Corinthians 3:11). 2. The fast knitting of the parts of the house together Ephesians 2:21). 3. The excellent ornaments thereof, which are the glorious graces of God’ s Spirit, 4. The good laws and constitutions for better governing the same, being all contained in the Word of God. 5. The wise Governor thereof. 6. The excellent household. 7. The useful offices in it. 8. The variety and sufficiency of provisions appertaining thereto. That which is expected of such as are of this house Isaiah 1. That they cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18). Otherwise this house of Christ may prove the devil’ s stye. 2. That they deck and adorn themselves with the graces of God’ s Spirit Colossians 3:12). 3. That they be subject to their Governor, and to the good orders that He establisheth among them. 4. That they be content with the place and portion which the Master of the household allots unto them. 5. That they maintain unity amongst themselves; for a house divided against itself shall not stand (Matthew 12:25). (W. Gouge.) If we hold fast the confidence This conditional speech importeth 1. That some professors in the visible Church may make defection, and not persevere to the end. 2. That such as shall make final defection hereafter are not a part of God’ s house for the present, howsoever they be esteemed. 3. That true believers must take warning, from the possibility of some professors’ apostasy, to look the better to themselves, and to take a better gripe of Christ, who is able to keep them. 4. That true believers both may and should hold fast their confidence unto the end; yea, and must aim to do so, if they would persevere. 5. That true believers have ground and warrant, in the promises of the gospel, both to hope for salvation, and to rejoice and glory in that hope, as if it were present possession. 6. That the more a man aimeth at this solid confidence and gloriation of hope, the more evidence he giveth that he is of the true house of God. (D. Dickson, M. A.) Holding fast The word which is rendered “ confidence” in this verse is not the same as that which appears in other places in the same chapter. “ We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end,” says the fourteenth verse. “ We are His house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” The two things are substantially the same, and yet there is a shade of difference in the meaning of each of them. The word in my text translated “ confidence” literally means “ frank speech” saying everything is literally the rendering of the expression. And the thought is just this, when you are upon terms of perfect confidence with anybody, as we say, we “ know him,” or “ I can say anything I like to him.” And that is the sort of thing this writer enjoins as the essential of the Christian man’ s relationship to God. Two friends, two lovers, a parent and a child, that understand each other, it does not matter much what they are talking about; anything will serve, because each knows that down to the very bottom of the other heart it is joy to that other heart to make itself manifest. But if there be the slightest tinge of distrust or alienation, like a sensitive plant, the leaves all fold themselves together, and so shut themselves up, and constraining silence comes. So, says my text, this marks the true relation to God, that there is such perfect trust that there is perfect frankness. And so you get, you know, such other words as these in this same Epistle, about “ having access with confidence,” about “ coming boldly to the Throne of grace,” and the like, all of them carrying the same suggestion of intimacy. Hold fast the frank speech, which is a child of trust, and the trust which is the parent of the frank speech. And my text gives us a practical hint when it calls this temper and disposition the confidence of hope. It is precisely in the measure in which we cherish the Christian hope with regard to that future--that guilt, and with guilt anxiety, and with anxiety fear, being all doneaway with, there comes this full and free communication. The child that doubts the father’ s favour, and is conscious of its own faults, sulks in the corner and says nothing. The child that is sure of its Father’ s forgiveness, and is conscious of its own faults, has no rest till it tells its faults. And so the frankness which comes of confidence is based upon that assurance which covers all the future with a great light of hope, and all the past with a great light of pardon and oblivion. And then the other side of this disposition is conveyed by that other significant word, “ Hold fast,” not only the confidence, but the “ glorying,” which is more nearly the meaning of the word than the “ rejoicing” of our version, the “ glorying,” which likewise is the fruit of hope. Now, this “ glorying” does not mean an act of glorying, but it means the subject matter, or the occasion. That is to say, it does not describe a man’ s disposition or notion, but it describes something outside of him, which excites that emotion, and on which it is fixed. So you see my text has two horns to it, as it were; the one lays hold of something in me, and says to me, “ You see to it that you hold fast your confidence,” and the other points to something without me, and says, “ In order that you may see that you keep hold of the thing which entitles you to rejoice, to triumph, to glory, to boast yourselves.” That is to say, we have here set forth the great facts of the gospel, all gathered up into that one word, the matter for our boasting, and that boasting which is no self-complacent bragging of our own strength, but a certain triumphant exultation in a thing that lies outside of us, and with which we have nothing to do but accept it, that glorying, the confidence of which I have been speaking, is, in a certain sense, the child of hope. For the more we are familiar with the great issues to which God is leading us, if we will, the more we shall keep firm hold of the ground for rejoicing and triumph which lies in the message of His love. And all life with all its bitterness, with its changes, and defeats, and sorrows, it will all, smitten, as it were, into beauty by this light of the future that falls upon it, it too will all become material for triumph, for exultation, for gladness. And now let me say a word as to the effort that is required to keep this hold of which my text speaks. The word is a very vivid and very natural one, the metaphor strong but most familiar, the grasp of a muscular hand which tightens itself round something that it will not part with, is set before us as the analogue to which our Christian disposition and temper is to be conformed. And so we come just to these two practical advices--“ Hold fast the inward emotion; and hold fast the outward Object upon which it rests.” How do you hold fast an inward emotion? How call we stereotype and make permanent the flowing currents of our inward life? Perhaps not absolutely is it possible for us to do so. All emotion is evanescent. Well then, swiftly renew it as it dies. The carbon points in the electric lamp burn away with tremendous rapidity, but there is a little mechanical action behind them which keeps pushing them forward with proportionate swiftness, so that there is always a fresh surface presented to be consumed and to be illuminated. And so you and I can do, day by day renewing the temper which day by day is dropping away, as it were, burnt out, we can cultivate the habit of frank speech to God. If you want to hold fast your confidence, cultivate as you can the habit of coming near to God, and telling Him everything. And that we may, let us beware of dropping into the evils which certainly will break that communion and will darken that confidence. For no man will be on frank terms with God that has not got coiled in his heart some evil which he knows to be a devil, and yet will not cast out. And then, on the other hand, as we have to cultivate the inward emotion, so we have to cultivate our firm grasp of the outward thing, the material and ground of our glorying and of our hope. All muscular effort tends to relaxation. That is to say, if a man lays hold of a rope ever so tightly, unless there is a continual renewal of the muscular impulse the grasp will slacken by degrees. There are three ways by which you lose your hold of God’ s truth. Some of you let it be dragged out of your hands by violence; some of you let it drop out of your hands by carelessness; and some of you fling it away out of your hands because you want to clutch something else. And so for all three ways by which men lose their Christianity here comes the exhortation: hold fast the ground of your glorying, and keep a tight grip of Jesus Christ. Those whose slack hands let Him go generally open their hands a finger at a time, or a joint at a time, and do not know what they are doing until the palm is open and empty. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Marks of the Church of God Here the apostle setteth down three especial marks by which the children of God are known: the first is the joy of their hope; the second, the assurance of it; the third, the constancy and perseverance unto the end. And let us not think but that God hath done thus with us, whom He hath chosen to eternal life. He hath prepared our hearts to know and feel His unspeakable gift which He hath given us; for if we should bestow any gift upon men, we are not so unwise to give a precious thing unto him that knows not what it is; we would not give him a diamond that would think it to be a piece of glass, nor we would not give him a pearl that would think it to be a grain of salt, for we should lose both our labour and our thanks. And shall we think the Lord will so bestow His heavenly blessings? Will He give His gifts to those that know them not, who cannot give Him again the praise of His goodness? No, He will never do it; but, as Peter saith, He hath taken us for His own people to the end we should show forth His virtues that hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light; and therefore, if we be in the covenant of His grace, appointed to the inheritance of His glory, it is impossible we should not feel the comfort of it, and know the height and breadth of His great mercy and grace. Another thing here to be learned, if we will know ourselves to be this house and Church of God, is, that as we hold this hope, so we must hold it steadfast and without wavering unto the end, for so, the apostle saith, we must have steadfast assurance of our hope; he calleth it in the sixth chapter “ a frill persuasion of hope.” St. Paul calleth it his intentive hope, a hope in which he shall never be frustrate. So that this assurance is in a true and living hope, and it casteth out mistrust and wavering, even as faith doth, for faith and hope cannot be separate, neither in nature nor property; but if you have faith, you have hope, and as your faith is, so is your hope--a sure faith, a lively hope; a wavering faith, a blind hope; for our faith is a persuasion of the love of God in Christ, and our hope is an apprehension of the glory which by that love is given unto us. It cannot be that we should know the love and grace of God, which is our faith, but we must know the fruit of His love, that is, His glory and eternal life, which is our hope; if therefore we be sure that God doth love us in Jesus Christ, we are also sure that God will glorify us through Jesus Christ; and as our faith rejoiceth in God’ s favour, so our hope rejoiceth in God’ s glory; and as our faith is sure that nothing shall separate the love of God from us, so our hope longeth after the incorruptible inheritance which we feel and know is laid up in heaven. So this constancy and boldness of our hope, without wavering, laid up in our breasts, and crying still within us, “ Come, Lord Jesu,” this hope is our warrant we be the house of God. Now, the third thing which we must here mark for our instruction is perseverance, for so he saith, “ We must hold our rejoicing continual unto the end.” A most necessary thing, and such as without which all our labour is lost, but a thing hard to attain unto, know it by the experience of it, for scarce one of a great many doth grow up into fervency of zeal and so continueth unto the end. And therefore the more danger is unto us in this behalf, the more watchful we must be to avoid the peril. The greatest enemy we have to make us fall, that we should not hold this constancy to the end, is our own flesh. And if it may have any rule in this work we are undone, for flesh will like of nothing long. Even as Solomon saith, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; but be the tune never so sweet, at last we desire another. (E. Deering, B. D.) The nature and advantages of the believer’ s confidence I. ON WHAT THE AND OF THIS FEELING OF DEPENDS, It depends on a continued realisation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great object of our faith, and an enlargement of our views concerning His glory and excellency. No desire or resoluteness on our part to retain the sentiment of confidence will avail, without presentation to the mind of the object by which it is excited (see Hebrews 3:1-2). In the construction of this sentence, as well as in what follows, it is remarkable how the inspired writer always keeps in view the connection of those whom he addresses with Him of whom He speaks. Is He an Apostle or High Priest?--it is “ of our profession.” Is He a Son over His own house?--it is added, “ whose house are we.” This appropriation of Him to usgives us a peculiar interest in all that is said of Him. II. THE OF THIS FEELING OF AS THE MORAL GOOD OF THE SOUR. Whilst the great question of our peace with God remains undecided, the prevailing motive under which any religious effort can be put forth is fear; itself not the legitimate motive, but leagued as it must be with the paralysing influence of uncertainty on so momentous a concern, it can have no steady or permanent efficacy in producing efforts for good. Therefore, the apostle says, “ Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption.” Unquestionably a spirit of fear is not a spirit of power; and those moralists who expect great results by exciting fear in the minds of men must be disappointed; it is as if a general should expect to achieve a great victory by filling the minds of his soldiers with fear when entering on the contest. We know how easy, and in many cases how successful, an enterprise is made by having the mind supported by confidence in matters of this world; the same principle holds in religion, that a spirit of confidence in God is a spirit of power for enduring and accomplishing what His holy will requires. There is, no doubt, a material difference between the confidence of the men ,,f this world, connected as it is with high self-estimation, and leading to presumption and insolence which often defeat itself, and that confidence of the believer in God, which is connected with the lowest estimate of himself, and with the most entire meekness and humiliation of spirit, and which is seen, as often exercised in the patient endurance of reproaches and trials, as in the strenuousness of the soul for religious objects. But as human nature is constituted, peace of mind, with the hope of support, and enterprise, and success from God, all entering into the idea of a believer’ s confidence, give him a spirit of power in the great undertaking of his soul’ s salvation, by which he pursues a resistless course, utterly unknown to minds under the vacillating influence of uncertainty and fear--difficulties yield, and enemies are repelled before him; and there is a moral influence and dignity in his character to which the consciences of others give the secret homage due to power. But the main strength of the feeling of confidence towards God which faith begets consists in its exciting love to God, which is the great legitimate principle of moral obedience. Farther, the effect upon the understanding is no less striking or deserving of notice in forming an estimate of the moral efficacy of believing confidence in the truth of God. The apostle says that God hath given us “ the spirit of a sound mind,” by which we are certainly to understand a greater degree of rationality, and of the influence of our reason on our heart and habits. It is easy to account for uncultivated men becoming intellectual, by having their minds strongly excited by the weight of an eternal interest to study, and reason from day to night upon the most profound of all subjects. And it is no less easy to determine why intellectual irreligious men cannot reason soundly upon religion--they have not been impelled to inquiry by the same pressure; they have not learned the views nor imbibed the principles which would enable them to reason, either with sense or safety, on this momentous subject. It is not the mere exercise of the understanding, but the nature of the subjects about which it is conversant, that gives it force as a moral engine, the greatest metaphysician may be completely outdone in judging of matters of common life by a man of plain common sense, and in matters connected with the soul’ s salvation his judgment may be completely outdone by a plain Bible Christian. But even when the mind has been employed with the utmost attention on the truth, and comes to its conclusions, their efficacy is small and unabiding until the confidence of faith in the Divine testimony becomes a fixed sentiment in the mind. A conclusion depending on a process of reasoning may strongly impress us whilst we retain the recollection of the process by which we arrived at it; but when that is lost, its impression is weak, and utterly fails before an opposing temptation. How often is it the case with men that they feel little confidence in their own conclusions, however legitimately they may appear to have arrived at them, unless they are fortified by the concurring opinions of those who are reputed wise. This observation leads to the conclusion to which we desire you to come on this subject--that it is not the mere cultivation of the faculty of reason, nor its exercise on the appropriate subjects, that give it real force and steadiness for habitually influencing our moral character, but the distinct apprehension of the Divine testimony concurring with and sanctioning the different positions to which the mind has assented. Reason and faith in the Christian are closely allied in that exercise, for though the Christian must, on the testimony of God, receive some things as true which are above the comprehension of his reason in the present state, God does not propose to him what is contrary to it; and in the peculiar points, the faith of which is essential to salvation, God leads the human mind to an understanding of that which He requires it to believe. III. THE THIS HAS ON . In its lowest degree it produces a repose of the soul, to which the gay and thoughtless of this world are utter strangers. It is equally obvious that the state of mind in which it possesses energy to pursue the dictates of the higher faculties, wherein it is exempted from the control of degrading passions, and especially has its leading affection its chief desire, toward that great Source of all good, to which, by its original relations, it was allied, and for enjoying which its capacities were framed, must be the happiest state of the soul; and that all apparent happiness, in a different state, is as delusive in its nature as it is transitory in its duration. Recourse to God, considered in itself, is at all times an unfailing source of joy to the soul that has confidence in Him. It is inward, and independent of outward combinations, which he could not command; it accords with stillness and retirement, which are so irksome to the children of pleasure; it purifies and ennobles the soul; nor is there in it, when rightly understood, the least vestige of delusiveness or enthusiasm; for, though not depending upon sense, or carried on through its medium, its evidence of reality is quite as satisfactory. He whose soul goes out in confidence to God knows God’ s existence--His attention to his desires--His approbation of the confidence which the soul cherishes in Him from the testimony of His written Word--of that Record of Truth which will survive and prove its reality when all the objects of time and sense shall have passed away for ever. (Donald Fraser, D. D.) Means for perseverance To help us on in holding out, these graces following, among others, are very useful. 1. Humility. This is the basis and foundation when the fore-mentioned house is settled. Christ saith that a man who builds a sure house digs deep Luke 6:48). God giveth grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34). For this very end we are forbidden to be high-minded, lest we fall (Romans 11:20). Self-conceitedness and pride make men careless (Revelation 3:17). 2. Sincerity. Tills is an inward soundness. If the foundation be not sound, the edifice cannot be well settled on it. Soundness is that which maketh last and endure. Sappy, rotten timber will quickly fail. Counterfeit grace will not last. 3. A settled resolution to hold out to the end (Psalms 119:106). 4. Jealousy. Jealousy, I say, in regard of the temptations whereunto we are subject, and of our own weakness. Satan is subtle (1 Peter 5:8). Sin is deceitful (Hebrews 3:13); and we are of ourselves foolish, and prone to yield to sin and Satan. If we be secure or careless, we may be soon taken as birds in a net. 5. Prudence. For the manifestation hereof avoid occasions which may draw thee out of thy Christian course. 6. Growth in grace. By this we shall be the more strengthened and the better enabled to hold out. 7. Walking with God. By this he that never saw death pleased God all the days of his life (compare Genesis 5:24 with Hebrews 11:5). 8. Stedfast expectation of the prize or reward that is set before thee. It is said of Moses that he had respect unto the recompense of the reward Hebrews 11:26). 9. Prayer-faithful, fervent, constant prayer. Christ used this means for Himself (Hebrews 5:7). This means He also used that Peter’ s faith might not fail. By the foresaid means we may continue to enjoy our spiritual strength, as Caleb did his bodily strength (Joshua 14:11), and as Moses, whose natural force abated not (Deuteronomy 34:7), we shall still bring forth fruit in old age (Psalms 92:14). (W. Gouge.) Christian stability An established, experienced, hopeful Christian is, in the world, like an iceberg in a swelling sea. The waves rise and fall. Ships strain and shiver, and nod on the agitated waters. But the iceberg may be seen from far, receiving the breakers on its snow-white side, casting them off unmoved, and, where all else is rocking to and fro, standing stable like the everlasting hills. The cause of its steadiness is its depth, Its bulk is bedded in calm water beneath the tumult that rages on the surface. Although, like the ships, it is floating in the water, it receives and throws off the angry waves like the rocks that gird the shores. Behold the condition and attitude of Christians! They float in the same sea of life with other men, and bear the same buffetings; but they are not driven hither and thither, the sport of wind and water. The wave strikes them, breaks over them, and hisses past in foam; but they remain unmoved. They were not caught by surprise while they had a slight hold of the surface. The chief part of their being lies deep beyond the reach of these superficial commotions. Their life, “ hid with Christian God,” bears without breaking all the strain of the storm. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Example of stability The Macrocystis pyrifera is a marine plant, rising from a depth of one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet, and floating for many fathoms on the surface of the sea. Darwin says, “ I know few things more surprising than to see this plant growing and thriving amid the great breakers of the Western Ocean, which no masses of rock, however hard, can long resist. The stem is round, slimy, and smooth, and seldom has a diameter of so much as an inch.” How great its resistance to withstand the strain of such a sea! In spite of storm and breakers, the species maintains itself from century to century; for the strength with which it clings to the naked rock, and faces the fury of the elements, has been poised by the wisdom of God. (J. Hartwig.) Means of stability As we tie a tender tree to some other tree that it may not be broken by the winds, and cast anchor in a storm to fix the ship that it may not be driven by the tempest; so ought we to join and apply our weak and faint hearts to the firm pillar of God’ s word, and fix the ship of our souls by the anchor of hope, that it sink not. (John Arndt.) Confidence in death Donald Cargill, on the scaffold, July 27, 1681, as he handed his well-used Bible to one of his friends that stood near, gave this testimony: “ I bless the Lord that these thirty years and more I have be, n at peace with God, and was never shaken loose of it. And now I am as sure of my interest in Christ, and peace with God, as all within this Bible and the Spirit of God can make me. And I am no more terrified at death, or afraid of hell because of sin, than if I had never had sin: for all my sins are freely pardoned and washed thoroughly away through the precious blood and intercession of Jesus Christ.” Confidence to the end The time came when Luther was to write no more. He was at Eisleben, attending a Protestant synod. It was the 17th February, 1546. He felt that he was dying. “ Pray, brethren; oh! pray for the spread of the gospel,” he said to his fellow-labourers. Then he took a turn or two in the room, and lay down. “ Friends, I am dying. Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit.” “ Reverend father,” said Dr. Jonas, “ do you die firm in the faith you have taught?” Luther opened his eyes, which were half-closed, looked fixedly at Jonas, and replied, firmly and distinctly, “ Yes.” That was the last word he uttered; then his great spirit went home. Hebrews 3:7-8 As the Holy Ghost saith Scripture 1. The authority of the Scripture is not of man, but of the Holy Ghost. 2. The Scriptures are no dumb letter, but the voice of the Holy Ghost, who by them speaketh. 3. The Holy Ghost is God, the Inspirer of the prophets that wrote the Scripture. 4. The Holy Ghost is a distinct person of the Godhead from the Father and the Son, exercising the proper actions of a person inspiring the prophets, inditing the Scriptures, and speaking to the Church. (D. Dickson, M. A.) To day, if ye will hear His voice. - The voice of Jesus are the voices audible to man throughout this terrestrial sphere. As he journeys on the pathway of life, they salute his ears at every step. In the busy city, the secluded hamlet, the open field; in the arid desert, and on glassy ocean, their words are heard. These voices are vastly dissimilar in their utterances and in their tones, and are fraught with momentous consequences to man. There is creation’ s voice, and they who lend an attentive ear will find “ tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in tones, and good in every thing.” Then there is the voice of conscience, which proclaims sin and guilt, warns of misdoing, and harasses with fears. Then there are a multitude of human voices which make glad the heart. The voice of a mother, resonant with ineffable tenderness. The voice of friendship, how it brightens the eye, awakens sympathy, cheers in the hour of adversity. How welcome the voice of mercy, as it announces pardon to the transgressor, or utters a gracious reprieve to the condemned. Then there are other voices, the object of whose utterance is to lure man from the path of virtue, degrade, and destroy. But amid these multifarious voices, the one referred to in our text ever sounds distinct. Like sweetest music it falls upon the ear of the soul, and, when listened to, makes melody in the heart. It is the voice of Divine love, compared with which human affection sinks into insignificance. It sounds in the ear of the sinner and tells of liberty, comfort, strength. Sometimes this voice is preceded by manifestations of Almighty power such as occurred to Elijah on Horeb’ s mount. The destructive wind of adversity may break in pieces the mountain of earthly prospects; the fire of personal afflictions may threaten to consume our bodies; and then follows the still, small voice, proclaiming the illusive character of the fleeting things of time. This voice is constantly asking admission to the human heart Revelation 3:20). The saints of old heard it, and were filled with joy; the disciples, journeying, heard it, and their hearts burned within them. Saul of Tarsus heard it, and it crushed out all his pride, laid him low in the dust, subdued his rebellious spirit, and evoked the prayer--“ Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? “ But how many close their ears to that voice, and turn away from the loving Saviour t The hue of health flushes the cheek, vigorous physical life is theirs, easy circumstances surround them, and all will be well. The period when we are to hear that voice is to-day; now is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation. By to-morrow the pulse may cease its beating. “ To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” He asks your attention, your heart, your soul, your all; but He uses no compulsion. If ye will hear! (R. Kingshott.) An admonitory address I. THE OF THE SPEAKER. 1. He who addresses you is Christ the Redeemer. This calls for serious consideration. 2. It is He who has witnessed all your past life and behaviour. 3. It is He who will judge you at last, as having a perfect knowledge of your whole life. 4. His judgment is “ upright.” Then there will be no mercy, but all will be judgment. II. THE THINGS WHICH CHRIST SAYS. 1. He says that your time is gone! This is a serious address. 2. He says that eternity is at hand!--a long, a never-ending eternity! 3. Christ farther says, What have you done with your privileges, and how have you improved the means of grace in past time? 4. Christ still farther says, When will you be ready, and what would make you ready to enter into glory? III. THE TIME SET FOR YOUR HEARING THESE THINGS is mentioned in our text as being” today” --not to-morrow. IV. THE OF TO OR THESE THINGS. If repentance be obtained, heaven will be your everlasting happy home. If sin continues, hell will be your doom. (James Kidd, D. D.) A dissuasive from procrastination I. There is a voice which may, with emphatic propriety, be termed THE VOICE OF GOD. 1. the providences of God, particularly those of an afflictive nature. 2. The sacred Word--both law and gospel. II. THE VOICE OF GOD DEMANDS OUR SERIOUS , 1. Should a servant decline the reasonable commands of his master--a son, the gentle authority of his father--or a subject turn his back upon his prince, who might condescend to address him? 2. The nature of the subject upon which He deigns to address us is another reason for our attention to His voice. He calls us to no hard service. He invites us to approach that we may receive those blessings which constitute the happiness of man. III. YOUR TO THE VOICE OF GOD SHOULD BE WITHOUT DELAY. IV. IF WE WOULD LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF GOD WE SHOULD BE NOT TO ADOPT A CONDUCT WHICH WILL PREVENT OUR TO ITS . 1. Yon must avoid that state of insensibility into which so many nominal Christians have fallen. 2. It will be of equal importance that you also studiously avoid the inordinate cares of life, which first this obstruct and then close up the avenues to the soul, and so produce a fatal insensibility. 3. Moreover, it will be of vast consequence that you avoid temptation; for the mind is rendered insensible in proportion as it becomes familiar with sin. 4. Finally, beware of the whirlpool of scepticism--the dangerous shoals and fatal rocks of infidelity. (S. Lowell.) Peril of delaying repentance Not to listen to God’ s voice (evil and perilous though it be) is a far lesser evil than to will not to listen to it. Men fail to listen through the impulse of passion; they will not to listen through deliberate choice. A single sin, grave though it be, is of human infirmity; to defer repentance, when called, is deliberately to reject God. 1. He does not promise you time. One time is our’ s, now. The past is gone; the future is not yet. One time we ever have, a time fleeting by, an ever-passing present. God renews to us this present again and again, in every moment of our being. You can attend, or pray, or resolve at this moment. When the next is come, you may, if God’ s grace continues, do the same. But you cannot efface what you have done; you cannot replace what you have left undone. But there will be a morrow which will have no to-morrow except eternity. God has promised pardon to the penitent, but where has He promised a morrow to the procrastinator? 2. He has not promised thee grace. He gives His grace at all times freely. We have no claim upon it; else it were not grace, but debt. He gives it overflowing, without, beyond, against our deserts. But He gives it with wisdom also. He gives it although it is abused; but He does not give it in order that it should be abused, or to encourage man’ s abuse of it. But it would be to encourage man’ s abuse of it, to store it up for those who not only again and again refuse it, but who refuse it now because they may have it hereafter (Romans 2:4-5). What is it but to make the mercy of God the occasion of sin, to sin on now, because God is so good, that thou thinkest that He will give thee grace to repent hereafter? And when wishest thou that He should give thee grace to amend? Next year? or the next? or the next? No! In none of these, if thou art even thus far honest with thyself, dost thou wish to amend. No, not yet. How is this? Because thou knowest full well, that even in these six years, thy passions will not be exhausted, thy desires will not be weakened; the wants which thou suppliest unlawfully will still be craving; the evil habits which thou nurturest will be even strengthened; the embers of thy earthly fires will not have died out. “ When, then,” God may ask, “ wilt thou choose Me?” Alas, if thou speakest truly, thou wilt say, “ When I have nothing else to prefer to Thee.” God is nothing to thee. Thou wantest, willest, wishest nothing of God, but to escape Him. It is not God thou choosest, but thyself still. One thing alone thou really choosest, impunity in sin. Those who picture to themselves future repentance, picture to themselves at best only the exchange of pleasure for pleasure, unlawful pleasure, it may be, for lawful; but mostly they picture to themselves a time when they shall be worn out to the world and the world to them, in sickness or death. Then they would give up what they cannot keep; they would part with what has parted with them; and they would receive in exchange--not God whom they know not, but--in some way, they know not how, escape from hell. 3. But wilt thou then have the will to repent? Judge of the future from the past. Think of the time when thou wert just hesitating on the borders of sin, when it first looked pleasant to thee, when first thou was tempted to some slight forbidden gain to take some little thing that was not thine, to give way to some childish or youthful vanity, to taste some slight forbidden pleasure. If thou hast not repented yet, hast thou more or less mastery over thyself now than then? Is it easier to thee to abstain from greater sin now than from lesser sin then? Too surely, thy bands have been bound faster around thee; thy desires have become stronger; thy will weaker. People sin, out of the very habit of sinning. Sin wears out the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength; not itself. It lives on upon the life of soul and body. It lives upon their destruction; but itself thrives and is vigorous in their decay. You have seen the fungous, unsubstantial, putrid, stinking, disgusting, poisonous, fed from the yet living tree. You know it to be the token of decaying life on which it feeds. Such is sin. Its seat is in the will. It corrupts the will. The corrupted will anticipates the sin in act; it survives the power to enact. Avarice, falsehood, hatred, censoriousness, vanity, hypocrisy, love of ill-gotten goods, impurity, will live on in the aged sinner’ s soul; they will accompany him to the last; they will pass out of this world with him and in him; but whither will they accompany him? Will they escort him, as an angel-train, guarding him from the evil spirits, who wait for the departure of the disembodied soul, to seize on their lawful prey? Will they carry him to Abraham’ s bosom, into the realms of peace and truth and love, where nothing defile, I shall enter? Will they present him before the judgment-seat of Christ, who bids us to love one another as He has loved us, to purify ourselves as He is pure, to deny ourselves as He denied Himself and emptied Himself of His glory that He might take our shame, and thereby bring us to partake of His glory and His love? (E. B.Pusey, D. D.) Taking the first opportunity of grace 1. It is God which worketh in us both to will and to do (Philippians if. 13). And no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him (John 6:44). Is it not then a point of wisdom to yield when God draws? 2. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth; therefore put not off the grace that is offered thee to-day. Boast not thyself of to-morrow Proverbs 27:1). 3. By putting off an opportunity men make themselves more unfit for another opportunity; for sin, the longer it groweth the stronger it groweth, and the heart useth to be more hardened by putting off means of softening. As they who had received grace were exhorted to persevere therein, put not off to-day, much less let childhood put off to youth, or youth to man-age, or man-age to old-age, or old-age to death-bed. (W. George.) The offer of salvation 1. That while men have the offer of salvation and the word preached unto them, it is their day. 2. That by the outward hearing, God requireth the heart to be brought down and mollified. 3. That He requireth present yielding, to-day, while he calleth, without delay, because we cannot be sure how long God will spare or continue his offer beyond this present. 4. He that studieth not to yield his heart to believe and obey God’ s word, sounding in his cars, hardeneth his heart. For what is it else not to harden their heart, but heartily to believe and give obedience? (D. Dickson, M. A.) Religion “ to-day” I. THE VOICE THAT SPEAKS. “ To-day if ye will hear His voice” : whose voice? The voice of God. It is the Holy Ghost that speaks, the source of all inspiration; so that all Scripture may be regarded as “ His voice.” And if it he the voice of God, does it not demand your deep attention, your prompt obedience? Shall God speak, and man refuse to hear? Nor does He speak to you in vengeance, but in love. He does not make His appeal to-day to the sword of justice, but He makes His appeal to the blood of His Cross. And oh 1 can there be any subject more momentous--involving, as it does, your highest interests for time and for eternity? “ To-day if ye will hear His voice.” But how does He speak? Most impressively, most earnestly: by His Word, by His Gospel, by His providence, by your teas, in, by your conscience. But what does He say? There are two subjects, on which He addresses you: your own condition as a sinner in His sight--your guilt, pollution, and depravity; and the rich provision of His mercy in the mediatorial character and work of His beloved Son. II. THE PROMPT AND IT DEMANDS. “ To-day if ye will hear His voice.” Why “ to-day” ? Because to-day all is ready. The great salvation is ready; the way of access to the throne is ready; the great Intercessor there is ready; the angels that hover over this assembly are ready; and the Church on earth is ready, to bid you welcome to its communion, Why “ to-day” ? why “ to-day” ? Because you will never have a more suitable season than to-day. Be assured, that the longer you delay, the more deep and firm will be the hold which the world will get of your heart; “ the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches,” like the thorns in the parable, will have grown up to choke every good resolution. Why “ to-day” ? why “ to-day” ? Because you have delayed long enough. Ah! too long--too long. You should have heard His voice long ago; you should have heard His voice in the days of your youth; you should have heard His voice in early childhood. You should have heard His voice the first time He spoke to you. You should have heard His voice in the advantages which you enjoyed; in parental instruction--in the Sabbath School-under a faithful ministry. Why “ to-day” ? why “ to.day” ? Because you may not see to-morrow. Amid the stillness of “ this night,” death may enter in at your window. Or to-morrow may come, and this voice not speak to you to-morrow. Or if the voice speak to you to-morrow, you may not be in circumstances to profit by it. Now, it convinces of sin; to-morrow it may not convince. Now, conscience speaks; but to-morrow conscience may be seared. III. THE SOLEMN WARNING, the admonition, the remonstrance, by which a prompt and immediate attention to the voice that speaks to you is enforced. “ To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” 1. “ Harden not your heart” with infidel objections. Do not say--“ The Scripture is not true.” Have you proved it? Can you stake eternity upon it? You know you cannot! 2. Do not “ harden your heart” by saying you cannot believe. You will not. It is not for want of evidence, but for want of inclination. 3. Do not say, “ I am not responsible for my belief.” Iris false. You are responsible for your belief; the great God holds you responsible for your belief; and so far from your not being responsible for your belief, your destiny will turn upon it. It is upon that very thing it will hinge. “ He that believeth, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned.” 4. “ Harden not your heart.” Oh! think of the consequences if you do. The result is inevitable; the consequence is infallible. He will turn upon you in indignation, who now bends to you in condescension and love. The cup of salvation is handed round amongst you; dash it not untasted from your lips. The sceptre of His grace is stretched out to you; touch it and live. (T. Raffles, D. D.) Instant consideration of religion recommended I. THE OF , AND YOUR IN THE OF IT. Both these are indisputable. What do you set your thoughts on, when you take the affairs of religion under your consideration? Is it not the glory of God, and your own salvation from sin and wrath? Now what is so excellent in itself, so honourable, so suitable to the capacities of thinking beings, as these pursuits which form the nature of practical religion? II. THE OF LIFE, AND TILE DANGER OF DYING FOR . What is human life? A vapour, appearing a little while, and then vanishing. III. THE OF GOD’ S PRESENT DEMANDS. Whatever He requires of you now, He will require twenty or thirty years hence, should you live so long. The method of pardon is already fixed. The Unchangeable will never alter it. And if He will not, men cannot. If you dislike at present humiliation; if you feel now an aversion at a dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for justification; if the duties of holiness seem hard and disagreeable at this instant, they will for ever be so, in relation to depraved dispositions. IV. THE LONGER IT IS DELAYED, YOUR AND TO IT WILL . Was your life threatened with some distemper, how would you reason, and how would you act? Would you say, I will stay till I be a little worse, and then I will apply to a physician? Would it not be reckoned madness to sport in this manner with life and health? V. THE OF AN OF DIVINE GRACE ON YOUR SOULS. God is now striving with you. But what if these are the last touches He will ever give a heart so long hardened against Him? (Alex. Shanks.) The solemn caution I. THE VOICE TO. 1. It is the voice of mercy. 2. It is the voice of Divine authority. 3. It is the only voice directly connected with the sinner’ s salvation. 4. This voice addresses us through various mediums of communication. II. THE . 1. That we hear so as to understand it. 2. That we hear so as to believe it. 3. That we hear so as to obey it. III. THE PERIOD FOR HEARING CHRIST’ S VOICE, 1. Short. 2. Uncertain. 3. Succeeded by the darkness of the grave. IV. THE CAUTION ANNEXED. “ Harden not your hearts” 1. By inattention to the concerns of the soul. 2. By pursuing the works of darkness. 3. By yielding to the influences of unbelief. 4. By a sordid attachment to the present world. Application. (1) You are all responsible, for the voice of Christ has repeatedly sounded in your ears. (2) You have all your day--a period given for the improvement of your privileges and mercies. (3) How necessary, then, to hear His voice! How important that you harden not your hearts! (4) Let our influence be laid out in bringing the ignorant and perishing of our race to hear the joyful sound, that they may not perish for lack of knowledge! (5) Let us be watching and preparing for the second advent of the Saviour, when they that are in their graves shall hear His voice and live. (J. Burns, D. D.) Sinners entreated to hear God’ s voice 1. The first motive which I shall set before you with this view, is the shortness and uncertainty of life. I urge you to become religious to-day, because you are not sure of to-morrow. Need I tell you, that you are frail as well as mortal; that you must not only die, but may die soon and suddenly? Who, let me ask, are the persons that die suddenly and unexpectedly? Are they the feeble, the infirm? No, observation will tell you, that they are the youthful, the vigorous, the strong. She will tell you that while the former, like a reed, bend before the blast and escape, the latter, like the stubborn oak, brave its fury, and are prostrated. 2. This remark suggests a second reason, why you should not postpone religion to another day. You cannot properly, or even lawfully, promise to give what is not your own. Now to-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day, then, is the only time which you can properly or lawfully give to God. 3. A third reason why you should commence a religious life to-day, is, that if you defer it, though but till to-morrow, you must harden your hearts against the voice of God. God commands you to commence immediately a religious life. Now if you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. Here then is a direct, wilful act of disobedience to God’ s commands; and this act tends most powerfully to harden the heart; for after we have once disobeyed, it becomes more easy to repeat the disobedience. But this is not all. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one. If none can readily be found, you will invent one. This also tends most powerfully to harden the heart. A man who is frequently employed in seeking arguments and excuses to justify his neglect of religion, soon becomes expert in the work of self-justification. He is, if I may so express it, armed at all points against the truth; so that in a little time nothing affects him, no arrow from the quiver of revelation can reach his conscience. But if, as is sometimes the case, his excuses prove insufficient, and his understanding and conscience become convinced, he can avoid compliance only by taking refuge in an obstinate refusal, or by resolutely diverting his attention to some other object, till God’ s commands are forgotten, or by a vague kind of promise that he will become religious at some future period. Whichsoever of these methods he adopts, the present impression is effaced, and his heart is hardened. He has resisted the force of truth, and thus rendered it more easy for him to resist it again. In a word, he has less religious sensibility; he has become more inaccessible to conviction, and less disposed to yield to it, than before. Now this is precisely what the Scriptures mean by hardening the heart to-day. (E. Payson, D. D.) The Holy Ghost saith “ to-day” It is the mistake and ruin of many, both young and old, that they believe and obey Satan rather than God. The one motto is “ to-day!” the other is “ to-morrow!” I. A CREST SPEAKER. Much depends, for the way in which we regard and treat what is said, on the person who says it. In connection with the Holy Ghost being the speaker here I have three remarks to make. In regard to what is said, you may be sure that. 1. It is important--for “ the Holy Ghost saith” it. Much importance is attached to what great men say. A man’ s position gives importance to what he says--a king, for instance, or a statesman, or a master, or a judge. How much more important is the word of the Holy Ghost, whether it be in the way of warning, or encouragement, or command, or reproof! When He comes to you, you may be sure it is some momentous errand that has brought Him; and while all Scripture is His Word, such a saying as that in our text is His, in a special sense, and is of peculiar significance. And as, when a king speaks, every voice is hushed, so when the Holy Spirit speaks, there may well be the deepest interest, attention, and reverence. “ He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.” 2. It is true--for “ the Holy Ghost saith” it. Sometimes the word of the wisest and greatest is not to be trusted, and even the truest and best may mistake. Here is One who never deceived, never mistook, never was untrue, whose word never was broken--the Holy Ghost. He is the “ Spirit of truth.” His is the “ Scripture which cannot be broken.” 3. It is kind--for “ the Holy Ghost saith” it. He is the Spirit of Love as well as of Truth. With what a gentle voice He speaks. I dare say you have seen people in anxiety about their souls. Their happiness was gone. And in regard to all this, you have heard it said that it was the Holy Spirit’ s doing; and you have thought hardly of Him in consequence. And yet never was He more kind than when He did this very thing. When He awakens and alarms, it is to warn of coming danger, and lead to flight and safety. Will you not listen to Him as a loving Friend? II. A WORD. “ To-day!” This is what the Holy Ghost says. It is a little word, but it has a world of meaning in it. It may be said to be at once a warning and an invitation. 1. It sets before us the time for repenting. Sin is rebellion against God, and each new sin is another act of rebellion still further endangering the rebel’ s head. What is to be done? The sin must have an immediate arrest laid upon it--must be forsaken. Here is a boy who has begun to be in earnest about his soul. He knows he is lost. He would like to be saved. But he would like to keep his sins too, at least for a while. He is just like that lad, who, while working among the waggons on a railway, has had his leg so bruised and crushed that there is nothing for it but to have the limb taken off. But he cannot make up his mind to part with it. Day after day he asks to have the operation deferred, each day thinking it will not be so difficult the next; though his whole experience has proved that it would have been easier at first, and that the longer the delay, the more difficult it will always become. At length the surgeon, if he is wise and kind, will break in on this state of things, and say, “ We cannot tamper with a matter of this kind any longer. It is as much as your life is worth, to put off another day. The choice lies between your limb and your life; which are you prepared to lose? Whatever is to be done, must be done at once. It must be now or never.” And even so it must be with sin, with the evil habit, the forbidden indulgence--it must go at once. I know how difficult it is. It is compared to cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye. “ I’ ll repent one of these days. I’ ll repent to-morrow.” And thus it goes on from day to day, till at length the Holy Ghost breaks in with His great word, and says, “ To-day!” There must be no more putting off. You have lost too much time already. It is as much as your soul is worth to wait longer. Or is there a girl who has got a sense of her sin, but fears she is too far gone to be saved. She has put off so long, that she believes she is now past hope. “ Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” She is like to give way to utter despair. Nay, but the Holy Ghost saith, “ To-day!” It is not too late yet. It may be too late to-morrow. 2. It sets before us the time for believing. But here, too, what delay! Here is one trying to make himself better first. He says he is not fit to come to Jesus as he is. His heart is too hard: his sin is too great. He is like that diseased boy who can hardly walk, and yet refuses to see the doctor, or to knock at the infirmary door, because he is too ill, or does not yet sufficiently feel his need of help. He hopes to go by and by. He might not be received as he is. His case is too desperate. He must try to improve himself a little first. He does not see that the worse he is, the greater is the necessity for getting help at once. And when the Holy Ghost saith “ To-day,” it is as if He said, “ Now is the time to flee to Jesus, whatever you may be. Now is the time to come to Him, all as you are.” What a happy day it would be if we heard some of you saying, “ Lord we take Thee at Thy word to-day I we come to Thee to-day!” 3. It sets before us the time for working. It is good for ourselves to work. Idleness of every kind is evil,--unhealthy for the body, for the spirits, for the soul. And so, Christian workers get personal benefit from their work. We need to be doing some work for Christ and for others, to keep our own souls healthy and lively and right. It is good for others. There are few for whom the youngest of us could not do something. It is pleasing and honouring to God. God likes to see His people working. It is one proof of their love to Himself. But where is all this to be done? Here on earth. And by whom? Not only by the old, but by the young also. And when? Now. Perhaps some of you are purposing to be workers when you are grown up. You think of doing nothing meanwhile. But “ the Holy Ghost saith, To-day” ;--not when you are older, but now while you are yet young. The kind of work which the Lord now asks of you can only be done here--not in heaven. Can you think of so many perishing all around you, without your doing anything for them? Can you do or give nothing for the heathen now? And so it is as regards giving for Christ. I fear we are far behind in this respect. What a sad thought it will be, “ I might have done something for Christ, if I had only began in time!” 4. It sets before us the best time for repenting, for believing, for working--“ to-day.” Not when you are older, not when you are better qualified,but just now, immediately--to-day. You must have noticed the tide gradually coming in till the shore was covered; and when it was at its full, how eager the fishermen were to get their boats afloat; and how easy it was then as compared with what it was when the tide was back. The tide may be said to he in with you now: it is full tide; it is the time for getting your own boat afloat, and helping others with theirs: and for your encouragement, and for your warning, ere it go back, “ the Holy Ghost saith, To-day!” 5. It sets forth the time for repenting, for believing, for working, as very short: a day--this day--to-day. You say you must enjoy yourselves, and see what the world can do for you. Or you must learn your business first. Nay; but here again, “ the Holy Ghost saith, Today!” It is slipping past, and will soon be over. 6. It sets forth what may be the only time for repenting, for believing, for working. “ Oh that thou hadst heard, even thou, in this thy day!” As if every one had his “ day” --and when that is lost, it is lost for ever. “ Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” This may be the only “ to-day” we shall ever see. III. THE LESSON. 1. Value to-day. Regard it and treat it as you do other precious things. We may well say what a daughter told me she heard her dying mother, a Christian woman, saying a few days ago. It was Sabbath morning, and when the early sunshine lighted up her room, after a long night of restlessness and suffering, she was overheard saying, “ Dear day!” Oh yes, it should be a “ dear day “ to us all, for it is the “ day of grace,” the “ day of salvation.” 2. Improve to-day. “ Make hay when the sun shines.” If the day is so precious and so short, then surely we should make the very most of it. Do not waste it. Lay it out as a steward of God. 3. Remember that the night cometh.--Every day has its night, and so has this one. Whether you are improving it or not, it is going away, and the night will soon be on. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.) The entreaty of the Holy Ghost I. THE SPECIAL VOICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1. How does the Holy Ghost thus speak? (1) He saith this first, in the Scriptures. Every command of Scripture calls for immediate obedience. (2) Further, while the Holy Ghost speaks in Scripture on this wise, He speaks in the same manner in the hearts of His people, for he is a living and active agent. (3) The like is also true when the Holy Ghost speaks in the awakened. (4) Once more, the Holy Ghost speaks thus by His deeds as well as by His words. We have a common proverb that actions speak more loudly than words. Now the acts of the Holy Spirit in the leading of many to the Saviour are so many practical invitations, encouragements, and commands to others. 2. But why so urgent, blessed Spirit, why so urgent? It is because the Holy Ghost is in sympathy with God; in sympathy with the Father who longs to press the prodigal to his bosom; in sympathy with the Son who is watching to see of the travail of His soul. II. A SPECIAL DUTY. “ Hear His voice” --that is, hear it obediently, eager to do what he bids you, as he enables you. Do not hear and forget. Retain the truth in your memories, and, better still, practise it in your lives. 1. Hear ye the Lord when He instructs you. How often are men’ s ears stopped up with the wax of prejudice, so that they are dull of hearing. They have made up their minds as to what the gospel ought to be, and will not hear what it is. 2. But the Lord does more than instruct you, He commands; for let men say what they will, the Gospel to be preached to the ungodly is not merely warnings and teachings, it has its solemn, positive commands. 3. But the Lord does more than command, He graciously invites; with tenderness He bids sinners to His banquet of mercy. Shall His love be slighted, and His bounty treated with scorn? 4. But the Lord does more than invite, He adds His promises. Oh do not count yourselves unworthy of them. 5. The Lord also threatens, as well as entreats. He declares that the despisers shall wonder and perish. If Christ be rejected, eternal wrath is certain. III. A SPECIAL TIME . 1. To-day, that is while God speaks. Oh, if we were as we should be, the moment God said “ Seek ye My face,” we should reply, “ Thy face, Lord, will I seek” : as soon as the invitations of mercy were heard there would be an echo in our souls to them. Hear God to-day, for to-day He speaks. 2. The apostle says in the next chapter, “ To-day--after so long a time.” I see that some of you have bald heads, or grey hairs lie thick upon them. Is it not long enough to have provoked your God these sixty years? “ To-day,” that is, especially while the Holy Ghost is leading others to hear and to find mercy; to-day, while the showers are falling, receive ye the drops of grace; to-day, while there are prayers offered up for you; to-day, lest the preaching of the Word of God should come to be a matter of routine, and the preacher himself, discouraged, should lose all zeal for your soul; to-day, while everything is peculiarly propitious, hear ye the voice of God. While the wind blows, hoist the sail; while God is abroad on errands of love, go forth to meet Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) To-day From first to last, salvation is the product of the mighty energies of the Holy Ghost, and is brought about by His voice speaking to our hearts. We shall never be disposed to seek for salvation until the Holy Spirit of God in one way or another begins to stir our desires. Further, we may say that, although we are distinctly commanded to repent and believe the gospel, we never shall repent without His first having convicted us of sin; so that from first to last, on our side as well as His, salvation is of the Lord. All this is true; but it is only one side of the truth, though it is a side we must not ignore. I can imagine a man saying or feeling, “ If that be so, I am not responsible for my conduct. If the Holy Spirit of God is not pleased to strive with me it is impossible for me to come to Christ; therefore, unless He make me willing I can do nothing. I do not distinctly feel that He is drawing me now, and therefore there is nothing for it but to go on living in sin until my call comes, if it ever do come at all.” 1. First, are you quite sure that God has not spoken to you, and that you may not have failed to hear His voice, either because in your sin you did not wish to hear it, or because in your perversity and ignorance you had made up your mind that His voice must speak in a certain particular way, while God has seen fit to speak after quite a different manner? 2. And, second, is your conscience quite clear that He never has spoken to you, and you have known it, and been convinced of it, and yet have hardened your heart against His call? It is quite true that you cannot come unless the Spirit draw, but is it equally true that He has never drawn? It is not too much to say, that whatever moves you in the right direction, whatever influences you to forsake sin and turn to God, is the work of the Holy Ghost. The fervent desire after better things, the inward restlessness, the sense of guilt, the feeling of shame, the fear of punishment, the longing for purity and moral freedom--all these are the effects of the influence of God the Holy Ghost. You shall never be able to say, “ I would, but God would not.” Oh that God might never have to bring the apposite charge against you. I have spoken of one great danger against which we have to guard, if we would benefit by the Divine voice, the danger of ignoring it, and failing to recognize it; but remember there is yet another danger, and to it our text more particularly alludes; it is the danger of bearing God’ s voice so plainly that we can entertain no reasonable doubt but that it is God’ s voice, and yet while He is speaking hardening our hearts against Him. “ Harden not your heart.” These words bring before us the thought of a capacity that we all possess. We all possess the power to harden our hearts against the gracious influences of God. It is a dangerous thing to do under any circumstances, even when our relations with God are not concerned. I once heard a man say, “ I used to think it manly to repress my feelings, and so I set myself to steel my heart against them, and now I cannot feel when I would. Happen what may, I might offer my fortune for a tear, and offer it in vain.” This may be a serious matter. We have no more right to murder our feelings than any other element in our manhood, but that is a small thing as compared with the folly and the sin of hardening our heart against the Holy Spirit of God. And remember this is a sin which we all remain capable of committing, however strong the influences of God the Holy Spirit may be. He never so influences us that it is impossible for us to resist Him. What shall we say of the folly of him who mutilates his own moral nature of all its higher sensibilities and capacities of spiritual apprehension, and of his own accord elects to be “ past feeling” --“ twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and withered” ? But remember, there is only one way of avoiding this terrible issue and that is by yielding at once. But when the Holy Ghost speaks, and you hear His voice: there is always a “ now” in it. He takes care to put before you something to be done then and there. “ To-day harden not your heart.” You are responsible for this winged moment that is even now flying from you. The Holy Ghost saith, “ To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Oh, think of all the possibilities, the glorious possibilities of to-day! (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.) To-day--a voice for the opening year I. THE HOLY GHOST IT, AND IT IS BINDING. The obligation is founded on 1. Absolute proprietorship. 2. Mediatorial interposition. II. THE HOLY GHOST IT, AND IT IS . III. THE HOLY GHOST IT, AND IT IS URGENT. 1. The Holy Ghost thoroughly understands the transcendent importance of the work. The Holy Ghost knows exactly the portion of time allotted you for the work. (Homilist.) The right time You admit that it would be the right time to start on a certain journey when the following four conditions were all combined. First, a clear duty to undertake the journey; secondly, a safe route; thirdly, a suitable conveyance waiting for you; fourthly, the danger that you could not go on a later day. To these might be added that year life depended on your starting at once (as happened to myself years ago, when I found myself in a village where cholera was raging fearfully). Now all these five conditions meet, and press you to betake yourself to the Lord Jesus for immediate salvation. Add now to these undeniable arguments the other one--that every day you postpone makes it harder for you to come. Manyyears ago the merchant-ship Lowell went ashore on the New England coast in a terrific gale. Her bows projected so far up towards the shore that the crew leaped off the bow-prit and were rescued, one by one, by the keeper of a neighbouring lighthouse. All leaped off except the first mate, who had been in feeble health; he continued to walk the deck and give orders to the men. The keeper shouted to him, “ Jump ashore this tide or you are lost!” The poor man continued to tramp the deck, which soon crashed to fragments, and he was swallowed up in the wreck. What was the matter? The terrors of the scene had so deranged his weak nerves, that he had become insane and laud, heal at the idea of danger. Yet that unhappy officer of the sinking ship did not act more insanely than you do in persisting in risking the life of your precious soul. When Jesus calls, your salvation depends on prompt obedience. It was short work with Peter when Christ said to him, “ Follow Me.” Again was it short work with him when be was sinking in the waves arid cried out, “ Lord, save me.” It was short work with the Philippian jailer when he heard Paul’ s directions and threw himself into the Saviour’ s arms on the spot. All the Bible narratives (except that of Nicodemus) describe a prompt action where salvation was secured. Prompt obedience saves! (T. Christlieb, D. D.) Only to-day is yours To-day only, to-day is yours; to-morrow belongs to God, and you have no right to take it for granted that He will certainly give it you. What if He does not? An incident occurred some years ago which illustrates this point in a manner so exceptionally startling that I should not venture to relate it to you if it had only come to me by hearsay. I am able to relate it as a fact on the authority of a gentleman who was acquainted with the person referred to. A young lady of good family, a woman of the world, and a devotee of fashion, came home from a religious service, which she had been induced to attend, evidently profoundly impressed. On returning to her chamber, and turning over in her mind all she had heard, I suppose she felt under the force of a mighty influence that was drawing her towards better things. Moved no doubt by a spiritual impulse, she sat down by her table, and took pen, ink, and paper, and wrote down these words: “ If God spare my life for six months from this time, I will give my heart to Him.” She signed her name, and then I suppose a misgiving must have crossed her mind, for she drew her pen through what she had written, and she wrote again underneath, “ If God spares me for three months from this time, I will give my heart to Him.” Once again the voice within, I apprehend, urged the danger of delay. “ Are you sure that you will live three months longer?” And a second time she drew her pen through what she had written, and once more she wrote, “ If God spare me for one month from the present date, this day month I will give my heart t, Him.” The day before that date there was to be a great fancy dress ball, and she had made up her mind she must go to that ball at all costs; something, I conclude, told her that it would not be consistent to go if she were a real Christian, so she fixed the date just one day beyond this last scene of dissipation. “ If God spare me one month from this time, I will give my heart to Him” ; and she signed her name, and she went to her bed. The next morning her lady’ s maid came to call her as usual. She tapped at the door, but there was no answer. She threw it open, entered the room, looked at the bed. There upon the bed lay her young mistress, a cold corpse, and by her side was a sheet of paper, and on this sheet of paper were written the words, “ If God spare me for one month, I will give my heart to Him.” God did not spare her for one night. She had heard God’ s voice, but, alas I there would seem to be too much reason to fear that she had done what I entreat you not to do. “ To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” One more illustration, and it shall be on the brighter side. Some years ago at the close of an evangelistic service, a rough sort of man--a collier he was--came up to the minister who had preached. “ Sir,” he said, “ do you mean what you told us in your address to-night?” “ What did I tell you?” “ Why, sir, you said that if we were determined to seek and find salvation, we might have it to-night.” “ Yes,” said the preacher, “ I did mean that.” “ Very well, sir; then I want to find it. It must be settled to-night with me; it must be settled now.” “ Thank God,” said the preacher, “ I am glad to hear you say that. Now let me try and show you how you may get it.” Well, they had a long talk together. The preacher set before the poor ignorant man as plainly as ever he could the way of salvation; and then they got to their knees, and there they knelt praying and crying to God together, while the preacher sought to direct the seeking soul to Christ. Time was creeping on, and at last the clock struck eleven. The preacher was very weary, and naturally enough, having his own home duties to care for, he said to the collier, “ My dear fellow, I think now that perhaps you had better go home and consider what I have been saying. I don’ t see that we can get very much further to-night” ; for the poor man was very ignorant and full of unbelief. “ Sir, didn’ t you tell me that it might be settled to-night?” “ Yes,” said the preacher. “ Very well,” then he said; “ I have made up my mind if it can be settled to-night it shall be settled to-night; I don’ t rise from my knees until it is settled.” “ Very good, then,” said the preacher, “ if that is so we will stay together.” The clock struck twelve, still they were kneeling together; one, and still they were kneeling together; two, and still they were there. The summer’ s sun was just rising, daylight was just beginning to dawn, the poor man was thoroughly worn out. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, he had no strength left. The moment of our weakness is the moment of God’ s power. Fairly exhausted and wearied out, at last he was fain to trust himself in the arms of Christ. He might have done so at first as well as at last, but it was only after these hours of anguish that he was brought to the point of utter helplessness and self-despair, and so at length he just rested his weary soul on Jesus, and in a moment the burden was gone. He sprang to his feet with a joyful shout. “ Glory be to God,” he cried, “ it is settled at last; it is settled at last!” With a happy heart he went on his way rejoicing. In the middle of that day there was a hue and cry raised in the neighbourhood that there had been an accident down in the coal-pit, and, as is the custom in colliery districts, everybody rushed to the pit to know what had happened. The tidings soon spread that a portion of the earth in the pit had fallen in, and there was every reason to fear that a man was buried under the rubbish. Half a dozen stalwart colliers were soon at work, working with all that heroic determination which distinguishes those men under such circumstances. For many a long hour they continued their toil, until at last they got near to the place where the unfortunate man was imprisoned. Gently and carefully they prised up the superincumbent mass, and freed one shattered limb after another, and at last lifting the weight off the man’ s breast, they dragged him out all crushed and shattered as he was. As he felt the load taken off him, he opened his eyes for the last time. A smile came over his begrimed countenance as he gasped out, “ Thank God it was settled last night!” and he fell back and died. To-day, to-day, to-day! (W. HayAitken, M. A.) The folly of procrastination It is recorded of Archias, a chief magistrate, in one of the Grecian states, that he was unpopular in his government, and excited the hatred of many of the people, who conspired against his life. The day was arrived when a fatal plot was to be executed. Archias was more than half dissolved in wine and pleasure, when a courier from Athens arrived in great haste with a packet, which contained, as it afterwards appeared, a circumstantial account of the whole conspiracy. The messenger being admitted into the presence of the prince, said, “ My lord, the person who writes you these letters conjures you to read them immediately; they contain serious affairs.” Archias replied, laughing, “ Serious affairs to-morrow” ; and so continued his revel. On the same night, in the midst of that noisy “ mirth, the end of which is heaviness,” the assailants rushed into the palace, and murdered Archias, with his associates; leaving to the world a striking example of the evil of procrastination. In ten thousand affecting instances, something like this has been the conduct and the fate of men respecting the concerns of eternity. They have been warned, but, like the unhappy prince whose case we have recited, they have said, “ Serious things to-morrow,” and when in an unexpected hour their souls have been “ required,” they have left the world exclaiming, “ How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!” (S. Lowell.) The importance of the present moment The old sun-dial at Alfric, in Worcestershire, has lately been repaired, and its motto regilt. Now all eyes may read the weighty words inscribed on it by a vanished hand of long ago--“ On this moment hangs eternity.” Is this statement true? Assuredly it is.As we live and act at the present moment we decide our future: living for God, we shall live for ever with God; living for this world, we pen.-h with it. Come while the lamp burns There is a story told in ancient history of a certain king who lighted a lamp, and had it hung in his palace: he then sent heralds forth to bring every criminal and rebel to his presence, that they might obtain pardon. Those who came while the lamp was burning were set free; but those who delayed till the lamp had gone out, or who altogether neglected the invitation, met with a terrible death. The folly of increasing the burden of sin by delay A hermit was conducted by an angel into a wood, where he saw an old man cutting down boughs to make up a burden. When it was large be tied it up, and attempted to lift it on his shoulder, and carry it away; but, finding it very heavy, he laid it down again, cut more wood, and heaped more on; and then tried again to carry it off. This he repeated several times; always adding something to the load, after trying in vain to raise it from the ground. In the meantime, the hermit, astonished at the old man’ s folly, desired the angel to explain what this meant. “ You behold,” said he, “ in the foolish old man an exact representation of those who, being made sensible of the burden of their sins, resolve to repent, but soon grow weary, and, instead of lessening their burden, increase it every day. At each trial they find the task heavier than before, and so put it off a little longer, in the vain hope that they will by and by be more able to accomplish it. Thus they go on adding to their burden till it grows too heavy to be borne; and then, in despair of God’ s mercy, and with their sins unrepented of, they lie down and die. Turn again, my son, and behold the end of the old man whom thou sawest heaping up a load of boughs.” The hermit looked, and saw him in vain attempting to remove the pile, which was now accumulated far beyond his strength to raise. His feeble limbs tottered over their burden; the poor remains of his strength were fast ebbing away; the darkness of death was gathering around him; and, after a convulsive and impotent attempt to lift the pile, he fell down and expired. Harden not your hearts Hardening the heart I. TO HARDEN THE HEART IS TO CHERISH A TO GOD AND DIVINE OBJECTS. II. HOW THE HEART IS . 1. By fixing its affections supremely on the world. A striking exemplification of this was furnished by that miser whose band, cold in death, still held its firm grasp upon his gold, when his spirit had gone to the bar of God. 2. By refusing to turn the attention to Divine things. No truth is plainer than this; that a man will not feel what he does not think of. God unthought of, must leave the heart as hard and unmoved as it would be were there no God, no Christ, and no heaven. 3. By excusing sin. The object of every excuse formed by the mind is to impair or destroy a sense of obligation and guilt. 4. By presumptuous hopes and expectations from futurity. The very language of such hopes is, the authority and glory of God shall not be felt now; the evil of sin and the awful realities of a future world shall not be felt now; all sensibility shall be deadened by hopes from futurity. These hopes of a future repentance, fellow-sinner, are a shield to your heart, which the arrows of the Almighty will never penetrate. III. TO ENFORCE THE NO LONGER TO HARDEN THE HEART, BY THE IMPLIED IN THE TEXT, “ To-day if ye will hear His voice.” The declaration implies 1. That to harden the heart is a fatal obstacle to bearing and obeying the gospel. 2. To harden the heart is the only obstacle to an immediate compliance with the demands of the gospel. 3. To abstain from hardening the heart is as easily done at the present as any future time. 4. The last consideration is that those who now harden their heart may never hear and obey the gospel. This appears, if we consider, in all such cases, the increase of guilt. To harden the heart against the voice of God once is a high measure of provocation; and if it be the tendency of sin, of accumulated guilt, to exhaust the patience of God and to provoke His speedy vengeance, what must be the effect of hardening the heart with the formal design of continuing to rebel against Him? When in its own nature it involves every act of future sin; when its whole strength--strength, too, thus to offend God--is derived from the fact that God is good and long-suffering? What purpose embodies baser ingratitude, a more direct insult to God, greater hardihood in rebellion, and a greater amount of crime; and what purpose could the sinner form to provoke God’ s instant vengeance if this does not? Again, there is a fearful principle of God’ s administration which arrays all its alarms before such persons. “ Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.” (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Soul insensibility I. HOW THIS OF HEART IS . 1. One of these signs is dulness of conscience. A sensitive conscience is only the possession of those whose hearts have not been hardened, or have been softened. But where there is religious insensibility the hearing of the conscience is confused, its sight perplexed, its voice low and weak. This is the state of the moral nature of which Paul speaks when he describes a “ conscience seared with a hot iron” --an allusion, evidently, to the custom, that was very prevalent among ancient Eastern doctors, of cauterising any affected flesh. Sin is indeed a terrible caustic to the conscience. At first it burns the living moral tissue very painfully, but at last it leaves it insensitive, almost destroyed. 2. Another sign of a hardened heart is poverty of love. No tale of human want or woe stirs their pity or prompts their help; no statement of God’ s great bounty or wondrous love awakens their praise. 3. Another sign--comprising those we have mentioned, and suggesting several more--is inability to be moved by the gospel truth. II. HOW THIS OF HEART IS . 1. By familiarity with the mere theory of religion. It is well enough to have true ideas, to accept a correct creed; but if those ideas linger only in the intellect, are merely themes for memory, imagination, logic, and do not send down into the affections an influence that will permeate the entire being; if that correct creed is a mere mental property, held and defended jealously by the mind, but not colouring and controlling the plans and loves and whole scope of the daily life, then those ideas, that creed, however true, produce hardness of heart. They lose their freshness, and thus much of their force. The soul becomes accustomed to them, as the forester to the rustling of the foliage, or the mariner to the murmur of the waves. And that familiarity intercepts every effort to arouse, and startle, and awaken. 2. By a neglect of religious claims. Some by procrastination, others by stolid indifference, refuse to come face to face with such questions as “ What must I do to be saved?” The capacity for religion diminishes, and almost dies out through disuse. Is it not thus with every power we possess? 3. By conscious indulgence of any sin. The man who continues, perhaps, in a very studied secrecy, to carry on some business scheme that he knows to be fraudulent, to cherish some desire that he knows to be impure, to maintain a habit that he knows is stamped with meanness, or uncharitableness, is doing the very best he can to become insensible to sincerity, holiness, nobility, and love. III. HOW THIS OF HEART IS TO BE . 1. Be earnest. Triflers petrify with terrible rapidity. 2. Be real. They who simultaneously live two lives--the outward, upright, pious, irreproachable; the inward, false, godless, corrupt are, by all the restraint and repression that their hypocrisy involves, hardening their hearts, becoming in heart “ as hard as a piece of nether millstone.” 3. Be watchful. Not only to avoid trifling and to keep wide of all hypocrisy, but because of the insidious influence of familiarity with holy things, there is need in every one for watchfulness. Often introspect yourself to see if you are getting less tender-hearted; and if you are, use every means that can soften and quicken you again. IV. How THIS OF HEART IS TO BE . 1. How can the hard heart be broken? God has provided the means. (1) The dispensations of His providence, such as the loneliness of Jacob, the manifold sorrows of Job, the sickness of Hezekiah, are designed to quicken our spiritual nature. (2) God’ s Word is a hammer that has crushed the pride, shivered the self-righteousness, broken the “ stony heart” of many a sinner. (3) The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all that cross signifies of a life of love, of sacrificial suffering, and of atoning death, is the great power for melting and subduing human hearts. (4) The Spirit of God, sometimes using these means, sometimes acting directly upon the human spirit, is the power that takes away “ the stony heart, and gives a heart of flesh.” 2. What are the signs that the heart is rightly broken? (1) There is consciousness of sin. As in broken stones we find fossils of the reptile or the fern, telling of the time when it was a soft, clay like substance, easily impressible; so in the process of breaking the hard heart, there is revealed the reptile of actual sin, as well as the fern of fair promise. “ God be merciful to me a sinner!” “ Father, I have sinned.” (2) There is the sense of God’ s gracious presence. When the heart is rightly broken, He who was “ sent to heal the broken-hearted” is there. “ The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit.” (U. R. Thomas.) The response of the heart I. WHEN WE HEAR GOD’ S VOICE THE HEART MUST RESPOND. The assent of the intellect, the admiration of the understanding, the fervour of the imagination, and even the conviction of the conscience, do not suffice. God speaks to the heart. Oh that Christ may dwell there! God’ s voice is to soften the heart. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 3:9 When your fathers tempted Me How men can tempt God 1. If having means we neglect them, fondly flying to the supposed providence of God; if Christ, having a pair of stairs to come down by, should have cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, He had tempted God. 2. Men tempt God when, having had evident proof and manifest experience of His wisdom, power, mercy, and goodness, yet if they be driven into any straits, and see no present means to come out, then they murmur against God, despair of His providence, and are ready to exclaim against God. This was the Israelites’ fault, and thus often times they tempted God in the wilderness. They had seen with what a strong hand God had brought them out of Egypt, yet for all that when they were in any difficulty then God was of no power or willingness to do for them. This was a tempting of God which highly displeased Him. Therefore in all distresses let us trust in Him, though all worldly means fail us; in sickness and health, in poverty and wealth, in death and life let Him be our pillar to lean upon. (W. Jones, D. D.) Israel in the wilderness The thought of Moses naturally suggests the Israelites in the wilderness. Faithful was the Mediator, through whom God dealt with them: but was Israel faithful? God spake: did they obey? God showed them wonderful signs: did they trust and follow in faith? And if Israel was not faithful under Moses, and their unbelief brought ruin up ,n them, how much more guilty shall we be, and how much greater our danger, if we are not faithful unto the Lord Jesus? The history of the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness is most instructive (1 Corinthians 10:1-33.). According to the solemn words addressed by the glorified Saviour to the Church of Thyatira, Israel’ s experience is to be a warning to all the Churches. 1. It is a marvellous history from beginning to end. The exodus out of Egypt, the passage through the Red Sea, the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai the manna, the pillar of cloud and fire, the victory over Amelek, the rock that followed them, the garments that never became old; all is miracle, full of the wondrous love and power of God who is Israel’ s Redeemer. Consider the Messenger, the Angel of the Covenant, Christ, who led them. Their whole life and history was a life and history by the word of God. Do you know this as a present experience? 2. It was a history of solemn and glorious privilege. God separated Israel unto Himself. Their daily need, their absolute dependence on Divine help, the constant gift of manna, guidance and defence, the daily beholding of God’ s mighty and gracious works--all this was a marvellous privilege, the life of faith was made near and easy. Is this not a picture of the Christian’ s life? 3. It is a sad history from beginning to end: continual murmuring, doubt, ingratitude, idolatry, sin; looking back unto Egypt and its pleasures, forgetting its degradation and bondage, doubting God’ s goodness and power, yielding to the temptations of lust and tempting the Lord Jehovah, the faithful and merciful Christ. It is a sad history, full of fearful judgments. And yet the Lord was with them all the days, and every day, ready to bless and to gladden them. Do you understand the parable? Yet was there in Israel also faith and love; and God remembers the time of their espousals, when they followed Him in a laud that was not sown. There were not merely murmurings, but hymns of thanksgiving; there were willing offerings unto the Lord of gold and silver, there was victory over the enemies, there were Joshua and Caleb, who followed the Lord fully. (A. Saphir.) Hebrews 3:10-11 They do always err in their heart The errors of the heart I. THE CONDUCT OF MANKIND UPON EARTH IS A MATTER OF GREAT ANXIETY TO OUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. Men are apt to think it a matter of indifference how they behave themselves, so that they do not involve their temporal prospects. Little do they reflect upon the grief that their impiety occasions to the best of benefactors. A lamentable thing it is for them and for others, that they forego the privilege of living in the fear of God; for it is impossible to live so happily in any other way as in that which God lays down for the guidance of His people. But it is not only in this way that God shows His solicitude for the welfare of His creatures--He makes great efforts to restrain men from ill-doing by the operation of His Spirit. In the minds of wicked men His Spirit strives. And one result of this benevolent intervention is, that men cannot do wrong without feeling uneasy about it. The man that leads a life of injustice is seldom in a happy, quiet state of mind; misgivings torment him, fear agitates him, and anxiety about the future makes him restless and miserable. This uneasiness and misery is intended by his heavenly Father to drive him from sin into the ways of righteousness and peace. II. ERRORS IN THE ARE NOT . Men take up wrong notions and act upon them as if they were right. But for all tills, they are right at heart, and the goodness and the purity of their intentions (humanly speaking) guide them safely through the shoals and quicksands around them. I do not ray without damage to their reputation, nor without impairing their usefulness, but their real singleness of intention and uprightness in motive leads them far away from those dangers that otherwise would environ them. Now things are not so when a man has what is called a bad heart. Beyond such in depravity are others who have no sort of conscience respecting the injuries they inflict on their fellow-creatures. Men may be met with, and mere children also, who would rob a widow of her last penny and care not about her misery. III. WHAT THE REMEDY FOR SUCH A STATE OF THINGS REALLY IS. “ They do err in their hearts, for they have not known My ways” : the proper remedy for crime is, therefore, the knowledge of God’ s ways. But we must not fall into the mistake of supposing that the knowledge of the ways of God signifies the being informed as to the purport of these laws. Here, as in many other parts of Scripture, the word denotes approval by experience, as well as knowledge in the ordinary sense. The ways of God are excellent, and commend themselves to such as keep them. In every case these are united in the ways of God. If prayer be enjoined as a duty, it is that we may receive the blessing when we rightly draw nigh to Him. Devotion has many mercies attached to it; and light, grace, comfort, or peace are given according to our wants. Without the duty we could not have the blessing, and men who slight the one lose the other. Our happiness never can be separated from our duties. (John Davis, BA.) Heart corruption Methodius compares the inbred corruptions of man’ s heart to a wild fig tree growing upon the wall of some goodly temple or stately palace, whereof, although the main trunk of the stem be broken off and stump of the root be plucked up, yet the fibrous strings of it piercing into the joints of the stone work will not be utterly extracted, but will ever and anon be shooting and sprouting out until the whole frame of the building be dissolved and the stonework thereof be disjointed anal pulled in pieces. (T. Brooks.) Heart error Error is insidious in its approaches. It flatters by liberality and betrays by sophism. We are not reconciled to it at once. There are disgusts to be allayed and fears to be vanquished. Little by little are we allured. Of none, perhaps, is the equivocal character more certain than of this. We believe it always originates in an undue conception of sin. This may be greatly modified. It does not “ appear sin.” Often, we believe, is it strengthened by the forgetfulness that our facts and faculties are alike limited, and by a pretension to knowledge far beyond our actual attainment. Let us beware of the first wrong direction of thought and feeling, however minute the degree; fearful may be the after deviations. The voyager enters a current which seems propitious, there is no apparent diversion from his course, his bark speeds well, his oar does not toil nor his sail strain. In his confidence all promises success. But while he examines, scarcely does it seem that he has advanced. Much again and again reminds him of what he has noticed just before. A strange familiarity impresses his sense. Still current flows into current, while onward and buoyant is his track. Soon he feels an unnatural vibration. Where he glided, he now whirls along. The truth seizes upon him. He is sweeping a whirlpool. Long since he has entered the verge of a maelstrom, and he is now the sport of its gyrations. No power is left his helm or mast; he is the trembling, unresisting prey. He hears the roar; he is drawn into the suck of the vortex. Not only the circle lessens, the very circle slopes. The central funnel and abyss, dark-heaving, smooth, vitreous, yawns. The mariner shrieks, the skiff is swallowed up, where the waters only separate to close, where the outermost attraction was but the minister to the famine of this devouring maw. (Dr. R. W. Hamilton.) The root of sin in the heart In every man’ s heart there is this triple root of sin; no one who knows his own heart will dispute it; the root of selfishness, from which spring self-indulgence, self-will, self esteem, and the whole brood of vanity and pride; the root of worldly-mindedness, which issues in ambition, in covetousness, in the love of money, in the desire of advancement, of honour, of power; and the root of carnal-mindedness, from which, if it be not cut down betimes, and kept diligently from shooting up again, the lusts of the flesh will sprout rankly, and overrun and stifle the soul. (Archdeacon Hare.) They have not known My ways God’ s ways Here we are to consider two points. 1. What are the ways of God. 2. How their not knowing of them was an aggravation of their sin. A way is that course wherein one walketh. It is attributed unto God metaphorically, and that in two respects 1. Actively; setting out that way wherein God Himself walks. 2. Relatively; intending that way wherein He would have us to walk. Of the former kind there are two sorts. 1. God’ s secret way. This is His unsearchable council (Romans 11:33; Isaiah 55:3). 2. His manifest way. Under this in special are contained His works, whereby He declares Himself and His Divine properties unto us, as power, wisdom, truth, mercy, justice, wrath, &c. (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 145:17). The ways wherein God would have us to walk are His precepts (Psalms 25:4; Psalms 25:8-9; Psalms 81:13; Isaiah 2:3). The two latter kind of ways are here especially meant, namely, His works and His precepts. The works of God are styled His ways, because we may see Him as it were walking therein. For by His works we may discern the footsteps of His properties and providence (Psalms 68:24). By the goings of God are meant the distinct acts of the Divine providence. Where it is said to God, “ Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters,” reference is had to God’ s manifestation of His power, wisdom, mercy, and justice in dividing the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through it, and overwhelming their enemies thereby (Psalms 77:19). In this respect that God’ s works are ways wherein He may be seen walking, it is our duty 1. To understand the ways of God, so far as He is pleased to walk in them, and to make them known to us. Thereby He shows Himself to be such a God as none can be imagined to be like unto Him (Psalms 66:3; Psalms 86:8). 2. To acknowledge the equity and righteousness of God’ s ways (Psalms 145:17). This is it whereabout God makes with the Israelites this vehement expostulation, and that again and again (Ezekiel 18:25; Ezekiel 18:29; Ezekiel 33:17; Ezekiel 33:20). To impeach God’ s ways of iniquity is a high degree of blasphemy. 3. To admire and magnify the Lord in His ways (Psalms 138:4-5). Much is this duty pressed in, and under the title of God’ s works (Psalms 9:1; Psalms 40:5). God’ s precepts are frequently styled His ways. To demonstrate this more clearly this epithet way is often joined with God’ s precepts and commandments (Psalms 119:27; Psalms 119:32-33; Psalms 119:35). God by His precepts doth declare unto men how they should carry themselves towards Him and towards one another, so as they are as a way for them to walk in, to observe and to do them. God’ s precepts are not for mere speculation, but for practice. It is the proper use of a way to walk in it. (W. Gouge.) Hebrews 3:12 An evil heart of unbelief Unbelief How does unbelief show itself? What are some of the evidences of unbelief? It shows itself in positive rejection of the gospel. There can be no difficulty in detecting that form of unbelief which says “ There is no God.” Perhaps none of you belong to that class. You would shrink from such a creed, whose air is the dungeon, whose element is darkness, whose hope is disappointment, whose doom is everlasting and clearly-declared banishment from God. It shows itself in another shape, namely, in a theoretical acceptance of Christianity, but in practically living without it. You are a Christian just in as far as the grace of God transforms your heart. This unbelief shows itself very often in refusing certain parts of the Bible as inspired--accepting by all means some books, but doubting others. I do not complain that you doubt, but I complain that you are satisfied with your doubts. The most upright and honest mind may doubt about a book in the Bible, but a thoroughly sincere mind will never rest satisfied with a doubt, lie will resolve to find reasons conclusive either to accept or reject. Another evidence of such unbelief is often shown in rejecting, or rather undervaluing, the great and distinctive peculiarities of evangelical religion. You must if you believe the gospel at all, accept it in its fulness, or reject it altogether. Nature accepts the existence of a God; grace alone, living faith, believes that He, is God manifest in the flesh. Another proof of this unbelief is seen in disliking a spiritual and a pure worship. Whenever unbelief begins to incrust itself oil man’ s heart he begins less to like a pure and spiritual worship, and more and more to be ensnared and charmed with a pompous and gorgeous ritual. This unbelief develops itself in pride. Wherever there is a proud man there is an unbelieving man. What is pride? It is just the passion that exudes from unbelief. Wherever there is pride there is a man at a distance from God; wherever there is deep humility, there is a man who feels that he is living near to God. This unbelief shows itself in presumption. Many men think God is all mercy; then sin again, and draw upon His mercy again; whereas the idea of the Bible teaches us that the very mercy that has to-day forgiven the sin committed yesterday is the strongest motive, and the likeliest and most constraining influence for avoiding all sin for the future. Another evidence of such unbelief is despair. In fact, these two, presumption and despair, alternate. The man that presumes to-day will generally be found in despair to-morrow. Presumption looks to God’ s mercy alone; despair looks at justice alone. Faith looks at mercy and truth met together; righteousness and peace embracing and kissing each other. (J. Cumming, D. D.) On the heart of unbelief I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN , or what we are to understand by a heart of unbelief. It implies 1. Ignorance. We mean not that which is occasioned by a deficiency of means, nor that which is owing to want of instruction in the doctrines of the gospel. That in view is, in Scripture, sometimes denominated blindness of heart. It is that gross darkness which hangs over the minds of those who are not united to Christ, by reason of which they do not spiritually understand the great truths which they notionally credit. One may have all knowledge and yet be deploratdly ignorant in a spiritual respect. Therefore the character of all unbelievers, the most knowing as well as the most ignorant, is that they know not God, and obey not the gospel. 2. The rejection of, or refusal of a proper assent to the testimony of God. Many pretend to assent to the Divine testimony who do it not in a right manner or on proper grounds. They believe the truth of Revelation, and of particular doctrines. But for what reasons? Their fathers had the same persuasion. These things are believed by the church of which they are members, and it requires the same of them. Or, perhaps, they find no sufficient reason for calling in question the proofs of the inspiration of Scripture which are ordinarily brought. But such an assent is not that which accompanies salvation. For this is founded on the authority of God impressed on the word and manifesting itself powerfully to the conscience and heart. 3. Obduracy. It is not only essential to saving faith that the understanding be supernaturally enlightened, but that the heart be graciously mollified. For “ with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” This is the most secure fortress of unbelief. Though rational considerations and common operations may produce a great change in the understanding, conscience, and affections, yet these are only the outworks of the soul. The will, as to any saving change, remains absolutely impregnable till the Holy Spirit makes a breach in it by that fire, and by that “ hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.” 4. A rejection of the person and mediation of Christ. This is the crowning point of unbelief in all. As it hath been often said that the formal act of faith consists in receiving Christ, it may be also asserted that the rejection of Him constitutes the formal act of unbelief. As submission to the righteousness of Christ is the greatest act of faith, the rejection of His righteousness is the greatest act of unbelief. This is sometimes done openly, as when the very profession of His name is treated with scorn. Others do it more secretly by maintaining a profession while they make it only a cloak for their sin. There is still a more secret way of rejecting Him. For many apprehend that they have given their hearts to Christ, while some hidden lust still keeps firm hold of them. 5. A refusal on the part of those who hear the gospel to believe the record of God with particular application to themselves. 6. Distrust of God in Christ. In faith there is a resting on Christ alone for salvation as well as a cordial reception of Him. But unbelief refuses this exercise. Faith depends on His righteousness as the only ground of justification before God, but unbelief either contemptuously rejects this, or vainly endeavours to join it with the works of the law, or refuses it under the pretence of personal unworthiness. 7. Disobedience. There is the greatest contumacy in unbelief. “ This is the commandment of God, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” Now, unbelief spurns at this commandment and tramples it under foot. It denies salvation through free grace to be practicable, reasonable, or comfortable. It says in effect, “ Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” All may be exhorted to try themselves, by what hath been now observed, that they may know whether they really believe in Christ, or continue under the power of unbelief? 1. Try your knowledge. If it be supernatural and saving you will be convinced of your natural ignorance and of your absolute need of Christ, as of God, made unto you of wisdom. It will warm your heart with love to the unseen Redeemer. 2. Try the nature of your assent to the Divine testimony. Do you assent to its truth just because of the authority of God manifested in it? Do you trust the promise just because you judge Him faithful who hath promised? This is the only true foundation of faith. 3. Hath the obduracy of your heart been broken? If this be the case, you have learned that it is naturally a stony heart. The remaining obduracy of your heart is your daily grief, and you are still claiming His promise, “ A new heart will I give you.” 4. Have you received the Saviour, or do you still reject Him? If the former, then you have received Him in all His offices--as a Prophet, Priest, and King. 5. Do you claim a particular and personal interest in God’ s promise, in Christ exhibited therein, and in all the blessings presented to you through Him? It is the attainment of true believers alone really to appropriate Christ to themselves. 6. Do you rely on God in Christ? If so, you despise every other confidence, and are fully satisfied that your own righteousness is only a refuge of lies, and your own strength absolute weakness. 7. If you be delivered from the power of that disobedience which is in unbelief, you will obey from the heart, and habitually delight in the ways of God. If you know the obedience of faith you will constantly aim at the obedience of holiness. II. THE CAUSES OF THAT WHICH IN A OF THE SAVIOUR. The corruption of human nature is the primary cause of all the particular evils that prevail in the heart or life. To this polluted fountain all the streams of iniquity must be traced. It is the ocean of depravity in the heart that, by its swelling tides, fills so many distinct channels. All men are naturally disposed to reject the testimony of God because they ate born in sin. Therefore all without distinction are called children of disobedience, or of unbelief. There are several things within the sinner himself, and some also of an outward nature, that operate on his mind as causes of that unbelief which is called positive or acquired, or of the continuance and increase of the natural unbelief of the heart, especially as manifested in the rejection of salvation through Christ, to illustrate some of which is our present design. Amongst these arc 1. Ignorance. This hath been already viewed as an ingredient in unbelief. But it may be also considered in the light of a cause. Acquired unbelief proceeds especially from wilful ignorance. Of this sin Peter accuses the hearers of the gospel, For this, he says, “ they are willingly ignorant of.” The same complaint is made by the Psalmist, “ They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness.” 2. The love of sin. This is naturally supreme in the heart. It must be so indeed, because sin reigns in us. It is impossible that a supreme love of sin and faith in the Saviour should subsist in the same heart, for where faith is it purifies the heart. 3. Attachment to the objects of sense. Man, even according to his original state, from the very frame of his nature, hath a great and intimate connection with these. But this is unspeakably augmented by sin. In the state of innocence the senses were subjected to reason, but now reason is subjected to them. Therefore the whole man, as unrenewed, is denominated from these. He is called the natural, animal, or sensual man. 4. Inconsideration and indifference about the grace exhibited in the gospel. It is given as the character of sinners that they turn back from God, and will not consider any of His ways. Men presumptuously give the sacrifice of fools because they consider not that they do evil. 5. The agency of Satan. He works on the root of unbelief in the heart, and prompts men actually to reject eternal life. Therefore, he is called the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He makes them view the concerns of eternity as of little moment compared with those of time, and so entangles their minds with the affairs of this life as to make them suspend all serious attention to those of that which is to come. He likewise represents sin as a small matter that they may give themselves no trouble about salvation. 6. The love of the world. The pleasures, riches, and honours of this world swell so much in the sinner’ s eye that he views all eternal objects in a diminished light; he considers them as of no consequence, as unworthy of his pursuit. 7. The fear of suffering. This hath o[ten proved a snare. We have frequently perceived its influence in preventing a confession of Christ, and where it continues to overpower the mind it as really prevents a genuine faith in Him. 8. Lastly, perhaps the most powerful cause of unbelief is the pride of man. This natural principle in its influence in the heart directly opposes faith. It discovers itself in a variety of ways. It appears as a pride of reason, of wisdom or learning, of will, of righteousness, and of strength. Are these, then, the causes of that unbelief which consists in a rejection of the Saviour? It must undoubtedly be your duty, depending on Divine grace, to give all diligence to counteract their operation. For this purpose 1. Labour to attain a real acquaintance with the truths of God. While you are assiduous in acquiring a doctrinal knowledge of them let it be your special aim to know them experimentally and practically in their power on the heart and life. 2. Supplicate the power of Divine grace for destroying the reign of sin in your hearts. It is the work of the Spirit to accomplish this by creating you again in Christ Jesus. 3. Endeavour to get your hearts loosed from sensible objects. Consider their insignificance, and the unspeakable value of those that are spiritual. 4. Despise not the grace that is in your offer. To recommend it to your attention you are assured that it is abundant, for “ where sin hath abounded, grace did much more abound.” You know not how soon you may be deprived of the offer. Consider the danger of continuing to refuse it. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. 5. Beware of listening to the suggestions of Satan. His name tells you what he is--an adversary. Be not ignorant of his devices. And this is his great device to keep men at a distance from Christ. Some he prevails with one way, some another. But whatever method he take, if he can effect this, his great object is gained. The more that Satan instigates you to reject Christ, the more earnest ought you to be to embrace Him, for he desires nothing so vehemently as to deprive God of His glory and you of salvation. 6. Pray for deliverance from this present evil world, from the love and from the fear of it. It does not merit your love, for it makes no worthy return. Why should you fear the world? It cannot really hurt you. The utmost it can do is to kill the body. 7. Be denied to yourselves. How dangerous is it for a professed disciple to deny his Master? But whence are any chargeable with this aggravated sin? It is just because they have not learned to deny themselves. (John Jamieson, M. A.) On the evil and aggravations of unbelief 1. It strikes against all the perfections of the Divine nature. All these are illustriously displayed and infinitely glorified in the work of man’ s salvation. If you reject the Son of God, you are chargeable with practical blasphemy against each of the Divine attributes. You in effect call the wisdom of God foolishness. It is not to you the wisdom of God. Nor is it the power of God. For by your unbelief you say that it was exerted, even in this great salvation, for no great end. You also insult His holiness, as if it were a needless regard to trifling offences. By rejecting the Saviour you materially say that sin is a light matter, and that Christ died in vain. You brand His justice as if it were a groundless severity; for by refusing to accept of the obedience and sufferings of Christ, as in your stead, you practically declare that He obeyed and suffered without any real necessity. You virtually deny His faithfulness; for he that believeth not in God hath made Him a liar. His very love, which is the great source of salvation, you dare to treat as if it were unmeaning compassion; as being exercised about those who have no need of it; mercy extended to those who are not miserable, offering salvation to those who can easily save themselves. 2. It does injury to all the Persons of the adorable Trinity. The Father declares Christ to be His beloved Son; and this is His record, that in Him there is eternal life: yet sinners by their unbelief refuse to give it credit. The Son testifies concerning Himself; yet they reject His testimony. They will not allow Him to be the faithful and true witness. The Holy Spirit hath attested the excellency of that salvation exhibited in the gospel, not only as the Spirit of inspiration but by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles. He still attests it by common and saving operations on the hearts of men. Though God reveals Himself in the gospel under the endearing character of love, and though He describes the scheme of redemption as the most glorious of all the Divine councils, yet unbelief refuses Him all honour in this gracious revelation. 3. The great evil of this sin appears from the dignity of the person of Christ, and especially from the truth of His Divine nature. He is the more immediate object of faith; for by Him we believe in God: therefore unbelief is more immediately committed against Him. 4. Unbelief is greatly aggravated from Christ’ s relation to us as our Kinsman-Redeemer. The greater the condescension of any person, the greater is the evidence of his love, and the more inexcusable is our ingratitude if we make not a proper return. And behold I what infinite condescension is here. 5. The atrocious nature of this sin appears from the dignity of the mediatory office of Christ. The honour conferred on Him by His mission, as well as that essentially belonging to Him in His person, is often mentioned as a valid reason of faith, and as a striking proof of the evil of unbelief. This is the work of God, a work of the greatest importance, that work in the success of which He is especially concerned, “ that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” 6. The sin of unbelief is greatly aggravated by the reason of various relations in which the Son of God offers Himself in the gospel to sinners. That no person whatsoever may have excuse for rejecting Him from a pretended unsuitableness to his necessities in the character that Christ bears, in unspeakable love He reveals Himself in every character with which the necessity, nay, the misery of man, can in any respect correspond. Is the sinner in a widowed state, is he desolate and forsaken like a wife of youth? In great mercy this Kinsman-Redeemer saith, “ Thy Maker is thy Husband.” Is he, in a spiritual sense, an orphan? He reveals Himself as a Father to the fatherless, in His holy habitation. And in Him, indeed, the fatherless findeth mercy. Is he friendless and destitute? Here is “ a Friend born for adversity, a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” a Friend who hath laid down His life for His enemies. Is he foolish and ignorant? Christ proclaims Himself as the Counsellor. Hath he gone astray, and is he altogether unable to recover himself? He appears as a compassionate Shepherd, who “ gathers the lambs with His arm, carries them in His bosom,” and “ brings back the hundredth sheep that was lost, on His shoulders, rejoicing.” Is he weak? He is the Strength of Israel. Is he in a starving condition? Then Christ declares that He is the Bread of Life. Is he dead in trespasses and sins? The God-man is the Resurrection and the Life. Where then is thy excuse, O unbelieving man? There is no want in thyself but may be amply supplied in Christ, and will be amply supplied by a believing application to Him. 7. This sin is greatly aggravated from the work which Christ hath performed, and the blessings that He hath purchased. 8. A consideration of the variety of means and ordinances with which the hearers of the gospel are favoured tends to illustrate the great guilt of this sin. The greater the tenderness of a parent, and the more various the plans he pursues in order to reclaim a rebellious child, the greater is his guilt if he persists in rebellion. And how various are the means of grace which sinners enjoy--means of conviction, illumination, conversion, comfort, confirmation, and edification! 9. Under the power of this sin men refuse the influence of every consideration that hath weight with them in other things. In human affairs they are generally engaged by the reasonableness of any proposal. The proposals which God makes to us, in the Word, are highly reasonable. He offers eternal life, through Jesus Christ, without money and without price. He assures us that we cannot save ourselves. Yet the sinner prefers death to life. 10. This is a sin that can never be committed by heathens. For “ how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” Although their sin is declared to be inexcusable, yet their doom is more tolerable. 11. This is a sin that could never be committed by devils. Unspeakable is their guilt indeed. But they have never added, and never can add, to their other sins that of rejecting salvation through Jesus Christ. 12. This is a sin against the very remedy. “ If ye believe not,” saith Christ, “ that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” 13. This sin, in some sense, lays bonds on Omnipotence. It does not so absolutely. It is impossible that the creature can ever defeat the purpose of the Creator, whatever it be, for He will do all His pleasure. But sinners may, and often, do counteract the operations of God as to their tendency in themselves. Thus they oppose their natural tendency, though they do not defeat the immutable purpose of God, but actually accomplish it. From these considerations we learn 1. That unbelief attempts a second time to undo all that God hath done for His own glory and for the happiness of man. According to its nature, it is determined to war against God in all His works, though at the dreadful expense of warring against the soul. 2. The source of the ruin of many hearers of the gospel. Whatever attention they pay to the sins of their conversation, they are under no apprehensions about those of the heart. They endeavour to reform their lives, to deliver themselves from the more gross pollutions of the world. But oh! consider, that this is only to wash the outside of the cup, and of the platter; and that how much soever it please men, however beneficial it be to society, it comes far short of pleasing God. (John Jamieson, M. A.) On the prevalence of unbelief in believers Though its power is broken like a tree that is blasted by lightning, or felled by the axe, there is still a corrupt root in the heart which retains a principle of life, and is continually sending forth its bitter scions, which is perpetually springing up, and often greatly troubles the Christian, so that he is thereby defiled. 1. It discovers itself by suggesting doubts about the reality of religion, or the truth of fundamental doctrines. 2. It appears in seeking sensible manifestations as the foundation of faith. Faith and sense are two things entirely different. Faith is the life of the Christian on earth. Sense is the life of saints in glory. Faith is a persuasion of the truth of God’ s testimony, on His own faithfulness pledged in the Word. Sense is the enjoyment of those blessings which are the subject of this testimony. We must first believe and then see; for it is not sense, but faith, which must be our support in this life. But Christians are often disposed to invert this order. They would first see, and then believe. 3. It appears in disbelieving the promise of God when providence seems to oppose its fulfilment. It is no small measure of faith that can bring a Christian to the same exercise with Job: “ Though He shall slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” 4. Unbelief discovers itself in unbelievers by making them doubt of God’ s love to them because of their unworthiness or when their love to Him is weak. They measure the extent and duration of Divine love by their own variable exercise; though they may be well assured, that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than their ways, and His thoughts than their thoughts. The love of God to thee, weak Christian, is eternal. For He hath said--yea, He is presently saying, “ I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” It is unchangeable; for the Lord thy God in the midst of thee--rest in His love. Can anything, then, be more unjust to thy God than to doubt the truth of His love to thee because of the weakness of thy love to Him; when He hath at first extended loving-kindness over thee, and hath ever since been compassing thee about with mercy? 5. It often prompts the Christian to deny the whole of his experience because he is at times assaulted with terrors of conscience on account of sin. To conclude from these that all former experience has been a mere delusion proceeds from a mistaken apprehension of the Christian life; as if it were impossible that any who are savingly converted could feel a work of the law on their consciences. True it is that one of the blessings of the covenant of grace, and one of the most eminent fruits of justification, is peace of conscience. But we are not to suppose that this peace is altogether uninterrupted. As it admits of different degrees in different believers, so also of different degrees in the same person, according to the sovereignty of God’ s dispensation, or the variation of circumstances. 6. Unbelief takes advantage when matters exceed expectation. We have a striking example of this in the conduct of the disciples when Christ appeared to them after His resurrection. “ They believed not for joy, but wondered.” 7. Unbelief exerts its influence in disposing him to yield to corruption or temptation from a doubt of God’ s willingness to deliver. It is as if a soldier in the field of battle were to assure himself that he should be overcome; and under the influence of this apprehension should at the very first onset throw down his arms and desert his standard. How unlike is this to the soldiers of Jesus Christ, who must endure hardness, who ought to stand fast, quit themselves like men, and be strong. There is no sin or danger in doubting our own sufficiency. All is wrong with us, till we despair of it, till we see our greatest strength to be mere weakness. But to doubt of the strength of our Head is absolute unbelief; nay, to doubt of it as ours. This is the great reason of our falling. 8. In neglecting duty from an apprehension of danger. Fear is the child of unbelief; and where there is a persuasion of the Divine call, and yet disobedience to it from the fear of danger, it is a greater act of unbelief than the disbelief of the call itself. The rejection of God’ s call discovers ignorance and blindness of heart; but a refusal of obedience when conscience feels the force and authority of the call is more dishonouring to God because it is a gross abuse of light. 9. It uses every effort to drive Christians away from the exercise of prayer when it is not immediately answered. God could as easily answer the prayer of His people at first as afterwards; but it is His pleasure that they should join hope and patience with their faith. They must be taught submission to His will as to the season. He delights in their holy importunity, and will thus enhance the value of His blessings before He bestows them. 10. Unbelief breaks out in anxious thoughts about temporal subsistence. Like Asaph, they are in danger of fretting when they see the prosperity of the wicked. But there can be nothing more unreasonable. For this prosperity is nowise enviable, as it often proves their destruction. 11. This corruption often discovers itself in fears of death. It is one of the glorious fruits of the death of Christ to deliver His people not only from the power but from the fear of death. But many real Christians are so weak in faith, that all their life, through fear of it, they are subject to bondage. These fears also discover the strength of unbelief. For by indulging them they deny and deprive themselves of one blessed fruit of the purchase of Christ--a deliverance from the fear of death. Lessons: 1. Judge not of the love of God to you by the course of providence. If you take a just and comprehensive view of this it will prove a powerful confirmation of the truth of His Word. But a partial view can only tend to fill you with perplexity. 2. Beware of interpreting the designs of providence by its external aspect. It is denying providence and deceiving ourselves to explain it in this manner. For nothing can be a more uncertain evidence of the real design of God’ s procedure than its outward appearance. In general its intention is the very reverse of what carnal reason would suppose. 3. Do not imagine that there is any real humility in doubting or denying what God hath done for your souls, whatever evidence you have of His love in a work of progressive sanctification. There is a great ingratitude in such conduct: for whatever self-abasing thoughts you entertain, you ought always to acknowledge the truth of God’ s loving-kindness towards you. 4. Amidst all doubts, fears, and disquietudes, endeavour to present exercise of faith in Christ. This is the most effectual and confounding reply to all the reasonings of unbelief and temptations of Satan. This is a mean of comfort which has been often blessed to doubting saints when their Christian experience hath been of little use to them, when every other mean hath failed. To one groping in darkness there cannot be so convincing an evidence of the reality of light as to get a view of the sun shining in his strength. (John Jamieson, M. A.) On vigilance as to a heart of unbelief 1. This exhortation by no means implies that it is either in our will or in our power to change our hearts. For, although it is otherwise with respect to conversion, regeneration is everywhere represented as a real change affected on the heart of the sinner, wherein he is entirely passive, as a new creation, a calling of things that be not, a quickening of those who are dead, a transformation into the image of God; in a word, as a work of such a nature, that it requires an exceeding greatness of Divine power. 2. This exhortation implies that we are in great danger of being negligent. The power of sin in our hearts, the temptations of Satan, and the influence of the world, are all evidences of the danger we are in of rejecting Christ. 3. It implies the necessity of watchfulness and jealousy of ourselves. Take heed, look around you, lest ye be misled as to the great interests of salvation. We are called to such vigilance as become a watchman appointed for the very purpose of observing the motions of an enemy. 4. These words denote the necessity of knowing our natural state as under the dominion of sin. It is not said, Take heed “ lest there enter into your hearts any motion of unbelief,” as if it were a thing that had no root within us, a habit to be contracted by imitation, or by a course of iniquity. But, take heed lest there be in any of you a heart of unbelief; as plainly declaring that this is natural to every man, and that it is so as denominating his whole heart. 5. It implies the possibility of knowing our present state. 6. It expresses the necessity and importance of the knowledge of our state. Were not this knowledge of the greatest consequence to us, the Holy Spirit would not press us so earnestly to take heed that we deceive not ourselves. The importance of this knowledge appears from that of its subject; as the glory of God and our eternal comfort are inseparably connected with it. On this question, whether we be in Christ? depends another of the greatest moment, whether God’ s highest end, not only in the works of creation and providence, but in redemption, and the highest end of our being be accomplished? This is the one thing needful, compared with which everything else that requires our attention is less than nothing and vanity. 7. It implies that it is highly incumbent on us to examine ourselves for discovering our state. The phrase here used signifies a looking not only about us but into ourselves, a trying of our own hearts: for thus alone can we discover the dominion or prevalence of unbelief. 8. This injunction declares the necessity of a diligent use and improvement of all the means of grace. We are not to confine our attention merely to what passes within us for attaining a knowledge of our state, but diligently to attend to ordinances as the means instituted by God for rectifying our state, if it be bad, and for giving us a greater degree of certainty. 9. It implies that Christians ought not only to know their real state but to attend to their present exercise. 10. This injunction further implies that the sin of believers, in itself considered, hath no less guilt, and is attended with no less danger than that of the unregenerate. 11. It also implies that our preservation in a state of grace is inseparably connected with the use of means on our part. From the foregoing observations, those who are still negligent about the state of their hearts may be exhorted 1. To the exercise of self-examination. 2. Beware of spiritual sloth. This is the ruin of many hearers of the gospel. They will not give themselves so much trouble as to make a diligent inquiry into their state for eternity. 3. Earnestly apply to God Himself that He may open and incline your hearts. He alone can perform this work. It is His prerogative. It is entirely a supernatural work. It is not bestowed on men like any natural gift, such as wisdom or prudence. It must be communicated by the effectual operation of the spirit, implanting a new nature. For God saith, “ Behold I make all things new.” (John Jamieson, M. A.) On the necessity of vigilance as to unbelief The necessity of taking heed to the gospel, of embracing Christ, and adhering to Him in the exercise of genuine faith, appears 1. From the impossibility of escape to final unbelievers. 2. From the severity of the punishment awaiting unbelievers. 3. The dignity of Christ’ s prophetical character. The chapter in which our text lies begins with this argument: “ Wherefore … consider the Apostle … of our profession, Christ Jesus.” How are we to consider Him? We are so to devote our minds to the contemplation of all His excellencies as fully to satisfy ourselves that He is every way worthy to be the object of our faith. We must consider Him as “ the Apostle of our profession” ; for He is that great Prophet whom God hath sent, after having promised Him so often and so long. 4. The honour put on those who steadfastly adhere to Christ. They are His house! He occupies their hearts, their whole persons, as His constant dwelling; for He hath said, “ I will dwell in them.” They are “ builded up for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” If so, we ought surely to be extremely vigilant, lest, by an evil heart of unbelief, we exclude this blessed inhabitant. 5. The authority of the Holy Ghost. This argument is proposed (Hebrews 3:7-8). Unbelief, when described as a tempting of God, is held up to view as committed against each Person of the adorable Godhead. It is spoken of as a tempting of the Father (Psalms 95:7). It is viewed as committed against Christ (1 Corinthians 10:9). And here it is considered as directed against the Spirit. Unbelief is thus described, because it is a rejection of that salvation in which each Person of the Trinity hath a peculiar and distinct operation. It is especially a tempting of the Holy Ghost, because it is more immediately opposed to His work ill applying this salvation to the hearts of men. By unbelief He is peculiarly resisted, as He, according to the order of subsistence, is the Finisher of all the external works of God. Therefore unbelievers are not said to resist the Father, or the Son, but the Spirit. Two things are mentioned in the passage, in which the authority of the Holy Spirit is interposed. First, He enjoins on us the exercise of faith in hearing the voice of God, the present exercise of faith, without admitting of any delay. “ To-day, if ye will hear.” Then He warns us against unbelief and activity in hardening ourselves and tempting Him, like the ancient Jews. It is, therefore, necessary that we take heed, lest we be found chargeable with resisting the Holy Spirit of promise by a rejection of that which is the great subject of His testimony and ground of His operation in the Church, the salvation purchased by the blood of Christ. 6. The danger of being unexpectedly deprived of our day of grace. This argument is urged by the apostle, from the example of God’ s procedure with the Israelites (Hebrews 3:11). The day of grace is never extended beyond the day of life. But the latter sometimes continues after the former is gone. 7. The unspeakable blessedness necessarily connected with genuine faith. “ For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14). The great privilege which the apostle seems especially to have in his eye is union to Christ. He, in His incarnation, was made a partaker of us: “ Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same.” Now, this participation is mutual; for being joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with Him. The apostle seems especially to describe faith as the evidence of our real participation of Christ. He exhibits it under one character, which is a certain proof of its sincerity. It is of a permanent nature. It is not a transient notion in the head, or affection in the heart, which we have to-day, and lose tomorrow, but a fixed principle, making us to abide in Christ to the end of our course. 8. The danger of exclusion from God’ s rest This argument is urged by the apostle in the last verse of this chapter, connected with the first of the following: “ So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” This argument is intimately connected with one already considered, arising from the danger of our day of grace coming to an end. 9. The all-penetrating nature of the Word of God. This argument is adduced (Hebrews 4:12-13). From the foregoing observations we infer (1) That God deals with us in the gospel as rational creatures. He proposes innumerable motives, which have a natural tendency to affect the will. He works on the affections by the most pressing entreaties, tender expostulations, and exceeding great and precious promises. As man is naturally swayed by hopes of honour, pleasure or interest, He shows that all these in their true value and perfect essence are engaged solely on His side. Thus He “ draws with the cords of a man” (Hosea 11:4). (2) The necessity of having the heart right with God. Did the priests under the law examine the sacrifices, not only outwardly, but inwardly, to discover if there was any blemish So doth our great High Priest. He looks not only to the conduct, but to the heart, to see if there be any such blemish there, as would render the sacrifice a corrupt thing. For all things are naked and opened to Him. (3) One mark by which the voice of Christ may be known. It is of a heart-penetrating nature. “ The sheep,” saith the Great Shepherd, speaking of ” Himself, “ hear His voice:… for they know it. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” Many flee from a searching ministry. But surely this is the greatest folly, and a certain evidence that the heart is bad. For “ he that is of the truth, cometh to the light.” What is this but as far as possible, to flee from the presence of the Lord, to flee from the Word of God, who, by the means of His own appointment, is quick and powerful? (4) Christians may learn the danger of grieving the Holy Ghost. You do so by not improving His gracious motions within you when stirring you up to duty, and by committing sin. (5) Those Who are habitually careless may be warned from this branch of the subject not to tempt and resist the Holy Spirit. (John Jamieson, M. A.) On the tendency of unbelief From these words we are therefore to illustrate the natural tendency of unbelief, or its influence in producing a departure from the living God. 1. This expression implies a rejection of spiritual and eternal life, through Jesus Christ. This sin, as persisted in, issues in a total separation from the blissful enjoyment of God as reconciled, an eternal banishment “ from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His Dower” (2. Thessalonians 1:9). 2. It often produces a secret apostasy from Christ. Many retain the form of godliness, while they practically deny the power thereof. They indulge sin in the chamber of imagery, or practise it so secretly that their characters are not blasted. 3. Unbelief induces to a departure from all purity and strictness of profession. 4. Unbelief drives others so far that they entirely renounce a religious profession. 5. Unbelief often issues in confirmed, or in judicial obduracy. 6. It tends to the commission of the unpardonable sin. This evil heart is a sluice which, if once opened, knows no restraint but what is imposed on it by the restraining, preventing, renewing, or preserving grace of God. It is a torrent that would soon burst through all the fences of reason, natural dictates of conscience, common light, and strong convictions--nay, of saving grace already received, were not believers kept by the power of God through faith as the mean, kept by continual supplies from the fulness of Christ, and thus preserved hem perishing. It is naturally a rejection of the living God, and of that life of God, which can alone preserve from total apostasy and eternal death. 7. It tends to the indulgence of all sin. As unbelief is itself the departure of the heart from God, it continually impels to an universal departure from Him in the life. He who is under the power of unbelief never views sin as sin. Unbelief, which rejects Christ and salvation through Him, must necessarily give a preference to sin, his enemy. Nay, that very preference which the unbeliever gives to sin is the immediate cause of his rejection of the Saviour. The character of evil here given to the heart seems, indeed, especially to refer to the great efficacy of positive or acquired unbelief; for it makes the heart a great deal more wicked than it was before. Nor is it merely called evil, but the word used denotes great activity in evil, a labour in increasing its own corruption and that of the life, in strengthening itself in its own wickedness. 8. It tends to eternal death. If, as hath been said, it be a rejection of spiritual and eternal life, this must be the inevitable consequence. (John Jamieson, M. A.) On the improvement of the doctrine of unbelief I. We may improve it for . 1. We may learn, in general, the great reason of the unprofitableness of the bearers of the gospel. It is their want of faith. 2. It may be inferred that we ought to view every sin in its natural tendency. This particularly applies to unbelief. Therefore the apostle holds up this sin in its genuine scope, in departing from the living God. This is one great object of the deceitfulness of sin to conceal its true spirit, design, and end. But we ought to tear off the veil, and then shall we see that its ways lead down to death. 3. A departure from the ordinances of the gospel is a departure from God. The Hebrews might be apt to excuse themselves for renouncing the gospel dispensation in the hour of trial by pretending that they still secretly adhered in heart to God, trusted in the Messiah, and retained a respect to ordinances formerly enjoined. But the apostle shows that, by departing from the gospel, they really apostatised from the living God. Others may endeavour to excuse themselves in like manner from their inward respect to God, while they refuse attendance on the means of grace. But all who habitually do so renounce the authority of God, who hath an undoubted right to appoint what religious ordinances soever He pleases. Unless we acknowledge His authority in this respect, our hearts do not submit to Him; we rise up in actual rebellion against Him. 4. The great danger of speaking irreverently of the Holy Spirit, either as to His person or operations. 5. We may learn that even the partial exercise of unbelief in the hearts of God’ s people is highly provoking to Him. Therefore we are so earnestly dehorted from it. We have an instance of His displeasure in this respect with two eminent saints, Moses and Aaron, although Moses was the principal actor. II. This subject affords ground of TRIAL. Let every one put this important question to his own heart, “ Do I really believe in Christ, or am I still under the power of this evil heart of unbelief?” 1. If your faith be saving, you are convinced that it is the work of God. 2. It is attended with evangelical repentance. “ They shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn.” Have you never been made to abhor yourselves? Has all your sorrow for sin been confined to its consequences? If so, you are yet strangers to the faith of God’ s elect. 3. The heart is purified by means of it. This grace always produces holiness. It instigates to, and is instrumental in, the mortification of all known sin. 4. It worketh by love. It produces a supreme love to God. For “ he that loveth not, knoweth not God.” It works by love to the brethren. For “ hereby do we know that we are passed from death to life,” &c. 5. It overcometh the world. The Church is represented as having the moon under her feet. This may be understood of the present world, of which, because of the uncertainty of all its enjoyments, the moon in her many waxings and wanings, in her constant changes, is a very proper emblem. Faith overcomes the world in its allurements. 6. It produces a high esteem of Christ; for to them that believe He is precious. 7. Faith receives and improves Christ in every respect in which He is revealed. It embraces Him in His person as God-man. Therefore believing is called receiving Him. Indeed, faith is, on our part, the great instrument of union to Christ. Faith embraces His righteousness. Therefore it is called the righteousness of faith, and said to be unto all and upon all them that believe It receives Him in all His offices, as made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. 8. Faith purifies the life. “ As the body without the spirit is dead, even so faith without works is dead also.” That faith which does not influence the practice is deceitful and destructive. (John Jamieson, M. A.) To all, faith In Scripture the “ heart” expresses the whole spiritual nature of man--his mind or understanding, his feelings and passions, his spiritual being, his will. Under sin the heart’ s thoughts are darkened, its passions degraded, its will perverted (Jeremiah 17:9; Ezekiel 11:19; Ecclesiastes 8:2). Accordingly, the gospel deals first and above all with the heart. Mere change of life, while a deceitful heart remains, will avail nothing. The gospel’ s first promise, therefore, is (Ezekiel 37:26-27). The renewed heart implies everything--new light to the darkened mind, a renewed will, a new life. The root of all the evils that afflict our race is the unbelieving heart. You will find many urge in those days that, as faith is simply belief in testimony, as to whose value people may differ, unbelief is no sin. For instance, you may hear that a certain event took place in London last week, and the evidence seems to you so good that you believe the report; a friend of yours, however, does not believe it, because he thinks the evidence untrustworthy. In neither case does moral blame attach to the person; all that can be said is, that the two friends differ. Now any one who reads Holy Scripture will soon discover that, as to the great truths of religion, Scripture treats faith in them, or unbelief, in no such easy temper as this. Faith, according to the Bible, is our first duty, and unbelief a damning crime (Mark 16:16; John 6:29; John 3:18). What, then, is theessence of saving faith? (Romans 10:9-10). It is believing God’ s testimony concerning His Son, concerning our doom as sinners, His love as our Saviour, His death for us, His resurrection, His reign over us, and His Spirit’ s work in us. As to God, it is our taking Him at His word, in all He tells us of our emptiness, and of Christ’ s fulness. As to ourselves, it is the assertion and triumph of the higher nature within us over the lower, of the unseen and eternal over the world of sense about us and within us. We see, then, why faith saves. It lays hold upon God; it overcomes the world. The believer lives as seeing Him who is invisible, as in presence of things eternal. God has clearly revealed to us this unseen lie, and established by many infallible proofs both its existence and its awful character. Reason deals with the evidence, and then, assured of the facts, faith’ s eye gazes upon them as though they were visible, and the believer lives under the abiding sense and power of them. What this power is, we see in Hebrews 11. Whereas, where an evil, unbelieving heart is, there will be found the victory not of faith, but of the world--evil thoughts, evil desires, evil words, evil acts, the deceitful heart desperately wicked. In Romans 1:28-32 we have one of the reasons why unbelief is condemned. It is a sin against knowledge. It may be said, indeed, that many live in ignorance of unseen realities; but whence springs this? With multitudes, from indifference. They care for none of the things that make for their soul’ s peace, and hence take no pains to know God’ s way of peace for guilty sinners. Multitudes, again, are lost by procrastination. The longer the delay, the less the hope. Worldliness grows upon one, deadness of heart spreads and deepens; ossification, stoniness of heart--the truest and most awful mortification known to us; the conscience becomes dulled, the eye of sense opens, the objects of sense allures, faith’ s eye closes, and unseen things become dim, shadowy, unsubstantial. Luxuries become, from habit, necessities; the lust of the flesh, &c., grow by indulgence; and the desires after better things unseen dwindle by disuse. Faint wishes after heavenly things, and these but seldom take the place of settled purpose; while the strong will, every day stronger, drags down the captive spirit to earth, and sense, and sin. Pride unites with careless indolence in making the unbeliever reject the gospel. He rebels against its simplicity. His good name, good works, good character--something of self as are equivalent for salvation; whereas, all the while, eternal life is God’ s free gift, which can neither be bought nor bribed, but must come of God’ s own rich, undeserved grace, for His Son’ s sake. Strange, too, as it may seem, the evil heart betrays its presence as much by shame as by pride; but it is the false shame, which springs not from sin but from fear of the opinion of the world about us. There is but one way to God, but there are a thousand ways of departing from Him. He who is the slave of impure thought, of anger, hatred, malice, envy, or covetousness, will find that his evil begirt will soon open up a way by which he may depart still further from the living God. To each and all the gospel says--Return. The test of faith is obedience. (W. McLean.) The evil of unbelief 1. Unbelief hardens men’ s hearts against means afforded for their good 2 Kings 17:14; Exodus 9:19; Exodus 9:21). 2. It keeps them from being established in the way of God (Isaiah 7:9). 3. It makes them reject those whom God sends (John 5:38; Matthew 21:32). 4. It takes away the profit of God’ s word (Hebrews 4:2). 5. It perverts the plainest manner of teaching (John 3:12; John 10:25). 6. It makes miracles not to be regarded (John 12:37). 7. It enrageth men’ s minds against the truth (Acts 17:5): 8. It moved the apostles to depart from people (Acts 19:9). 9. It makes men unfit to call on God (Romans 10:4). 10. Unbelievers can in nothing please God (Hebrews 11:6). 11. They are no sheep of Christ (John 10:26). 12. They are under Satan’ s power (2 Corinthians 4:4). 13. To unbelievers nothing is pure (Titus 1:15). 14. The gifts which Christ bestows upon them are fruitless and without Matthew 17:20). 15. Christ’ s own power is stinted to them (Matthew 13:58). 16. Unbelief makes men do detestable acts (1 Timothy 1:13). 17. It was an especial cause of the rejection of the Jews (Romans 11:20). 18. It was the cause of many external judgments (Hebrews 3:19; Hebrews 11:31). For it makes men run headlong into danger (Exodus 14:23). 19. It excludes from heaven (Hebrews 4:11). 20. It thrusts down to hell (Luke 12:46; Mark 16:16; John 3:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:12; Revelation 21:8). Can that which is in itself so heinous a sin, and that which has so many fearful effects following upon it, be accounted an infirmity? If we would judge it as indeed it is a true, proper sin, a cause of many other gross sins: a sin most dishonourable to God, and damagable to our own souls: we should take more heed of it, and be more watchful against it. (W. Gouge.) Duties due to Christ, as He is the living God Sundry duties are to be performed unto Christ in this respect, that He is the living God. 1. Acknowledge Him to be the true God (Joshua 3:10;Jeremiah 10:10). 2. Be zealous of His honour (1 Samuel 17:26; 2 Kings 19:4; 2 Kings 19:16). 3. Fear Him that hath the absolute power of life (Luke 12:5; Hebrews 10:31). 4. Tremble before Him (Daniel 6:26; Deuteronomy 5:26). 5. Adore Him (Romans 14:11). 6. Serve Him (1 Thessalonians 1:9; Hebrews 9:14). 7. Turn to Him (Acts 14:15). 8. Long after Him (Psalms 42:2; Psalms 84:2). 9. Hold close to Him (John 6:68-69). 10. Seek life of Him (John 6:33; John 5:40). 11. Trust in Him (1 Timothy 4:10; 1 Timothy 6:17). 12. Account it a great privilege to be His son (Hosea 1:10; Romans 9:26; Hebrews 12:22). 13. Pervert not His word (Jeremiah 23:36). 14. Never depart from Him (Hebrews 3:12). (W. Gouge.) Dishonest doubt I. THE EVIL IN . 1. Distrust is born of evil experience. The innocent child is credulous. Its confidence is destroyed by what it comes to see of dishonesty, falsehood, and selfishness. But this product of sin ought not to become the principle by which to weigh the truth of higher things. 2. Infidelity has dishonoured our nobler nature. Its philosophy is materialistic. Its theory of human origin is degrading. The unbelievers of every age neglect the human spirit and pamper the lower nature of man. 3. Scepticism is a covert for sinners. Infidel eras in all human history have been connected with selfish luxury and license. II. THE . The miser has no faith in kindness. The seducer no faith in woman’ s virtue. The trader in souls no faith in any rights of the weak. The traitor no faith in loyalty. And so such men as Nabal, and Aaron Burr, and Benedict Arnold, carry about inherent damnation. Yet the principle of evil unbelief, run to extreme in their cases, is the same, in only less degree, in every unbeliever’ s heart. III. THE OF DOUBT. Do not denounce or debate. Give kind, clear, truthful, positive argument; but do not argue in a strife of wits. Raise the standard of Christian living, promote revivals. For “ if any man will do His will, he shall know.” The gospel is a mystery; then an experience, then a growth in knowledge, under true conditions. (The Homiletic Monthly.) An evil heart of unbelief We are prone to lay the stress of religion on the head and the outward conduct--on an orthodox faith and a correct life. But we make a grave mistake. Not with the head, but “ with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” It is “ an evil heart of unbelief” that is our greatest danger. 1. Because of the insidious character of such a moral state. An overt act we cannot hide from view, but an evil heart may have seduced us far away from God before we are conscious of it. 2. Because of the radical character of such a condition--a bad heart vitiates every moral act. 3. Because the danger arising from such a spiritual state is most imminent. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.) The rejection of revealed truth referable to moral depravity I. Unbelief in the revelation of Jesus Christ is EVIL IN ITS NATURE. Unbelief is not a mere error in judgment; a mere miscalculation of the amount and force of testimony:--but a state of the heart involving disobedience to God; aversion to His truth. And is not the heart that is capable of all this, an “ evil heart” ;--a rebellious heart;--a hard, ungrateful heart? Yes, unbelief, so far from being no sin, or a small sin, is the radical principle, the most noxious element of all sin. And if all unbelief be thus evil, how pre-eminently evil is that unbelief which not only refuses to hear and to yield assent when God speaks, but which sets at naught such a message as the glorious gospel--a message of love and mercy, of peace and pardon and life. II. Proceed to show that the heart-of unbelief is “ an evil heart,” by tracing this unhappy state of mind to some of its CHIEF CAUSES. That which is always and essentially evil in its NATURE cannot be imagined to have any other than an evil SOURCE. 1. And on this point the Word of god is clear and decisive. It uniformly traces unbelief, in all its forms, to a corrupt source. It represents it as generated and nourished by pride, by prejudice, by unhallowed appetite and passion, by corrupt habits of living, by a desire to be free from all the restraints which the faith of the gospel imposes. If the children of unbelief were really actuated by that spirit of candid inquiry; can it be imagined that their manner of investigating the religion of Jesus Christ could be such as it to commonly is? Can it be believed that levity, sneer, habitual ridicule, and profane scoffing become the discussion of matters so infinitely important? 2. The same charge of unhallowed origin is still further established against the spirit of unbelief, by the undoubted fact, that while its votaries are unceasing and ardent in their efforts to draw those around them from the religion of Christ; they discover no serious desire either to practise themselves, or to inculcate on others that which they profess to believe. 3. Again, the history of the rise and progress of many of the most common cases of infidelity, plainly demonstrates that its source, no less than its nature, is evil. Thousands of the young, as well as of the aged, have been, manifestly, drawn into infidelity by their evil passions and their vices. III. No less evil are its EFFECTS. Our blessed Saviour has taught us to judge of all moral professions and claims by this test. “ Therefore,” said He, “ by their fruits shall ye know them.” With regard to the which unbelief inculcates, they are, notoriously, as to the great mass of them, radically and essentially corrupt. It has, indeed, been often remarked, and with great justice, that HAS NO . In truth, there was scarcely the smallest exaggeration in the charge of the satirist when he said that the sum of their creed is “ to believe in all unbelief.” Now, is it possible to conceive that such principles, or rather such absence of all principle, can tend to promote the order, purity, and happiness of society? As well might we dream of darkness begetting light, or of committing men to the school of Satan and his angels, to be trained up for the heavenly paradise. And as the speculative opinions of the votaries of unbelief are generally and essentially corrupt; so their practice has been, in all ages, worthy of their creed. Who, let me ask, ever since the religion of Jesus Christ has existed in the world, have been most conspicuous for the regularity, purity, and benevolence of their lives--infidels or Christians? That the effect of unbelief in revealed truth has ever been to generate moral corruption is attested by all history. Read, for example, the “ Confessions of Rousseau,” that wonderful monument of perverted genius, who undertook to paint his own likeness, and you will behold the portrait of one of the most polluted and miserable of men. Read what Voltaire and his royal patron and companion in unbelief, the Prussian monarch, say of each other, and you will find one of the most revolting and loathsome pictures of moral baseness ever presented by men claiming a decent place in society. But further; who, let me ask, have ever been found throughout Christendom most zealous and active in forming and executing plans for the benefit of mankind? What class, I say, have ever been found most ready for every such good work--infidels or Christians? On the other hand, by what class of persons are the great mass of the crimes which pollute and disturb society committed? They are infidels, either open or secret. Further, was it ever known that any son or daughter of Adam was reformed from a wicked life by embracing infidel opinions? But oh, how often has the dying culprit been heard to confess with anguish and tears that infidel sentiments led him astray; that the rejection of the Bible gradually led to profaneness, to intemperance, to lewdness, to fraud, to robbery, perhaps to murder,--and at length to the infamy of a felon’ s death 1 I am aware that it will be said by those who are determined to resist all evidence on this subject, that many professing Christians have been as immoral as other men. This is, no doubt, a fact; and yet it does not in the least degree weaken our argument, or militate against the doctrine of our text. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 3:13 Exhort one another Restraining of spiritual intercourse in families I. THE EVIL OF THE AMONG NEAR OF FREE ABOUT THEIR SOULS, IS EVIDENT from this, first of all 1. That it is a breach of God’ s express command in the text, “ Exhort one another daily.” If this duty lies on professing Christians simply as such, much more must it be obligatory on husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child. 2. The evil of it appears in that it involves, I suspect to a very large extent, the sin of being ashamed of Christ and of His words. Whence that strange silence, that awe-struck air in the presence of a brother? If it were before a stranger, one might try to account for it in different ways. But this will not do among persons accustomed to open their minds freely on every other subject. 3. This restraint cuts off all the precious innumerable benefits which God intended to arise from the exhortation enjoined in the text, and which in families were all the greater, in virtue of the constant opportunities and peculiar facilities there afforded for it. What daily consolation, what instruction, what warning, what encouragement, what direction, are thus lost for ever! 4. There is a specially mischievous effect produced by it on the children of a family. The absence of it throws a fearful stumbling-block in their way. Is heaven a reality? Is Christ indeed beloved? Is the soul imperishable? The faith of the child, such as it is, is gradually sapped and undermined. 5. Near relatives are, by this restraint, deprived of one of the mightiest incentives to a holy life. II. THE CAUSES OF THIS. 1. The unregenerate condition of too many parents, and other near relatives, professing religion. They cannot speak of Christ, because they are ignorant of Him. They cannot commend Him to others, because they have never themselves embraced Him. The world is their theme, because it is their treasure, their god. 2. Careless, inconsistent walking before God and each other, among near relatives, is one painful and powerful cause. Persons professing godliness, united in very endearing ties, are not careful to order their lives in each other’ s sight, entirely as becomes the gospel. Honesty forbids it. It is felt that it were hypocrisy to talk of Christ’ s love and of His law, unless, at least, it were with the avowed design of committing the parties to an immediate change. But still farther 3. And in close connection with inconsistent walking, yet distinct from it, I believe that the chief cause of the restraint in question among the people of God is to be found in the want of soul-prosperity, and of a close and habitual intercourse in secret with God and His blessed Word. The want, in short, of religion, or the low’ state of it, are the real causes of this evil. III. There can be little difficulty in discovering and noticing THE , under God, for the evil. These must take their character from the causes. 1. I besought you to ask yourselves, as in God’ s sight, whether ye were Christ’ s indeed. 2. If the cause lie with you in careless and inconsistent walking, whatever other remedies you may employ, let that command be heard, “ Put away the strange gods which are among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only.” And especially 3. In the third place, seek the remedy for this evil in a closer walk with God, in a more habitual, living fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (C. J. Brown.) Model exhortation I would have every minister of the gospel address his audience with the zeal of a friend, with the generous energy of a father, and with the exuberant affection of a mother. (Fenelon.) Lest any of you be hardened Soul-fossilisation I. THE EVIL ITSELF. 1. It is from an obstinate refusal to attend to Divine things, which are irksome and painful, and the soul is better pleased with those things which are congenial, and afford pleasure and satisfaction. 2. It is from the natural character of the heart, which, unless renewed, refuses to bend to the teachings of grace and the leadings of the Holy Spirit. II. THE OF THE EVIL. It exists everywhere that human nature exists. It is both natural and acquired. The heart, though naturally hard, is made harder by the circumstances by which it is surrounded. III. THE END AND OF THE EVIL. It is like the fossilisation of an object which we sometimes see. A piece of wood or cotton is placed under the drip of a waterfall; in a short time it is encrusted, and becomes, to all intents and purposes, a stone. It is hard, unimpressionable, will neither melt nor burn. So the heart of man may become a fossil, incapable of good actions, tender thoughts, holy feelings. (Homilist.) The danger of heart-hardening through sin I. THE SOURCE OF GREAT AND DANGER. 1. Sin is deceitful. (1) In its appearances. (2) In its promises. (3) In its influences. 2. Sin prevails through its deceitfulness. In the time of temptation its deformity is hid; its real character is veiled. Many a man on a dying bed has been compelled to feel the difference of the views he has entertained in health and in a state of sickness. But when sin presents itself to the objects of its temptation, it suggests itself as easy to be avoided: “ Oh, you are not the slaves of sin; you may avoid it, or you may limit your progress in it; yield to the temptation, and stop when you please.” So the devil deceives the human mind. It often changes its tone, and it is equally deceitful in both cases. It is sometimes represented as irresistible; the man says, “ I have no power to resist it.” This is the way the mind is operated upon by the tempter. Oh, how great is the deceitfulness of sin 1 3. Sin hardens through its deceitfulness. (1) Hardness of heart implies a state of moral insensibility, the moral susceptibility of the heart being removed, the soul becoming callous, so that spiritual things do not impress. (2) In hardness of heart there is a principle of inflexibility and rebellion in the heart. It is not merely hard like stone; there is something like a reaction: the hardness is manifested in its resistance to the claims of truth--an inward principle of rebellion against God. (3) Sin hardens the heart by strengthening the principles and habits of iniquity in us. The restraints of conscience in this way are overcome. II. THE CONDUCT THAT IS TO BE PURSUED UNDER THESE , We must “ exhort one another.” 1. Now exhortation implies instruction. We are to endeavour to diffuse “ the savour of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord.” 2. This exhortation implies warning and reproof; where it is necessary to warn our fellow-creatures that are in danger of “ being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” ; to set the danger before them, and affectionately to point out to them the dreadful consequences which must ensue. 3. But this implies also encouragement. We ought to encourage one another to look to God, to seek much grace to enable us to counteract the influence of sin. 4. But this exhortation to which we are admonished is private exhortation. Now let me remind you that the discharge of this duty does necessarily imply a disposition to receive exhortation as well as to give it. 5. But this is a serious and a very difficult duty to discharge successfully. (1) If you exhort one another let it be seriously, then; do not affect to give religious instruction in a spirit of levity. Let us remember that the soul is the object concerned. (2) And let it be with a right spirit; do not assume superiority; do not pretend to dictate like masters. (3) In love. (4) Seasonably. Watch for opportunities. (5) Prayerfully. All our effort will be unavailing without God’ s blessing. (6) Frequently. “ Daily,” i.e, as often as you can seasonably.. (7) Urgently. Whatever we do we must do now, or perhaps we shall not do it at all: we know not what another hour may bring forth. (Josiah Hill.) Private exhortation 1. Private Christians not only may, but should, keep Christian communion amongst themselves, and mutually exhort and stir up one another. 2. This is a necessary means of preserving people from defection. 3. And a duty daily to be discharged while it is to-day; that is, as oft, and as long, as God giveth present occasion and opportunity for it, lest a scattering come. (D. Dickson, M. A.) A warning against hardness of heart I. THE OF SIN. 1. There is no doubt whatever that living among sinners has a hardening tendency upon men. You cannot walk about in this great lazar-house without receiving some contagion. 2. Let me here remark that the sins of God’ s people are peculiarly operative in this manner. If I see a drunkard intoxicated, I am simply shocked at him, but I am not likely to imitate his example; but if I see the same vice in a man whom I respect, and whose example has hitherto been to me the guide of my life, I may be greatly grieved at first, but the tendency of my mind will be to make an excuse for him; and when one has succeeded in framing a plausible excuse for the sin of another, it is very natural to use it on one’ s own behalf. Association with inconsistent Christians has been the downfall of many young believers. The devil delights to use God’ s own birds as a decoy for his nets. 3. It is often a long and laborious process by which conscience is completely seared. It usually begins thus: the man’ s first carefulness and tenderness departs. It may not seem a great evil to have less abhorrence of evil, but this truly is the egg from which the worst mischief may come. The next distressing sign of growing hardness is increasing neglect or laxity of private devotions without any corresponding shock of the spiritual sensibilities on account of it. Another symptom of increasing callousness of heart is the fact that hidings of the Saviour’ s face do not cause that acute and poignant sorrow which they produced in former times. Still further, when the soul is hardened to this extent, it is probable that sin will no longer cause such grief as it once did. It is a sad sign of coming declension when we can talk of sin lightly, make excuses for it, or make jokes about it. The next step in this ladder, down, down, down to destruction, is that sin thus causing less grief is indulged in more freely. After this there is still a greater hardening of heart--the man comes to dislike rebukes. II. THE POWER WHICH LIES IN SIN TO HARDEN THE HEART. It is the deceitfulness of sin. The heart is deceitful, and sin is deceitful; and when these two deceitful ones lay their heads together to make up a case, there is no wonder if man, like a silly dove, is taken in their net. One of the first ways in which sin deceives the professor is by saying, “ You see no hurt has come of it.” Forgetting that the immediate results of sin are not always apparent in this world, and that if hardness of heart be not apparent it is all the more real. Then sin will whisper next, “ This would be sin in other people, but it is not in you. You see you were placed in a peculiar position; there is indulgence for you which could not be accorded to other men: you are young,” says sin, “ nobody could accuse you if you did go a little rashly to work--if you were an older professor it would be very wrong.” Then if it is an old man who is to be deceived, sin will cry, “ You must take care of yourself; you need more indulgence than others.” If a man be in private life, sin will then suggest, “ It does not matter in you: it would be wrong in a church-officer, but nobody knows it in your case.” If it be some person in high repute, then sin whispers, “ Your character is so well established it will bear it.” Again, sin will sometimes have the impudence to say, “ It is very easy to repent of it.” This vile traitor is even dastardly enough to take the doctrines of grace and turn them into a reason for sin. III. THE REMEDY WHICH IS IN THE TEXT FOR US TO USE WITH OTHERS. “ Exhort one another.” Doubtless many professors would be saved from gross sins if mutual exhortation were more commonly practised in the churches of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. All of you, without exception, whether you be rich or poor, see to each other’ s souls; say not, “ Am I my brother’ s keeper? “ It is so pleasant to restore a brother from the error of his ways, that I can offer you no greater reward than these two, to screen the name of Christ from shame, and to have the pleasure of saving a soul from death and covering a multitude of sins IV. SUPPOSE THIS TO BE THE CASE WITH ANY ONE OF US, WHAT THEN? Some of us arc in such a position that we are not very likely to be exhorted, we are keepers of the vineyard, and have none who would take upon themselves to admonish us. Our enemies, however, very ably supply the lack, for they often tell us very profitable, but very unpleasant truths. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hardness of heart Hardness scarcely needs an explanation. It is that which, taking it from the armoury or from the smithery, gives the power to any metal to resist a weapon thrown against it; to turn the edge of the sword, to blunt the point of the spear, to quench the fiery dart, as it were: and in that sense of course it would be auspicious to have something that was hardened. But to render insensitive that which is carried within, and which ought to be sensitive; to have a disposition which has the power of turning away an appeal, of dismissing an argument, and of making vital truth a matter of indifference--that kind of hardening is much to be deplored. And it is just that which we are cautioned against. Every physician knows that a medicine is worn out by continuous use. As it were, the system adapts itself to it, and it ceases to be remedial. So there is a power in repetitious truth to become unremedial to men. This hardening is not brought about on purpose in those to whom I refer. I am not speaking to that class of persons who deliberately set themselves against the truth; I am speaking to that very much larger class of persons who first become indifferent to truth, and then are deceived in regard to it, and at last are snared by its enemies. One of the circumstances which tend to deceive men, and to wear out the power of truth upon their conscience and upon their understanding, is the attempt to make truth merely the cause of susceptibility, or of mere emotions. Men want to be stirred up; they want to feel; but feeling constantly stirred up and never employed loses tone. It is had for any man to have feeling that abides as feeling. Now it is the peculiar nature of religious truth that it plays upon excitability. Of truth there is much that touches hope, much that touches fear, and much that touches conscience, on every side; but it is a very dangerous thing for a man to hear more truth preached than he cares to practise. You may say that so much of that which he hears as he does not practise goes over to the account of instruction; and that may be so in regard to truth set forth in a didactic form; but to accustom oneself to hearing truth merely for the sake of having it play upon the susceptibilities is very dangerous, because it is a very deceitful experience; and yet there are multitudes of persons that do it. Then, next, there are a great many who hear the teaching of the Word of God, who receive it into good ground--that is, into their reason--who approve it, who feel as though they ought to give heed to it, andwho wish to profit by it, but in whom the impulse dies with that wish, and does not convert itself into a choice. They say, “ I think that view was just: it commends itself to my mind as truth, and I really have been taking it home to myself; I am thinking about it; the time has come when I should be a better man, and take some steps in advance; if I am ever going to be a Christian man I ought to become one now” --and that is about the extent to which they go. Now, when a man has done that through the first year, when he has done it through the second year, and when he has done it through the third year, he begins to be tattooed, as it were. Constant iteration and trituration harden the skin, and the sensibility of his mind becomes like the sensibility of the palm of his hand, and grows leather-like. By reason of the continual handling of a man’ s judgment his power of choosing becomes inert and inoperative. The perpetual raining of truth upon a man may be kept up without developing in him either character, as I said in the first instance, or choice, as I say in the second instance. Then, when the truth is being preached to men of their own sinfulness, and of their great need of a transformed nature, so that they shall rise from the flesh life to the spirit life, a great many persons feel as though this were a thing that ought to be pondered. They feel as though time should be taken to think of it. They are afraid they shall commit themselves without having reckoned whether, beginning a Christian life, they can complete it. So they take it into account. And there are two points to be made on that subject. In the first place, there is one class who take it into account, not by meditation and thought, but by reverie. It is one thing for a man to say, “ God be merciful to me, a sinner; without the interposition of Divine grace I am lost; and I will cry immediately to God for help; I will begin a Christian life to-day.” That is effectual. But, on the other hand, a man, coming home from listening to a strong sermon, says, “ That was well put. What if I should go to church next Sunday night, and the minister should preach on Lazarus? And what if I should be awakened? And what if I should have one of those terrible experiences which I have heard of? And what if all the sins of my life should be brought before me? And what if I should roll all night in distress? Then the minister would come and see me, and friends would gather around me, and I would pray and wrestle, and by-and-by there would suddenly come a bur,-t of light, and I should be converted, and everything would be new to me; and I would join the Church, and what a happy day it would be for father and mother when they saw me do that! And I would be a real Christian--not a lean, skinny Christian, like some that I have seen.” Thus a man weaves the fabric of an imaginary life, and it is all reverie. He supposes he is thinking about religion. He says, “ I am taking it into consideration.” Oh, fool! you are taking it into consideration very much as a spider weaves silk when he makes cobwebs to catch flies on. It is all in the air. It is vacuous. There are other persons who have a very salutary horror of insincerity. They say to themselves, “ This matter of religion is of transcendent importance, and if a man is going to be a Christian he ought to consider it well.” And there is a certain sort of comeliness in this. No man ought to go tumbling headlong into a profession of religion. But it is not necessary that a man should have a theological education before he can become a Christian. And, besides, no man can wait. No man does wait. There is not a man of you who, when the way of manhood is pointed out to him, does not choose. You go one way or the other. You know what truth is, and you either take the way of truth or the way of falsehood. Ten thousand influences upon every side have been pressing home the truth upon you. And what is the result? You say, “ Yes, religion is a profoundly important thing; and yet it is one that ought to be much thought of.” But this ought not so to be. It is not for you, like a ship in a harbour, to cast anchor now, and swing with every tide that carries you first north and then south, for ever changing and never travelling. It is not for you to stand still and talk about thinking. A long time ago you ought to have been doing. You ought before now to have chosen, and to have converted sensibility into conduct and character. And if all the excuse you have for not entering upon a Christian life is that you do not want to do it until you have laid the foundations of thought; if you excuse yourself by saying, “ I do not want to go into a Christian life until I have made sure that I will not come out of it,” then let me warn you lest you harden your heart through the deceitfulness of sin in this most guileful and specious form. At last, when men have got past these stages, there comes the stage of easy acquiescence and of mild criticism from the standpoint of mere taste. They make such a voyage as boys make who take their whittled-out miniature boats over to the park and sail them across the lake and back again. There is as much in one of these voyages as in the other. There are others who criticise the truth from a logical and instructive standpoint. They have intellectual acumen, they have critical sensibility, they are good critics: a great deal better critics than they are Christians. The truth may be as weighty as eternity; it may be a truth that reaches to the very heart of Christ; it may be the whole theme of salvation by faith in the Saviour: and all that it does to them is to excite in them a momentary pleasure of the taste, a transient gratification of the intellect, and a generous criticism as to its ability or inability, as the case may be. And what is the condition of a man upon whom the presentation of the weightiest truths no longer awakens sensibility, nor stimulates a disposition to choose, nor creates an impulse in the right direction? These are not bad men--that is, in the sense of being vicious, or in the sense of being guilty of outrageousness in any way. Often their conduct is conformable to all the best rules of social life. But they have sealed themselves against the higher forms of spiritual growth which translate one from the life of the body to the life of the Spirit. And their chances for development in true manhood as it is in Christ Jesus grow less and less every day through the deceitfulness of sin which is hardening their hearts. And so as men grow old, as age creeps on them, upon natural decay is superinduced this waste which arises from the constant hearing of the truth and from non-action, and which results in men’ s coming into that dry and arid state in which the harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and they are not saved. And now, what is to be done? Consider the guilt of every man who thus practises upon himself. It was only as early as 1400, I think, in the war between the Turks and the Greeks, that that magnificent structure, the Acropolis, and the temple of Minerva, and the statue of Minerva, and that wonderful frieze, the work of Phidias, whose very fragment has been the despair of the art of modern days, were destroyed. Into the magnificent temple of Minerva, which was the glory of Athens, the Turks threw bombs, which exploded and shattered the temple into a mass of shapeless ruins; and that which adorned the ripest age of the world in beauty and art perished, as it were, in an hour. To have demolished an old granite fort, to have battered down an old earthwork, would have caused sorrow to no one; but to have blotted out the grandest and most exquisite achievements of human taste, human thought, and human hand-skill, must have filled with regret every heart that loved what was beautiful. But what is any statue, even from the chisel of Phidias, or what is any temple, compared with man, who is the temple of God? and what was ever wrought in ivory or marble that was to be compared with the humanity that is in every man? and for you to destroy that humanity in yourself, to turn it into courses of evil, in spite of the influences that are tending to draw it the other way; and so to trample under foot and extinguish your higher nature--that is wanton. It is wicked beyond the power of language to express its degree of wickedness. Woe be to the man who corrupts his spiritual nature, or overlays it with animalism, or beats it down in spite of its crying, and destroys it. Consider, too, what is the nature of the truth that men resist. If the gospel of Christ had simply disclosed to men the infamy of their condition, if it had merely poured out upon them warnings and threatenings, if it had withheld from them all promises of mercy, then there would have been little to attract them to it, and there would have been some reason for their revulsion from it; but the whole presentation of the truth as it is in Christ is charming to the reason, to every noble sensibility, to every feeling of honour, and to every elevated taste, however exacting. The whole tone and the whole sphere of the New Testament is as sweet as music, and ought to vibrate upon every uperverted heart, and ought to make every soul desire to have that commerce with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ by which it shall rise and take hold upon its immortal destiny. And now, suffer me not to preach to you; suffer me to beseech you. If there are any here who have serious thoughts, let me say to them, Serious thoughts are very well if you make something out of them. In summer, when drought has long prevailed, clouds come trooping through the sky, and the farmer says, “ Ah! at last the weary, parched earth will be refreshed” ; but no, the clouds have no rain in them, they pass on, and the ground is as dry as it was before. To-morrow other clouds sail in caravans through the heavens, and give promise of refreshing showers; but the showers do not come. Thoughts that produce no results are of little account. To be worth anything they must be condensed into forms of active life. And while I urge you to heed and ponder the Word of God, I bid you to beware of taking it so that it shall not lead to the production of fruit in your Christian life. (H. W. Beecher.) Hardened by being melted When the cloud is dried up off the mountain’ s brow, and the dew off the rock, the mountain is as great as before, and the rock as hard; but when convictions fade away from the heart of a natural man, they leave the mountain of his sins much greater, and his rocky heart much harder. It is less likely that that man will ever be saved. Just as iron is hardened by being melted and cooled again; just as a person recovering from fever relapses, and is worse than before. (R. M.McCheyne.) Character tends to fixity The Bible says nothing about how an old man can cleanse his way. When a man reaches the age of forty or fifty he cannot change the shape of his collar, how much less that of his character! (Prof. H. Drummond.) Past feeling It is not necessary for a man to die out of the world in order that his spiritual salvation may be closed. There are many who are doomed before they die. They reject the offers of salvation until they become hardened and encased as it were in steel, beaten hard like steel, and at last they become so hardened that they resist all impression, they will not listen, and their insensibility grows upon them. It is a fact which cannot be denied, that the more we resist the offers of mercy the more insensible we become to them; all spiritual sensibility in the case of some people seems to have died out before they quit this world, and it is against this that I warn you. (J. Stoughton, D. D.) Spiritual insensibility A minister of the gospel on one occasion made a solemn appeal to the young to seek God without delay, urging as a motive that, should they live to be old, difficulties would multiply, and their reluctance to attend to the subject would increase with their years. As the preacher descended from the pulpit at the close of the service, an aged man came forward, and extending his hand to him, with much emotion remarked, “ Sir, what you said just now is unquestionably true. I know it from my own experience. When I was young I said to myself, I cannot give up the world now, but I will by-and-by when I have passed the meridian of life and begin to sink into the vale of years; then I will become a Christian; then I shall be ready to attend to the concerns of my soul. But here I am, an old man, and not yet a Christian. I feel no readiness nor disposition to enter upon the work of my salvation. In looking back, I often feel as though I would give worlds if I could be placed where I was when I was twenty years old, for there were not half as many difficulties in my path then as there are now.” Though tears coursed down his cheeks as he gave utterance to these truths, the emotions that were stirred up within him, like the early dew, soon passed away: he did not turn to God. Heart-hardening On a winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is now far past the meridian, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a double reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable to the plough. On the one hand, the frost of evening, with ever-increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods. On the other hand, the genial rays, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. Take heed that it be not so with you. As long as you are unconverted, you are under a double process of hardening. The frosts of an eternal night are settling down upon your souls; and the Sun of Righteousness with westering wheel, is hastening to set upon you for evermore. If, then, the plough of grace cannot force its way into your ice-bound heart to-day, what likelihood is there that it will enter to-morrow? (R. M.McCheyne.) A hardened heart An old man, one day taking a child on his knee, entreated him to seek God now--to pray to Him--and to love Him; when the child, looking up at him, asked, “ But why do you not seek God?” The old man, deeply affected, answered, “ I would, child: but my heart is hard--my heart is hard.” The deceitfulness of sin The deceitfulness of sin Our vital energy finds issue in three great regions: those of thought, of word, of deed. In each one of these there is duty, and there is fault. In each of them there is the voice of God speaking in our consciences, there is the written law of God guiding, confirming, furthering, that inward voice; in each of them there is in us the constant disposition to set conscience and to set God aside, and to become our own guides, our own masters. Let us then take each one of there in turn, and show in each how manifold sin is, how deceitful. I. Sons of THOUGHT. Nothing is so deceitful as the taking account of our own thoughts and feelings. Memory cannot copy faithfully the picture which has faded away, but overlays and tricks it out with fresh and unreal colours. Still, there is no question that our real thoughts can be got at, and their liability to sin justly measured, if we will spend time and trouble over it. We may venture to say that the great burden of our sins of thought will be found to consist in a want of honest, conscientious adoption and following of what we know to be real and true. When selfish views spread before us in all their attractiveness, the fertile plains of Sodom tempting us to dwell in them, does the course of self-denial to which we are pledged instantly assert its claim? When the temper is roused by insult, when the pride is stung by contumely, when the self-opinion is buffeted by designed slight, and the tyrant fiend of revenge springs to his feet in a moment,--do our eyes see, or do they refuse to see, the Spirit of the Lord lifting His standard against him? II. Sins of WORD. And here I shall not speak of bad and unholy and impure words, of evil speaking, lying, and slandering: these are manifest: if we fall into these, we know it, we repent of it; but I shall speak of sins of word more beneath the surface, into which when we fall, we do not know it, of which, when we have fallen into them, we are little accustomed to repent. And I believe such sins will mainly be found, as regards our dealings with men, in stating or not stating the very truth of our sentiments and feelings and beliefs. I am not now speaking of hypocrisy, nor of any wilful and conscious disingenuousness, hut of a general want of clear and fearless truthfulness. When will men come to feel that the blessed gospel of Christ never was and never can be the gainer by any false statement, any equivocation, any shrinking from dangerous truth or unwelcome fact? If again the effect of this timid untruthful religion be bad on a man’ s self, much more is it hurtful and fatal on others. III. Sins of ACT AND DEED: doing what we ought not to do, leaving undone what we ought to do. Oh that there were in any of us the habit of referring our questioning thoughts at once to His verdict whom we profess to serve; of guiding our actions simply, humbly, fearlessly, by His precept anmd His example! If we were earnest like Him, humble like Him, wise like Him, we should recommend and adornour unflinching course of Christian duty by quietness,by unobtrusiveness, by consideration for others, by knowledge what to say, and when, and to whom. It is not the busy protester against what other men do, it is not the man who is ever found up in arms against the usages of society, who does the good; but he who is gifted with sound judgment enough to overlook things indifferent, to join in practices which he himself would perchance not have chosen, it by so doing he may cheer, and bless, and hallow, and leaven, the society in which God has cast his lot. An unsocial, uncomplying, individualising life may be very flattering to pride; may serve as a salve to the conscience, and make a man fancy himself very good and pure; but there can be no doubt that such a course is a life-long sin, bringing dishonour on the blessed gospel of Christ, and hardening men’ s hearts against its influence. (Dean Alford.) The deceitfulness of sin Sin, we must remember, has, properly speaking, no separate independent being of its own. It is the spiritual and moral quality either of dome act, or of the habitual inward tone of mind and spirit, of a moral agent; and it is a diseased and unnatural quality and state in such an agent which is described. But to this horrible work of sin men are, as the apostle’ s word imply, lured on by the deceitfulness of sin. What then is this? Sin being that disordered acting of the spiritual nature in which the will chooses that which is against the will of God, the deceitfulness of sin must mean that there is a tendency in this disease to conceal its own presence, and so to shut out from the sight of him in whom it is acting the evil which is being accomplished within him. That there is this attribute about it the very smallest acquaintance with our nature and its actings may easily convince us. For what else are all those fair names for evil, those easy judgments concerning it, which are everywhere conventionally current, but the working of this its deceitful power? Why is it that the fondness of lust is termed gallantry or pleasure? Why is it that the cold and heedless selfishness of debauchery is talked about as spirit and gaiety, but because sin’ s common working is thus utterly deceitful and untrue? But above all, this deceitfulness of sin may be seen in the false estimate which it leads men to form of their own moral and spiritual condition. And this in all ways. For, first, how does it blind men’ s eyes to their own actual condition. Most men would be marvellously startled if they suddenly learned what was the clear view which their daily intimates possessed of their weaknesses and faults. And why? Surely for no other reason than because they habitually judge themselves so partially, and shut their eyes so weakly to their own besetting sins. And as this first deceit as to the actual presence of evil in their characters is thus practised upon most men, so too plainly are they deceived also as to its growth within themselves! How little do men who give themselves up to it perceive the increase of sin within themselves. And this must be so. For every allowance of evil weakens in its own degree that special power of conscience by which it passes sentence on our actions. But once more, it is not only the actual presence of the evil, or the increase of the work of evil within them, which is hidden from those on whom it is passing, but they perceive nothing whatever of its deep spiritual significance. It is altogether altering their relation to the unseen world around them, and they know not of it. The adopting love of Christ had gathered them into His family: His heart yearned over them; for His sake the Eternal Spirit wrought in them. He was ever beside them. But the deceitfulness of sin veils to them all these blessings. The heavenly world seems to withdraw itself. Nor is it only peace and joy that this man thus loses. This, again, increases in another way his own inability to see the evil of the sin which possesses him. For only under Christ’ s Cross, only in the full sight of His love and holiness, and bitter agony for us, can we see anything of the true evil and hatefulness of sin; and so its deceitfulness, which prevents his seeing those, deludes him wholly till it robs him of his soul. If these things are happening around, and it may be among us, what practical lessons should they enforce on us? 1. Surely, the need of a resolute watchfulness against these seductions. They who would walk safely amidst the deceitful whispers of an enchanted land, or hold on their course in spite of sounds so falsely sweet that they have lured every listener to destruction, find no escape save in stopping their ears to the voice of the enchanter. And so must it be now with those who would escape from the deceitfulness of sin within them. They must “ watch and be sober.” 2. But farther, this should be a time not only for self-searching, but for beginning resolutely in some par titular actions a course of more earnest service of God. And this course of more earnest service should not be any new way devised for ourselves, but the doing more completely and conscientiously, and as to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, our own appointed duty. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) The deceitfulness of sin Though sin admits of no definition in itself, any more than sound or colour or odour, being, all four alike, primary ideas; it may be defined, i.e., indicated, by pointing out its relation to other things with which it is essentially connected. 1. St. Paul defines sin by comparing it with law: “ Sin,” he says, “ is the transgression of the law.” He means the law of God, the supreme Being, the sovereign power of the universe. God has prescribed us laws, which we may or may not observe. Sin is in man what deviation from their orbits would be in the heavenly bodies, if they were endowed with a will and a power of disobedience, and should shoot off from the paths in which they now move with so much order, beauty, and beneficence. 2. So again we may define sin by its effects, its “ fruits,” its “ wages,” as the apostle calls them; and how easy and how melancholy the definition. It is enough to fix the thoughts on one particular, and that is, death. How wide the sweep of its scythe! how universal the havoc which it makes! 3. Once more let us look at sin in relation to the process by which it accomplishes these deadly effects. How comes it, we ask, that while sin is acknowledged to be the prolific source of all misery, still men make light of and rush into it? Sin has undoubtedly made passion strong, the imagination wild, the conscience weak; and these are parts of the explanation; but not the whole. In addition to this, sin deceives them all through, and in connection with, the understanding, to which deception properly belongs. Men cheat themselves, or allow themselves to be cheated out of eternal life. With the strength of passion, and the stupor of conscience, and the weakness of will, has been united, in marvellous sympathy, a sad hallucination of the judgment; and so we have done, and practised, it may be, what we should have thought perfectly impossible, as long as our reason remained with us and what has ever since been a matter of painful and self-condemning recollection. And now, what is the conclusion of the whole matter? We have seen what sin is in relation to God and His law; what it is in its effects, and what it is in the process of its working. What now are the natural inferences from these points? Two at least present themselves, viz., that it is the greatest of all evils, and, at the same time, that it is the most insidious. The law, of which it is the transgression, is the prime law, the parent law, the law which makes all others possible, the law which develops moral agency, and binds the moral universe together. It is to the ethical, what gravitation is to the physical world. If sin were perfectly and completely triumphant, it would overthrow society as by an earthquake, shaking the deepest foundation of all things; and not all things in our world merely, but every other world also, where the distinction between right and wrong is known. If the Divine law is so comprehensive, fundamental, and absolutely necessary, then sin is a tremendous, and, in relation to all others, an incommensurable evil. The same conclusion is inevitable, when we look at it in its bearing, not on our moral but our sentient nature, our susceptibility to pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. All the suffering this moment in the world, whether of mind or body, whether open or secret, whether social or individual, whether from the recollection of the past, or the anticipation of the future, or the pressure of the present, springs from the root of sin. Oh, what folly to be fleeing from other evils--poverty, sickness, obscurity, shame, bereavement--and yet take no measures, while opportunity is afforded, to escape from the consequences of sin and its intrinsic evil! Oh, my friends, sin is a great evil; and it is as deceitful as it is great. It beguiles the soul it ruin. It is like those diseases which put the patient asleep, so that he slumbers into the very grave; or those which cause him to indulge fond hopes of life, up to the moment Death throws his unerring dart. It deceives in regard to a man’ s particular acts, and in regard to his whole moral state. (W. Sparrow, LL. D.) Deceitfulness of sin 1. It assumes false names. 2. It prefers false claims. 3. It offers false excuses. 4. It makes false resolutions. (J. Burns.) Religion the great security against the delusions of sin It is an old and just observation, “ that no man ever became completely wicked at once.” But, notwithstanding all the kind restraints of conscience, of shame, and the terrors of futurity, which Providence has mercifully opposed to the progress of sin, it does, however, make wonderful advances in the world. I. A MAN CANNOT ABANDON HIMSELF TO THE OF EVIL, TILL HE HAS THE OF GOD FROM HIS . It is not usual ever for bad minds to put their dark workings in execution till every eye be closed; they shun the light they hate, because their deeds are evil. And is it possible that they should fly from the presence of a man fallible as themselves, and yet dare to stand the inspection of that Eye, to which the very darkness is no darkness at all; before which all hearts are open, and to which no secrets are hid? Again, it is observable that when a man has once begun to indulge the dispositions and habits of vice, he gradually withdraws himself from every object which may infer a reproach upon his conduct, or suggest to him the necessity of reforming it. He deserts the places of public adoration; he declines the society of pious and good men; and suppresses the exertion of every thought that bears upon it any visible stamp of virtue and religion. He guards himself against the apprehension of God, as against a dangerous companion. He finds himself incapable of advancing one step, while this stands in his way; it opposes his progress, as the armed angel did that of the ambitious prophet, and obstructs the accomplishment of his wicked views. II. When the apprehension of the Deity is once suppressed, A MAN MAY BE LED, , BY THE OF ERROR, through each successive degree of impiety, till he arrive at last at a state of absolute insensibility and final impenitence. The bad affections, which were before chained down, are now let loose; and sin, deceitful enough in itself, gains an easy ascendant upon a mind which is willing to be deceived, and which dreads nothing so much as the necessity of subscribing to conviction. By what shallow reasonings, by what poor pretences, men suffer themselves to be cheated out of their virtue! 1. One pretence that is generally made is, “ That religion contracts our faculties into narrow bounds; that, in order to enlarge them, it is necessary to burst her bands asunder, and cast away her cords from us; that every passion has its natural object, and that it is an infringement on natural liberty to restrain the indulgence of them; that, since life is at best so short, the best method of making it longer is to enjoy it; that the severities and rigours which are imposed by religious ordinance are only the inflictions of politic priests, who (being disabled by age and infirmity) would willingly make atonement for their own transgressions, by laying the severest restrictions on the liberties of others; that religion, in short, is the merest slavery; and that a man denies himself a pleasure which nature has allowed him, who does not give a full scope to the indulgence of every passion.” This method of arguing is attended by two very great and very evident defects. (1) It is by no means evident (though it has been sometimes insinuated) that religion forbids the enjoyment of any delight which nature and reason allow; and whoever presumes to exceed the bounds prescribed by reason and nature, will be sure to meet the disappointment his presumption deserves. And it is notorious to a degree, that those who pretend to a greater latitude of enjoyment than the rest of mankind, have in fact the least real enjoyment of all. (2) The austerities which are charged upon religion are trifling, in comparison of the repeated penances, mortifications, to which the libertine is reduced, by disappointed passions, a distempered constitution, and an unquiet mind. 2. Another deceit that men are apt to put upon themselves is, “ That the sins they commit are so inconsiderable, that they will certainly be overlooked by the eye of infinite mercy; that they make such short incursions into the ways of wickedness, as to leave their retreat secure whenever they please; and that they are in no danger of falling into any flagrant or presumptuous act of evil.” This is so fatal a deceit, that one would almost be induced to think that it had been better for some men to have fallen immediately into a flagrant breach of duty (upon their first revolt from virtue) than to have crept on in the commission of what are usually called inconsiderable sins. And for this reason there is something so shocking to a mind that retains any sense of God and goodness in the reflections which succeed the commission of any greater crime, that a man recoils from it with the utmost horror and detestation, and is often carried backward to greater degrees of virtue by the very violence with which he fell from it. But, on the other hand, while a man continues to flatter himself that the sins he commits are trirling, he is gradually amused into an increase of wickedness and guilt. He goes on step by step, without perceiving the progression, and is deluded into his destruction by an opinion of his security. 3. And this brings on the last illusion in which sin is apt to involve the human mind; which is this--when the persons who have thought themselves so secure begin to look calmly back, and discover the unthought of advances they have made in vice, they stand amazed; and conclude it as impossible for them now to return, as they did before to have proceeded so far. (T. Ashton, D. D.) The deceitfulness of sin I. SIN HAS A POWER TO DECEIVE. 1. Its deceit may be seen in the manner of its approaches to us. It comes in a very subtle way, offering us advantage. Intellectually, it comes with a question, or an inquiry. Ought we not to question and to inquire? Are we to receive everything implicitly? The question is, however, full often the thin end of the wedge, which Satan drives home in the form of carnal wisdom, doubt, infidelity, and practical atheism. How tiny a drop of sinful distrust of God’ s Word will poison all the thoughts of the soul! Sin frequently comes as a bare suggestion, or an imagination; an airy thing, spun of such stuff as dreams are made of. The thought fascinates, and then the spell of evil begins its deadly work; thought condenses into desire, and desire grows to purpose, and purpose ripens into act. I have known a sin insinuate itself by the way of the repulsion of another sin. A man will fly from pride to meanness, from moroseness to jollity, from obstinacy to laxity. Thus the shutting of one gate may open another, and one sin may crawl in as another creeps out. 2. Sin is deceitful in its object, for the object which it puts before us is not that which is its actual result. We are not tempted to provoke our Maker, or wilfully cast off the authority of righteousness. No, no; we are moved to do evil under the idea that some present good will come of it. Thus are we lured and bird-limed like the silly fowls of the air. The object set before us is delusive: the reward of sin may glitter, but it is not gold, and yet as gold it thrusts itself upon our erring judgment. 3. Sin is deceitful, next, in the name it wears. It is very apt to change its title: it seldom cares for its own true description. Almost every sin, nowadays, has a pretty name to be called by on Sundays, and silver slippers to wear in fine society. 4. Sin also shows its special deceitfulness in the arguments which it uses with men. Have you never heard its voice whispering to you, “ Do not make much ado about nothing. Is it not a little one?” The point of the rapier is small, and for that reason the more deadly. Then will sin raise the question, and say, “ Is this really wrong? May we not be too precise? Are not the times changed? Do not circumstances alter the command?” Sin is great at raising difficult points of casuistry. He that wills to do wrong is eager to find a loophole for himself. 5. This deceivableness is further seen in the excuses which it frames afterwards. 6. The deceitfulness of sin is seen again in its promises; for we shall not go far into sin without finding out how greatly it lies unto us. 7. Sin is deceitful in the influence which it carries with it. When yielded to, it tries to shut off the door of repentance. II. THIS HAS A POWER OVER THE HEART. 1. Partly through our familiarity with sin. We may look at hateful sin till we love it. 2. Then there follows on the back of this insensibility to sin an insensibility to the gospel. III. THIS OF SIN, AND THIS TO BECOME , NEED TO BE FOUGHT AGAINST. 1. The way to keep from hardness of heart, and from the deceitfulness of sin, is to believe. You shall find that, just in proportion as faith grows strong, the deceit of sin will be baffled. 2. If you would be saved from the deceitfulness of sin confess it honestly before God. Pray that sin may appear sin: it cannot appear in a worse light. Thus thou shalt not so readily be caught in its traps and lures. 3. Cultivate great tenderness of heart. Do not believe that to grieve over sin is lowering to manhood; indulge thyself largely in sweet repentance. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The lies of the temptress There is a possible reference here, in this personification of sin, as leading men away by lies, to the story of the First Temptation. There, the weapons of the Tempter were falsehoods. I. FIRST, THEN, MY TEXT TO ME SIN’ S LIES ABOUT THE BAIT. The old story is typical, and may stand as a welldeveloped specimen of the whole set of evil deeds. Either for the sake of winning a desirable object, or for the sake of avoiding some undesirable issue; we never do the wrong thing, and go away from God, except under a delusion that we shall be better and happier when we have got the desired thing than we should be without it. Now I do not mean to say that there is not a very solid reality in the pleasurable results of a great many wrong things. If a man chooses to sin to gratify sense, he does get the sensuous enjoyment out of it. But there is another question to be asked. You have got the thing you wanted; have you,--what then? Are you much the better for it? Are you satisfied with it? Was it as good as it looked when it was not yours? Is not the giant painted on the canvas outside the caravan a great deal bigger than the reality inside, when you go in to look at him? Is there anything that we have got by doing wrong for it, howsoever it may have satisfied the immediate impulse in obedience to whose tyrannous requirements we were stirred up to grasp it, which is worth, in solid enjoyment, what we gave for it? Having attained the desire, do we not find that it satisfies not us, but only some small part of us? If I might so say, we are like those men that old stories used to tell about that had swallowed some loathly worm. We feed the foul creeping thing within us, but ourselves continue hungry. Besides, sin’ s pleasures are false, because along with them all comes an after tang that takes the sweetness out of them. There is only one thing that promises less than it performs, and which can satisfy a man’ s soul; and that is cleaving to God. II. AGAIN, NOTE THE LIES ABOUT THE HOOK. “ Ye shall not surely die.” I suppose that if any man had clear before him at the moment of any temptation, howsoever fiery and strong, the whole sweep of the consequences that are certainly involved in his yielding to it, he would pause on the edge, and durst not do it. But sin suppresses facts; and here are a few of the barbed points that she hides. She does not tell you anything about outward consequences. Every year there come into Manchester young men who fancy they can play the game and not pay the stakes. She suppresses the action of conscience. There is nothing more awful than the occasional swiftness and completeness of the revulsion of feeling between the moment before and the moment after. She suppresses the action of sin upon character. You cannot do a wrong thing, “ departing from the living God,” without thereby leaving an indelible mark upon your whole spiritual and moral nature. Loftier aspirations die out of you, the incapacity for better actions is confirmed, and that awful mysterious thing that we call “ habit” comes in to ensure that once done, twice will be probable, and twice done, thrice and innumerable times will be almost certain. There is nothing more mystical and solemn about our lives than the way in which unthought of and trifling deeds harden themselves into habits, and dominate us, whether we will or no. And so the sin which once stood in front of us with a smile and tempted us, because it was desirable, afterwards comes behind us with a frown, and is a taskmaster with a whip. The flowery fetters become iron, and the thing once done gets to be our master, and we are held and bound in the chain of our sins. And more than that, there is the necessity for perpetual increase, heavier doses, more pungent forms of evil, in order to titillate the increasing insensitiveness of the nature. You take a tiger cub into your house when it is little; it is prettily striped, graceful in its motions, playful and affectionate; and it grows up, and when it is big, it is the master of you, if it is not the murderer of you! Do not you take the little sin into your hearts. It will grow, and its claws will grow, and its ferocity will grow. And now all these consequences suggest the last of sin’ s suppressions that I would specify. They all make a future retribution a probable thing. And that future retribution is a plain and necessary inference from any belief at all in a God, and in a future life. But the tempting sin has nothing to say about that future judgment, or if it has, has only this to say: “ Ye shall not die.” You are like sailors that get into the spirit room in a ship when she is driving on the rocks, and, as long as you can get the momentary indulgence, never mind about what is coming. III. THEN NOTICE AGAIN, THE LIES AS TO THE OF THE DEED, “ Hath God said, Ye shall not eat?” is the insinuated suggestion that creeps into most men’ s minds. Just as housebreakers carry some drugged meat for the house-dogs, when they intend to break into some lonely farmhouse, so we are all adepts in applying gentle phrases to our own evil, while, if the same thing is done by anybody else, we shall flame up in indignation, as David did when Nathan told him about the man and his one ewe lamb. Therefore, it comes to this--do not you trust to instinctive utterances of inclination calling itself conscience. Remember that you can bribe conscience to say anything but that it is right to do wrong. You will get it to say anything that you teach it about what is wrong and what is not. And therefore you must find a better guide than conscience. You bare to enlighten it and educate it and check it, and keep it wakeful and suspicious, as the price of purity. The same set of lies about the criminality of our actions operates with still greater effect after the commission. I was speaking a moment or two ago about the sudden waking of conscience when the deed is done. Bat there is a worse thing than that, and that is when conscience does not wake. IV. THE LAST WORD THAT! WISH TO SAY IS IN TO THE OF SIN IN REGARD TO THE . These other lies, like bubbles, sometimes burst. The first of them, about the pleasures, generally bursts as soon as the thing is done. The others about the pains and the criminality often disappear, when pricked by some thought of God and contact with Him. But the repertory of the deceiver is not empty yet. And she can turn her haled and bring out another set of lies, in order to retain her dominion. For the sin that said to you before you did it: “ There is no harm in it; you do not need to do it again; it is only just once and it will be done with,” says to you, after you have done it, when you begin to feel that it was wrong, and try to shake off its guilt and power: “ You have done it howl. You never can get away any more. The thing is past, and neither in regard of its consequences nor in regard of its power will you ever escape from it. What you have written you have written. You are mine!” And so she lays her iron claw upon the man and holds him. So sin lies to us just as she lied before. And I have to crone with the message that, of all her falsehoods none is more false and fatal than the falsehood that a sinful man cannot turn from his evil; conquer all his transgression; begin a new happy, clean life; and be sure of forgiveness from his Father in heaven. “ Jesus Christ, the faithful and true witness,” has died that it may be possible to bring to us pure and true promises of lasting and satisfying blessedness, and to avert from each of us, if we will trust in the power of His blood, the worst and penal consequences of our transgression, and, if we will trust in the power of His imparted Spirit, to make our future altogether unlike our past, and deliver us from the habit and entail of our sins. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The devices by which sin beguiles 1. One of the most obvious ways in which it works this mischief is, by diverting the attention from that to which it ought to be directed. Man’ s power of attention is limited; it cannot be directed to all things at the same time; it must take them in succession. Neither should it bestow itself equally upon all things, but graduate its time and earnestness according to circumstance. Of this feature of our constitution sin, taking advantage, so fills the mind with other things, that no room is left for the things of religion. A man is thus made to forget God, by the simple obtrusion of other things upon his attention. 2. Sin deceives also by the false and captivating colours in which it decks out things forbidden. Their beauty was not their own. They wore a mask. It is no very uncommon thing for certain visions and appearances to pass before the mind, under the influence of disease, which wear all the lineaments of persons and things with which we are familiar, and yet possess no reality whatever. But not to take so violent a case for illustration; let us simply reflect how depression or hilarity of animal spirits affects all our views of things. The one will hang the brightest heaven with mourning; the other will shed an air of cheerfulness over the deepest gloom. Now it is somewhat in this way that sin deludes. It causes things to appear in unreal colours. 3. A third way, in which sin deceives, is by making us miscalculate time. What is our life? It is compared to a “ watch in the night,” to a “ tale that is told,” to a “ vapour which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away,” to a “ race that is run,” to a “ battle that is fought,” to the “ labour of the day,” to the dimensions of a “ span.” Yet, notwithstanding, may I not with all confidence ask whether his own feelings have not often virtually given the lie to these statements? Thus does sin deceive the young. To say nothing of the uncertainty of life, they are in error in regard to the length of it. 4. This property, which is specially named in the text, arises from our being creatures of habit. By the law of habit, the doing of a thing once, makes it easier to do it again, and creates an inclination towards the repetition of the act. Notice the manner in which the spider endeavours to secure the unwary insect, which has fallen into its web, and you have a pretty accurate representation of the process. One attenuated thread after another is woven round it, each easily broken, each in itself too trifling to be regarded or felt, but all, in their united strength, beyond its ability to break. There the victim lies, making mighty efforts to escape, but more and more hopelessly each successive moment. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 3:14 We are made partakers of Christ Partners of Christ There is nothing that Christ hath, but we have part of it. His wisdom, holiness, His righteousness is ours; yea, His kingdom is ours. We are heirs, yea, co-heirs with Him of His kingdom. As the man at the day of marriage says to his wife, “ With all ray worldly goods I thee endow,” so the Lord Jesus endoweth us with all His goods; by reason whereof, being poor and worth nothing, we become exceeding rich. Christ is ours, death, life, the world is ours. Oh, unspeakable prerogative vouchsafed to dust and ashes! Let us walk worthy of this honour whereunto we are advanced: being Christ’ s partners, let us not be the devil’ s partners. Let us be holy as He is holy, humble as He is humble; let us contemn this world with all the vain pleasures that be in it as He did. What fellowship is there between Christ and Belial? (W. Jones, D. D.) Fellows of Christ What does this mean? The first idea that suggests itself is that “ Christ” stands as a synonym and compendium of salvation, just as “ Moses” in the above-quoted words of Paul is a synonym for the redemption he was God’ s instrument in achieving. An alternative course is open to the interpreter: to render, “ partakers with Christ,” and to find in the words the thought that only such as persevere in faith share in the glory and the joy conferred on Him at the close of His earthly career as God’ s faithful apostle. This view, however, though true in itself, attains to its full heights only when we adopt a bolder course, and take μέτοχι as meaning here, as in Hebrews 1:9, “ companions “ or “ fellows.” We then get the striking thought that by persistent loyalty to the Christian vocation we become fellows of Jesus. It is intrinsically likely that the passage about the Messiah quoted from the forty-fifth Psalm in the first chapter was present to the writer’ s mind at this point. It speaks of the Messiah as anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, implying that they too, in their measure, have a cup full of joy. In the present connection of thought mention is made of a “ boasting of hope,” a hope rising into exultation, implying a still higher measure of triumphant joy when hope reaches its consummation. The idea, “ the faithful the fellows of Christ,” is also in full sympathy with the thought expressed in Hebrews 1:6, “ whose house are we.” The faithful are God’ s house, at the head of which is Christ, God’ s Son. They are God’ s house not as Moses was, as servants, but as sons, therefore the brethren of Christ. But brotherhood is a thing of degrees. There is an initial brotherhood, in which, as Paul says, a son differs nothing from a servant; and there is a brotherhood, the result of a normal moral development, in which a younger son, at length arrived at maturity, becomes the companion of the elder brother. We are brethren to begin with, but if we are faithful we shall end in becoming fellows. And so our author, having already said of those who persevere that they are the house of God, now takes a step in advance, and in renewing his exhortation to steadfastness says, “ The faithful are not only the house of God and the brethren of Christ, they are His fellows, sharing His joy and having perfect communion with Him in spirit.” (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) A persuasive to steadfastness I. First, then, here is A VERY HIGH . “ We are made partakers of Christ.” Observe that the text does not say we are made partakers of rich spiritual benefits. There is more than that here. To be partakers of pardoning mercy, of renewing grace, of the adoption, of sanctification, preservation, and of all the other covenant blessings, is to possess an endowment of unspeakable value: but to be made “ partakers of Christ,” is to have all in one. You have all the flowers in one posy, all the gems in one necklace, all the sweet spices in one delicious compound. “ We are made partakers of Christ” --of Himself. “ It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell,” and we are made partakers with Him of all that He is ordained to be of God unto us “ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” We are made partakers of Christ, when first of all by faith in Him we procure a share in His merits. Moreover, we are partakers of Christ, inasmuch as His righteousness also becomes ours by imputation. We further become partakers of Christ by living and feeding on Him. The sacramental table represents our fellowship. Partakers of Christ! Yes, and therefore with Him partakers in destiny. The language of the text reminds us that none of us have any title to this privilege by nature. “ We are made partakers of Christ.” From our first parentage we derived a very different entail. “ We are made partakers of Christ.” This is the Holy Ghost’ s work in us, to rend us away from the old wild olive, and to graft us into the good olive; to dissolve the union between us and sin, and to cement a union between our souls and Christ. This is work as grand and godlike as to create a world. II. The privilege of which we have spoken suggests A SOLEMN, . Are we made partakers of Christ? There is nothing more to be dreaded than a counterfeit justification, a spurious hope. III. Now we come to THE TEST. Patience comes to the aid of faith here. Evidences accumulate till the issue is conclusive. “ We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” This passage may be read in two ways, neither of which violates the literal meaning of the original as we have it in our version, “ the beginning of our confidence,” or, as I would rather translate it, “ the foundation of our confidence,” the basis on which our confidence rests. Take your choice. We will expound both. That man is a partaker of Christ who holds fast the faith he had at first, having received it, not as an education, but as an intuition of his spiritual life; not as an argument, but as an axiom he could not challenge, or rather as an oracle he received joyfully and bowed to submissively. The confidence which is based upon the true foundation, even Christ Jesus, is simple and clear as one’ s own consciousness. It asks no proof because it admits no doubt. Now what was the beginning of our confidence? Well, the beginning of my confidence was, “ I am a sinner, Christ is a Saviour; and I rest on Him to save me.” We were nothing at all, and Jesus Christ was all in all. We are not made partakers of Christ unless we hold this fast to the end. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 3:15 To-day if ye will hear His voice To-day I. TO-DAY: HOW RELATED TO AND TO-MORROW. We are putting yesterday to its noblest use when we are using its experience to make the life of to-day better. We are preparing for the morrow in the truest way when we are striving with all our might to be faithful to the opportunity of to-day. II. TO-DAY: ITS . To-day is the critical moment of life. Our vital concern is with to-day. Life in to-day is an impressive feature of Biblical teaching. The emphasis of both Testaments is on to-day. “ We must work while it is day.” To look back is, in the judgment of the Master of our life, to unfit ourselves for the work of the kingdom of God. To be loyal to the Christian idea and order of life, we must be ready to break with the old for the sake of the new. There is little need, then, to dwell on the past. It is not behind us. In a very real sense it goes with us. The new continues, it does not efface the old. There is no “ dead past” ; the past is living in the present. Our present character is the Divine judgment upon our past conduct. But to-day is not only a history of the past, it is also a prophecy of the future. It is by watching to-day we can tell what will be on the morrow. Foresight is truly insight. There is no violent break between yesterday and to-day. Whatever is to come out of to-day exists in to-day. The future is not a revolution but an evolution. To-day is the child and heir of yesterday; to-morrow will be the child and heir of to-day. III. THE AND OF A DAY. It comes to us laden with blessing and promise, full of history and full of prophecy. It has taken many thousands of years to prepare it for us. In the very fuel that feeds its fires is the vegetation of primeval years. Every day that dawns has countless relations with things far and wide. Ancient Egypt and Israel, Greece and Rome, Scandinavia and primitive Germany, priests and philosophers, prophets and poets, discoverers and inventors, innumerable thinkers and workers, known and unknown, have helped to prepare the materials out of which to-day’ s opportunity has been made. We inherit the good, material and moral, wrought out through the experiences of many men and many races of men through many centuries. In the life of to-day are the results of the labour and struggle of all the yesterdays. No day is poor and commonplace. To the prepared soul every day is full of marvel and joy. Every day has its comedies and tragedies. Genius does not invent, it discovers and interprets. To find examples of heroism we need not turn to classic pages, nor search the annals of martyrdom. Heroism is as unfailing a reality as the daily dawn. Around and in each day are all the great marvels of creation, all the moral forces and splendours of life, and all the sacred realities to which the deeply moved soul has witnessed in every age. It is a familiar saying that life is but a day. It is said to express the awful and pathetic brevity of our existence upon this earth. But when we say each day is a life, we are giving expression to a truth of deeper importance and of greater practical value and use. There is nothing small. In the smallest things are the elements of the greatest. One day of life has in it the quality of the whole. In its acts and relations we see God making history, and man making his own future--making the character which creates condition and decides destiny. Are we making the most and the best of the opportunities of to-day? One of our older poets has represented the days as coming to us with their faces veiled; but when they have passed beyond our reach and call, the draped figures become radiant, and the gifts we slighted are seen to be right royal treasures. Let us make the most and the best of each day’ s opportunity for pure and noble enjoyment. The lesson of joy is as Divine a lesson to learn as that of obedience and sacrifice. Let us make the most and the best of each day’ s opportunity for thought and meditation. The inner life constantly needs deepening. The mind closed against new truth is already dying. Let us make the most and the best of the opportunity for moral and spiritual growth and beneficent service which is afforded by the daily task. It is in the sphere of every-day duties most men must win the discipline which our earthly life is meant to yield, most form the character which is the crown of life, and prepare themselves for wider usefulness. It is only by living up to the ideal and duty of making each day perfect in itself we can make life a spiritual triumph. There are only “ twelve hours in a day,” yet how much can be done in and with a day. If we throw away a day no miracle will bring it back to us. There is no to-morrow for the work that ought to be done to-day. The cry, “ Too late,” is not false. The mercy of God is infinite every way, but an opportunity lost is lost for ever. Other doors may open, but that door is for ever shut. The exhortation, “ Prepare to meet thy God,” is, indeed, an exhortation to prepare for life, not death. Every day we meet God; every day we need to be prepared to meet Him. We prepare for what we suppose to be great days. But every day may be a great day, a Divine day. To-day all good and great things are possible. Let us by our faith and faithfulness, by our obedience to all best visions and impulses, turn it into a day of salvation, a day of God, one of the days of the Son of Man, one of the days of heaven upon earth. (John Hunter.) To-day 1. Let me ask those who believe the truths of the gospel, but who put off the renunciation of the sins they condemn, and the consideration of the truths themselves to a future period, have you a reliable guarantee that you will have a future in which to consider, pray over, and meditate on these things? There is no such thing. The space between life and death is quickly traversed. 2. But, in the next place, addressing those who are thus procrastinating, let me suppose that you reach the remotest horizon of human age; is it not true that every day you neglect Divine truths the probability of your ever accepting then diminishes? In this world you require time to grow in knowledge; why should you argue that what God recognises in His providence He should not recognise in grace; but that He should leave you to a lifetime of ignorance, indifference, apathy, and then should give you light enough to guide you to heaven in your last moments? 3. But there is a third argument against all such delay. It is that whilst you are delaying the salvation of the soul, your heart is not all the while remaining empty. Your heart is being coloured by all it comes into contact with in the world. Now, if your soul has for forty, fifty or sixty years been absorbed about what you shall eat, what you shall drink, wherewithal you shall be clothed; or about the world’ s wealth, or the world’ s ambition, or the world’ s cares, will it be very easy to disengage it from its old routine upon a dying bed? Will it be very easy to alter the currents, change the channels, and empty the springs of such a heart when its beating becomes feebler, and life’ s sandglass is almost run out? 4. There is another fact, let me mention, one suggested to me by conversation with a physician, and I think it is a very just one, namely, the very structure of the brain, which is the hand of the mind, adapts itself to the action of the thoughts that have constantly passed through it. Now, if your thoughts have been ceaselessly absorbed with the things of this world, your brain is just adapting itself to the things of this world, and becoming unfit for others. A blacksmith’ s arm would never do for the most exquisite handwriting; his arm has been accustomed to other work; and that is only a coarser illustration of what is true of the brain, that it becomes adapted and physically fitted to the trains of thought that have ceaselessly rushed through it; till, when you come to speak to a dying man who has never had Divine thoughts in his heart and head, you have to deal with the most intractable of all materials; till, almost despairing, you must cease to teach, and begin only to pray. But I take another view of the danger of such a course. 5. As people grow older, on the supposition that they live to a protracted age, the impressibility of the mind becomes less, the blood chills with age, it runs more sluggishly through the arteries and veins; the memory in old age, you know quite well, becomes less retentive. Then is not that another evidence that it must be very difficult to impress Divine truths, everlasting motives, upon memories that scarcely recollect next day what was said on this; upon hearts that Mammon has trodden into the hardness of iron, and in which passions have scorched every fair and fragrant blossom? 6. Let me notice another reason and explanation of the danger of this procrastination: you are creating and strengthening every day a refuge to which you have recourse. It is a singular law in human nature, that what becomes your habit becomes almost your very nature; and as you are making to-day a refuge from conviction, a refuge from what you feel to be duty, that procrastination becomes a habit; and every time that you do so, the next time you will be abler to do so. 7. But now the final result of not hearing God’ s voice, and of thus procrastinating to a future, is what is here called the hardening of the heart. Love degenerates to zero; the enthusiasm of your spring is all frozen hard in the winter of old age; what once awakened you to joy, to hope, to fear, to alarm, fails to awaken you any more; and it is possible that God may say, as he said of one of old, “ Let him alone; My Spirit will not strive with man any more” ; like Pharaoh, He gives him up to the hardness he himself has originated, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Some of you will say, “ But is not the Holy Spirit of God able to change any heart, however hard? Is He not able to convert a man in his last gasp?” The Holy Spirit’ s work is always exercised on a system that promotes holiness, that glorifies Himself, that honours His holy Word; and your acting on the pleas that I now quote for you is simply sinning because grace abounds, and making the Holy Spirit’ s omnipotence an excuse for your worldliness. And, in the next place, let me remind you, that while the Holy Spirit is able to do all this, He will not, and it is unreasonable to expect that He will, dishonour the means that He has instituted. But perhaps you will argue, “ But we know that men have been converted on their deathbeds; very frequently we read of instances the most remarkable of deathbed conversions; and this ought to cheer us in the prospect of a deathbed conversion.” First of all, are you perfectly sure that your case is parallel in all points with the cases that you read? And then, in the next place, are you quite sure that such cases are not exceptional? I admit at once grace has its trophies in every age. But if this be exceptional, not the general rule, would you act in this way in common life? Would you plunge into the roaring cataract because one man, half a century ago, did so, and escaped? And then, let me add, those remarkable cakes that you quote had not the opportunities that you have had. Now that is a very modifying element. The dying thief never heard of a Saviour till he saw Him nailed to the Cross. In none of these cases--here is the striking fact--was there a previous hardening process under the knowledge and the preaching of the truth. But some encourage themselves with this: “ But you know the scenes of a deathbed are very solemn.” They are very solemn indeed. “ And may it not be true,” you will say, “ that when eternity envelops us like an ocean, that then we shall think, and pray, and believe, and be saved? “ When the house is tumbling to ruins about the tenant, when life is ebbing from all the shores of the senses, when you are distracted by hopes to-day, by depression to-morrow; when cares in this world that you have left unsettled, pains and agonies within, separations, tears, sympathies, and sorrows are about you--oh! let me ask, is that an hour for thinking about the soul, of God, of the judgment-seat, a Saviour, an eternity? You may disguise it as you like, but you may depend upon it it is not. It is so easy in health to speculate what you will do; it is so difficult in a dying hour to settle what was unsettled before. The following illustration is is by an American traveller: “ In my to and fro rambles in foreign lands I once met with a party of young Englishmen, one of whom had lost his passport. By one dodge and another he continued to get on without it at the stations of secondary importance, but at length he came to the frontiers: the demand to see and examine the document was stern and imperative; his lack of it, as well as the artifices by which he had heretofore concealed it, was detected, and his further progress disgracefully arrested.” How many will come to the frontiers of that eternal world towards which we are all journeying without a passport? We may evade all scrutinies at the way-star, ions. We may be admitted into reputable and virtuous society. We may enter the Church. We may eat and drink in the presence of Christ. But all this does not constitute a passport into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour. “ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Only learn wisdom from the children of this world, and do not delay to get your passport till you reach the very station where it will be demanded. It will then be too late. Now is the accepted time. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The voice of God and the hard-heartedness of man I. THE VOICE OF GOD! Ah! it is a wonderful thing that the High and Holy One should condescend to speak to a rebellious and apostate race for their good. 1. And if you ask how He utters His voice to man, I answer, in the first place, it is uttered through the medium of external nature. By those who will listen to it, the voice is heard above, below, and around them. And yet there are men in this age of science and education, who can tread upon the green carpet of the earth, bespread with fruit and flower, without any responding emotions to the Giver of them all; who appear deaf to the countless notes by which His voice is uttered, and His wisdom, power and love proclaimed, and to whom it is requisite now as of old to say, “ If ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” 2. I next observe, that the voice of God is uttered through the medium of passing events. Whatever occurrence takes place, the really wise man hears in it a message from the throne of the Eternal. When affluence and power are bestowed, he hears the voice of God declaring,” Here are means and opportunities for promoting My glory and advancing the welfare of My creatures. Make a right use of them. De a wise steward over them.” When, on the other hand, poverty comes, he hears the voice of God admonishing, “ Learn the perishable nature of earthly wealth, and lay up for thyself treasures in heaven.” When sickness and bereavement come with their desponding and painful associations, he hears the voice of God declaring, “ It is good for thee to be afflicted; before thou wast afflicted thou wentest wrong; but now thou shalt learn my statutes.” 3. I next observe, that the voice of God is uttered through the medium of human instruction and example. Here a believing husband seeks to impress his wife with the truths of the gospel; there a wife, whose affections are set “ on things above,” deplores the excessive worldliness of her husband’ s mind. 4. I observe, further, that the voice of God is uttered through the medium of His inspired Word. II. THE NATURE, OR THE MANNER AND OF THE MADE BY MAN TO THE VOICE of God. The resistance commonly offered to the Divine appeals is not that of “ the fool, who saith in his heart, there is no God,” nor that of the recklessly worldly or the profoundly infidel, who cry out, “ What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?” The resistance offered by the bulk of the impenitent, is that described by the expression, “ hardening the heart as in the provocation” ; a delay and a disinclination to act up to the convictions of conscience from a deep rooted love of sin, like that of the people in the wilderness, than which nothing can be more provoking to the Holy One of Israel. When men disobey what they believe to be the voice of God, they must try to find some plausible excuse for their disobedience, or they must be most uncomfortable and uneasy in their minds. The individual who is frequently employed in gathering pleas for the neglect of religion soon becomes an adept in the work of self-justification. Having engaged in a warfare with his reason, his judgment and the best affections of his nature, he has nearly gained the victory, and the consequence is that he feels less religious responsibility than before, and is become almost inaccessible to any means of conviction. Now this is precisely what the Scripture means by “ hardening the heart” ; and this is the very thing that is done by those in a Christian land, who refuse to become Christians indeed and in truth. (H. Hughes, B. D.) Neglecting the day of grace An artist solicited permission to paint a portrait of the queen. The favour was granted; and the favour was great, for it would make the fortune of the man. A place was fixed, and the time. At the fixed place and time the queen appeared: but the artist was not there; he was not ready yet. When he did arrive, a message was communicated to him, that her majesty had and would not return. Such is the tale. The King eternal consented to meet man. He fixed in His covenant and promised in His Word, the object, place, and time of the meeting: it is for salvation it is in Christ; it is now. He has been true to His own appointment; but how often is it otherwise with man! (W. Arnot.) Now is the time When I think of opportunities, I think I may liken us here to-night to a number of men in the Arctic regions. They have been frozen up for a long time, and the ship is high and dry on great masses of ice. The thaw comes on; but the thaw, however, will last but for a very short time. They set their saws to work; they see a split in the ice; there is a long and very narrow lane of water. If they can get the ship along there before the water freezes it up again they may yet reach the shores of dear old England, and be safe; but if not they are frozen in for another winter, and very likely will be frozen in for ever. Well, n-w, to-night it seems just so with us. It seems as if the Spirit of God had purposely brought some of you here; and I do trust He is opening, as it were, the lane of mercy for you--causing your sins for a little time to loose their frosty hold, and openingyour heart a little to the genial influences of the gospel. But, oh! if it should be frozen up again. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 3:16 Borne, when they had heard, did provoke Some but not all bad I. MANY HEAR THE WORD OR VOICE OF GOD TO NO , BUT ONLY TO THEIR SIN. Their hearing renders their sin provoking unto God, and destructive to their own souls. It is, I confess, a great privilege for men to have the Word preached unto them, and to hear it (Psalms 147:19-20). But privileges are as men use them. In themselves, they are of worth, and to be prized. But unto us, they are as they are used. Hence the gospel comes unto some “ a savour of death unto death” (2 Corinthians 2:16). Yea, Christ Himself, in His whole ministry was a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Isaiah 8:14; Luke 2:34). And the enjoyment of any part of the means of grace is but a trial. II. IN THE MOST GENERAL AND VISIBLE OF THE CHURCH, GOD STILL A REMNANT UNTO HIMSELF TO BEAR WITNESS UNTO:HIM AND FOR HIM, BY THEIR FAITH AND . This He hath done, and this He will do. 1. To maintain His own kingdom in the world. 2. Should all faith utterly fail in the earth, should all professors provoke God and apostatise from Him, all gracious intercourse between the Holy Spirit and mankind in the world would be at an end. 3. Goal will do this for the work that He hath for some of His in all ages and seasons to do in the world. And this is great and various. He will have some always to conflict with His adversaries and overcome them, and therein give testimony to the power of His grace and truth. 4. God will always have a testimony given to His goodness, grace, and mercy. 5. God will always have a revenue of especial glory out of the world, in and by His worship. III. GOD LAYS A FEW, OFT-TIMES A VERY FEW, OF HIS SECRET ONES IN THE BALANCE AGAINST THE OF REBELS AND . They are His portion, His inheritance, His jewels, dear to Him as the apple of His eye, and deservedly preferred unto the greatest heap of chaff and rubbish. (John Owen, D. D.) Hebrews 3:17-19 With whom was He grieved God’ s long-suffering Now where he saith, “ With whom He was angry forty years,” we have here to learn what is the long-suffering of the Lord, who doth not straight punish the sinner, but as He endured the manners of the people of Israel forty years, so He beareth with us in all our transgressions. If thus we consider this example and such like, we are no idle hearers, but profitably exercise ourselves in His judgments; and as we ought to give Him this praise, that He is long-suffering, so let us know what duty we ought again to render unto God for all His goodness; for a great many of us cry with loud voices, the Lord is merciful, but we be dumb and deaf, and have no hearts, when we should learn what His mercy requireth of us. For, tell me, what wouldst thou think of such a child, who, because his father is loving and kind, would therefore be rebellious and riotous? What wouldst thou think of a servant, that because his master is gentle and courteous, would therefore be careless in his work, and not regard him? What subject, think we, were he, that because his prince is good and favourable, would therefore be traitorous and conspire against him? Would we not give speedy sentence against such monstrous and unnatural men? And what hearts then have we that be here this day, if we will confess this great goodness of God, our King and Father, and yet walk in our sins before Him? Thus let us answer the long-suffering of our God: and howsoever He be angry with many, as with the Israelites in the wilderness, He will be pleased with us, as with Caleb, or Moses, and we shall enter into His rest. How can we have a better rule than to see in the Word how God is said to be angry with His people. He is angry here because they refused wisdom and embraced folly, because they forsook the word of truth and followed vain devices, because they would not enter into the rest promised them, but had more desire to return to the heavy labour and bondage of Egypt. This madness of the people the Lord is angry with, as a loving Father that had care over them. So, if we will have holy anger, let it be free from all hatred and revenge, and arise only for the profit and well-doing of our brethren (Mark 3:5; 2 Timothy 4:4; Jude 1:23). (E. Deering, B. D.) Sin and its punishment I. GOD IS NOT WITH IS HIS PEOPLE BUT SIN; OR, SIN IS THE ONLY PROPER OBJECT OF GOD’ S , AND THE SINNER FOR SIN’ S SAKE. II. PUBLIC SINS, SINS IN , ARE GREAT OF GOD. III. GOD WILL MAKE MEN WHO HAVE BEEN IN SIN, IN THEIR . “ They sinned,” saith the apostle, “ and provoked God, and their carcases fell in the wilderness.” To what end is this reported? It is that we might take heed, that we fall not after the same example of unbelief (Hebrews 4:11). 1. The first use hereof is that which Hannah proposeth (1 Samuel 2:3). Let men take heed how they arrogantly boast themselves in their sin and wickedness, which is too common with provoking sinners; for God is a (hod of knowledge and judgment. 2. Let us learn to glorify God because of His righteous judgments. The saints in heaven go before us in this work and duty (Revelation 11:15-18; Revelation 15:3-4; Revelation 19:1-2). Not that we should rejoice in the misery of men, but we should do so in the vindication of the glory of God, which is infinitely to be preferred before the impunity of profligate sinners. IV. GREAT IN A WAY OF AND , ARE OF THE AND TO COME (see Isaiah 34:1-5; Daniel 7:9-11; Matthew 24:29; Hebrews 10:26-27; 2 Peter 3:5-7; Revelation 6:13-17). (John Owen, D. D.) Sin viewed in connection with its temporal results It cannot, indeed, be contended that the wicked are openly, in this world, rendered invariable victims of Divine wrath; nor does subjection to misfortune prove previous subjection to vice. Providential visitations do not necessarily presuppose extraordinary impiety; and must not, therefore, be continually identified with judicial strokes. On the other hand, worldly prosperity is not an unfailing accompaniment to holiness--frequently very far otherwise. It is true, that in times of persecution, those will suffer who avow that they are “ not ashamed of the gospel of Christ” ; but still, at other periods, and even then, it will not be needful that they should be visited with such woes as are sent to correct the rebelliousness of the ungodly. If, therefore, we were called upon to point out a mode whereby man might ofttimes mitigate the rigours of his earthly pilgrimage, we would not hesitate to recommend to him the practice of holiness. Never forgetting that his first object in endeavouring to conform to the Divine will must, of course, be God’ s glory, in conjunction with his own salvation, we find, at the same time, ample reason to conclude, that his” peace on earth,” no less than his bliss in heaven, will be advanced by his steadfast adherence to the ways of righteousness. You may have been accustomed to consider, that it is solely in reference to your spiritual concerns that your faith can be made available; but, surely, if the want of faith is liable, as in the instance referred to in the text, to become an occasion of temporal disappointment and failure, it may fairly be expected that its presence, which we know to be well-pleasing in the sight of God, will lead, in unnumbered cases, to results of a precisely opposite character. Our Almighty Father displays far more readiness to recognise the faith and love, than to punish the distrust and alienation, of His children. Though the murmuring Israelites were doomed for weary years to wander through the wilderness, and were even destined never to behold the fair and fertile land which lay beyond its bleak and barren regions, yet would it, think you, have been God’ s determination to exclude them from the country which they so desired to reach, had they firmly relied on His power and constantly respected His precepts? Already had He furnished them with evidences in abundance of His anxiety to promote their well-being. But no: they counted as nothing all previous demonstrations of His affection and His power; their sensibilities were unawakened, and their minds unconvinced, by any reasonable appreciation of the evidence which foregoing occurrences had supplied; and their tongues were as ready to murmur, and their hearts to faint, at every obstacle met with in their path, at every inconvenience experienced throughout their journey, as though no practical assurances had been given of God’ s readiness still to act as their Protector and Guide; as though no stupendous wonders had been wrought, and no providential kindness had been displayed. We marvel greatly at their obstinacy and blindness; but I question much whether, after all, we recognise, generally speaking, that principle in the Divine procedure with our race which was exemplified in the retributive treatment with which they met. They were losers, in a temporal point of view, through their unbelief. Had they trusted in God in seasons of apparent danger or real distress, they would speedily, doubtless, have been enabled to surmount all the difficulties of their pilgrimage, and have been happily and safely located in the land of promise. The world at large may ridicule the idea that a man’ s spiritual standing can have the remotest connection with the success or failure which may attend his pursuit of any temporal objects: and we are far enough from alleging that the maintenance of religious principle will necessarily ensure the prosperous issue of every enterprise; but its absence may, at any time, throw obstacles in the way which might not, under other circumstances, require to be encountered; and when we find that unbelief, and nothing else, was the cause of the exclusion of so many of the Israelitish wanderers from the choice and productive land of Canaan, we seem to read, in characters so plain that only wilful error can mistake their meaning, the great truth, that the earthly prospects of all may be materially and even vitally affected by the possession or the want of faith. We do not say that brilliancy of renown, that stores of earthly treasures, that high and commanding influence will belong to those who consistently repose faith in the wisdom and continual workings of the providence of God: these appertain but to few, nor can they fairly be ranked amongst such acquisitions as are intrinsically adapted to produce felicity. But we say that when a man conducts each of his undertakings, from its commencement to its conclusion, with express reference to the will and watchfulness of the Almighty Governor; looking to Him as the Source of aid in all his difficulties, and regarding Him as the Author of all his success; we say that the man lives in the habitual exercise of such faith as will remove the most formidable obstacles out of his path; and that thus, while he is journeying towards a happier land, brighter sunshine, and unclouded skies, he is also engaged in the promotion of his own welfare meanwhile here below--in procuring, to a large extent, an increase to his happiness, even ere he is released from the infirmities of the earthly tabernacle. (H. B. Moffat, M. A.) Because of unbelief The sin of unbelief Why did they not enter into rest? Because they believed not. He does not single out the sin of making and worshipping the golden calf; he does not bring before us the flagrant transgressions into which they fell at Baal-peor. Many much more striking and to our mind more fearful sins could have been pointed out; but God thinks the one sin greater than all is unbelief. We are saved by faith; we are lost through unbelief. The heart is purified by faith; the heart is hardened by unbelief. Faith brings us nigh to God, unbelief is departure from God. Does it seem strange? By faith we draw near and worship God; by faith we receive God’ s love; through faith the Holy Ghost is given unto us; by faith we obey and follow Christ. Yet it is so natural and so like the goodness of God that all should be by faith. For the Lord is our God; He is all. He is willing to be, to give, to do all; to be God for us, to us, in us. By grace are we saved through faith, and even this trust is the gift of His blessed Spirit (Ephesians it.). Unbelief prevented Israel’ s entering into the promised land. Then it follows that faith enters into rest. If we trust in God, then the wilderness will be converted into the garden of the Lord. See the true Israel, Jesus our Lord, who was tested in the wilderness. He entered into rest, He enjoyed peace with God; and there was given Him power to tread upon the lion and adder, and to trample the dragon under His feet. Worshipping the Father He conquered; and the angels of God refreshed and gladdened His heart with their heavenly converse. Such is to be your life. Only believe, only worship, only harden not your heart, when in the Scripture and in the Spirit’ s teaching and in God’ s daily dealings you hear God’ s voice, and though wild beasts, hunger and privation, weakness and temptation beset you, you are safe, you are blessed. God is with you, who can be against you? (A. Saphir.) The bar to progress The words of our text are now perpetually being fulfilled in people who have missed their aim, who have not reached success. They belong to a crisis, a turning-point in the ancient history of God’ s people, and they suit the present modern condition of the world. They refer to those who were marching onward to a distinct end, but could not enter in because of unbelief. Thus they may fit us and our ways. This generation is enterprising and ambitious. It looks down every road, and tries every gate. Multitudes are seeking to go forward in divers ways. And the success of their advance depends upon their belief. I mean trust in the living power of righteousness, truth, and love, which is God’ s. No one can really enter into and enjoy any new work, state, or position; no one can really advance without reliance upon this. Look at education. What an impulse it has lately received! But what might be, what often is, the bar to its wholesome effect--to its success? Not merely the omission of the Scriptural or religious lesson from the time-table, but a misbelief in the great aims of education itself. Without an inculcation of righteousness, without trust in the great principles of law and order, and without an appeal to the spiritual capacities of the scholar, education may result in the scraping together of the worst ancient and modern moral mud into the cesspool of his mind, and in his alliance or union with that which is most actively mischievous in the world. We might see, moreover, how the law of our text governs many other movements. It specially rules such as are akin to that which originally called it forth. It was first spoken of those who migrated from Egypt to Canaan, but could not enter into the Promised Land because of unbelief. This makes us think of another great movement of these days--emigration. The overflow of crowded Europe is filling North America, and other great half-empty regions of the world. It is true that some of the conditions attending this transfer did not exist in any previous settlement of a new land. But one condition holds--for ever. The emigrant is sure to fail if he goes frivolously, if he fails to realise the severe conditions of migration, if he does not go with a steadfast heart, trusting--though he may not always define this process to himself--in the great eternal and Divine laws of life and growth, which always govern victory. The genuine spirit of enterprise and energy begets success. It is a possession which increases to the holder, while the half-hearted loses the little that he holds. It slips from his feeble hand. Unquestionably, a successful act of migration demands much energy and perseverance on the part of those who move. We may be sure that the great laws of God overrule all adventure; and that the keeping of a good courage, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel, and the like Divine gifts, really lead to victory. These ever have entrance and dominion. I have said that the note of our text is in good tune ,with many of the greatest movements of our day. No true progress is made in anything except in accordance with the great laws of God. Moreover, it holds, not only in the advances which are being made into the freshly opened regions of the earth, but in the revision of ancient home institutions, and the promotion of any social or political progress. Take, for instance, the giving of larger power in the State to the peasantry in our land. This is exercising both the legislature and society. And we are specially reminded of it by that period in the history of the Hebrews to which our text belongs. We are there told of a race which for hundreds of years had been in bondage along with their flocks and herds. We hear of the partial probation these people had gone through, of the education which they had received since they left the place of subjection. When they crossed the border into their new land they faced new conditions of life, they incurred greater responsibilities. They had to exercise more of that political power which belongs to a civilised country. In the pastoral desert, where these people had been sojourning, their chief concern had been to supplement God’ s gifts of food with such produce of nature as they could raise or gather from the soil or the flock. While thus living they were under such Divine or religious instruction as they had not received before. It is especially notable that they had to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Ten Commandments; learning thus their duty toward God and towards their neighbour. In the keeping of the great moral laws of God may be seen the assurance of national success. None can enter into or enjoy the real blessings of civilised society without a belief in these. This truth touches each, and as we are all members one of another, we do not merely watch spectacles of enfranchisement and the like, but by our loyal keeping of the great principle of righteousness shown in commonplace uprightness of life rising out of behest Christian faith, we welcome and assist any new-comers into the fuller rights of the national family, however little we may be brought into personal contact with them. Every Christian life is an active centre of goodness and influence reaching far beyond our sight. These words, “ beyond our sight,” might lead us to the thought of that unseen rest into which we cannot enter without belief. The true rest of the Land of Promise is not that craved by the sole of the foot, the sinew, and the brain; it is rather a sense of spiritual repose along with, or after, any work done as before God; though human results may not be seen to follow it. It marks a shelter from the strain of life which may be felt even in the whirl and pressure of its business. We all sometimes feel or yearn for this. It remains for the people of God--for such as put their trust in Him. It is occasionally, but most certainly, touched by them, even in this life. It survives disappointment, and arrives even in confusion. But we do not enter into it without belief. Let those who stand outside be invited and helped by the thought that the belief which leads to salvation is not begun by an assent to a current or formulated creed, but in the receiving of the influence of the living God who is revealed to us, and to whom we are joined by our Lord Jesus Christ. This living faith gives life and meaning to the creed. (H. Jones, M. A.) Unbelief A man in prison, with a signed and sealed permission to leave it and walk at liberty lying on the table beside him, untouched, unopened, yet bemoaning himself and unhappy in his cell, is just the image of us believers who have even a fragment of unhappiness about us. I think I can trace every scrap of sorrow in my own life to this simple unbelief. How could I be anything but quite happy if I believed always that all the past is forgiven and all the present furnished with power, and all the future bright with hope, because of the same abiding facts, which don’ t change with my mood, do not crumble, because I totter and stagger at the promise through unbelief, but stand firm and clear with their peaks of pearl cleaving the air of eternity, and the bases of their hills rooted unfathomably in the rock of God. (James Smetham.) Unbelief “Unbelief among sins,” says an old writer, “ is as the plague among diseases, the most dangerous; but when it riseth to despair, then it is as the plague with the tokens appearing that bring the certain message of death with them. Unbelief is despair in the bud; despair is unbelief at its full growth.” Warnings from the fate of others When, a few years ago, a steamer was burned on Long Island Sound, and the hulk of the vessel was afterwards beached, it was said that the bell of that steamer kept tolling through the day and through the night for weeks, solemnly and impressively, to those who passed by on the waters. And I have to tell you that God has so arranged it that right over the place where the soul goes down, or there is a moral shipwreck or awful spiritual catastrophe--that right over it there is a warning that rings through the day, and through the night, and through the years, saying, “ Beware! beware!” (T. DeWitt Talmage.) Profiting by the disasters of others Oh, that we could make that use of their disaster that Walden, the French merchant (father and founder of the Waldenses), did of that sad sight that befell him. For walking in the streets, 180 and seeing one fall suddenly dead, he went home and repented of his Popish errors and profane courses. (J. Trapp.) Hebrews 4:1-2 Let us therefore fear Fearful of coming short I. WITH WHAT DOES THE FEAR IN THE TEXT MAINLY CONCERN ITSELF? Now, the apostle cannot mean that we are to fear lest we should come short of heaven for want of merit. There is not a man living who will not come short of heaven if he tries that road. 1. The great point is lest we come short of the heavenly rest by failing in the faith which will give us rest. Note, then, that it becomes us to be peculiarly anxious that we do not come short of fully realising the spirituality of faith. Many are content with the shells of religion, whereas it is the kernel only which can feed the soul. 2. The exhortation of our text leads us to say that we must take heed lest we fail to discern the fact that the whole way of salvation is of faith. II. WHAT MAY SUGGEST THE FOR THIS FEAR? 1. First, it is certain that many professors apostatise. Now, if others apostatise, may not we also? 2. Note, again, that we ourselves know others who are, we fear, much deceived, and fall short of true salvation. Though we have very much that is morally excellent, it may be that we are destitute of the real work of grace, and so come short of the rest which is given to faith, 3. Yet more, remember there are some professors who know that they are not at rest. “ We that bare believed do enter into rest,” but you know you have no peace. III. WHAT SOLEMN TRUTHS DEMAND THE FEAR IN THE TEXT? If we should really come short of heaven we shall have lost all its bliss and glory for ever. And we shall have lost heaven with this aggravation, that we did begin to build, but were not able to finish. Oh, fear lest ye come short of it. Nay, begin sooner, fear lest ye seem to come short of it, for he that is afraid of the seeming will be delivered from the reality. IV. HOW DOES OUR FEAR ITSELF? Our fear of coming short of the rest must not lead us to unbelief, because in that case it would make us come short at once. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A check to presumption I. The gospel is not only a revelation, but A PROMISE, and a promise exceeding great and precious. It not only holds forth to our view, but it proposes to our hope eternal life, and whatever is previously necessary to the acquisition of it. The promise was early made, and was often renewed with enlargements. Yes, in this blessed Book we have “ a promise left us of entering into His rest.” But what is this rest? We may view it as it is begun upon earth, or completed in heaven. Even while the believer is upon earth, this rest is not only ensured, but begun. 1. View him with regard to his understanding, and you will find that he has rest. 2. View him with regard to his conscience, and you will find that he has rest. He is freed from the torment of fear and the horrors of guilt. 3. View him with regard to his passions and appetites, and you find he has rest. While pride, and envy, and malice, and avarice, and sensual affections, reigned within, often striving with each other, and always fighting against the convictions of his judgment, the man’ s breast was nothing but a scene of tumult; he was “ like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.” 4. view him once more with regard to his “ condition and circumstances,” and you will find that he has rest. He is freed from those anxieties which devour others, who make the world their portion, and have no confidence in God. With all his advantages here, a voice perpetually cries in his ears, “ Arise and depart, for this is not your rest.” However favourable the voyage, they are now on the treacherous ocean; and by and by they will enter the harbour--“ then are they glad because they are quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.” At death we are told the righteous enter into rest. And this rest is pure, undisturbed, and everlasting. They shall rest from “ their labours.” Though all activity, they shall be incapable of fatigue, for their powers will be fully equal to their work. II. THE STATE OF MIND IN WHICH WE SHOULD REGARD IT--“ Let us therefore fear,” &c. The fear here enjoined is not that of the sluggard dismayed by difficulties, or of the unbeliever who suspects that the promise shall not be accomplished; but a fear of caution, vigilance; a fear which leads us to examine ourselves, and allows us, in this awful concern, to be satisfied with nothing less than evidence whether we have a title to heaven and are in a fair way to obtain this blessedness. 1. To excite in you this fear, remember the possibility of your coming short. Remember that out of six hundred thousand Israelites who came out of Egypt to possess the land of Canaan, two only entered! 2. Consider the consequence of coming short. Is it not dreadful to be deprived of that “ fulness of joy” which God hath promised to them that love Him? What would it be to lose your business, your health, your friends, compared with the loss of the soul? And remember, there is no medium between heaven and hell; if you miss the one, the other is unavoidable. And remember also the aggravations which will attend the misery of those who perish in your circumstances. There is nothing so healing, so soothing, as the expectation of hope; and of course there is nothing so tormenting as the disappointment of it, especially where the object is vastly important. Yea, remember also that you will not only be disappointed in coming short, but you will be punished for it. (1) Let us observe, first, how thankful we should be for such a promise left us of entering into His rest! For surely we could not have reasonably expected it. (2) Let us, secondly, see how necessary it is in religion to avoid passing from one extreme into another. The gospel encourages our hope; but then it enlightens it and guards it. “ Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Be not highminded, but fear. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (3) What are we to say of those of you who know nothing of this salutary concern? (The Congregational Pulpit.) Necessity for religious caution I. WE HAVE A PROMISE MADE TO US OF AN ETERNAL REST. Christianity is no cunningly devised fable, but a certain offer of inconceivable felicity. It finds us wretched, and poor, and blind, and miserable. It finds us exposed to the inflictions of Divine wrath; it brings near to us the good news of pardon, grace, and mercy through the mediation of Jesus Christ. The adaptation of this rest to the weariness of man is very striking. II. THIS REST IS TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD, AND TO THEM ALONE. Into that world of light and of love nothing enters that defiles. No revolt, no alienation, no reluctance, no coldness towards God is felt in heaven; God is love, and all who dwell near Him “ dwell in love” ; love to Him and to each other. III. THE OF COMING SHORT OF THE OF HEAVEN IS AN IDEA SO , THAT IT MAY WELL AFFECT THE MIND WITH AWE. The apostle says, “ Let us therefore fear,” &c. The apparent improbability of retrieving error after death is so plainly stated, that the supposition of carelessness in so great a matter, is a supposition fearful is the extreme. All human evils are tolerable, because they are momentary. Earthquake, shipwreck, loss of property, death of friends--these calamities are limited; but the loss of salvation is an intolerable evil, because it is an evil which seems to admit of no termination. There is no object more pitiable than that of an immortal being wasting the few precious hours of life in the frivolous occupations of pleasure, or in the severer pursuits of gain, while yet he is reckless of the pains and pleasures, the gains and losses of eternity! (G. T. Noel, M. A) Fear and rest The two words which claim our special consideration in this section are “ fear” and “ rest.” I. We know only in part, in fragment. It is difficult for us to combine different aspects of truth. The earnest counsel of the apostle in this chapter, “ Let us fear,” may seem to be incompatible with his emphatic teaching that we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; that he is persuaded that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus; that we are to rejoice in the Lord always. Yet a superficial glance at the Epistles, and at the Scriptures in general, will show that fear is an essential feature of the Christian. When Christ is accepted, there is peace; but is there not also fear? “ With Thee is forgiveness of sin, that Thou mayest be feared.” Where do we see God’ s holiness and the awful majesty of the law, our own sin and unworthiness, as in the atonement of the Lord Jesus? We rejoice with fear and trembling. It is because we know the Father; it is because we are redeemed by the precious blood of the Saviour; it is as the children of God that we are to pass our earthly pilgrimage in fear. This is not the fear of bondage, but the fear of adoption. Looking to God, our loving Father, our gracious Saviour, our gentle and indwelling Comforter, we have no reason to be afraid. The only fear that we can cherish is that of reverence and awe, and a dread lest we displease and wound Him who is our Lord. But when we look at ourselves, our weakness, our blindness; when we think of our path and our work, of our dangers, we may well feel that the time for repose and unmixed enjoyment has not come yet; we must dread our own sinfulness and our temptations; we must fear worldly influences. II. BUT THE HAS REST NOW ON EARTH, AND IN GLORY, Resting in Christ, he labours to enter into the perfect rest of eternity. But what did God mean by calling it His rest? Not they enter not into their rest, but His own. Oh, blessed distraction! God gives us Himself, and in all His gifts He gives us Himself. Does God give us righteousness? He Himself is our righteousness, Jehovan-tsidkenu. Does God give us peace? Christ is our peace. Does God give us light? He is our light. Does God give us bread? He is the bread we eat; as the Son liveth by the Father, so he that eateth Me shall live by Me (John 6:1-71.). God Him-elf is our strength. God is ours, and in all His gifts and blessings He gives Himself. By the Holy Ghost we are one with Christ, and Christ the Son of God is our righteousness--nay, our life. “ I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Or again, “ I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.” Or as the Lord Himself, in His last prayer before His crucifixion, said to the Father, “ I in them, and Thou in Me.” Thus God gives us His lest as our rest. Our souls long for rest. “ Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! Then would I fly away and be at rest! “ is the sigh of every soul. And this rest is only in God’ s rest. Death brings no rest to our souls. It is Jesus Christ who alone can give rest to man; for only in Him we are restored and brought into communion with God. The great promise of Christ is rest. For He is the Restorer. We enjoy rest in Christ by faith. But the perfect enjoyment of rest is still ,n the future. There remaineth a sabbatism for the people of God. Believers will enter into rest after their earthly pilgrimage, labour, and conflict, and the whole creation will share in the liberty and joy of the children of God The substance and foretaste of this rest we have even now in Christ. (A. Saphir.) Use of fear God planted fear in the soul as truly as He planted hope or courage. Fear is a kind of bell, or gong, which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger; it is the soul’ s signal for rallying. (H. W. Beecher.) A promise … of entering into His restThe promise of entering into God’ s rest Man from the first has been a restless creature. He lives by hope. His best pleasures are not in the things he actually possesses, but in the things he hopes for. He is always looking forward to to-morrow. Man’ s true life is the heavenly, and his earthly life is true only as it tends towards that. I. THE REST THAT GOD HAS TO MAN. It is the undisturbed peace, the holy joy of the Divine nature, which nothing but likeness to the Divine can bring. II. THE OF COMING SNORT OF GOD’ S REST. 1. A man may come short of the rest of the Sabbath. 2. Many of the Jews, to whom the rest of Canaan was promised, came short of it. 3. Man will never enter fully into the ideal life until he believes in God fully, trusts God with all his heart, ceases from his own self-will to be and do in harmony with the will Divine. III. HOW TO GUARD AGAINST THE OF COMING SHORT OF THE DIVINE REST. 1. Guard against unbelief. 2. Guard against presumption. 3. Cling to the great hope itself, and rejoice in it evermore. Think about it often, and all other hopes will pale when placed beside this. (E. D. Solomon.) The promised rest I. GOD HAS LEFT US A PROMISE OF INTO HIS REST; a promise enough to satisfy all our desires, and to engage our heartiest endeavours after it. 1. The greatness of that reward which God has promised to us in the gospel. 2. Of this rest we should most certainly be made partakers, if we live so as we ought to do. II. IT IS AS CERTAIN THAT WE MAY BY OUR OWN FAULT COME SHOAT OF IT. For the promise of this rest is not absolute, but conditional It depends upon a covenant in which there are duties to be fulfilled on our part, as well as a reward to he made good on God’ s. And if we fail in the one, there is no reason to expect that He should perform the other. III. Let us take the advice of the text, and FEAR LEST WE SHOULD CHANCE SO TO DO. One might justly think that instead of arguing with men upon this subject, we ought rather to apologise for the absurdity of making that an exhortation which all men desire, and therefore must needs endeavour to attain unto. What is this but as if one should go about to argue with a covetous wretch not to neglect a fair opportunity of growing rich. IV. THE BEST WHY TO SECURE TO THE PROMISE OF THIS REST, is to live in a continual fear of coming short of it. 1. This will be the most likely to engage our own care. 2. It will also be the best means to entitle us to God’ s favour. (1) This will above anything qualify us for the gracious assistance of His Holy Spirit, to enable us to discharge that duty which is required of us. (2) It will the best dispose us for the pardon of those sins which, when we have done all that we can, we shall still continue more or less to commit. Because he who thus fears will either never willingly fall into any sins, and then there can be no doubt that he shall find a very ready pardon of his involuntary offences. Or if he should be at any time led away by the deceitfulness of sin, yet this fear will soon awaken him, and bring him both to a sense and a deep abhorrence of it. (Abp. Wake.) The fear of losing the promised rest I. THE REST WHICH IS HERE SPOKEN OF. Union with Christ. II. THE EFFECT WHICH IT SHOULD PRODUCE UPON OUR MINDS. We must fear 1. Because we have numerous enemies who would rob us of this rest. 2. Because we have great interests at stake. 3. Because we have but a short and uncertain period to secure an interest in Christ, and be washed from the stains of sin. III. THE OF COMING SHORT OF THIS REST. TO mistake the way to heaven is to sink into hell. (Neville Jones.) Fear of perishing 1. A race must be run ere we come to our full rest. 2. The constant runner to the end getteth rest from sin and misery, and a quiet possession of happiness at the race’ s end. 3. The apostate, and he who by misbelief breaketh off his course, and runneth not on, as may be, cometh short, and attaineth not unto it. 4. The apostasy of some, and possibility of apostasy of mere professors, should not weaken any man’ s faith; but rather terrify him from misbelief. 5. There is a right kind of fear of perishing; to wit, such as hindereth not assurance of faith; but rather serveth to guard it, and spurreth on a man to perseverance. 6. We must not only fear, by misbelieving to come short; but to seem or give any appearance of coming short. (D. Dickson, M. A.) The Christian’ s privilege, danger and duty I. THE ’ S : promised rest. 1. The character supposed. The promise of entering into the heavenly Canaan peculiarly belongs to those who have turned their backs on spiritual Egypt, and are journeying under Divine direction towards the “ better country.” 2. The blessing promised: “ His rest.” In the present we may have rest from the tyranny of sin (Romans 6:12-14); and from the distraction of anxious care, whether it precede our justification, and refer to our soul’ s safety (see Hebrews 4:3), or follow it (Isaiah 26:3; Romans 8:38-39). Yet, however, the Christian may have rest now from the clamours of conscience, painful forebodings, &c., it is to heaven that he must look for (1) A rest from toil. (2) A rest from pain. Glorified bodies are “ safe from disease and decline.” (3) A rest from sorrow. 3. The security offered is that of Almighty God. Men may promise largely, but not be able to fulfil. He is all-sufficient. II. THE ’ S DANGER: “ Lest any of you should seem to come short of it.” Unbelief the principle of ruin, hence so earnest (Hebrews 3:11-12; Hebrews 3:18-19, and Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 4:11). Nor is this without reason, for unbelief may operate destructively. 1. By means of open transgression. In these passages we are cautioned against the principle. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-12, its sad effects are exhibited. 2. By means of secret wickedness. Hence lusting after evil things is deprecated (1 Corinthians 10:6; see also Matthew 5:28; Psalms 66:18). 3. By means of worldly mindedness. Faith apprehends invisible realities, and influences and saves us accordingly. But unbelief is the soul’ s blindness. 4. By means of indolence. Faith prompts us to do, and sustains us in suffering. Unbelief leads to negligence; and neglect is ruin (Hebrews 2:3). III. THE ’ S DUTY: “ Let us therefore fear.” If the apostle feared for the Hebrews, it equally became them to fear. 1. Because of the shame, the personal disgrace of coming short. Not to pursue a worthy object when it is proposed is sufficiently disgraceful. To relinquish the pursuit is doubly so. Even sinners despise such inconsistency. 2. Because of the mischief of coming short. He is like one of the unbelieving spies who tempted Israel into sin and suffering (Numbers 14:4; Numbers 14:23). 3. Because of the ruin of coming short. Apostates sin against greater advantages, have gained a greater enlargement of capacity, fall from a greater elevation; therefore their punishment will be more severe. But how? Not with a desponding paralysing fear. (1) With a fear of caution, that properly estimates difficulty and danger, and induces circumspection (Hebrews 12:12-15). (2) With a fear of vigilance; that narrowly watches first declensions, and promptly opposes the first advances of the enemy. (3) With a provident fear; that leads to husband our resources, to avail ourselves of the assistance of our fellow Christians, and to cry to the strong for strength. And let it be an abiding fear. “ Blessed is the man that feareth always.” Improvement: 1. God hath promised a rest. 2. In prospect of the promised rest, let saints sustain the hallowed cross: “ rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,” &c. 3. Let us exhort one another daily; both by the example of those who have halted, and of those who “ inherit the promises” (Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 6:11-12). (Sketches of Sermons.) The gospel of rest The Christian salvation is here presented under a third aspect as a rest, a sabbatism, a participation in the rest of God; the new view, like the two preceding, in which the great salvation was identified with lordship in the world to come and with deliverance from the power of the devil and the fear of death, being taken from the beginning of human history as narrated in the early chapters of Genesis. One aim of the writer of the Epistle in this part of his work was doubtless to enunciate this thought, and so to identify the gospel of Christ with the Old Testament gospel of rest. But his aim is not purely didactic, but partly also, and even chiefly, parenetic. Doctrine rises out of and serves the purpose of exhortation. In so far as the section (verses 1-10) has a didactic drift, its object is to confirm the hope; in so far as it is hortatory, its leading purpose is to enforce the warning, “ let us fear.” The parenetic interest predominates at the commencement (verses 1, 2), which may be thus paraphrased: “ Now with reference to this rest I have been speaking of (Hebrews 3:18-19), let us fear lest we miss it For it is in our power to gain it, seeing the promise still remains over unfulfilled or but partially fulfilled. Let us fear, I say; for if we have a share in the promise, we have also in the threat of forfeiture: it too stands over. We certainly have a share in the promise; we have been evangelised, not merely in general, but with the specific gospel of rest. But those who first heard this gospel of rest failed through unbelief. So may we: therefore let us fear.” To be noted is the freedom with which, as in the case of the word “ apostle” (Hebrews 3:1), the writer uses the εὐηγγελισμένοι, which might have been supposed to have borne in his time a stereotyped meaning. Any promise of God, any announcement of good tidings, is for him a gospel. Doubtless all God’ s promises are associated in his mind with the great final salvation, nevertheless they are formally distinct from the historical Christian gospel. The gospel he has in view is not that which “ begun to be spoken by the Lord,” but that spoken by the Psalmist when he said, “ To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Not less noteworthy is the way in which the abortive result of the preaching of the gospel of rest to the fathers is accounted for. “ The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Is the word mixed with faith in the healer, or by faith with the hearer? and what natural analogy is suggested in either case? The one thing certain is, that he deemed faith indispensable to profitable hearing: a truth, happily, taught with equal clearness in the text, whatever reading we adopt. At verse 3 the didactic interest comes to the front. The new thought grafted into verse 1 by the parenthetical clause, “ a promise being still left,” now becomes the leading affirmation. The assertion of verse 2, “ we have been evangelised,” is repeated, with the emphasis this time on the “ we.” “ We do enter into rest, we believers in Christ.” A rest is left over for the New Testament people of God. The sequel as far as verse 10 contains the proof of this thesis. The salient points are these two: 1. God spoke of a rest to Israel by Moses, though He Himself rested from His works when the creation of the world was finished; therefore the creation-rest does not exhaust the idea and promise of rest. 2. The rest of Israel in Canaan under Joshua did not realise the Divine idea of rest, any more than did the personal rest of God at the Creation, for we find the rest spoken of again in the Psalter as still remaining to be entered upon, which implies that the Canaan-rest was an inadequate fulfilment. The former of these two points contains the substance of what is said in verses 3-5, the latter gives the gist of verses 7, 8; whereupon follows the inference in verse 9, a rest is left over. A third step in the argument by which the inference is justified is passed over in silence. It is, that neither in the Psalmist’ s day nor at any subsequent period in Israel’ s history had the promise of rest been adequately fulfilled, any more than at the Creation or in the days of Joshua. Our author takes the oracle in the Psalter as the final word of the Old Testament on the subject of rest, and therefore as a word which concerns the New Testament people of God. God spake of rest through David, implying that up till that time the long promised rest had not come, at least, in satisfying measure. Therefore a rest remains for Christians. He believed that all Divine promises, that the promise of rest in particular, shall be fulfilled with ideal completeness. “ Some must enter in” ; and as none have yet entered in perfectly, this bliss must be reserved for those on whom the ends of the world are come, even those who believe in Jesus. “ There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.” A sabbatism our author calls the rest, so at the conclusion of his argument introducing a new name for it, after using another all through. It embodies an idea. It felicitously connects the end of the world with the beginning, the consummation of all things with the primal state of the creation. It denotes the ideal rest, and so teaches by implication that Christians not only have an interest in the gospel of rest, but for the first time enter into a rest which is worthy of the name, a rest corresponding to and fully realising the Divine idea. This final name for the rest thus supplements the defect of the preceding argument, which understates the case for Christians. It further hints, though only hints, the nature of the ideal rest. It teaches that it is not merely a rest which God gives, but the rest which God Himself enjoys. It is God’ s own rest for God’ s own true people, an ideal rest for an ideal community, embracing all believers, all believing Israelites of all ages, and many more; for God’ s rest began long before there was an Israel, and the gospel in the early chapters of Genesis is a gospel for man. We have seen that our author borrows three distinct conceptions of the great salvation from the primitive history of man. It is reasonable to suppose that they were all connected together in his mind, and formed one picture of the highest good. They suggest the idea of paradise restored: the Divine ideal of man and the world and their mutual relations realised in perpetuity; man made veritably lord of creation, delivered from the fear of death, nay, death itself for ever left behind, and no longer subject to servile tasks, but occupied only with work worthy of a king and a son of God, and compatible with perfect repose and undisturbed enjoyment. It is an apocalyptic vision: fruition lies in the beyond. The dominion and deathlessness and sabbatism are reserved for the world to come, objects of hope for those who believe. The perfect rest will come, and a people of God will enter into it, of these things our author is well assured; but he fears lest the Hebrew Christians should forfeit their share in the felicity of that people: therefore he ends his discourse on the gospel of rest as he began, with solemn admonition. “ Let us fear lest we enter not in,” he said at the beginning; “ let us give diligence to enter in,” he says now at the close. Then to enforce the exhortation he appends two words of a practical character, one fitted to inspire awe, the other to cheer Christians of desponding temper. The former of these passages (verses 12, 13) describes the attributes of the Divine word, the general import of the statement being that the word of God, like God Himself, is not to be trifled with; the word referred to being, in the first place, the word of threatening which doomed unbelieving, disobedient Israelites to perish in the wilderness, and by implication, every word of God. The account given of the Divine word is impressive, almost appalling. It is endowed in succession with the qualities of the lightning, which moves with incredible swiftness like a living spirit, and hath force enough to shiver to atoms the forest trees; of a two-edged sword, whose keen, glancing blade cuts clean through everything, flesh, bone, sinew; of the sun in the firmament, from whose great piercing eye, as he circles round the globe, nothing on earth is hid. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Christ’ s legacy of rest This promise of spiritual rest is a promise left us by the Lord Jesus Christ in His last will and testament, as a precious legacy. Our business is to see to it that we be the legatees; that we lay our claim to that rest and freedom from the dominion of sin, Satan, and the flesh by which the souls of men are kept in servitude, and deprived of the true rest of the soul, and may be also set free from the yoke of the law, and all the toilsome ceremonies and services of it, and may enjoy peace with God, in His ordinances, providences and in our own consciences, and so have the prospect and earnest of perfect and everlasting rest in heaven. (M. Henry.) Seem to come short of itThe appearance of failure It is a great principle under the Christian dispensation, that “ none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” We are “ members one of another,” so associated by intimate and indissoluble ties, that we ought never to consider our actions as having a bearing only on ourselves; we should rather regard them as likely to affect numbers, and sure to affect some, of our fellow men, to affect them in their eternal interests, and not only in their temporal. We have again the same principle, the principle that membership should influence actions, involved in a precept of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, “ Abstain from all appearance of evil.” There is something of a fine sound in advice which is often given, “ Do what you know to be right, and care not what others may think” ; but, after all, it is not universally, nor perhaps even generally, good and Christian advice. A Christian should consider the opinion of his fellow Christians. Be not engrossed with securing your own salvation; see to it that ye be not, at the same time, endangering the salvation of others. In the chapter preceding that which is opened by our text, St. Paul had been speaking of those Israelites who, though delivered by Moses from Egypt, never reached the Promised Land, but perished, through unbelief, in the wilderness. From this the apostle took occasion to warn Christians that they might have some progress towards heaven, and still be in danger of missing its possession. And if this had been the whole tenor of our text, it would have afforded but little place for commentary, though much for private and personal meditation. But you will observe that St. Paul does not speak of “ coming short,” but of “ seeming to come short.” He “ seems to come short” of the promised rest, who, in the judgment of his fellow men, is deficient in those outward evidences by which they are wont to try the genuineness of religion. But surely, all the while, he may not actually “ come short” : human judgment is fallible, and can in no case be guided by inspecting the heart, which alone can furnish grounds for certain decision; and, doubtless, many may be found in heaven at last, of which entrance thither survivors could entertain nothing more than a charitable hope. And is it not enough, if we do not “ come short “ ? why should we further concern ourselves as to the not “ seeming to come short” ? We might answer, as we did in regard of the “ appearance of evil,” that it is a dangerous thing to approach danger. He who “ seems to come short” must almost necessarily be in some peril of failure; and where heaven is at stake, no wise man, if he could help it, would run the least risk. Besides, it can hardly be that he, who seems to others to come short, should possess decisive and Scriptural evidences of his acceptance With God. But whilst there may thus be many reasons given why we should fear the seeming to come short, even were our personal well-being alone to be considered, the full force of the text, as with that which enjoins abstinence from the appearance of evil, is only to be brought out through reference to our being members the one of the other. We shall, therefore, take the passage under this point of view. In other words, we will examine what there is, in an appearance of failure, to do injury to the cause of Christianity, and therefore to justify the apostle in so emphatically calling upon you to learn, “ lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Now as there are undoubtedly many ways in which we may actually come short, so must there be many in which we may apparently come short: who can tell up the methods in which the soul may be lost? neither can any one enumerate those in which it may seem to be lost. 1. And it must, we think, commend itself to you in the first place, that none will more “ seem to come short,” than those whose practice is in any way inconsistent with their profession, so that lookers-on can decide that their conduct is not strictly accordant with the principles by which they declare themselves actuated. He who professes to “ walk in the light as God is in the light,” may occasionally wander into dark paths, and yet be mercifully restored; but it can hardly fail but that the impression produced on observers, especially on men of the world, will be one as to the weakness of his principles, or a want of power in that religion which professes itself adequate to the renewing the world. And who will pretend to compute the amount of damage done to the cause of vital Christianity by the inconsistencies of those who profess themselves subjected to its laws, and animated by its hopes? 2. But there is another, if a less obvious mode of “ seeming to come short.” It should be observed that, though the apostle, when speaking of rest, must be considered as referring mainly to that rest which is future, there is a degree of present rest which is attainable by the Christian, and which is both the type and foretaste of that which is to come. Thus St. Paul, in a verse which follows almost immediately on our text, says of Christians, “ We which have believed do enter into rest” ; and afterwards, “ He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His,” evidently making the entering into rest, a present thing, as well as a future. Our blessed Saviour bequeathed His own peace, as a legacy to His Church; and what Christ entailed on us, may surely be enjoyed by us. The religion of the Bible is a cheerful, happy-making religion: the very word “ gospel” signifies “ glad tidings” ; and he who has received good news into his heart may justly be expected to exhibit in his demeanour, if not much of the rapture of joy, yet something of the quietness of peace. But it is in this that righteous persons are often grievously deficient. Hence, in place of struggling with doubts and endeavouring to extinguish them, they may be said actually to encourage them, as if they befitted their state, and either betokened or cherished humility. A great mistake this. There is commonly more of pride than of humility in doubts; he who is always doubting is generally searching in himself for some ground or reason of assurance; whereas, true, genuine humility, looks wholly out of self, not as forgetting the corruption which is there, but as fastening on the sufficiency which is in Christ. But, without dissecting more narrowly the character of the always doubting Christian, we cannot hesitate to say of him, that he is one of those who “ seem to come short.” If a present, as well as a future, rest be promised to the righteous--and what else can be denoted by such words as these, “ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” ?--certainly he, at least, “ seems to come short” of that rest, who is continually the prey of fear and disquietude, who has never anything to express but apprehensions as to his deceiving himself, or who wears always the appearance of one ill at ease in regard of his spiritual interests. It could hardly fail to be a strong motive with religious persons to the cultivating cheerfulness of deportment, if they carefully rein inhered that others will judge religion by its apparent effects, and that, if they see it produce only sadness, they will be likely to shun it as opposed to all joy. A gloomy Christian may not be always able to help his gloom; but he should lament it, and strive with it; for what will a generous leader say of a soldier, who, commissioned to enlist others under the same banner with himself, makes his appearance in the world as a terrified and half-famished prisoner? 3. But now, having thus illustrated the text from inconsistency of conduct, and from the harbouring of doubts, either of which will cause a Christian to “ seem to come short,” let us take one other case, one which is not perhaps indeed as much under our own power, but one against which we may be always endeavouring to provide. The great business of life, as we all confess, is preparation for death. And a Christian’ s hope, a Christian’ s desire, should be that he may be enabled to meet death triumphantly. It should not content him that he may pass in safety through the dark valley, though with little of that firm sense of victory which discovers itself in the exulting tone, or the burning vision. This indeed is much--oh! that we might believe that none of us would have less than this. But, in having only this, a Christian may “ seem to come short.” And there is often a mighty discouragement from the death-beds of the righteous, when, as the darkness thickens, there is apparently but little consolation from the prospect of eternity. Even as, on the other hand, when a righteous man is enabled to meet death exultingly, as though he had to step into the car of fire, and be wafted almost visibly to the heavenly city, there is diffused over a neighbourhood a sort of animating influence; the tidings of the victory spread rapidly from house to house: the boldness of infidelity quails before them; meek piety takes new courage, and attempts new toils. And it ought not, therefore, to satisfy us that we may so die as not to come short of heaven: we ought to labour that we may so die as not even to “ seem to come short of it.” It is doubly dying, if, in dying, we work an injury to our brethren; it is scarcely dying, if we strengthen them for their departure out of life. This is, in its measure, the doing what was done by the Redeemer Himself, who, “ through death, destroyed him that had the power of death” : the believer, as he enters the grave, deals a blow at the tyrant, which renders him less terrible to those who have yet to meet him in the final encounter. And by continued preparation for death, by accustoming ourselves to the anticipation of death, that, through God’ s help, our passage through the valley shall be rather with the tread of the conqueror, than with the painful step of the timid pilgrim. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The danger of falling short of the heavenly rest I. THE NATURE OF THIS REST. 1. A rest from sin. 2. A rest from temptation. 3. A rest from trouble. II. TO WHOM THE PROMISE OF IT IS MADE. It is made, it is left to us; yes, wherever the gospel is preached, this inestimable prize is offered to those who believe in its life-giving doctrines. III. THE DANGER OF FALLING SHORT OF IT. Let me ask you, or rather ask your own consciences, Have you ever had any fears on the subject? If you have not, it can never have been an object of intense desire; it is impossible to be really in earnest about seeking the kingdom of heaven, without being anxious and fearful about it. Many who die with heaven in anticipation, it is to be feared will lift up their eyes in hell. Tremendous discovery this of their real state, when it is irretrievable, bitter knowledge of the truth, when it is too late to profit by it! I want you to fear now; now, when there is time and opportunity for repentance; now, when God waits to be gracious; now, when the atonement of Christ is available for your salvation: and mark the words of the text, for they are very explicit; like almost every thing in Scripture, they require minute inspection, in order to get their full force and meaning, “ Fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” You are cautioned to startle, as it were, at the very appearance of failure--to be alarmed at the least indication of it. (J. P. Wright, M. A.) Coming short of the promised rest I. A . 1. There is a rest. (1) A rest resulting from the inward assurance of God’ s pardoning love. (2) A rest from sin as a ruling and tyrannising power. (3) A rest of adoption. 2. There is a promise of this rest. 3. The promise is to believers. II. AN AWFUL . Thus though the promise is made, there is in the case of many an awful uncertainty hanging over its issue. And how so? There is no accusation against God in the economy of His spiritual government; He does not arbitrarily unfold and withhold--no, God is our Father, full of compassion and tender in mercy. The accusation is proved against man himself. He wilfully shuts the open means of grace; he is the self-excluding and self-excluded from the pale of the promise. He comes short of it--it does not come short of him. (T. J. Judkin, M. A.) The gospel preachedThe gospel preached under the Old Testament I. 1. They had the same gospel blessings and mercies that we have. That God would be their God. This includes (1) Regeneration, or the new heart, the heart of flesh, the writing of God’ s law in the heart (Jeremiah 31:33; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:25-27). (2) Reconciliation and remission of sins (Isaiah 1:18; Je Leviticus 5:6; Leviticus 5:10). (3) Everlasting life and salvation in heaven (Psalms 17:15; Psalms 73:24; Psalms 16:11). 2. They had these blessings upon the same account, and in the same way, as we have them now. We receive all from the mere mercy and free grace of God in Christ; and so did they (Psalms 51:1; Daniel 9:8-9; Daniel 9:18-19). II. A second argument might be taken from an historical induction of all those former times, and the several gospel discoveries which the Lord vouchsafed to them all along from time to time. III. Either the gospel was preached unto them of old, or else it will follow that they were all condemned, or else that they were saved without Christ; which to imagine were infinitely dishonourable to the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 4:12; Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Hebrews 13:8). Objections: 1. Why do we call it the Old Testament, if it was gospel? This is only in regard of the manner of dispensation. 2. That the apostle often speaks of it as “ that ancient dispensation,” as if it was law and not gospel. We must distinguish between the thing preached, and the manner of preaching, between the shell and the kernel, the shadow and the substance. The thing preached was the gospel, though the manner of preaching it was legal. (1) It was dark, but the gospel is clear. (2) It was weak, but the gospel is powerful. (3) There was much of external splendour, but little of that power and spirituality that is in gospel worship. (4) It was a burdensome dispensation. (5) The manner of administration was legal, in regard of the bondage and tenor of it. Uses: 1. Encouragement to study the Old Testament, and the types and shadows of the Law. 2. Direction how to attain to the understanding of those mysteries. Study the gospel. 3. There is no part of the Scripture but is of use. We might see much of God and of the gospel in the chapters of the Levitical law, if we had the skill to search out the meaning and mystery of them. 4. Encouragement to believe and receive the gospel. (S. Mather.) The preached gospel I. IT IS A SIGNAL TO HAVE THE GOSPEL UNTO US; TO BE . As such it is here proposed by the apostle; and it is made a foundation of inferring a necessity of all sorts of duties. This the prophet emphatically expresseth (Isaiah 9:1-2). II. Barely to be evangelised, to have the gospel preached unto any, IS A OF A DUBIOUS ISSUE AND EVENT. All privileges depend as to their advantage on the use of them. If herein we fail, that which should have been for our good will be our snare. III. THE GOSPEL IS NO NEW , NO NEW LAW. It was preached unto the people of old. In the preaching of the gospel by the Lord Jesus Himself and His apostles, it was new in respect of the manner of its administration, with sundry circumstances of light, evidence, and power, wherewith it is accompanied. So it is in all ages in respect of any fresh discovery of truth from the word formally bidden or eclipsed. But as to the substance of it, the gospel is that “ which was from the beginning” (1 John 1:1). It is the first great original of God with sinners, from the foundation of the world. IV. GOD HATH ORDERED THE WORD OF THE GOSPEL TO BE TO MEN, WHEREON DEPENDS THEIR WELFARE OR THEIR RUIN. The word is like the sun in the firmament. It hath virtually in it all spiritual light and heat. But the preaching of the word is as the motion and beams of the sun, which actually and effectually communicate to all creatures that light and heat which is virtually in the sun itself. V. THE SOLE CAUSE OF THE PROMISE BEING TO IN AND TOWARDS THEM TO WHOM IT IS , IS IN AND THEIR OWN . VI. THERE IS A FAILING, FAITH, WITH RESPECT TO THE OF GOD, WHICH WILL NOT THEM IN WHOM IT IS. VII. THE GREAT MYSTERY OF USEFUL AND , IN THE MIXING OR IN OF TRUTH AND FAITH IN THE SOULS OR MINDS OF . 1. There is a great respect, relation, and union, between the faculties of the soul, and their proper objects, as they act themselves. Thus truth, as truth, is the proper object of the understanding. 2. The truth of the gospel, of the promise now under especial consideration, is peculiar, divine, supernatural; and, therefore, for the receiving of it, God requireth in us, and bestoweth upon us a peculiar, divine, supernatural habit, by which our minds may be enabled to receive it. This is faith, which is “ not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.” (John Owen, D. D.) On hearing the Word preached Ever since these words were written the unprofitableness of preaching has been a subject of complaint to some, and of lamentation to others. On one side it has been alleged by the hearers that the word preached is unprofitable, not so much from want of faith or piety in themselves, as from want of zeal, of ability, of energy, or even of originality in the preacher. On the other hand, the person thus unsparingly assailed is led, perhaps unwillingly, to remark, that faults in hearers may be as numerous and as frequent as in him who speaks: and that the very best preaching has, in cases without number, been ineffectual through perverseness, inattention, or unbelief in the auditory. 1. A. very common impediment to edification, and one of which every Christian mind, alive to the importance of social ordinances, must be peculiarly sensible, is the practice of irregular attendance at the house of God. 2. I have already remarked upon those who have created obstacles to their religious welfare by being absent in body from the house of God, I now come to those, who, by being absent in mind and spirit, make their bodily presence of no avail. 3. I now proceed to the fault of those who are present, and who attend to the Word preached, but who attend with improper dispositions, either in regard to their minister or their fellow-hearers. With respect to their minister, they arc apt to be arbitrary and dictatorial; with respect to their fellow-hearers they are apt to be censorious in their application of the truth or duties inculcated. (J. Sinclair, M. A.) Not being mixed with faith Profitable mixture I. ISRAEL’ S HEARING OF THE GOSPEL. 1. We shall notice, first, that the good news brought to Israel was a gospel of rest for slaves, a promise of deliverance for men who cried by reason of sore bondage. This was a fit emblem of that news which comes to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. The good tidings to Israel was a gospel of redemption in order to their entering into the promised rest. You have heard the word of reconciliation, and you know its meaning. Have you rested in it? 3. Furthermore, it was a gospel of separation. When you read the words of the Lord to His chosen ones, you are compelled to see that He means them to be a people set apart for His own purposes. The Lord has of old separated to Himself, in His eternal purposes, a people who are His; and His they shall still be, even till that day in which He shall make up His jewels. These belong to the Lord Jesus in a special way. These have a destiny before them, even in this world, of separation from the rest of mankind; for Jesus saith, “ they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” 4. Still further, the gospel preached to the Israelites told them of a glorious heritage which was provided for them. 5. They had also preached to them the gospel of a Divine calling; for they were informed that they were not to enter into this land to be idlers in it, but they were to be a nation of priests. This, even this, is the gospel preached unto you. Count not yourselves unworthy of this high honour. 6. Once more: they had a gospel which promised them help to obtain all this. It is a poor gospel which sets heaven before us, but does not help us to enter it. “ The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” “ God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” “ Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” II. ISRAEL’ S FAILURE TO PROFIT BY THE GOSPEL WHICH THEY HEARD. 1. Though they heard it from many, they clung to Egypt. 2. Worse still, they provoked the Lord by their murmurings and their idolatry. 3. Moreover, they were always mistrustful. 4. They went so far as to despise the Promised Land. 5. When the time came when they might have advanced against the foe, they were afraid to go up. 6. The end of it was, they died in the wilderness. A whole nation missed the rest of God: it will not be a wonder if you and I miss it, who are but one or two, unless we take earnest heed and are filled with fear “ lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of us should seem to come short of it.” III. THE FATAL CAUSE OF THIS DIREFUL . Why was it the gospel that they heard did not profit them? “ Not being mixed with faith.” 1. Where there is no faith, men remain slaves to the present. If they did not believe in the milk and honey of Canaan, you see why they hankered for the cucumbers of Egypt. An onion is nothing comparable to an estate beyond Jordan; yet as they think they cannot get the estate, they pine for the onions. When men do not believe in eternal life, they naturally enough cry, “ Give me bread and cheese. Let me have a fortune here.” 2. If a man hears and has no faith, he learns nothing. What would be the use of your listening to lectures upon science if you disbelieved what the professor set forth? You are no pupil, you are a critic; and you cannot learn. Many professors have no faith, and, consequently, whoever may teach them, they will never come to a knowledge of the truth. 3. The truth did not affect the hearts of Israel, as it does not affect any man’ s heart till he has believed it. A man’ s soul touched by the finger of the gospel resounds the music of God. If the gospel is not believed, those fingers touch mute strings, and no response is heard. 4. A man that has no faith in what he hears does not appropriate it. There is gold I Eagerly one crieth, ” Let me go and get it.” Unbelief restrains him, as it whispers, “ There is no gold, or it is beyond reach.” He does not go to get it, for he does not believe. A hungry man passeth by where there is entertainment for needy travellers. Believing that there is food for his hunger, he tarries at the door; but if unbelief mutters, “ There is a bare table within, you might as soon break your neck as break your fast in that place,” then the traveller hurries on. Unbelief palsies she hand, and ,t appropriates nothing. That which is not appropriated can be of no use to you. 5. Lastly, these people could not enter in, because they had no faith. They could go to the border of the land, but they must die even there. They could send their spies into the country; but they could not see the fertile valleys themselves. Without faith they could not enter Canaan. Shall it be so with us, that, for want of faith, we shall hear the gospel, know something about its power, and yet miss its glories, and never enter into possession of the life eternal which it reveals? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Not being mixed with faith There is always a pathetic interest, made up of sadness and hope together, in the sight of any good thing which fails of power and of its fullest life because it is a fragment, and does not meet the other part which is needed to complete the whole. A seed that lies upon the rock, and finds no ground; an instrument which stands complete in all its mechanism, but with no player’ s hand to call its music forth; a man who might do brave and useful things under the summons of a friend’ s enthusiasm, but goes through life alone, a nature with fine and noble qualities that need the complement of other qualities which the man lacks to make a fruitful life; a community rich in certain elements of character--as, for instance, energy, hopefulness, self-confidence, but wanting just that profound conscientiousness, that scrupulous integrity which should be the rudder to those broad and eager sails; a Church devout without thoughtfulness or liberal without deep convictions--where would the long list of illustrations end? Everywhere the most pathetic sights are these in which possibility and failure meet. Indeed, herein lies the general pathos which belongs to the great human history as a whole and to each man’ s single life. One of these failures is described in the text. Truth fails because it does not meet what the Scripture calls faith. This is evidently something more than mere assent that the truth is true. The essential relations between truth and the nature of man are evidently comprehended in their whole completeness. All that the hearer might have done to truth, all the welcome that he might have extended, all the cordial and manifold relationship into which he might have entered with the Word that was preached unto him--all this is in the writer’ s mind. All this is summed up in the faith which the truth has not found. Faith is simply the full welcome which the human soul can give to anything with which it has essential and natural relationship. It will vary for everything according to that thing’ s nature, as the hand will shape itself differently according to the different shapes of things it has to grasp. Faith is simply the soul’ s grasp, a larger or a smaller act according to the largeness or smallness of the object grasped; of one size for a fact, of another for a friend, or another for a principle: but always the soul’ s grasp, the entrance of the soul into its true and healthy relationship to the object which is offered to it. As soon as we understand what the faith is which any object or truth must find and mix itself with before it can put on its fullest life and power, we are impressed with this: that men are always making attempts which never can succeed to give to objects and truths a value which in themselves they never can possess, which can only come to them as they are taken home by faith into the characters of men. We hear men talk about the progress of our country, and by and by we find they mean the increase of its wealth, the development of its resources, the opening of its communications, the growth of its commerce. These do not make a country great. They are powerless until they are mixed with faith; until they give themselves to the improvement of the human qualities which any real national life, like any real personal life, is made, and make the nation more generous, more upright, and more free. They may do that. It is in the power of a nation as of a man to grow greater by every added dollar of its wealth, but a dollar is powerless until it mixes itself with faith and passes into character. And so of far more spiritual things than dollars. You say: “ How headlong my boy is! Let me give him a wise friend, and so he shall get wisdom.” You say: “ Here is my brother, who has been frivolous. Behold, a blessed sorrow is gathering about him, and out of the darkness he will come with a sober heart! “ You say: “ This man is coarse and brutish; let me set him among fine things, and he will become delicate and gentle.” You say: “ This selfish creature, who has not cared for his country in what seemed her soft and easy days, let the storm come, let the war burst out, or the critical election rise up like a sudden rock out of the calm sea, and patriotism will gather at his heart and set his brain to lofty thoughts and strengthen his arm for heroic deeds.” For ever the same anticipations from mere circumstances, the same trust in mere emergencies, in facts and things, and for ever the same disappointment--no crisis, eyelet, fact, person is of real value to the soul unless it really gets into that soul, compels or wins its welcome, and passes by the mixture of faith into character. So, and so only, does a wise friend make your boy wise, or sorrow make your brother noble, or fine and gentle circumstances make the coarse man fine, or the need of his country make the selfish man a patriot. Now, all this is peculiarly true with reference to religion. We put confidence in our organisations: let us plant our church in this remote village; let our beloved liturgy be heard among these unfamiliar scenes; and so men shall be saved. It is not so much that me have too much confidence, as that we have the wrong kind of confidence in the objective truth. “ Let this which I know is verity come to this bad man’ s life, and he must turn.” There is all about us this faith in the efficacy of ideas over character. The orthodox man believes that if you could silence all dissent from the old venerated creed the world would shine with holiness. How like it all sounds to the cry we hear in the parable coming forth from the still unenlightened rain of a wasted life: “ Nay, father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent!” Ideas are mighty. There is no real strength in the world that has not an idea at its heart. To declare true ideas, to speak the truth to men, is the noblest work that any man can covet or try to do. To attempt to gain power over men which shall not be the power of an idea is poor, ignoble work. But yet it is none the less certain that no man really does tell the truth to other men who does not always go about remembering that truth is not profitable till it is mixed with faith, that the final power of acceptance or rejection lies in the soul. But we must go farther than this. The mind of man is far too delicate and sensitive for anything unappropriated and not made a part of itself to be in it without doing it harm. The book which you have studied, but whose heart you have not taken into your heart, makes you not a wise man, but a pedant. And so it is with institutions. The government under which you live, but with whose ideas you ere not in loyal sympathy, chafes and worries you, and makes you often all the more rebellious in your heart the more punctiliously obedient you are in outward action. And so especially it is in all that pertains to religion. What is the root and source of bigotry, and of that which goes with bigotry--partisanship? Is not the real reason of these morbid substitutes for healthy belief always this--that truth has been received but not” mixed with faith,” not deeply taken into the very nature of the man who has received it? Take any truth the truth, for instance, of the Lord’ s incarnation. Let it be simply a proved fact to a man, and how easily he makes it the rallying cry of a sect; how easily he comes to hate with personal hatred the men who do not hold it; how ready he is to seek out and magnify the shades of difference in the statements which men make of it who do hold the great truth along with him I But let that same truth be “ mixed with faith,” let it enter into the depth of a man’ s nature where it is capable of going, let it awaken in him the deep, clear sense of the unutterable love of God, let it reveal to him his human dignity, his human responsibility, his human need, and then how impossible it will be for him to be a bigot! What the bigot needs is not to be freed from the tyranny of his belief, but to be taught what it is really to believe. The partisan’ s partisanship is a sign, not of his faith, but of his infidelity. This is what we all need to keep always in our minds as we read religious history, or look around us at the imperfect religious life of to-day. It is possible for us to believe the same everlasting truth which the bigots and the persecutors believed and yet escape their bigotry and terrible intolerance. But we must do it not by believing less deeply, but by believing more deeply than they did. The path to charity lies not away from faith, but into the very heart of faith, for only there true, reasonable, permanent charity abides. How vast a future this idea of faith opens to humanity! We think sometimes that we have come in sight of the end of progress, that we live where we can at least foresee an enchanted world. Our ships have sailed the sphere around; our curiosity has searched to the roots of the mountains and swept the bottoms of the seas. Men have played every role before us which imagination and ambition could suggest. What can there be before the eyes that are to come when we are gone but endless reiteration of old things? Is not the interest of life almost used up? No! Thee interest of life is not in the things that happen, but in the men who see. If man be capable of perpetual renewal by ever-increasing faith, then to the ever new man the old world shall be for ever new. What a light, too, this throws upon the life which many a fellow-man is living now close by our side. How much richer than we can begin to know the world must be to our brother who has a faith which we have not The world is more to every true, unselfish man when he knows that his perception is no measure of its wealth, but that the deeper souls are all the time finding it rich beyond all that he has imagined. This same truth gives us some light upon the everlasting life, the life beyond the grave. Let us be sure that the new name in the forehead is what makes the reality of heaven far more than the gold under the feet. The new circumstances shall be much, but the new man shall be more. We can do nothing now to build the streets and gates, but by God’ s grace we can do much now to begin to become the men and women to whom one day heaven shall be possible. Then heaven when it comes will not be strange. Only a deepening of the faith by which we sought it shall we receive and absorb, and grow in and by its richness for ever and for ever. (Bp. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 4:3-6 We which have believed do enter into rest The distinguishing characters of true believers 1. A sweet experience declared, “ We do enter into rest.” It is an experience of a spiritual and heavenly benefit; whereof Caleb and Joshua’ s experience was the type (Joshua 19:1-51.). And here consider (1) The benefit experienced; that is, rest. Rest is a sweet thing, as all weary labourers do know. But of all rest soul-rest is the sweetest, and such is this. The rest here meant is the rest held forth in the promise of the gospel (verses 1, 2). And if ye ask where it is found? it is not in heaven only, for the believer enters into it now; but it is in Christ, whether in earth or heaven. (2) The experience of that benefit, “ We do enter.” He says not we shall enter, viz., at death, but in the present time, “ we do enter. The believer’ s rest is not altogether put off to another life. It is not complete, indeed, till we come to heaven; but it is begun here, we are entering into it, and do enter; and the very entrance of the rest is sweet. 2. The parties in whose name this experience is declared, “ We which have believed,” viz., in Christ. Unbelievers still remain in their restless condition, but faith in Christ lays the soul to rest. I. WHO THEY ARE THAT HAVE TRULY . 1. They who have believed, have believed the grace and goodwill of Christ to them in particular, held forth in His word of grace to them, viz., a good-will to save them from sin and wrath. (1) They have believed Christ’ s grace and good-will to them, notwithstanding felt unworthiness (Luke 15:18). (2) They have believed His grace and good-will towards the drawing them out of the miry clay of their sinfulness, as well as out from the rolling waves of guilt, the curse and eternal wrath. For this is the good-will of Christ testified in the gospel (Matthew 1:21). (3) The only foundation of their belief of it is the faithfulness of God in His word of grace (Galatians 3:21. (4) They have betaken themselves to the grace and good-will of Christ in His word of grace, and laid all their weight upon it. 2. They who have believed, have believed on Christ as their own Saviour for life and salvation to them (Acts 15:11). The sinner believing on Christ betakes himself to Him only, wholly and for ever. (1) He renounces utterly all expectations of rest to his conscience from the law, and betakes himself to a Crucified Christ for it (Philippians 3:3). (2) He renounces utterly all expectations of rest to his heart from the world, and his lusts, and betakes himself to a full Christ for it (Jeremiah 16:19). II. THE OF THOSE WHO HAVE INTO REST IN JESUS CHRIST. 1. I am to show what is supposed in that those who have believed do enter into rest. (1) Those who have not believed are in a stale of restlessness (Isaiah 57:20). Till the soul comes to Christ it can never get true rest: one may take rest as well on the top of a mast as get it in an ungodly, unregenerate, unconverted state. Those out of Christ have (a) A restless station, an insecure standing (Deuteronomy 28:65, 66). (b) A restless labouring (Matthew 11:28). (c) A restless wandering. (d) A restless burden-bearing. (e) A restless eternal state abiding them (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). (2) Restless souls may be laid to rest in Jesus Christ. (3) It is by faith the restless soul is laid to rest in Christ (Romans 15:13). 2. I proceed to show what is that rest in Christ which they who do believe enter into. It is twofold, spiritual and heavenly, initial and complete. (1) They who have believed do enter into spiritual rest, which is their initial or begun rest. Though they should get little more rest for their bodies till they rest in the grave, they enter into soul rest (Matthew 11:29); they get rest for their souls in Christ. And none that know what soul-trouble is, but they will value it more than any rest out of heaven. (2) Those who have believed do enter into heavenly rest at length. This is the rest completed. The grave is made a resting-place for their bodies for awhile, but the soul rests in Abraham’ s bosom at death till the resurrection. And then the soul and body together will have an everlasting complete rest together. 3. What is the import of their entering into that rest in Christ. (1) Sinners before they believe have a toiled, restless, uneasy life of it Matthew 11:28). No wonder, for they are God’ s enemies, the law’ s criminals, sin’ s slaves, and Satan’ s drudges. (2) All that believe are wearied people, that find they need rest, and would fain have it (Isaiah 28:12). (3) They see and believe there is a rest in Christ for them. (4) They come to Him as a resting-place by believing on Him. (5) They compose themselves for, and set themselves to rest in Him Psalms 116:7). (6) They are active to get rest in Christ. Entering speaks activity, and that lies in the exercise of faith. (7) They find a begun rest, but not complete; they are entered into it; though they are not yet come to the perfection of it, yet they are in the way to it. (8) The believer all his life long here is but entering into that rest: we do enter. The Israelites were forty years entering into Canaan, after they came out of Egypt. And from the moment of the first believing till the soul comes to glory, it is but entering into rest; entering being but an initial and imperfect action. Hence they that have come to Christ are still said to be coming (1 Peter 2:4). But at length they shall have it full and complete. 4. I come now to show how the soul is entered into rest in the way of believing, or the influence of faith to bring and lay the soul to rest. This is a mystery to the blind world: nobody can truly know the rest of the soul in Christ but those that have experienced it; nor the influence of faith that way, but those that have felt it, though they may talk rationally about it and preach it. (1) Faith discovers Christ as the only object commensurable to the desires of the soul (Psalms 73:25). (2) Faith takes possession of Christ as such an object offered to the soul: knits with Him in a marriage covenant by trusting on Him for all to itself John 1:12). So it enters the soul to rest, as a wife in the house of her husband who has now made her final choice. (3) Faith draws the sting of guilt out of the conscience, and so enters the soul to rest (Romans 3:24-25). (4) Faith sets the soul in safety (Proverbs 1:33). (5) Faith mortifies and breaks the power of reigning lusts (Acts 15:9). (6) Faith cures the soul of the dog-like appetite, that painful hunger and thirst which the eating of the forbidden fruit left in all mankind. Lay one never so soft, if hunger be gnawing him, and thirst scorching him, he cannot rest. Such is the case of all unbelievers, they are hungering and thirsting for satisfaction from the creature: they eat of the husks, but are never satisfied. (7) Faith contracts the desires of the soul into one point (Psalms 27:4). (8) Faith sees it hath a fulness in Christ enough to answer all its needs: and hence the language thereof is, “ I have all, and abound” (Philippians 4:18). (9) Faith leaves all on Christ (Psalms 10:14). USE I. Of information. 1. Jesus Christ is a resting place for the weary (Matthew 11:28). 2. True faith is an active and efficacious thing. It lays the restless soul to rest. 3. The way of believing is the way to solid rest. 4. Those who have believed may see what course to take at any time when their rest is disturbed. They must renew the actings of faith on Christ. USE II. Of trial. Hereby ye may try whether ye have truly believed in Christ or not; for they who have believed do enter into rest in him. USE III. Of exhortation. Ye who profess to have believed in Christ, rest in Him, and so evidence your faith. For motives consider 1. There is no need ye should go to any other quarter for what ye need; “ For it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell” Colossians 1:19). 2. There is no true rest to be found out of Christ (John 6:67). 3. It dishonours Him highly not to rest in Him. It gives out an ill report of Him to the world, whereby His name may be blasphemed, as if there were not enough in Him to satisfy in all cases. 4. Your not resting in Him will evidence your hypocrisy (Job 27:10). 5. Rest in Him now, and ye shall rest with Him for ever; but it ye forsake Him, He will cast you off, and ye will fall there where there is no rest for the ages of eternity. And it will aggravate your condemnation, that ye might have been well if ye could but have rested in Christ. (T. Boston, D. D.) Rest for the true 1. Under all dispensations God has been holding out to mankind the promise of a glorious rest. 2. This glorious rest is something independent of all times, places, and privileges. 3. The enjoyment of this glorious rest is dependent upon a certain believing state of the soul. 4. This believing state of soul gives the enjoyment of this rest now. I. FAITH IN THE GOSPEL IN THE OF GOD, AND THIS GIVES THE MIND REST FROM ALL SECULAR . II. FAITH IN THE GOSPEL AN OF GOD’ S TO RECEIVE US AS SINNERS, AND THIS GIVES US REST FROM ALL DOUBTS ABOUT OUR . III. FAITH IN THE GOSPEL A OF GOD’ S , AND THIS GIVES US REST FROM ALL THE OF A SELFISH LIFE. IV. FAITH IN THE GOSPEL THE OF THE SOUL UPON ONE OBJECT OF LOVE AND ONE COURSE OF ACTION, AND THIS GIVES REST FROM ALL THE PAINS OF . V. FAITH IN THE GOSPEL AN IN A BLESSED , AND THIS GIVES US REST FROM ALL ABOUT OUR OWN DEATH AND THAT OF OUR FRIENDS. (Homilist.) The rest of God’ s people I. WHAT IS THE REST? 1. A rest from sin. 2. A rest from sorrow. 3. It consists of what is positive also. (1) It is a bestowment of eternal life. (2) It is being with Christ. (3) It is working for God without weariness, and with full power to do so. II. WHEN IS THE REST? It commences with the renewed soul when it first “ looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” It brightens upon us more and more as we rise from the lower, the temporal, to the higher, the eternal life. It is fully revealed to us when we have done with mortality and sin. III. FOR WHOM IS THE REST? Only for those who love holiness, and hate iniquity and sin. (Homilist.) Rest It appears from the text that even now persons of a certain character enjoy rest. I. OF THE NATURE OF THIS REST. It is not a rest merely to hear of, to speak of, and to desire, but a rest in actual enjoyment. “ We who have believed do enter into rest.” 1. That rest is pictured in some degree by its types--Canaan--the Sabbath--the Sabbatic year. 2. If the types may help us to a guess at the peace of the Christian, we may, perhaps, come at it a little more clearly by remembering the oppositions to peace which in the believer are removed. The believer rests from the guilt of sin because he has seen his sins laid upon Christ, his scapegoat, and he concludes that if sin were laid on Christ it is not on him. 3. Some conception of this rest may be gathered from the graces which a true faith begets and fosters in the Christian mind. After all, a man makes his own condition. It is not the dungeon or the palace that can make misery or happiness. We carry palaces and dungeons within ourselves, according to the constitution of our natures, Now, faith makes a man heavenly in mind; it makes him care more for the world to come than for that which now is; it makes the invisible precious to him, and the visible comparatively contemptible. Do you not see, therefore, what rest a true faith gives us amidst the distresses of this mortal life? Who cries for pebbles when he possesses pearls? The grace of faith, moreover, works in us resignation. He who fully trusts his God becomes perfectly resigned to his Father’ s will. The habit of resignation is the root of peace. Faith, furthermore, promotes unselfishness by kindling worthier affections; and so much is this for our peace, that it is most true that were a man perfectly unselfish it would be impossible for him to be disturbed with discontent. All our unrest lies at the root of self. II. HOW DOES THE OBTAIN ? “ We which have believed.” Do notice this, that the way in which the believer comes to his rest is entirely through belief or trust. And what is this believing? Why it is a simple trust; it is a trusting upon Christ as God’ s appointed Saviour; it is trusting the Father and believing in His infinite love to us; it is trusting the Holy Ghost, and giving up ourselves to the sway of His Divine indwelling. Trusting brings rest. III. WHAT IS THE GROUND AND REASON OF A ’ S REST? It is a dreadful thing to be at rest in extreme peril, lulled by false security. It is perilous to sleep in a house built on a foundation of sand, when the floods are out, and the winds are about, to sweep all away; it is horrible to be at peace in a condemned cell, when already the scaffold has been put up, and the hour of execution is hastening on! But the believer has good reason for being at peace, and why? He has these reasons amongst others. He trusts to be saved by a way which God has appointed. Here is a firm rock to rest on. What better person can we depend upon than Jesus, the Son of God? The believer, moreover, knows that all things which were necessary to save him and all the elect are already performed. In conclusion: 1. To the man who never has rested. Try God’ s way of rest. Trust, and you shall rest. 2. The next word is to those of you who once did rest, but do not now. You backslider, this is your word, return unto thy rest. You never will find rest out of Christ--especially you. 3. Lastly to you who are at rest now, endeavour to keep it; and the way to keep it is the way you first gained it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A delicious experience In the text we have a declaration of experience, “ We which have believed do enter into rest,” to which is very singularly added, “ As He said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest.” The happy declaration is supported by the tremendous oath of judgment, which shut out the unbelieving race. There is usually a promise embedded in a threatening, like gold in quartz; just as there is generally a threatening as the reverse of the golden coin of promise. I venture to say that the threatening in this case even gives a touch of rose colour to the promise, for it runs thus, “ If they shall enter into My rest.” Whereas the declaration only says, “ rest” : “ we which have believed do enter into rest,” the word “ My” is added. That little word is like a bright gleam amidst the blackness of the tempest. Oh, the glory of that which God calls “ My rest” ! I. THE PEOPLE TO WHOM THIS IS . They rest, and no one else: they rest, because they have believed. As surely as unbelief shuts out, so surely does faith shut in. What is to believe? 1. To believe is, first of all, to accept as true the revelation of God; to give unfeigned assent and consent to all that God has made known in His Word, and especially to believe that He was, “ in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” 2. The operative point of faith is the next one: we trust ourselves with Him who is revealed; thus we carry our belief of truth to its practical conclusion. 3. Out of this trust must come action agreeable thereunto. II. THE ITSELF: “ We which have believed do enter into rest.” We will propound no theory, and indulge no imagination, but keep to matters of fact. 1. Wherein do we rest? (1) We rest where God rests: that is, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wondrous personality we see in Him! As God, He is the infinite delight of the Father. As personified Wisdom, our Lord Jesus says, “ I was by Him, as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” We cannot tell how much the Father loves Him, and how perfectly He rests in Him. (2) We rest in His work. Full atonement, perfect righteousness, glorious victory! 2. What is comprehended in this rest? All things. Here we lay every burden down. 3. What are the excellencies of this rest? (1) Honour. (2) A wonderful source of strength. (3) An incentive to diligence. (4) This rest also brightens life. 4. What are the limits of this rest? We may place them where we will. “ According to your faith, so be it unto you.” “ We which have believed do enter into rest.” It is an entrance, and no more, as yet. But when an Israelite had an entrance into Canaan, it was his own fault if he did not penetrate the interior, and traverse the land from Dan to Beersheba. “ Ask, and ye shall receive.” “ All things are possible to him that believeth.” III. THE OF THIS : “ We which have believed do enter into rest.” I like the positive speech of the apostle for himself and his friends. I do not invite any of you to say that faith gives you peace unless it does so. 1. It must be a matter of fact. We want no empty profession. 2. This declaration, that we have rest, should always be made with a holy purpose. We must not go about boasting of our peace. 3. If you can say as much as this--“ By believing have entered into rest,” be thankful; for this privilege is a gift of love. It is a wonderful instance of sovereign grace that such unworthy ones as we are should enter into God’ s rest. But if you cannot say it, do not despair. Make it a point of question with yourself. Why have I not entered into rest? Is it because I have not believed? Oh, that all the way between here and heaven we may journey on with restful hearts, led beside the still waters! I have seen, in of the likeness, “ Heaven was in him before he was in heaven.” Now, that must be so with us, for nobody gets into heaven who does not get heaven into himself first. Oh, to get heaven into us this meriting, and keep it there for ever! (Ibid.) The state of believers under the gospel I. THE STATE OF UNDER THE GOSPEL IS A STATE OF BLESSED REST. It is God’ s rest and theirs. God created man in a state of present rest. This rest consisted in three things. 1. Peace with God. 2. Satisfaction and acquiescency in God. 3. Means of communion with God. All these were lost by the entrance of sin, and all mankind was brought thereby into an estate of disquietment. In the restoration of these, and that in a better and more secure way doth this gospel-state of believers consist (1) Without it our moral state in respect of God is an estate of enmity and trouble. (2) There is in all men before the coming of the gospel a want of an acquiescency and satisfaction in God. 3. Unto peace with God, and acquiescency in Him, a way of intercourse and communion with Him is required, to complete a state of spiritual rest. And this also, as it was lost by sin, so it is restored unto us in and by the gospel. II. IT IS FAITH ALONE WHICH IS THE ONLY WAY AND MEANS OF INTO THIS BLESSED STATE OF REST. And that both negatively so that without it no entrance is to be obtained, whatever else men may plead to obtain it by; and positively, in that it alone effects it, without a contribution of aid and strength in its so doing, from any other grace or duty whatever. III. THERE IS A MUTUAL INBEING OF THE AND OF THE , SO THAT IN OUR FAITH AND OF THEM, THEY OUGHT NOT UTTERLY TO BE . 1. Because they have both of them the same rise and spring. They do both of them but declare the actings of the one holy God according to the distinct properties of His nature upon distinct objects. 2. Both of them, as annexed to the covenant, or as the covenant is administered by them, have the same end. God doth not design one end by a promise, and another by a threatening; but only different ways of compassing or effecting the same end. The end of both is, to increase in us faith and obedience. 3. Theatenings are conditional; and the nature of such conditions is, not only somewhat is affirmed upon their supposal, and denied upon their denial; but the contrary unto it, is affirmed upon their denial; and that because the denial of them doth assert a contrary condition. 4. The same grace is administered in the covenant to make the one and the other effectual. (John Owen, D. D.) The Christian’ s rest Comparing the Sabbath of God’ s rest at Creation with the Sabbath that is left to the people of God, he justifies the comparison by urging that “ he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” This, surely, would seem to show that when we cease from “ our own works,” the sacred rest commences. What, then, are “ our own works” ? By these I would understand all those wretched and laborious ways of life which have their origin and end in the corrupted principles of our own hearts, as contrasted with those ways of life and happiness which at once become ours, and with them a Sabbath-rest of spirit, when (and this is surely before the grave), abandoning all the miserable devices with which the wisdom of this world endeavours to delude itself into fictitious happiness, we cast our sins upon the sacrificed Lamb of God, our cares upon the Father of mercies, and, in the bright confidence of faith, walk humbly on to heaven, feeling already within us the dawnings of the heaven we are approaching. (Prof. Archer Butler.) My rest The rest of God The great and outstanding characteristic of it is, that it is Jehovah’ s rest. It is, in the first instance, God’ s own rest before it becomes ours; and it becomes ours, only because it, in the first place, is God’ s. The repose and blessedness of Jehovah Himself must be not only the model for, but identical with, the repose and blessedness of the creature, in so far as their capacities permit of it. But the history of God’ s dealings with our race presents us with several and somewhat different examples of that Divine resting, which is the source and the foundation of the rest of His Church. I. We have the rest of God THE CREATOR in the beginning, when He ceased from the work of creation, and rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made. In that rest which Jehovah Himself found in a sinless and unfallen world, when the days’ work was finished, and He kept and blessed the Sabbath day of creation, there was the foundation laid for the rest and blessedness of the unfallen creature. II. We have another Divine rest spoken of in Scripture--THE REST OF GOD THE SON, WHEN HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD, HAVING THE OF HIS PEOPLE AND CEASED FROM ALL THE WORKS THAT HE WROUGHT. He rejoiced in His finished work, calling upon His people to rejoice in it likewise. And there, where the Saviour found rest will the soul of the sinner find rest also. III. There is yet another rest of the glorious Godhead referred to in Scripture--THE REST OF GOD THE SPIRIT, WHEN HE TOO SHALL HAVE HIS LABOUR, and ceased from His works, and entered into His rest. The rest of the Spirit is yet to come. Nor can it dawn until the new creation, with all its glory, shall be finished, until the remaining power of sin in the elect creatures of God shall be destroyed, and until the Church of Christ, gathered out of every people, shall be complete in its members and perfect in their holiness, and so made ready to be presented unto God “ a glorious Church,” &c. And have the people of the election no share in this third and final rest of the Godhead, which shall sum up and include every other? Assuredly yes; for “ there remaineth” still “ a rest for the people of God.” The unfallen creature of God was at the creation called upon to join in the Creator’ s rest; and there, even amid the gladness of Paradise, he found his chief happiness and joy. The redeemed sinner was at the redemption invited to share his Redeemer’ s rest; and there he found for his guilty soul pardon and peace. And the believer, at the dawn of the last and eternal Sabbath, shall be invited to share in the rest of the Spirit; and then he shall find himself made perfect both in holiness and happiness. Heaven is now gathering within its ample arms all the good and true upon earth--the lights of this world, of whom the world was not worthy, the prophets, the righteous men and the witnesses for God--all those that have been born of the Spirit. And earth, too, is ripening its fruit in expectation of the coming day of the manifestation of the sons of God. And those that have been quickened from above, the children of God here, are growing in grace and holiness, and preparing for the rest on high. And when that harvest shall be all gathered, the Spirit shall cease from His work, even as the Father and the Son ceased from Theirs before; and with Him the saints, whom He has called, and chosen, and perfected, shall enter upon the last and the highest rest of God. (J. Bannerman, D. D.) The rest of God and of man What, then, is the rest of God? The “ rest which Genesis speaks about was, of course, not repose that recruited exhausted strength, but the cessation of work because the work was complete, the repose of satisfaction in what we should call an accomplished ideal. And, further, in that august conception of the rest of God is included, not only the completion of all His purpose, and the full correspondence of effect with cause, but likewise the indisturbance and inward harmony of that infinite nature whereof all the parts co-operant to an end move in a motion which is rest. And, further, the rest of God is incompatible with, and, indeed, but another form of, unceasing activity. “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” said the Master; though the works were, in one sense, finished from the foundation of the world. Now can we dare to dream that in any fashion that solemn, Divine repose and tranquillity of perfection can be reproduced in us? Yes! The dewdrop is a sphere, as truly as the sun; the rainbow in the smallest drop of rain has all the prismatic colours blended in the same harmony as when the great iris strides across the sky. And if man be made in the image of God, man perfected shall be deiform, even in the matter of his apparently incommunicable repose. For they who are exalted to that final future participation in His life will have to look back, too, upon work which, stained as it has been in the doing, yet, in its being accepted upon the altar on which it was humbly laid, has been sanctified and greatened, and will be an element in their joy in the days that are to come. “ They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them” --not for accusation, nor to read to them bitter memories of incompleteness, but rather that they may contribute to the deep repose and rest of the heavens. In a modified form, but yet in reality, the rest of God may be possessed even by the imperfect workers here upon earth. And, in like manner, that other aspect of the Divine repose, in the tranquillity of a perfectly harmonious nature, is altogether, and without restriction, capable of being reproduced, and certain in the future to be reproduced in all them that love and trust Him, when the whole being shall be settled and centred upon Him, and will, and desires, and duty, and conscience shall no more conflict. “ Unite my heart to fear Thy name,” is a prayer even for earth. It shall be fully answered in Heaven, and the souls made one through all their parts shall rest in God, and shall rest like God. And further, the human participation in that Divine repose will have, like its pattern, the blending without disturbance of rest with motion. The highest activity is the intensest repose. Just as a light, whirled with sufficient rapidity, will seem to make a still circle; just as the faster a wheel moves the more moveless it seems to stand; just as the rapidity of the earth’ s flight through space, and the universality with which all the parts of it participate in the flight, produce the sensation of absolute immobility. It is not motion, but effort and friction, that break repose; and when there is neither the one nor the other, there will be no contrariety between activity and rest; but we shall enjoy at once the delights of both without the wear and tear and disturbance of the one or the languor of the other. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Sabbath days Maurice speaks of learning to keep Sabbath days in the midst of the world’ s din. Why God rested An architect who has built a majestic cathedral, a painter who has finished a glorious picture, a sculptor who has carved a noble statue, rests-not because his genius has been exhausted; it may even have been developed and exalted by his labour,--but because he rejoices when his idea has assumed a permanent form of grandeur or beauty. And so God rested-found delight in His material and spiritual creation. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Faith and rest Rev. T. Collins said to a man whom he visited, “ Here, read this.” “ Round thee and beneath are spread the everlasting arms.” “ Whose arms?” “ God’ s.” “ Where spread?” “ Around my soul and underneath.” “ Why man, say you so? Sink down upon them, then, and rest.” “ I will try.” “ James, James! there you are again, trying instead of trusting. Suppose you placed your child in the cradle and said, ‘ Now, dear one, rest’ ; would you expect the little one to set itself shaking the cradle and to say, ‘ I am trying ‘ ? Would he rest so?” “ No, sir, he must be still to rest.” “ And so must you, James. Tell God,’ Thou art mine and I am Thine’ ; cast thyself on His fidelity; sink down upon Him, and on an arm firmer than rock, tenderer than a mother’ s thou shalt rest.” (S. Coley.) Rest in God The nearer a thing is to its centre, the less is the motion experienced. You do not feel the pitching and rolling of a steamer or a sailing vessel midships as you do elsewhere. Pin a bit of paper to the rim of a carriage wheel, and how swiftly it is whirled round when the vehicle moves. Fasten it on the axle and it revolves very slowly. God is the centre of the universe, especially the centre of all created beings. Live near Him, and you will feel less the shocks of trouble and the vibrations of sin. (T. R.Stevenson.) Perfect rest Those whose hearts are not at perfect rest resemble a bottle but partly filled with water, which is agitated by the least motion; those whose hearts are at ease are like the same bottle filled to the brim which cannot be disturbed. Hebrews 4:7 To-day The present Let us take that short division of time--to-day--the now--and consider what is the duty, the preciousness of each passing hour and day. 1. Let us notice that each day has its own gifts. A writer speaks of the hours passing by him like solemn virgins in long and silent procession. He sits in his garden and sees them pass. Their faces are veiled in their hands, they bear caskets full of various gifts, some trivial, some of inestimable value. Among these gifts are stores of brilliant diadems and fruits and faded flowers. He forgets his morning wishes, he lets the day pass by idly and neglectfully. At last, just as the evening is about to fall, he hastily snatches some of their slightest gifts, some harsh apple or withering rose, and as they turn and pass away in silence into the evening shadows, the veils slip from their faces, and he sees the look of scorn which their faces wear. Yes, every day has its gifts, but all good gifts are exactly what we make of them. Let us pray that God will teach us rightly to use His gifts of every day. 2. Each day has not only its own immediate gifts, but also its immediate opportunities. When the Roman emperor sadly lamented to his friends, “ I have lost a day,” he meant that on that day be had not conferred a kindness upon any one. How often by selfishness and temper, by egotism, by vanity and want of thought, we miss those opportunities of helping others in little ways which the angels in heaven might envy us. We may see men and women on every side of us, not by any means only among the poor, but among our social equals, staggering along under heavy burdens, which it does not even occur to us to put out even so much as our fingers to help. A word spoken in due season, how good It is! When good John Newton saw a little child crying over the loss of a halfpenny, and by giving it another dried its tears, he felt that he had not spent a day in vain. But it is not only by our daily neglect of a thousand little kindness and courtesies of daily life that we so lightly regard as mere grains of coarse sand in the hour-glass--moments as precious as if they were grains of gold. We lose them in a thousand other ways--not only lose, but squander and fling them away, and, worse than all, pervert them into opportunities of unkindness. In the words of the man of business, Time for us is money. But that is the least thing it is--for time is eternity. 3. Again, every day has its own stores of pure and innocent happiness. To those who walk through the world with open eyes every day reveals something beautiful. We are self-tormentors only because we are selfish and egotistical and vain. Our taste is corrupted; there are few of us to whom God wholly denies the grassy field of contentment, the simple wild flowers of innocent gladness, the limpid spring of the river of the water of life. That was a true saying of the ancients, “Carpe diem” --pluck the blossom of to-day. Our best hopes, our richest treasures, our destiny on earth, yes, even our heaven itself, lie not in the visionary future, but in the here and in the now. 4. And again, every day has its duties. What a special gift of God is this! Riches may fly away, fame may vanish, friends may die, but duty never ceases. This saves our poor little lives from most of their perplexities. Are we happy? Let not our felicity make us falter in the performance of a single duty, for on these duties that happiness itself depends. Are we unhappy? Strenuously try not to grieve over the bitterness, for action is the surest of solaces. In every case we cannot do better than obey the brave old rule, “ Do the next thing.” While we are doing our duty, it is always ours to say that we are doing the very thing for which God made us. One of the most charming of the Greek idylls tells us how two poor fishermen, weary and cold, before the earliest dawn, while the moon still rides high in the heavens, rise from their beds of dried seaweed in their miserable hut, and while the waves dash fiercely on the shore hard by, repair their nets by the dim and uncertain twilight; and while they repair them, one of the men tells the other the story of how on the evening before he had fallen asleep very hungry and weary, and had dreamed that he stood on the reck where he was used to fish, and had thrown his line and caught a huge fish. When, with straining rod and line, he drew it to land, he found the fish to be made of pure and solid gold. And in his dream he thereupon took a solemn oath that he would sell his prize, and get wealth, and never dip line in the waves again. And now his poor ignorant thoughts were troubled with his oath, and he doubted whether he should renew his fishing. “ Cheer up,” says his old comrade, “ you may fish. You did not take the oath, for you see you have not caught the fish of gold. What are dreams? But if not in a dream, in broad waking if you toil and watch, some good may perhaps come to your vision. Look out for the real vision, lest you die of hunger with your golden dreams.” Is not the moral of this Greek idyll to be found even in Scripture? When the apostles waiting through those great forty days after the resurrection, when the appearance of the risen Lord seemed for a time to be hopeless, conscious of the pressure of their want and waiting, when it lay heavily upon them, what was to be done? Thank God, there is always something to be done. Each day has its duty, and He who gave the day and the duty gives also the desire to fulfil it. But not only has each day its duty, but each day has its one supreme duty before which all others sink into insignificance--the duty of repentance if we are living lives of sin; the duty of getting nearer to God and seeing His face if by our Saviour’ s mercy we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Oh, if this duty be left neglected, no other duty can be a substitute for it. Everyday is but a single spoke in the swift wheel of the revolving week, and the weeks flash into the months, and the months into the years, and the years roll on into the world beyond the grave. How many days are there even in a long life? How very few may be left to us! If, then, as we have seen first, every day has its gifts which we often despise; and secondly, every day has opportunities which we often waste; and thirdly, every day has its sources of happiness which we often forget; and fourthly, every day has its duties which the best so imperfectly accomplish; and fifthly, every day has its one thing needful Which if left unaccomplished is utter ruin--ought we not to thank God that every day has also its gracious help. There is One of infinite help always at hand--God is our help and strength. He loves us, He will not forsake us. He who gave His own Son for our sins, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? And is it not the Son who shall be our Judge? Is He not standing in heaven to make intercession for us at God’ s right hand? Is not conscience His voice within us? Has He not given us His Holy Spirit? Is not duty which He makes so clear to us His eternal law? and though He is infinitely far above us, He has given us a ladder between heaven and earth, so that we may ascend heavenward in our supplications, and His answer will fall back in blessings. (Archdeacon Farrar.) The immediate claims of religion I. THE . “ If ye will hear His voice.” 1. By acknowledging His authority. 2. By considering His words. 3. By accepting the benefits which He offers. 4. By obeying His commands. II. THE MEANS OF IT. “ Harden not your heart.” Beware of cruelty to your own souls. Beware of impenitence amidst the means and calls of religion. III. THE PERIOD TO WHICH IT REFERS. “ To-day.” 1. To-morrow you may be indisposed to listen to the voice of God. 2. To-morrow you may be incapable of hearing His voice. IV. THE END TO BE SECURED BY IT. This the connection leads us to consider as “ Rest.” The heavenly rest. 1. Rest from sin. 2. Rest from sorrow. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.) Today We have two brief clauses to dwell upon: “ If ye will hear His voice” ; “ Harden not your hearts.” 1. The word “ will” is not in the original. The apostle is not speaking at present of a willingness on the part of man, but of a grace on the part of God. The exercise of the human will does not come into view till the next clause. This says merely, “ If ye hear,” or “ shall hear,” God’ s voice speaking. It is the recognition of the Divine freedom to speak or not to speak. “ If ye should hear God speaking, listen.” It is conceivable that God may not speak. We may have wearied Him out by our inattention. He may say, “ My Spirit shall no longer strive.” “ If ye should hear His voice.” This awakens thought, quickens interest, arouses anxiety. What if I should have silenced that voice? Often have I heard without hearing. Often has the voice pleaded, entreated, besought, and there was nothing in me that regarded. Neither hope nor fear, neither love nor dread, neither interest, nor apprehension, no, nor curiosity. “ If ye hear” says, “ which haply ye may not.” 2. “ Harden not your hearts.” The figure is taken from that process of drying and stiffening which is fatal to the free play of a limb or the further growth of a vegetable. The “ heart,” in Scripture phrase, is that life-centre, that innermost being, out of which are the issues of thought and action, and upon the condition of which depend alike the decisions of the will and the habits of the living and moving man. When the heart is hardened, there is an end of all those influences of grace which till then can touch and stir, control and guide, inspire the quickening motive and apply the heavenward impulse. Sometimes this hardening is ascribed in Scripture to the operation of God. That is when the voice ceases to speak, and the will to disobey has become at last an incapacity to obey. But this we say, Never does the hardening b-gin on God’ s side; and never does the Divine hardening preclude the human softening. “ Whosoever will” --that is the condition: and without the willing salvation cannot be even if it would. These are deep as well as sorrowful mysteries. The text of this day lets them alone. It addresses itself to the will, which is the man, and says, “ Harden not your heart.” If you will not harden it, certainly God will not. “ Why will ye die, when He hath no pleasure in it?” If you hear, any one of you, the voice speaking--hear it say, “ This is not your rest” ; hear it say, “ I am Thy salvation--come unto Me--abide in Me--I will refresh--in Me ye shall have peace” --harden not your heart. If the deceitfulness of sin should say within any of you, “ The voice can wait--let it plead outside you till you have taken your fill of that which it cannot tolerate and cannot dwell with--then, when age comes, or sickness, or sorrow, or some shadow cast before of death or eternity, then hearken, then obey” --harden not your heart. 3. “ To-day, if ye shall hear His voice.” The Epistle returns again and again to that word. What is “ To-day.” It is the opposite of two times and two eternities. It is the opposite of yesterday and to-morrow in time; it is the opposite of an immeasurable past, an inconceivable future, in the eternity which God inhabits. “ To-day “ is at once the dividing line and the meeting point of the two--the barrier between the two finites, and the link between the two infinites. “ To-day.” What a word of reproof and of admonition--of thanksgiving and of hope--of opportunity and of blessing. Is not each To-day the very epitome and abstract of a life? It has its morning and its evening; it has its waking and its falling on sleep; it has its typical birth and death; it has its hours marked out and counted; it has its duties assigned and distributed; it has its alternations of light and shade; it has its worship and its service, its going forth to labour and its coming back to reckon. Within these twelve or these sixteen hours a life may be lived, a soul lost or won. (Dean Vaughan.) Opportunity to be seized Opportunity is the flower of time, and as the stalk may remain when the flower is cut off, so time may remain with us when opportunity is gone. (J. Bond.) To-day How much the Bible has to say about “ to-day” --time present! This is really all we can call our own. It says very little about “ yesterday” or “ tomorrow.” “ Yesterday” is like a closed book; its record is finished. As “ the mill cannot grind with the water that is past,” so our work cannot be done with the strength and opportunities of yesterday. Of “ to-morrow” we may repeat the old and significant saying, “ It may never come!” Opportunity Opportunity has hair in front; behind she is bald. If you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her; but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again. Harden not your hearts Hardening the heart I. THE MEANING OF THE WORD “ HEART,” AS HERE USED. Parents sometimes have the mortification of seeing their own children become stubborn against parental authority, and of seeing their requirements resisted and their counsels set at nought. Parents often see children, when they undertake to press them to do anything, instead of obeying, wax stubborn and rebellious. They stand and resist, and manifest a cool determination to persevere in their disobedience; and, so far as the philosophy of the act is concerned, resistance to God is just the same. The mind resisting truth “ is hardening the heart,” in the sense of the text. II. HOW IS IT THAT SINNERS DO HARDEN THEIR HEARTS? 1. This leads me to say that persons are very much in danger of hardening themselves, by holding fast to some erroneous opinion or improper practice to which they are committed. All their prejudices are in favour of it, and they are very jealous lest anything should disturb it. What danger such persons are in of assigning to themselves, as a reason for resisting the truth, that it clashes with some of their favourite notions! When they see its practical results contradict some pet theory of theirs, they will strengthen themselves against it. I recollect an instance of this kind. One evening, in the city of New York, I found among the inquirers a very anxious lady, who was exceedingly convicted of her sins, and pressed her strongly to submit to God. “ Ah!” she said, “ if I were sure I am in the right Church, I would.” “ The right Church!” said I; “ I care not what Church you are in, if you will only submit yourself to Christ.” “ But,” she replied, “ I am not in the Catholic Church, I am not in the right Church; if I were, I would yield.” So that her anxiety about the “ right Church” prevented her yielding at all, and she continued to harden her heart against Christ. 2. Others harden themselves by indulging in a spirit of procrastination. “ I will follow Thee,” is their language, “ but not now.” 3. I remark, again, that many persons strengthen themselves and harden their hearts by refusing, wherever they can refuse, to be convicted of their sins. They have a multitude of ways of avoiding the point, and force away the truth, and hardening themselves against it. Take care, for instance, of the practice of excusing sin. 4. But, again: Another way in which men harden themselves is that they are unwilling to come and do what is implied in becoming Christians. But a short time since, I was pressing an individual to yield up certain forms of sin of which I knew him to be guilty. “ Ah,” said he, “ if I begin to yield this and that, where will it all end? I must be consistent,” said he, “ and where shall I stop? “ Where should he “ stop” ? It was clear that the cost was too great, and that he was therefore disposed to harden himself and resist God’ s claims, because he considered God required too much. This is a very common practice. If you ask persons in a general way, they are willing to be Christians; but “ what will be expected of them?” Ah! that is quite a different thing! Now you have set them to count the cost, and they find it will involve too great a sacrifice. They are wholly unwilling to renounce themselves and their idols; and accordingly they betake themselves to hardening their hearts, and strengthening themselves in unbelief. I will cite the case just referred to for a moment. The conversation respected at that time a particular form of sin. Now, why did he not yield at once? He saw that the principle on which he yielded this point would compel him to give up others; and therefore he said, “ If I begin this, where shall I stop?” He gathered up all the reasons he could, and strengthened himself in his position. Thus he was hardening his heart; this was just what the Jews did when Christ preached. III. WHY MEN SHOULD NOT HARDEN THEIR HEARTS IN THIS WAY. 1. Perhaps the first thing that I shall notice will startle some of you. It is this: you should not harden your hearts, “ because, if you do not do so, you will be converted.” God has so constituted the mind that, as everybody knows, truth is a most powerful stimulant, which invites and draws the mind in a given direction. Truth induces it to act in conformity with its dictates. Now, to do this, to obey the truth, that is conversion. If you do not obey it, it is because you harden yourself against it; for it is an utter impossibility to be indifferent to the presentation of truth, and especially is it utterly impossible to maintain a blank indifference to the presentation of the great practical truths of Christianity. 2. Another reason why you should not harden your hearts is that you will not be converted if you do. In other words, if you resist the Spirit, God never forces you against your will. If He cannot persuade you to embrace the truth, He cannot save you by a physical act of omnipotence, as, for instance, He could create a world. You are a free moral agent, and He can save you only in His own way. In other words, if He cannot gain your own consent to be saved in His own any, He cannot possibly save you at all. 3. Another reason why you should not harden your hearts is that you may be given up! God may give you up to the hardness of your hearts. The Bible shows that this is not uncommon. Whole generations of the Jews were thus given up. Some think there is not so much danger of this now; but the fact is there is more, because there is more light. He gives them up because they resist the light of the truth with regard to His claims. IV. WHOSE “ VOICE” IS HERE TO? IS it the voice of a tyrant, who comes out with his omnipotent arm to crush you? “ If you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Whose voice is it? In the first place, it is the voice of God; but, more than this, it is the voice of your Father I But is it the voice of your Father, with the rod of correction, pursuing you, to subdue you by force? Oh, no! it is the voice of His mercy--of His deepest compassion. A few further remarks must close what I have to say; and the first remark is this: persons often mistake the true nature of hardness of heart. Supposing it to be involuntary, they lament it as a misfortune, rather than regret it as a crime. They suppose that the state of apathy which results from the resistance of their will is hardness of heart. It is true that the mind apologises to itself for resistance to the claims of God, and, as a natural consequence, there is very little feeling in the mind, because it is under the necessity of making such a use of its powers as to cause great destitution of feeling. This is hardening the heart--that act of the mind in resisting the claims of God. For persons to excuse themselves by complaining that their hearts are hard is only to add insult to injury. I remark, once more, it is worthy of notice that the claims, commands, promises, and invitations of God are all in the present tense. Turn to the Bible, and from end to end you will find it is, “ To-day “ if ye will hear His voice. “ Now” is the accepted time. God says nothing of tomorrow; lie does not even guarantee that we shall live till then. Again: the plea of inability is one of the most paltry, abusive, and blasphemous of all. What! Are men not able to refrain from hardening themselves? I have already said, and you all know, that it is the nature of truth to influence the mind when it receives it; and, when the Spirit does convert a man, it is by so presenting the truth as to gain his consent. Now, if there was not something in the truth itself adapted to influence the mind, He might continue to present the truth for ever, without your ever being converted. It is because there is an adaptedness in truth--something in the very nature of it which tends to influence the mind of man. Now, when persons complain of their inability to embrace the truth, what an infinite mistake! God approaches with offers of mercy, and with the cup of salvation in His hand, saying, “ Sinner! I am coming! Beware not to harden yourself. Do not cavil. Do not hide behind professors of religion. Do not procrastinate! for I am coming to win you.” Now, what does the sinner do? Why, he falls to hardening his heart, procrastinating, making all manner of excuses, and pleading his inability. Inability! What! Is not a man able to refrain from surrounding himself with considerations which make him stubborn? Once more: I said this is a most abusive way of treating God. Why, just think. Here is God endeavouring to gain the sinner’ s consent--to what? Not to be sent to hell. Oh, no! lie is not trying to persuade you to do anything, or to consent to anything, that will injure you. Oh, no! He is not trying to persuade you to give up anything that is really good rather relinquishment of which will make you wretched or unhappy--to give up all joy and everything that is pleasant--to give up things that tend to peace--He is not endeavouring to persuade you to do any such thing as this. With regard to all such things, He is not only willing that you should have them, but would bring you into a state in which you could really enjoy them. (C. G. Finney.) Hebrews 4:8 If Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest Disparity between Joshua and Jesus 1. The first is in this difference, that Joshua conquered Canaan not only for the people of Israel, but also for himself, that he might have his part and portion with them for him and his posterity (Joshua 19:49-50). But our Lord Jesus hath purchased that heavenly Canaan only for our sakes, having had the possession of it before His incarnation Himself by the right of inheritance. He had a glory with God before the world was (John 17:5). 2. The second difference is, Joshua did not conquer Canaan by himself alone, but had all the tribes of Israel to assist as his auxiliaries in his conquest; but our Lord Jesus hath by Himself alone purchased that heavenly inheritance. He saith, “ I have trodden the winepress alone, and none were with Me” (Isaiah 63:3). 3. The third disparity is, the conquest of Canaan did not cost Joshua bloodshed or death; but our eternal inheritance cost Christ both His bloodshed and death (Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:18-19). 4. The fourth is, Joshua could not quite expel the Canaanites out of Canaan Joshua 15:63; Joshua 16:10, dec.). But our blessed Jesus hath perfectly subdued Satan, sin, and death to us, that nothing shall eternally harm us John 16:33; 1 John 5:4 : Revelation 12:11). (C. Ness.) Rest We are told in a certain legend that one day Rabbi Judah and his brethren, the seven pillars of wisdom, sat in the Temple on a feast day, disputing about rest. One said that it was to have attained sufficient wealth, yet without sin. The second, that it was fame and praise of all men. The third, that it was the possession of power to rule the state. The fourth, that it consisted only in a happy home. The fifth, that it must be in the old age of one who is rich, powerful, famous, surrounded by children’ s children. The sixth said that all that were vain, unless a man kept all the ritual law of Moses. And Rabbi Judah, the venerable, the tallest of the brothers, said, “ Ye have all spoken wisely, but one thing more is necessary: he can only find rest who to all these things addeth this, that he keepeth the tradition of the elders.” There sat in the court a fair-haired boy, playing with his lilies in his lap, and hearing the talk, dropped them with astonishment from his hands and looked up--that boy of twelve, and said, “ Nay, nay, fathers, he only loveth rest who loves his brother as himself, and God with his whole heart and soul! He is greater than wealth and fame and power, happier than a happy home, happy without it, better than honoured age, he is a law to himself, and above all tradition.” The doctors were astonished. They said, When Christ cometh, shall He tell us greater things? And they thanked God; for, they said, old men are not always wise; yet God be praised, that out of the mouth of this young suckling has His praise become perfect. (T. Parker.) Wanting rest There is a rebelliousness against himself in man--a disgust with himself. “ We are weary: give us rest,” said a tribe to one of their missionaries; and that tribe expresses the feeling of every human being. Hebrews 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God The rest for God’ s people I. THE PERSONS FOR WHOM THIS REST IS . “ The people of God.” 1. By their eternal election of the Father (Romans 11:5). 2. By complete and final redemption (John 1:29). 3. By perfect righteousness imputed (Isaiah 45:24-25). 4. By the renewing of the Holy Ghost (Colossians 3:10). II. THE IN GOD’ S PEOPLE FROM THE , AFTER THEY ARE TO GOD BY THE HOLY GHOST. 1. in a deep sense of divine things (1 Corinthians 2:10). 2. Of their miserable state as sinners (Luke 5:31). 3. Of creature-insufficiency (Isaiah 64:6). 4. Of Christ’ s fulness (Philippians 3:8). 5. In a change of will and purpose (Son 1:4). 6. A cordial covenanting with Christ (Jeremiah 50:5). 7. Persevering grace (Micah 7:8). III. THE NATURE OF THIS REST. ITS excellency is beyond the power of language to describe. 1. Purchased rest (Ephesians 1:14). 2. Gratuitous rest (Isaiah 55:1). 3. Peculiar rest (John 14:22). 4. Divine rest (Revelation 21:23). 5. Seasonable rest (Galatians 6:9). 6. Suitable rest (John 14:2). 7. Perfect rest (Revelation 21:4). 8. Eternal rest (1 Peter 5:10). 9. Of body and soul (1 Corinthians 15:57). It is a rest from pain, sorrow, disappointment, persecution, sin, lust, and infirmity; a rest of peace, joy, love, knowledge, freedom, and a rest in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. (T. B. Baker.) Earnests of ultimate rest The earnests of this rest which are given to the saints in the present dispensation. There is a threefold earnest--an earnest of joy, an earnest of holiness, and an earnest of power. This threefold earnest corresponds with the character of the inheritance itself--it is an inheritance of joy, an inheritance of holiness, and an inheritance of power, of dominion. The earnest corresponds with the blessings to be enjoyed; the earnest corresponds with the salvation to be enjoyed. Now, what is the salvation to be enjoyed? Salvation menus the recovery of all we lost in Adam in a more glorious way than he had it. What did we lose in Adam? We lost the presence of God first; we lost the image of God secondly; and we lost the power of exercising dominion under God. These three things we lost in Adam; these three things we gain in Christ. We shall have the joy of God, going into His presence where there is fulness of joy. We shall have the likeness of God--we shall awake, and shall be satisfied when we awake in His likeness; we shall be conformed to Him who is the image of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies, and fashion them after His own glorious body--we shall see Him as He is. We shall have dominion; for the saints shall reign with Christ; the bridegroom and the bride shall reign together. (N. Armstrong.) The connection between the Sabbath of earth and the engagements of heaven Heaven may be denominated a Sabbath, if the following reflections be seriously considered. 1. It may be so called for its repose. An eternal rest! Oh, happy thought, amidst the toils of the wilderness, amidst the fears with which we are now agitated, that we shall soon find rest; like the coming of eventide to the labourer, like the appearance of home to the traveller as he is advancing to repose amidst his household, so shall heaven be to the soul! 2. Heaven may well be called an eternal Sabbath for its sanctity. Holiness is its character, not holiness which arises merely from the absence of sin, but holiness which is inherent; that holiness whereby we are prepared in all we do, and all we enjoy, to possess more and more felicity, in proportion as we accomplish more and more the will of the great Creator so that we are absolutely a living sacrifice to God throughout ceaseless ages. 3. Heaven may be denominated an eternal Sabbath for its services. 4. Heaven may be called an eternal Sabbath for its society. Never would the Church of Christ realise a fulness of fellowship but for the engagements of the Sabbath. 5. Heaven may be called an eternal Sabbath for its delights. 6. Heaven may be called an eternal Sabbath because of the termination of all secular eras and events. Just as the Sabbath crowns and hallows the week, so heaven comes at the close of time to crown and hallow the whole. 7. Heaven may be called an eternal Sabbath for the perpetual commemoration of the history of all things. (R. S. McAll, LL. D.) The rest of God’ s people I. IT IS A FUTURE REST. It is not on this side the grave. This--it is emphatically said--this is not your rest. Ye have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. We must go over Jordan--we must cross the river of death before we can reach our home. But till then, while we continue in the world, it is vain and fruitless to expect rest. There may be seasons of refreshment: pauses, like the Sabbath’ s pause, for recruiting our tired spirits; but these seasons and pauses are but for an instant. Work--work of one kind or other presses upon us, and we cannot, if we would, be long at rest. II. HEAVEN, whatever other notions we may have about it, WILL BE, BEFORE ALL THINGS, A PLACE TO REST. (R. D. B. Rawnsley, M. A.) The rest of the saints Scripture allows us to know so much of the future state as to satisfy us that it is a state of continual exalted employment. I. They rest FROM THE TOILS AND OF THE PRESENT LIFE. Toils and pursuits of various kinds, and in different degrees, necessarily occupy much of our attention. We are animated with a strong desire of preserving ourselves and those who depend upon us in life and comfort, hence much labour and exertion fall to the lot of the generality of mankind; it is also a part of the curse denounced against our apostate race: “ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Of the small proportion of men who do not procure their subsistence by bodily labour, exertion of another kind is required; they have to undergo the labours of the mind, study, and reflection, and extensive research in managing the religious and the civil concerns of their fellow-creatures. To those who exert themselves vigorously and conscientiously in the one or the other of these kinds of labour, it is no unpleasant view of heaven that it yields a relief from such toils and pursuits. II. In heaven there is rest FROM THE OF LIFE. These are inseparable from our present condition, being the natural and penal consequences of sin. “ Although affliction cometh net forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground, yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.” It arises from what we feel in ourselves, from disease, and pain, and weakness, and from “ the fear of death” ; it arises also from our connection with fellow-creatures: those with whom we are united by the most tender and endearing ties are subject, like ourselves, to a variety of distresses. How soothing in such situations the belief, the hope, and the prospect of that “ rest which remaineth for the people of God” --a state where disease and pain are wholly unknown, or remembered as “ former things which have passed away;” “ a land, the inhabitants whereof shall no more say, I am sick” ; and where those whom death had separated shall meet to part no more! III. “ There remaineth a rest to the people of God” FROM SIN AND . The former views which have been presented of this “ rest” may engage the attention and please the imagination of all men, Whatever be their slate and character. It is natural to human beings to desire exemption from toil and from trouble. Too many, it is feared, wish for heaven chiefly or wholly on these accounts; they have little or no desire of heaven as a deliverance from sin and from temptations to sin; they are the justified and sanctified alone who delight chiefly in this view of a future state. Besides this painful contest with inward corruption, there is also a conflict to be maintained with Satan, the great spiritual adversary. The world also in which they live, both the men of the world and “ the things that are in the world,” present many powerful temptations; snares beset them on every side; prosperity and adversity have each their several dangers to Christians. It is, therefore, to them the most pleasing view of heaven that it is a rest from sin and from all temptations to sin. (J. Burns, D. D.) Rest Have we not all seen a Sunday which was a Sunday indeed--a day of calm and of cheerfulness, a day of thankful repose, a day of quiet devotion, a day in which God was present as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort? Witness, you who have known such a day yourselves or seen it in another, what a look it wore I how bright it was with a light not of this world I how it seemed at once to refresh and to invigorate, to soothe without “ relaxing” and to animate without exciting, every part of that complex being which man is! And then say to yourselves, Such, even such, only tenfold more perfect and more glorious, is the rest which remaineth in heaven for the people of God! “ No day of wearisome forms, of gloomy bondage and austere observance, of lifeless monotonous worship, or listless irksome vacancy, but one instinct with peace, with life, and with happiness. There remaineth a rest--a rest like the most delightful of Sabbaths, even because it is long waited for, and because, when it comes, it is a day better than a thousand. I. A rest FROM what? I. From our own works. Ye who have known what it was to have reached the end of a six days’ or a six months’ toil, and to awaken the next morning to the rest of an earthly Sabbath, where there was no duty before you for twelve hours but that of thanking and praising God, and enjoying to the full His gifts and His revelations--judge ye what that morning will be when you awake in heaven, never again to toil unto weariness! 2. But who has not felt that there is a weariness far greater than that of simple work, and, by consequence, a rest far more desirable than that from mere labour? In heaven there will be rest from all anxiety and care. 3. And shall I mention yet another weariness of life, one which besets in these days some of every condition and every rank of men? I speak of doubt--of religious doubt--doubt as to the reality of truth, or doubt as to its application to ourselves. Of all the joys of the first morning of heaven, to many souls in our generation, surely this will be the greatest--that doubt is no more; that Christ Himself is there, seen face to face, and the truth which was dim upon earth is there irradiated by His presence. 4. Lastly, the rest which remaineth is a rest from sin. “ Grieved and wearied with the burden of our sins:” that is the account which we all give of ourselves when we kneel at Christ’ s holy table. Wherever Christ is sought in humble faith, the pilgrim’ s burden unties itself at the sight of the Cross, and falls off from him, to his great comfort. But old infirmities continue, and lead to new transgressions. Only in heaven will the power of sin be ended. II. Rest IN what? 1. In thankfulness. Dangers escaped--infirmities healed--sins forgiven--sorrows cheered on earth or explained in heaven--an arresting,controlling, guiding, and supporting hand, now believed and then seen to have been over us all our life long--the forbearance of God--the map of our pilgrimage, inward and outward, at last spread out before us, and the light of heaven thrown upon its windings and its wanderings; in all this there will be matter for an eternity of thankfulness. 2. In occupation. 3. In contemplation. The contemplation of God Himself. The understanding, as never before, of His works, of His ways, of His perfections. 4. In Christ’ s presence. This completes, this embraces all heaven. (Dean Vaughan.) Heavenly rest I. I shall try to EXHIBIT the rest of heaven; and in doing so I shall exhibit it, first by way of contrast, and then by way of comparison. 1. The rest of the righteous in glory is now to be contrasted with certain other things. (1) We will contrast it with the best estate of the worldling and the sinner. The worldling, when his corn and his wine are increased, has a glad eve and a joyous heart: but even then he has the direful thought that he may soon leave his wealth. Not so the righteous man: he has obtained an inheritance which is “ undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” (2):Now let me put it in more pleasing contrast. I shall contrast the rest of the believer above with the miserable estate of the believer sometimes here below. Christians have their sorrows. Suns have their spots, skies have their clouds, and Christians have their sorrows too. But oh! how different will the state of the righteous be up there, from the state of the believer here! Sheathed is the sword, the banner is furled, the fight is over, the victory won; and they rest from their labours. Here, too, the Christian is always sailing onward, he is always in motion, he feels that he has not yet attained. Like Paul, he can say, “ Forgetting the things that are behind, I press forward to that which is before.” But there his weary head shall be crowned with unfading light. There the ship that has been speeding onward shall furl its sails in the port of eternal bliss. Here, too, the believer is often the subject of doubt and fear. Hill Difficulty often affrights him; going down into the valley of humiliation is often troublesome work to him; but there, there are no hills to climb, no dragons to fight, no foes to conquer, no dangers to dread. Ready-to-halt, when he dies, will bury his crutches, and Feeble-mind will leave his feebleness behind him: Fearing will never fear again; poor Doubtingheart will learn confidently to believe. Oh, joy above all joys! Here, too, on earth, the Christian has to suffer; here he has the aching head and the pained body. Or if his body be sound, yet what suffering he has in his mind! Conflicts between depravity and gross temptations from the evil one, assaults of hell, perpetual attacks of divers kinds from the world, the flesh, and the devil. But there, no aching head, no weary heart; old age shall find itself endowed with perpetual youth; there the infirmities of the flesh shall be left behind, given to the worm and devoured by corruption. There, too, they shall be free from persecution. Here Sicilian Vespers, and St. Bartholomew, and Smithfield are well-known words; but there shall be none to taunt them with a cruel word, or touch them with a cruel hand. There emperors and kings are not known, and those who had power to torture them cease to be. They are in the society of saints; they shall be free from all the idle converse of the wicked, and from their cruel jeers set free for ever. Alas! in this mortal state the child of God is also subject to sin; even he faileth in his duty and wandereth from his God; even he doth not walk in all the law of his God blameless, though he desireth to do it. And last of all, here, the child of God has to wet the cold ashes of his relatives with tears; here he has to bid adieu to all that is lovely and fair of mortal race. But there never once shall be heard the toll of the funeral bell. 2. And now I shall try very briefly to exhibit this contrast in the way of comparison. The Christian hath some rest here, but nothing compared with the rest which is to come. (1) There is the rest of the Church. The Church-member at the Lord’ s table has a sweet enjoyment of rest in fellowship with the saints; but ah! up there the rest of Church fellowship far surpasses anything that is known here; for there are no divisions there, no angry words, no harsh thoughts of one another, no bickerings about doctrine, no fightings about practice. (2) There is, again, a rest of faith which a Christian enjoys; a sweet rest. Many of us have known it. We have known what it is, when the billows of trouble have run high, to hide ourselves in the breast of Christ and feel secure. But the rest up there is better still, more unruffled, more sweet, more perfectly calm, more enduring, and more lasting than even the rest of faith. (3) And, again, the Christian sometimes has the blessed rest of communion. There are happy moments when he puts his head on the Saviour’ s breast--when, like John, he feels that he is close to the Saviour’ s heart, andthere he sleeps. II. I am to endeavour to EXTOL this rest, as I have tried to EXHIBIT it. Oh! for the lip of angel to talk now of the bliss of the sanctified and of the rest of God’ s people I 1. It is a perfect rest. They are wholly at rest in heaven. 2. Again, it is a seasonable rest. 3. This rest ought to be extolled because it is eternal. 4. And then, lastly, this glorious rest is to be best of all commended for its certainty. “ There remaineth a rest to the people of God.” Doubting one, thou hast often said, “ I fear I shall never enter heaven.” Fear not; all the people of God shall enter there; there is no fear about it. I love the quaint saying of a dying man, who exclaimed, “ I have no fear of going home; I have sent all before me; God’ s finger is on the latch of my door and I am ready for Him to enter.” “ But,” said one, “ are you not afraid lest you should miss your inheritance?” “ Nay,” said he, “ nay; there is one crown in heaven that the angel Gabriel could not wear; it will fit no head but mine. There is one throne in heaven that Paul the apostle could not fill; it was made for me, and I shall have it. There is one dish at the banquet that I must eat, or else it will be untasted, for God has set it apart for me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Divine rest I. WHAT MAN NEEDS IS NOT REST FROM WORK BUT REST FROM CARE. 1. What is care? It is the experience of the man who is bent on being his own providence; who takes on himself the whole responsibility, not of the conduct of life only, but of the conditions and results which are absolutely beyond his power of regulation, and which God keeps calmly under His own hand. 2. This rest from care has been the great aim and desire of man through all his generations. The problem of man’ s higher life has always been how to secure emancipation. 3. But the sad part of the matter is, that man does not and cannot rest in mere renunciations and denials. There is a question in the background which has its origin in every conscience. How, on this principle, can the world’ s business be carried on? No! there is no rest for the human spirit in this burying the head in the sand when troubles throng around. II. THE ONLY REST FOR MAN IS THE REST THAT HE FINDS IN GOD. 1. The lowest, but by no means the least burdensome and distracting class of our cares concerns “ the great bread-and-cheese question” and its surroundings. 2. A nobler form of care is that which has to do with persons, that which springs out of our affections, sympathies and loves. 3. The same faith lifts the burden from the heart of the Christian lover of mankind. In truth we are always calling for the twelve legions of angels to finish the work swiftly and usher in Messiah’ s reign. And God answers, “ Patience,” and points us to the redemptive purpose which stamped its impress on the first page of revelation and sets its seal on the last; and bids us wait His time. The man who trusts most perfectly, works most heartily. Christ, while He lifts the burdens, braces the energies, inspires the will, and parades all the faculties of man in their noblest form for service. The man who believes, understands perfectly that the most strenuous use of all the powers of his being is one of the high conditions by which God is seeking to work out blessing for him self, for his dear ones, and for the great world. (Jr. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) The true rest of heaven Our notions of bodily rest rarely extend beyond mere cessation from muscular exertion. Our ideas also of mental rest are commonly limited to a similar period put to the labours of the mind. It is easy, and perhaps not always displeasing, to apply similar expectations to spiritual as well as bodily and mental relaxation, and to regard the promised Sabbath in heaven as a complete termination of every spiritual effort. Hope is a work; faith is a work; love we look upon as an emotion. The two former will not be called into action in the mansions of eternity. The latter, we are apt to conceive, will fill our breast with infused delight. There are indeed agreeable views of the saints’ everlasting rest; but are they also in accordance with the revelations of Scripture? You will find not: you will see that the people of God in an after-state will truly rest from their pilgrimage through this weary world; but from the worship of God His saints will rest no more; with kindred spirits they will day and night for ever cry, “ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, who wert, and art, and art to come.” Now, while heaven is the abode of love, that love will have utterance; while the object of our love and gratitude and joy is before the glorified, the tongue of love and gratitude and joy will never fail. No rest for happiness; no rest for worship, no more than we should desire new a rest from breathing. And we have glimpses here of the true character of happy rest. Were the father of a family to return to his home after a tedious and toilsome journey and long absence, and instantly, without saluting wife or children, to cast himself upon his bed and fall asleep, this would be rest certainly, but of what a low, animal character I And were another father under like Circumstances to embrace wife and children with fondest affections, and to assemble them around him to narrate the adventures he had met with, and ask of them a similar return, whether, think you, would be the preferable rest? I anticipate but one answer. But it may be said that extreme fatigue might overcome even the strongest regard, and that the most loving parent might be unable to enjoy the society of his household. Do you suppose that this, which is quite in accordance with earthly experience, could be so in heaven? Would God receive us into those blessed abodes, and leave us destitute of the faculty of enjoying them? You well know that that would be far from Him. No; they who are brought into that future world will be gifted with every capacity suitable to the most perfect use of it. And as this life is a training for the next--a probation wherein is practised the conduct and temper which shall endure for ever--does it not follow that you should now cultivate those habits and feelings which alone will find admittance there? (J. S. Knox, M. A.) The rest of God’ s people in heaven 1. We shall rest from the labours of our calling, wherewith we arc turmoiled. The husbandman shall follow the plough no longer, the weaver shall sit no longer in the cold in his loom, the clothier not ride up and down in the ram, frost and snow, about his wool and cloth; the preacher shall no longer be turning over books and taking pains in his study and pulpit; we shall ride no more to market to buy corn, to make provision for our houses; we shall no longer take thought for ourselves, our wives and children; we shall have all things provided to our hands, and eat of the hidden manna and of the tree of life in the paradise of God for ever. 2. We shall rest even from the works of religion, which are now chariots to carry us to heaven. We shall no longer be turning over the Bible in our houses, catechising and instructing of our families; no more go many a mile in the dirt and wind to the church, shall no more be praying with cries, sighs, and tears; thanksgiving shall remain in heaven. It shall be all our work to be praising of God, but petitions shall then cease; no need of the ship when we be in heaven. 3. We shall rest from the works of sin; here in many things we sin all. Noah is sometimes overtaken with wine, David falls into adultery and murder, Peter into the denial of Christ, Paul and Barnabas are at jars between themselves. “ The good that we would do, that do we not, and the evil we would not, that do we.” Sin makes us to cry out like tired porters, “ O miserable men that we are,” &e. Then we shall rest from all sin, and be like the angels in heaven for ever. 4. We shall rest from all the crosses and calamities of this life. 5. We shall rest from death. It is a work to die; it is a main enemy with whom we struggle. But then this last enemy shall be put under our feet, death shall be swallowed up into victory. O what an excellent rest is this I (W. Jones, D.D.) The world not a fit place for rest 1. This world is not a fit place, nor this life a fit time to enjoy such a rest as is reserved in heaven. 2. Rest here would glue our hearts too much to this world, and make us say, “ It is good to be here” (Matthew 17:4). It would slack our longing desire after Christ in heaven. Death would be more irksome, and heaven the less welcome. 3. There would be no proof or trial of our spiritual armour, and of the several graces of God bestowed on us. 4. God’ s providence, prudence, power, mercy and other like properties could not be so well discerned if here we enjoyed that rest. (W. Gouge.) Rest elsewhere “ Rest elsewhere,” was the motto of Philip de Marnix, Lord Sainte-Aldegonde, one of the most efficient leaders in that great Netherlands revolt against despotism in the sixteenth century which supplied material for perhaps the most momentous chapter in the civil and religious history of the world. For a man such as he, living in such a time, no motto could well mean more. A friend of freedom and of truth, in that age, could never hope to find rest in this world. A good motto, also, is it for the Christian worker. When there is so much to be done, who would be inactive here? “ Weary not in well doing.” There is rest elsewhere. Retire not from your labour. Work on! There will be rest hereafter. Rest in eternity Arnauld’ s (of the Port Royal Society), remarkable reply to Nicolle, when they were hunted from place to place, can never be forgotten. Arnauld wished Nicolle to assist him in a new work, when the latter observed, “ We are now old, is it not time to rest?” “ Rest! “ returned Arnauld; “ have we not all eternity to rest in?” The weariness of life For the young, this is fresh, beautiful, sunlit life; to the old, it is often what Talleyrand found it, who in the journal of his eighty-third birthday wrote, “ Life is a long fatigue.” Weary eyes droop, weary shoulders bend, weary hands tremble, weary feet drag heavily along, weary brows burn, weary hearts faint everywhere. The primary cause of the universal weariness is universal sin. The needle forced from its centre is in a state of tremulous motion; man wandered from his God is in a state of weariness. Though now on the way back, he will never be perfectly at rest until finally at home. (C. Stanford, D. D.) The final Sabbath The final Sabbath will not, therefore, be realised till time is swallowed up of eternity, and mortality of life. It will be the eternal conclusion of the week of time, as seven is the numeric symbol of perfection and rest. (F. Delitzsch.) Rest in heaven Once I dreamed of being transported to heaven; and being surprised to find myself so calm and tranquil in the midst of my happiness, I inquired the cause. The reply was, “ When you were on earth, you resembled a bottle but partly filled with water, which was agitated by the least motion,--now you are like the same bottle filled to the brim, which cannot be disturbed. (E. Payson, D. D.) Image of heaven A sorrowing mother, bending over her dying child, was trying to soothe it by talking about heaven. She spoke of the glory there, of the brightness, of the shining countenances of the angels; but a little voice stopped her, saying, “ I should not like to be there, mother, for the light hurts my eyes.” Then she changed her word-picture, and spoke of the songs above, of the harpers, of the voice of many waters, of the new song which they sang before the throne; but the child said, “ Mother, I cannot bear any noise.” Grieved and disappointed at her failure, she took the little one in her arms with all the tenderness of a mother’ s love. Then, as the little sufferer lay there, near to all it loved best in the world, conscious only of the nearness of love and care, the whisper came, “ Mother, if heaven is like this, may Jesus take me there!” (Baxendale’ s Anecdotes.) Heaven the place to rest in The earth is our workhouse, but heaven is our storehouse. This is a place to run in, and that is a place to rest in. (T. Secker.) The work over Mr. Mead, an aged Christian, when asked how he did, answered, “ I am going home as fast as I can, as every honest man ought to do when his day’ s work is over; and I bless God I have a good home to go to.” The people of God The people of God I. THE GREAT FACT WHICH IS HERE IMPLIED. That God has a people--a people who are peculiarly His own and devoted to His service. 1. Let us look into the past history of the Church. What illustrious examples of faith, and piety, and real devotedness to God do we discover! 2. In the present day there ate many such. 3. If we look at prophecy, we shall find that the number of God’ s people are numerous indeed. II. SOME TRIALS IN” THEIR . 1. The real servant of God, to whatever community or church he may belong, is deeply convinced of the value and importance of personal religion. 2. The true servant of God renounces self and all else as a ground of dependence in the sight of God, and depends entirely on the atonement, sacrifice, blood, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. He cultivates universal holiness of heart and life. III. THE FUTURE AND OF THE TRUE . Lessons: 1. The awful state of those who do not come up to this character. 2. How great are the obligations of real Christians to serve God. 3. How amiable is the character of the real Christian! (D. Ruell, M. A.) The people of God All nations in the world are His people by creation, but these are His people by adoption. 1. Every people is gathered together by some means or other; a people is a collection of many men. So we that are the people of God, are gathered together with the trumpet of the Word. 2. A people gathered together must have laws to rule them by, otherwise they will soon be out of order, otherwise they will range beyond limits, even so God’ s people have God’ s laws set down in His Word. 3. Every people must have a king or ruler. Even so the ruler of God’ s people is Jesus Christ. 4. A people must have some country to dwell in. So the country where this people dwell is the Church militant in this life, and triumphant in the life to come. 5. All people are distinguished by some outward habit and attire. So God’ s people have the sacraments to distinguish them. Baptism is Christ’ s mark, and the Holy Supper His seal. 6. People must live in obedience to the laws of their king. (W. Jones, D. D.) Hebrews 4:10 He that is entered into His rest Entrance into God’ s rest We lose much of the meaning of this passage by our superficial habit of transferring it to a future state. The ground of the mistake is in the misinterpretation of the word “ remaineth” ; which is taken to point to the “ rest,” after the sorrows of this life are all done with. Of course there is such a rest; but the truth taught here is that faith, and not death, is the gate to participation in Christ’ s rest; that the rest remained over after Moses and Judaism, but came into possession under and by Christ. I. THE DIVINE REST. It is the deep tranquillity of a nature self-sufficing in its infinite beauty, calm in its everlasting strength, placid in its deepest joy, still in its mightiest energy, loving without passion, willing without decision or change, acting without effort, quiet, and moving everything; making all things new, and itself everlasting; creating, and knowing no diminution by the act; annihilating, and knowing no loss though the universe were barren and unpeopled. God is, God is everywhere, God is everywhere the same, God is everywhere the same infinite, God is everywhere the same infinite love and the same infinite self-sufficiency; therefore His very Being is rest. And yet that image that rises before us, statuesque, still in its placid tranquillity, is not repellent nor cold, is no dead marble likeness of life. God is changeless and ever tranquil, and yet He loves--wills--acts. Mystery of mysteries, passing all understanding! Then there is the other thought which perhaps comes more markedly out in the passage before us--that of a rest which is God’ s tranquil ceasing from His work, because God has perfected His work. Still further: this Divine tranquillity--inseparable from the Divine nature, the token of the sufficiency and completeness of the Divine work--is also a rest that is full of work. God rests, and in His rest, up to the present hour and for ever, God works. And, in like manner, Christ’ s work of redemption, finished upon the Cross, is perpetually going on. Christ’ s glorious repose is full of energy for His people. He intercedes above. He works on them. He works through them, He works for them. II. THE REST OF GOD AND OF CHRIST IS THE PATTERN OF WHAT OUR EARTHLY LIFE MAY BECOME. We cannot possess that changeless tranquillity which knows no variations of purpose or of desire, but we can possess the stable repose of that fixed nature which knows one object, and one alone. We cannot possess that energy which, after all work, is fresh and unbroken; but we can possess that tranquillity which in all toil is not troubled, and after all work is ready for double service. We cannot possess that unwavering fire of a Divine nature which burns in love without flickering, which knows without learning, which wills without irresolution and without the act of decision; but we can come to love deeply, tranquilly, perpetually, we can come to know without questioning, without doubts, without darkness, in firm confidence of stable assurance, and so know with something like the knowledge of Him who knows things as they are; and we can come to will and resolve so strongly, so fixedly, so wisely, that there shall be no change of purpose, nor any vacillation of desire. In these ways, in shadow and copy, we can be like even the apparently incommunicable tranquillity which, like an atmosphere that knows no tempests, belongs to and encircles the throne of God. But, still further: Faith, which is the means of entering into rest, will--if only you cherish it--make your life no unworthy resemblance of His who, triumphant above,works for us, and, working for us, rests from all His toil. Trust Christi is the teaching here. III. THIS DIVINE REST IS A OF WHAT OUR LIFE SHALL SURELY BE. There is a basis of likeness between the Christian life on earth and the Christian life in heaven, so great as that the blessings which are predicated of the one belong to the other. Only here they are in blossom, sickly, often, putting out very feeble shoots and tendrils; and yonder transplanted into their right soil, and in their native air with heaven’ s sun upon them, they burst into richer beauty, and bring forth fruits of immortal life. The heaven of all spiritual natures is not idleness, Man’ s delight is activity. The loving heart’ s delight is obedience. The saved heart’ s delight is grateful service. The joys of heaven are not the joys of passive contemplation, of dreamy remembrance, of perfect repose; but they are described thus, “ They rest not day nor night.” “ His servants serve Him, and see His face.” Yes, heaven is perfect “ rest.” God be thanked for all the depth of unspeakable sweetness which lies in that one little word, to the ears of all the weary and the heavy laden. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Christian’ s rest I. THE PERSONS--“ The people of God.” 1. He purchased them. 2. He has prepared them. 3. He has watched over and guarded them. 4. They have been enlightened. II. THE PROMISE--“ There remaineth a rest.” 1. Already in existence. 2. Not yet manifested. III. THE --“ Rest.” 1. Chiefly negative. Denoting an absence of what is painful, laborious, disagreeable. 2. Not necessarily inaction. The brain-toiler rests in taking manual exercise. The muscle-worker rests in reading and writing. The teacher rests in games, such as cricket, &c. So the Christian shall not fear the toils of earth in the occupation of heaven. 3. Blessed. The absence of all evil will give opportunity for the exercise of all that is good. (Homilist.) Rest in the rest of God The one want of our nature is rest. We want it in each part of our nature. The body wants rest. Toil, toil of hand and foot and brain, demands alternations of rest, if it is not to kill. The mind wants rest. The thinking, understanding, reasoning, reflecting mind. And certainly the soul wants it. That wonderful, that immortal thing within each of us--which we can distinguish not only from the material body, but even from the thinking mind--that soul which comes straight to each man from his God, and (strange to add) must return straight out of this life to the God who gave it--the soul has its toils and its journeyings and its wearinesses--distinguishable easily from a mere earthly solicitude on the one side, andfrom a mere intellectual unrest on the other. The soul is worn and weary for want of some rest of its own in a strong, delightful, imperishable heart of Love! In their different ways all are seeking rest. Oh, it is a sorrowful thought, when you are thrown into the midst of a multitude, gathered for business, for amusement, even for worship, how few, how very few, of all these have yet found their rest! One is heaping up riches, ignorant who shall gather, knowing only this, that he can carry nothing away with him when he dieth! But he wants rest, and partly he puts out of sight the sordidness and the shortlivedness of this particular rest; and partly, with his eyes open, he says, Twenty years, or twenty hours, or even so base a rest, are better than none! And so he goes after this. Another, far higher and nobler in his aspiration, cannot live without affection. That, he sees, is rest, could he but have it--could he but know indeed what it is! And then, eluded and baffled, at last desperate, in this pursuit of his rest, he falls into evil courses, and would fain fill himself with such husks of love as swine scarcely eat! Rest in the rest of God. “ My rest,” God says in the 95th Psalm, and speaks of man entering it. This rest, the context tells us, is partly present, partly future. 1. There is a present rest in the rest of God. That can only be found in an entire, absolute trust in the atonement, made once for all upon the cross of Jesus. Once apprehend that, and then there will enter your soul a peace and a rest indeed passing all understanding. You will work afterwards as never before, because you will work from, not for acceptance, because in working you will be resting. You will count all your work as needing, yet having, forgiveness. 2. From this soul’ s rest there is but one step into the saint’ s rest--into that calm, that reposeful existence which lies beyond death for such as shall be counted worthy. Not entirely separate, as some would represent, from the life that is now, and from the stage of present action; for if we rest not now, in God’ s sense of resting, from sin, from self, from vanity, from feverish haste, from human praise, in the sense of our littleness and of God’ s might, of our sinfulness and of Christ’ s atonement, we shall never rest then where God is all in all: not entirely separate from earth--for, after all, heaven is but the Spirit’ s presence, is bur the consciousness of God as our God, is but the love of Christ filling and constraining; and where these are below, there is heaven begun--not entirely separate, yet severed from the life that now is, even for the chief of saints, by two definite differences--by the removal of this body of earth now enchaining the soul, and by the experience of that nearer, more direct communion, of which it is written that there they shall see God. (Dean Vaughan.) Ceasing from self The writer makes a distinction between soul and spirit in Hebrews 4:12. Your soul is you, the part that thinks, wills, reasons, loves, forms plans, purposes, the age, the I life. Beyond that, deeper, deeper down, is the spirit, the part that holds fellowship with God. God consciousness. Good people, converted people, regenerated people, live too much from the soul centre, self-consciousness, and in proportion to our doing this we lose God’ s rest. As “ I” comes in, rest goes out and restlessness enters. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Hebrews 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter Believers labouring for their reward In these words there is, first, an exhortation; second, a motive pressing it. In the exhortation we may consider 1. The dependence of it upon what goes before, intimated in the particle “ therefore;“ showing that it is an inference from some preceding doctrine. In the latter part of the third chapter, he shows that unbelief kept the disobedient Israelites out of God’ s rest; both out of Canaan, and heaven typified thereby (chap. 4.). (1) He lets them see that they had an offer of that eternal rest as well as the Israelites in the wilderness had; because both had the gospel, only the Israelites in the wilderness did not believe it. (2) The great thing which we are to have in our eye, that rest, namely, of which David speaks (Psalms 95:11); that rest which remains (Hebrews 4:9). (3) What we are to aim at in reference to that rest; “ to enter into it,” that is, to be partakes of it. (4) The means to be used, in order to our entering, is labouring. Heaven will not fall down into our mouths while lying on the bed of sloth. (5) Observe the order of the labour and the rest. In the way of God’ s appointment, and of godly choice, the labour is first, then comes the rest. It is quite contrary with the wicked. They begin with a day of rest, and end with eternal toil; the godly begin with a night of toil, and end, or rather continue in eternal rest. Oh, that we may follow God’ s order! (6) Observe the end and design of this labour: it is rest. Men work in their young days, and lay up that they may rest in old age. So does the Christian. The wicked also labour that they may rest; but there is a vast difference both betwixt their labour and rest. Their labour is in sin, and their rest is there; but sought in vain, “ for in the fulness of their sufficiency they are in straits.” But the godly have their labour in grace, their rest in glory, and between these there is an infallible connection; who, then, would refuse that labour which ends in that rest. (7) The persons exhorted to labour; us, which includes the apostle and all the Hebrews, whom he exhorts to-day to hear God’ s voice, so that this exhortation belongs to all the visible Church, godly and ungodly. Some have entered the avenue leading to glory, some have not; both are called to labour to enter. 2. The motive pressing the exhortation. It is taken from the danger of not labouring. Consider here (1) That of which people are in danger, and which will come upon them, if they labour not to enter, falling; that is, falling short of heaven, and missing salvation. (2) The great cause of ruin, that is, unbelief or unpersuasibleness. Unbelief is the great cause of the ruin of the hearers of the gospel, and that which cuts the sinews of true diligence, so as people under the power of it cannot labour. (3) A confirmation of the certainty of their ruin: “ after the same example of unbelief.” (4) The universality of the danger: any man. I. IN WHAT THE ’ S LABOUR . 1. The mind must be intent on the business of salvation. This imports (1) An impression of the weight of that matter upon the spirit. No wise man will labour for a trifle. (2) An habitual minding of that business. Religion is the believer’ s trade--hence his conversation is in heaven. (3) The heart’ s being set upon salvation (2 Corinthians 5:9). The scattered affections of the soul arc gathered together from off the variety of objects which the world affords us, and are fixed here (Psalms 27:4). 2. In this labour there is painfulness and diligence. The man labours for salvation, as working for his life itself, for indeed he sees his all is at stake. No opposition will make him give over. There is such a faintness in all the endeavours of many for heaven, that with the fearful who have no heart, they are excluded (Revelation 21:8). 3. In this labour there is haste. Our work must be done speedily, for the time proposed for our labouring is but “ to-day.” There is an unbelieving haste, that will not wait God’ s time; but this true haste is not to let his time slip. 4. There is this labour carefulness and holy anxiety about salvation, in the managing of the work (Philippians 2:12). Nosy this implies (1) The turning of the soul from anxious cares about the world, to a holy solicitude about the salvation of the soul. (2) A fear of falling short of heaven. (3) An earnest desire to be set and kept on the way to heaven. (4) A fear of mismanagement in his work. The labourer for heaven should work, and doth best work with a trembling hand. It was the fundamental maxim of the heathen moralists, Have confidence in yourself. But I may say the Christian maxim is, Have no confidence in yourself. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. II. FOR WHAT WE ARE TO LABOUR. To enter into the heavenly rest. This is that which we are to have in our eye, and to which our endeavours are to be directed. We are not called to work for nought; but as heaven is attainable, we are to labour that we may enter into it. 1. Show some Scriptural notions of heaven, to which this of entering doth agree. (1) Heaven is held out under the notion of a garden or paradise. (2) A house. (3) The temple typified by that at Jerusalem. (4) A city glorious for magnificence and beauty (Revelation 21:1-27.). (5) A country; even a better country than the best here below (Hebrews 11:16). (6) A kingdom (Matthew 25:34); a kingdom that cannot be moved Hebrews 11:28). 2. Show what it is to enter into the heavenly rest. (1) There is an entering into heaven by the covenant. The covenant of grace is the outer court of heaven. Of this everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, David says, “ this is all my salvation and all my desire.” Surely, then, heaven was in it. (2) There is an entering by faith. (a) In so far as faith lays hold upon Christ, and unites us to Him John 6:54). (b) In so far as faith lays hold on the promise in which heaven is wrapped up. (3) There is an entering by hope (Romans 8:24). Faith goes out as a conqueror, and hope divides the spoil. (4) There is an entering by obedience. “ I know,” said Jesus, “ that His commandment is life everlasting.” There is a personal way to heaven, that is, Christ. “ I am,” saith He, “ the Way.” Also a real way to heaven, that is, the commands of God, called everlasting life, because they certainly land the soul in heaven, and there is an infallible connection betwixt true obedience and glory. (5) There is an entering into heaven by actual possession, which in respect of our souls is at death, and in respect of our bodies will be at the resurrection, which is the full and final entry, to which all the rest are subservient. This entrance is that solemn entering into the king’ s palace Psalms 45:15), which shall also be most joyful. 3. Mention some steps in the way by which we must labour to enter. (1) We must labour to get grace; this is the first step. “ Let us have grace,” says Paul, “ whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.” (2) We must labour to exercise grace in the gracious performance of duties. (3) Growing in grace. (4) Assurance of grace and glory. (5) Perseverance in grace to the end. 4. Consider this labouring to enter, as it has a respect to our preparation for that eternal rest in heaven. The man that is to go abroad is a busy man, putting all things in order for his voyage; and he that is making for his night’ s rest in bed, is not idle; and he that is to enter into the possession of eternal rest, has much work on his hand preparatory thereto. And thus to labour to enter into the heavenly rest implies (1) The solid faith of eternal life, even of this truth, that “ there remaineth a rest for the people of God.” (2) A sincere desire to be partaker of that rest, after this troublesome life is over. (3) Resolute endeavours to enter there, by God’ s own way, which has already been described. (4) Frequent thoughts of that eternal rest. III. HOW WE SHOULD LABOUR 1. We should labour willingly and cheerfully. 2. Diligently. 3. With all your might. 4. Resolutely. 5. Constantly. 6. With fear and trembling. 7. Quickly. 8. Refusing no piece of work God puts into your hands. 9. Evangelically. IV. THAT WE MUST LABOUR IN ORDER TO OUR INTO THAT REST. 1. Consider the several notions under which the Christian’ s life and the way to heaven is held forth, all of them implying true pains and labours. It is a working, “ Labour not for the meat that perisheth” , John 6:27). Here he that works not shall not eat. Yea, it is a working out of our own salvation; a bringing the work to perfection, otherwise what is done will be lost (2 John 1:8). It is compared to the work of the husbandman, which you know is not easy, ploughing, sowing, reaping Hosea 10:12), especially considering that they are both the labourers, and the ground that is laboured. The Christian is a spiritual soldier, he must 2 Timothy 4:7); yea, and overcome (Revelation 3:21). Heaven has a strait gate by which to enter in, and therefore cannot be entered with ease. Men must press into it (Luke 16:16); and take it by storm; yea, put forth their utmost strength as they that agonising. The apostle says (2 Corinthians 5:9), “ we labour” ; the word signifies to labour most earnestly, as an ambitious man for honour; and what will not such do, to gain their point? 2. Consider how the way to heaven was typified under the Old Testament. Canaan was a type of heaven, and to what labour were the Israelites put before they could reach that land, though it was promised to them. Another eminent type of it, was the ascent into the temple, which was seated upon a hill, even Mount Moriah (1 Kings 10:5). Many a weary step had some of them ere they got to Jerusalem (Psalms 84:6-7); and when they came there, they had to ascend unto the hill of God (Psalms 24:3), the mount of the Lord’ s house, a type of heaven. 3. Consider how the Scripture supposeth this labour (Romans 7:24; Galatians 6:5). 4. Consider how the Scripture represents the sluggard and his temper to us, as most hateful to God, and as one that is lost by his sloth (Proverbs 13:4; Proverbs 20:4; Proverbs 21:25). The sluggard is the unprofitable servant (Matthew 26:34). 5. Whom God intends for heaven, in then] He puts an active principle of grace. It is as natural for grace to bring forth good works, as for a good fruit tree to bring forth good fruit. 6. To enter heaven without labour is a contradiction; and so impossible. Heaven is a reward, and necessarily pre-supposeth working. Moreover, it is a rest which is a relative term, and has necessarily labour pre-supposed to it. V. WHY WE MUST LABOUR IN THIS WORK, in order to our entering heaven. Negatively; not because by works we must merit heaven, for the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our working is the way to the kingdom; not the cause of our reigning; Christ’ s working was that. But we must labour, because 1. It is the command of our great Lord and Master, whose command we are not to dispute, but to obey. 2. The glory of God requires it. 3. Because there is an infallible connection betwixt labouring and the rest. Labouring is the only way we can attain it. There is no reaching the treasure of glory without digging for it. 4. Because otherwise we pour contempt on the heavenly rest. It was the sin of the Israelites (Psalms 106:24-25). 5. Because it is difficult work you have to do, and therefore we should set ourselves to labouring, for it is heart work. Motives: 1. Consider that in other things you do not refuse to labour. You are not such as live idle and at ease. Now God is putting a piece of work in your hands; will you labour for others, but not for Him? 2. Your profession and your vows call upon you to labour to enter. 3. Your time is short; ere long all of us shall be in an unalterable state. 4. Your time is uncertain, as well as short. 5. The devil is busy to keep you out of that rest. 6. You have weighty calls to this work and labour. Lessons: 1. You have the call of the Word and ordinances. Wherefore has the Lord sent you His gospel, but for this end. 2. You have the call of providence. 3. The call of conscience. 4. If you labour not, you will never see heaven. Now to make this labour easy to you, I would recommend-- 1. To keep the encouragements to the work in your eye; particularly such as these, the example of those that have gone before you, and have got safe to the journey’ s end. These have made it appear the work is possible, and the reward certain. 2. Live by faith. 3. Labour to get and keep up love to Christ. 4. Look upon that labouring as your interest as well as your duty. 5. Be constant in that labour. (T. Boston, D. D.) Labour to enter into eternal rest How calm and beautiful to the servant of God is the close of a Sabbath day! It has, if he has used it aright, helped to allay all his cares and soothe all his woes; to brighten earth by the reflection of heaven. How endearing and animating, then, the blessed link, that knits the passing Sabbath of earth with the interminable Sabbath of heaven!--that makes the best and brightest day in the seven, to be to the child of God at once the pledge and the antepast of the everlasting “ rest that remaineth for the people of God!” I. “ Let us labour to enter into that rest” ; FOR LABOUR IS NEEDFUL, IF WE WOULD ENTER. Most true it is, that eternal life is from first to last “ the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Death we win--it is the wages of our service; life we receive--it is the free boon of boundless grace. Purchased, but by the blood of God; given to us “ without money and without price.” But it is not less true, that though it be the gift of God, it is given to us in order to, and in connection with, toil, struggle, self-denial, self-subjugation, a warfare unremitting, a perpetual maintenance of “ the good fight of faith, against the flesh, the world, and the devil.” We see, in the history of God’ s saints in every age, that to enter the glorious “ rest “ was a task of stupendous difficulty--was a pursuit for unremitting earnestness and energy--and called for and cost them all their devoted powers. Says not the Scripture everywhere the same? “ Strive,” said the Saviour--agonise--“ to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” II. We must “ labour to enter into that rest,” because IF WE FAIL OF THAT REST, WE FAIL OF ALL REST FOR EVER. III. “ Let us labour to enter into that rest” ; for IT IS WORTH OUR UTMOST LABOUR. It was beautifully said by a heathen wise man, that the noblest thing on earth is a noble object nobly pursued. That man, in his sentiment, was “ not far from the kingdom of God.” Oh! had he possessed the lamp that lights us, to reveal to him the glories prepared for them that love God, he would have seen at once, that the only noble object for immortal, responsible, rational man--the only noble object to be nobly pursued, in faith, in love, in self-denial, in holiness, in obedience, in patience, in indomitable resolution--is the kingdom of God’ s dear Son. IV. “ Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest” ; for EVEN HERE HOW MUCH OF THIS REST MAY BE OURS, WHILE WE TOIL AND TRAVEL AND BELOW! The apostle beautifully says in the preceding context, “ We which have believed do enter into rest.” There are first-fruits brought from heaven to the wilderness, as there were first-fruits brought from Canaan to the desert. V. “ Let us, therefore, labour to enter into that rest” ; for our LABOUR IS “ NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD.” In this race none fails through inveterate ignorance, if that ignorance be not of choice and of obstinacy; none comes short through want of talent or opportunity or advantage, if he makes the most of such as God gives him; none fails because of extremity of poverty or misery or desolation of earthly circumstances; none comes short because there was not mercy in God, there was not efficacy in the blood of Christ, there was not freeness and fulness in the Spirit of grace, there was not room in heaven, there was not amplitude in the gospel of peace. Every man that fails and comes short, “ cannot enter in because of unbelief” ; because he “ would not come to Christ that he might have life,” or, coming to Christ, he would not have life in the way of ,’ working out his own salvation with fear and trembling, because it was God that worked in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (H. Stowell, M. A.) The need of labour before rest We may properly regard this as an intimation that care and trouble are absolutely necessary on our part, in order to the procurement and enjoyment of those things “ which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” We should never fail to consider this life as a state of trial. In order to the attainment of human perfection, we perceive much labour to be necessary; there is no science, there is scarcely any art or employment in our several vocations in which we can arrive at eminence without industry and toil: exceptions there doubtless are, but this is the rule. We may further observe, that the greatest delight which we experience upon earth is frequently obtained by previous exertion or privation. As it is with the body, and with the attainment of natural blessings, so we have much greater reason to expect that it should be with the soul, with the attainment of those pure and spiritual blessings to which the natural man is averse. We could not expect them to be enjoyed without a previous discipline, without an anxious seeking, without a determined conflict. Not that such discipline and duty, on our part, are to be regarded as effectual in themselves; still less as entitling us to the benefits of the gospel on the ground of desert: we can have no such title but through the merits and for the sake of our blessed Redeemer. Whatever the labour might be--however severe, however unassisted and unrelieved--every wise man, every man who exercised a common judgment and prudence, would thankfully submit to it for a few years as the appointed means of a happy eternity; just upon the same principle as he would gladly submit to the trouble or toil of a day for the sake of procuring riches and comfort and honour during the remainder of his existence upon earth. But the work of the Christian, in the preparation of his soul for rest, is not a labour unassisted and unrelieved; not a gloomy period of service without the light of the sun. There is a heaven-born spirit, an all-sufficient grace, a holy energy and animation imparted, affording much more than a recompense even at present, and making the believer thankful that he has struggled and endured. Nevertheless, the mainstay of the children of God in their infirmities, the refreshment of their spirit in the vale below, is the promise of a heavenly rest at the end of their short pilgrimage, towards which they have the comfort of making a daily advancement: the promise of a final and blissful consummation. An aged Christian, now near this end, commonly says, at every striking of the clock upon his ear, thank God I am an hour nearer to my home and my rest. Such thankfulness may every one of us be able heartily to express! (J. Slade, M. A.) Labour and study necessary for reaching heaven We must not think to go to heaven without study, bare wishing will not serve the turn. It is not enough to say with Balaam, “ Oh, that my soul might die the death of the righteous, and my last end be like his” (Numbers 23:10). It is not sufficient to all, oh, that I were in heaven, but we must study to go to heaven. Now in all studying these things must concur. 1. There must be the party that studieth, and that is every Christian--high and low, rich and poor, of what estate or condition soever. The king and the subject, the ministers and their people, the master and the servant, the father and the child, the husband and the wife, the merchant and the clothier, the gentleman and the yeoman, the divines, lawyers, physicians, husbandmen, &c., all must study to enter into this rest. 2. There must be a closet, or a place to study in, that is, the chamber of our own hearts. 3. There must be a book to study on. Every, student must have his books. There can be no workman without his tools, nor a scholar without a library. Now the Lord will not trouble us with many books. As Christ said, one thing is necessary. So one book is necessary, the book of books the Holy Scriptures. Let us study that thoroughly, and learn the way to heaven. 4. There must be a light to study by. No man can study in the dark; either he faust have daylight or candlelight. The light whereby we study is the light of God’ s Spirit, who must enlighten our eyes that we may see the wonders of God’ s laws and direct us to this heavenly rest. 5. There must be diligence m study. Every student must be diligent. Learning is not gotten without pains. We must not study by fits, a start and away, but we must lie at it, if by any means we may come to this rest. 6. There must be a time to study in. Now this time is the term of our life. 7. And it is worth our study. (W. Jones, D. D.) Heaven a plaice of rest Heaven is a place, or state, of rest. What kind of rest? The rest of inactivity, of absence of occupation, of listlessness, dreams, and luxurious vacuity? Certainly not. This is evidently not the kind of happiness that dignifies, improves, satisfies, or suits man, even here; far less therefore can it haronise with his exalted nature hereafter, which would only be cramped, imprisoned and dishonoured by such uncongenial inactivity. I. A REST FROM DOUBT. Here there is much sophism which is hardly to be distinguished from truth; in heaven all is truth. Here there is a great battle between truth and error; in heaven the victory is decided, and peace is eternal. Here we know in part, and therefore we can prophesy but in part; there we shall know even as we are known. There we shall rest; rest from the tides and fluctuations of uncertainty, and find a calm shot, and a secure haven. Nothing there can excite in us the least suspicion of the care, the justice, or the goodness of oar Maker, for these will be the visible support of our immortal life. II. A REST FROM ANXIOUS CARES. In heaven these instruments of our earthly discipline will be laid aside. There will be no thorns in the pillow of that rest. III. A PLACE, OR STATE, OF REST FROM PAIN, IV. A REST FROM AND STRIFE. Discord, divisions, and fightings shall cease, and the confused noise of the warrior shall no more be heard there. Such things must not come where the Prince of Peace sits on the right hand of His Father. All rivalry and hate will be extinguished. “ There no friend goes out, nor enemy comes in.” V. A PLACE, OR STATE OF REST FROM SIN. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.) Labouring for rest That is a singular paradox and bringing together of opposing ideas, is it not? Let us labour to enter into rest. The paradox is not so strong in the Greek as here; but it still is there. For the word translated “ labour” carries with it the two ideas of earnestness and of diligence. And this is the condition on which alone we can secure the entrance, either into the full heaven above, or into the incipient heaven here. But note, we distinctly understand what sort of toil it is that is required to secure it, that settles the nature of the diligence. The main effort of every Christian life, in view of the possibilities of repose that are open to it here and now, and yonder in their perfection, ought to be directed to this one point of deepening and strengthening their faith and its consequent obedience. You can cultivate your faith, it is within your own power. You can make it strong or weak, operative through your life, or only partially, by fits and starts. And what is required is that Christian people should make a business of their godliness, and give themselves to it as carefully, and as consciously, and as constantly’ , as they give themselves to their daily pursuits. The men that are diligent in the Christian life, that exercise that commonplace, prosaic, pedestrian, homely virtue of earnest effort, are sure to succeed; and there is no other way to succeed. And how are we to cultivate our faith? By contemplating the great object which kindles it. By averting our eyes from the distracting competitors for our interest and attention, in so far as these might enfeeble our confidence. Do you do that? Diligence; that is the secret--a diligence which focusses our powers, and binds our vagrant wills into one strong, solid mass, and delivers us from languor and indolence, and stirs us up to seek the increase of faith, as welt as of hope and charity. Then, too, obedience is to be cultivated. How do you cultivate obedience? By obeying--by contemplating the great motives that should sway and melt, and sweetly subdue the will, which are all shrined in that one Easing, “ Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price,” and by rigidly confining our desires and wishes within the limits of God’ s appointment, and religiously referring all things to His supreme will. If thus we dot we shall enter into rest. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Diligence explained Diligence comprises both the impulse of the bowstring that despatches the arrow, and the feather that keeps it true to its aim. Diligio, the Latin word from which diligence is derived, means I choose, select, or love. To be diligent, therefore, is to resemble an eager hunter, who selects the fattest of the herd, and, leaving the rest, pursues and captures that one. Napoleon the First won his victories chiefly by rapid concentration of his forces on one point of the enemy’ s line. A burning-glass is powerful because it focalises a mass of sunbeams on one point. So in all departments of activity, to have one thing to do, and then to do it, is the secret of success. The need for diligence God does not give thee the flower and the fruit of salvation, but the seed, the sunshine, and the rain. He does not give houses, nor yet beams and squared stones, but trees, and rocks, and limestone, and says: Now build thyself a house. Regard not God’ s work within thee as an anchor to hold thy bark firmly to the shore, but as a sail which shall carry it to its post. (J. P. Lunge.) Diligence Its root meaning is to love, and hence it signifies attachment to work. The habits of literary men illustrate this. Lord Macaulay loved order, accuracy, and precision. He corrected his MS. remorselessly. So with his proof-sheets. “ He could not rest till the lines were level to a hair’ s breadth, and the punctuation correct to a comma; until every paragraph concluded with a telling sentence, and every sentence flowed like running water.” (Thwing’ s Preacher’ s Cabinet.) Christianity requires doing as well as believing The other day I met a friend noted for a fretful and anxious disposition; and seeing that his face was cheerful and his step elastic, I said, “ Well, old friend, you look as if things were going pleasantly.” He replied, “ Oh yes; my relatives have bought an annuity for me in the Assurance office, and until I die I shall have £200 a year to live on. You see, my future is provided for, and I have no need to worry myself about it as I used to do!” Like that man, some people imagine that when they believe in Jesus, there is a something done which makes them safe for ever, without any further trouble to themselves. A man who buys a railway ticket, gets into the train, and feels he has nothing more to do except sit there comfortably until the train arrives at the journey’ s end. But the Christian life is much more difficult. It is true that through Jesus Christ is preached unto men the forgiveness of all their sins; but it is an error to preach that Christians have nothing to do except believe, Jesus demands a faith in Him which shall constrain us to do. (W. Birch.) Labour till the last Calvin, even in his dying illness, would not refrain from his labours; but when his friends endeavoured to persuade him to moderate his exertions, he replied, “ What! shall my Lord come and find me idle?” Labour necessary for our salvation Never think that God is going to make a Christian out of you without effort of your own. When the lion crouches down before you, and his eyes glare upon you, and he is about to spring, you need not expect Providence to fire your gun for you; you must do it yourself or die. ‘ Tis kill or be killed with you then. God has already done His part in the work of your salvation. If you don’ t choose to do your part, you will perish. (H. W. Beecher.) Fall after the same example of unbeliefThe use of examples of punishment This implies 1. There is danger and an evil to be feared. 2. The evil is falling. 3. All and every one is in this danger Lest any fall.” 4. Lest any should slight the danger, he instanceth in the Israelites, who fell by unbelief. To fall may be a sin or a punishment. If a sin, it is apostasy. If a punishment, it is exclusion out of God’ s rest, with all the miseries that accompany it. So it seems here to be taken. By this, as by many other places, we easily understand how we must conceive of examples, and what use we must make of them. If they be examples of punishments, we must account them as executions of God’ s laws, and especially of His comminations. The use that we must make of them is, to avoid those sins for which they were inflicted, and to be the more careful in this particular because by them we may easily know that God’ s laws are not only words and His threats only wind. It is not with God as it is often with men, who will threaten more than they will or can do. Thence the saying, “ Threatened men live long.” But here it is otherwise. God’ s word is His deed, and His punishments, threatened against apostates are unavoidable. They are not made unadvisedly, and out of rash passion, but according to the eternal rules of wisdom and justice. And let every one know that that God that spareth neither men, nor angels, nor His own chosen and beloved people, will not spare us. Therefore, as we desire to escape this fearful punishment, let us labour to enter into that rest which God hath promised. (G. Lawson.) Disobedience and unbelief Disobedience is the root of unbelief. Unbelief is the mother of further disobedience. Faith is submission, voluntary, within a man’ s own power. If it be not exercised the true cause lies deeper than all intellectual ones, lies in the moral aversion of his will and in the pride of independence which says, “ Who is the Lord over us?” Why should we have to depend upon Jesus Christ? And as faith is obedience and submission, so faith breeds obedience, and unbelief leads on to higher-handed rebellion. The two interlock each other, foul mother and fouler child; and with dreadful reciprocity of influence the less a man trusts the more he disobeys; the more he disobeys the less he trusts. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Unbelief incompatible with salvation People say that it is arbitrary to connect salvation with faith, and talk to us about the “ injustice “ of men being saved and damned because of their creeds. We are not saved for our faith, nor condemned for our unbelief, but we are saved in our faith, and condemned in our unbelief. Suppose a man did not believe that prussic acid was a poison, and took a spoonful of it and died. You might say that his opinion killed him, but that would only be a shorthand way of saying that his opinion led him to take the thing that did kill him. Suppose a man believes that a medicine will cure him, and takes it, and gets well. Is it the drug or his opinion that cures him? If a certain mental state tends to produce certain emotions, you cannot have the emotions if you will not have the state. Suppose you do not rely on the promised friendship and help of some one, you cannot have the joy of confidence or the gifts that you do not believe in and do not care for. And so faith is no arbitrary appointment, but the necessary condition, the only condition possible, in the nature of things, by which a man can enter into the rest of God. If we will not let Christ heal our wounds, they must keep on bleeding; if we will not let Him soothe our conscience, it must keep on pricking; if we will not have Him to bring us nigh, we must continue far off; if we will not open the door of our hearts to let him in, He must stop without. Faith is the condition of entrance; unbelief bars the door of heaven against us, because it bars the door of our hearts against Him who is in heaven. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Hebrews 4:12-13 The Word of God is quick and powerful The Word a sword It may be most accurate to interpret this passage as relating both to the Word of God incarnate, and the Word of God inspired. Christ and His Word must go together. What is true of the Christ is here predicated both of Him and of His Word. I. First let me speak THE OF THE WORD OF GOD. It is “ quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” 1. The Word of God is said to be “ quick.” It is a living Book. Take up any other book except the Bible, and there may be a measure of power in it, but there is not that indescribable vitality in it which breathes, and speaks, and pleads, and conquers in the case of this sacred volume. It is a living and incorruptible seed. It moves, it stirs itself, it lives, it communes with living men as a living Word. That human system which was once vigorous may grow old, and lose all vitality; but the Word of God is always fresh, and new, and full of force. Here, in the Old and New Testaments, we have at once the oldest and the newest of books. 2. The Word is said to be “ powerful,” or “ active.” The Word of God is powerful for all sacred ends. How powerful it is to convince men of sin! How powerful it is for conversion! 3. Next, the apostle tells us that this Word is cutting, A sword with two edges has no blunt side: it cuts both this way and that. The revelation of God given us in Holy Scripture is edge all over. It is alive in every part, and in every part keen to cut the conscience, and wound the heart. Depend upon it, there is not a superfluous verse in the Bible, nor a chapter which is useless. Doctors say of certain drugs that they are inert--they have no effect upon the system one way or the other. Now, there is not an inert passage in the Scriptures; every line has its virtues. 4. It is piercing. While, it has an edge like a sword, it has also a point like a rapier. The difficulty with some men’ s hearts is to get at them. In fact, there is no spiritually penetrating the heart of any natural man except by this piercing instrument, the Word of God. Into the very marrow of the man the sacred truth will pass, and find him out in a way in which he cannot even find himself out. 5. The Word of God is discriminating. It divides asunder soul and spirit. Nothing else could do that, for the division is difficult. 6. Once more, the Word of God is marvellously revealing to the inner self. It pierces between the joints and marrow, and marrow is a thing not to be got at very readily. The Word of God gets at the very marrow of our manhood; it lays bare the secret thoughts of the soul. II. SOME LESSONS. 1. Let us greatly reverence the Word of Cod. 2. Let us, whenever we feel ourselves dead, and especially in prayer, get close to the Word, for the Word of God is alive. 3. Whenever we feel weak in our duties, let us go to the Word of God, and the Christ in the Word, for power; and this will be the best of power. 4. If you need as a minister, or a worker, anything that will cut your hearers to the heart, go to this Book for it. 5. If we want to discriminate at any time between the soul and the spirit, and the joints and marrow, let us go to the Word of God for discrimination. 6. And lastly, since this Book is meant to be a discerner or critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart, let the Book criticise us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The power of the Word of God I. ITS JUDGING POWER. 1. It is living and energetic. 2. It cuts both ways. (1) With the one edge it corrects and converts. (2) With the other it condemns and destroys adversaries. II. ITS POWER. 1. It divides the soul from the spirit, i.e., the lower animal nature from the higher, spiritual and eternal. 2. It divides so closely as to lay bare everything in man’ s composite nature. III. ITS POWER. 1. It shows the moral nature of what is interior and hidden in mental operations. 2. It shows the moral nature of what is revolving in desire, and forming itself into volition and action. IV. . 1. The Word of God enters the conscience to convert or to smite. 2. It searches out what has hitherto lain buried in the heart, and uncovers the false and transient from what is true and eternal. 3. It opens a man to himself, so that he may know himself in his moral actions and accountability. 4. Since its powers are so peculiar, let us not resist the Word of God. 5. No one can for ever despise it with impunity. (L. O. Thompson.) The self-evidencing power of the Bible We may affirm of the Bible, that he who reads it with attention, will find his own portrait given with so much accuracy, his heart so dissected and laid bare for his inspection, that there will be nothing left for him but to confess that the Author of the Bible knew him better than he knew himself; knew him better than he would have been known by any being who could not read the thoughts and search the spirit. Is there any one of you who has read so little of the Bible, or read it with so little attention, that he has never found his own case described--described with so surprising an accuracy, that he felt as though he himself must have sat for the portrait? When Scripture insists on the radical corruption of the heart, on its native enmity to God, and on all its deceitfulness, is there any one of us who will fail to allow that the affirmations are every way just, supposing his own heart to be that of which the affirmations are made? And when over and above its more general statements the Bible descends, as it often does, into particulars; when it speaks of the proneness of man to prefer a transient good to an enduring; the objects in sight, however inconsiderable, to those of faith, however magnificent; when it mentions the subterfuges of those whose conscience has been disquieted; when it shows the vain hopes, the false theories, the lying visions with which men suffer themselves to be cheated, or, rather, with which, they cheat themselves, who is there amongst us who will venture to deny that the representation tallies most nicely either with what he is, or with what he was--with what he is, if he have never repented and sought forgiveness of sin; with what be was if his nature has been renewed by the operations of God’ s Spirit? If there be anything like honesty in the mind of the student of Scripture, he must, we are persuaded, be continually startled in his pursuit, in finding his ,own thoughts and motives and designs set in order before him. And if this be true, then, as is very evident, there belongs to the Bible the character which is assigned to it in the words of our text. And though it may seem somewhat extraordinary that notwithstanding the confessed diversity in human character, we should thus make a simple description serve as the moral portrait of countless individuals, you will remember, that practically, all men are alike; the differences are only superficial, so that Solomon could affirm that--“ as in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man.” The face in the water is not a more accurate copy of the face of the beholder, than is the heart of one man a copy of any other man’ s. And, therefore, with all the differences which there may be amongst men, differences in dispositions and tempers, partly from nature and partly from education, we still take the Scriptural characteristic as actually belonging to every one; and holding up this characteristic, we affirm that we hold up the perfect image or likeness of each man or each woman, without a solitary exception; and we boldly make our appeal to every hearer of the Word, and demand of him whether the preacher do not morally affect such an exhibition of him to himself, that that Word may most justly be described as--“ a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” ? But, now, there remains a most important question--how comes it to pass that if the Word of God possess this dissecting power, so that it lays man bare and exposes to his own eye all the secrecies of his soul--how comes it to pass that so little effect is actually produced? This is only because the hearers are utterly inattentive; because they give no heed whatever to the statements of the preacher; but go through the business of the sanctuary as a matter of form, in which they have no interest. It is no marvel if to such as these the Word of God should not be as a “ sword.” They may be said to clothe themselves in that thick armour, the armour of indifference, and though dissection may be going on all around, they ward off from themselves the knife of the anatomist. But there is another class of hearers on whom considerable impression is often made by the preaching of the gospel, who, while they remain in church, and are actually hearkening to the solemn truths of religion, feel an interest in what is said, feel its power, and wish to use it for their guidance; and in whom there seems the best moral promise presented of such an attempt at amendment of life, as would issue in genuine conversion. Are there not some who would be ready to own that sermons have occasionally had on them a mighty and almost overcoming effect; so that they have felt constrained to give full assent to the truths uttered in their hearing, though these truths have convicted them of heinous offences, and proved them placed in terrible danger. If the man thus exhibited to himself, startled with the moral deformity which he has been forced to behold, would strive at once to act on the disclosure, and set about procuring a renovation of his nature, he would be immeasurably advantaged by the spectacle of his own sinfulness--soul and spirit will have been divided by conviction of sin, only to the becoming united in the blessed hope of forgiveness through Christ. But if he contents himself with having heard, and do not immediately and intently strive to act on its requirements, what is to be looked for, but that he will speedily lose all those feelings which have been excited within him, as the process went forward of dissecting the inner man? And then there will be no conversion, though there have been conviction, and that, too, through his own listlessness, his own indifference, and not through any want of truth in this emphatic declaration--“ The Word of God is quick and powerful,” &c. Now, let us recur again to that very important and interesting matter, the self-evidencing power of the Bible. We send a missionary to a barbarous tribe; he settles down amongst the savages; but he can employ no miracle; he can work no wonders to fix the attention, and win the confidence of his wild auditory. You would think there was no chance of his making any way with these barbarians. He seems to have nothing at his disposal by which the pretensions of Christianity may be substantiated. If he could heal the sick; if he could hush the elements; if he could raise the dead; then, indeed, the wild denizens of the distant land might be expected to give ear to him as a messenger from heaven; but just standing as a defenceless stranger on their shores, what probability is there of success when he proceeds to denounce their ancestral superstitions, summoning them away from idols that they had invested with all the sacredness of Divine, and declaring as the alone Saviour of mankind, a Being who died centuries back as a malefactor? But experience is all against you when you would conclude that Christianity cannot make way without miracle. The simple preaching of the sinfulness of man, and of the sacrifice of Christ, has proved a mighty engine in the hands of the missionary; and though he have done nothing but faithfully deliver his message, making no attempt at supporting its authority by an appeal to external evidence, yet have converts flocked in from the mass of idolators, and a moral regeneration has gone out over the long degraded territory. And what account do we give of this phenomenon? Shall we say that Christianity has been admitted without proof? The matter of fact is, that the gospel of Christ carries with it its own credentials. Wherever it is preached, there is a conscience to act upon; amid all the derangements of humanity, a sense of right and wrong is never wholly extinguished, but even where that nature is most sunken, the principle is in action which applauds the cause of virtue and utters a protest against vice; and which, stirring up forebodings when the mind looks onward to death, witnesses powerfully to our living under a retributive government. Conscience is everywhere man’ s attribute; therefore Christianity has everywhere an evidence. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The Word of God The Word of God may here mean the gospel revelation in all its fulness, especially as contrasted with that under the law; the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. 1. “ The Word of God is quick.” This is an ancient expression that signifies living: it occurs in our Creed and in our Advent Collect, “ the quick and the dead.” This use of the word is frequent in Scripture (see John 5:21; Romans 8:11). Stephen, in Acts 7:1-60., describes the ancient Scriptures as “ the lively (or living) oracles,” those testimonies from God, by which at that time the means of life were communicated. We now inquire, what is the meaning of the Word of God giving life. And clearly it relates to an operation upon the soul of man, to some new state of being generated and produced. A new store of knowledge is brought to the understanding; a flood of light is poured in which arrays every object in a new colour; an influence works upon the affections by which they are refined and changed, made to delight in new purposes and pursuits, to flow in a new channel, and raised from earth to heaven. The Word and its accompanying grace, with its doctrines, and promise, and ordinances, with the manifold ministrations of the Spirit, brings the mind altogether into a new condition. And by the hearing of the Word, and the deep study of the Word, and by the willing and faithful acceptance of all that it reveals, this life of God in the soul is maintained; renewed as it languishes from its corrupt communication with earth, and daily carried on to further advancement and strength. The Word is “ quick and powerful” : energetic, active. It has the power because it has life. The life is such as to exert a perpetual energy within us: we might say, powerfully alive. It will move upon the mass of corruption; it will convince of sin; it will change the love of sin into the love of holiness; and will, if applied and carried out by the Church’ s wisdom, bring the wayward and ungodly affections into a stale of self-denying discipline, into humble submission to the Divine will. 2. The text moreover declares that the Word “ is sharper than any two-edged sword.” This figure seems to be borrowed from the prophets Isaiah 49:2; Hosea 6:5). St. Paul in Ephesians 6:1-24. speaks of “ the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” The Word of God has always been found, from the beginning, capable of penetrating deeply into the heart of a sinner; of producing a sudden and terrible alarm in the conscience, of striking conviction into the trembling frame, and lowering the rebel to the ,lust. To the humble, pious, faithful disciple also the Word of God is a sharp instructor, a penetrating sword; often bringing truths to remembrance, which in mortal weakness had been forgotten; often giving a new colour and force to truths already in the mind. And how quick, and mighty, and prevailing are the truths of the gospel for the furtherance of grace, and the increase of heavenly comfort in the soul; depths of wisdom newly discovered; rays of consolation beaming forth; lights of unearthly brightness successively rising to the eye of faith. (J. Slade, M. A.) The sword of the Lord I. THE OF THE WORD. 1. Divine. 2. Living. 3. Effectual. 4. Cutting. 5. Piercing. 6. Discriminating. 7. Revealing. II. THE LESSONS WHICH WE SHOULD LEARN . 1. That we do greatly reverence the Word, as truly spoken of God. 2. That we come to it for quickening for our own souls. 3. That we come to it for power when fighting the battles of truth. 4. That we come to it for cutting force to kill our own sins and to help us in destroying the evils of the day. 5. That we come to it, for piercing force when men’ s consciences and hearts are hard to reach. 6. That we use it to the most obstinate, to arouse their consciences and convict them of sin. 7. That we discriminate by its means between truth and falsehood. 8. That we let it criticise us, and our opinions, and projects, and acts, and all about us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The power of the Divine Word I. THE MIGHTY EFFECTS OF THE DIVINE WORD AS THEY ARE HERE . 1. The characteristics of the Divine Word, as “ quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” are illustrated by its effects upon the intellect of man. The carnal mind rebels against, and, by subtle sophistries, attempts to deny its truth; but it has a powerful influence upon the understanding, spiritualising that understanding, and enabling it to discern spiritual things. It carries with it undoubtable credence, and forces the reluctant will and judgment. Its doctrines, how heavenly! its precepts, how holy! 2. The effect of this Word upon the conscience, in convincing of sin and producing godly sorrow, is an illustration of the description in this passage. It is common to view sin, even when it is acknowledged and condemned by the transgressor, in the light simply of its effects on society, or the injury it inflicts on a man’ s own reputation, property, or health; but when the Divine Word penetrates the soul with a convertine power, it is no longer regarded with reference only to its personal or temporal consequences, but as an atrocious violation of the law and an insult to the glory of God. “ Against Thee, and Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.” Then again, with regard to the conscience, the Word of God is quick and powerful, for it annihilates the spirit of self-defence, extenuation, and apology, together with those self-righteous principles which exist in the unregenerate man. 3. The characteristics of this Divine Word are manifested in the effects of it upon the heart, in producing sanctification. This, too, is a severe progress, involving much struggle and self-denial. Hence the Word of God is not only a two edged sword in respect to conviction, but in respect to its operations in perfecting religion and preparing us for eternal glory. 4. The operation of truth is sometimes remarkably “ quick “ as well as “ powerful.” A remarkable instance of its quick and mighty operation is recorded in the conversion of Paul. 5. The potent influence of the Word is often for a long period concealed from the outward world in the depths of the soul. It is thus a “ discerner of the thoughts.” II. THE TO BE DRAWN FROM THESE . 1. The representation of the text ought to enhance our estimation of the Divine Word. It is doing what all the philosophy in the world could never do. How ought we then to estimate it? 2. We should be induced to employ the most zealous efforts for the circulation of the Divine Word by means of printed copies, and the support of Christian ministrations, both at home and abroad. 3. The characteristics of the Divine Word as given in the text, which we have endeavoured to illustrate, should induce the individual inquiry, What am I doing to obstruct or to sustain its influence in my own soul? You must by the very necessity of the ease, having heard the Word, either receive or reject it. (F. A. Cox, D. D.) The Word of God likened to a sword The same illustration is used by St. Paul, by Philo, and in the Book of Wisdom, but with a different application in each case. St. Paul likens the Word of God to the sword of the warrior, used as a weapon of the faith (Ephesians 6:17); the Book of Wisdom compares the almighty Word of God to a sharp sword, but uses a different word for “ sword,” evidently designating the sword of the destroying am, of, which executed God’ s mandate on the first-born of Egypt (Wis 18:16). Philo dwells on the searching and penetrative power of the Word as that which severs all things. In this passage the ideas of the two last authors are combined by way of warning to the disobedient; the Word of God is compared to the sword of the executioner, piercing with its double edge the very heart of the victim. Like the sword, it searches out evil and destroys it; but it is sharper than the sword, because it penetrates into the region of spiritual life, whereas the sword can only divide joints and marrow, and its power is limited to the animal life. The images are borrowed from a court of justice, where the guilty is brought before his judge, convicted, and executed: (F. Rendall, M. A.) Quick and powerful The latter word explains the former; for those things that are living are said to be active in opposition to such things which are dead, which have lost their power; and to be lively and very active are many times the same; and this signifies the efficacy and active power of this law. This active vigour and efficacy is illustrated by a similitude. For the law is compared to a two-edged sword, which, being used by a powerful and skilful hand, doth manifest how sharp and cutting it is; for it pierceth quickly into the inward parts, and divideth between soul and spirit, and the bones and marrow, which are most nearly united, and more hidden and secret in living bodies. So that in the similitude we have two acts of a sword, or any such cutting instrument. The first is, dividing things most nearly united. The second, discovering things most secret. There cannot be any more perfect division or discovery in any dissection or anatomy than is here expressed. (G. Lawson.) The living Word of God “ The Word of God is living,” because He who speaks the Word is the living God. It acts with mighty energy, like the silent laws of nature, which destroy or save alive, according as men obey or disobey them. It cuts like a sword whetted on each side of the blade, piercing through to the place where the natural life of the soul divides from, or passes into, the supernatural life of the spirit. For it is revelation that has made known to man his possession of the spiritual faculty. The word “ spirit” is used by heathen writers. But in their books it means only the air we breathe. The very conception of the spiritual is enshrined in the bosom of God’ s Word. Further, the Word of God pierces to the joints that connect the natural and the supernatural. It does not ignore the former. On the contrary, it addresses itself to man’ s reason and conscience, in order to erect the supernatural upon nature. Where reason stops short, the Word of God appeals to the supernatural faculty of faith; and when conscience grows blunt, the Word makes conscience, like itself, sharper than any two-edged sword. Once more, the Word of God pierces to the marrow. It reveals to man the innermost meaning of his own nature and of the supernatural planted within him. The truest morality and the highest spirituality are both the direct product of God’ s revelation. But all this is true in its practical application to every man individually. The power of the Word of God to create distinct dispensations and yet maintain their fundamental unity, to distinguish between masses of men and yet cause all the separate threads of human history to converge and at last meet, is the same power which judges the inmost thoughts and inmost purposes of the heart. These it surveys with critical judgment. If its eye is keen, its range of vision is also wide. No created thing but is seen and manifest. The surface is bared, and the depth within is opened up before it. As the upturned neck of the sacrificial beast lay bare to the eye of God, so are we exposed to the eye of Him to whom we have to give our account. (T. C. Edwards, D. D.) God’ s Word to us, and our word to God We are here at the end of a long argument. Close attention is required to follow the steps of it. But the general idea is simple. There is a rest of God which is the goal of the long race of the human creation. It has been so from the beginning. It was realised by the old patriarchs as their true city and country, while they lived the tent-life here. It was typified in the promise of Canaan--typified, but certainly not fulfilled--more certainly not exhausted. Long ages after the entrance of Israel into Canaan, a psalmist speaks (by clear implication) of God’ s rest as still open, still liable to be forfeited, therefore still capable of being attained. Nothing certainly has occurred since the psalmist’ s day which could be supposed to have cancelled promise by performance. The rest of God is still in reserve for His true people. Let us give diligence to enter into it. Let us not forfeit it, as one whole generation forfeited Canaan, by unbelief. Thus we reach the double text, which tells of the impossibility of eluding God’ s judgment by any differences of circumstance, or by any counterfeits of character. “ The Word of God,” His utterance in judging, His discernment of character, His estimate of conduct, is no dead or dormant thing; it is living and active; it is sharper than any two-edged sword; it divides and discriminates where man sees only the inseparable; “ soul and spirit,” the immaterial part of us in one aspect and the same immaterial part of us in another aspect, it can cleave in twain; thoughts and feelings, exercises of intellect and exercises of affection, it is apt and quick to distinguish between and to pronounce upon. No created being can wear mask or veil in that Presence; all things are bare and naked, all things are exposed and opened; the head that would bend and bow itself, in conscious guilt and shame, before the fierce light of the Presence, is lifted (such perhaps is the figure) and thrown back in full exposure before the eye of the Examiner and the Judge, “ unto whom,” so the sentence ends, “ our word is” ; “ with whom” --according to the beautiful paraphrase which no later version will wish or dare to improve away--“ with whom we have to do.” I. “ THE WORD OF GOD.” There are many such words. There is a Word of God in Nature. Order diversified, which is a true description of Nature, tells of a power which is no brute force; in other words, of a mind at work in its exercise. There is a Word of God in Providence. Consequence modified, which is a true description of Providence, tells of a power working which is no mechanical agency; in other words, of a mind purposing, and realising that purpose in ceaseless processes of adaptation. There is not sound only, but voice in both these--a voice implying a personality, and a voice presupposing an auditor. The Epistle from which the texts come carries us beyond this vaguer and more general Divine utterance to another of which the very “ differentia” is the personality. God, it says, having of old time spoken in the prophets--utterers of His truth in sundry modes and manifold particulars--spoke to us at the end of “ these days” --at the dividing line, as it were, of present and future, of time and eternity--in One, of whom the title--the unique, incommunicable title--is “ Son.” “ The Word of God,” if not a person, is yet a personalcommunication, as much in the voice that utters as in the ear that hears. This Word was a voice before it was a Book. The living Life wrote itself upon other lives; they in their turn wrote it upon others, ere yet a page of Gospel Scripture was written--on purpose that the distinction between ,’ letter” and “ spirit” might be kept ever fresh and vital, on purpose that the characteristic of the new revelation might never fade or be lost sight of, how that it is God speaking in His Son, God speaking, and God bidding man to make reply. But where would the Word have been by this time, left to itself--left, I mean, to echo and tradition? It pleased God by His holy inspiration to move and to guide the pen of living men; and it pleased Him by His Providence wonderfully to watch over the thing written; and it pleased Him in days when there was neither scholarship to revise nor machinery to multiply the writing, to put such love into hearts for those perishable fugitive scrolls of rude, almost hieroglyphic, manuscript, that they were treasured up in cells and churches as the most precious of heirlooms; and it pleased Him at last to stimulate into a marvellous inventiveness His own gift--grace we might well call it--of human reason, so that the completed volume of the once scattered “ Biblia” was multiplied by the new miracle of the printing press into the myriad “ Bibles,” which are now sown broadcast over the surface of the inhabited globe. “ There are,” St. Paul says, “ so many kinds of voices in the world” --say a hundred, say a thousand--“ and no one of them is without signification.” Even the Divine voices are many. There is a word of God in nature, and there is a word of God in providence; there is a word of God in science, and there is a word of God in history; there is a word of God in the Church, and there is a word of God in the Bible. And yet all these are external, as such, to the very “ spirit of the man that is in him.” The Word of God, which is the real speech and utterance of all these voices, comes at last to the man himself in conscience. I speak not now of that more limited sense of conscience in which it is the guiding and warning voice within, saying, “ This is the way of duty, walk thou in it.” The word of God in conscience is more, much more, than this. It is that of which our Lord said, in reference to the volume of His own evidences, “ Yea, and why even of yourselves,” without waiting for sign or portent, “ judge ye not what is right?” You can discern the face of the earth and of the sky; you can infer from certain indications the approach of shower or heat. Bow is it that ye cannot infer Deity from the Divine--the Emmanuel presence from the Emmanuel character? The appeal was to conscience, not so much in its sensitiveness to right and wrong, as in its appreciativeness of the false and the true, of God speaking this and God not speaking that. Thus it is that the Word of God, as it at last reaches the spirit and soul of the man, is the net result of a thousand separate sayings, no one of which by itself is the absolute arbiter of the being. It cannot become this till it has made itself audible to the conscience. Till then it is suggestive, it is contributory, it is evidential, it is not the verdict, nor the judgment, nor the sentence, nor the “ Word.’” There is no encouragement to the dallying, to the procrastinating, to the fastidiousness and the waywardness, which is characteristic of the generation. On the contrary, it is a trumpet call to decision. It says, there is a word of God somewhere. The Word of God is a personal word--it speaks to the personal being, as God made and as God sees him. We seem yet to lack one thing. The Word speaks in con-science--speaks to the consciousness--but who speaks it? The “ Word” itself, tobe audible as such, must have become the Spirit’ s voice; then it takes of the things of God and speaks them into the conscience, which is the consciousness of the man. II. THESE IS ALSO A WORD OF OURS TO GOD. “ Unto Him our word is.” The particular point in the view of the holy writer was that of accountability. God speaks in judgment, and we speak to give account. The first readers were on the eve of a terrible crisis. They had to choose between Christianity and Judaism, between religion and patriotism, almost therefore between duty and duty. It was reasonable to speak to them of the Word which is a two-edged sword in discriminating, and of the word which pleads guilty or not guilty at the bar of judgment. We also are passing through a great crisis. You will think that I speak of some political or national crisis. But I do not. I speak of a crisis greater even than these--greater (shall I dare the paradox?) because less great--greater because individual. The crisis of which I speak is that life-long trial, in which each one of us is standing before God’ s judgment-seat, and upon the decision of which depends for each one a future not to be measured by years, and not to be told in terms of human speech. The text says of this crisis, of this trial, that it is the interchange, so to speak, of two “ words” --the dialogue, I had almost said, of two speakers--the word of God judging, and the word of the man making answer and giving account. “ With whom we have to do.” Our word of account is to God. Oh, if we could take the thought home, what an effect would it have upon the life! What an independence, what a dignity would it give to it! How would it put an end to that running to and fro to give in our account, which makes so many lives so servile and so contemptible? What pains do we take to please, to give satisfaction, to win applause, to be admired if it may be so, at all events to avoid censure one of another. What haste do we make to explain, to excuse, to apologise for, to daub with obtrusive whitewash, our little dubious acts, our little unfortunate speeches. What a forgetfulness do we see everywhere, and first of all in ourselves, of the great principle of the “ Godward Word,” of the “ with whom we have to do” of this text. What a weight, what an influence, what a sanctity, what an inspiration, would be given to our common words, to our every-day remarks and comments upon men and things, if we carried about us that indefinable something, which says, in tones more persuasive in proportion as they are less obtrusive, “ This man knows” and feels that he has to do with God! “ And all this sets in strong light the duty of doing it. It shows us what is meant by self-examination, what is meant by confession. “ With Him,” directly and personally, “ we have to do.” Just to carry to God Himself, in the nightly confessional where we meet the one Judge, just the very thing itself which we did wrong, which we said wrong, just in so many words, that very day which is now being gathered to its parent days--|hat is the Christian evensong. So judging ourselves, we shall not be judged. The “ Word” of account was the first thought of the text. But it is not the only one. It is not perhaps the most beautiful or the most attractive. The spirit of the man has other words besides this to utter in the ear with which it has to do. The speech of God is to me, and my speech is to Him. Might we but enter into this conception, what an elevation, what a grandeur would it give to the life! The speech of God is to thee--His discourse, His self-disclosure, His mind uttering itself, His Spirit breathing itself in converse. And my speech is to Him--my discourse, my self-disclosure, my uttered mind, my soul expressing itself in audible thought. What is this but to give to the life itself a new Christian name, at the font of a spiritual baptism, and to send it forth afresh into all the relationships and all the occupations of the being, having this for its title--Conversation with God? “ As a man talketh with his friend,” was God’ s own account of His communication with the hero-saint of Israel--then it was the privilege of the one or two, now it is the very birthright and citizenship of the promiscuous world of the redeemed. There is yet one condition more--we will end with it. The speech of the man to his God must presuppose and proceed upon the speech of God to the man. The two “ words” of which the texts tell are not independent words. The conversation is not between two equals, either of whom must contribute his share to the instruction and enjoyment of the meeting. The incommensureableness, in nature and dignity, of the two speakers, while it forbids not freedom in the inferior, forbids presumption; nay, precludes it as a tone and a feeling which would jar upon, and jangle out of tune, the very melody and harmony of the converse. God speaks, and man makes reply. It is not that on equal terms and with equal rights God and the man meet together to think out and to talk out the thing that was, and that is, and that shall be. “ The world by its wisdom knew not God.” “ Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” The Word of God came, and the word of man made reply on the strength of it. This consecrates for him the new and living way, by which, not in hesitation, not as a peradventure, but in calm faith and trust--not forgetting the realities of sin and the Fall, but seeing them at once recognised and overborne by a mightier revelation of love--the “ word “ of the man meets the “ Word” of his God, on the strength of that “ Word made flesh,” which is the reconciler and the harmoniser of the two. (Dean Vaughan.) The mighty power of the Word Goliath’ s sword not like to this. David said of that, none to it; but none to this. Lord give it to us. This sword can hew in pieces the most stony heart in the world; to see what blindness in the understanding, what frowardness in the affections. It will lay the heart open, and betray the secret filthiness, and all the sluttish corners of sin that be in it. When the preacher is speaking, the Word doth so pierce the hearts of the hearers, as that many in the church imagine that the preacher is acquainted with their sins. You shall find it to be a lively and mighty Word, one way or other, either to save you or to condemn you. It is lively and mighty in the godly, to kill sin within them, to raise them up unto newness of life. Was it not mighty in David, making him cry, “ Peccavi” ? in Josiah, making his heart to melt? in Manasseh, when, of the most horrible idolator that was ever heard of, it made him a zealous worshipper Of the true God? in Zaccheus, when it made him to forsake his oppression and to restore fourfold? in Mary Magdalen, when it cast out seven devils out of her? in those three thousand souls, when, pricked in their hearts, they went to the apostles? in the city of Samaria, when it made them to abjure Simon Magus and to listen to St. Philip? Was it not mighty by twelve men, over all the world, when it subdued by their ministry all nations to Christ? There may be a dark and misty morning; the sun comes, scatters the mist, clears the air, and makes it a bright day. So the whole world was shadowed with the mist of blindness, and the fog of sin. The Word comes forth like the sun, and introduces the knowledge of Christ and of His gospel into all the world. O mighty Word! Let us all acknowledge the power of this wonderful Word. Who is able to stand before this might, Word? It is lively and mighty too, even in the very reprobate. Sometimes they may be senseless, and have no feeling of the cutting of the Word, as those in Jeremiah; nay, they may even scoff at the Word preached, as the Pharisees Luke 16:14); their consciences may be seared up, and feel not the sword when it cutteth; as they that be in a lethargy, they may inwardly fret and fume, be in a pelting chafe with the preacher for reproving sins, as Ahab with Micaiah, and Jezebel with Elias, yet but like mad dogs, that sit biting of the chain wherewith they are tied, but not break the chain. So they may snap at the preacher and the Word, but they themselves have the hurt; yet for all that, at one time or other, God will make them to feel the power of His Word and the strength of this mighty arm of His. (W. Jones, D. D.) The Divine Word We are familiar with the Word of God. Like Israel, we possess this treasure in our country, in our families. But, thankful as we ought to be for this great privilege, do we know also the majesty and the power of the Word of God? Do we know that, in possessing, reading, and knowing the Scripture, we are under a mighty, solemn, and decisive influence, and that this Word judges us now, and will judge us at the last day? The expressions which are used here of the Word of God are all applicable to Christ Himself; for He is living, He is the power of God, He came for judgment into the world, He is the Searcher of hearts, His eyes are like a flame of fire. But the reference is to the spoken and written Word. The Scripture, as the written Word, is according to Christ and of Christ; and by it Christ is heard, received, and formed in the soul. Of this written Word, of which Christ is centre and end, as well as author and method, which is inspired by the Holy Ghost and sent by God, the gospel message is the kernel. And hence it is this gospel which especially is called the Word. 1. The Word is living (Revelation 1:18, Greek; John 5:21; John 5:24; John 5:26; John 6:63; John 6:68). God is called the Living One; and Christ the Lord calls Himself the Living One. He is the life, He has life in Himself, and He came to quicken and to give us life abundantly. And the Word which proceedeth out of the mouth and heart of God, the Word of which Christ is the substance, and which is given and watched over by the Spirit, is also living; for God’ s words are spirit and life. The Word is the seed, which appears insignificant, but which if received in good ground shows its vitality. Hence it is by this Word that souls are born again unto eternal life. 2. The living Word is powerful or energetic. It is compared to the seed which possesses vitality and power. We can see the power or energy of the Word when it fills those that hear and receive it with strong emotions, filling them with fear and terror, with grief and contrition; we can see its power in the sudden and striking changes it produces, when the thoughtless and worldly, the selfish and depraved, are arrested and quickened by its mighty power. But while the earthquake and the fire declare the approach of the Lord, it is in the still small voice that the Lord at last appears to take up His permanent abode. There are the hidden flowers of humility, of forgiving love, of patience and meekness; there are the unseen and unknown daily conflicts and victories; there is the crucifixion of the old man, and the constant renewal of the resurrection-life; and these are especially the triumphs of the power of the Word. 3. The Word cannot be living and energetic without being also a sword, dividing and separating, with piercing and often painful sharpness, that which in our natural state lies together mixed and confused. It comes not to flatter and to soothe; it comes not to encourage us with half-true, half-false encomiums; it does not call the flesh Spirit, but condemns it as flesh and enmity against God. It leads you into the lower Christian life (John 3:30); it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, the hidden self-complacency, the hidden ambition and self-will; it enters into the very joints and marrow, the energies and sentiments, the motives and springs of our actions, the true character of our rejoicing and mourning, our elevations and depressions; and then you say with the apostle: I have no confidence in the flesh, in my old nature, in me, body, soul, and spirit, as I am of Adam. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. I cannot call my “ holy things” holy, for they are full of sin. The Word of God enters into my inmost soul and heart-life, and as a judge both unveils and condemns; what hitherto was hidden, is uncovered; what was disguised, unveiled; what was falsely called good and spiritual, appears now in the bright light of God’ s countenance; the thoughts and intents of the hearts are discerned. Thus am I brought into God’ s presence, as when I first was convinced of my sin and my guilt; but I feel more abased, and with a deeper knowledge and sorrow I exclaim: I am vile, and abhor myself in dust and ashes. On, where is Christ? I wish to be found in Him. I wish Him to live in me. What is there in me pleasing to God? Oh that Christ would sing, pray, love, live in me! When the Word thus dwells in us, we give glory to God, and we are spiritually-minded. We live not on mere notions and impressions; we begin to apply our knowledge to our actual state and to our daily walk: we are delivered from hypocrisy, which is since the Fall the great disease of mankind. (A. Saphir.) It finds me It was Coleridge, if we remember aright, who, in giving one of the grand internal evidences of the inspiration of the Blade, as derived from his own experience, use t the idiomatic and significant expression, “ It flints me.” Effects of the Bible A dealer in low publications taunted me about the Bible. I begged her to take a copy and read it. She said, “ I shall sell it.” “ That is your affair,” I replied. I lost sight of her for three weeks. When I returned to her kiosk all her immoral publications had disappeared. “ Oh!” she cried, on seeing me, “ I am delivered; this book has saved me from dishonour. No, no, I will not sell it. I and my husband now read it together, and with the children.” This morning this dear old woman told me that in two neighbouring families the Holy Bible is read, “ And,” says she, “ it has absolutely had the same effect with them as with us.” (Pasteur Hirsch.) The Word self-revealing The Word will turn the inside of a sinner out, and let him see all that is in his heart. (M. Henry.) Conviction by the Word The Bechuanas are excellent patients. There is no wincing. In any operation even the women sit unmoved. I have been quite astonished, again and again, at their calmness. In clotting out a tumour, an inch in diameter, they sit and talk as if they felt nothing. “ A man like me never cries,” they say; “ they are children that cry.” And it is a fact that the men never cry. But when the Spirit of God works on their minds they cry most piteously. Sometimes in church they endeavoured to screen themselves from the eyes of the preacher by hiding under the forms, or covering their heads with their karosses, as a remedy against their convictions. And when they find that won’ t do they rush out of the church and run with all their might, crying as if the hand of death were behind them. (D. Livingstone.) The Word of God The Word of God is too sacred a thing, and preaching too solemn a work to be toyed and played with, as is the usage of some who make a sermon but matter of wit and fine oratory. If we mean to do good we must come unto men’ s hearts, not in word only, but with power. Satan moves not for a thousand squibs and wit-cracks of rhetoric. Draw, therefore, this sword out of your scabbard and strike with its raked edge; this you will find the only way to pierce your people’ s consciences and fetch blood of their sins. (William Gurnall.) The eyes of Him with whom we have to doGod over all I. We have to do with God fundamently and pre-eminently as our CREATOR Whence came we? How are we? What are we? Who made us? “ He made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” Now, if God made us, and not we ourselves, if the faculties of our mind, if the energies of our heart, if the wondrous proportions of our body, are all from Him, then can we ever be separate from God? can we ever cease to have that relationship to Him that the creature has to the Creator, the relationship that a child has to a parent? A parent has a claim upon a child as long as it lives. We have to do, then, with a God of love as our Creator. II. We have to do with God as our . Strange that men live on year after year and go up and down, sleeping and waking, toiling and resting, mourning and rejoicing, and yet they can forget how it is that they live and continue in life; how it is that reason still holds its seat; how it is that the heart still throbs; how it is that the harp strings are kept in tune; how it is they are not continually tormented with anguish, distemper, and distress: can any man account for this? If we did not make ourselves, if we did not string the harp, we cannot keep it attuned; if we did not form the mechanism we cannot keep it from decay and dissolution. There is no independent life but in the one Fountain of all life, and all other life is a life of dependence--a dependence of the creature on the Creator, of the thing made upon the Maker, of the thing living on Him that gave it life. We have to do with Him as our Creator; we must have to do with Him in sickness and health, in peril and in safety, in life and in death, in madness and in reason, in the lunatic asylum or the house of prayer; we must have to do with Him as our Creator. “ Sir,” said a poor maniac, that had escaped from bedlam, and was passing along the streets of London, to a gentleman he met at the angle of one of the streets, “ did you ever thank God for reason?” The man stared, and said, “ I cannot say that I ever did.” “ Then do so now, for I have lost mine I “ said the poor man. And well I remember, when attending the deathbed of one who died of that most fearful disease, hydrophobia, as, in the agony of the spasms of disease, she grasped my hind until it ached, I repeated to her many of those beautiful prayers of ours, in one of which you have, or ought to have been joining, the thanksgiving, “ We bless Time for our creation, preservation” ; and she said, with a shriek, “ Oh preservation, preservation, how we forget it; look at me, and let none who know it ever forget it again!” Yes, preservation. III. We have to do with Him as our bounteous , our gracious Attender, and the Fatherly Provider of all we have. Whether a man is racked with pain all his life, or disordered, as some are, from their mother’ s womb; whether he is blessed with health and a cheerful mind, or if he has anything that relieves him in this vale of tears, any flower that blooms in the desert, any star that brightens the dark sky of our fallen lot; is it not all from God? It is a terrible thought that men have to do with God in all that they have, and abuse, and prostrate to their own destruction; it is all from God, and they cannot say in one thing they have that it is not from Him. How this should make us reconciled, however He may deprive us; how we should be grateful for anything we have, for anything short of hell is the gift of his grace, to us who are deserving of hell; and, therefore, we ought to say, oh! how often, “ Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” IV. We have to do with God as our RULER AND . Does any man suppose that, because we talk of laws, there is no lawgiver? What is law without the power of enforcing it? What is government without a governor? Without the Divine and mighty Ruler of all, what would take place? Universal anarchy, chaos, and desolation. V. Ah! we have to do with Him as our . He has given a law; and all things--the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars--have laws; summer and winter, autumn and spring, have all their laws and appointed times--the clouds have their laws, and the light above--everything has its laws; and do you Suppose the moral world hath no law, that the great God hath left the mind and spirit without anything to control or guide it? I tell you no. In man, at the first, there was a perfect law en-graven on the tablet of his heart, and it is there still; and though shattered the tablet, and blotted is the writing, man knows far more than he fancies; he knows more what he ought to do, and what he ought not to do, than he will admit; he has a conscience within him, and this is from God. And then we Christians--professing Christians--we have the law of God written again, republished by the Divine Registrar; the law so plain and so simple that any man that has a heart can understand it, and so beautiful, and bountiful, and benevolent, and perfect, that no man with any right moral sense can find fault with it or deny it. It is diversified according to circumstances, but the whole is based upon this principle--love to God and love to man. VI. We have yet further to do with this great God as our JUDGE. A man may refuse to have to do with God in obedience and submission to His will; he may set it at nought and forget it; be may lose all sense of it, by imbruting his moral being and becoming seared as with a hot iron, hut he cannot refuse to have to do with his Judge. And judgment is not all in a future world--it begins here; the conscience of a man passes a kind of judgment upon him as long as he reads it until he blots it out, or drowns it in mirth, in unbelief, in crime, in debauchery, in drunkenness, and so seals it. Not only so, judgment has begun in this world in present punishment, often in present comfort and joy and peace. VII. We have all of us to do with God as SAVIOUR--“ a just God and a Saviour.” I believe in the beautiful summary of our Creed, and in the scriptural voice of our Chinch, “ first, I learn to believe in God the Father, who made me and all the world; secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed me, and all mankind; thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the elect people of God.” I believe, therefore, that God laid on His own Son “ the iniquity of us all.” He did not become simply the Son of man, but the Son of men--the Son of mankind. He did not take the nature of one race, or of one people, or of one colour, or of one clime; but He took upon Him the seed of Abraham: He took upon Him our nature and became the Son of man, so that none can claim Him exclusively, and say, “ He did not die for you” ; nor can any one say, “ He died for me alone.” He is the Saviour of all men, and especially of them that belong “ to the household of faith.” If any of you perish, you perish, not as heathen, bat as professed and baptized Christians; and how this will turn into a source of remorse and “ the worm that never dies,” if you perish with the name of Christian, with the Cross of Christ, upon your brow! See to it, “ for to whom much is given, of him shall be much required.” VIII. We have to do with God, or, at least, we may have to do with Him--we have if we are wise, we have if we are saved--as OUR FATHER, “ the Lord our Righteousness,” in whom we are chosen, in whom we are sealed, in whom we are at peace with God. Oh I to have to do with God in peace, and reconciliation, and adoption; to have to do with God, not because we must, but because we would be “ made willing in the day of His power,” to have His love constraining us so that we yield ourselves to Him as “ those that are alive from the dead, and our poor members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” We have to do with Him, “ groaning within ourselves, and waiting for the adoption: to wit, the redemption of our bodies” ; and we are able to testify that it is through His grace that He has made us His children. IX. Then how sweet to have to do with Him as our --Our portion for ever; our Sanctifier, restoring us from the ruins of our fallen race, and raising us again to be a temple meet for His own habitation; beautifying us with grace that shines in the Adam here, and that will shine more brightly in the Second Adam. We have to do with Him in anticipation, that we may be like Him for ever. (H. Stowell, M. A.) Our relation to God I. WITH GOD WE PRE- “ HAVE TO NO.” We stand in a very intimate connection with Him. To the Being who, in Himself, is infinitely great and glorious, we bear a very close and momentous relation. He is our Creator, Proprietor, Governor, Benefactor, and Judge, and therefore has claims upon us manifold and mighty. In the services of religion, the common business of life, the mysteries of death, the solemnities of judgment, and the issues of eternity, we “ have to do with” him. We must have to do with Him, whether we will or not. And oh, surely, we should transact with Him as a Saviour since we shall have to transact with Him as a Judge. II. THERE IS “ NO THAT IS NOT IN HIS SIGHT” ; yea, “ all things are naked and open to His eyes.” Angels and men--saints and sinners--are alike the objects of His scrutiny. To Him the actions of all hands and the secrets of all souls are intimately known. The phrase “ all things” indicates the universal range which the eye of Jehovah takes. The words “ manifest,” “ naked,” “ opened,” express the intensity and clearness of the vision which He exerts throughout the vast and varied sphere. With what reverence should we think of Him whose eyes are ever fixed on us, and with whom, far more than with father, husband, brother, bosom-friend, “ we have to do!” With what vigilance should we guard our hearts! and with what circumspection should we regulate our lives! (A. S. Patterson.) Watched by God Can we indulge in sin since the eye of God is ever resting upon us? It was enough to cause the ancient Roman to be circumspect, if the words” Cato sees you “ were whispered in his ear. It is said that when the Doges of Venice had degenerated into imperious and oppressive rulers, if only four of the inquisitors whom the State secretly employed were present at any of the great processions or festivals for which that city was famous, it was sufficient to overawe the mighty throng of people present. How much more guarded and serious should our deportment be, seeing that we are ever watched by Him whose eyes are like a flame of fire! (C. Hewitt.) God knows all “ Mother,” asked a child, “ since nothing is ever lost, where do all thoughts go?” “ To God,” answered the mother, gravely, ‘ who remembers them for ever.” “ For ever!” said the child; he leaned his head, and drawing closer to his mother, murmured, “ I am frightened!” (Gold Dust.) God with us Horace Bushnell woke up in the night and said, “ Oh, God is a wonderful Being!” And when his daughter replied, “ Yes; is He with you?” the old man replied, “ Yes, in a certain sense He is with me; and I have no doubt He is with me in a sense I do not imagine.” (Baxendale’ s Anecdotes.) Omniscience illustrated A few years ago a gentleman in Ireland had a farm there, about a mile and a half from his house. It was situated on the side of a hill, and from his attic window he could get a view of every portion of the land. He would often go to this window with a powerful telescope, and about five minutes every day he would spend in this way, examining what his work people were doing, and whether the work of the farm was being carried on properly or not. The men happened to know this, and it often quickened them in their various duties to know that the master’ s eye from the little attic window might possibly at that very moment be resting upon them. Our Master’ s eye is always resting upon us. He sees and knows all we think or do or say, End yet bow many people act as though God were both blind and deaf. (Preacher’ s Promptuary of Anecdote.) God is present The celebrated Linnaeus always testified, in his conversations, writings, and actions, the greatest sense of God’ s omniscience; yea, he was so strongly impressed with the idea that he wrote over the door of his library, Innocui vivite, Numen adest--“Live innocently, God is present.” (K. Arvine.) God a Person Do not preach about Providence; preach about God. There is no objection to the word “ providence” when used in connection with God. But when a man says, “ I am very thankful to Providence,” “ Providence has been very good to me,” I always feel disposed to say, “ You coward! why don’ t you say God? You know you mean God all the time.” (J. C. Miller, D. D.) The cry of the human heart for a personal God A leader of thought in Germany, famous as a poet, famous as a man of letters--who had through his long literary career fought against the idea of a personal God--when poor in purse, paralytic in body, and in his last week of life wrotethus to one of his old class-mates, and under its style of banter I detect a pathetic minor of earnest feeling. “ A religious reaction has set in upon me for some time. God knows whether the morphine or the poultices have anything to do with it. It is so. I believe in a personal God. To tills we come when we are sick to death and broken down. Do not make a crime of it. If the German people accept the personal King of Prussia in their need, why should not I accept a personal God? My friend, here is a great truth. When health is used up, money used up, and sound human senses used up, Christianity begins.” (C. Stanford, D. D.) An all-seeing God If you believe that God is about your bed, and about your path, and spieth out all your ways, then take care not to do the least thing, nor to speak the least word, nor to indulge the least thought, which you have reason to think would offend Him. Suppose that a messenger of God, an angel, were now standing at your right hand and fixing his eyes upon you, would you not take care to abstain from every word or action that you knew would offend him? Yea, suppose one of your mortal fellow servants, suppose only a holy man stood by you, would you not be extremely anxious how you conducted yourself both in word and action? How much more cautious ought you to be when you know, not a holy man, not an angel of God, but God Himself, the Holy One, is inspecting your heart, your tongue, your hand, every moment, and that He Himself will surely call you to account for all yea think, speak, or act! (J. Wesley.) God sees all A man who was in the habit of going into a neighbour’ s corn-field to steal the ears, one day took his son with him, a boy of eight years of age. The father told him to hold the bag while he looked if any one was near to see him. After standing on the fence, and peeping through all the corn rows, he returned and took the bag from the child, and began his guilty work. “ Father,” said the boy, “ you forgot to look somewhere else.” the man dropped the bag in a fright, and said, “ Which way, child? “ supposing he had seen some one. “ You forgot to look up to the sky to see if God was noticing you “ The father felt this reproof of the child so much, that he left the corn, returned home, and never again ventured to steal, remembering the truth his child had taught him, that the eye of God always beholds us. God seeing all things When we perceive that a vast number of objects enter in at our eye by a very small passage, and yet are so little jumbled in that crowd that they open themselves regularly, though there is no great space for that either, and that they give us a distinct apprehension of many objects that lie before us, some even at a vast distance from us, both of their nature, colour, and size, and by a secret geometry, from the angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the distance of all objects, both from us and from one another--if to this we add the vast number of figures that we receive and retain long, and with great order, in our brains, which we easily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our discourses, we shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an Infinite Mind should have the universal view of all things ever present before it. (W. Burnet.) Hebrews 4:14-16A great High Priest Our great High Priest I. OF OUR LORD’ S . 1. It is an argument for steadfastness in the Christian life. (1) The fact that Christ is our Priest (Hebrews 4:14). (2) That heaven is the sphere of the exercise of His priesthood. 2. It is an encouragement to the faith of the believer. (1) Because of the sympathy of our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:15). (2) Because of His personal experience of temptations. (3) Because of His sinlessness. (4) Believing prayer under such circumstances cannot be denied, II. OUR LORD’ S TO THE GENERAL LAWS OF . 1. The priest must be taken from among men (Hebrews 5:1). 2. The priest was ordained to offer sacrifices to God. 3. The priest was ordained to be ready to sympathise with the unfortunate and wretched (Hebrews 5:2). 4. The priest was not self-appointed (Hebrews 5:4). 5. But the change in the order of priesthood in our Lord’ s case is most suggestive and significant. It implies (1) Perfection (Hebrews 7:11-19). (2) Perpetuity (Hebrews 7:20-25). (3) That Christ alone could meet such requirements (Hebrews 7:26). Lessons: 1. The priesthood of Christ implies Divine qualities. 2. The sphere of the priesthood of Christ ensures the finished work as Redeemer. 3. The priesthood of Christ guarantees all-sufficient sympathy, assistance, and ultimate salvation. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.) Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man I. THE THERE IS FOR A BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 1. This is clear, if we consider the circumstances in which our first parents placed themselves. 2. It is implied in the Divine institution of sacrifices and of the order of priesthood. 3. It is expressly taught in Holy Scripture. 4. It is confirmed by the almost universal practice of heathen nations. II. THE OF JESUS CHRIST TO SUSTAIN THIS . 1. His greatness. 2. His goodness. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH WE, AS , ARE TO DERIVE THE TO BE BY THE OF OUR LORD. “ Let us come to the throne” --in other words, let us come to God--to Him who sits upon the throne. This implies, of course, a previous conviction of our being separated from God, and of the necessity of our return. (J. Crowther.) Encouragement to hold fast 1. He giveth them a direction for entering into their rest; to hold fast their profession; that is, in faith and love to avow the doctrine of Christ. (1) Then he that would enter into rest must be steadfast in maintaining and avowing the true religion of Christ. (2) He who quitteth the profession of the truth of Christ taketh courses to cut off himself from God’ s rest. For if we deny Christ He will deny us. 2. He commandeth to hold fast our profession. Then (1) God will not be pleased with backsliding, or coldness, or indifference in matters of religion, because this is not to hold it fast; but to take a loose hold, which is the ready way to defection. (2) There is danger lest our adversaries pull the truth from us. (3) The more danger we foresee, the more strongly must we hold the truth. 3. The encouragement which He giveth to hold fast is, We have Christ a great High Priest, &c. Then (1) As we have need of threatening, to drive us to enter into God’ s rest, so have we need of encouragements to draw us thereunto. (2) All our encouragement is from the help which we shall have in Christ, and that is sufficient. (3) Christ is always for us in His office, albeit we do not always feel Him sensibly in us. 4. He calleth Christ a great High Priest, to put difference betwixt the typical high priest and Him in whom the truth of the priesthood is found. Then what the typical high priest did in show for the people, that the great High Priest doth in substance for us; that is, reconcileth us to God perfectly, blesseth us with all blessings solidly, and intercedeth for us perpetually. 5. He affirmeth of Christ, that He is passed into heaven; to wit, in regard of tits manhood, to take possession thereof in our name. Then (1) Christ’ s corporal presence is in heaven only, and not on earth, from whence He is passed. (2) Christ’ s corporal presence in heaven, and absence from us in that respect, hindereth not our right unto Him, and spiritual having or possessing of Him. (3) Yea, it is our encouragement to seek entry into heaven, that He is there before us. 6. He calleth Him Jesus the Son of God; to lead us through His humanity unto His Godhead. Then no rest on the Mediator till we go to the rock of His Godhead, where is strength and satisfaction to faith. (D. Dickson, M. A.) Our High Priest We know how one man sometimes controls great masses of men. We know how the soldiers of Napoleon, not only in the day of battle, but to the end of their lives, carried in them a worshipping conception of that great hero of battles. We know that everywhere it is the habit of men to cling to some great nature and attempt to pattern their life after his life and to live by his power. Such is the genius of the New Testament. It holds up before the mind of the Jews the pattern which is most heroic to them--the high priest. It holds up Jesus Christ as the Exemplar, the Leader, the Deliverer, the God imminent to their imagination, and attempts to draw men not only through all those endeavours which they make to grow, but through all those experiences which befall them as residents of this lower sphere, without diminishing their faith, their hope, their joy, their courage, or their strength. This is the way in which Christ is presented to men. It is quite possible for an army to be enthusiastic for their king; but then, he is a different sort of being from themselves; and they mutter, “ He is a king, and has a good time. He does not know what it is to be wet, and half starved, and wearied with marching through the mud. He has no idea of what we poor privates have to endure.” But if the general of an army has been a private soldier, and has gone through weary, dragging marches, and has been hungry and sick, and if he remembers it all, and if when his men go into camp he makes his round, and sits down by the side of one and another, the soldiers say, “ Though our general is regarded as the best general in Europe, yet he is not above thinking of us and feeling for us poor fellows in the ranks; he has been situated just as we are, and ha has sympathy for us” what an inconceivable power that sympathy shown to those soldiers gives to that general! Now, the Lord Jesus Christ identifies Himself with the whole universe in such a way that we are sure that He knows us, and every possible experience that we can go through. Then He is lifted up, and is declared to be at the head of power in the universe. And both of these things--the humiliation by which He gets hold of our confidence and the elevation by which we are filled with enthusiasm for Him--makes Him one who is our inspiration and our encouragement. Now this conception of the Lord Jesus Christ is unfolded in many different ways, as if there were not enough syllables in the world to describe it! Now there is a doable connection between men and their Leader, Jesus Christ. In the first place, He is united to us by that which we need and lack. That which brings a physician to the side of the afflicted man’ s bed in his disease, his wounds, his putrefying sores. And we are in some respects in the same way related to Christ. He looks upon our sins as things to be healed. He looks upon us, in our unfortunate condition, as objects to be sorrowed over, and to be saved. We have, then, a ground for concluding that it is possible for us to live upon a higher plane than that which we find ourselves upon. All men cannot rise to the attainments of some. And, generally speaking, there is, I think, an element of discouragement among men in attempting to form a high religious life in themselves. “ It is of no use,” they say. “ The temptations and the besetments are too many.” But one is hopeful and courageous who has a conception of being folded in and guided by the watchful care and love of Jesus, who is at the source and centre of power, and who works, not on the principle of justice and equity, but on the principle of love, doing not that which we deserve to have done, but that which will rescue us, relieve us, build us up, instituting new measures instead of those which prevail in courts of justice. If a man wants to be a Christian; if he wants to be Godlike in his character and conduct; if he wants to practice benevolence and self-denial; if he wants to cultivate humility and gentleness; then he has encouragement in the life and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been through the experiences of this life, and who knows what trials men are beset with here, who knows what inward strivings we have, and who, notwithstanding his knowledge of there things, loves us, and is willing to watch over us from day to day in order to build us up in spiritual things. With that inspiration, I think a man may well enter with courage and confidence upon the Christian life--a courage and a confidence which he could not feel if there were not this thought of his God, his Saviour, his Leader, who has given a concrete, practical example which he can follow, and following which he can attain to the Christian character upon a higher plane. Then, consider the experiences which men are obliged to go through in this life on account of the inequalities of condition. Men do not walk abreast. They are scattered up and down through the earth with every conceivable variation of circumstance and opportunity. Some men are rich, and some men are poor. Some men are educated, and some men wake up in mid-life to see what education would have been to them, but to find that it is too late for them to acquire it. If a man looks about and compares himself with those who are around him, if he compares his condition, his felicities or infelicities, with theirs, he may easily become discouraged and fall into complainings. Hear what the Matter says when He speaks on that subject: “ The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.” Is there one single privation known to human life that your Leader has not experienced? Is there one single circumstance of position, of hindrance, which you have been subject to that your Lord has not felt in its full weight? The disciple ought not to complain of treatment which he sees his own Master bear with equanimity and meekness. What if every ill-fortune be yours? What if you are emptied of everything? What if you are overthrown? What if your health is broken down in mid-life? What if your affections are blighted? What if your name is traduced? So then, in the midst of the great deficiencies of life, its alterations, its trials, you have the leadership of this personal Christ, who is your Friend, your Guide, who is your Inspiration to patience, and who is your Joy and Triumph in the midst of sorrow and defeat. You cannot tell, by the way a cup looks when it goes into the furnace, what it will look like when it comes out. When, in the pottery, the colours are laid on, they do not appear as they will after they have gone through the burning process. Many a cup whose rim shines with gold after it comes out, goes in black at a negro’ s face, such is the nature of the gold when it is prepared for the furnace. Even when it comes out it is bill little changed in appearance; and yet the colour is the same that it was when it went in. It is burnt in now, however, while then it was simply laid on. But there is another process that it goes through. By and by it is burnished; and the moment attrition is brought to bear on it, that moment the black begins to fall off, and the gold begins to come out in its perfect colour. Many a man says, “ I have endured and suffered year after year, and I am willing to be painted, and to go into the furnace, if I can come out anything comely and beautiful; but I am as black and homely as ever.” Yes; but time is going to reveal what you have become. You do not know what you are. You do not know how much of what appears on the surface is cineration or charcoal which will fall away in death. You do not know what effects are being wrought by the strifes that are going on in the inner chamber of your soul. But God knows; and you should have faith that all will be well at last. He is dealing with you, and He says to you, “ You do not know what I am doing, but you shall know hereafter.” No man is just what he seems to be. Everybody is being changed. God is preparing us for a higher state of existence. By the things which we suffer or endure, by yokes and burdens, by wounds and sickness, by failures, by all manner of overwhelmings in this life, He is working out in us that stature which shall yet appear in glory. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ a great High Priest I. THE DIGNITY OF JESUS. “ Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest.” 1. Christ is a Priest. The term signifies one who ministers in holy things. The priests under the law were distinguished as follows (1) They were appointed of God. (2) Separated to their office and work at a peculiar time. (3) Consecrated with the washing of water and anointing oil. (4) Had peculiar apparel and ornaments; the robe, the mitre, and the breast-plate. (5) They taught the people. (6) Offered sacrifices. (7) And burned incense before the Lord. It will easily be seen bow strikingly all these exhibited the character and work of Jesus. 2. Christ is a High Priest. Now the high priest was distinguished from the other priests (1) As he was appealed to on all important occasions, and decided all controversies. (2) He offered the great annual sacrifice. (3) He only entered into the holiest of all once a year. (4) He offered the annual intercessory prayer, and came forth and blessed the people in the name of the Lord. 3. Christ is the Great High Priest. Now Jesus is infinitely greater than the high priests of old. (1) In the dignity of His person. He is the Son of God, Heir of all things, Lord of all. (2) In the purity of His nature. “ Holy, harmless, and separate from sinners.” “ Without spot.” (3) In the value and efficacy of His sacrifice. An equivalent for the world’ s guilt. Only once offered, and for all sins. (4) In the unchangeable perpetuity of His office. “ A priest for ever.” “ An unchangeable priesthood” (Hebrews 7:24). He had no direct predecessor, and He shall have no successor. “ Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” II. HIS HIGH . “ Who is passed into the heavens.” 1. The place into which He is exalted. “ The heavens.” Represented of old by the holiest of all. Described by Jesus as His Father’ s house. 2. The manner of His exaltation. “ He passed into the heavens.” (1) According to His own predictions. (2) While in the act of blessing His disciples. (3) Visibly, and with great splendour. 3. The great end of His exaltation. (1) To enjoy the rewards of His sufferings and toils (Philippians 2:6; Philippians 2:8-9). (2) To appear before God as the intercessor of His Church. (3) To carry on His mediatorial designs. Hence, He is to subdue His foes, prolong His days, see His seed, and witness the travail of His soul until He is satisfied. (4) To abide as the Mediator between God and men to the end of the Christian state. Now God only treats with us by and through Jesus. And He is the only way of access to the Father (John 14:6; Hebrews 9:28). III. THE THIS SUBJECT SHOULD HAVE UPON US. “ Let us hold fast our profession.” 1. The profession referred to. It is a profession of faith and hope in Christ, and of love and obedience to Him. 2. This profession must be maintained. Held fast, not abandoned. We shall be tempted, tried, persecuted. Our profession may cost us our property, liberty, lives. This profession must be held fast by the exercise of vigorous faith, constant love, and cheerful obedience. (1) For Christ’ s sake. Whose we are, and whom we serve. (2) For the profession’ s sake; that Christ’ s cause may not be injured, and His people cast down. (3) Especially for our own sake. It is only thus we can retain Divine acceptance, peace, joy, and the sure prospect of eternal life. Application: 1. Christ’ s example is the model of our steadfastness. 2. Christ’ s exaltation should be the exciting attraction to steadfastness. 3. Christ’ s intercession will always provide the grace necessary to “ our holding fast our profession.” (J. Burns, D. D.) Christ the Reconciler This book presents an ideal of Christ as a reconciler. Of what? It has been said that man was reconciled to God. That is correct. Men are reconciled to the law of God, but that is vagneness itself. Christ is a reconciler by revealing to us what is the real interior nature of perfectness, and what bearing it has upon imperfectness. The experience of noble souls is that discord prevails, and that with the struggle there can be no peace. There may be peace by lowering the ideal of our range of attainment, or by indifference and discouragement, but not by vital stress and strife can men have peace, when they are obliged every day to see that they come short, not of the law in its entirety and purity, but in their own conceptions in regard to single lines of conduct. Men all around are resolving to do the right and are eternally coming short of it, and then they say: “ How under the sun am I going to face God! I cannot face my neighbour.” The reason is, that your neighbour is not God. There is a view of God that while it intensifies the motives for righteousness, encourages men who are unrighteous, and brings about a reconcilaiation between these constantly antagonising experiences in the human bosom. It is to such that this experience of Christ is presented. Jesus Christ is the spotless High Priest who offered Himself once for all mankind. He came forth and lived among men, and He knows what their tears and struggles are, what their temptations and difficulties. Every faculty that is found in a human being was found in Christ, and yet He was without sin. “ Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Do not come to a man who is conscious of his own infirmities, for he would not help you; but come to that Being who is conscious of absolute purity, and from whom you will get higher sympathy and a quicker succour. The moral perfectness of Christ develops sympathy for the sinful. It needed something like this in that age when the better men were the worst men, men whose righteousness was finished off by an enamel of selfishness, the men whose temperance made them hate drunkards, the men whose honesty made them hate men of slippery fingers, the men whose dried up passions made them scorn the harlot, the men who had money enough and abominated the tax-gatherers. Christ does not set Himself up on a throne apart, and say, “ I am pure,” but says that because He is perfect He has an infinite sympathy with and compassion for the sinful and fallen. The supreme truth that we need to know is that God is determined to bring the human race on and up out of animalism and the lowest forms of barbarism to the highest degree of intellectual and spiritual development. That is the eternal purpose of God, and in that great work He will deal with the human family with such tenderness and gentleness that He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, nor blow out the wick which He has just kindled, and He will not stop until He brings forth judgment unto victory. I think sometimes that the greatest attribute of God is patience, and one of the greatest illustrations of patience of the same kind in men is that of the music Leacher, who takes a boy to teach him the violin, and hears him and bears with him through days, and through weeks, and through months and through years, and then has to take another and go right on the same way again. Or the artist who sees his pupil smudging a canvas, and tries to teach him the whole theory of colour, and tries to develop his ideality. Any parent, teacher, musician, artist, or any one else is obliged to go upon the theory God acts on--namely, that the higher you are the more you owe, and can give, to those who are lower; and if you are going to be instrumental in bringing them up, you have got to carry their burthens and their sorrows and to wait for them, and be patient with them. It is the law of creation, and if it is the law of creation in all its minor and ruder developments among mankind, its supreme strength and scope for beauty is in the nature of Himself. Look at the sun, the symbol of God. It carries in itself all trees and all bushes, and all vines, and all orchards, and all gardens. It sows the seed and brings the summer; and the outpouring of the vital light and heat of the sun makes it the father of all husbandmen and all pomologists. And yet God’ s nature is greater than that. He is the life of life; He is the heart of hearts; He is the soul of souls; and the grandeur of His endowments is the life of mankind. Cast away all the old mediaeval notions of reconciliation, the mechanical scheme of atonement and plan of salvation, and all those lower forms. They stand between you and the bright light of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, a God who has patience with sin because He is sinless, who has patience with infirmity because He has no infirmities, who has patience with weakness and ignorance because He is supremely wise and supremely strong. Our hope is in God, and our life ought to be godly. Though we be faint or feeble, He will revive our courage and will give us His strength, and it will not be in vain that we endeavour to serve the Lord. (H. W.Beecher.) Our great High Priest The first important word is the epithet “ great” prefixed to the title High Priest. It is introduced to make the priestly office of Christ assume due importance in the minds of the Hebrews. As an author writing a treatise on an important theme writes the title of the theme in letters fitted to attract notice, so this writer places at the head of the ensuing portion this title, “ Jesus the Son of God the Great High Priest,” insinuating thereby that He of whom he speaks is the greatest of all priests, the only real priest, the very ideal of priesthood realised. The expression “ passed through the heavens” is also very suggestive. It hints at the right construction to be put upon Christ’ s departure from the earth. There is an obvious allusion to the entering of the high priest of Israel within the veil on the great day of atonement; and the idea suggested is, that the ascension of Christ was the passing of the great High Priest through the veil into the celestial sanctuary, as our representative and in our interest. The name given to the great High Priest, “ Jesus the Son of God,” contributes to the argument. Jesus is the historical person, the tempted Man; and this part of the name lays the foundation for what is to be said in the following sentence concerning His power to sympathise. The title, “ Son of God,” on the other hand, justifies what has been already said of the High Priest of our confession. If our High Priest be the Son of God, He may well be called the Great, and moreover there can be no doubt whither He has gone. Whither but to His native abode, His Father’ s house? Having thus by brief, pregnant phrase hinted the thoughts he means to prove, our author proceeds to address to his readers an exhortation, which is repeated at the close of the long discussion on the priesthood of Christ to which these sentences are the prelude (Hebrews 10:19-23). In doing so he gives prominence to that feature of Christ’ s priestly character of which alone he has as yet spoken explicitly: His power to sympathise, acquired and guaranteed by His experience of temptation (Hebrews 2:17-18). It is noteworthy that the doctrine of Christ’ s sympathy is here stated in a defensive, apologetic manner, “ We have not a High Priest who cannot be touched,” as if there were some one maintaining the contrary. This defensive attitude, may be conceived of as assumed over against two possible objections to the reality of Christ’ s sympathy, one drawn from His dignity as the Son of God, the other from His sinlessness. Both objections are dealt with in the only way open to one who addresses weak faith--viz., not by elaborate or philosophical argument, but by strong assertion. As the Psalmist said to the desponding, “ Wait, I say, on the: Lord,” and as Jesus said to disciples doubting the utility of prayer, “ I say unto you, Ask, and ye shall receive,” so our author says to dispirited Christians, “ We have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with sympathy” --this part of his assertion disposing of doubt engendered by Christ’ s dignity--“ but one who has been tempted in all respects as we are, apart from sin” --this part of the assertion meeting doubt based on Christ’ s sinlessness. To this strong assertion of Christ’ s power to sympathise is fitly appended the final exhortation. Specially noteworthy are the words, “ Let us approach confidently.” They have more than practical import: they are of theoretic significance; they strike the doctrinal keynote of the Epistle: Christianity the religion of free access. There is a latent contrast between Christianity and Leviticalism. The contrast is none the less real that the expression “ to draw near” was applied to acts of worship under the Levitical system. Every act of worship in any religion whatever may be called an approach to Deity. Nevertheless religions may be wide apart as the poles in respect to the measure in which they draw near to God. In one religion the approach may be ceremonial only, while the spirit stands afar off in fear. In another, the approach may be spiritual, with mind and heart, in intelligence, trust, and love, and with the confidence which these inspire. Such an approach alone is real, and deserves to be called a drawing near to God. Such an approach was first made possible by Christ, and on this account it is that the religion which bears His name is the perfect, final, perennial religion. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Hold fast our profession Holding fast the Christian profession I. THE NATURE OF THE . 1. A cordial assent to the whole of Scripture truth, and especially the testimony which God has given of His Son Christ Jesus. 2. A profession of practical conformity to the whole of God’ s revealed will. 3. The hope of eternal life and glory in heaven. II. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN HOLDING FAST OUR ? 1. That we actually have this profession. 2. A just sense of its high value. 3. That we may be tempted to forsake it. 4. That we are called to the regular, uniform, constant exercise of it. 5. Perseverance to the end. III. THE MOTIVES TO THIS DUTY. 1. The person and character of Him who is its object. 2. Christ’ s office and relation to us. 3. The security afforded against our own weakness, and the malice of spiritual foes. (H. Hunter.) Holding fast our profession I. WHAT IS OUR ? 1. Attachment to the person of Christ. 2. Dependence on the work of Christ. 3. Devotedness to the service of Christ. II. HOW IS THIS TO BE DONE? 1. By avowing in God’ s ordinances your attachment to the person, reliance on the work, and devotedness to the service of Christ. 2. By a consistent life. (W. Cadman, M. A.) Exhortation to steadfastness I. THE TO IN OUR . By “ our profession “ we are sometimes to understand that which we profess, or the subject of our profession. In Hebrews 3:1, the term evidently means the holy religion which we profess. But the term applies to the act also. This is its import in that other passage, “ let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.” There are in what is called “ the Christian world” two kinds of professors. 1. All nominal Christians. All who say that they are disciples of Christ; all who wish it to be understood that they have embraced the faith. Such persons may with propriety be exhorted to hold their profession fast: it is worthy of being held fast. And yet, if we do venture to remind such persons of the obligation arising from the very name they bear; if we point out any inconsistency in their conduct, the accusation is repelled with indignation, and they tell us they make no profession of religion. Now this (1) Is singularly impudent and wicked. What would you think if the expression were applied to social life, to the duties which belong to a parent, a husband, a child, a subject, an honest man? (2) It is in most cases not true. They themselves, at other times, deny it; and they would be highly affronted if they thought any one supposed that they deny the Lord who bought them. They do call themselves Christians, and hence they ought to be careful to live and act as such. But there are in the world 2. Those who profess to be Christians indeed. Now the profession of real Christians is distinguished from that which is nominal by these three marks. (1) It is Scriptural. He founds his belief on having discovered that it is the infallible Word of God; and he receives nothing but what in his conscience he believes to have this sanction, “ Thus saith the Lord.” (2) It is experimental. I mean to say that every Christian has, in his own experience, an evidence of the truth of the gospel. He has put its truths to the test: he has tried them in his own case, and found them to be sanctifying and saving. (3) It is practical. That is, the truth professed is not belied, but is borne out and appealed to by their conduct. Put these things together, and you will see how a real profession is distinguished from that which is merely nominal, It is scriptural, experimental, and practical: it is manifested by cheerfully doing, and patiently suffering the will of God. Such a profession as this we are commanded to “ hold fast.” 3. This command implies that we are in danger of renouncing our profession. And this danger arises from various causes. Satan, the great foe of God and the gospel, “ goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he mar devour.” Infidels and their associates having apostalised from the faith are aiming to seduce others to their guilt. The world too is a foe: by its smiles it would often allure, by its frowns it would often deter from steadfastness. Last, but not least, are the foes of our own household; a heart that is deceitful, and which is not fully renewed, will betray us into the hands of our outward enemies, so that we shall lose our peace at the last. 4. “ Let us hold fast our profession,” says the apostle. Be valiant for the truth. (1) Hold fast the simplicity of evangelical doctrine. Stand fast in one spirit, “ earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.” (2) Hold it fast in an evangelical experience of its blessings. (3) Hold it fast by the practice of all that is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. (4) Hold fast by a public profession of the gospel, the truths in which you thus believe--the privileges you thus profess to enjoy--the duties you profess to exemplify. Thus give to every man “ a reason of the hope that is in you.” II. THE MOTIVE TO THIS DERIVED FROM HE OF CHRIST. “ We have a great High Priest,” greater than any under the law. Many grounds of superiority to any who went before Him might be adduced. 1. Because of the place in which He ministers. He is at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He who is our Friend, the best Friend we ever had, who has given us such tokens of His love and kindness, is in that place where best of all He can serve our cause! Our High Priest can never be at a loss for a place in which to minister; He can never be at a loss for want of access to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God. He ever liveth to make intercession where He can make it with the greatest certainty of success. 2. Because of the more substantial benefits derived from the exercise of His office. Aaron was God’ s high priest, but he was not a Saviour; his successors were God’ s high priests, but they were not Jesus; they could not save from sin. But Jesus our great High Priest can redeem from all iniquity; and “ He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” Greater 3. Because of the superior dignity of His original nature and character, “ The Son of God.” As the Son of God He was sinless. There was no guilty spot upon His soul, though He was made a sacrifice for sin. He, therefore, is all our own; He was cut off for us, to finish our transgression, to make reconciliation for our iniquity. As the Son of God He is also necessarily immortal. Death could never have had any claim on Him after He took our nature into conjunction with the Divine, but by His own consent; He willingly laid it down, as an act of infinite benevolence to that world, whose cause He sustained. As the Son of God He can die no more, but liveth for ever. And oh, what a mercy in such a dying world as this, where so many are taken away from us, to be able to lift up our eyes to heaven, and be able to commit our concerns to this immortal and never-dying Redeemer! But wherein consists the force of all this as a motive to steadfastness in the Christian profession? Why (1) For this reason we ought to hold fast the profession of Christianity. It is the priesthood of Christ that confers the crowning excellence on Christianity. (2) But perhaps you say you have no intention to relinquish it; your only fear is that you shall not be able to hold it fast. You feel such powerful temptations, you are surrounded by so many adversaries, that you fear that in some dark and cloudy day you shall become their prey. And so you would if you were left to yourselves, if you depended on your own power. But you are not left to yourselves, the Gospel tells you that you have a great High Priest. You can hold fast your profession: the priesthood of Christ renders this practicable. (J. Bunting, M. A.) Let us hold fast our profession Our High Priest is a mighty one, able to punish us if we shrink from our profession, and of power to protect us from all our enemies if we stick to Him; therefore let us hold last our profession. The doctrine professed by us; let no enemies drive us from our profession, neither Satan, nor any of his instruments. The Pharisees held fast the traditions of their elders and would not be removed from them Mark 7:3). The Turks are wonderfully addicted to Mahomet, he is a great prophet among them, they will not let him go. And shall not we hold the profession of the Lord Jesus? They hold errors fast, and shall not we the truth? The subject of their profession, counterfeit things, mere inventions of men, lies and fables. The subject of our profession is Jesus Christ the Son of God. Therefore us hold it fast; let neither the syrenical songs of heretics and schismatics in the time of peace, nor the blustering wind of persecution in the time of war pull us from our confession. Let us be faithful to the death as the martyrs were; let house and land, wives and children, liberty and country--yea, our lives--go before our profession. But this is a hard matter; we have no strength of ourselves to hold it against so many strong and mighty enemies. Therefore let us all fear ourselves and fly to God for strength, that it would please Rim so to strengthen us by His Holy Spirit, that we may hold fast the profession of Christ and His gospel to the end: “ Hold that which thou hast, lest another take thy crown.” We will hold our money fast though it be to good uses, we will not part with that; but as for religion, a number are at this pass, the, care not what becomes of it; let that go whither it will, so we may sleep in a whole skin and keep that which we have; let come what religion there will, we can be of any religion. Such turncoats and timeservers shall never set a foot in the kingdom of heaven. If we hold not our profession last we shall miss of the crown of eternal life. (W. Jones, D. D.) Hebrews 4:15 Touched with the feeling of our infirmities The sympathetic Saviour I. CHRIST’ S POWER OF . Differences of position and circumstances among men materially affect their power to sympathise with one another. It is a difficult matter, for instance, for those born in palaces and nurtured in affluence to enter into the difficulties and understand the hardships endured by those to whom life is a perpetual struggle for the barest necessaries; or for those who are hale and strong to sympathize with those whose very existence, by reason of their bodily infirmities, is a burden to them. It was not unnatural, then, that persons who, judged by human analogies, should suppose that He who was the Son of God and had passed into the heavens would be indisposed to sympathise with wretched, sin-benighted men on earth. The text assures us of the contrary. Christ exchanged earth for heaven, the weakness and infirmities of an earthly existence for the everlasting vigour of a heavenly state, degradation for exaltation, the Cross and the thorns for a throne and a crown; but He never exchanged His power of warm, glowing sympathy for men for coldness and indifference. Sympathy was the heritage which earth gave Him to enrich His heavenly state. II. THE THIS POWER. 1. His exposure to temptation. Just as the light becomes tinged with the hues of the glass it passes through, so the unfathomable love of the Son of God becomes sympathetic towards men as it passes to them through the human heart, steeped in sorrow and agonised with suffering, of the Son of Man Egypt has its two great watercourses, its river and its sweet-water canal. The canal conveys the sweet waters of the river where the river itself cannot take them. The human heart of Jesus is the canal which conducts the sweet waters of the Divine love in streams of sympathy to the parched souls of men. 2. The other condition of His power of sympathy was His freedom from sin, notwithstanding His exposure to its temptations. Flame will not pass through wire gauze of a certain texture. This is the principle of the safety-lamp. This useful and ingenious contrivance is unaffected by any amount of explosive gases external to it. Under ordinary circumstances, the flame of the lamp would set any atmosphere, strongly charged with explosive gases, into a devouring blaze, but, protected by the wire gauze, the lamp-flame merely glows within a little more brilliantly. Such was Christ as He lived among men. The moral atmosphere in which He lived, surcharged as it was with explosive temptations and provocations to sin, did not penetrate the amiability of His sinless nature and cause it to shoot forth into consuming resentment. It merely caused it to burn with a livelier glow of holy anger against hypocrisy and false pretence. Just as the rays of the sun pass over the foulest paths and among heaps of filth untainted, so He passed along the ways and paths of human life untouched by the foulness that surrounded him on all sides. It is a belief with the people of the district that the River Doe passes through the whole length of Bala Lake without mingling with its waters. Its current, they affirm, can be clearly traced, marked off by its clearer, brighter waters. So Christ’ s life, passing through the lake, so to speak, of earthly existence, is clearly defined. I, is one bright, holy, spotless stream from its beginning to its end--a life without sin. Now, this freedom from sin is no hindrance to His power of sympathy; in fact, it is an additional qualification to Him in this respect. Temptation yielded to makes the heart callous and cruel, and dries up the fountains of feeling. Temptation resisted and overcome mellows the feelings, and quickens their sensitiveness towards the tried and tempted. III. CHRIST’ S POWER OF USED AS AN TO SEEK THE FOR US. 1. The blessings we are urged to seek. Mercy represents the new life; grace, all that may be needed to sustain and nourish it until its consummation in everlasting glory. And here we may note the bearing of this promise of “ grace to help in time of need” upon the case of a certain class of persons whom we believe to be Christians, true disciples of the Redeemer, but who stand aloof from the fellowship of His people, and shrink from a public avowal of their discipleship. Their reluctance in this direction, they tell us, arises from the sense of their infirmities, and their dread of bringing dishonour on Christ’ s Church. But such a plea is essentially unbelief. It arises from a failure to apprehend God’ s power to keep from falling those whom He has graciously converted. They forget that He promises to His children “ grace to help in time of need.” It is as reasonable to suppose that God will preserve the new life He has quickened in the heart of His people, as that the mother will do all in her power to strengthen the infant that owes its life to her. 2. The place whence these blessings are dispensed. Christ occupies the throne--the place of power and authority. That He is a King as well as a Priest is one of the great truths of this Epistle. And His kingly office becomes the instrument of His priestly sympathies and functions. 3. The spirit of confidence in which, in view of the assurance furnished to us of Christ’ s power of sympathy, these blessings should be sought. The word rendered “ boldly” here may, with equal propriety, be rendered “ joyfully.” The very fact that such blessings as mercy and grace, blessings so inexpressibly precious to sinful men awakened to a sense of their guilt, are procurable, should fill the seeker with the joy of gratitude. To seek them in this spirit is to carry out the prophetic injunction, “ Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” The allusion, no doubt, is to the desert traveller, after days of wanderings in the arid waste, coming parched with thirst upon a well. We can well imagine with what grateful joy he would draw therefrom the refreshing element to quench his consuming thirst. With some such joy, yea, with much deeper and intenser joy, should the Christian man come to the throne of grace to draw the grace which is to quench his soul-consuming thirst, and sustain the Divine life quickened by the Divine mercy in his soul. (A. J. Parry.) Christ touched with the feeling of our infirmities The compassion of the Son of God was a subject of joyful contemplation to the holy men of old, who saw His day afar off, and were glad. With delight they celebrated the comfort which He should bring to the mourners in Zion; the care which He should take of the lambs of His flock; His sympathy with the afflicted; His condescension to the weak; and the concern with which lie should bring them through their difficulties to safety and peace, and everlasting gladness. Hence it is, also, that in their sacred hymns and songs of triumph they delight to present Him under all those images which are fitted to convey ideas of the gentlest and most engaging order. The design for which the Son of God appeared on earth, and which He voluntarily undertook to accomplish, was a design of the highest compassion. And as the design on which He came was that of unutterable love, so the tenderest compassion distinguished the fulfilment of every part of His great undertaking. He went about doing good, and His Divine power was ever exercised in works of mercy. And with these manifestations of Divine power, how mild and gentle is His demeanour to the humble and the weak! How tender and condescending His addresses to the poor and the contrite! Observe also His sympathy with His disciples in the season of affliction, and the anxiety with which He seeks to give them comfort. But to seek and to save that which was lost Christ came into the world, and all His discourses are full of earnest desire for the welfare of men--of pity for sinners, and of consolation for the miserable. His compassion was manifested even to those who rejected Him. But a view of compassion yet remains to be noticed, which in vain our ideas attempt to reach, or language to describe. He pays the price of human guilt, and gives His life a ransom for many. Having thus directed our attention to the compassion of that great High Priest, who is passed into the heaven--Jesus, the Son of God, let us apply these views to our condition, and consider the encouragement which they are fitted to afford when we approach to the throne of grace. The gracious office which Christ sustains, and the compassion of His character, are fitted to give to us encouragement in all our services, and through the whole of life. But there are special seasons which the apostle describes as “ the time of need,” in which we are particularly called, in the exercise of hope and trust, to come to the throne of grace. I. AMONG THESE WE ARE IN THE FIRST PLACE TO THAT OF A SINNER UNDER DEEP OF GUILT. How suited is the gospel of Christ to bring back to God and give peace to the troubled soul! And how admirably does the view of such a High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, harmonise with every part of the gracious plan for our recovery and salvation! In Him we see every quality which is calculated to insure the confidence, and to dissipate the fears of the humble and the contrite, and through Him, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, they seek the offered mercy, and find the promised rest. II. AND ARE NOT THE SAME VIEWS TO US TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, UNDER A SENSE OF OUR , AND OF OUR DANGERS FROM WORLD LYING IN ? In a state so surrounded with dangers, and especially in those seasons when we are made to feel how weak we are, or when wearied with the struggles and difficulties which we encounter on the path of duty, we are tempted to retire from the contest, and to leave the post; assigned us, hopeless of success--how fitted to inspire us with courage and perseverance is the view of that provision which the Father of mercies hath made for our support and direction, in the mediation of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. He is the same Divine Master who has passed before us through the scene of suffering and temptation, and has shown Himself to be so unspeakably our Friend. He knows the difficulties with which we have to struggle, and by proofs the most affecting He has taught us to place confidence in His care. III. AND AS THE OF OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST GIVES COURAGE AND SUPPORT AMIDST THE DANGERS AND TRIALS OF LIFE, SO IT GIVES US COMFORT AND PEACE AT THE OF DEATH. The Son of God changes the darkness into light. The glory of that state He hath prepared for us, sheds far its light, and illumines every prospect, and the voice of the Saviour is heard conducting and welcoming us to the mansions of His Father. How suited to the fallen state of man is the dispensation of the gospel! (S. MacGill, D. D.) The sympathy of Christ 1. In attempting to describe the human sympathy of this Divine Being, I will first refer to His wonderful keenness of feeling. Intensely sensitive to nature, and drinking in illustration of highest truth from her homeliest appearances, He felt most keenly anything that could touch the feelings of the fellow-men. Unlike many people who, because they do not feel their own trials very keenly, nor crave for much sympathy amidst them, cannot understand the sufferings and cravings of more sensitive natures, Jesus was so touched by His own troubles, and had such a longing for the Divine and human sympathy in the midst of them, that He is marvellously quick to understand, and ready to sympathise with the most insignificant sorrows of the most sensitive souls. 2. But the sympathy of Jesus is as wide as it is ready. He whose exquisitely sensitive soul was thrilled by the beauty of a lily, and moved by the fall of a wounded sparrow, is keenly touched by whatever can touch a human heart, whether high or low, good or bad, a friend or an enemy. No man can be beyond the reach of His all-comprehending sympathy, because no man can be beyond the embrace of His all-comprehending love. 3. And His sympathy is as deep and tender as it is ready and comprehensive. And the reason of this is two-fold. He has been tempted in all points like as we are; and yet He is without sin. He can sympathise with the poor because He has been poor; with the weary and heavy laden, because He has been tired and worn; with the lonely, misrepresented, and persecuted, because He has been in their position. And because He was also tried, tried in mind as well as heart, by fear, by sad surprise, by mental perplexity, with the hard conflict with evil, and great spiritual depression, He is able to feel to the uttermost for those keenest sorrows of our earthly lot. And then this tried One was without sin. That was what enabled Him to drink in sympathy, and nothing but sympathy from all His sorrows. That is why He received all the sweetness from His sorrows and none of the bitterness, so that He is able out of the pure and exhaustless treasures of His sympathy to sweeten all our bitter cups. 4. For let us also remember that His sympathy is as practical as it is ready, deep, and comprehensive. Smpathising with the fond feeling which led the mothers to bring their children to Him, He at once took the little ones up in His arms, and blessed them; feeling for the hungry multitude He delayed not to spread a table for them in the wilderness. His compassionate soul melted with tenderness when He saw the widow weeping beside the bier; but at that very moment He stopped the bier and restored her only son to his mother’ s arms. How deep the sympathy which caused Him to burst into tears among the weeping ones He loved, before the grave of Lazarus; but how prompt the power to “ help which caused the dead man to come forth. It is the knowledge that now as then He is ready and able to help us as He is to feel for us, that emboldens us to come with all assurance to the throne of grace, and confide to Him our every trouble. And if His sympathy is to be to us anything more than a beautiful dream, we must there come into personal contact with Him amidst our own sorrows, and sound the depths of His sympathy by proving the fulness of His help. (P. J. Rollo.) Touched with the feeling of our infirmities There is no warmer Bible phrase than this. We might have never so many mishaps, the Government at Washington would not hear of them; and there are multitudes in Britain whose troubles Victoria never knows; but there is a throne against which strike our most insignificant perplexities. What touches us touches Christ. What robs us robs Christ. He is the great nerve-centre to which thrill all sensations which touch us who are His members. I. He is touched with our infirmities. II. He is touched with the infirmities of our PRAYERS. He will pick out the one earnest petition from the rubbish, and answer it. III. He is touched with the infirmity of our TEMPER. IV. He sympathises with our POOR EFFORTS AT DOING GOOD. (Christian at Work.) The tenderness of Jesus I. HE HAS ASSUMED A VERY TENDER OFFICE. A king may render great aid to the unhappy; but, on the other hand, he is a terror to evil-doers: a high priest is in the highest sense “ ordained for men,” and he is the friend and succourer of the most wretched. 1. It was intended, first, that by the high priest God should commune with men. That needs a person of great tenderness. A mind that is capable of listening to God, and understanding, in a measure, what He teaches, had need be very tender, so as to interpret the lofty sense into the lowly language of humanity. 2. But a high priest took the other side also: he was to communicate with God from men. Here, also, he needed the tenderest spirit to rule his faculties and to move his affections. But if I understand the high priest’ s office aright, he had many things to do which come under this general description, but which might not suggest themselves, if you did not have the items set before you. 3. The high priest was one who had to deal with sin and judgment for the people. We have a High Priest into whose ear we may pour all the confessions of our penitence without fear. It is a wonderful easement to the mind to tell Jesus all. No doubt the high priest was resorted to, that he might console the sorrowful. Go to Jesus, if a sharp grief is gnawing at your heart. 4. The high priest would hear, also, the desires and wish, s of the people. When men in Israel had some great longing, some overwhelming desire, they not only prayed in private, but they would make a journey up to the temple to ask the high priest to present their petitions before the Lord. You may have some very peculiar, delicate desire as to spiritual things that only God and your own soul may know; but fear not to mention it to your tender High Priest, who will know your meaning, and deal graciously with you. 5. It was the high priest’ s business to instruct and to reprove the people. To instruct is delightful; but to reprove is difficult. Only a tender spirit can wisely utter rebuke. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us our faults in tones of love. His rebukes never break the heart. II. HE HAS A TENDER FEELING. It is not merely true that He is apprised of our infirmities, since the Lord has said, “ I know their sorows” ; but He “ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The sense of feeling is more intense, vivid, and acute than the sense of sight. It is one thing to see pain, but another thing to be touched with the feeling of it. Treasure up this view of your Lord’ s sympathy, for it may be a great support in the hour of agony, and a grand restorative in the day of weakness. Note again, “ The feeling of our infirmities.” Whose infirmities? Does not “ our” mean yours and mine? Note well that word “ infirmities” --“ touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He sympathises with those of you who are no heroes, but can only plead, “ the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” As the mother feels with the weakness of her babe, so does Jesus feel with the poorest, saddest, and weakest of His chosen. How comes this about? 1. Let us think of it a while! Our Lord has a tender nature. His innate tenderness brought Him from the throne to the manger, from the manger to the Cross. 2. Our Lord is not only tender of nature, but quick of understanding as to the infirmities of men. III. HE HAD A TENDER . 1. He was tried as we are--in body, mind, spirit. 2. But the text says, “ tempted,” and that bears a darker meaning than “ tried.” Our Lord could never have fallen the victim of temptation, but through life He was the object of it. IV. HE HAS A TENDER . Do not imagine that if the Lord Jesus had sinned He would have been any more tender toward you; for sin is always of a hardening nature. If the Christ of God could have sinned, He would have lost the perfection of His sympathetic nature. It needs perfectness of heart to lay self all aside, and to be touched with a feeling of the infirmities of others. Hearken again: do you not think that sympathy in sin would be a poisonous sweet? A child, for instance, has done wrong, and he has been wisely chastened by his father; I have known cases in which a foolish mother has sympathised with the child. This may seem affectionate, but it is wickedly injurious to the child. Such conduct would lead the child to love the evil which it is needful he should hate. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The sympathy of Christ The word “ tempted” here includes, of course, all trials of soul and body, such as sorrow, pain, anguish, as well as what we commonly call temptation; but it is to this last that we will now confine ourselves. We can readily understand how our Lord’ s perfect humanity should sympathise with ours, because both are of one nature; but how He who is sinless should sympathise with us sinners--this is the difficulty. How, it may be asked, can He sympathise in repentance, deserved shame, and guilt of conscience? It may be said, that this difficulty carries its own answer; for His sympathy with penitents is perfect, because He is sinless; its perfection is the consequence of His perfect holiness. And for these reasons: 1. First, because we find, even among men, that sympathy is more or less perfect, as the holiness of the person is more or less so. The living compassion, with which the holiest men have ever dealt with the sinful, is a proof that in proportion as sin loses its power over them, their sympathy with those that are afflicted by its oppressive yoke becomes more perfect. 2. And from this our thoughts ascend to Him who is all-perfect; who being from everlasting very God, was for our sakes made very Man, that He might unite us wholly to Himself. Above and beyond all sympathy is that of our High Priest. None hate sin but those who are holy, and that in the measure of their holiness; and therefore in the Person of our blessed Lord there must exist the two great conditions of perfect sympathy: first, He has suffered all the sorrows which are consequent upon sin and distinct from it; next, He has, because of His perfect holiness, a perfect hatred of evil. And these properties of His human nature unite themselves to the pity, omniscience, and love, which are the perfections of His Divine. Now we may see in what it is that our Lord, by the experience of humiliation in our flesh, has learned to sympathise with us: Not in any motion of evil in the affections or thoughts of the heart; not in any inclination of the will: not, if we dare so much as utter it, in any taint or soil upon the soul. Upon all such as are destroying themselves in wilful commerce with evil, He looks down with a Divine pity; but they have withdrawn themselves from the range of His sympathy. This can only be with those who are in sorrow under sin; that is, with penitents. It is in the suffering of those that would be cleansed and made holy that He partakes. I. WE MAY PLEAD WITH HIM ON HIS OWN OF THE OF OUR . None knows it better than He, not only as our Maker, who” knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are but dust,” but as Man, who made full trial of our nature “ in the days of His flesh.” He knows its fearful susceptibility of temptation--how, in its most perfect state, as in His own person, it may be solicited by the allurements of the evil one. And if in Him it could be tempted to sin, how much more in us! When we confess our sins before Him, we may lay open all. Things we hardly dare to speak to any man, to any imperfect being, we do not shrink from confessing before Him--things which men would not believe, inward struggles, distinctions in intention, extenuating causes, errors of belief--all the manifold working of the inward life which goes before a fall. With all His awful holiness, there is something that draws us to Him. Though His eyes be “ as a flame of fire,” and the act of laying ourselves open to Him is terrible, yet He is “ meek and lowly of heart,” knowing all our case, “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” II. WE MAY APPEAL TO HIS OF THE SORROW AND SHAME WHICH COME BY SIN UPON MANKIND. He suffered both as keenly and as fully as it was possible for one that was without sin (see Psalms 22:1-2; Psalms 22:6-8; Psalms 22:14-15; Isaiah 53:3-4; Psalms 69:1-3; Psalms 69:7; Psalms 69:10-12; Psalms 69:20-21; Psalms 88:1-2; Psalms 88:5-9; Psalms 88:14-16; Lamentations 1:12-13). All that sin could inflict on the guiltless He endured; and to that experience of shame and sorrow we guilty may appeal. Though we suffer indeed justly, yet can He feel with us though He did nothing amiss. Though in the bitterness of soul which flows from consciousness of guilt He has no part, yet when we take revenge upon ourselves in humiliation, and offer ourselves to suffer all He wills for our abasement, He pities us while He permits the chastisement to break us down at His feet. “ When our heart is smitten down within us, and withered like grass, so that we forget to eat our bread,” it is a thought full of consolation, “ that we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” Therefore let us ask for consolation from no other. Let us not go, I will not say to the world, and its fair words, smooth persuasions, shallow comforts, for to these no man whose repentance has any depth or reality in it can bear to go; they are miserable, falsifying stimulants, which beat and bewilder the heart, and leave it open to terrible recoils of sorrow; but let us not go to hooks or to employment; no, nor even to the consolation and tender love of friend, brother, wife, husband, spiritual guide; no, nor to the most perfect saint and nearest to Himself; but to Him for whose sake all these must be forsaken, in whom are all the fresh springs of solace which distil in scanty drops through the tenderest and fondest hearts. Let us go at once to Him. There is nothing can separate us from His sympathy but our own wilful sins. Let us fear and hate these, as for all other reasons, so above all for this, that they cut off the streams of His pure and pitiful consolation, and leave our souls to wither up in their own drought and darkness. So long as we are fully in His sympathy, let our sorrows, shame, trials, temptations, be what they may, we are safe. He is purifying us by them; teaching us to die to the world and to ourselves, that He only may live in us, and that our life may be “ hid with Christ in God.” And again, that we may so shelter ourselves in Him, let us make to Him a confession, detailed, particular, and unsparing, of all our sins. And lastly, let us so live as not to forfeit His sympathy. It is ours only so long as we strive and pray to be made like Him. If we turn again to evil, or to the world, we sever ourselves from Him. (Archdeacon Manning.) The sympathy of Christ Our subject is the priestly sympathies of Christ. But we make three preliminary observations. The perfection of Christ’ s humanity implies that He was possessed of a human soul as well as a human body. Accordingly in the life of Christ we find two distinct classes of feeling. When He hungered in the wilderness--when He thirsted on the Cross--when He was weary by the well at Sychar--He experienced sensations which belong to the bodily department of human nature. But when out of twelve He selected one to be His bosom friend; when He looked round upon the crowd in anger; when the tears streamed down His cheeks at Bethany; and when He recoiled from the thought of approaching dissolution; these--grief, friendship, fear--were not the sensations of the body, much less were they the attributes of Godhead. They were the affections of an acutely sensitive human soul, alive to all the tenderness, and hope and anguish with which human life is filled, qualifying Him to be tempted in all points like as we are. The second thought which presents itself is that the Redeemer not only was but is Man. He was tempted in all points like us. He is a high priest which can be touched. The present manhood of Christ conveys this deeply important truth, that the Divine heart is human in its sympathies. The third observation upon these verses is, that there is a connection between what Jesus was and what Jesus is. He can be touched now because He was tempted then. His past experience has left certain effects durable in His nature as it is now. It has endued Him with certain qualifications and certain susceptibilities, which He would not have had but for that experience. Just as the results remained upon His body, the prints of the nails in His palms, and the spear-gash in His side, so do the results remain upon His soul, enduing Him with a certain susceptibility, for “ He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” ; with certain qualifications, for “ He is able to show mercy, and to impart grace to help in time of need.” To turn now to the subject itself. It has two branches. 1. The Redeemer’ s preparation for His priesthood. 2. The Redeemer’ s priestly qualifications. I. HIS . The preparation consisted in being tempted. But here a difficulty arises. Temptation, as applied to a Being perfectly free from tendencies to evil, is not easy to understand. See what the difficulty is. Temptation has two senses, it means test or probation; it means also trial, involving the idea of pain or danger. A weight hung from a bar of iron only tests its strength; the same, depending from a human arm, is a trial, involving iv may be the risk of pain or fracture. Now trial placed before a sinless being is intelligible enough in the sense of probation; it is a test of excellence; but it is not easy to see how it can be temptation in the sense of pain, if there be no inclination to do wrong. However, Scripture plainly asserts this as the character of Christ’ s temptation. Not merely test, but trial. First you have passages declaring the immaculate nature of His mind; as here, “ without sin.” Again, He was “ holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” But then we find another class of passages, such as this: “ He suffered, being tempted.” There was not merely test in the temptation, but there was also painfulness in the victory. How could this be without any tendency to evil? To answer this, let us analyse sin. In every act of sin there are two distinct steps. There is the rising of a desire which is natural, and, being natural, is not wrong--there is the indulgence of that desire in forbidden circumstances, and that is sin. Sin is not a real thing. It is rather the absence of a something, the will to do right. It is not a disease or taint, an actual substance projected into the constitution. It is the absence of the spirit which orders and harmonises the whole; so that what we mean when we say the natural man must sin inevitably, is this, that he has strong natural appetites, and that he has no bias from above to counteract those appetites; exactly as if a ship were deserted by her crew, and left on the bosom of the Atlantic with every sail set and the wind blowing. No one forces her t., destruction--yet on the rocks she will surely go, just because there is no pilot at the helm. Such is the state of ordinary men. Temptation leads to fall. The gusts of instincts, which rightly guided, would have carried safely into port, dash them on the rocks. No one forces them to sin; but the spirit-pilot has left the helm. Sin, therefore, is not in the appetites, but in the absence of a controlling will. Now contrast this state with the state of Christ. There were in Him all the natural appetites of mind and body. Relaxation and friendship were dear to Him--so were sunlight and life. Hunger, pain, death, He could feel all and shrunk from them. Conceive then a case in which the gratification of any one of these inclinations was inconsistent with His Father’ s will. At one moment it was unlawful to eat, though hungry; and without one tendency to disobey, did fasting cease to he severe? It was demanded that He should endure anguish; and, willingly as He subdued Himself, did pain cease to be pain? Could the spirit of obedience reverse every feeling in human nature? It seems to have been in this way that the temptation of Christ caused suffering. He suffered from the force of desire. Though there was no hesitation whether to obey or not, no strife in the will, in the act of mastery there was pain. There was self-denial--there was obedience at the expense of torture natural feeling. II. The second point we take is THE ’ S . Priesthood is that office by which He is the medium of union between man and God. The capacity for this has been indelibly engraven on His nature by His experience here. All this capacity is based on His sympathy--He can be “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” Till we have reflected on it, we are scarcely aware how much the sum of human happiness in the world is indebted t,, this one feeling--sympathy. The child’ s smile and laugh are mighty powers in this world. When bereavement has left you desolate, what substantial benefit is there which makes condolence acceptable? It cannot replace the loved ones you have lost. It can bestow upon you nothing permanent. But a warm hand has touched yours, and its thrill told you that there was a living respouse there to your emotion. One look--one human sigh has done more for you than the costliest present could convey. And it is for want of remarking this, that the effect of public charity falls often so far short of the expectations of those who give. Love is not bought by money, but by love. There has been all the machinery of a public distribution; but there has been no exhibition of individual, personal interest. Again, when the electric touch of sympathetic feeling has gone among a mass of men, it communicates itself, and is reflected back from every individual in the crowd, with a force exactly proportioned, to their numbers. It is on record that the hard heart of an oriental conqueror was unmanned by the sight of a dense mass of living millions engaged in one enterprise. He accounted for it by saying, that it suggested to him that within a single century not one of those millions would be alive. But the hardhearted bosom of the tyrant mistook its own emotions; his tears came from no such far-fetched inference of reflection; they rose spontaneously, as they will rise in a dense crowd, you cannot tell why. It is the thrilling thought of numbers engaged in the same object. It is the idea of our own feelings reciprocated back to us, and reflected from many hearts. And again, it seems partly to avail itself of this tendency within us, that such stress is laid on the injunction of united prayer. Solitary prayer is feeble in comparison with that which rises before the throne echoed by the hearts of hundreds, and strengthened by the feeling that other aspirations are mingling with our own. And whether it be the chanted litany, or the more simple read service, or the anthem producing one emotion at the same moment in many bosoms, the value and the power of public prayer seem chiefly to depend on this mysterious affection of our nature--sympathy. And now, having endeavoured to illustrate this power of sympathy, it is for us to remember that of this in its fullness He is susceptible. Observe how He is touched by our infirmities--with a separate, special, discriminating love. There is not a single throb, in a single human bosom, that does not thrill at once with more than electric speed up to the mighty heart of God. You have not shed a tear or sighed a sigh, that did not come back to you exalted and purified by having passed through the Eternal bosom. 1. We may boldly expect mercy from Him who has learned to sympathise. He learned sympathy by being tempted; but it is by being tempted, yet without sin, that He is specially able to show mercy. 2. The other priestly power is the grace of showing “ help in time of need.” We must not make too much of sympathy, as mere feeling. We do in things spiritual as we do with the hothouse plants. The feeble exotic, beautiful to look at, but useless, has costly sums spent on it. The hardy oak, a nation’ s strength, is permitted to grow, scarcely observed, in the fence and copses. We prize feeling and praise its possessor. But feeling is only a sickly exotic in itself--a passive quality, having in it nothing moral, no temptation and no victory. A man is no more a good man for having feeling, than he is for having delicate ear for music, or a far-seeing optic nerve. The Son of Man had feeling--He could be “ touched.” The tear would start from His eyes at the sight of human sorrow. But that sympathy was no exotic in His soul, beautiful to look at, too delicate for use. Feeling with Him led to this, “ He went about doing good.” Sympathy with Him was this, “ Grace to help in time of need.” And this is the blessing of the thought of Divine sympathy. By the sympathy of man, after all, the wound is not healed; it is only stanched for a time. It can make the tear flow less bitterly, it cannot dry it up. So far as permanent good goes, who has not felt the deep truth which Job taught his friends--“ Miserable comforters are ye all “ ? The sympathy of the Divine Human! He knows what strength is needed. He gives grace to help. From this subject I draw, in concluding, two inferences. 1. He who would sympathise must be content to be tried and tempted. There is a hard and boisterous rudeness in our hearts by nature, which requires to be softened down. Therefore, if you aspire to be a son of consolation--if you would partake of the priestly gift of sympathy--if you would pour something beyond common-place consolation into a tempted heart--if you would pass through the intercourse of daily life, with the delicate tact which never inflicts pain--if to that most a cure of human ailments, mental doubt, you are ever to give effectual succour, you must be content to pay the price of the costly education. Like Him, you must suffer--being tempted. But remember, it is being tempted in all points, yet without sin, that makes sympathy real, manly, perfect, instead of a mere sentimental tenderness. Sin will teach you to feel for trials. It will not enable you to judge them; to be merciful to them--nor to help them in time of need with any certainty. 2. It is this same human sympathy which qualifies Christ for judgment. It is written that the Father hath committed all judgment to Him, because He is the Son of Man. The sympathy of Christ extends to the frailties of human nature; not to its hardened guilt: He is “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” There is nothing in His bosom which can harmonise with malice--He cannot feel for envy--He has no fellow-feeling for cruelty, oppression, hypocrisy, bitter censorious judgments. Remember, He could look round about Him with anger. The sympathy of Christ is a comforting subject. It is besides a tremendous subject; for on sympathy the awards of heaven and hell are built. “ Except a man be born again” --not he shall not, but--“ he cannot enter into heaven.” There is nothing in him which has affinity to anything in the Judge’ s bosom. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The sympathy of Christ I. IN ITS NATURE. The words “ touched,” &c., mean “ to have compassion,” “ to condole with.” It is something more than pity. Sympathy cannot properly belong to God, the perfection of His nature raises Him above it. But it is different with Christ. Being man He had all the real affection of human nature. II. IN ITS OBJECTS. These are all His people on earth, and it is manifested more particularly in their infirmities and afflictions. III. IN ITS REALITY. The sympathy of Christ is no ideal thing. It is no mere intellectual or ideal supposition. It is one which has been put to a most serious and solemn test. He took away with Him all the meekness, holiness, compassion, and love, which He had when on earth. It is further manifest from the relationship which exists between Him and His people. Again, it is manifest from the offices which He retains in heaven. Can an High Priest whose love was stronger than death be unmindful of those whom He has redeemed? It urges 1. Affection towards our Redeemer. Shall we sympathise with one another in the common calamities of life, and not be affected by the sufferings of Jesus for us? 2. It incites encouragement to repentance. Repentance is going to Christ. Surely His sympathetic nature and gracious disposition should be sufficient inducement to draw us to His arms. 3. It should make us willing patiently to live for God and employ ourselves in His service. If we suffer, or if we toil, He knows our condition, and is acquainted with our needs. 4. It ought to cause Christians to sympathise one with another. We need sympathy ourselves; we cannot justly withhold it from others. 5. How can any man go on day after day sinning against love and compassion so great? (The Preacher’ s Analyst.) Christ’ s sympathy with the infirm There is much to wonder at here. We wonder that He should care for us at all, but still more that that care should be for those of our experiences apparently least likely to move Him. Men are interested in our successes, in those points where we are strong and brave, for the most part they care little for our weakness. The dull child, who for all his trying makes no progress, has not a tithe of the kindly thought lavsihed on another. In society the timid and nervous are overlooked and fall into the background; the strong, the self-reliant, the well-to-do haw friends, but the weak are passed by. Now it is just these, it is just those points where we are low--our infirmities--that our Lord thinks about, and feels for, and longs to help. And in this He who is farther off than any comes closer than any. Human friends can understand sickness, and suffering, and loss, and care, but how little they understand mere infirmity! They think we could be cheerful if we would, or that infirmity at the worst is not hard to bear, and they do not attach much weight to it, and know not its sore need of thoughtfulness, or of how much it deprives us. But, says the text, Christ does. He comes nearer to us than man, He is the friend “ closer than a brother,” “ He knoweth our frame.” Nor does that exhaust the wonder of His sympathy, for many of our infirmities are more or less due to sin. Yet He does not scorn us, or say it serves us right; but is sorry for us, and would help us, and make us what we should have been. I. First, then, consider THE FACT OF THIS OF THE LORD JESUS. 1. It is assured by His personal human experience. 2. And this sympathy is assured by His perfect knowledge and love. 3. But is there not, I had almost said, a still stronger assurance of our Lord’ s sympathy in His union with His people? For that union is not merely one of love, nor of similarity of taste; it is that of a common life. II. THIS IN ITS WITH HIS HIGH- WORK, He is the medium by which we can approach God with our sin and need, and by which God can approach us with His blessings. Now it is easy to see how priceless is the assurance that this Mediator “ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” that He feels for us and is drawn to us by most tender sympathy. 1. As High Priest He has direct intercourse with us. The glory of God places Him at an infinite distance, but He has appointed Christ as His representative to us, and ours to Him. If a king appoints one to represent him to a prisoner who is not worthy to approach him, or to a poor man who is afraid, it is part of that representative’ s work to come into close intercourse with them; whoever else is barred from that prisoner’ s cell, or free to keep away from that poor man’ s house, that representative is not. So the Lord Jesus, in accepting His high-priesthood, undertook thus to come close to us, and He fulfils what He undertakes. 2. As High Priest He prays for the supply of our need. What they want is ever profoundly sure to His people since His prayer for them is influenced by His sympathy, and “ Him the father heareth always.” 3. As High Priest He brings us to the Father. We read of “ those who come unto God by Him” ; He said “ no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” Does that only mean that His sacrifice is the ground on which God receives us and refer to those who go to Him trusting that for acceptance, and not also that His is the help by which we tread the new and living way He is I Yes, Jesus brings us to God both by the merits of His sacrifice and by the aid of His Spirit. III. Then consider, THIS WITH THE PATTERN” FOR HIS PEOPLE. Christ-likeness includes sympathy. 1. Thus our Lord’ s sympathy rebukes our hardness. 2. His sympathy shows one of the great needs of the world. It is part of His saving work as His atonement is; it is to save that He sympathises. What saving power was in His kindness on earth! And that is what the world wants still for its regeneration. (C. New.) The sympathy of Christ It has been well said, “ Though the lower animals have feeling, they have no fellow-feeling, it only belongs to man to weep with them that weep, and, by sympathy, to divide another’ s sorrows and double another’ s joys.” I have read that the wounded stag sheds tears as its life blood flows fast upon the purple heather, but never that its pangs and agonies drew tears from its fellows in the herd. That finer touch of nature belongs to man alone. Sympathy is the echo that a heart gives to another’ s cry of anguish. But a few weeks since I was in the land of mountains, crags, and rocks, and there, at different well-selected spots, I heard the blast of the Swiss horn. Grand were the echoes as they rolled among the mountain gorges, giving every snowy peak a voice, and every pine-clad hill a tongue. Marvellous was it to have the sound that first came from our very feet flung back upon our ears from distant ranges, that looked the very embodiment of silence. But more musical by far, because more heavenly, is the response given by a heart touched with the feeling of another’ s grief, and that grief, the grief of one who has no legal claim upon its sympathy. But be it remembered, the best of human sympathy is but human sympathy at best. To see it in all its exquisite perfections of tenderness, we have to turn from man to his Maker--from the saint to his Saviour--from earth to heaven. I. THE OF JESUS FLOWS THROUGH . Tea thousand springs of earthly sympathy are sealed through ignorance. Child of God, the sympathy of your Saviour is never lacking through want of knowledge. There is no wall of separation, however thin, that hides from His eyes the sorrow and the misery within. Jesus knows the every care of every saint. Poor troubled one, thou mayest venture nigh. Thou canst not tell Him that He knew not long before. Are you trying to carry your cares in your own bosom? Like the Spartan youth who stole a fox and hid it in his coat; are you letting it eat its way into your very vitals rather than it should be discovered? For pity’ s sake forbear. Go cast yourselves upon the sympathy of Him who not only reads the sorrow of the face, but the deeper anguish of the heart. II. THE OF JESUS IS BY HIS NATURE. With Jesus to know is to be touched. If His knowledge cuts the channel, His nature at the same moment fills it with the stream of compassionate love. Would you know what Jesus is? Then you have but to find out what Jesus was. III. THE OF JESUS IS BY . This is very beautifully taught in the closing sentence of the verse, “ But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” There can after all be but little true sympathy, however loving the heart, where there has been no similar experience. It is the widow who knows best how to speak words of comfort to the one from whose side an affectionate husband has been torn. It is the man who has himself passed through the agonies of a financial difficulty that knows best how to cheer the one who, after every desperate effort to retrieve his fortune, yet finds himself going to the wall step by step. It is in the school of experience that the language of sympathy is best taught. Christ’ s knowledge of our trials is not a theoretical but an experimental one. He knows what the weight of a burden is by having carried it. (A. G. Brown.) The sympathy of the Saviour The doctrine of my text is, Able to save is also able to feel. I. Take the wonderful consolation of the text. Look at the expressive word “ TOUCHED” ; but is it not a weak, poor, or cold word? No I touched! That is, His sympathy does not overwhelm His power. Too great sympathy is death to power; the Saviour knows, helps, heals. Touched! He is not possessed by our infirmities. He always possessed them. As He said, “ I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again.” Walk with me through an infirmary; let us step from bed to bed--we are able to see, not to save--alas, what spectacles are here! Can you walk from bed to bed? can you feel for all that and this? Then, would your hand be strong enough to minister the skill of the surgeon and the tenderness of the nurse? It is difficult to walk through this, and to be touched with tenderness, and not lose the skilfulness. Hence it is said of our Lord, “ He was touched” ; that is, He holds our infirmities; on the contrary they hold us--our infirmities do not overwhelm His power. “ Touched by the feeling of our infirmities,” He was untouched by the power of our infirmities. It was the last lesson necessary “ to make Him a merciful and faithful High Priest” ; it only proved His human ability to feel, and gives us confidence in His infinite ability to save. II. EXTEND THIS INTO . And now from this shall we, after thus dwelling on the sympathy of the Saviour, proceed to see how it illustrates the principle of Divine Providence. The suffering of the world is the great mystery of the world; but what is the suffering of the world, compared with the greater mystery of the suffering of Christ? Can pure being know pain? Can God condition Himself in infirmity? Can eternity be touched by time? Well, Christ says, I cannot save you from suffering, but I can suffer for you; nay, I can attest Myself to your hearts as perpetually suffering with you. III. LET US NARROW THE TEXT TO THE . I repeat, the doctrine of the text is, Able to save is able to feel. We find even among men that sympathy is more or less perfect as the holiness of the person is more or less so. There is no real sympathy among men of sensual, worldly, unspiritual life, unless we are to call the mere operations of natural instinct sympathy; it is not natural pity, it is consciousness, it differs little from our fellow-perception of heat and cold. Sin kills sympathy; as a man becomes infected with the power of evil, he ceases to sympathise with others, all his feelings centre in himself. Sin is self-centring; sinners put all worst constructions on each other’ s words and acts--they have no consideration, no forbearance. Sanctity and charity are one; gentleness, compassion, tenderness, ripens--personal holiness grows more and more mature, and sympathy becomes more perfect as repentance becomes more perfect. May I venture a word on thoughts beyond our probation? They only have true sympathy who are dead to themselves, they must most truly sympathise who are most free from the taints of evil. Now, does not this give light to the nature of His sympathy who was God of very God, was made Man that He might unite us wholly to Himself? Above and beyond all sympathy is that of our High Priest. (E. Paxton Hood.) Christ touched with a feeling of our infirmities For the explaining of this let me show 1. What it is to be our High Priest. 2. What those infirmities are, with the feeling of which He is touched. 3. What it is to be touched with the feeling of them. 1. For the first, His office, as High Priest, may be best known by the acts of it. The acts of His office are principally two. (1) Sacrificing for us to make reconciliation (Hebrews 2:17). (2) By interceding. 2. What those infirmities are, with the feeling of which He is touched. Infirmities here are whatever our frail condition makes us subject to suffer by. 3. What is it to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities? (1) He knows all our infirmities. None of them escape His notice. (2) He knows them experimentally. Has Himself been exercised with them. (3) He is affected with our infirmities, He feels them, He is touched with the feeling of them. He has a sense thereof which touches His soul, and makes some impression on it; as one who not only has suffered what others feel, but suffers with them in what they feel. As when one member is under some grievance, not only the other members suffer with it, but the soul is affected with grief arising out of love, attended with desire to give or get relief, and anger and indignation against that which brought the grievance, or continues it, and hinders relier. In like manner is Christ affected with the infirmities of His people. (a) He pities, has compassion on them. (b) And this pity and compassion is not without the motions and acts of love. Indeed, this is the rise of it. It is out of such a love as made Him willing to humble Himself so low as to take our weaknesses and infirmities upon Him. (c) This is attended with desire, accompanied with an inclination to succour, relieve such, whose condition is to be pitied; to do that which is best for them in such a condition. That which wants this is no pity indeed. It is that which is most advantageous and desirable in this affection; it is all that we must understand by compassion, when the Scripture ascribes it to the Lord; and when we conceive it to be in Christ as God, in the Divine nature, it is not in Him a troublesome or passionate grief. That is an imperfection not to be ascribed to Him; nor would it be any advantage to us if He were liable to it. But it is a willingness in Him to help and succour those whose state calls for pity or commiseration. (d) This is accompanied with zeal and anger, or indignation, against those who occasion the grievance, or would make it worse and heavier. (4) He is affected with our infirmities as a man. As He has a human nature, so He has human affections. (5) He is affected with our infirmities as one concerned in us very much and nearly. As a friend (John 15:14-15); as a brother (Hebrews 12:11-12); as a father, with the grievances of His children (Hebrews 2:13); as a husband, with the wants or sufferings of the wife of His own 2 Corinthians 11:2); as one united to us, as counting Himself one with us (Ephesians 1:22-23). (6) He is affected with them really and to purpose. He has a more effectual sense of them than any other, men or angels, yea, or we ourselves have; for He has such a sense thereof as will assuredly bring relier, which neither we ourselves, nor men or angels for us, can do in many cases. (7) It is all extensive sympathy, it reaches all our infirmities. He has compassion on us in all our weaknesses, all that we suffer by, in all that has anything of misery or activeness in it. This is plain by the latter end of this verse: He “ was in all points tempted,” &c. Oh but, it may be said, this exception does exclude the greatest part of our infirmities from this sympathy, and us from the comfort and advantage of it, in those points too which stand in most need of it: for those infirmities which proceed from sin, or are mixed with it, and sin itself especially, are our greatest misery, make our present state most lamentable, and so stand in most need of pity and relief. If Christ be not touched with the feeling of these (which are worst of all), so as to have compassion on us, and be ready to succour us, we are to seek in our greatest pressures and grievances, where we have most necessity of relief and pity; as e.g., (a) In those infirmities which are from sin, the effects of sin, which are many and great, is He not touched with the feeling, &c.? I answer, Yes, He is touched, &c. These are not excluded by the expression. He Himself laboured under these; for such infirmities as are from sin may be sinless, though they be the effects of sin, yet they may be innocent in themselves, and without sin; and all that are without sin He Himself was exercised with. He was tempted in all points, exercised with all infirmities, even those which are the effects of sin, as we are; only they were in Him without sin, as they are not in us. For He took the nature of fallen man, as it was bruised and rendered infirm by the fall; He took our nature as weakened by sin, though not as defiled by it; there was no sin in His human nature, but there were those weaknesses and infirmities which were the sad issues of sin. These He laboured under, and so knows how to pity and sympathise effectually with those that are yet under them. (b) But in sinful infirmities, what relief is there hereby for them? Christ was not touched with any that were sinful, and how can He be touched with the feeling of them? e.g., the people of Christ have much ignorance and darkness, and many spiritual wants; they are sinfully defective, both in knowledge and holiness; and these are in themselves, and to those that are duly sensible of them, greater miseries than poverty, or sickness, or other outward afflictions and sufferings. I answer, Christ had something of these, though nothing of the sinfulness of them; so much of these, as that He can sympathise with His people under them. He wanted much knowledge of many things; He wanted some spiritual gifts, yea, and some exercise of grace, in some parts of His life, while He was upon earth. He came not to perfection in these, but by degrees, and till then was under some defect and imperfection, though not any that was sinful. For He wanted none that He ought to have had, or that His present state was capable of; yet, wants, defects, and inward weaknesses, without sin, He was really under Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52). Hereby it seems plain, that He had not at first that measure of knowledge, and of the Holy Ghost, as afterwards. He knew not so much, nor had that exercise of grace m His infancy or childhood, as at perfect age. His faculties were not capable of full perfection herein till they came to full maturity. So that He knows by experience what it is to be under defects and wants, and so knows how to pity those who labour under them. In this the comparison holds betwixt Him and the Levitical high priest (Hebrews 5:2). (c) Oh, but He was never touched with sin (Hebrews 1:16), and this is our greatest misery, the sting of all grievances, that which makes all other to be heavy and grievous. If He be not touched with the feeling of our sin, we are at a loss where we have most need. I answer, There are four things considerable about sin, the offence, temptation to it, guilt of it, punishment for it. Now there are none of these but Christ was touched with them, but the first only. So that He had a greater sense of sin than any of His people ever had. We may hear Him cry out under the weight of it Lamentations 1:12). The whole penalty and curse was upon Him, part of which made His soul heavy unto death. So that, though He was without sin, yet He was touched, or rather oppressed with such a sense of sin, as is enough abundantly to move Him to all compassionateness to any of His people under the burden. It is an extensive sympathy; such as reaches not only infirmities that have no respect to sin, but those that are from sin, as its effects, and those that are sinful formally, yea, sin itself; He is touched with the feeling of all. (8) It is a proportionable sympathy; a compassion which is exactly answerable to the nature and quality of every infirmity; fully commensurable to it, whatever it be. As it is not more than it needs, so it is not less than it requires, how much compassion and relief so ever it calls for. (9) A constant and perpetual sympathy. It continues without any intermission so long as He is High Priest, or so long as our infirmities continue; so long as we are under any weakness, inward or outward; so long as we are in any danger or peril; so long as we are exposed to any trouble or suffering. This is one thing wherein the faithful discharge of His priestly office consists. And He is a priest for ever (Psalms 110:4), repeated often in this Epistle (Hebrews 5:6; Hebrews 7:17; Hebrews 7:21). Use I. For instruction. This truth leads the people of Christ to many duties, and strongly obliges to the performance of them. 1. To admire Christ; to employ your minds in high, adoring, admiring thoughts of Christ, in His person, natures, offices, and the execution of them; but especially, wonderful in this, that He would be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. 2. To love Christ. There is no greater attractive of love to an ingenious temper than love. Now in that Christ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, you have a most evident demonstration that He loves you. For hereby it is very clear what His love to you is. (1) A great love, and most extensive; that can reach all conditions and circumstances which you are or may be in, even such as the love of others will not touch, will not come near: a love that will show itself in all cases, even where it could be least expected; a love that will surmount and overflow all discouragements. (2) A free love. This is an evidence He can love freely; He can love those who are all made up of defects and imperfections. (3) A lasting, a constant love, such as all the waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown. It cannot be nonplussed, it abides the sorest trials. (4) A peerless love. It cannot be matched. There is no such thing to be found in heaven or earth, but in Christ only. Now, as He is High Priest, He is both God and man; and so His love to us is both the love of God and also the love of man in one person. No instance of such a love can be given in the whole world. (5) It is a cordial love, not in show or appearance only, not in outward acts and expressions, but such as springs from His heart and affects that. He is touched, i.e., His heart is touched with the concerns of His people. (6) An all-sufficient love. II. For comfort to the people of Christ. Here is ground of great consolation in every condition; in the worst, the most grievous circumstances that you can be compassed with in this world. (D. Clarkson, B. D.) Our sympathising and sinless High Priest I. WE HAVE AN HIGH PRIEST. It is in no figurative sense that Christ is called a High Priest. II. WE HAVE A HIGH PRIEST. 1. His nature secures us of His sympathy. And this sympathy is of that intimate and tender kind of which He may be supposed capable who was in all respects like His brethren--that is, in all things requisite to constitute a perfect human nature. If, indeed, we make a distinction between sinless and sinful infirmities, we must also make a distinction between the kinds of feeling with which our High Priest can be touched. He is capable of feeling for both, but not certainly in the same manner. Those infirmities which we call sinless, and which are rather the painful consequences of sin than in themselves sinful, He felt Himself, as being inseparable now from human nature; and, consequently, He feels a sympathy of love for these unmingled with any emotions of disapprobation. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 5:1-3 Every high priest taken from among men The high priesthood of Christ I. CHRIST’ S OF OUR NATURE, AS TO HIM FOR OF THE OFFICE OF A HIGH PRIEST ON OUR BEHALF, IS A GREAT GROUND OF UNTO , A THAT HE IS, AND WILL BE, TENDER AND TOWARDS THEM. II. IT WAS THE OF SIN THAT MADE THE OFFICE OF THE . III. IT WAS OF GRACE THAT SUCH AN WAS MADE. Without it all holy intercourse between God and man must have ceased. For neither 1. Were the persons of sinners meet to approach unto God; nor 2. Was any service which they could perform, or were instructed how to perform, suited unto the great end which man was now to look after; namely, peace with God. For the persons of all men being defiled, and obnoxious unto the curse of the law, how should they appear in the presence of the righteous and holy God (Isaiah 33:14; Micah 6:8). IV. THE PRIEST IS BY THE OF HIS DUTY, OR OF HIS OFFICE; WHICH IS HIS . BOTH GIFTS AND FOR SIN. V. WHERE THERE IS NO PROPER THERE IS NO PROPER PRIEST. Every priest is to offer sacrifices for sin; that is, to make atonement. VI. JESUS CHRIST ALONE IS THE HIGH PRIEST OF HIS PEOPLE. For He alone could offer a sacrifice for our sins to make atonement. VII. IT WAS A GREAT WHICH THE CHURCH ENJOYED OF OLD, IN THE WHICH IT HAD BY GOD’ S , OF THE AND OF CHRIST. IN THEIR OWN TYPICAL PRIESTS AND . VIII. MUCH MORE IS OUR UNDER THE GOSPEL SINCE OUR LORD JESUS HATH TAKEN UPON HIM, AND THIS PART OF HIS OFFICE, IN AN PERFECT AND FOR SIN. Here is the foundation laid of all our peace and happiness. IX. WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH GOD ON THE ACCOUNT OF SIN, THAT IT MAY BE AND , AND THAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD WHO HAVE SINNED MAY BE WITH HIM AND BLESSED, IS ALL DONE FOR THEM BY JESUS CHRIST THEIR HIGH PRIEST, IN THE FOR SIN WHICH HE OFFERED ON THEIR BEHALF. (John, Owen, D. D.) Compassion on the ignorant Divine compassion There was no person in the Hebrew economy that was so revered as their high priest. He became more corrupt in the political times preceding Christ; but the name high priest, as interpreted by the whole history of the Hebrew people, was one that was not only reverenced, but loved. He was ordained, it is said, to have compassion; he was their highest ideal of purity; he stood in the grandeur of a supposed inspiration; he represented God, or, still better, he represented the people to God; he was their advocate; he stood in their place officially, and in every way helped to bring men up without any oppression; he was a minister of mercy to them; and you could not have struck a bell that would roll through the air with such melodious sound as by saying that Jesus Christ stood as a high priest to the people, and that compassion was the great attribute of Jesus; that He not only represented the people in their wants, but that He was a forthcomer of the very God Himself, and represented God to mankind as far as men obscured by the flesh are capable of understanding God. You cannot measure the infinite wisdom, and you cannot measure the eternal glow and glory of love, and you cannot in the infirmities of human life in all its relationships have any satisfying representation of the richness and infinite element of the Divine nature. So, in searching for some emblem the apostle strikes through to the centre, and says that Jesus Christ is a High Priest to represent--what? On the one side to represent the infirmities of men. He is clothed with them Himself; He is touched with a feeling of our infirmities; lie knows the height, and depth, and length and breadth of human experience and human need, and He is gone up to stand before God, our High Priest there; and not only to represent the wants of mankind, but in doing that He represents to us what is the interior character of God Himself, and what is the economy of the Divine love. In the earlier periods of the world’ s history God was revealed in those aspects that would be most powerful to restrain animalism. The revelation of God’ s motive power was toward the part that the man could understand; it was a physical manifestation of God as a God that governs the material world, which has certain fixed laws that cannot be broken without penalty immediate or remote; and so He was represented in the earlier periods of the world as the all-compelling Governor of the world. Pain in this world and suffering are God’ s merciful ministers to keep men in the road. “ So,” says God, “ I will by no means count it a matter of indifference whether a man lives right or wrong. He shall live right or he shall suffer, because I am a God of mercy and love.” So the Old Testament had a sublime conception of God, but when you come down to the prophets, when lust immeasurable threatened to overwhelm society, when the great curse of idolatry was licentiousness, then God says: “ I will not relax one particle of My eternal law; I will wait till the crooked grows straight, till the inferior is exalted, I will have compassion on men; when they are transgressing their own nature and My moral law and all things pure and holy, I will still have patience, that I may bring them back again.” There is the ideal of the Old Testament. But, coming down to a later period, when men were brutal they needed a little thunder, and the prophets gave it to them. They developed the regent character of God. “ I abhor wickedness and My fury shall burn to the lowest hell, I will not tolerate it; I have not built the world for this: wicked men and devils shall not desecrate it; I will put forth a hand of strength, and I will clothe Myself in garments of blood! I will walk forth so that the land shall tremble in My indignation; wickedness shall not prevail; purity in manhood and Divine excellence shall prevail.” And so the thunder of God’ s justice and the threatenings of God’ s law were sounded out continually because men were on so low a plane that they needed just that development of the Divine nature. But that has given a disproportionate idea of God’ s character. Men have been taught that He is the implacable thunderer. Another reason is that it is easier for us to thunder than it is to love. But it was not until the sun rose at the Advent that there came a morning outburst that gave us sight, not of the administration of God’ s government among men, but of the heart of God Himself in Jesus Christ. There we see the inside of God; and what was that? If Calvary does not teach it, if His walk among the poor and needy does not teach it, if all the acts of mercy do not inspire you with the knowledge, if you need it shaped into a doctrine, then hear it here. He represents that the inner nature of God, as represented by Jesus Christ acting in place of the high priest, was one that could “ have compassion on the ignorant and on those that are out of the way” --all error, all stumbling, all sin, all violation of the ideal of duty. The infinite bounty of Divine love is not savage nor partial, it is universal, it is intense beyond description. What is infinite? That beyond which the thought of man cannot go; that that has, to our thought, no boundary, extent beyond ending. What is infinite compassion? That that would wrap this globe round and round a thousand times, like the folds of a garment round the body, with Divine thoughtfulness, Divine mercy, Divine love. What is infinite love? What is a mother’ s love? The purest and tenderest thing that is known on earth is the overhanging heart of a mother upon the cradle that has in it that little nothing which we call a babe, that can give nothing back, that receives everything arid returns nothing. Yet the love of the mother is but one drop of the ocean as compared with the love of the great Father of mankind--infinite, infinite! (H. W. Beecher.) Compassion on the ignorant I. AND ARE TWO THINGS WHICH ANY MAN WHO WOULD DO GOOD TO HIS FELLOW-MEN OUGHT TO POSSESS TO A VERY LARGE DEGREE. 1. You will have plenty of use for all the compassion and all the tenderness that you can possibly command, for this will help to draw around you those who are ignorant and out of the way. Love is the queen bee, and where she is you will rind the centre of the hive. 2. By this same spell you will hold those whom you gather, for men will not long remain with an unloving leader, even little children in our classes will not long listen to an unsympathetic teacher. The earth is held together by the force of attraction, and to the men upon it that same power is exercised by love and compassion. 3. Compassion in your heart will be greatly useful in moving sinners to care for themselves. Mr. Knill at one time was distributing tracts at Chester, and went out where there was a company of soldiers. Many received the tracts, but one man tore the little book in pieces before the good man’ s eyes; and on another occasion the same individual said to the soldiers, “ Now make a ring round him.” The men stood round the preacher, and then the wicked fellow cursed him in such a frightful manner that Mr. Knill burst into tears to hear such awful sounds. The sight of Knill’ s tears broke the heart of the blasphemer: nothing else could have touched him, but he could not bear to see a strong man who was at least his equal, and, probably, his superior, weeping over him. Years after he came forward to own that the tender emotion displayed by Mr. Knill had touched his inmost soul, and led him to repentance. 4. You want great compassion to insure your own perseverance, for if you do not love the children of your class, if you do not love the people whom you try to benefit as you go from house to house, if you have no compassion on the dying sinners around you, you will soon give up your mission, or go about it in a merely formal manner. 5. Compassion of heart can alone teach you how to speak to others. 6. Now, there are many reasons why we should have a great deal of compassion and forbearance. Think what patience God had with you, all those years before your conversion, and multitudes of times since; and if He has had patience with your, should not you have patience with your fellow sinner even to the end? There is one reflection which may help you. Remember that these poor souls who sin as they do should be looked upon by you as persons who are deranged, for sin is madness. And do recollect this--if you do not have compassion you cannot do them good. If you become weary of them, and speak sharply, you cannot bless them; and, perhaps, if you are not the means of blessing them, nobody else may be. Ah, is it your own husband? Wife, win him. Do not drive him from bad to worse by scolding. Sister, is it your brother? Woo him and win him to Christ. Do not vex him by becoming acid and sour. II. AND PRE- DWELL IN JESUS CHRIST. 1. He has compassion on the ignorant. Very many persons are wilfully ignorant of Christ. Is not this enough to move the Lord to anger? And yet His patience continues. Come to Him just as you are and confess your wilful blindness, and He will put it away, and enable you to understand the things which make for your peace. Stone are ignorant, however, because they have been cast where they could not well know; they were born in an ungodly family, or, what is much the same, among those who have only a mere formal religion. They do not know the truth, but they can scarcely be blamed for it. Well, Christ is able to teach you. Come and sit at His feet, for He will have compassion on your ignorance. 2. He will have compassion upon those that are out of the way. Who are these people? Some are out of the way because they never were in it and never knew it. Many are in a very emphatic sense out-of-the-way sinners.. They have gone to such extravagances that they are out of the way of common morality, and quite startle their careless comrades. Well, my Lord Jesus will have compassion on you out-of-the-way sinners. However far you have gone, only turn to Him, for pardon is freely published. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The human sympathies of Christianity Every religion professes to reveal to us the supernatural; every philosophy professes to teach u, moral duty; but Christianity alone has, together with these, approached man with tender and helpful sympathy. Even Judaism did not. Assuredly infidelity does not; it may be very philosophical, it may inculcate a very pretentious morality, but it has no tenderness and sympathy; it has nothing like the Christian ideas of human brotherhood, and Divine Fatherhood. And yet, is not this precisely what we need? Not stern injunctions to be good, but sympathy and help in trying to be good. What is it, think you, that makes your destitute neighbour, who lives in a garret, and dines upon a crust, and shivers in the cold, and writhes in his pain, talk calmly of his condition, uttering no word of complaint, looking rather at the alleviations of his sorrow, than at his sorrow itself; speaking of mercies even where you can hardly discover them. Is it religious cant, think you? If it be, this cant is a very wonderful thing. It can do what nothing else save Christianity can do: it can make a suffering and poverty-stricken man patient through long weary years. What is it, again, that enables the tradesman when misfortune comes upon him, or the husband, when the mother of his children is smitten down, and his house is darkened, to kneel down before God with a breaking heart, and to rise up calm and comforted; what is it, but this very Christianity teaching him, not only that his sins are forgiven, but that God, even while he lives on earth, is his Heavenly Father; watching over his life, and appointing every experience of it, solely intent upon doing him the greatest possible good? Let us look a little, then, at these human sympathies of Christ and Christianity. You will see from the chapter that the apostle is speaking of the necessary qualifications of a high priest; and he says that one of these is, that he should be full of human sympathies--“ Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.” And these requisites, he goes on to say, are very eminently found in Christ. Here, then, we encounter “ the great mystery of godliness,” the great fundamental fact of Christianity, upon which all its cardinal doctrines rest, that “ God was manifest in the flesh” ; that He was essentially Divine, became also properly human--the “ Emmanuel, God with us.” I call this the most wonderful, the most practical, and the most powerful thought that the world has ever conceived. Why did He become Incarnate? The general answer is--that by “ compassing Himself with infirmity He might have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.” Let me show you this in three things. We are ignorant of God’ s righteousness, and out of the way through our guilt. We are ignorant of God’ s holiness, and out of the way through our sinfulness. We are ignorant of God’ s happiness, and out of the way through our misery. And to have compassion on us in each of these respects, Christ became incarnate--compassed Himself with infirmities; for our pardon, for our purity, and for our peace. And these are our three great human necessities. 1. First, the apostle tells that He became incarnate to procure our pardon. “ He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” --that He might be capable, that is, of suffering death. A wonderful thought that--the express purpose for which the Divine Son took our nature was that He might die for us! “ Herein is love.” “ In this the love of God is manifested.” Other persons come into the world to live; Jesus Christ came into the world to die. In the very midst of His transfiguration glory “ He spake of the decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem.” In the very midst of His resurrection triumph, He told His disciples that “ thus it was written, and thus it behoved Him to suffer.” And so perfectly were they filled with the idea of His death, that they described themselves as preachers, not of Christ’ s teaching, although He “ spake as never man spake” not of Christ’ s life, although He was “ holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” --but of Christ’ s death: “ We preach Christ crucified.” And why this strange and exclusive theme of preaching? Plato’ s disciples preach his doctrine--Moses’ followers preached his laws. Why do Christian preachers preach only Christ’ s death?--glory in a cross? Why, just because we are “ ignorant and cut of the way,” and this Cross precisely meets our first great need as transgressors; it is Christ’ s first great proof of redeeming compassion, the first great reason for which He compassed Himself with human infirmity that He might have compassion upon our guilt. It was not merely that He humbled Himself, but that He humbled Himself m this manner, did for us by taking our nature what He could not have done in any other way, and laid down His life for us. 2. And then Christ, as our merciful High Priest, has compassion upon us in our impurity, and takes upon Him our nature that He may set us an example of holiness. Here is a second great reason for His being “ compassed with infirmities” --a man like ourselves. He shows us how pure and perfect, and obedient, and patient human life may be. “ He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.” “ He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” He did not permit either temptation or suffering to sway Him in His obedience: He would fast in the wilderness rather than sin, He would endure the bitter anguish of Gethsemane rather than oppose His Father’ s will. And having such experience of duty and temptation and suffering, He learned how arduous human virtue is--how much grace and strength it requires. Do you not see, then, how great and precious a purpose of His incarnation this is, to set us a perfect human example? He does not enjoin holiness merely, or describe it in a book--He embodies it in His life; He comes into our sinful world and homes, not as a holy God, but a holy Man; so that if we would be holy, we have only to “ consider Him,” to “ walk even as He walked,” to “ follow His steps.” We learn duty from His obedience; love from His tenderness. We clasp His hand, we walk by His side, we witness His life, the beautiful and perfect exhibition in Him of the moral possibilities of a sanctified manhood. 3. He can have compassion upon us in our sorrows. And for this again He was “ compassed with infirmities.” It is not without deep significance that He is called “ the Man of sorrows,” and said to be “ acquainted with grief,” as if grief were His familiar acquaintance. Emphatically is He “ the Man Christ Jesus,” “ bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh” ; “ both He that sanctifieth and they that are satisfied are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” In all His earthly experience of duty, and temptation and sorrow He is never less, He is never more than a proper Man, “ A Brother born for the day of adversity.” Oh! how wonderful this is, and yet how precious, that He “ the Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth not neither is weary,” should incarnate Himself in the weakness of a little child and in the woes of a sorrowful man! And yet this is precisely what we needed; it is an assurance that comes home to our deepest hearts. Do you not often feel the unspeakable worth of a friend who understands your trials and difficulties and sorrows, who can lovingly enter into all your experiences, and give you counsel and sympathy? Then must it not be infinitely more precious to go to One, who, while on the human side of His nature He can thus be “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because in all points tempted as we are,” is also on the Divine side Almighty to help, and loving to pity? (H. Allon, D. D.) Our compassionate High Priest Often, when we are trying to do good to others, we get more good ourselves. When I was here one day this week, seeing friends who came to join the church, there came among the rest a very diffident, tenderhearted woman, who said many sweet things to me about her Lord, though she did not think that they were any good, I know. She was afraid that I should not have patience with her and her poor talk; but she said one thing which I specially remember: “ I have to-day put four things together, from which I have derived a great deal of comfort,” she told me. “ And what are they, my sister?” I asked. “ Well,” she said, “ they are those four classes--‘ the unthankful and the evil, the ignorant and those that are out of the way.’ Jesus ‘ is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil,’ and ‘ He can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way,’ and I think that I can get in through those four descriptions. Though I am a great sinner, I believe that He will be kind to me, and have compassion upon me.” I stored that up; for I thought that one of these days I might want it myself; I tell it to you, for if you do not want it now, you may need it one of these days; you may yet have to think that you have been unthankful and evil, ignorant and out of the way, and it will give you comfort to remember that our Lord Jesus is kind to the unthankful and to the evil, and that He “ can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.” I. THE SORT OF SINNERS FOR WHOM OUR HIGH PRIEST IS . 1. The people who claim Christ’ s aid are generally those who have a very low opinion of themselves. The proud and self-satisfied cannot know His love; but the poor and distressed may ever find in Him comfort and joy, because of His nature, and by means of His intercession. 2. As with the high priest of old, amongst those who come to our High Priest are many whose fear and distress arise from ignorance. (1) There is a universal ignorance. As compared with the light of God, we are in the dim twilight. He that seeth best only seeth men as trees walking. (2) But, in addition to the ignorance that is universal, there is also a comparative ignorance on the part of some; and because of this the compassion of Christ flows forth to them. There are, first, the recent converts--young people whose years are few, and who probably think that they know more than they do; but who, if they are wise, will recognise that their senses have not been fully exercised to discern between good and evil. Others there are who are ignorant because of their little opportunity of getting instruction. Upon these our great High Priest has compassion, and often with their slight knowledge they show more of the fruits of the Spirit than some of us produce even with our inure abundant light. There are many that are of a very feeble mind. They could never explain how they were saved; but they are saved. (3) There is also a sinful ignorance. Now comes another description of the sort of sinners for whom our High Priest is concerned. There are many whose fears arise from being out of the way. The Lord “ can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.” I remember that, when I felt myself to be a very great sinner, these words were very, very much blessed to me. I read them, “ and on them that are out of the way” ; and I knew that I was an out-of-the-way sinner. I was then, and I am afraid that I am now, somewhat like a lot out of the catalogue, an odd person who must go by himself. Very well; our High Priest can have compassion on those that are odd, and on those that are out of the way, on those who do not seem to be in the common run of people, but who must be dealt with individually, and by themselves. He can have compassion upon such. But now let us look at the more exact meaning of the text. (1) To be out of the way is, in the case of all men, their natural state. (2) In addition to that, men have gone out of their way by their own personal folly. We had enough original sin; but we have added to that another kind of originality in evil. (3) Some are out of the way because of their seduction from the way by others. False teachers have taught them, and they have taken up with the error brought before them by a stronger mind than their own. In some cases persons of evil life have had a fascination over them. (4) Many are out of the way because of their backslidings after grace has come to them. (5) Others are out of the way because of their consciousness of special sin. Come to this compassionate High Priest, and trust your ease in His hands; they were pierced because of your sin. II. THE SORT OF HIGH PRIEST WITH WHOM SINNERS HAVE TO DEAL. 1. He is One who can bear with ignorance, forgetfulness, and provocation. 2. He is One who can feel for grief, because He has felt the same. 3. He is One who lays Himself out tenderly to help such as come to Him. 4. He is One who never repelled a single person. III. Now, I want to speak to those of you who are the people of God. I want to remind you that there may be a blessing even in your weakness; and that this may be the more clearly seen we will look, in the third place, at the SORT OF WHICH MAY BE AND MADE USEFUL. The high priest of old was compassed with infirmities, and this was part of his qualification. “ Yes,” says one, “ but he was compassed with sinful infirmities; but our Lord Jesus had no sin.” That is quite true, but remember that this does not make Christ less tender, but more so. Anything that is sinful hardens; and inasmuch as He was without sin, He was without the hardening influence that sin would bring to bear upon a man. He was all the more tender when compassed with infirmities, because sin was excluded from the list. We will not, then, reckon sin in any form as an infirmity likely to be turned to a great use, even though the grace of God abounds over the sin; but let me speak to some of you who wish to do good, and set forth some of the things which were sore to bear at the time, and yet have been rich in blessing since. 1. First think of our struggles in finding mercy. If you have not had a certain experience, you cannot so well help others who have; but if you were compassed with infirmity at your first coming to Christ, you may use that in helping others to come to Him. 2. Again, our grievous temptations may be infirmities which shall be largely used in our service. You cannot be unto others a helper unless you have been compassed with infirmities. Therefore accept the temptations which trouble you so much, as a part of your education to make you useful to others. 3. Our sickness may turn out to be in the same category. 4. Our trials, too, may thus be sanctified. 5. Our depressions may also tend to our fruitfulness. A heart bowed down with despair is a dreadful thing. “ A wounded spirit who can bear?” But if you have never had such an experience you will not be worth a pin as a preacher. You cannot help others who are depressed unless you have been down in the depths yourself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The compassionate High Priest I. AND , WITH , IN THOSE FROM WHOM WE EXPECT HELP AND RELIEF, IS THE GREAT MOTIVE AND UNTO FAITH, , AND OF THEM. II. We live, THE LIFE OF OUR SOULS IS , UPON THIS OF OUR HIGH PRIEST; namely, that He is able to bear with us in our provocations, and to pity us in our weaknesses and distresses. To this purpose is the promise concerning Him (Isaiah 40:11). There are three things that are apt to give great provocations unto them that are concerned in us. 1. Frequency in offending. 2. Greatness of offences. 3. Instability in promises and engagements. These are things apt to give provocations, beyond what ordinary moderation and meekness can bear withal; especially where they are accompanied with a disregard of the greatest love and kindness. And all these are found in believers, some in one, and some in another, and some in all. III. Though every sin hath in it the whole nature of sin, rendering the sinners obnoxious unto the curse of the law; yet as there are several kinds of sins, so THERE ARE SEVERAL DEGREES OF SIN, some being accompanied with a greater guilt than others. 1. There is a distinction of sins with respect unto the persons that commit them. But this distinction ariseth from the event, and not from the nature of the sin itself intended. Regenerate persons will, through the grace of God, certainly use the means of faith and repentance for the obtaining of pardon, which the other will not; and if they are assisted also so to do, even they in like manner shall obtain forgiveness. No man therefore can take a relief against the guilt of sin from his state and condition, which may be an aggravation, and can be no alleviation of it. 2. There are degrees of sin amongst men unregenerate, who live in a course of sin all their days. All do not sin equally, nor shall all be equally punished. 3. In the sins of believers there are different degrees, both in divers, and in the same persons. And although they shall be all pardoned, yet have they different effects; with respect (1) Unto peace of conscience. (2) Sense of the love of God. (3) Growth in grace and holiness. (4) Usefulness or scandal in the Church or the world. (5) Temporal afflictions. (6) A quiet or troublesome departure out of this world; but in all, a reserve is still to be made for the sovereignty of God and His grace. IV. OUR IS BOTH OUR , OUR SIN, AND AN OF MANY SINS UNTO US. V. SIN IS A FROM THE WAY. VI. NO SORT OF SINNERS ARE FROM AN IN THE CARE AND LOVE OF OUR HIGH PRIEST, BUT ONLY THOSE WHO EXCLUDE BY THEIR . VII. IT WAS WELL FOR US, AND ENOUGH FOR US, THAT THE LORD CHRIST WAS WITH THE SINLESS OF OUR NATURE. VIII. GOD CAN TEACH A USE OF SINFUL , AS HE DID IN AND TO THE PRIESTS UNDER THE LAW. (John Owen, D. D.) Tenderness Our relation to the things under us is the most certain touchstone of our character. Here we display quite freely what we are. We embody, on a small scale, as it may be, the spirit of fathers or the spirit of despot. We employ our superiority of power, whatever it is, either to bring to a clearer light the signs of God’ s counsel in external nature which wait for our interpretation, or to assert ourselves in the impotence of caprice as able to preserve, or to deface, or to destroy that which it., indeed, God’ s work. We either use that which is at our disposal arbitrarily for our own pleasure, or we deal with it as representing some fragment of a complicated order of life. We depress our dependents and our subordinates, the weaker men who come within our influence, that we may be isolated in the splendour of a lonely tyranny, or we strive to lift them little by little towards our own level, that in the great day of revelation we may be seen standing by the throne in the midst of many brethren; for, when we speak of the things under us, we must give to the phrase a much larger meaning than we commonly attach to it. It reaches far beyond the men who are under us. The revelation which has been made to us of the Divine plan of creation shows that we are placed in a world over the whole of which we have to exercise dominion, charged, as the true ruler must be charged, with a responsibility towards every part of it. We have from the first a responsibility towards the material fabric of the world, no less than towards the hosts of sentient beings by which this material fabric is peopled. And then, as the ages go forward, our responsibility increases. The feebler races which fall behind in the development of life become subject to the stronger, and the feebler men to those who in any respect have been endowed with the prerogative of command. Thus the sphere of the responsibility of those to whom power is given becomes indefinitely varied, but in each case the position of authority brings with it the burden of noble cares. We all must and do exercise dominion for good or for evil, and we all need the spirit of tenderness that our dominion may he a blessing. Tenderness is for dominion what sympathy is for fellowship. Tenderness pierces through the surface to the heart of things. It is true of tenderness, in every application of the pregnant figure, that it “ will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax.” It discerns the element of strength in that which is most frail, and the element of life in that which is darkest. It sees in forms transitory and common Divine gifts to be handled reverently. It sees in simple and subject types of life memories, as it were, the promises of a great plan slowly fulfilled from stage to stage. It sees in the rudest human mind a mirror for reflecting, however imperfectly, the image of a Father in heaven; and, as we trust the varied vision, new thoughts pass into our own souls, and we become conscious of hidden forces about us which are able to still the sorrowful impatience of our eager desires. Tenderness in each direction quickens our spiritual sensibility, and under inspired teaching, nature and creaturely life and even man’ s failures disclose mysteries of hope. It springs out of our Christian faith. It is the obvious expression of our Christian faith in regard to the things under us. There is, I say, a tenderness towards material things which belongs to the Christian character. And this tenderness, born from the recognition of God in His creatures, shows itself both in use and in contemplation. There is something of touching solemnity in the form of the Jewish thanksgiving over bread and wine, which may go back even to the apostolic age, “ Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe.” The words remind us that the least and commonest comes from Him who sways the whole. He Himself is seen in His gifts, and in that presence there can be no wastefulness, no carelessness, no ungrateful discontent. Even light and food may be dishonoured by reckless indifference; and we may miss, by blind prodigality, the teachings which come through trivial acts to tender souls. It is, perhaps, yet more obvious how tenderness finds a place in the contemplation of material things. To the hard and the impatient there is no sanctity in the purple mountain-side, no beauty born of murmuring sounds, no majesty in the light of setting suns. The silence that is in the starry sky, the sleep that is among the lonely hills, have for them no particular message; but, none the less, sanctity, beauty, majesty, tidings of great truths are there, and the quiet eye can gather the spiritual harvest. Thus we can see how tenderness has its scope and blessing in mute, insensate things; but perhaps it is most called for in our dealings with animals. These lie in our power in a peculiar sense, and-we need to school ourselves that we may fulfil our duty towards them, for we have a duty towards them. They are not only for our service or for our amusement, they are committed by God to our sovereignty, and we owe to them a considerate regard for their rights. Our responsibility in this respect is easily forgotten. We have all felt, I fancy, something of that irrational pleasure in the capricious use of power which Browning has analysed in his portraiture of Caliban. The boy strikes down the butterfly, the man shoots the swallow on the wing, simply because he can and because he chooses. But these wanton acts are not indifferent. They tend to reveal and to mould character. They break the righteous conditions of our sovereignty. The thought has a wide and a pleasant application, for, looking at the question from this light, I do not see bow the pursuit of amusement can justify the slaughter of animals, or how the pursuit of knowledge can justify their torture. Neither amusement nor knowledge is an end for man. Both must be followed in full view of the supreme aim of life, and in remembrance of the abiding character on which each action leaves its mark. But it may be said we shall gain an insight into the hidden causes of disease, and a mastery over them, through the sufferings which we deliberately inflict on the creatures which are within our control. So far as I can ascertain, the expectation has not been justified by facts, nor can I discover the least reasonable ground for supposing that we shall learn any secrets of life which it is good for us to know by the way of calculated cruelty. If the world were the work of an evil power, or if it were the result of a chance interaction of force and matter, it would be at least possible that we might have gained results physically beneficial to ourselves by the unsparing sacrifice of lower lives. But if He who made us made all other creatures also--if they find a place in His providential plan--if His tender mercies reach to them--and this we Christians most certainly believe--then I find it absolutely inconceivable that He should have so arranged the avenues of knowledge that we can attain to truths it is His will that we should master only through the unutterable agonies of beings which trust in us. If we have guarded the spirit of tenderness in our bearing towards the material world and the animal world, we shall be prepared to apply it also towards weaker races and weaker men who are in a greater or less degree brought within our influence. Every one holds a position of superiority as parent or employer, as richer than others in experience or knowledge, as endowed with authority by years or position; and every one knows the daily vexations which come through the thoughtlessness, or ignorance, or indifference, as it seems to us, of those whom we wish to help in the fulfilment of their duty. Every one, again, has suffered from the temptation which bids the stronger assert his will by his strength, and overbear what he thinks to be an unintelligent opposition, and claim deference as an unquestionable right. At such times we are on our trial, and sympathetic tenderness alone will save us from falling; for tenderness will trace back the wayward act to some trait of natural character which gentle discipline can mould to good. It will discern that involuntary ignorance is to be dealt with as a form of intellectual distress. It will win respect before it claims deference for the authority with which it is entrusted. It will, in a word, turn stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones, and find, by them, the way into many hearts. But it is in dealing with the poorest that tenderness will help us most; and when I speak of the poorest, I mean those who are poorest in thought, in feeling, in aspiration even more than those who are poorest in earthly things. The poor man needs relief--the poor in virtue no less than the poor in money. The bankrupt in noble thoughts is set up again only when he sees the good for which he was made, and sees that it is still within his reach. This prospect tenderness can disclose to him--a tenderness which in view of the saddest spectacles of human failure, kindles in the believer a fire of piety, a light of natural affection, and reveals in the brother for whom Christ died the possibility and the hope of service; for tenderness, no less than reverence and sympathy, flows from Christ only as an inexhaustible source. (Bishop Westcott.) Compassion qualifies for helpful service amongst men The following beautiful tradition about Moses is handed down to posterity:--He led the flock of his father-in-law. One day while he was contemplating his flock in the desert, he saw a lamb leave the herd, and run further and further away. The tender shepherd not only followed it with his eyes, but went after it. The lamb quickened his step, hopped over hill, sprang over ditches, hastening through valley and plain; the shepherd unweariedly followed its track. At last the lamb stopped by a spring at which it eagerly quenched its thirst. Moses hastened to the spot, looked sadly at the drinking lamb, and said: “ It was thirst, then, my poor beast, which tormented time, and drove thee from me, and I didn’ t understand; now thou art faint and weary from the long, hard way, thy powers are exhausted; how then couldst thou return to thy comrades? “ After the lamb had quenched his thirst and seemed undecided what course to take, Moses lifted it to his shoulder, and bending under the heavy burden, strode back to the flock. Then he heard the voice of God calling to him, sating: “ Thou hast a tender heart for My creatures, thou art a kind, gentle shepherd to the flocks of man--thou art now called to feed the flocks of God.” (Jewish Messenger.) Our Lord’ s sympathy Human sympathy, we must remember, may, and in many cases does, from its very fulness become weakness. The sympathy of a mother for a child will too often prevent her from inflicting necessary punishment. The sympathy of the benevolent for the poor and suffering may, without caution, tend to the encouragement of vice. Sympathy is essentially a woman’ s virtue, but the quickness of feeling which overpowers judgment is also a woman’ s infirmity. There is, in fact, no virtue which more powerfully demands law and limitation before it, can safely be yielded to. But the dignity of our blessed Lord’ s sympathy is as remarkable as its depth. He sympathised with the shame of the sinner whom He pardoned, but He never excused the offence. “ Thy sins are forgiven thee; go, and sin no more,” are the words which have touched the human heart, and worked repentance and amendment of life in thousands since the days when they were first spoken; but no one could ever claim them as an encouragement to sin. The dignity of our Lord’ s sympathy was, in fact, shown by His obedience to the law which bade Him exhibit God’ s perfection. He never allowed one virtue to interfere with another. Mercy and truth might meet together, righteousness and peace might kiss each other, but the one never entrenched upon the province of the other; if it had there would have been no perfection. And if we, like Christ, would rightly sympathise; if we would in our degree bear the griefs of our fellow-creatures, without any weakness of judgment or absence of due proportion, we must view those sorrows as Christ viewed them, and soothe them in His spirit. To relieve all anguish, to remove all pain, that is not to be our object. If it were, we might well in sorrow close our doors to the suffering, and, shutting out their misery from our view, give ourselves up to our own enjoyment. For sympathy is pain. When we feel with and for another, we must in a measure suffer; and, looking at the sad amount of wretchedness in this fallen world, we may, perhaps, at first sight be pardoned if we deem it better to be without sympathy--neither to require it for ourselves, nor to offer it to others. The loss on the one side may, we may well think, be counterbalanced by the gain on the other. Compassion on the ignorant Men who are ignorant should not be met with scorn, nor fault-finding, nor neglect, for they need compassion. We should lay ourselves out t,, bear with such for their good. A disciple who has been taught all that he knows by a gracious Saviour should have compassion on “ the ignorant.” A wanderer who has been restored should have compassion on “ them that are out of the way.” A priest should have compassion on the people with whom he is one flesh and blood, and assuredly our Lord, who is our great High Priest, has abundant compassion upon the ignorant. I. WHAT IS THIS ? It is moral and spiritual, and deals with eternal things. 1. It is fearfully common among all ranks. 2. It leaves them strangers to themselves. (1) They know not their own ignorance. (2) They are unaware of the heart’ s depravity. (3) They ale unconscious of the heinousness of their actual sin. (4) They dream not of their present and eternal danger. (5) They have not discovered their inability for all that is good. 3. It leaves them unacquainted with the way of salvation. (1) They choose other ways. (2) They have a mixed and injurious notion of the one way. (3) They often question and cavil at this one and only way. 4. It leaves them without the knowledge of Jesus. They know not His person, offices, work, character, ability, readiness to save. 5. It leaves them strangers to the Holy Spirit. (1) They perceive not His inward strivings. (2) They are ignorant of regeneration. (3) They cannot comprehend the truth which He teaches. (4) They cannot receive His sanctification. 6. It is most ruinous in its consequences. (1) It keeps men out of Christ. (2) It does not excuse them when it is wilful, as it usually is. II. WHAT IS THERE IN THIS WHICH IS LIABLE TO PROVOKE US, AND DEMANDS ? 1. Its folly. Wisdom is worried with the absurdities of ignorance. 2. Its pride. Anger is excited by the vanity of self-conceit. 3. Its prejudice. It will not hear nor learn; and this is vexatious. 4. Its obstinacy. It refuses reason; and this is very exasperating. 5. Its opposition. It contends against plain truth; and this is trying. 6. Its density. It cannot be enlightened; it is profoundly foolish. 7. Its unbelief. Witnesses to Divine truth are denied credence. 8. Its wilfulness. It chooses not to know. It is hard teaching such. 9. Its relapses. It returns to folly, forgets and refuses wisdom, and this is a sore affliction to true love. III. How OUR LORD’ S TOWARDS THE IS SHOWN. 1. By offering to teach them. 2. By actually receiving them as disciples. 3. By instructing them little by little, most condescendingly. 4. By teaching them the same things over again, patiently. 5. By never despising them notwithstanding their dulness. 6. By never casting them off through weariness of their stupidity. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Ignorance It is a sad thing for the blind man who has to read the raised type when the tips of his fingers harden, for then he cannot read the thoughts of men which stand out upon the page; but it is far worse to lose sensibility of soul, for then you cannot peruse the book of human nature, but must remain untaught in the sacred literature of the heart. You have heard of the “ iron duke,” but an iron Christian would be a very terrible person: a heart of flesh is the gift of Divine grace, and one of its sure results is the power to be very pitiful, tender, and full of compassion. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Ignorance is the devil’ s college. (Christmas Evans.) The sin of ignorance In that the ignorant are here brought in as an instance of such sinners as were to have sacrifices offered up for their sins, the apostle giveth us to understand, that ignorance is a sin. It is expressly said, “ That if any soul sin through ignorance, he shall bring a sin-offering” Numbers 15:27-28). 1. Ignorance is a transgression of the law of God, for it is contrary to that knowledge which the law requireth: but every transgression is sin (1 John 3:4). 2. Ignorance is a defect of that image of God, after which God at first created man; for knowledge was a part of that image (Colossians 3:10). 3. Ignorance is an especial branch of that natural corruption which seized upon the principal part of man, namely, his understanding. 4. Ignorance is the cause of many other sins (Galatians 4:8; 1 Timothy 1:13). Therefore it must needs be a sin itself. 5. Judgments are denounced against ignorance, as against a sin (Hosea 2 Thessalonians 1:8). 6. Ignorance is a punishment of other sins (Isaiah 6:10; John 12:40). Though ignorance be a sin, yet ignorant persons are here brought in as a fit object of compassion. Christ renders this ground of His praying for the Jews that had a hand in crucifying Him (Luke 23:34). And Peter allegeth it as a ground of His tendering mercy unto them (Acts 3:17). Ignorance is a spiritual blindness, so as they see not the dangerous course wherein they walk, and in that respect are the more to be pitied. (W. Gouge.) Ignorance causes neglect of religion It’ s ignorance of the price of pearls that makes the idiot slight them. It’ s ignorance of the worth of diamonds that makes the fool choose a pebble before them. It’ s ignorance of the satisfaction learning affords that makes the peasant despise and laugh at it; and we very ordinarily see how men tread and trample on those plants which are the greatest restoratives, because they know not the virtue of them; and the same may justly be affirmed of religion, the reason why men meddle no more with it is--because they are not acquainted with the pleasantness of it. (Anthony Horneck.) Ministers must remember the ignorant When I preach I sink myself deep down. I regard neither doctors nor magistrates, of whom are here in this church above forty; but I have an eye to the multitude of young people, children, and servants, of whom are more than two thousand. I preach to those, directing myself to them that have need thereof. Will not the rest hear me? The door stands open unto them; they may begone. (M. Luther.) Offer for sinsThe great sacrifice I. THE AND OF THE LORD CHRIST, IN HIS OF HIMSELF, HAD A SIGNAL UNTO THE OF HIS , AND IS A GREAT UNTO OUR FAITH AND . No other sort of high priest could have done what was to be done for us. Had He had any sin of His own He could never have taken all sin from us. From hence it was that what He did was so acceptable with God, and that what He suffered was justly imputed unto us, seeing there was no cause in Himself why He should suffer at all. And we may see herein 1. Pure unmixed love and grace. He had not the least concern in what He did or suffered herein for Himself. This was the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that being rich, for our sakes He became poor. And will He not pursue the same love unto the end? 2. The efficacy and merit of His oblation, that was animated by the life and quintessence of obedience. There was in it the highest sufferings, and the most absolute innocency, knit together by an act of most inexpressible obedience. 3. The perfection of the example that is set before us (1 Peter 2:21-22). II. DEALETH WITH GOD OR MAN ABOUT THE SINS OF OTHERS, SHOULD LOOK WELL IN THE FIRST PLACE UNTO HIS OWN. There are four ways whereby some may act with respect unto the sins of others, and not one of them wherein they can discharge their duty aright, if in the same kind they take not care of themselves in the first place. 1. It is the duty of some to endeavour the conversion of others from a state of sin. How can they press that on others, which they neither know what it is, nor whether it be or not, any otherwise than as blind men know there are colours? By such persons are the souls of men ruined, who undertake the dispensation of the gospel unto them, for their conversion unto God, knowing nothing of it themselves. 2. It is our duty to keep those in whom we are concerned, as much as in us lieth, from sinning, or from actual sin. With what confidence, with what conscience can we endeavour this towards others, if we do not first take the highest care herein of ourselves? 3. To direct and assist others in the obtaining pardon for sin is also the duty of some. And this they may do two ways (1) By directing them in their application unto God by Jesus Christ for grace and mercy. (2) By earnest supplications with them and for them. And what will they do, what can they do, in these things sincerely for others, who make not use of them for themselves? 4. To administer consolation under sinning, or surprisals with sin, unto such as God would have to be comforted, is another duty of the like kind. And how shall this be done by such as were never cast down for sin themselves, nor ever spiritually comforted of God? III. No DIGNITY OF PERSON OR PLACE, NO DUTY, NO MERIT, CAN DELIVER SINNERS FROM IN NEED OF A FOR SIN. THE HIGH PRIEST, BEING A SINNER, WAS TO OFFER HIMSELF. IV. IT WAS A PART OF THE AND BONDAGE OF THE CHURCH UNDER THE OLD , THAT THEIR HIGH PRIESTS HAD NEED TO OFFER FOR AND THEIR OWN SINS. It is a relief to sinners that the word of reconciliation is administered unto them, and the sacrifice of Christ proposed, by men subject unto the like infirmities with themselves. For there is a testimony therein, how that they also may find acceptance with God, seeing He deals with them by those who are sinners also. But these are not the persons who procure the remission, or have made the atonement which they declare. Were it so, who could with any confidence acquiesce therein? But this is the holy way of God. Those who are sinners declare the atonement which was made by Him who had no sin. (John Owen, D. D.) Hebrews 5:4-6 No man taketh this honour unto himself.The ministerial calling from God A calling is most requisite in all things we take in hand, especially in the ministry. Who will meddle with the sheep of a man unless he be called to it? and shall we meddle with Christ’ s sheep without a calling? As for our calling. 1. It is of God. We have God’ s seal to our calling, because He hath furnished us in some measure with gifts for it. 2. We are called by the Church, which, by imposition of hands representing God’ s hand, hath separated us to this office. Let every one be assured of his calling. A lamentable thing to consider, what a number of intruders there be that have thrust themselves into this holy calling. In Jeroboam’ s time every one that would consecrate himself became one of the priests of the high places. Shall we have them to make cloth that have no skill in clothing? Will any make him his shepherd that knows not what belongs to sheep? And wilt thou deliver Christ’ s sheep into the hands of a blind and ignorant shepherd? Wilt thou have him to build thy house that hath no skill in building? Wilt thou make him the schoolmaster of thy child that hath no learning? But any is good enough for the ministry. If men did look as well to the charge as to the dignity of the office; if Onus were as well considered as Bonus, men would not make such haste to it as they do. They watch over the souls of the people, as they that must give an account. The day of taking in our profits is sweet, but the counting day will be terrible, when Christ will require every lost sheep at our hands. Therefore let none take this honour to himself, but see that he be called of God, as Aaron was. (W. Jones, D. D.) Order in ecclesiastical institution In human doings and human productions we see everywhere manifestations of order. Well-ordered stones make architecture; well-ordered social regulations make a constitution and a police; well-ordered ideas make good logic; well-ordered words make good writing; well-ordered imaginations and emotions make good poetry; well-ordered facts make science. Disorder, on the ether hand, makes nothing at all, but un-makes everything. Stones in disorder produce ruins; an ill-ordered social condition is decline, revolution, or anarchy; ill-ordered ideas are absurdity; ill-ordered words are neither sense nor grammar; ill-ordered imaginations and emotions are madness; ill-ordered facts are chaos. (J. S. Blackie.) The ministerial office I. Here let us first learn THAT BOTH IT IS FOR ANY MAN WITHOUT A CALLING TO TAKE UPON HIM THE ; NEITHER YET ANY CALLING OUGHT TO BE, WHICH IS NOT TO THE WILL OF GOD: for, seeing the ministry is honourable, and he is justly honoured that executeth it faithfully, how can I exalt myself, but of right I ought again to be brought low, and instead of glory, have shame? For what do I in this but rob Christ of His glory, who is Head of His Church, and appointeth ministers whom He will, who ruleth in the house of Jacob, and ordaineth officers at His own pleasure? If in an earthly kingdom subjects would presume to take offices at their own choice, were it not extreme confusion, utter reproach and shame unto the prince? How much more to bring this confusion into the Church of Christ? II. THE SECOND THING TO BE LEARNED IN THESE WORDS IS THAT WE HAVE ALL SUCH A CALLING AS WE MAY BE SURE IT IS OF GOD; FOR WE MUST BE CALLED OF GOD, AS AARON WAS. No minister ought to be called in the Church but he whose calling may be known to be of God. Hereof I may first conclude, touching the person of the minister: that because in all places, by the prophets, by the apostles, by our Saviour Christ, God always requireth that His ministers be of good report, well grounded in faith, able to teach His people; therefore if ignorant men, and not able to teach, be chosen unto this office, I dare boldly affirm it, their calling is not allowed of God. Now, touching the office whereunto God appointeth the ministers of His gospel, is it not this: to preach His Word, and minister Sacraments? Other governors of His Church, are they not for the people’ s obedience unto this Word, and for provision of the poor? (E. Deering, B. D.) Of the honour and function of the high priest It here declareth that the high priest’ s function was an honourable function, which is thus manifested. 1. The solemn manner of inaugurating, or setting them apart thereto Exodus 29:1). 2. His glorious apparel (Exodus 28:1-43.). 3. The great retinue that attended him: as all sorts of Levites, together with sundry inferior priests (Numbers 3:9; Numbers 8:19). 4. The liberal provision made for him out of the meat-offerings, sacrifices, firstfruits, tenths, and other oblations (Leviticus 2:3; Leviticus 5:13; Leviticus 7:6; Deuteronomy 18:3). 5. The difficult cases that were referred to him. 6. The obedience that was to be yielded to him. 7. The punishment to be inflicted on such as rebelled against him Deuteronomy 17:8-10, &c.). 8. The sacred services which they performed, as to be for men in things pertaining to God: to offer up what was brought to God (verse 1), and to do other particulars set clown (Hebrews 2:11). In such honourable esteem were high priests, as kings thought them fit matches for their daughters 2 Chronicles 22:11). 9. The west principal honour intended under this word was that the high priest, by virtue of his calling, was a kind of mediator between God and man. For he declared the answer of the Lord to man, and offered up sacrifices to God for man. (W. George.) Of the honour of the ministerial calling 1. Their Master is the great Lord of heaven and of earth. If it be an honour to be an especial minister of a mortal king, what is it to be the minister of such a Lord? 2. Their place is to be in the room of God, even in His stead--ambassadors for Him (2 Corinthians 5:20). 3. Their work is to declare God’ s counsel (Acts 20:17). 4. Their end is to perfect the saints (Ephesians 4:12). 5. Their reward is greater than of others (Daniel 12:3). Thus hath the Lord honoured this function that it might be the better respected, and prove more profitable. Ministers in regard of their persons are as other men, of like passions with them, and subject to manifold infirmities, which would cause disrespect were it not for the honour of their function. (W. George.) Divine designation I. IT IS AN ACT OF IN GOD, TO CALL WHOM HE UNTO HIS WORK AND SERVICE; AND SO WHEN IT IS UNTO ANY PLACE OF HONOUR AND DIGNITY IN HIS HOUSE. 1. Because every call is accompanied with choice and distinction. 2. Because, antecedently unto their call, there is nothing of merit in any to be so called, nor of ability in the most, for the work whereunto they are called. What merit was there, what previous disposition unto their work, in a few fishermen about the Lake of Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee, that our Lord Jesus Christ should call them to be His apostles, disposing them into that state and condition, wherein they sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel? So was it ever with all that God called in an extraordinary manner (see Exodus 4:10-11; Jeremiah 1:6; Amos 7:15-16). In His ordinary calls there is the same sovereignty, though somewhat otherwise exercised. For in such a call there are three things (1) A providential designation of such a person to such an office, work, or employment. (2) It is a part of this call of God when He blesseth the endeavours of men to prepare themselves with those previous dispositions and qualifications which are necessary unto the actual call and susception of this office. And hereof also there are three parts (a) An inclination of their hearts, in compliance with His designation of them unto their office. (b) An especial blessing of their endeavours for the due improvement of their natural faculties and abilities, in study and learning, for the necessary aids and instruments of knowledge and wisdom. (c) The communications of peculiar gifts unto them, rendering them meet and able unto the discharge of the duty of their office, which in an ordinary call is indispensably required as previous to an actual separation unto the office itself. 3. He ordereth things so as that a person whom He will employ in the service of His house shall have an outward call, according unto rule, for his admission thereinto. And in all these things God acts according to His own sovereign will and pleasure. And many things might hence be insisted on. As (1) That we should have an awful reverence of, and a holy readiness to comply with, the call of God; not to run away from it, or the work called unto, as did Jonah, nor to he weary of it because of difficulty and opposition which we meet withal in the discharge of our duty, as it sundry times was ready to befall Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:10; Jeremiah 20:7-9), much less to desert or give it over, on any earthly account whatever; seeing that he who sets his hand to this plough and takes it back again is unworthy of the kingdom of heaven. (2) That we should not envy nor repine at one another, whatever God is pleased to call any unto. (3) That we engage into no work wherein the name of God is concerned without His call; which gives a second observation, namely, that II. THE HIGHEST AND UTMOST OF ANY WORK TO BE DONE FOR GOD IN THIS WORLD WILL NOT WARRANT OUR OF IT, OR IN IT, UNLESS WE ARE CALLED . III. THE MORE ANY WORK OF GOD IS, THE MORE EXPRESS OUGHT OUR CALL UNTO IT TO BE. IV. IT IS A GREAT DIGNITY AND HONOUR TO BE DULY CALLED UNTO ANY WORK, SERVICE, OR OFFICE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. (John Owes, D. D.) Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest Christ, as Son of Man, called and perfected to be our High Priest Twice already the apostle has referred to Christ as our High Priest, and he now enters on the development of the central theme of his Epistle--Christ a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. But in order to explain the priesthood on which Christ entered after His death and resurrection, and of which not Aaron but Melchizedek was the type, it is necessary for him to show how the Lord Jesus fulfilled all that was typified of Him in the Levitical dispensation, and possessed in perfection all the requirements which, according to Divine appointment, were needed in the high priest, and which could not be possessed in perfection by sinful men like the Aaronic priests. In the first place, the priests were as sinful as the people whom they represented. It was on account of sin that Israel felt the need of a mediator. But Aaron and the priests were only officially holy; they were not in reality spotless and pure. Hence they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins and infirmities, as well as for those of the people. Secondly, the mediator ought not merely to be perfect and sinless man, he ought also to be Divine, in perfect and full communion with God, so that he can impart Divine forgiveness and blessing. Only in the Lord Jesus, therefore, is the true mediation. He who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, hath made us kings and priests unto God. The two qualifications of the Aaronic high priest, that he was from among men and that he was appointed by God, were fulfilled in a perfect manner in the Lord Jesus. But in considering these two points, we are struck not merely by the resemblance between the type and the fulfilment, but also by the contrast. 1. Aaron was chosen from among men to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Jesus was true man, born of a woman and made under the law; He became in all things like unto His brethren. But whereas the Jewish high priest had to offer for himself, as he was a sinner, the Lord was harmless and undefiled, pure and spotless. His mediation was therefore perfect. The Aaronic high priest was able to have compassion on the ignorant and on them that were out of the way, knowing and feeling his own infirmities and transgressions, and knowing also the love of God, who desireth not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live. But this compassionate regard for the sinner can exist in perfection only in a sinless one. This appears at first sight paradoxical; for we expect the perfect man to be the severest judge. And with regard to sin, this is doubtless true. God chargeth even His angels with folly. He beholds sin where we do not discover it. He setteth our secret sins in the light of His countenance. And Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, like the Father, has eyes like a flame of fire, and discerns everything that is contrary to God’ s mind and will. But with regard to the sinner, Jesus, by virtue of His perfect holiness, is the most merciful, compassionate, and considerate Judge. Beholding the sinful heart in all, estimating sin according to the Divine standard, according to its real inward character, and not the human, conventional, and outward measure, Jesus, infinitely holy and sensitive as He was, saw often less to shock an,t pain Him in the drunkard and profligate than in the respectable, selfish, and ungodly religionists. Again, He had come to heal the sick, to restore the erring, to bring the sinner to repentance. He looked upon sin as the greatest and most fearful evil, but on the sinner as poor, suffering, lost, and helpless. He felt as the Shepherd towards the erring. Again, He fastened in a moment on any indications of the Father’ s drawing the heart, of the Spirit’ s work: 2. The high priest is appointed by God. No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. The high priesthood of Christ is identified here with His glory. “ Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest.” Blessed truth, that ,he glory of Christ and our salvation are so intimately connected, that Christ regards it as His glory to be our Mediator and Intercessor! This is Christ’ s glory, even as it is the reward of His suffering, that in Him we draw near to the Father, and that from Him we receive the blessings of the everlasting covenant. He rejoices to be our High Priest. God called Him to the priesthood. The calling of Jesus to the high priestly dignity is based on His Sonship. Because Jesus is Son, He is the Prophet, perfectly revealing God; because He is Son, He is the true Sacrifice and Priest; for only the blood of the Son of God can cleanse from all sin, and bring us nigh unto God; and only through Christ crucified and exalted can the Father’ s love and the Spirit’ s power descend into our hearts. Here the comparison and contrast between the Lord and Aaron ends. The apostle now enters on that which is peculiar to our Saviour Jesus. The types and figures of the old covenant could not be perfect and adequate; for that which is united in Christ had necessarily to be severed and set forth by a variety of figures. The priests offered not themselves, but animals. Now the obedience, the conflict, the faith, the offering of the will as the true, real, and effective Sacrifice could not possibly be symbolised. Nor could any single symbol represent how Jesus, by being first the Sacrifice, became thereby the perfect, compassionate, and merciful High Priest. Christ was the victim on the Cross. The Son of God, according to the eternal counsel, came into the world to be obedient even unto death. “ Lo, I come to do Thy will.” His obedience was characterised throughout by such continuity, liberty, and inward delight, that we are apt to forget that aspect of His life on which the apostle dwells when he says, that though Christ was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. Real and great were His difficulties, temptations, and sorrows; and from the prayers and complaints ascribed to Messiah in the psalms and prophets, we can understand somewhat of the burden which weighed on His loving and sensitive heart, and the constant dependence with which He leaned on the Father, and obtained from Him light and strength. Jesus believed; He lived not merely before, but by the Father. Thus is Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith. He went before the sheep. He is the forerunner. He has experienced every difficulty, and last, d every sorrow. He knows the path in all its narrowness. (A. Saphir.) Christ glorified not Himself As the Pope doth, who will needs be styled Pontifex Maximum, the greatest high priest. Pope Hildebrand especially, whom, when no man would advance to Peter’ s chair, he gad up himself. Said he, “ Who can better judge of me than myself?” (J. Trapp) The difference between the priesthood and the high priesthood of Christ I. The priest and the high priest did not minister in the same PLACE. AS a priest, Christ ministered on earth; as high priest, He ministers in heaven. II. The priest and the high priest did not perform the same WORK. 1. As priest, Christ sacrificed Himself. 2. As high priest, He (1) entered heaven by His own blood; (2) intercedes on our behalf with the Father. III. The priest and the high priest did not appear in the same DRESS. Christ as a priest was made like unto His brethren: wore the simple dress of humanity. Christ as high priest of eternity is clothed with all the glories of immortal life. IV. The priest and the high priest did not occupy the same . The one was a sub-officer, the other the supreme judge of the land and the president of the Sanhedrin. Christ as High Palest is the highest officer in the kingdom of God. (H. Marries.) Christ not a self-elected, but a God-appointed priest At length the priesthood of Christ, already three times alluded to, is taken up in earnest, and made the subject of an elaborate discussion, extending from this point Hebrews 10:18. The writer begins at the beginning, setting forth first of all that Christ is a legitimate priest, not a usurper; one solemnly called to the office by God, not self-elected. The chief thing in his mind here is the call or appointment; the sympathy is referred to, in connection with its source, personal infirmity, as explaining the need for a call, so as to suggest the question, Who, conscious of the infirmity which is the secret of sacerdotal mildness, would dream of undertaking such an office without a Divine call? Jesus assuredly undertook the office only as called of God. He was called to the priesthood before His incarnation. He came to the world under a Divine call. And during the days of His earthly life His behaviour was such as utterly to exclude the idea of His being a usurper of sacerdotal honours. All through His incarnate experiences, and especially in those of the closing scene, He was simply submitting to God’ s will that He should be a priest. And when He returned to heaven He was saluted High Priest in recognition of His loyalty. Thus from first to last He was emphatically One called of God. What is said of the sympathy that becomes a high priest, though subordinate to the statement concerning his call, is important and interesting. First, a description is given of the office which in every clause suggests the reflection, How congruous sympathy to the sacerdotal character! The high priest is described as taken from among men, and the suggestion is that, being a man of like nature with those for whom he transacts, he may be expected to have fellow-feeling with them. Then he is further described as ordained for men in things pertaining to God, the implied thought being that he cannot acquit himself satisfactorily in that capacity unless he sympathise with those whom he represents before God. Lastly, it is declared to be his special duty to offer sacrifices of various sorts for sin, the latent idea being that it is impossible for any one to perform that duty with any earnestness or efficiency who has not genuine compassion for the sinful. Very remarkable is the word employed to describe priestly compassion. It does not signify to feel with another, but rather to abstain from feeling against him; to be able to restrain antipathy. It is carefully selected to represent the spirit which becomes a high priest as a mean between two extremes. On the one hand, he should be able to control the passions provoked by error and ignorance, anger, impatience, disgust, contempt. On the other hand, he must not be so amiable as not even to be tempted to give way to these passions. Ignorance and misconduct he must not regard with unruffled equanimity. It is plainly implied that it is possible to be too sympathetic, and so to become the slave or tool of men’ s ignorance or prejudices, and even partaker of their sins--a possibility illustrated by the histories of Aaron and of Eli, two high priests of Israel. The model high priest is not like either. He hates ignorance and sin, but he pities the ignorant and sinful. The ignorant for him are persons to be taught, the erring sheep to be brought back to the fold. He remembers that sin is not only an evil thing in God’ s sight, but also a bitter thing for the offender; realises the misery of an accusing conscience, the shame and fear which are the ghostly shadows of guilt. The character thus drawn is obviously congenial to the priestly office. The priest’ s duty is to offer gifts and sacrificies for sin. The performance of this duty habituates the priestly mind to a certain way of viewing sin: as an offence deserving punishment, yet pardonable on the presentation of the appropriate offering. The priest’ s relation to the offender is also such as demands a sympathetic spirit. He is not a legislator, enacting laws with rigid penalties attached. Neither is he a judge, but rather an advocate pleading for his client at the bar. Neither is he a prophet, giving utterances in vehement language to the Divine displeasure against transgression, but rather an intercessor imploring mercy, appeasing anger, striving to awaken Divine pity. But the special source to which sacerdotal sympathy is traced is the consciousness of personal infirmity. “ For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.” The explanation seems to labour under the defect of too great generality. A high priest is no more human in his nature and experience than other men--why, then, should he be exceptionally humane? Two reasons suggest themselves. The high priest was officially a very holy person, begirt on all sides with the emblems of holiness, copiously anointed with oil, whose exquisite aroma typified the odour of sanctity, arrayed in gorgeous robes, significant of the beauty of holiness, required to be so devoted to his sacred calling and so dead to the world that he might not mourn for the death of his nearest kin. How oppressive the burden of this official sanctity must have been to a thoughtful, humble man, conscious of personal infirmity, and knowing himself to be of like passions and sinful tendencies with his fellow-worshippers! Another source of priestly benignity was, I imagine, habitual converse in the discharge of duty with the erring and the ignorant. The high priest had officially much to do with men, and that not with picked samples, but with men in the mass; the greater number probably being inferior specimens of humanity, and all presenting to his view their weak side. He learned in the discharge of his functions to take a kindly interest in all sorts of people, even the most erratic, and to bear with inconsistency even in the best. The account given of priestly sympathy prepares us for appreciating the statement which follows concerning the need for a Divine call to the priestly office (Hebrews 10:4). No one, duly impressed with his own infirmities, would ever think of taking unto himself so sacred an office. A need for a Divine call is felt by all devout men in connection with all sacred offices involving a ministry on men’ s behalf in things pertaining to God. The tendency is to shrink from such offices, rather than to covet and ambitiously appropriate them. Having stated the general principle that a Divine call is necessary as an inducement to the assumption of the priestly office, the writer passes to the case of Jesus Christ, whom he emphatically declares to have been utterly free from the spirit of ambition, and to hare been made a high priest, not by self-election, but by Divine appointment. It is difficult to understand, at first, why the text from the second Psalm, “ My Son art Thou,” is introduced here at all, the thing to be proved being, not that Messiah was made by God a Son, but that He was made a Priest. But on reflection we perceive that it is a preliminary hint as to what sort of priesthood is signified by the order of Melchizedec, a first attempt to insinuate into the minds of readers the idea of a priesthood belonging to Christ altogether distinct in character from the Levitical, yet the highest possible, that of one at once a Divine Son and a Divine King. On further consideration, it dawns on us that a still deeper truth is meant to be taught; that Christ’ s priesthood is coeval with His sonship, and inherent in it. From the pre-incarnate state, to which the quotations from the Psalter refer, the writer proceeds to speak of Christ’ s earthly history: “ Who, in the days of His flesh.” He here conceives, as in a later part of the Epistle he expressly represents, the Christ as coming into the world under a Divine call to be a priest, and conscious of His vocation. He represents Christ as under training for the priesthood, but training implies previous destination; as an obedient learner, but obedience implies consciousness of His calling. In the verses which follow (7, 8) his purpose is to exhibit the behaviour of Jesus during His life on earth in such a light that the idea of usurpation shall appear an absurdity. The general import is: “ Jesus ever loyal, but never ambitious; so far from arrogating, rather shrinking from priestly office, at most simply submitting to God’ s will, and enabled to do that by special grace in answer to prayer.” Reference is made to Christ’ s Sonship to enhance the impression of difficulty. Though He was a Son full of love and devotion to His Father, intensely, enthusiastically loyal to the Divine interest, ever accounting it His meat and drink to do His Father’ s will, yet even for Him so minded it was a matter of arduous learning to comply with the Father’ s will in connection with His priestly vocation. For it must be understood that the obedience here spoken of has that specific reference. The aim is not to state didactically that in His earthly life Jesus was a learner in the virtue of obedience all round, but especially to predicate of Him learning obedience in connection with His priestly calling--obedience to God’ s will that He should be a priest. But why should obedience be so difficult in this connection? The full answer comes later on, but it is hinted at even here. It is because priesthood involves for the priest death (Hebrews 10:7), mortal suffering (Hebrews 10:8); because the priest is at the same time victim. And it is in the light of this fact that we clearly see how impossible it was that the spirit of ambition should come into play with reference to the priestly office in the case of Christ. Self-glorification was excluded by the nature of the service. The verses which follow (9, 10) show the other side of the picture: how He who glorified not Himself to be made a priest was glorified by God; became a priest indeed, efficient in the highest degree, acknowledged as such by His Father, whose will He had loyally obeyed. “ Being perfected,” how? In obedience, and by obedience even unto death, perfected for the office of priest, death being the final stage in His training, through which He became a Pontifex consummatus. Being made perfect in and through death, Jesus became ipso facto author of eternal salvation, the final experience of suffering, by which His training for the priestly office was completed, being at the same time His great priestly achievement. The statement that through death Jesus became ipso facto author of salvation, is not falsified by the fact that the essential point in a sacrifice was its presentation before God in the sanctuary, which in the Levitical system took place subsequently to the slaughtering of the victim, when the priest took the blood within the tabernacle and sprinkled it on the altar of incense or on the mercy-seat. The death of our High Priest is to be conceived of as including all the steps of the sacrificial process within itself. Lapse of time or change of place is not necessary to the accomplishment of the work. The death of the victim, the presentation of the sacrificial blood--all was performed when Christ cried Τετέλεστει. Translated into abstract language, Hebrews 10:10 supplies the rationale of the fact stated in Hebrews 10:9. Its effect is to tell us that Christ became author of eternal salvation because He was a true High Priest after the order of Melchizedec: author of salvation in virtue of His being a priest, author of eternal salvation because His priesthood was of the Melchizedec type--never ending. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Hebrews 5:7-11 With strong crying and tears The exercise of the Son of God in His agony I. In the first place we shall illustrate the definition of THE SEASON OF THE AGONY OF THY, SON OF GOD in these words: “ The days of His flesh.” In general, it may he observed that the application of the term “ flesh” to the mystery of His incarnation is remarkable. By the application of this term something more is expressed than the subsistence of our nature in His person. 1. The beginning of these days is at His birth. In His birth the Son of God entered into the infirmities of our flesh, and, for our sakes, exposed Himself not only to sufferings attending ordinary births, but unto hardships peculiar to the circumstances of His own extraordinary birth. 2. These days ended at His resurrection. The human nature subsisting in the person of the Son of God, was the same nature after His resurrection that it had been before His death. But the likeness, or appearance, was different. Before His death it had “ the likeness of sinful flesh” ; after His resurrection it appeared in the original glory of human nature subsisting still in His person. 3. The number of these days is not exactly known. The Author of revelation is the Judge of what is proper to appear in the witness which He hath testified of His Son, and what is proper to be concealed. 4. These were the days of His sufferings and temptations. At their beginning, the Son of God entered into His sufferings, and suffered every day until their end. 5. Toward the close of these days He suffered an agony. Day after day, all the days of His flesh, He waded deeper and deeper in the ocean of sorrow, and toward the last the waves rose high and broke over Him in the fury and vengeance of the curse. 6. These were the days of His supplication, prayers, and tears. II. But in regard our text refers unto THE PRAYERS AND WHICH IN THE CLOSE OF THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH HE OFFERED UP, under His agony, we proceed to the second head of our general method, and shall illustrate these words of the text: “ When He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him who was able to save Him from death.” 1. “ Offering up prayers and supplications” is the action of the Son of God under His agony in the close of the days of His flesh. In our nature, He is “ the High Priest of our profession” ; and His suffering and dying for our sins are represented in many texts of Scripture as actions of a priest offering sacrifice, and making atonement and reconciliation for sins. 2. “ To Him who was able to save Him from death,” is the description of the object unto whom the Son of God, under His agony, in the days of His flesh, offered up prayers and supplications. In our nature, and in that station wherein the Son of God stood, He considered His righteous and holy Father as possessing sovereign power ever Him with respect to life and death, and executing the curse upon Him according to the penalty of the law; He considered Him as able, not to deliver Him from dying-this is not the object of His prayers--but to uphold His suffering nature in conflicting with the pangs and sorrows of death, and to save Him from the mouth of the lion, and from the horns of the unicorn, or from being overcome by the prince of this world who had the power of death; and He considered Him as able to loose the cords and pains of death, and, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, to bring Him again from the dead by a glorious resurrection on the third day. 3. “ Strong crying and tears” are expressions of the fervency with which the Son of God, under His agony, in the close of the days of His flesh, offered up prayers and supplications to His righteous Father, who was able to save Him from death. III. We proceed to illustrate His , which is affirmed by the apostle in the latter part of our text: “ Heard in that He feared.” 1. The nature of that fear, which is ascribed to the Son of God under His agony, is to be ascertained. The term used by the apostle, and translated “ fear,” signifies godly fear, accompanied with weakness and feelings in the present frame of our nature. Impressions of the holiness of His Father, together with sensations of His displeasure, sunk deep into His soul, and affected every member of His body, exciting that fear which is the sum of obedience and the essence of adoration, and which, in His state, was accompanied with infirmities and feelings of flesh and blood. Obedience and adoration were in His prayer; and His agony itself, in one consideration, was suffering affliction, and, in another, subjection to the will and obedience to the commandment of His Father. 2. We shall collect several principles which gave force to the operation of fear in the Son of God under His agony in the days of His flesh. (1) His apprehensions of the glory and majesty of His Father were clear and sublime. (2) His burden was heavy and pressed His suffering nature to the ground. (3) His sensations of the wrath and curse of God were deep and piercing. (4) His temptations were violent and extraordinary. (5) The sorrows of death drew up and stood before Him in battle array. But while His soul was offering for sin, and sorrowing even unto death, every desponding and gloomy apprehension which attacked His faith was resisted and broken, and full assurance of His hope of a resurrection by the glory of the Father held firm unto the end. Thy right hand, triumphant Sufferer, doth ever valiantly! 3. The sense in which the Son of God under His agony, in the days of His flesh, was heard is to be ascertained and illustrated. (1) The prayers and supplications, which in the days of His flesh the Son of God offered up unto Him who was able to save Him from death, were answered. (2) His fatigued and dying nature was strengthened. (3) His sacrifice was accepted; and, in the odour of perfection, came up before His Father with a sweet-smelling savour. (4) His body was raised from the dead and saw no corruption. (5) He was received up into heaven, crowned with glory and honour, and made Captain of salvation, to bring unto glory the multitude of sons. IV. After illustrating the several parts of our text, SOME are proper for reproof, correction, and instruction, unto the peculiar people who are in the fellowship of God’ s dear Son in the first place; and, in the second, unto the children of disobedience who will not enter into this holy fellowship. 1. “ Holy brethren, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.” Consider His infirmities, consider His temptations, consider His conflict, consider His example, consider His acceptance, and consider His divinity. 2. After these considerations which have been addressed unto the peculiar people who are in the fellowship of the mystery of godliness, we would have the children of disobedience to consider the existence and holiness of God; the provocation which they have given Him; the necessity of reconciliation; the access to the benefit of the reconciliation which the merciful and faithful High Priest of our profession made for the sins of the people; and the penal and certain consequences of refusing the benefit of this reconciliation. (Alex. Shanks.) The mental sadness of Christ I. HIS MIND WAS THE SUBJECT OF INTENSE . II. A DREAD OF DEATH SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN ONE OF HIS MOST . III. UNDER THIS MOST INTENSE EMOTION HE SOUGHT RELIEF IN PRAYER. IV. HIS PRAYERS WERE IN OF HIS PIETY. The dread was taken away and strength given to bear it. (Homilist.) The benefit arising to Christ from His own sufferings I. His CONDUCT UNDER HIS . Never were the sufferings of any creature comparable with those of Christ. His bodily sufferings perhaps were less than many of His followers have been called to endure--but those of His soul were infinitely beyond our conception (Psalms 22:14, Matthew 26:38; Luke 22:44). Under them He poured out His heart in prayer unto His heavenly Father. He never lost sight of God as His Father, but addressed Him with the greater earnestness under that endearing title (Mark 14:36). Not that He repented of the work He had undertaken; but only desired such a mitigation of His sufferings as might consist with His Father’ s glory and the salvation of men. Nor did He desist from prayer till He had obtained His request. Him the Father always heard; nor was an answer now denied Him. Though the cup was not removed, He was not suffered to faint in drinking it. His sufferings indeed could not be dispensed with; but they were amply recompensed by II. THE BENEFIT HE DERIVED FROM THEM. 1. Personal. It was necessary for Him, as our High Priest, to experience everything which His people are called to endure in their conflicts with sin and Satan (Hebrews 2:17). Now the difficulty of abiding faithful to God in arduous circumstances is exceeding great. This is a trial which all His people are called to sustain. Though as the Son of God He knew all things in a speculative manner, yet He could not know this experimentally, but by being reduced to a suffering condition. This therefore was one benefit which He derived from His sufferings. He learned by them more tenderly to sympathise with His afflicted people, and more speedily to succour them when imploring His help with strong crying and tears (verse 18). 2. Official. As the priests were consecrated to their office by the blood of their sacrifices, so was Jesus by His own blood. From that time He had a right to impart salvation. III. LEARN 1. What we should do under sufferings, or a dread of God’ s displeasure. We should not hastily conclude that we are not His children (Hebrews 12:6). We should rather go with humble boldness to God as our Father Luke 15:17-18). We should plead His gracious promises (Psalms 51:15). 2. Whither to go for salvation. The Father was “ able to save His Son from death.” And doubtless He can save us also. But He has exalted His Son to be a Prince and a Saviour (Acts 5:31). To Christ therefore we are to go, and to the Father through Christ (Ephesians 2:18). In this way we shall find Him to be the author of eternal salvation to us (Hebrews 7:25). 3. What is to be our conduct when He has saved us? Jesus died “ to purchase to Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.” We must therefore obey Him, and that too as willingly in seasons of severe trial as in times of peace. We must be content to be conformed to the likeness of our Lord and Master. Let us be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10). (Theological Sketch-Book.) Our sympathising High Priest I. First, that we may see the suitability of our Lord to deal with us in our cares and sorrows, we shall view Him as A . 1. The text begins with a word which reveals His weakness: “ Who in the days of His flesh.” Our blessed Lord was in such a condition that He pleaded out of weakness with the God who was able to save. When our Lord was compassed with the weakness of flesh He was much in prayer. 2. In the days of His flesh our Divine Lord felt His necessities. The words, “ He offered up prayers and supplications,” proved that He had many needs. Men do not pray and supplicate unless they have greater need than this world can satisfy. The Saviour offered no petitions by way of mere form; His supplications arose out of an urgent sense of His need of heavenly aid. 3. Further, let us see how like the Son of God was to us in His intensity of prayer. The intensity of His prayer was such that our Lord expressed Himself in “ crying and tears.” Since from His lips you hear strong crying, and from His eyes you see showers of tears, you may well feel that His is a sympathetic spirit, to whom you may run in the hour of danger, even as the chicks seek the wings of the hen. 4. We have seen our Lord’ s needs and the intensity of His prayer; now note His understanding in prayer. He prayed “ unto Him that was able to save Him from death.” The expression is startling; the Saviour prayed to be saved. In His direst woe He prayed thoughtfully, and with a clear apprehension of the character of Him to whom He prayed. It is a great help in devotion to pray intelligently, knowing well the character of God to whom you are speaking. Jesus was about to die, and therefore the aspect under which He viewed the great Father was as “ Him that was able to save Him from death.” This passage may be read in two ways: it may mean that He would be saved from actually dying if it could be done consistently with the glorifying of the Father; or it may mean that He pleaded to be saved out of death, though He actually descended into it. The word may be rendered either from or out of. The Saviour viewed the great Father as able to preserve Him in death from the power of death, so that He should triumph on the Cross; and also as able to bring Him up again from among the dead. 5. It will further help you if I now call your attention to His fear. I believe our old Bibles give us a correct translation, much better than the Revised Version, although much can be said for the latter, “ With strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared.” That is to say, He had a fear, a natural and not a sinful fear; and from this fear He was delivered by the strength brought to Him from heaven by the angel. God has implanted in all of us the love of life, and we cannot part from it without a pang: our Lord felt a natural dread of death. 6. But then notice another thing in the text, namely, His success in prayer, which also brings Him near to us. He was heard “ in that He feared.” O my soul! to think that it should be said of thy Lord that He was heard, even as thou a poor suppliant, art heard. Yet the cup did not pass from Him, neither was the bitterness thereof in the least abated. II. Behold our Lord as A SON. His prayers and pleadings were those of a son with a father. 1. The Sonship of our Saviour is well attested. The Lord declared this in the second Psalm: “ Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.” Thrice did the voice out of the excellent glory proclaim this truth, and He was “ declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” So, when you are put to great grief, do not doubt your sonship. 2. Being a Son, the text goes on to tell us that He had to learn obedience. How near this brings our Lord to us, that He should be a Son and should have to learn! We go to school to Christ and with Christ, and so we feel His fitness to be our compassionate High Priest. 3. Jesus must needs learn by suffering. As swimming is only to be learned in the water, so is obedience only learned by actually doing and suffering the Divine will. 4. The Lord Jesus Christ learned this obedience to perfection. 5. Our Lord learned by suffering mixed with prayer and supplication. His was no unsanctified sorrow, His griefs were baptised in prayer. It cost Him cries and tears to learn the lesson of His sufferings. He never suffered without prayer, nor prayed without suffering. III. Behold the Lord Jesus as A SAVIOUR. 1. As a Saviour He is perfect. Nothing is lacking in Him in any one point. However difficult your case may seem, He is equal to it. Made perfect by suffering, He is able to meet the intricacies of your trials, and to deliver you in the most complicated emergency. 2. Henceforth He is the author of salvation. Author! How expressive! He is the cause i,f salvation; the originator, the worker, the producer of salvation. Salvation begins with Christ; salvation is carried on by Christ; salvation is completed by Christ. He has finished it, and you cannot sad to it; it only remains for you to receive it. 3. Observe that it is eternal salvation: “ the author of eternal salvation.” Jesus does not save us to-day and leave us to perish to-morrow; He knows what is in man, and so He has prepared nothing less than eternal salvation for man. 4. Furthermore, inasmuch as He has learned obedience and become a perfect High Priest, His salvation is wide in its range, for it is unto “ all them that obey Him.” 5. Note, that He is all this for ever, for He is “ a priest for ever.” If you could have seen Him when He came from Gethsemane, yon think you could have trusted Him. Oh! trust Him to-day, for He is “ called of God to be an High Priest after the order of Melchizedec,” and that order of Melchizedec is an everlasting and perpetual priesthood. He is able today to plead for you, able to-day to put away your sins. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ in the infirmity of the flesh I. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF HAD A TIME OF IN THIS WORLD. It is true His infirmities were all sinless, but all troublesome and grievous. By them was He exposed unto all sorts of temptations and sufferings, which are the two springs of all that is evil and dolorous unto our nature. And thus it was with Him not a few days, nor a short season only, but during His whole course in this world. 1. It was out of infinite condescension and love unto our souls, that Christ took on Himself this condition (Philippians 2:6-8). 2. As He had other ends herein, for the-e things were indispensably required unto the discharge of the sacerdotal office, so He designed to set us an example, that we should not faint under our infirmities and sufferings on their account (Hebrews 12:2-3; 1 Peter 4:1). (1) His patience, unconquerable and unmovable in all things that befell Him in the days of His flesh (Isaiah 42:2). Whatever befell Him, He bore itquietly and patiently. (2) His trust in God. By this testimony that it is said of Him, “ I wilt put My trust in God,” doth our apostle prove that He had the same nature with us, subject to the same weakness and infirmities (Hebrews 2:13). And this we are taught thereby, that there is no management of our human nature, as now beset with infirmities, but by a constant trust in God. (3) His earnest, fervent prayers and supplications, which are here expressed by our apostle, and accommodated unto the days of His flesh. II. A LIFE OF GLORY MAY ENSUE AFTER A LIFE OF . We see that it hath done so with Jesus Christ. His season of infirmity issued in eternal glory. And nothing but unbelief and sin can hinder ours from doing so also. III. THE LORD CHRIST IS NO MORE NOW IN A STATE OF AND ; THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH ARE PAST AND GONE. With His death, ended the days of His flesh. His revival or return unto life, was into absolute, eternal, unchangeable glory. IV. THE LORD CHRIST FILLED UP EVERY SEASON WITH DUTY, WITH THE PROPER DUTY OF IT. The days of His flesh, were the only season wherein He could offer to God; and He missed it not, He did so accordingly. It is true, in His glorified state, He continually represents in heaven, the offering that He made of Himself on the earth, in an effectual application of it unto the advantage of the elect. But the offering itself was in the days of His flesh. Then was His body capable of pain, His soul of sorrow, His nature of dissolution, all which were necessary unto this duty. V. THE LORD CHRIST, IN HIS UP HIMSELF FOR US, AND IN SOUL, TO BRING THE WEEK UNTO A GOOD AND HOLY ISSUE. A hard labour it was, and as such, it is here expressed. He went through it with fears, sorrows, tears, outcries, prayers, and humble supplications. 1. All the holy, natural affections of His soul were filled, taken up, and extended to the utmost capacity, in acting and suffering. 2. All His graces, the gracious qualifications of His mind and affections were, in a like manner, in the height of their exercise. Both those whose immediate object was God Himself, and those which respected the Church, were all of them excited, drawn forth, arid engaged. As (1) Faith and trust in God. These Himself expresseth, in His greatest trial, as those which He betook Himself unto (Isaiah 50:7-8; Psalms 22:9, Hebrews 2:13). These graces in Him were now tried to the utmost. All their strength, all their efficacy was exercised and proved. (2) Love to mankind. As this in His Divine nature was the peculiar spring of that infinite condescension, whereby He took our nature on Him, for the work of mediation (Philippians 2:6-8); so it wrought mightily and effectually in His human nature, in the whole course of His obedience, but especially in the offering of Himself unto God for us. (3) Zeal to the glory of God. This was committed unto Him, and concerning this, He took care that it might not miscarry. (4) He was now in the highest exercise of obedience unto God, and that in such a peculiar manner as before He had no occasion for. 3. He did so also with respect to that confluence of calamities, distresses, pains, and miseries, which was upon His whole nature. And that in these consisted no small part of His trials, wherein He underwent and suffered the utmost which human nature is capable to undergo, is evident from the description given of His dolorous sufferings both in prophecy (Psalms 22:1-31.; Isaiah 53:1-12.) and in the story of what befell Him in the evangelists. And in this manner of His death, there were sundry things concurring. (1) A natural sign of His readiness to embrace all sinners that should come unto Him, His arms being, as it were, stretched out to receive them Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 45:1). (2) A moral token of His condition, being left as one rejected of all between heaven and earth for a season; but in Himself interposing between heaven and earth for the justice of God and sins of men, to make reconciliation and peace (Ephesians if. 16, 17). (3) The accomplishment of sundry types; as (a) Of that of him who was hanged on a tree, as cursed of the Lord Deuteronomy 21:22). (b) Of the brazen serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness (John 2:14), with respect whereunto He says, that when He is lifted up, He would draw all men to Him (John 12:32). (c) Of the wave-offering, which was moved, shaken, and turned several ways, to declare that the Lord Christ in this offering of Himself, should have respect unto all parts of the world, and all sorts of men (Exodus 29:26). (4) The conflict He had with Satan, and all the powers of darkness, was another part of His travail. And herein He laboured for that victory and success which in the issue He did obtain (Colossians 2:13-14; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:18). (5) His inward conflict, in the making His soul an offering for sin, in His apprehensions, and undergoing of the wrath of God due unto sin, hath been already spoken unto, so far as is necessary unto our present purpose. (6) In, and during all these things, there was in His eye continually that unspeakable glory that was set before Him, of being the repairer of the breaches of the creation, the rest,refer of mankind, the captain of salvation unto all that obey Him, the destruction of Satan, with his kingdom of sin and darkness, and in all the great restorer of Divine glory, to the eternal praise of God. Whilst all these things were in the height of their transaction, is it any wonder if the Lord Christ laboured and travailed in soul, according to the description here given of Him? VI. THE LORD CHRIST, IN THE TIME OF HIS AND , GOD WITH WHOM HE HAD TO DO, AS THE LORD OF LIFE AND DEATH, AS THE SUPREME RECTOR AND JUDGE OF ALL, CASTS HIMSELF BEFORE HIM WITH MOST FERVENT PRAYERS FOR , FROM THE OF DEATH AND THE CURSE OF THE LAW. 1. HOW great a matter it was, to make peace with God for sinners, to make atonement and reconciliation for sin. This is the life and spirit of our religion, the centre wherein all the lines of it do meet (Philippians 3:8-10; 1 Corinthians if. 2; Galatians 6:14). 2. A sight and sense of the wrath of God due unto sin, will be full of dread and terror for the souls of men, and will put them to a great conflict with wrestling for deliverance. VII. IN ALL THE THAT WERE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN ALL THE HE HAD TO WITHAL IN HIS , HIS FAITH FOR AND SUCCESS WAS FIRM AND . This was the ground He stood upon in all His prayers and supplications. VIII. THE SUCCESS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN HIS TRIALS, AS OUR HEAD AND SURETY, IS A PLEDGE AND OF SUCCESS UNTO US IN ALL OUR . (John Owen, D. D.) Christ’ s sufferings In this one sentence there is more for us to learn than either eye hath seen or ear hath heart or all flesh in this life shall attain unto: it is the depth of the glorious gospel which the angels do desire to behold. I. We have to learn by the example of our Saviour Christ in this place, THAT IN ALL WE SHOULD UNTO OUR GOD, and make our complaints unto Him, who is only able and ready for to help us. In all miseries we are not sunken so deep in sorrow as He that for our sakes made prayers end supplications, with strong cryings and with tears, and was delivered from His fear. II. The second point that we have here to learn in this example of our Saviour Christ is, TO KNOW UNTO WHOM WE SHOULD MAKE OUR PRAYERS IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE, which the apostle testifieth in these words: that Christ made His prayers unto Him that was able to deliver Him from death. It followeth in the text: with great crying and with tears. III. Here we have to NOTE, IN WHAT MEASURE OUR SAVIOUR CHRIST WAS , even so far, that He cried out in the bitterness of His soul. Who hath been ever so full of woe, and who hath been brought so low into the dust of death? His virtues were unspeakable, and righteous above all measure, yet was He accounted among the wicked. And if these were the causes that Christ had to complain, then think not that His cryings were above His sorrow; to see so near unto His heart, even in His own person, innocence blamed, virtue defaced, righteousness trodden down, holiness profaned, love despised, glory contemned, honour reviled, all goodness ashamed, faith oppugned, and life wounded to death; how could He yet abstain from strong crying and tears, when the malice of Satan had gotten so great a conquest? His grief was exceeding to see all virtue and godliness so trodden under feet and Satan to prevail against man, to his everlasting condemnation. No creature could ever bear such a perfect image of a man of sorrow. But the height and depth of all miseries was yet behind: the sin that He hated He must take it upon His own body, and bear the wrath of His Father, that was poured out against it. This is the fulness of all pain that compassed Him round about, which no tongue is able to utter, and no heart can conceive. IV. But let us now see what the apostle further teacheth us, and while our Saviour Christ is in these great extremities, WHAT FRUIT OF WELL-DOING HE HATH LEARNED BY IT. It followeth, and although He were the Son, yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered. Lo, this was no little profit of all His troubles; He learned thereby, how and what it was to obey His Father; He might have great boldness that His obedience was perfect. The shame of the world, the afflictions of the flesh, the vexations of the mind, the pains of hell, when these could make Him utter no other words but,” Father, as Thou wilt, so let it be done,” what hope, what faith did He surely build on, that His obedience was precious in the sight of His Father? This example is our instruction. We know then best how we love the Lord, when we feel by experience what we will suffer for His sake. So faint not in your mournings, but endure patiently; you know not the happiness of that which seemeth your misery; let this be the first cause why we should be glad of temptations. Lo, these are the healthful counsels of the Lord toward us, that we should be made like unto His Son Christ in many afflictions, that at the last we might be also like Him in eternal glory. Thus far we have heard two special causes why we ought to rejoice in all temptations: the one, that so we learn true obedience; the other, that by them we be made like unto Christ. The third cause at this time which I will touch, is this: God sendeth us sundry chastisements, and especially that which is most grievous of all other, the anguish of spirit, and affliction of the soul; for this purpose, that we should be warned in time how to turn unto Him and be free from the plague when it cometh. It followeth in the apostle: “ And being consecrate, He was made the author of salvation to all them that obey Him.” V. In these words we are taught, WHAT FRUIT AND WE HAVE THROUGH THESE BITTER OF OUR SAVIOUR CHRIST, AND ALSO BY WHAT MEANS WE ARE MADE OF IT. The fruit is eternal salvation, the means to go unto it is obedience. In the first we learn that all promise and hope of life is in Christ alone; He hath alone the words of life, and he that dwelleth not in Him, shall see no life: but the wrath of God abideth on him. Take hold of Christ, and take hold of life; reach forth thine hand to any other thing, and thou reachest unto vanity which cannot help. (E. Deering, B. D.) Distractions in prayer Such is the pattern which He, who is our pattern, gives us of acceptable effectual prayer. What are our prayers? Heavy, for the most part, and earthly; often we are unwilling to begin them, readily falling in with some plea, why we should not pray now, readily ceasing. And well may we have no pleasure in prayers such as we too often offer. Or of those she really desire to pray, how many have their minds so little controlled at other times, or so thronged with the things of this life, that the thoughts of the world pour in upon them, when they would pray. Step by step, we sunk amid the distractions of the world, and step by step only may we hope that our Father will raise us out of the mire wherein we plunged ourselves. Rut our first step, the very beginning and condition of our restoration, is to unlearn the distractions whereby we have been beset. In seeking to remedy our distractions, our first labour must be to amend ourselves. Such as we are at other times, such will our prayers be. A person cannot be full of cares, and riches, and pleasures, and enjoyments, and vanities of this life, up to the very moment when he falls down at God’ s footstool, and leave these companions of his other hours behind him, so that they will not thrust themselves in with him into the holy presence. We cannot keep our thoughts disengaged at prayer, if they are through the day engaged; we cannot keep out vain thoughts then, if at other times we yield to them. We must live more to God, if we would pray more to God; we must be less engrossed with the world, if we would not have the world thrust itself in upon our prayers and stifle them. But still further, even when we would serve God, or do our duty in this life, we must see that we do our very duties calmly. There is a religious, as well as a worldly, distraction. We may mix up self in doing duty, as well as when we make self our end. Religious excitement, or excitement about things of religion, may as effectually bar our praying as eagerness about worldly things. We may be engaged about the things of God, yet our mind may all the while centre in these things, not in God. Holy Scripture joins these two together, calmness or sobriety and prayer; “ Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” Peace is the beginning and end of prayer; its condition and its reward. Resign yourselves, that ye may pray, and God will guard your thoughts, and hold them to Himself. If, also, you would guard against wandering in prater, you must practise yourself in keeping a check upon your thoughts at other times. In this busy age, in which every one would know about everything, and, like the Athenians, our occupation seems to be to know some new thing, and what conveys news is thought the instrument of knowledge, and knowledge of every sort is thought a good, it is not a light matter, but one to which we must take great heed; what we hear, and admit into our minds. Our minds are holy things: they are the temples of God; and so, for His honor’ s sake who has so hallowed them, we should be on our guard what we allow to enter there. Be not curious about things which concern you not: what happens in the street, or passes by you, or befalls a neighbour, unless charity requires it of you. These things waste the mind more than you can well think. Rather recollect that your concern is not with the world; your home, your hopes, your abiding-place, is not here, but in God; your citizenship is not on earth, but in the heavens; your places here shall shortly know you no more; the earth shall contain no more of you than the dust of your bodies, in keeping for you against the resurrection. Then, on the other hand, as we seek, during the day, to weaken the hold which the world has upon us and our thoughts, so must we by His grace to strengthen our own capacity of turning to God. Away from the world and to God! Commit to Him thoughts, words, and works, to be “ ordered by His governance, to do that is righteous in His sight” ; to be “ begun, continued, and ended” in Him. So when you come to your fuller and more set devotions, you may hope that He, whom you serve continually, will keep you then also, and will vouchsafe Himself to visit you, and be in your thoughts, which you would fain make His, and will shut out the world by filling your thoughts with Himself. It is the infrequency of prayer which makes prayer so difficult. It is not a great effort now and then, which makes the things even of this life easy to us; it is their being the habit of our bodies or our minds. It was by continued exercise which we were not aware of, that our bodies, as children, were strengthened; it was by continued practice that we learnt anything. By continued gazing at far-off objects, the eye sees further than others; by continued practice the hand becomes steadied and obeys the motions of our mind. So and much more must the mind, by continual exercise, be steadied, to fix itself on Him whom it cannot grasp, and look up to Him whom it cannot see. Yea, so much the more exceedingly must it with strong effort fix itself by His grace on Him, because we cannot see Him or approach to Him, but by His revealing Himself and coming down to us, and giving us eyes to see and hearts to comprehend; and this He will do only to the earnest and persevering, and to us severally, as we are such. They then will pray best, who, praying truly, pray oftenest. This, also, is one great blessing of the practice of ejaculatory prayer, that is, prayer which is darted up from the mind in the little intervals which occur, whatever we are doing, Nothing goes on without breaks, to leave us space to turn to God. Amid conversation there is silence; in the busiest life there are moments, if we would mark them, when we must remain idle. We are kept waiting, or we must bear what is wearisome; let prayer take the place of impatience. In preparing for business, let prayer take the place of eagerness; in closing it, of self-satisfaction. Are we weary? be it our refreshment! Are we strong? let us hallow our strength by thanksgiving! The very preparation or close of any business brings with it of necessity a pause, teaching us by this very respite to begin and end with prayer; with prayer beforehand for His help, or at the end thanksgiving to Him who carried us through it, or for pardon for what has been amiss in it. Such are some of the more distant preparations for prayer, such as it should be, fixed and earnest; to strive to make God, not the world, the end of our lives; not to be taken up even with our duties in the world, but amid them to seek Him; to subdue self, and put a restraint upon our senses at other times, that we may have the control over them then; to lift our thoughts to Him at other times, so will they rise more readily then. These are, in their very nature, slowly learnt. Yet as, if wholly learnt, it were heaven itself, so is each step, a step heavenwards. Yet there are many more immediate helps, at the very time of prayer. Neglect nothing which can produce reverence. Pass not at once from the things of this world to prayer, but collect thyself. Think what thou art, what God is; thyself a child, and God thy Father; but also thyself dust and ashes, God, a consuming fire, before whom angels hide their faces: thyself unholy, God holy; thyself a sinner, God thy Judge. Then forget not that of thyself thou canst not pray. We come before Him, as helpless creatures, who need to be taught what to ask for, and knowing, to be enabled to ask, and a-king, to be enabled to persevere to ask. Then watch thyself, what helps or hinders thee to fix thy mind on God. Then as to the words of our prayer: we should beware how we pass hastily over any of our prayers. It is not how much we say, but what we pray, which is of real moment. Then, the best models of prayer consist of brief petitions, as suited to men in need; for when they really feel their need, they use not many words. “ Lord, save us, we perish,” is the cry of need. And so the petitions of the pattern of all prayer, our Lord’ s, are very short, but each containing manifold prayers. So are the Psalms in prayer or praise: “ Blot out all mine iniquities,” “ Create in me a new heart,” “ Cast me not away from Thy presence,” “ Save me by Thy Name.” In this way we may collect our strength and attention for each petition, and so pray on, step by step, through the whole, resting at each step on Him, who alone can carry us to the end, and if, by human frailty, we be distracted, sum up briefly with one strong concentrated effort what we have lost by wandering. In public prayer the case is different. For here, if we wander, the prayers meanwhile go on, and we find that we have lost a portion of our daily bread; that God’ s Church on earth has been praising with angels and archangels and the Church in heaven, while we have been bringing our sheep and our oxen and our money-changing, the things of this life, into God’ s presence and the court of heaven. Yet the remedies are the same, and we have even greater helps. The majesty of the place may well awe us with devotion, and will aid us to it, if we waste not its impressiveness by our negligence or frivolity. Come we then calmly to this holy place, not thinking or speaking, up to its very threshold, of things of earth, but as men bent on a great service, where much is at stake; coming to a holy presence, from whom depends our all. Pray we, as we enter it, that God would guard our thoughts and compose oar minds and fix them on Him. Employ we any leisure before the service b, gins, in thought or private prayer; guard we our eyes from straying to those around us; listen we reverently to His holy word; use the pause before each prayer to ask God to enable us to pray this prayer also; and so pray each separate prayer, as far as we can, relying on His gracious aid. Yet we are not to think that by these or any other remedies distraction is to be cured at once. We cannot undo at once the habit, it may be, of years. Distraction will come through weakness, ill-health, fatigue: only pray, guard, strive against it; humble yourselves under it, and for the past negligences, of which it is mostly the sad fruit; rely less upon yourself, cast yourself more upon God, hang more wholly upon Him, and long the more for that blessed time, when the redeemed of the Lord shall serve Him day and night without distraction. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Begging prayers A little boy, one of the Sunday-school children in Jamaica, called upon the “ missionary and stated that he had lately been very ill, and in his sickness often wished his minister had been present to pray with him. “ But Thomas,” said the missionary, “ I hope you prayed.” “ Oh yes, sir.” “ Well, how did you pray?” “ Why, sir, I begged.” (Henry T. Williams.) The grace of tears “ Lord Jesus, give me the grace of tears.” (Augustine.) Tears a safety-valve The safety-valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on. (Albert Smith.) Yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. Suffering the school of obedience I. GOD HAS LAID EVEN UPON SORROW THE DESTINY OF HIS OF MERCY. In the beginning, sorrow was the wages of sin, penal and working death; by the law of Christ’ s redemption, it is become a discipline of cleansing and perfection. To the impenitent, and such as will not obey the truth, it is still, as ever, a dark and crushing penalty; to the contrite and obedient it is as the refiner’ s fire, keen and searching, purging out the soils, and perfecting the renewal of our spiritual nature. It is the discipline of saints, and the safest, though the austerest, school of sanctity; and that because suffering, or, as we are wont to say, trial, turns our knowledge into reality. There is laid upon us a mighty hand, from whose shadow we cannot flee. All general truths teem with a particular meaning, and speak to us with a piercing emphasis. Equally true this is, also, of all bright and blessed truths: they also are quickened with a living energy. The promises of heaven, and the times of refreshing, and the rest of the saints, and the love of God, and the presence of Christ, which we have so long thought of, and talked about, and felt after, and yet never seemed to grasp--all these likewise become realities. They seem to gather round us, andshed sensible influences of peace upon our suffering hearts; and this is what we mean when we say, “ I have long known these things to be true, but now I feel them to be true.” II. And, in the next place, SO PUT OUR FAITH ON TRIAL AS TO AND CONFIRM IT. They develop what was lying hid in us, unknown even to ourselves. And therefore we often see persons, who have shown no very great tokens of high devotion, come out, under the pressure of trials, into a more elevated bearing. This is especially true of sickness and affliction. Not only are persons of a holy life made to shine with a more radiant brightness, but common Christians, of no note or visibleness, are changed to a saintly character. They wrestle with their trial, as the patriarch with his unknown companion, and will not let it go without a blessing; and thereby the gifts which lie enwrapped in a regenerate nature are unfolded into life and energy. III. Once more: NOTHING SO LIKENS US TO THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST AS . All that suffer are not therefore saints; alas! far from it, for many suffer without the fruits of sanctity; but all saints at some time, and in some way and measure, have entered into the mystery of suffering. And this throws light on a very perplexing thought in which we sometimes entangle ourselves; I mean, on the wonderful fact that oftentimes the same persons are as visibly marked by sorrows as by sanctity. They seem never to pass out of the shadow of affliction; they seem to be a mark for all the storms and arrows of adversity, the world esteems them to be “ stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” ; even religious people are perplexed at their trials. When we see eminently holy persons suddenly bereaved, or suffering sharp bodily anguish, and their trials long drawn out, or multiplied by succession, we often say, How strange and dark is this dispensation! Who would have thought that one so poor, so patient, and resigned, should have been so visited and overwhelmed by strokes? And yet all this shows how shallow and blind our faith is, for we know little even of those we know best; we readily overrate their character, at all events they are far otherwise in the esteem of God than in our judgment; our thoughts are not His thoughts: we set up a poor, dim, depressed standard of perfection and we should miserably defraud even those we love most if it were in our power to mete out their trials by our measures; we little know what God is doing, and how can we know the way? And we often think that the sorrows of the saints are sent for their punishment, when they are sent for their perfection. We forget that Christ suffered, and why; and how He learned obedience, and what that obedience was. He was made “ perfect “ by sufferings, and that “ perfection,” whatsoever it be, has an ineffable depth of meaning. It was not only a sacerdotal perfection by consecration to the priesthood of Melchisedec, but something of which that was the formal expression and manifestation of a great spiritual reality, a perfection of holiness, knowledge, obedience, sympathy, and will. And of this perfection, after the measures of a creature, and the proportions of our mere manhood, are the saints made to partake; they are purified, that they may be made perfect. (Archdeacon H. E. Manning.) Learning obedience “ Though He was a Son, He learned.” Though a Son, i.e., though He was so exalted a being, not a mere servant like the angels, but One whom the angels worship. Not a servant like Moses or like Aaron, but the Son by whom God made the worlds, yet even He had something to learn, and learned it in the days of His flesh. There is a mystery here, yet if we are content to inquire instead of speculate we shall find sufficient answer. There is light in the word “ obedience.” He learned not the art and wisdom of commanding, this belonged to His Eternal Nature. But obedience is an art which belongs of right to lower ranks of being. The Highest cannot, as the Highest, obey, for there is no authority above His own. Obedience may be taught from a throne, but it cannot be learned by one who occupies it. Thus, even the Son of God might learn obedience if He saw fit to empty Himself of Divine prerogative and take upon Him the form of a servant, wearing our human nature and accepting our duties and temptations. Therefore because obedience is so foreign to the Divine nature, it is a thing which the Son of God could learn by becoming incarnate, and could only learn by stooping to share our discipline and bear the Divine will as a yoke instead of wield it as a sceptre. Viewing the Sonship of Christ under another aspect, it might have been thought that a perfect Son would have needed no more teaching, and that when found in fashion as man, His filial spirit, His perfect readiness to obey would have sufficed. But this is denied. Having become a servant, having come down under the yoke of commandments, it is insisted that the Son went right through the actual course of human discipline, evading nothing, missing nothing, until He crowned His obedience by submission, even unto death. Though a Son He learnt obedience by suffering. Could He not learn it otherwise? We know that suffering is needful in our case because our spirits are so faulty, because we are so prone to err and go astray. But a Son, a perfect Son I surely such an One having no share in our defects might have learnt obedience without pain! Can we be wrong in such a view? Perhaps not. If a faultless Son began life in a faultless world; if He were born into a sinless family, or were created in a paradise where no fall had taken place, He might possibly have learned obedience by a painless and unfailing life of conformity to the Father’ s will. But whatever might have been possible in heaven or in paradise, painless obedience was not possible in the moral wilderness. In a world where sin abounded Christ had constantly to choose between affliction and iniquity. Without using miraculous powers to screen Himself from the natural consequences of His actions, He was obliged to suffer. The suffering was at once the measure and test of His obedience, and thus it was He passed through pain to perfectness as a learner in the school of human life. This must be so, yet still our hearts cry out in pity for One so holy and true--surely it was not needful for Him to suffer so much! Could not the Father have spared His well-beloved Son such extreme agonies while obedience was being learned? The answer is clear. This might have been possible under some circumstances. An easier life might have been laid out for Jesus as it is laid out for most of us. He might have lived obediently in the midst of plenty. Why then should the Father be pleased to set His well-beloved Son such agonising tasks, why be pleased to bruise and put to grief the Son who always did His will? That is a question which admits of many answers. It is one which none but the Father Himself can answer altogether, yet part of His answer shines before us here. The Son of God came not to learn obedience for Himself, but for our sakes. He came not merely to become perfect As a man before God who reads the heart, but to be visibly perfect before men who can only read actions. He came to be made thus visibly perfect not only as a man, but as a Saviour and as the Author of obedience in us. Look at a few reasons why death, the death of the Cross, was needful to this end. Christ came to set us an example. He came to do much more than this, but that was one great object of His incarnation. But if He had stopped short of obedience unto death, He would have left no example how we ought to act when shut up to the dilemma of being obliged to either sin or die. Christ came to magnify Divine law, to make it venerable in our sight, and to declare the entire rightness of God’ s will. While God’ s will appoints us a path of flowers, and while duty brings honour and reward, gratitude and trust are easy. But when duty runs straight into a Red Sea! When it leads to a fiery furnace! When the soul, intent on doing right, finds itself alone, misunderstood, and persecuted, then is the time when the enemy finds a listening ear for his slander, “ God is careless,” “ God is cruel,” “ God is unfaithful to those who are most faithful to Himself.” Where then would be the value of Christ’ s testimony to the goodness of God’ s will when most in danger of being doubted, if He Himself had been spared this terrible temptation? “ Be thou faithful unto death” ; we can hear that from Christ. Christ came to reveal the Divine sympathy with us in all our afflictions, but that revelation would have been very partial if destitute of any kindly light to shed on dying eyes. We are not all called to martyrdom, hut we have all to die. But where could we have seen the sympathy of Christ with ourselves as mortal, if He had left the world by a private door of rapture? Wherefore to be our sympathetic Friend in the dark valley, Jesus was obedient even unto death. Christ came to preach the forgiveness of sins, to declare the righteousness of God in the act of forgiveness, to commend the love of God to all men, including the very chief of sinners and the most malignant of His foes; and in all these things He must have failed had His obedience stopped short of death. Wherefore Jesus was obedient unto death. Christ came to bring life and immortality to light, and for this end it was needful He should die and rise again. The mere continuance of His life would have had no revelation of a future life to us. But an emptied grave visibly spoils death, breaks the bars of Hades, preaches resurrection to us, who have to die, and reveals Jesus as the first-fruits of them that slept. Wherefore that He might be the Author of an eternal salvation and bring life end immortality to light, the Son was obedient unto death. (T. V. Tymms.) Christ a learner I. THE DIVINE OF THE OF HIM WHO IS THE OF MEN, A Son. “ Though He were a Son,” “ The Son of God,” as in the previous context. We understand this expression as in the first place presenting the Redeemer in the nature, and with the attributes of Deity. II. His . “ Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience,” &c. Here we behold the Son of God, He who was infinite in excellency and in working, condescending to become a learner, placing Himself in circumstances in which He might receive instruction. No doubt the Spirit of God that was in Him taught Him better than the scribe, or priest, or ruler, or parent could; but the child Jesus, growing up to manhood, learned, received the wisdom, the counsel, the instruction that is from God. But, “ though He were a Son,” He learned something more than knowledge. He learned how to obey. What affections were involved in obedience! What satisfaction resulted to the obedient mind! What intimate and fervent communion existed between Him that was obeyed and Him that did obey! But the lowliest condescension that we mark is, that He learned obedience by suffering. There are many who are willing to obey, and who find pleasure in obedience, when there is only joy, when there is the reward of obedience; but to go through the deep flood, to pass under the dark cloud, to penetrate the fiery furnace, and to endure all that could be heaped in the shape of sorrows, and woes, and to do this that He might “ learn obedience” --this was Christ’ s condescension. Ah! but He suffered more than this. “ The contradiction of sinners against Himself” He suffered. He “ learned obedience” by suffering ingratitude from those to whom He showed mercy. He suffered contumely and reproach, He entered into our sorrows. He Himself “ took our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Still farther, and even more painful, was His humiliation. We know what it is to be convinced of sin; we know what it is to be overwhelmed with shame for sin. I know that Jesus knew no sin; but oh, in this I see the poignancy of His grief, when all our sins were made to meet on Him. And He was “ made perfect” --He condescended to be made perfect “ by the things which He suffered,” that He should be a perfectly righteous person in the midst of the most trying circumstances--that He should love even unto death, though death was heaped upon Him for His love. III. THE END TO BE BY HIS . “ That He might become the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” How much there is in those words! There would have been no salvation for guilty men if Jesus had not come to die. It is in Christ’ s excellencies originally; it is in Christ as the perfect Saviour that we can alone have confidence towards God. He is the author of salvation, inasmuch as He has “ taken away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” ; He is the author of salvation, inasmuch as He has endured the curse of the broken law, and delivered us from the sentence of condemnation; He is the author of salvation, inasmuch as He has received from His Father the promised Spirit, by which poor guilty sinners are regenerated, and faith wrought in them, to trust in Jesus and His finished work; He is the author of salvation, inasmuch as He has gone to heaven to carry on the work, and He ever lives to make intercession for His people, and is “ able to save to the very uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” He is the author of salvation, for it is the gospel that produces the happy change, that translates from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and glory. But it is “ eternal salvation.” It is a salvation that, having been begun, will never be interrupted; it is a salvation that will be unto the end; it is a salvation that will be found, in its consummation, in the presence of God, where “ there is fulness of joy,” and at His right hand, where “ there are pleasures for evermore.” “ Unto all them that obey Him.” You will mark what the obedience is which Christ requires. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 5:10; Hebrews 5:12 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered Difficult truth I. There are revealed in the Scripture SUNDRY DEEP AND TRUTHS WHICH REQUIRE A IN OUR UNTO THEIR , that we may rightly understand them, or receive them in a due manner. 1. There are some things or truths revealed in the Scripture which have a peculiar remark put upon them, as those which are deep and mysterious 1 Timothy 3:16; Ephesians 5:32; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8; Ephesians 3:4-5). 2. The doctrines concerning these things are not dark and obscure, but clear, evident, and perspicuous. There are two practices about these things that are equally pernicious. (1) A pretence of things mysterious that are not clearly revealed. This the apostle calls a curious prying or intruding into things which we have not seen; they who do so are “ vainly purled up by their fleshly mind” Colossians 2:18), and which he cautioneth us against (Romans 12:3). (2) A neglect and contempt of clear open revelations, because the things revealed are mysterious. 3. The depths and mystery of the things intended, lie in themselves and their own nature. They are effects of Divine wisdom, yea the greatest which ever God will either work or declare. Hence the doctrine of them is called “ His wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:7), “ His manifold wisdom” Ephesians 3:10), as having put the most eminent characters of infinite wisdom upon them. 4. The principal of these mysteries concern the person, offices, and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So as to His person, it is declared by our apostle 1 Timothy 3:16; as to His work and office, Philippians if. 7-10; and as to His grace, Ephesians 3:8-11). 5. Of all things which we are to learn in the dispensation of the Word, these are we with most diligence to attend unto (Philippians 3:8-10), as those wherein the glory of God and our own obedience are most concerned. II. IT IS FOR THE OF THE GOSPEL TO INSIST ON THE MOST AND TRUTHS THAT ARE FOR OUR . 1. It ought to be the design of every faithful minister in the course of his ministry to withhold nothing from those committed unto his charge that belongs unto their edification, as do all things that are written in the Scripture, but to declare unto them the whole counsel of God, so far as he himself hath attained. 2. His duty is, as much as in him lieth, to carry on his hearers unto perfection (Hebrews 6:1). 3. Whereas the greatest part of our congregations, it may be, frequently are such as stand in need of milk, and are not skilfull, as yet, in the word of righteousness, it is our duty also to insist on those plainer truths which are suited unto their edification. 4. Those who are called by the state of their flocks to engage sometimes in the exposition of abstruse and mysterious passages of Scripture, may do well to observe the ensuing rules, all which may be evidently gathered from the way and manner of our apostle’ s treating concerning Melchisedec and his office. (1) That their interpretations be openly and evidently conformable to the analogy of faith. (2) That the exposition of them be necessary from present circumstances, which are principally two. (a) That the things contained in them do belong unto some important truth which is plainly declared for the substance of it in other places, although from them it may receive light and illustration. (b) When they offer themselves in the course of our work or ministry, where God gives light into the sense of the Holy Ghost in them, they are not to be waived, as we would be esteemed faithful in our work. (3) Always to remember, that what is so abstrusely expressed, is so on purpose, for the exercise as of our faith, humility, and subjection of mind unto the authority of the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scripture; so of our diligence and dependence on Him for instruction, which calls for an especial frame of spirit in the work we undertake. (4) That the difficulty and necessity of treating concerning such things be intimated unto them who are to be instructed, that so they may be prepared to attend with diligence, and judge with sobriety of what is delivered. III. THERE IS A LIGHT AND IN ALL DIVINE TRUTHS, BUT BY REASON OF OUR AND WE ARE NOT ALWAYS ABLE TO THEM. OUR WANT OF THAT WITH THEM, WHICH IT IS OUR DUTY TO HAVE, AND WHICH IS NEEDFUL UNTO OUR , IS FROM ALONE, AND FOR THE MOST PART FROM OUR SINFUL NEGLECT OF WHAT IS . IV. MANY WHO RECEIVE THE WORD AT FIRST WITH SOME , DO YET MAKE BUT SLOW EITHER IN OR GRACE. V. IT IS MEN’ S IN HEARING THAT IS THE SOLE CAUSE OF THEIR NOT THE MEANS OF GRACE, OR NOT UNDER THE OF THE WORD OR, ALL OUR , WITH RESPECT UNTO THE GOSPEL, ARE TO BE INTO OUR OWN SLOTH, , AND . (John Owen, D. D.) Ye are dull of hearing Dull of hearing It is a metaphor taken from lazy travellers that go slowly. As men are slow in going, so are you in hearing the Word of God. And by hearing is not meant the external hearing alone, but the internal. Slow in conceiving and learning, as is expounded in the next verse. Hearing is put for learning, because knowledge is conveyed by the sense of hearing. There be many things that procure this dulness and slowness. 1. Carelessness or want of diligence (Matthew 12:19). 2. A mind possessed with other things, which keep the gospel out of the doors, as these were with an high opinion of the ceremonial law and Levitical priesthood. A barrel full of corrupt water cannot receive wine. 3. Want of meditation. 4. Want of reading and conferring (Acts 17:1-34.). 5. Want of prayer. We are apt scholars for the world, swift to hear news and tales, but slow and dull in hearing of the Word of God. So that we may justly suffer that check of our Saviour’ s (Luke 24:25). (W. Jones, D. D.) Dull of heating The meaning is not that they were deaf either in whole or part, or that such amongst them as were learned could not read them, if written, or understand the language; but by hearing is meant understanding. There are outward ears, and outward hearing of the body: inward ears, and inward hearing of the soul: the former they had, the latter they had not, so as to be capable of such things as he had to say of this priest and priesthood. This was no obscurity in the matter, but an indisposition in the soul to receive this doctrine. Dulness was this indisposition, which in general is a defect of active power; in particular, in this place, of the intellective faculty, as not able to perceive, discern, apprehend, and judge of this higher doctrine. It is opposed to that we call acumen, the sharpness, quickness, and piercing power of the wit and intellect; yet here this dulness is restrained to a certain object, for in other things they might be apprehensive and judicious enough. By reason of this defect it is that much excellent and Divine doctrine is lost, or at least useless to the greatest part of the people, who are no whir moved with doctrine, though excellent, if above their capacity. For this cause the meanest teachers are most popular; though it is true that all wise men must have respect unto the capacity of their hearers, and condescend unto them, yet men should not be always babes and dunces in God’ s school. (G. Lawson.) Dull hearers There is a difficulty in the things themselves (the matter of preaching), and there may be a weakness in the ministers of the gospel to speak clearly about these things; but generally the fault is in the bearers. Dull hearers make the preaching of the gospel a difficult thing: and even those that have some faith may be dull hearers, dull of understanding, and slow to believe; the understanding is weak and does not apprehend these spiritual things; the memory is weak and does not retain them. The apostle insists upon the faultiness of this infirmity of theirs. It was not a mere natural infirmity, but it was a sinful infirmity, and more in them than others, by reason of the singular advantages they had enjoyed for improving in the knowledge of Christ (Hebrews 5:12). (M. Henry.) Hebrews 5:12-14 Ye ought to be teachers The duty of teaching I. You ought to have KNOWN enough of the truth of the gospel to ENABLE YOU to be teachers. II. You ought to have enough in others to IMPEL YOU to be teachers. III. You ought to have enough LOYALTY to Christ to YOU to be teachers. Whether or no Be would have us to be teachers, we may gather from 1. His commands, “ Go, teach,” &c. 2. His spirit. Ever communicative. 3. His example. “ Went about doing good.” (U. R. Thomas.) Improvement in knowledge I. THAT ALL WHO ARE WITH THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL SHALL BE UTTERLY IF THEIR IN NO NOT BEAR A TO THE TIME THEY HAVE TO ENJOY IT. II. THAT THOSE WHO ARE NOT CAREFUL TO AND TO THEIR , WILL BE IN GREAT DANGER OF LOSING WHAT THEY HAVE . III. THAT WITHOUT A PROPER WITH THE FIRST PLAIN OF , MEN ARE UNFIT TO RECEIVE OF A HIGHER AND MORE NATURE. (R. Walker.) Religious teachers None should take upon them to be teachers of others but those who have made a good improvement in spiritual knowledge themselves. (M. Henry.) Blameworthy backwardness Small progress under great privileges is a grievous fault. The scholar who has time, and books, and excellent instructors, and yet learns nothing, is soon given up as incorrigible. He soon loses caste, is degraded, is censured by his friends, and is condemned by all. The man of business who, by negligence or prodigality, loses his customers, and so suffers his business to run down, is despised, and when the pinching hand of poverty seizes him, is unpitied. (Geo. Peck, D. D.) Christian growth They are blamed for being babes, and not “ of full age,” or perfect. In the Church of Christ there are little children, there are men, there are fathers. It is evident that the apostle refers in our passage to the wisdom of the heart and of life. Christians differ in their measure of understanding and strength, as well as in the gifts of grace, which by the Spirit and according to their natural endowments and providential position are bestowed on them. Those who have only recently been brought into the fold cannot possess the experience and the wisdom of the elder. The Lord, who is the Head of the Church, distributes also gifts and talents according to His good and wise will. Some members of the Church are called to be teachers, lights, and guides, sons of consolation and fathers in the gospel; whereas others will, perhaps, always remain weak, and in need of constant help and guidance. Now the Lord, who Himself is full of tenderness, exhorts the Church to be gentle, patient toward the young and the inexperienced. They that are strong ought not merely to bear the infirmities of the weak, but exercise self-denial in accommodating themselves to their less enlightened brethren. We must exercise a wise and patient discretion, even as Jesus had many things to say to His disciples, but remembered that they could not bear them. 1. The comparison between a newly-converted man and a babe is, like all comparisons, imperfect. For in one sense a Christian is born by the Holy Ghost full-grown; as Adam came into the world a perfect man, full of light and insight, who gave names to all the living creatures, who understood and spake. The newly-converted man is born into the spiritual world, and from the first moment he sees and knows Christ, and has the mind of Christ, the Spirit, so that he can immediately understand all spiritual things. The milk of the Word, as contrasted with strong meat, does not refer to any real and inherent difference between the gospel first preached and afterwards taught. From first to last we present the same truth, the same circle of truths, the whole truth. The babe in Christ (I mean he who is a babe naturally, and not unnaturally through iris own worldiness and indolence), full of love to Jesus, and impressed with the importance and blessedness of heavenly things, learns very easily and very rapidly. He delights in the Word; he is humble and tender; he does not resist truths which condemn the flesh and correct our waywardness; he is unworldly, heavenly-minded, and nine-tenths of the Bible becomes clear, when we are willing to deny ourselves, and take our cross and follow Jesus. Yes, we run well at the commencement. It is apathy, worldliness, conceit, which afterwards render Christians slow of heart to understand all that is written. The lukewarm church must needs be an ignorant church. The divided heart must needs be confused and dim-sighted. It is for this reason that the apostle blames the Hebrews for not having progressed in knowledge. Their senses had not been exercised; that is, they had not walked closely with God. They had not conscientiously applied the knowledge which they had, but allowed it to remain dead and unused. 2. It is not that there is a higher truth or life for the older Christians. All our progress consists in learning more fully the doctrine which at first is preached unto us. Let us beware of entertaining erroneous views as to what is meant by milk and meat. “ Milk” designates gospel truth preached simply, so that thereby true nourishment is given, and faith is both called forth, and the new spiritual life strengthened and increased. Hence there is nothing in the term meant to depreciate, but, on the contrary, to exalt the first declaration of saving truth in Christ. The strong meat, the doctrine of Christ’ s high priesthood in heaven, is also milk, pure and nourishing, simple, and only received by the child-like heart; whereas pride and ambition often call speculative and unprofitable discussions strong meat, though they are of no use to the spiritual man, but minister only unto strife and the exaltation of the flesh. The Hebrews had become as babes. Hence the word, which elsewhere is the sweetest expression of Divine love and favour, is a term of reproach when it intimates an unnatural and dangerous condition of spiritual weakness, the result of a culpable and habitual inertness. It had not always been thus with the Hebrew Christians. For we read that when they were first enlightened they endured a great fight of affliction. Then, although they had many and grievous sufferings, they were strong, and rejoiced in Christ; and why? Because they were heavenly-minded. Then, though young in the faith, they were more fervent, and therefore more spiritual, possessed of clearer knowledge and perception. And therefore the apostle is so anxious to lead them on to perfection, that is, to fix their thoughts on Christ in heaven. Their earthly-mindedness constitutes both the necessity and the difficulty of his task. For the perfection unto which the apostle desires to go is not an esoteric doctrine or method of holiness peculiar to an imaginary second stage of faith. It has nothing to do directly with anything in our heart and conduct. It refers, on the contrary, to heaven, to the High Priest above, to our position in Him who is seated at the right hand of God. It is to know that we are priests, worshippers in spirit and in truth, that, being reconciled to God by the death of Christ, we have now been brought nigh to the Father; and our citizenship, the source of our life and strength, the things which we seek, the blessings with which we are enriched, are no longer on earth, but in heaven. (A. Saphir.) Ye have need that one teach you The need of catechising I. WEIGHTY REASONS MAY BE GIVEN FOR THE OF . 1. By catechising a good and sure foundation is laid. Now it is necessary that in all buildings a good foundation be laid, lest for want of it the building come to ruin (Matthew 7:26-27). 2. By catechising people are by degrees made capable of deeper mysteries; as children by learning letters and syllables, and to spell them, are brought on to read distinctly. The most intelligent hearers are such as have been well instructed in the principles of religion. 3. By catechising such as profess the faith are enabled to render a reason of the hope that is in them (1 Peter 3:15). For a catechism well compiled contains the sum and substance of all that a Christian is to believe. 4. By catechising, pastors may know their people’ s capacity and understanding to and this is requisite in two respects (1) That he may the better know whom to admit to the Lord’ s table. (2) That he may the better discern how to order his preaching both for matter and manner. 5. The fruits of catechising have ever been observed to be many and great. Thereby have families been made seminaries for the Church. II. If the question be demanded WHEREIN THE LIETH BETWIXT AND , I answer, in these particulars especially. 1. By catechising, a foundation is laid (Hebrews 6:1). By preaching, the building is farther reared up, beautified and perfected. 2. By catechizing, many and large points are contracted into brief sums, as in the Ten Commandments, Creed, and Lord’ s Prayer. By preaching, sundry points are amplified, enlarged, and sundry ways applied. 3. By catechising, weak and ignorant ones are fed, as with milk. By preaching, the strong are further nourished with strong meat. For in catechising the most necessary principles are plainly laid down; but in preaching all sorts of points, the difficult as well as easy, use to be handled; yea, and contrary errors refuted. 4. By catechising, a particular account is taken of the learners, which is not so done by preaching. For catechising is by question and answer; so as the catechised give an account of their proficiency. But preaching is only by a minister’ s declaring his mind. 5. Catechising is for such as are newly entered into the Church; and that for a time till they may be fitted for the sacrament. But preaching is for all, of all sorts, so long as they live. For though a man had all knowledge, yet is preaching requisite to work upon their affections, and to bring to their mind and memory such things as they know. Preaching is profitable to all those uses that are mentioned (2 Timothy 3:16). (W. Gouge.) The lesson of ripeness As in the family, the child, from being taught, gradually grows into a position of authority, from being directed by others, becomes self-determining, and has a voice and an influence in the counsels of men; so, in the great family of God, Christian maturity and its accompaniments are recognised facts--attainments which the gospel treats not merely as privileges, but as obligations. There is a Christian manhood, in short, which is expected and required of the child of God, in which, from being a recipient of gospel influences, he is to become their defender, their illustrator, and their propagator. This is the truth for our consideration. It is embodied in these words of the text, addressed to those who had been for a good while under gospel training: “ Ye ought to be teachers.” I. YE, AS AND OF CHRIST, OUGHT TO BE . One reason why Christ found it expedient to go away in person from the world, was that the number of teachingcentres might be multiplied. As plainly as words could speak, He laid the burden of diffusing the gospel upon His Church. “ Ye,” He said to His disciples, “ ye are the salt of the earth. Ye are the light of the world.” Men are taught by the gospel that their responsibility does not cease with their own salvation; that they cannot live out their Christian lives simply with reference to God and to themselves; that from the fact of their being members of society, they exert power for good or for evil over other lives; that they cannot be Christians and not teach. II. BUT THIS DUTY IS HERE URGED BY ONE MERELY, TO WHICH WE MAY CONFINE . The familiar rendering, “ for the time ye ought to be teachers,” entirely obscures the force of the passage. The meaning is, rather, “ by reason of the time” ; that is, because you have been for a long time under Christian influence, listening to Christian doctrine, versed in Christian experience: by reason of the time which has passed since you became Christian disciples, you ought to be teachers. We do not expect the apprenticed mechanic to be always an apprentice or an underling. Time is needed to teach him how to handle tools, and to make him acquainted with the capacity of materials: but, with the time, we expect to see him a master-workman; we look for him to develop new resources out of his material, and new methods of treating it, and thus to become a teacher to his craft. The man who through all his years is merely acquiring knowledge, and does not come in process of time to give it out, may be a prodigy of learning, but he is also a prodigy of uselessness, no better than so much lumber. And the same principle runs up into the moral and spiritual realm, and prevails there. We have a right to expect, as the result of years, larger and clearer views of truth, better defined conviction, more self-mastery, more practical efficiency, and more consistency of life. It is a sad thing when a man has been before the world for long years as a professed disciple of Christ, and when all he has to show for it is that he is very old. Length of days, be it remembered, is in the right hand of wisdom. III. And now let us LOOK AT A FEW OF THE POINTS IN WHICH, BY REASON OF TIME, A OUGHT TO BE A TEACHER. 1. He ought to be a teacher by reason of a matured faith, and that under three aspects (1) In respect of his own assurance of Christian truth. The instructive power of the gospel resides very largely in the lives which it shapes and pervades and propels. The life is the light of men. Ye ought to be teachers, but ye will not be if the gospel is still an open question to you. Ye will not be if your attitude towards its foundation-truths is that of suspense. (2) Again, time ought to develop faith in the sense of spiritual discernment--clearer perception of the things o! the unseen world. It is not strange if a young Christian simply believes in the things which are not seen. It is strange if the older Christian does not feel the power of the world to come. It is one thing to assent to the truth that “ the things which are not seen are eternal” ; it is another thing to apprehend that truth, and to take it into life as a working principle; to realise that the things on which heaven stamps a value--love and faith and purity and truth and good conscience--are the paramount things, and to make everything give way to these. That kind of spiritual seeing has a teaching power. It is of the very essence of all teaching that the man who sees what we do not see, brings us to his feet to learn. When we want to know about the stars we go to the scholar who has the telescope. And the life which one lives by faith in the unseen, teaches. It does what all true leaching must do--it excites attention, it awakens inquiry, it communicates enthusiasm. (3) And time ought to have ripened faith in the sense of restfulness. We count it strange if natural manhood does not bring with it increased composure, tranquillity, balance. Shall we count it any less strange if, with the lapse of time, Christian manhood does not become better poised, more restful and quiet, less easily thrown off its balance? 2. By reason of the time a Christian ought to have been confirmed in the habit of communion with God. Prayer is a subject of discipline. No man learns all its resources at once. I have somewhere seen a little story of a king who had employed some people to weave for him, had supplied them the materials and the patterns, and had told them, that if they were ever in trouble about their work, they were to come to him without fear. Among those at the looms was a child; and one day, when all the rest were distressed at the sight of the tangles in their yarn, they gathered round the child, and asked, “ Why are you so happy at your work? These constant tangles are more than we can bear.” “ Why do you not tell the king? “ said the little weaver. “ He told us to, and that he would help us.” “ We do,” replied they, “ at night and at morning.” “ Ah!” said the child, “ I send directly whenever I have a tangle.” We ought to have reached that point by reason or time--that habit of referring everything at once and directly to God; just as, when we are walking with a friend, we naturally refer to him every matter of interest as it comes up. That habit of communion with heaven sets its mark on the life and invests it with a teaching-power. 3. By reason of time a Christian should have become a teacher in the matter of habitual consistency of life, obedience, and docility. It is strange, something is wrong, if we are still committing and repenting of the same old sins which we began to fight long ago. As the lines of that living epistle which we began writing when we entered Christ’ s service creep farther down the page, they ought to be more fairly and evenly written. In short, though we shall never be perfect men and women, though the nearer we get to Christ, the less we shall be pleased with ourselves--yet we ought to be better men and women by reason of the time, and, by our better living of the gospel, be teachers to those about us. 4. And, by reason of the time, we ought to be broader in our charity. Our own experience ought to have given us an insight into our own weakness and fallibility, and to have made us correspondingly tolerant of the weakness and fallibility of our brother men. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) The growth of the spiritual sense Philo had already emphasised the distinction between the child in knowledge and the man of full age and mature judgment. St. Paul had said more than once that such a distinction holds among Christians. Many are carnal; some are spiritual. In his writings the difference is not an external one, nor is the line between the two classes broad and clear. The one shades into the other. But, though we may not be able to determine where the one begins and the other ends, both are tendencies, and move in opposite directions. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the distinction resembles the old doctrine of habit taught by Aristotle. Our organs of sense are trained by use to distinguish forms and colours. In like manner, there are inner organs of the spirit, which distinguish good from evil, not by mathematical demonstration, but by long-continued exercise in hating evil and in loving holiness. The growth of this spiritual sense is connected by our author with the power to understand the higher doctrine. He only who discerns, by force of spiritual insight, what is good and what is evil, can also understand spiritual truths. The difference between good and evil is not identical with “ the word of righteousness.” But the moral elevation of character that clearly discerns the former is the condition of understanding also the latter. (T. C. Edwards, D. D.) The oracles of God The oracles of God An oracle is, strictly speaking, an instrument, a mouthpiece of a mighty person who prefers to remain unknown. By oracles future events were declared, perplexities cleared, and doubts solved. Oracles, therefore, or those taken as such, abounded in the world, they especially played a prominent part in Greek society. Celebrated above all the rest, in the very centre of Greece, was the renowned one of Delphi, whither from far and near questioners betook themselves, and went away with perfect faith that they had indeed received answers from a god, to whom the place was sacred, and at whose shrine they laid offerings of worship and gratitude. What then the heathen fondly flattered themselves to have, the Jews really possessed. If the great work of man here is to know God and do His will, the Jews were indeed blessed above all others, since alone of all the inhabitants of the earth they were acquainted with a revelation from the Creator to creatures of His hand, of which no power on earth could rob them. When the ark was gone for ever, and when not one stone upon another of the Temple was left, when the glory was departed from Israel, the Jewish children could still read the Old Testament stories, the Jewish men and women could still learn to do God justice by His Word. Nothing could touch this priceless treasure they had retained unhurt through perils of wars; it would have taught them still as of old, if they themselves had not misused it, and so lost, by their own fault, the blessing which no outward influence was ever able to take away. Thus are all God’ s gifts to man abused. He chooses to place Himself at such disadvantage, that man may scorn what He is pleased to send. Nor are the Jews, alas I the only people who have done so. Their fate may well cause us anxiety. We have been speaking so highly of the Jewish privileges, of people who had but part,--what of us who have the whole truth and revelation? (L. T.Lochee, M. A.) The oracles of God “ The oracles of God” is a very arresting and illustrious name. And yet it accurately indicates the real character of what prophets and apostles teach. Heaven’ s inspiration was poured upon their minds, and guided, as well as animated, their voices and their pens. What they declare Jehovah speaks. Oh with what reverence, and attention, and faith, and obedience, and grateful praises, should we receive and study the heavenly message! and how seriously and vividly, as both a motive and a check in dealing with the Scriptures, should we realise the thought: these are “ the oracles of God” ! They are, moreover, “ the word of righteousness.” The Bible clearly, comprehensively, and authoritatively propounds the principles, and prescribes the rules of piety and virtue; and, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, it is the instrument of producing these great attainments in the heart and character of men. What a noble distinction of “ the oracles of God” ! and how important faithfully to use them in this practical relation! If the knowledge and attainment of “ righteousness” be momentous and valuable things, oh, let us highly esteem, and diligently use, what is here significantly called “ the word of righteousness.” It is suggested in this passage that there is great inequality among professing Christians to whom “ the oracles of God “ have come. Some, it is here said, are “ babes,” and others, men; some, such as can digest “ strong meat,” others, such as “ have need of milk” ; some, “ unskilful in the word of righteousness,” others, “ by reason of use having their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” In other words, some are comparatively ignorant, inexperienced, and unsettled in religion, while others are comparatively intelligent, vigorous, and accomplished; and while the latter can understand, and appreciate, and apply the more difficult and abstruse doctrines of revelation, the former are more exclusively dependent, for the sustentation and improvement of their souls, on the simpler elements of religious truth. It is suggested still further, that “ the oracles of God” have appliances appropriate for both classes. Revelation, as some one has graphically said, “ has fords which a lamb can wade and depths which an elephant can swim.” (A. S. Patterson.) Unskilful in the Word Unskilful in the use of Scripture I. THE OF THE GOSPEL. “ The Word of righteousness.” 1. This shows the quality of it. 2. The subject of which it treats. II. THE FAULT . 1. Some are unskilful in (1) Finding, (2) Quoting, (3) Defending, (4) Applying, (5) Perusing the Scriptures. 2. They use Scripture unskilfully, when they do not use it (1) Harmoniously, (2) Impartially, (3) Practically. Lessons: 1. Be thankful that you have this Word of righteousness. 2. Pity those who are destitute of it and be concerned to supply them. (W. Jay.) The best thing badly used I. THE BEST THING ON EARTH. The gospel is called “ the word of righteousness” because it reveals 1. The true standard of righteousness. God’ s character is the foundation; God’ s will the rule. 2. The highest exemplar of righteousness--Christ. 3. The true way to righteousness--following Christ. II. THE BEST THING ON EARTH BADLY USED. The word is “ unskilfully “ used when used 1. Controversially. Fighting for dogmas. 2. Sectarianly. Fighting for sects. 3. Mercenarily. Fighting for money and position. 4. Unlovingly. Lacking the unbounded love and exquisite tenderness of the system. (Homilist.) He is a babe Spiritual babyhood We have the likenesses of our boys taken on every birthday, and twelve of the annual portraits are now framed in one picture, so that we see them at a glance from their babyhood to their youth. Suppose such photographic memorials of our own spiritual life had been taken and preserved, would there be a regular advance, as in these boys, or should we still have been exhibited in the perambulator? Have not some grown awhile, and then suddenly dwarfed? Have not others gone back to babyhood? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age The need of diversified food There are persons, even in Europe, to whom a muttonchop would be poisonous. Cases are known where animal food has been poisonous to people. Some persons cannot take coffee without vomiting; others are thrown into a general inflammation if they eat cherries or gooseberries. Many persons are unable to eat eggs and cakes or puddings having eggs in their composition produce serious disturbances in such persons; if they are induced to eat them under false assurances of no eggs having been employed, they are soon undeceived by the unmistakable effects. Only gross ignorance of physiology, an ignorance unhappily too widely spread, can argue that because a certain article is wholesome to many it must necessarily be wholesome to all. Each individual organism is specially different from every other. However much it may resemble others, it necessarily in some points differs from them, and the amount of these differences is often considerable. If the same wave of air striking upon the tympanum of two different men will produce sounds to the one which to the other are inappreciable; if the same wave of light will affect the vision of one man as that of red colour, while to the vision of another it is no colour at all, how unreasonable is it to expect that the same substance will bear precisely the same relation to the alimentary system of one man as to that of another! Experience tells us that it is not so. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) “ The simple gospel” I believe that if many Christian people of the present day had lived 1800 years ago, and an apostle had told them that he wanted to speak to them about Melchisedec, but found it hard to present the truth in a form sufficiently clear to be quite intelligible, they would have said that they would greatly prefer that he should leave the whole subject untouched; that they liked the simple gospel--the simpler the better; that what they wanted was “ milk” ; that they had no taste for different questions; that they liked to have their hearts moved; that this doctrinal teaching of which, unfortunately, he and some of his brethren seemed so fond, was quite above them, and did them no good; that there were many things in his sermons “ hard to be understood” ; that they wished he would be more “ obvious” ; and that a Christian teacher was bound to be constantly repeating the elementary facts and truths of the Christian faith. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Meat for men The importance of cultivating a profound knowledge of the highest and deepest truths may be brought home to us by the following considerations 1. It is a sin to neglect any part of God’ s oracles. To select portions for study and obedience is to be disobedient, as it is setting up of our individual private judgment against the wisdom and the will of the infinite Heavenly Father. It furthermore argues a want of love for truth. This love for truth it is indispensable to cultivate. It is really more important than a nervous carefulness to be exact in all our Statements, and accurate in the use of our words. 2. Profound spiritual knowledge is necessary, in order to teach others. Every man is a teacher, whether he will be or not; but every man ought to feel the importance and privilege of being able to give his fellowman some help, however small, out of the darkness into the light. 3. It is necessary to keep us in times when false doctrines are influential. It does not require great acquisitions of worldly learning to become profoundly versed in spiritual things. A simple, obedient, trusting heart, going unaffectedly to the Eternal Spirit of truth, will be led to such knowledge of the key-truth as will enable him to unlock all the caskets as he comes to them. 4. The profounder one’ s knowledge of the greatest Divine truths, the greater one’ s humility. If all a man knows of the Bible is the original tongues in which it was written, its history, its chronology, its literature, he may be a self-conceited sciolist: but when he comes to know Him for whom were all things and by whom are all things, he falls naturally into his place, and the things that are seen and temporal will yield in his estimation to the things which are unseen and eternal, and he becomes simple in his love for the truth, especially of the commanding truth of the universe. 5. This profound knowledge of Divine truth increases the lovingness of a man’ s nature. Knowledge and love are twins. It was a pagan idea that love should be a blind god. No eyes quicker than the eyes of love to see all that is good and sweet in the beloved. 6. Sectarianism owes its existence to a want of knowledge of the highest central truths. Deep knowledge of the highest spiritual things is to all Christians a law of gravitation, keeping them in their orbit. 7. The oracles of God are the instruments of our personal sanctification. We are, through the Spirit, to learn the truth; and this truth will show us what is righteousness, the right; and we are to purify our spirits, not by some supposed act of consecration in a moment of enthusiasm, however honest avid good that enthusiasm may be, but by constant obedience to the truth, by the aid of the Spirit of God. 8. Our surest present enjoyment, and our happiest views of the future of the Church, depend on our knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. The more a Christian knows of the greatness, and goodness, and wisdom, and love of Jesus, of all the grace that is to come to him in this world, and all She glory that is to come to him in the eternal world, through Jesus, the more his happiness deepens. (C. F. Deems, D. D.) Wherein it is a grace or disgrace to be like children I. THE FORMER ARE THESE 1. Simplicity, honesty, plainness, truth. These graces are implied to be in children (Isaiah 11:8). We have a proverb that children will tell truth. 2. Humility and meekness. Herein doth Christ set forth children as a pattern Matthew 18:4). So doth the Psalmist (Psalms 131:2). 3. Freedom from rancour, malice, envy, and such like violent and evil passions (1 Corinthians 14:20). 4. Desire of milk whereby they are nourished (1 Peter 2:2). 5. Growing and increasing (1 Peter 2:2). Childhood is a growing age. When men come to man-age they use to stand at a stay. 6. Taking notice of their parents, and depending on them. Lambs, calves, and other young ones know their own dams, and will quickly find them out in a great flock or herd. The prophet showeth that the ox and ass, the most brutish of brutes, know where they are fed (Isaiah 1:3). “ Your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things” Matthew 6:31). Will you not then depend on Him? 7. Subjection to their parents’ will, which is a law to children (1 Peter 1:14), and seeking their parents’ honour (Malachi 1:6). Christ hath made Himself a pattern herein (Luke 2:51). 8. Care to imitate their parents, and seeking to be like them (John 8:39; Romans 4:12; 1 Peter 1:16-17; Ephesians 5:1; Matthew 5:48). 9. Retaining a childlike affection to their parents, and reverencing them, though they correct them (Hebrews 12:9). 10. Returning to them after they have offended them (Luke 15:18). That affection which a child conceiveth to be in his parents towards him, will be in him towards his parents. II. THE WHEREIN IT IS AND TO BE AS , are such as these 1. Ignorance and want of capacity (1 Corinthians 14:20). 2. Vanity and delighting in toys, as painted pears, rattles, and such like. “ When I became a man I put away childish, things” (1 Corinthians 13:11). 3. Levity, inconstancy (Ephesians 4:14). We say of a child that it is won with a nut, and lost with the shell. 4. Disability to manage weighty affairs (Ecclesiastes 10:16; Isaiah 3:4 Jeremiah 1:6). 5. Non-proficiency, and a small measure of knowledge, faith, and other graces. In this respect children are here opposed to men well grown; and babes are counted carnal, and opposed to such as are spiritual. This last respect is here especially meant. (W. Gouge.) Strong meat In most large houses we shall find humanity in all its stages. We shall see the infant in its cradle, children laughing in their play, young men working with vigour, and the old man resting in peace. In such a mansion, if a careful Martha be in charge, provision will be made for all the different ages. Now in our Father’ s great house His family is always so largo that you will always find believers in all stages of growth. Now it were unfitting to give the milk to the man of full age, and equally improper to present the strong meat to those who are but infants; our Lord has, therefore, been pleased to dictate directions as to the persons for whom the various provisions of His table are intended. I. Let us, first of all, BRING FORTH SOME OF THIS STRONG MEAT AND SET IT UPON THE TABLE BEFORE YOU. 1. A careful examination of the context will inform you that one form of strong meat Which is only fit for full-grown Christians is the allegorical exposition of Scriptural history. I believe that every book of Scripture has some special lesson beyond its historical import; and perhaps when the history of the world shall have been fully wrought out, we shall see that the books of the Bible were like a prophetic roll sealed to us, but yet fulfilled to the letter. 2. I feel persuaded that the apostle also more particularly referred to those mysterious truths which have respect to the relationships of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to His complex person. The very simplest believer understands that Christ is God and man, that Christ stood as the sinner’ s surety and paid his debt. But His complex person suggests a thousand thoughts, all of which are too high for comprehension or even consideration until our senses have been exercised. 3. The doctrines of grace are also generally esteemed to be very strong meat. Only they who do business upon the great waters, and have learned the need of solid food, can usually feed on these things with satisfaction. 4. Scarcely need I mention that other dish--the more advanced and inwrought forms of Christian experience. II. Secondly, let me INVITE THE PERSONS TO COME TO THE FEAST. Who are they? They are here described as being persons of full age. Understand that there is no reference here at all to the age of a person as to human life. Growth in grace does not run side by side with growth in years. As old Master Brooks says, “ There are some few believers who seem to be born with beards” ; they are ripe Christians at a very early stage of their spiritual existence; and there are some who, if they tarry at Jericho till their beards be grown, will be long in seeing the King’ s face. They are always babes, needing the spoon and the rocking-chair, even in old age. The expression in the text, then, has no reference to age, but is used in a spiritual and metaphorical sense But what is meant by men that are full-grown? Well, you know, a babe has the same parts as a man. The babe is perfect in its measure, but it is not perfectly perfect. Those limbs must expand; the little hand must get a wider grasp; the trembling feet must become strong pillars for ripening manhood; the man must swell, and grow, and expand, and enlarge, and be consolidated. Now when we are born to God we have all the parts of the advanced Christian. Faith, hope, love, patience--they are all there, but they are all little, and they must all grow; and he is of full age whose faith is vigorous, whose love is inflamed, whose patience is constant, whose hope is bright, who has every grace, in full fashion. Nor is it only development. The full grown man is stronger than the babe. His sinews are knit; his bones have become more full of solid material; they are no longer soft and cartilaginous, there is more solid matter in them. So with the advanced Christian; he is no longer to be bent about and twisted; his bones are as iron, and his muscles as steel; he moveth himself in stately paces, neither needeth he any upon whom to lean. He can plough the soil, or reap the corn; deeds that were impossible to infancy are simplicities to the full-grown man. But then our text tells us that they have had their senses exercised. The soul has senses as well as the body. Men who have had their senses exercised know how to choose between good and evil. Now, what are these senses? Well, there are our spiritual eyes. Travellers, who go to Switzerland for the first time, soon discover that they have not had their eyes exercised. You think that you can reach the peak of yonder mountain in half-an-hour. There is the top of yonder rock; you dream that a boy might fly his kite to the summit, but it shall take you hours to climb there, and weary limbs alone can bear you to the dizzy height. At a distance, young travellers scarcely know which is mountain and which is cloud. All this is the result of not baying the eyes exercised upon such glorious objects. It is just precisely so in spiritual things, unless Christians have their eyes exercised. I hope you know what it is to see Christ; your eyes, by faith, have looked upon the King in His beauty. You know what it is, too, to see self; you have looked into the depravity of your own heart, and have been amazed. Your eyes have seen the rising and the falling of many deceptions. Your eyes have been tried in waiting for God in many a dark night, or in beholding Him in the midst of many a bright Providence. Thus your eyes have been exercised. Now, when a doctrine is put before you, a strong doctrine, you look at it and say--“ All! yes; my eye of faith tells me from what I have seen before that thatis healthy food upon which I may feed.” But if you detect something in it that is too high, or too low, you at once say--“ No, that won’ t do for me,” and you put it by. Hence it is that the man, the eye of whose faith has been tried with bright visions and dark revelations, is qualified to discern between good and evil in those great mysteries which would be too high for unexercised believers. Then there is the ear, &c. III. I think our apostle meant the text to be a GENTLE REBUKE TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT FULL-GROWN MEN. The apostle says that the Hebrew saints ought to have been teachers, but that they still remained infants. It is very pleasant to see the infant in the house. What joy there is in its tender cry. But suppose that our children were always to remain infants, that would be no happiness to the parent. How long have you been converted to God? Why, I have known some converts that have been in long clothes for thirty years after they were converted, and are babies still. If you asked them to speak for Christ, they could only say a word or two of mere babble; and as for their confession of faith, it was not a reason; they did declare the hope that was in them, but they did not give a reason for it, for they could not give one. Then there are some who grow so slowly that their faith is just as weak now as it was twenty years ago. They go tottering along, and cannot run alone yet. Have I not seen some who ought to have been as patient as Job by this time, as fretful as they can well be. Why not begin to search the Scriptures? Why not try to live nearer to God? Why not pant after a greater conformity to Christ’ s image? Why, what a Christian you might then be! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The perfection of Christian knowledge I. It is evident from the nature of Christianity that you CAN NEITHER SEE ITS , NOR REAP ITS , WHILE YOU ATTEND ONLY TO SOME LOOSE , AND DO NOT THE WHOLE SYSTEM: for the truths of religion form a system, a body of coherent doctrines, closely connected, and in perfect harmony. I am aware that this grand characteristic of Christianity hath occasioned many mistakes among mankind. Under pretence that a religion proceeding from God must harmonise in its component parts, men have licentiously contrived a chain of propositions to please themselves. They have substituted a phantom of their own imagination, for that body of doctrine which God hath given us in the Holy Scriptures. Hence so much obstinacy in maintaining, after so much rashness and presumption in advancing such phantoms. For of all obstinate people, none excel more in their dreadful kind than those who are prejudiced in favour of certain systems. But if infatuation with systems hath occasioned so many disorders in the Church, the opposite disposition, I mean, the obstinate rejection of all, or the careless composition of some, hath been equally hurtful; for it is no less dangerous, in a system of religion, to omit what really belongs to it, than to incorporate anything foreign from it. Let us be more explicit. There are two sorts of truths in religion: truths of speculation, and truths of practice. Each truth is connected not only with other truths in its own class, but truths of the first class are connected with those of the second, and of these parts thus united is composed that admirable body of doctrine which forms the system of religion. There are in religion some truths of speculation, there is a chain of doctrines. God is holy: this is the first truth. A hot, God can have no intimate communion with unholy creatures: this is a second truth which follows from the first. God, who can have no communion with u holy creatures, can have no communion with men who are unholy creatures: this is a third truth which follows from the second. Thus follow the thread of Jesus Christ’ s theology, and you will find, as I said, each part that composeth it depending on another, and every one giving another the hand. For, from the loving and merciful inclination of God to relieve a multitude of His creatures from a threatening abyss of the deepest miseries, follows the mission of Jesus Christ; because it was fit that the remedy chosen of God to relieve the miseries of men should bear a proportion to the causes which produced it. From the doctrine of Jesus Christ’ s mission follows the necessity of the Spirit of God: because it would have been impossible for men to have discovered by their own speculations the way of salvation, unless they had been assisted by a supernatural revelation. From the doctrines of the infusion of the Son of God, an, of the gift of the Holy Spirit, follows this most comfortable truth, that we are the objects of the love of God, even of love the most vehement and sincere that can be imagined. In like manner there is a connection between practical truths. The class of practical truths is connected with the class of speculative truths, and each practical truth is connected with another practical truth. Tile class of practical truths is connected with the class of speculative truths. As soon as ever we are convinced of the truth of the doctrines just now mentioned, we shall be thereby convinced that we are under an indispensable necessity to devote ourselves to holiness. All virtues mutually support each other, and there is no invalidating one part of our morality without, on that very account, invalidating the whole. To illustrate this we may compare spiritual with natural things. The more art and ingenuity there is in a machine composed of divers wheels, the more necessary it is to consider it in its whole, and in all its arrangements, and the more does its beauty escape our observation when we confine our attention to a single wheel: because the more art there is in a machine the more essential is the minutest part to its perfection. Now deprive a machine of an essential part and you deface and destroy it. Apply this to spiritual things. In a compact system, in a coherent body of doctrine, there is nothing useless, nothing which ought not to occupy the very place that the genius who composed the whole hath given it. What will become of religion if ye consider any of its doctrines separately? What becomes of religion if ye consider the holiness of God without His justice, or His justice without His mercy? II. Let us then proceed to inquire WHY SO MANY OF US CONFINE TO A SMALL NUMBER OF TRUTHS, AND FOR THE WHOLE SYSTEM. 1. The first cause is a party-spirit. This is a disposition that cannot be easily defined, and it would be difficult to include in a definition of it even its genus and species. It is a monstrous composition of all bad genuses and of all bad species. It is an hydra that reproduceth while it seemeth to destroy itself, and which, when one head hath been cut off, instantly produceth a thousand more. This spirit must naturally incapacitate a man for considering the whole of religion; it must naturally incline him to take it only by bits and shreds. On the one hand, it contracts the mind: for how can a soul that harboureth and cherisheth all the phantoms which a party-spirit produceth, study and meditate as religion requires? On the other hand, a party-spirit depraves the heart and eradicates the desire of knowing religion. A man animated with the spirit of party directeth all his attention to such propositions of religion as seem to favour his erroneous opinions, and irregular passions, and diverts it from all that oppose them; his system includes only what strengthens his party, it is exclusive of everything that weakens or opposes it. 2. The second cause of the evil that we would remove is the choice of teachers. In general, we have three sorts of teachers. The first are catechists, who teach our children the principles of religion. The second are ministers. The third prepare the minds of young people for the ministry itself. The carelessness that prevails in the choice of the first sorter teachers cannot be sufficiently lamented. The care of instructing our children is committed to people more fit for disciples than masters, and the meanest talents are thought more than sufficient to teach the first principles of religion. And yet what capacity does it not require to lay the first foundations of the edifice of salvation! What address to take the different forms necessary to insinuate into the minds of catechumens, and to conciliate their attention and love! What dexterity to proportion instruction to the different ages and characters of learners! The pastors of our churches are our second class of teachers. What precaution, and, in some sort, what dread ought to prevail in the choice of an office, which so greatly influences the salvation of those among whom it is exercised! There needs only the bad system of a pastor to produce and preserve thousands of false notions of religion in the people’ s minds, notions which fifty years’ labour of a more wise and sensible ministry will scarcely be able to eradicate. What hath been said on the choice of pastors still more particularly regards the election of tutors, who are employed to form pastors themselves. Universities are public springs, whence rivulets flow into all the Church. On the contrary, place men of evil character at the head of our universities, and they will send out impoisoned ministers, who will diffuse through the whole Church the fatal venom which themselves have imbibed. 3. The third cause, which we have assigned, of the infancy and novitiate of most Christians in religious knowledge, is the multitude of their secular affairs. Far be it from us to aim at inspiring you with superstitious maxims. We do not mean that they who fill eminent posts in society should devote that time to devotion which the good of the community requires. Amidst the most turbulent solicitudes of life, a Christian, desirous of being saved, will devote some time to his salvation. 4. The last cause of the incapacity of so many Christians for seeing the whole of religion in its connection and harmony; the last cause of their taking it only by bits and shreds, is their love of sensual pleasure. We do not speak here of those gross pleasures at which heathens would have blushed, and which are incompatible with Christianity. We attack pleasures more refined, maxims for which reasonable persons become sometimes apologists; persons who, on more accounts than one, are worthy of being proposed as examples; persons who would seem to be the salt of the earth, the flower of society, and whom we cannot justly accuse of not loving religion. Recollect here that genera! notion of religion watch we have laid down: it contains truths of speculation, and truths of practice. Such sensual pleasures, as we have just now mentioned, form invincible obstacles to the knowledge of both. (1) To the knowledge of speculative truths. How is it possible for a man to obtain a complete system of the doctrines of the gospel while he is a slave to sensual pleasures? To obtain a complete system of the doctrines of the gospel there must be a certain habit of thinking and meditating. Tats habit cannot be acquired without exercise, it is unattainable without serious attention and profound application. But how can people devoted to pleasure acquire such a habit? To counterbalance the difficulty of meditation and study there must be a relish for it. But nothing is more capable of disgusting us with the spiritual pleasures of study and meditation than the love of sensual pleasures. To acquire a complete knowledge of religious truths, it is not enough to study them in the closet, in retirement and silence; we must converse with others who study them too. But the love of sensual pleasure indisposes us for such conversations. (2) But, secondly, if the love of sensual pleasure raises such great obstacles to the knowledge of speculative truths, it raiseth incomparably greater still to the truths of practice. There are some Scripture maxims which are never thought of by the persons in question, except it be to destroy them, at least they make no part of their system of morality. In your system of morality, what becomes of this Scripture maxim, “ Evil communications corrupt good manners “ ? Nothing forms connections more intimate, and, at the same time, more extravagant, than an immoderate love of pleasure. In your system of morality, what becomes of those maxims of Scripture which say that we must “ confess Jesus Christ before men,” that “ whosoever shall be ashamed of Him before men, of him will He be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father” ? In your system of morality, what become of those Scripture maxims which threaten those with the greatest punishments who injure others? The love of sensual pleasure causeth offences of the most odiums kind; I mean, it betrays your partners in pleasure into vice. Ye do not injure your families; but do ye not occasion other men to injure theirs? Ye are guilty of no fraud; but do ye not tempt others to be fraudulent? What become, in your moral system, of those maxims of Scripture that require us to contribute to the excision of “ all wicked doers from the city of the Lord” (Psalms 101:8); to discountenance those who commit a crime as well as to renounce it ourselves? The love of sensual pleasure makes us countenance people of the most irregular conduct. In your system of morality what become of those maxims of Scripture which expostulate with us, when the Lord chastiseth us, to “ be afflicted and mourn,” to :humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God” ; to “ enter into our chambers, and shut the door about us, to hide ourselves until the indignation be overpast” ; to “ examine ourselves before the decree bring forth” ; to “ prepare ourselves to meet our God” ; to “ hear the rod and who hath appointed it” ; to mourn in sackcloth and ashes; and, while we feel present miseries, to remember those that are past, tremble for those that are to come and endeavour by extraordinary efforts to avert the anger of Heaven? The love of sensual pleasure turns away people’ s attention from all these maxims, and represents those who preach them as wild visionaries or dry declaimers. In your system of morality, what become of Scripture exhortations to redeem the time, to know the time of our visitation, to do all that our hands find to do, because there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go? The love of pleasure inclines mortals, who have so short a time to live and so great a task to perform, to waste a considerable part of this fleeting life in amusements, that obliterate both the shortness of life and the necessity of death. (J. Saurin.) The food that makes strong men The essence of Bible makes moral and spiritual bone. I saw an advertisement the other day--“ Thirty tons of bones wanted “ and I said to myself, “ Yes, mostly backbones.” Bibline is the nutriment which makes backbone, muscle, and, above all, heart. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Senses exercised to discern both good and evil The growth of the conscience This verse, like another well-known verse in the same Epistle, seems to contain in few words the solution of a difficulty which accompanies us throughout the writings of St. Paul. For all through St. Paul’ s teaching a prominent doctrine is what we now call liberty of conscience. The inner principle is always recognised by him as supreme over the man. Now, it is not difficult to see why the apostle thus puts the inner voice above all outer voices whatever. For the inner voice, and that voice alone, speaks personally and individually to the soul. A man’ s conscience may be mistaken; but if so, obedience to it is a mistake and not a sin, and we know that mistakes are very different from sins. If our conscience be mistaken because we have not taken due trouble to enlighten it, then for that neglect of cultivating our conscience we are responsible. But even then the conscience claims our obedience, and if to obey is a mistake, to disobey is a sin. Mistaken or not, the conscience must rule the life. To do right in disobedience to conscience would be (if it could ever be done) more fatal to the character by far than to do wrong in obedience to it. But nevertheless the apostle feels, and every one must feel in reading what he says, that surely here is a serious difficulty. The difference between making conscience supreme, and making any outer law or authority supreme, depends in fact on this. Which is it that God would have here on earth, good actions or good men? Does His gospel propose to redeem and sanctify men’ s deeds or their souls? Does He desire to see a series of good acts--acts, that is, regulated in their outward form by His holy Law? or does He desire to see a number of His servants striving to obey His will? If you want a number of right acts, then your business is to lay down a number of fixed rules and get men to obey them. But if you desire to have a number of good men, then it is tolerably plain that you must awake within them a power that shall guide their lives independently of mere rules. The acts of such men may not be quite as good as those of the men who are compelled to walk in a more defined path. But the men are men, and not machines, and as such are truer servants of God. To procure such men, the voice within themselves must be entrusted with the absolute dominion over all their lives. The difficulty is, how far this principle is to apply. Are all consciences in a state to claim this liberty? What will justify a man in relying unreservedly on his conscience? The answer is supplied by the verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews with which I began. Those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil, are fittest to use strong meat. They may trust themselves to decide on their own conduct, to choose their own opinions; not certainly in confidence that they cannot make mistakes, but that their mistakes will not be ruinous to their character, and will, on the contrary, contain ever more good than evil. The conscience, like the other faculties that God gives, is not implanted perfect all at once. It has its infancy, its age of weakness; and it ought to have and can have its age of maturity. When it is full grown, it may and must be trusted unreservedly. This is its claim when it has grown to its full strength, And how, then, does it grow? Will it grow entirely of itself, or does it depend entirely on our own exertions? Its growth is like the growth of all our other faculties, the result of a combination of what is without with what is within. It will grow partly, on the one hand, by the experience of our lives, by the intercourse of our fellows, by the truth that we learn in our studies, by the new thoughts that flash upon us unbidden we know not whence, by the mere lapse of time and growth of our whole framework, both of body and soul, but, above all and through all, by the constant use of God’ s Holy Word, without which it would hardly be the same faculty; partly, on the other hand, by our own greater or less co-operation, by the bent which we have given to our wills, by the purposes which we have cherished as the hope of our future days, by the passions and impulses that we have fostered in our secret hearts. On the one hand, every day will probably enable us to see more distinctly the consequences and the bearings of every separate act, the extent and limits of every rule of life, the true meaning Of every precept in the Bible, the application of our Lord’ s commands, the various doctrines of the gospel of God. And this, to a great extent, without any co-operation on our part at all; simply because we are older and more experienced, and our intellects have attained to greater power. But, on the other band, the power of the gospel, the true nature of sin, the hatefulness of evil in God’ s sight, the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,--these, and truths like these are quite invisible, except to the soul, which opens to receive the grace that flows into it from on high, and rises to meet the blessings that God is ever giving. The true condition of the growth of the conscience is to live in it. To obey it is not enough, if, by obedience, is meant simply doing what it bids. What is wanted is to live in its spirit. That voice is ever calling us to Him who gave it; to God the Father who created it; to Christ whose gospel redeemed it, purifies it, fills it with power; to the Holy Spirit speaking in the Word of God, and revealing the everlasting truth. The constant habit of referring our lives to the will of Christ, the habit of living in the thought of His presence, of trusting entirely to His love, of feeling an absolute confidence in His protection and care, of doing His will, as far as we know it, cheerfully and resolutely, of opening our hearts for Him to see, of filling our intellects with the lessons which He has written for our learning--this is the life which exercises the senses to discern both good and evil. (Bp. Temple.) Reason in religion This is a chiding for want of intelligence. It is a reproach for an indolent use, or rather for the disuse, of reason in the province of duty. The sacred Scripture stands almost alone as a book of religious directions in exhorting to a full, free, and constant use of the reason. The Word of God is an enlightener; and wherever it has been a free Bible, and its influence has really entered into the lives and hearts of men, there intelligence has prevailed, and there the human understanding has unfolded its best works, and developed its best efforts. So that the Word of God is not a tyrant book. It imposes no manacles and no restraints, except those which belong to the nature of the human mind, and the nature of the subjects which the human mind is called to investigate. So, then, it is indispensably necessary that men should think, and that they should think for themselves. It is necessary, in repeated instances, that they should make their own deductions and conclusions, and follow in the lines of conduct which flow from them. But, on the other hand, men cannot, in all things, think for themselves. It is right, it is wise, to accept the thoughts of others. We give and take. In one place a man thinks for yea, and in another place you think for him. There is this interchange of knowledge on the great principle of the faith of man in man. When, therefore, men insist upon it that to be in the full exercise of reason one must throw off the past and lift up his head into an independent sphere, where no man before has been, and think out all things, to him may be applied the words of the proverb: “ Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.” Not philosophy, but folly, inheres there. Let us look a little, then, at the elements and the proofs of that reason which men talk so much about, and know so little of. First and lowest, is that which we possess with the whole range of the lower animals perceptive reason--that part of the human understanding which takes cognisance of physical facts and events that are exterior to ourselves--which perceives the existence of things and their various qualities--which recognises whatever belongs to the framework or physical structure of the globe. Now, if any man supposes that there is certainty in this realm, he has given very little consideration to it. Men say, “ Do you not believe the sight of your own eyes?” I have nothing better, I admit, by which to see things. But are these instruments so perfect that men may rely upon them implicitly? No. Every court of justice shows that the same event, being looked at by two, by four, by six different men, is not, although they are honest, and mean to state the truth, seen by any two of them alike. The sense of seeing in each one acts imperfectly, and each sees differently from the others, and makes a different report from theirs. The same is true of the sense of hearing. Men do not hear half that is going on, to begin with. Let the leader of a choir or a band hear a semi-tone of discord, and his ear will detect it instantly. Mine does not. That belongs only to the musician, and comes only by education. Hearing is not very accurate as between one man and another. In some it is tar better than in others. It is not very accurate as between one period of a man’ s life and another. Different statements are given where men listen carefully and report truly what they have heard. The same is true in respect to the sense of touch. The five senses, with the perceptive intellect back of them, are alike in this respect. The sense of colour, the sense of shape, the sense of quality, all the senses, when you apply the test to them, and measure their accuracy, are found to be very unreliable. Nothing is more inaccurate than the reports of a man’ s perceptive intellect. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 6:1-3 Leaving the principles Foundation-stones I. HERE IS A MADE WITH REGARD TO THE FIRST OF THE WE PROFESS. He tells where they are revealed, and what they are. And, first, he would have his readers to understand that the principles of the doctrine of Christ are the “ first principles of the oracles of God” ; he uses the two expressions interchangeably, as if they both meant the same thing. His immediate object was to assert that the “ doctrine of Christ,” at which the Hebrews stumbled, was in reality no fresh revelation, but that all its rudiments had been taught in their own Mosaic Scriptures. A deep truth was contained in the saying of the ancient Church, “ There were Christians on earth before there were Jews.” Even from Paradise to Patmos, “ the principles of the doctrine of Christ” have been taught with increasing gradations of development, as “ the first principles of the oracles of God” --old, as well as new. This being established, Paul proceeds to enumerate these principles; and he appears to state them miscellaneously, without reference to their natural station or logical order. 1. And, first, “ Repentance from dead works.” Dead works are works performed by one whose life is separated from the life of God. Thus separated, men may have the quality of manliness, but not of godliness; towards one another there may be melting love, heroic daring, unbending justice, most magnificent generosity; but whatever they may be with regard to men, with regard to God they are dead. Alienated from His life, even good works are dead works; dead while they live; dead as the dead leaves on the dead bough, parted from its parent stem. It is the doctrine of a merely human religion, that while we should repent of our evil works, we should trust in our righteous works for heaven. But it is the doctrine of Christ that we should repent of all the works wrought while our souls were dead in sin; and when we feel the quickening thrills of a new life, this repentance will take place. 2. But, secondly, turning from sin implies turning to God. We shall have no disposition to renounce our dead works until, united to the living God by faith, we are partakers of His life. Faith towards God, therefore, is another elementary principle of the oracles. To have “ faith towards God “ is to feel able to say, “ I think, I will, I speak, I act as I do, because I have faith towards God” ; it is to feel His Spirit touch us, to have the most affecting sense of His society, to act as under His inspection, to be alive to His presence as the most intense of all realities, giving the zest to every pleasure, the light to every beauty, the soul to every scene; to trust Him for the food, and raiment, and home, both of our mortal and immortal nature; to make Him the confidant of every weakness, and want, and woe; to revive beneath the sun-burst of His smile, and to mourn at the hiding of His face. 3. But we shall never bare faith towards God, or approach Him in the way that has been just described, until our infected spirits have applied to a fountain of cleansing. So another essential principle is “ the doctrine of baptisms.” Those baptisms told not only of sin, but of a fountain opened for sin; and we know where that precious fountain flows. Rejoice to think that it is a fountain, and not a scanty supply. 4. But the doctrine, or the true meaning of the laying on of hands, was another principle of the doctrine of Christ. It conveyed a doctrine, and the doctrine was that he who would be saved must, by b is own personal act and deed appropriate the work of Him who is our Saviour by being our substitute, 5. The resurrection of the dead is another essential article of faith, and one, like the rest, peculiar to inspired revelation. Nature does not teach it. It never dawned on the proud thoughts of philosophy. Even those beautiful mysteries of the spring, which are sometimes thought to teach, inferentially, the doctrine of a resurrection, convey no teaching sufficiently defined to still the agonies of doubt or sorrow. The changes they witness and the charms they show are revivals, not resurrections. But in the oracles of God all the great problems that affect the destiny of man receive a full solution, and all the questions that come from his breaking heart meet with a distinct response. The resurrection of the dead is a “ doctrine of Christ.” The Emperor Theodosius having, on a great occasion, opened all the prisons and released his prisoners, is reported to have said, “ And now, would to God I could open all the tombs and give life to the dead!” But there is no limit to the mighty power and royal grace of Jesus. He opens the prisons of justice and the prisons of death with equal and infinite ease: He redeems not the soul only, but the body. From the hour of the “ laying on of hands,” the entire man has been saved. 6. But, once more: the eternal judgment has ever been a primary article of revelation. Though analogy, intuition, and universal opinion rosy have furnished grounds to justify belief in it as a probable event, only the “ oracles of God” could unfold its principles, or announce its absolute certainty. This they have ever done. He, through whose sacrifice our souls have received a “ baptism” --He who has become our substitute by “ the laying on of bands,” bearing all the pressure of our responsibility, and binding Himself to be answerable for us at the judgment-day--will be Himself our Judge. But there are some of you who have no right to these anticipations. You have not made provision for the great hereafter. By that tremendous phrase, “ eternal judgment,” consider your ways and be wise! II. And now, passing from the doctrinal statement, let us give attention, to THE APPEAL. 1. “ Not laying again the foundation.” The teacher, in this phrase, at once indicates the course he intends to adopt in his own instructions, and the conduct he would prescribe to those who study them. “ Not laying again the foundation.” God will not lay it again in His purposes; you are not to be for ever laying it again your mind and memory; as it is settled in the heavens, so let it be settled here as new. This being established, Paul proceeds to enumerate these principles; and he appears to state them miscellaneously, without reference to their natural station or logical order. 1. And, first, “ Repentance from dead works.” Dead works are works performed by one whose life is separated from the life of God. Thus separated, men may have the quality of manliness, but not of godliness; towards one another there may be melting love, heroic daring, unbending justice, most magnificent generosity; but whatever they may be with regard to men, with regard to God they are dead. Alienated from His life, even good works are dead works; dead while they live; dead as the dead leaves on the dead bough, parted from its parent stem. It is the doctrine of a merely human religion, that while we should repent of our evil works, we should trust in our righteous works for heaven. But it is the doctrine of Christ that we should repent of all the works wrought while our souls were dead in sin; and when we feel the quickening thrills of a new life, this repentance will take place. 2. But, secondly, turning from sin implies turning to God. We shall have no disposition to renounce our dead works until, united to the living God by faith, we are partakers of His life. Faith towards God, therefore, is another elementary principle of the oracles. To have “ faith towards God” is to feel able to say, “ I think, I will, I speak, I act as I do, because I have faith towards God” ; it is to feel His Spirit touch us, to have the most affecting sense of His society, to act as under Hits inspection, to be alive to His presence as the most intense of all realities, giving the zest to every pleasure, the light to every beauty, the soul to every scene; to trust Him for the food, and raiment, and home, both of our mortal and immortal nature; to make Him the confidant of every weakness, and want, and woe; to revive beneath the sun-burst of His smile, and to mourn at the hiding of His face. 3. But we shall never have faith towards God, or approach Him in the way that has been just described, until our infected spirits have applied to a fountain of cleansing. So another essential principle is “ the doctrine of baptisms.” Those baptisms told not only of sin, but of a fountain opened for sin; and we know where that precious fountain flows. Rejoice to think that it is a fountain, and not a scanty supply. 4. But the doctrine, or the true meaning of the laying on of hands, was another principle of the doctrine of Christ. It conveyed a doctrine, and the doctrine was that he who would be saved must, by his own personal act and deed appropriate the work of Him who is our Saviour by being our substitute. 5. The resurrection of the dead is another essential article of faith, and one, like the rest, peculiar to inspired revelation. Nature does not teach it. It never dawned on the proud thoughts of philosophy. Even those beautiful mysteries of the spring, which are sometimes thought to teach, inferentially, the doctrine of a resurrection, convey no teaching sufficiently defined to still the agonies of doubt or sorrow. The changes they witness and the charms they show are revivals, not resurrections. But in the oracles of God all the great problems that affect the destiny of man receive a full solution, and all the questions that come from his breaking heart meet with a distinct response. The resurrection of the dead is a “ doctrine of Christ.” The Emperor Theodosius having, on a great occasion, opened all the prisons and released his prisoners, is reported to have said, “ And now, would to God I could open all the tombs and give life to the dead!” But there is no limit to the mighty power and royal grace of Jesus. He opens the prisons of justice and the prisons of death with equal and infinite ease: He redeems not the soul only, but the body. From the hour of the “ laying on of hands,” the entire man has been saved. 6. But, once more: the eternal judgment has ever been a primary article of revelation. Though analogy, intuition, and universal opinion rosy have furnished grounds to justify belief in it as a probable event, only the “ oracles of God” could unfold its principles, or announce its absolute certainty. This they have ever done. He, through whose sacrifice our souls have received a” baptism” --He who has become our substitute by “ the laying on of hands,” bearing all the pressure of our responsibility, and binding Himself to be answerable for us at the judgment-day--will be Himself our Judge. But there are some of you who have no right to these anticipations. You have not made provision for the great hereafter. By that tremendous phrase, “ eternal judgment,” consider your ways and be wise! II. And now, passing from the doctrinal statement, let us give attention, to THE APPEAL, 1. “ Not laying again the foundation.” The teacher, in this phrase, at once indicates the course he intends to adopt in his own instructions, and the conduct he would prescribe to those who study them. “ Not laying again the foundation.” God will not lay it again in His purposes; you are not to be for ever laying it again in your mind and memory; as it is settled in the heavens, so let it be settled here. “ Not laying again the foundation.” You are not to forget it, so as to have to learn it again; you ale not to doubt it, so as to need to be convinced of it again; you are not to forsake it, so as to have to return to it again. “ Not laying again the foundation.” You are not to be like an insane or unskilful builder, who excavates the foundation of his work, tears it from its place, and takes it to pieces, being doubtful of its materials, or uncertain of its sufficiency to sustain the superincumbent weight; and who, always engaged in destroying the foundation, and laying it again, makes no progress with his building. 2. “ Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ.” At first sight the meaning of this clause is not obvious, and it seems to clash with those connected with it. There are different ways of leaving an object his fathers house, never to return We may leave it as the spendthrift son leaves we may leave it as the deserter leaves the shield which he is “ vilely east away” ; we may leave it as education and refinement leave ignorance and rusticity; but not so ale we to leave these first principles of our faith. We are to leave them as the scholar leaves the letters of the alphabet--leaving them only to use them; leaving them that he may bring clot all their powers, and employ them in startling combinations, as the instrument for acquiring or diffusing thought. We are to leave them as the plant leaves its root, when it towers into a majestic tree, leaving it only that it may the more depend upon it; and, day by day, drawing from it those fresh supplies of vital sap which it pours into the fresh leaves, fresh boughs, ever fresh and ever beautiful formations of that life which refreshes the hungry with its clusters, or the weary with its shade. We are to leave them as the builder leaves his foundation, that he may carry up the building, stone above stone, story above story, tower above tower, from the dusky basement to the sun-lit pinnacle; always leaving the foundation, yet always on it, and on it with the most massive pressure, and the most complete dependence, when most he leaves it. 3. “ Let us go on unto perfection.” It is obvious that there can be no reference, in this a word “ perfection,” to the justifying work of Christ on our behalf. That is perfect from the first moment we believe. At once we receive perfect forgiveness, and a perfect title to the “ inheritance in light.” But, although justification is complete, sanctification has yet to be carried on. To borrow the idea of a transatlantic writer: “ A perfect title to a piece of property puts a man in possession of it just as absolutely on the first day when it was given as twenty years after. When a man gives a flower, it is a perfect gift; but the gift of grace is rather the gift of a flower seed.” It contains within it all the Divine germs necessary for growth. And we are asked to cherish it, that it may go on unto perfection, as the seed goes on to the perfection of a full-blown flower. 4. The word employed to indicate the manner of arriving at this end is richly significant. “ Let us go on to perfection,” should rather be rendered, “ Let us be carried on.” “ The word is emphatical, intimating such a kind of progress as a ship makes when it is under sail. ‘ Let us be carried on ‘ with the full bent of our minds and affections, with the utmost endeavours of our whole souls. We have abode long enough by the shore; let us now hoist our sails, and launch into the deep.” Perhaps we feel discouraged by the labour, and alarmed by the very glory of our calling. The one may seem too much for us to exercise, and the other too great for us to hope for. Almost despairing of our ability to go forward, we may even now be thinking of going back. But if we are unable to go on, we are surely able to be carried on to perfection. And the Eternal Almightiness is even now at our side. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Leaving first principles We must leave these first principles as the pupil leaves the alphabet when he is brought to the process of combining letters into syllables, and syllables into words, and of words constructing sentences, and of sentences making a discourse. We must leave them as the architect leaves the foundation, and proceeds to erect upon it his superstructure. We must leave them as the mathematician leaves his axioms, and proceeds to the construction of his demonstration. To what purpose would the pupil have learned the elements of ‘ language if he should rest in them? Where the use of continuing to con them over without proceeding any further? What benefit would result from the labour and expense of laying the best foundation if it remain unappropriated--if no building be reared upon it? How long might the mathematician occupy himself in ascertaining the axioms of the science without coming at a single valuable result? And what advantage will accrue to us, or the world, from our acquiring the mere elements of Christianity without reducing them to practice, pushing them out to their ulterior results, and connecting them with the higher principles of a spiritual life? (Geo. Peck, D. D.) Passing from elementary principles How? Not casting it for ever behind our backs: suffering it quite to slip out of our memories. We must remember even the principles of religion to our dying day; but we must not insist in those, and set down our staff here, but as good travellers go on forward. As if one should say to a grammar scholar, “ Leave thy grammar, and go to logic, rhetoric, philosophy, to more profound points of learning,” his meaning is not that he should leave his grammar quite, and never think of it any more, but that he should pass from that to greater matters. As if one should say to a traveller going to London, that sits eating and drinking at Colchester, “ Leave Colchester, and go on to London,” so leave this doctrine of the beginning of Christianity, leave your A B C, be not always beginners, but proceed till ye come to some maturity. (W. Jones, D. D.) Let us go on Forward I. THE FOR THIS . Do not old habits, which Christian earnestness should have obliterated, begin to creep into the light again? Do not sins and temptations, which you thought you had mastered, rise up and gain power over you once more? II. THE MEANING OF THIS . Having taken Christ, we must not merely receive His pardon, but we must live upon Him. III. THE OF THIS . If we do not yield up all to Christ we shall easily drift away from Him. We must go forward, or we shall fall farther away, till we sink into irremediable ruin. The awful solemnity of this passage (Hebrews 6:4-6) we cannot possibly exaggerate (H Phillips, B. A.) Progress in Divine knowledge Progression marks all God’ s works. In nature there is no perfect rest. There is change in everything--change which partakes of the character of progress; for even that which we regard as decay is but part of a new creative process. This universal law of progression holds good in the realm of truth; there is a going on, a climbing higher and yet higher in knowledge even of the divinest kind. Indeed we may say that, the more exalted the subject, the more absolute is the necessity that knowledge should ever be progressive--the more impossible it is that we can quickly and at once attain to the fulness of perfect wisdom. I. THERE ARE MANY THINGS WITH CHRIST AND HIS TRUTH WHICH ARE NOT TO THE SOUL IN , BUT WHICH MUST BE FROM TIME TO TIME OUR LIFE. Great truths always come one by one. They are not discovered but by those who diligently search for them, and they are often the product of laborious toil. The apostolic injunction bids us do something more than” strike out blindly.” It bids us intelligently and deliberately leave the elements of Wisdom, and “ strike out” towards the perfection of knowledge. It bids us break away, as it were, from our state of pupilage, and go on to the fulness of the knowledge of Christ. It lifts a corner of the veil which hides from us the infinitude of Divine wisdom, and urges us to press onward until our whole soul is filled with His love and grace. II. In this “ going on unto perfection “ it is desirable that we should clearly recognise the fact that GOD IS A TEACHER WHO USES MANY BOOKS. To the observing eye and to the teachable heart God is manifested everywhere. In complying, then, with this counsel to the Hebrews, let us seek for the fuller revelation of spiritual truths wherever God has written them. Let us regard the Bible, not merely as a fruitful field where we can quickly thrust in the sickle and reap upon the surface, but also as a rich mine, in whose deep recesses lie hidden many a costly gem, which our labour and our study, under the Divine blessing, may bring to the light. Let us look at the letter as the case which encloses the spirit--remembering that while “ the letter killeth, it is the Spirit that giveth life.” Let us also look for and discover truths of deep spiritual meaning in the incidents of daily human experience. III. It should also be duly borne in mind that ALL TRUTHS POSSESS A MUTUAL , and that each has its influence in the work of perfecting the Christian character Truth is one, though it may possess many branches. Walking by a wide river, bearing on its bosom the mightiest navies of the earth, it would be interesting to speculate concerning the numerous rills and brooklets which, miles away, in different counties, contributed to that expanse of water. From mountain, moor, and glen those waters have been flowing day after day, meeting and mingling with others, ever growing and gathering strength, until the result is that which we see at our feet So are truths gathered from different sources, mingling their powers to influence the soul and bear it to the ocean of perfect wisdom and eternal love. IV. THIS IN DIVINE IS QUITE FROM IN . To leave the principles, or first elements, of the doctrine of Christ is not to depart from the soundness of the faith. It is to leave the first few miles of the road behind as we press forward towards the end of our journey. It is to leave the foundation which has been laid firmly in the ground, in order that the building may rise higher and higher in beauty and majesty, until the topmost stone is laid in its place. It is to lay aside the alphabet of the language that we rosy devote ourselves to the riches of its literature, and add to our supply of knowledge from the ample stores of learning of which that alphabet is the key. V. IN DIVINE IS TO THE FULL OF THE OF THE CHRIST’ S LIFE. In other words, spiritual knowledge is essential to spiritual health. Digging deep into the riches of spiritual truth, we discover that which not only stays the anxious throbbing of the heart, but which lifts the soul nearer and nearer to the Source of truth--to God Himself. As among men the possession of knowledge operates for the most part so as to elevate and refine the tastes, so to drink deeper at the stream of heavenly wisdom is to become in spirit more heavenly, and in character more Divine. It is said of Christ, that “ in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” and that He was “ the express image of the Father’ s person.” What Jesus was in an infinite degree, the Christian who is full of Divine wisdom and rich in knowledge is also in his degree. Be, too, reflects the image of the heavenly. He, too, gives forth rays of reflected but Divine light. The life that is in the soul of him who is going on unto perfection is Divine in its influence as well as its nature. It is of that man the world takes knowledge that he has been with Jesus, and that he has sat at His feet and been taught in His school. (F. Wagstaff.) The soul’ s true progress I. THE -PIECE. 1. Evangelical repentance. 2. Godward faith. 3. Spiritual chansing. 4. Reliance on Christ. 5. A future state. 6. Eternal retribution. II. THE RESTING-PLACE. “ Perfection.” 1. Accuracy of Divine knowledge. 2. Conformity to the Divine will, so far as known. 3. The prospects of an ever-brightening future. (Homilist.) Ever onward It is an interesting thing to watch an ocean ship get out from London docks. How helpless she is! She cannot use her machinery. Her sails are furled. She is pushed forward and backward. She is pulled along by puffing tugs. She stops to let other vessels pass. She waits through weary hours. She moves on again. But she is hindered and limited and retarded. But some progress is rewarding her perseverance. She is getting more room. She begins to ply her engines. But she must go slowly. She must be cautious. Then there is more liberty; there are fewer obstructions and fewer conditions. The liver is wider. The city is being left behind, with its din and its sin. The fresh air revives the sailor. He unfurls his canvas. He moves steadily on to the line where river fades into sea. He hears the music of the surf beating upon the sand. He sees the white-caps marching across the blue prairies of ocean. And at last the gallant ship, emancipated, seems to stretch herself and expand herself, and swell and sway and bow in ecstasy, as she speeds her way over the billowy fields of her native heath and boundless home. Thus it is with the soul that is escaping from the trammels of the flesh, and the limitations and the conditions imposed upon it by the world. How slow its progress is at first! How it is pushed forward and falls backward! How crippled is the soul’ s splendid machinery! How awkward its movements! Its sails are furled. It must submit to be helped by things smaller than itself--by trivial rules and puerile helps. It stops; it waits. It stands to for obstructions. But it moves on. It makes a little progress. The channel is getting wider. The shores of earth are getting further away. There is more room, more freedom. The engines move. The sails are thrown out. The fresh air of grace gladdens the sailor, and tells him that the city of sin is fading in the distance. The ocean of liberty is reached at last. The Lord takes the helm. The Spirit of God fills the sails, and then, emancipated and free, unloosed from the devil’ s imprisonment, unshackled from the habits and slavery of flesh, unlimited and unconditioned by the world’ s conventionalities, the glad soul rejoices on the bosom of God, which is the soul’ s ocean, which is the soul’ s home. (R. S.Barrett.) A “ Dissatisfaction Meeting” At Chicago Mr. Moody held a “ Dissatisfaction Meeting “ for pastors and their flocks who were not satisfied with their spiritual condition. It was said to be overshadowed with the presence of God as few assemblies have been since the day of Pentecost. (King’ s Highway.) PerfectionOn apostolic perfection Here we may see the germ of what afterwards became at Alexandria and elsewhere the catechetical system of the primitive Church. Wherever converts to Christianity were the rule, it was necessary to protect the sacrament of baptism against unworthy reception by a graduated system of preparation and teaching, each stage of which represented an advance in moral and intellectual truth. Hence the several classes of catechumens or hearers, who were allowed to listen to the Scriptures and to sermons in church; kneelers who might stay and join in certain parts of the divine service; and the elected or enlightened who were taught the Lord’ s prayer, the language of the regenerate, and the creed, the sacred trust committed to the regenerate saints. They were now on the point of being admitted by baptism into the body of Christ. Then at last as the Τετέλεστει or the Perfect they entered on the full privileges of believers, they learned in all their bearings the great doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Eucharist. They were thus placed in possession of the truths and motives which shaped must powerfully Christian thought and life. The Christians who are receiving elementary instruction are termed babes. They cannot understand, much less can they utter, the discourse of righteousness. The Christians who have received the higher instruction are perfect. They can digest the solid food of Christian doctrine. Their spiritual senses have been trained by habit to appreciate the distinction between the good and the evil, which in this connection are other names for the true and the false. Therefore leaving the principles or the first discourse about Christ, let us go or be borne on unto perfection. “ Perfection.” What does he mean by it? Certainly not here moral perfection, the attainment in general character and conduct of conformity to the will of God, for this would be no such contrast to the first principles of the doctrine of Christ as the sentence of itself implies. The perfection itself must be in some sense doctrinal perfection; in other words, the attainment of the complete or perfect truth about Christ, as distinct from its first principles: of these first or foundation principles six are enumerated, and they are selected it would seem for the practical reason that they were especially nee, led by candidates for baptism: the two sides of the great inward change implied in conversion to Christ, repentance from dead works--dead, because destitute of religious motive--and faith resting upon God as revealed in His Son; the two roads whereby the converted soul enters upon the privilege of full communion with Christ, the doctrine about baptism, which distinguish-s the Christian sacrament from the mere symbols of purification insisted upon for proselytes by the Baptist and by the law, and the laying on of hands which we now call confirmation; and finally the two tremendous motives which from the first cast their shadow across the light of the believer--the coming resurrection, and the judgment, whose issues are eternal. These three pairs of truths are precisely what the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews meant by the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and therefore by perfection he must have meant something beyond these truths. He meant, no doubt, a great deal else, but specifically and in particular he meant the doctrine of Christ’ s Melchisedekian priesthood, in its majestic contrast to the temporal and relatively inefficient priesthood of Aaron, and with its vast issues in the mediatorial work, whether of atonement or of sanctification as carried out, the latter to the very end of time, by the great High Priest of Christendom. Now the point on which the text insists is the going forward from the first principles to the truths beyond. The apostolic writer does not say, “ Let us go on unto perfection.” He does say, “ Let us be borne on” θερώμεθα. He does not say, “ Be courageous, be logical, push your premises well till you have reached their conclusions.” He does say, “ Let us all” --teachers and taught--“ let us all yield ourselves to the impulse of such truth as we already hold” θερώμεθα. It will carry us on, as we try to make it really our own, it wilt lead us to fresh truths which extend, which expand, which support it. We cannot select one bit of this organic whole, baptize it by some such names as “ primary,” or “ fundamental,” and then say, “ This, and this only, shall be my creed.” If the metaphor be permitted, the truck, all of whose limbs are cut off thus arbitrarily, will bleed to death. Where everything depends upon spiritual activity, non progredi est regredi. They who shrink from apostolic perfection will forfeit their hold sooner or later on apostolic first principles. Let us trace this somewhat more in detail. We have seen what were the first principles insisted upon among the first readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews. They belong to a disciplinary system of the Apostolical Church. They were selected on practical rather than on theological grounds. But what would probably be the first principles of an inquirer feeling his way upwards towards the light, under the circumstances of our own day? What would be the truths that would greet him on the threshold of faith, as the catechumen of our times, whom conscience and thought are training with hope for the full inheritance of the believer? They would be, in all probability, first, belief in a moral God. It is something, no doubt, to believe in a Cause who is the cause of all besides Himself it is more to believe in aa Intelligence who is the parent of all created intelligences. But religion, properly speaking, begins when man bows down in his secret heart before One who, being boundless in power and infinite in wisdom, is also justice, sanctity, love. And thus, perhaps, simultaneously, the modern catechumen would be arrested by the character of Jesus Christ as it lies on the surface of the Gospels. These, we will suppose, are the catechumen’ s two first principles. They are now beyond controversy, at least for him. They seem to be all that he needs, and he says to himself that a simple faith like this is also a working faith. He can at least limit, or try to limit, and leave the spheres of abstract and metaphysical discussion to those who will explore them but alter all this, a time will come when he finds that he must go forward, if he is not to fall back. For he observes, first of all, that this world, the scene of so much wickedness and so much suffering, is hard indeed to reconcile with the idea of a God all-goodness and all-powerful, if, indeed, He has left, or is leaving, it to itself. If He is all-good, He surely will unveil Himself further to His reasonable creatures. Nay, He will do something more. His revelation will be, in some sort of sense, an efficacious cure. Exactly proportioned to the belief in the morality of God is the felt strength of this presumption in favour of a divine intervention of some kind, and the modern catechumen asks himself if the Epicurean deities themselves would not do almost as well as some moral God, who yet, in the plenitude of His power, should leave creatures trained by Himself to think and to struggle, without the light, without the aid, they so sorely need. This is the first observation, and the second is that the character of Jesus Christ, if attentively studied, implies that His life cannot be supposed to fall entirely within the limits, or under the laws, of what we call “ Nature.” Fur if anything is certain about Him, this is certain, that He invited men to love Him, to trust Him, to obey Him, even to death; and in terms which would be intolerable if, after all, He were merely human. Had He been crucified and then had rotted in an undistinguished or in a celebrated grave, the human conscience would have known what to say of Him. It would have traced over His sepulchre the legend, “ Failure.” It would have forthwith struck a significant balance between the attractive elements of His character, and the utterly unwarranted exaggeration of His pretensions. But, our modern catechumen’ s reflections should not end here, for the character of God, and of Jesus Christ, in the Gospels is, in one respect, like the old Mosaic Law, which provokes a sense of guilt in man by its revelation of what righteousness really is. The more we really know about God and His Son, the less can we be satisfied with ourselves. It is not possible for a man whose moral sense is not dead, to admire Jesus Christ, as if He were some exquisite creation of human art--a painting in a gallery, or a statue in a museum of antiquities--and without the thought. “ What do His perfections say to me?” For Jesus Christ shows us what human nature has been, what it might be, and in showing us this, He reveals us as none other, He reveals us individually to ourselves. Of His character, we may say what St. Paul says of the law, that “ it is the schoolmaster to bring us to Himself,” for it makes us profoundly dissatisfied with self--if anything can possibly do so--it forces us to recognise the worthlessness and the poverty of our natural resources, it throws a true, though it may be an unwelcome, light upon the history of our past existence, and thus it disposes us to listen anxiously and attentively for any fresh disclosures of the Divine mind that may be still in store for us, or already within our reach. And thus it is that the first principles which we have been attributing to our catechumen prepare him for the truths beyond these, that Divine goodness, those perfections of the character of Christ, which bear the soul onwards and upwards, towards acceptance of Christ’ s true Divinity, and, as a consequence, of the atoning virtue of His death upon the Cross. These momentous realities rest, indeed, on other bases, but they bring satisfaction, repose, and relief to souls who have attentively considered what is involved in the truths which were at first accepted. They proclaim that God has not left man to Himself, that God does not despise the work of His own hands, they unfold His heart of tenderness for man, they justify by the language which Jesus Christ used about Himself and about His claims, the faith and the obedience of mankind, and they enable us to bear the revelation of personal sin in which His character makes within each separate conscience that understands it, because we now know that “ He was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” But does the advance towards perfection stop at this point? Surely not. Where so much has been done, there is a presumption in favour of something more, if more be needed. The Divine Christ has died upon the Cross, the victim for the sins of men. What is He doing now? The past has been forgiven, but has no provision been made for the future may not recovery itself be almost a dubious boon if it be followed by an almost inevitable relapse? And thus it is that the soul makes a further stage in its advance to perfection. The work of the Holy Spirit in conveying to men the gift of the now humanity exhibited by the perfect Christ, and this, mainly through the Christian sacraments, opens at this point before the believer’ s eye. It is by a sequence as natural as that from Christ’ s character to His divinity and atonement, that we pass on from His atonement to the sacramental aspect of His mediatorial work. The new life which He gives in baptism, “ As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ” --the new life which He strengthens in the Eucharist, “ He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” --these great gifts are but an expansion of what is already latent in the recognised perfection of His human character; awed the apostolic ministry, the channel and the guarantee of their reality, is not less a part of that perfection of truth to which intelligent faith conducts the soul. And the Christian creed has not said its last word to the soul of man until, besides assuring his reconciliation and peace with God, it has satisfied his desire for union with the Source of life. Who--let me say it once more--who does not see that our Lord’ s human character can only be described as perfect, if His right to draw the attention of men in terms which befit only a superhuman person, be frankly conceded? Who does not know that the existence of a moral God, the Maker and Ruler of this universe, is more clearly and forcibly contested by a large class of influential writers than any subordinate or derived truths whatever--that whatever may have been the case in the last century, atheism is even more earnest in rejecting, in our own day, the specific doctrines and the creed which comes from Jesus Christ? Surely, then, it is our wisdom, as Christian believers, while the day of life lasts, to make the most, and not the least, of such religious truths as we know. What must not He, who is their object, think--and surely He is thinking on the subject now--what must He not think of those many magnificent intellects which He has endowed so richly, unto which He has granted such opportunities of exercise and development, who yet know almost as little about Him as the children in our national schools, and who make no effort to know more; but have studied, with eager enthusiasm, all forms of created life, all the resources of nature, all the intricacies of the laws of human thought, while He, the Author of all, He, who is the Infinite and the Everlasting, is, as it would seem, forgotten. It is not much to ask of a serious Christian to endeavour to make his own, each day, some little portion -f that knowledge which will one day seem incomparably more precious than any other. Half an hour a day costs something in a busy life; but it will not be held to have involved a very great sacrifice when hereafter we are face to face with the unchanging realities, and know in very deed what is meant by perfection. (Canon Liddon.) Christian perfection We have two things here alluded to--progress and attainment. The progress is a walk, a journey, a contest. The attainment is a complete state of Christian character. This is to be our ideal at which we are to aim. I. THE NATURE OF THE HERE ALLUDED TO. 1. The elements of the Christian life are not to absorb our attention and interest. The alphabet of Christianity is all wry beautiful and necessary. If a professing Christian were to leave off at faith, he would be but a poor Christian indeed. 2. The high-r elements of Christian virtue are to be assiduously cultivated. We know that these are not natural to the human mind. Complete control over the evil passion of the heart, holiness of life, restrained temper, perfect forgiveness, perfect love to man and God, are not easy to be acquired. II. SOME OF THE STEPS TO BE TAKEN IN THIS . 1. An increase of faith. 2. An accession of light. Without more light, there is no possibility of progress. 3. An increase of knowledge. III. NOW, TO ARRIVE AT THIS STARE OF , THERE MUST BE 1. An unwearied practice of the details of Divine truth. 2. A. constant dependence on the Holy Spirit. 3. An unceasing study of the character of Christ. 4. Continuous prayer. (Preacher’ s Analyst.) On progress to perfection Man is endowed with a capacity of intellectual, religious, moral improvement; and to cultivate knowledge, piety, and virtue is the chief end of his being. In each stage of the awful mysterious career of human existence every Christian may conceive his Creator addressing him as He did an ancient patriarch, “ I am the Almighty God: walk before Me, and be thou perfect.” Progress towards perfection, it is next to be noticed, will conduce much to our honour and our happiness. Reflect, Christians, how favourable your lot is to improvement, compared with that of those who lived in days of pagan darkness, or at a period less remote. On you the glorious light of revelation shines. &re you desirous to exalt your views, to elevate your affections, to ennoble your characters? Respect and attend the public institutions of religion, for they are powerful means of human improvement. Further, let us make progress in virtue. Flourishing like the palm-tree, human nature, in its career of intellectual, religious, and moral improvement, adorns the terrestrial globe. “ Sin is a reproach to any people, while righteousness exalteth a nation.” Christians, “ let us go on to perfection” ; for it is highly conducive to our delight as well as to our dignity. Does not every one feel himself happier as he grows wiser and better? A passion for knowledge has added much indeed to the felicity of many a life spent in security, far from the bustle of the world, and with little solicitude about literary fame. The love of virtue is no less productive of happiness. “ Blessed are they who do His commandments.” Again, to prompt you to rise by progressive steps to higher and higher degrees of virtue, think frequently of those venerable men who persevered in the paths of rectitude, and have now received a crown of life. When we recollect the graces of the faithful, let us study also to act a consistent part, and give the enemies of the gospel no cause to remark, that though our principles may be orthodox, our conduct is wrong; that we glow with benevolence when nothing is to be given, and are only captivated with virtue when at a distance from temptation. Further, to animate our progress towards perfection, let us think of them who are to succeed us in the scene of life. Will not posterity record with delight those characters which excellence adorned? Therefore let them never see guilt like a malignant demon, sitting in triumph over the ruins of their fathers’ virtues. As an additional motive to comply with the exhortation which the text contains, reflect that the spirits in glory will mark your progress with gladness and applause. “ Never did refined Athens exult more in diffusing learning and the liberal arts through a savage world, never did generous Rome please herself more with the view of order established by her victorious arms,” than the hosts of heaven will rejoice at the improvement of men. Finally, I beseech, you to make progress, for behold the angel of death is approaching to strike the blow which shall terminate your days. (T. Laurie, D. D.) Go on unto perfection I. FORM A JUST NOTION OF THE TRUE . View it as delineated by the inspired writers, and learn from them what the Christian ought to be. They speak of him as the child of God; not only as “ born of God,” but as “ bearing the image of his heavenly Father.” But not confining themselves to these general representations, the inspired writers descend to enumerate the various excellences in temper and conduct, which combine to form the character of the Christian. He is one who has “ laid aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.” He has “ put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering” ; he is filled with the fruits of the Spirit, which are “ love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” II. GUARD AGAINST LOSING ANY YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY MADE. Sinful habits once laid aside, and again resumed, adhere more closely than ever, and will baffle all ordinary efforts to throw them off. If you now exercise any grace, or practise any duty in which you were formerly deficient, let no consideration tempt you to relinquish it. III. TAKE EVERY TO THE GRACES AND VIRTUES WHICH YOU DO IN ANY DEGREE POSSESS. Are yon conscious of devout and reverential feelings towards God? Cherish and strengthen these feelings by habituating yourselves to these exercises of devotion. In your dealings with mankind are you just and honest? Do men fail in what is their duty towards you? Let that be your opportunity of cultivating the meek and quiet spirit, and of practising patience and gentleness towards them. IV. REVIEW YOUR , AND EXAMINE WHAT YOU ARE MAKING IN THE GRACES OF THE LIFE. 1. For our aid and direction in acquiring these graces we have set before us the character of God, the conduct of Jesus Christ, the laws and precepts of the gospel. 2. It will be of great use to compare your character as it now is with what you recollect it formerly to have been. V. Let all your efforts after moral improvement be made in HUMBLE UPON GOD, WITH PRAYER TO HIM, AND A ON THE OF . These exercises tend in the most direct manner to cherish the pious and Divine affections of love, of gratitude, of faith, of hope. (R. Boog, D. D.) Perfection We count those things perfect which want nothing requisite for the end whereunto they were instituted. (J. Hooker.) The instinct of perfection We see this in everything. We see it in the little pastimes of children playing in the market-place--practising their baby games, and never resting till they can catch upon their battledore their fifty or their hundred. We see it in the cricket-field and on the rifle-ground--we see it in the hunt and at the billiard table: what time, what toil, whatpatience, what disappointment, is grudged, if at last there may be perfection? We see it in the young scholar’ s devotion to his reading, to his composition. Some may study, some may compete, for the sake of the prize or the emolument, for the fame or the advancement. But we do a great injustice if we doubt that hundreds of the nobler youth of England would toil equally, and struggle equally, for the mere sake of knowing and of being. What is it which makes the great advocate, the eloquent orator, always tremble before speaking, and oftentimes lash himself afterwards? This, too, is not all of vanity and greed of praise; this is not all of eagerness to display self and mortification if the display be unsuccessful; much more is it, in real men, because there lives and glows in them, like a consuming fire, the ambition of perfection--a perfection which they never feel themselves to attain, just because nothing short of perfection will satisfy them. So it is with every painter, sculptor, writer, poet, who has in him that spark of genius by which art works and thought breathes. (C. J.Vaughan, D. D.) The impulse of perfection What else is it which gives its impulse to trade, and makes all the difference in that occupation of the million, between success and failure, between eminence and stagnation? The bad tradesman--you may know him by it--sees nothing insufferable in imperfection, and thinks his customer unreasonable if he looks for the absolute. “ It will do,” is his motto: it will do if the colour almost matches, if the dress nearly fits, if the dropped stitch, if the accidental flaw, can scarcely be noticed. You know that that workman cannot rise, will always be outstripped, must come to want--why? because he has no instinct of perfection, and therefore he lacks the first requisite of attainment. On the other hand, so strong is this motive in the body of human life, that you will find men engaged in large transactions willing to pay almost any price for a scarcely appreciable improvement in the screw of an engine or the catch of a machine, just because it is an approach, next to imperceptible, towards a perfection which real men of business never despise, and which therefore the ingenious never find unremunerative. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.) Low aims It is a low and unworthy strain in some to labour after no more grace than will keep life and soul together, that is, hell and soul asunder. (Jr. Trapp.) Spiritual dwarfs There was once in London a club of small men, whose qualification for membership lay in their not exceeding five feet in height; these dwarfs held, or pretended to hold, the opinion that they were nearer perfection of manhood than others, for they argued that primeval men had been far more gigantic than the present race, and consequently that the way of progress was to grow less and less, and that the human race as it perfected itself would become as diminutive as themselves. Such a club of Christians might be established in most cities, and without any difficulty might attain to an enormously numerous membership; for the notion is common that our dwarfish Christianity is, after all, the standard, and may even imagine that nobler Christians are enthusiasts, fanatical and hot-blooded, while they themselves are cool because they are wise, and indifferent because they are intelligent. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Is perfection attainable? When God tells us that we are to he “ holy,” “ perfect,” “ without blemish,” we are bound to believe that His command can be obeyed, and we ought not to be satisfied until we make the command an actuality. Could there be a sadder hindrance than that teachers of Divine things should lead men to suppose that God’ s purpose cannot be accomplished--that these words are mere figures of speech? Does God enjoin on us what is impossible? Convince a man that anything is impossible and he will not attempt it. A strong swimmer may plunge into the English Channel to cross to France, but where is the bravest swimmer who would plunge into the Atlantic to swim to America? Brave explorers do track the Greenland snows to explore the North Pole, but do we attempt to explore the North Star? Convince a man that the thing is possible, and sacrifice will be as meat to the noble soul, but impossibility dashes all effort to the ground. (R. F. Horton, M. A.) Forward Brave soldiers die with their face to the foe. Looking back never conquered a city, nor achieved a work of art, nor wrote a book, nor amassed a fortune. The silent inward cry of the world’ s great men has ever been: On, my soul, right on. Perfection gradual The acorn does not become an oak in a day. The ripened scholar was not made such by a single lesson. The well-trained soldier was not a raw recruit yesterday. It is not one touch of the artist’ s pencil that produces a finished painting. There are always months between seed-time and harvest. Even so the path of the just is like the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (R. B. Nichol.) Perfection aids perfection We may not only say, in general terms, that there may be a growth in perfection, but may assert further, that the thing which is most perfect, if it be susceptible of growth at all, will have the most sure and rapid growth. Which grows most and in the best manner--the flower which is whole and perfect in its incipient state, or that which has a canker in it, or is otherwise injured or defective in some of its parts? Which will grow the most rapidly and symmetrically--the child which is perfect in its infancy, or one which is afflicted with some malformation? illustrations and facts of this kind seem to make it clear that the spiritually renovated state of mind, which is variously called holiness, assurance of faith, perfect love, and sanctification, may be susceptible of growth or increase. It is not only evident that there is no natural or physical impossibility in it, but, as has been intimated, we may go farther, and lay it down as a general truth that perfection in the nature of a thing is requisite to perfection in degree. And accordingly, although it is possible for a person who is partially holy to grow m holiness, a person who is entirely holy, although he may be assailed by unfavourable influences outwardly, will grow much more. (J. Upham.) Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead worksOf the fundamentals of Christianity 1. The first, in order of nature, is faith towards God. For this must evidently be the first principle of all religion, the beginning and corner-stone even of the foundation itself (Hebrews 11:6). This is the first principle, not of the doctrine of Christ only, but also of the law of Moses, of the institution of the patriarchs, of the precepts of Noah of the relic, ion of nature itself, even among those who never had the benefit of Divine revelation. This truth is found written in the most legible characters, not in the inspired Scriptures only, but in the writings of the philosophers, in the discourses of the learned, in the consciences of the unlearned, in the hearts of all reasonable men, in the instincts of animals, in the motions and proportions even of the inanimate world itself. And is it not a shame that men, that men endued with reason and understanding, who enjoy moreover the light of the gospel revelation, should need to have this foundation laid for them any more? Which is the same folly as if a man should deny there was any light in the world, while he himself walked in the brightness of the sun shining in his strength; or like the foolish philosopher of old, who pretended to dispute against the being of motion, while he himself was on all sides surrounded with its visible and perpetual effects. 2. The next principle in order of nature, though first mentioned by the apostle in the text, is repentance from dead works. And this is a natural consequence of having faith towards God. For he who believes in God must consequently believe that obedience is necessary to be paid to His commands. And then they who perform not that obedience must be confessed to deserve the severest punishment. Which punishment there is no possible means for the offender to avoid, but by a timely repentance; and the only satisfactory evidence of the truth of that repentance is a departure from dead works to serve the living God. This, therefore, is the second principle of religion, or of the doctrine of Christ: a principle absolutely necessary to be laid as the foundation of all virtue, the lowest degree whereof is the forsaking of vice; and yet it is such a foundation as, if it always be laying, it is evident men can never go on to any perfection. It is equally necessary, therefore, that Christians should repent, and yet that they should not stand in need of being always repenting. Always repenting; not of daily infirmities, which are unavoidable, but of new and great crimes continually repeated. Of repentance from these, I say, the Scripture never supposes a Christian to stand frequently in need. 3. The next fundamental principle of Christian religion here mentioned by the apostle is the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands. Repentance is the indispensable duty of all sinners, and the original mercy of God affords ground of hope, even to natural reason, that such repentance will be accepted. Yet since hope, in the nature of the thing itself, differs necessarily from the certainty of knowledge, therefore it has pleased God to confirm this natural hope by the certainty of an express revelation in Christ that He will accept the repentance of sinners. And this assurance He has commanded to be sensibly conveyed to us by a very significant rite in the sacrament of baptism, which sacrament is for that read-on styled in Scripture the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. To this the apostle adds as a constant appendage the laying on of hands, because by that rite newly baptized persons were in the apostle’ s times endued with the Holy Ghost. 4. The last principle of the doctrine of Christ mentioned here by the apostle as the foundation of all religion is the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. I mention these two together as but one, because in the nature of things they are necessarily connected with each other. For the resurrection of the dead is only in order to judgment, and eternal judgment is a certain and necessary consequence of the resurrection from the dead. (S. Clarke, D. D.) Repentance The grace of evangelical repentance does not break the heart and leave every bit of the broken parts still stone, but it melts the heart and changes every principle of it. If you break a flint stone every portion of the stone is still flint, but if you melt it in the fire every particle of it becomes changed. So it is with the heart of man: the Lord does not break it, but by the fire of Divine love He gloriously changes the heart, and it becomes entirely new. (Rowland Hall.) Repentance Repentance is neither base nor bitter. It is good rising up out of evil. It is the resurrection of your thoughts out of graves of lust. Repentance is the turning of the soul from the way of midnight to the point of the coming sun. Darkness drops from the face, and silver light dawns upon it. Do not live, day by day, trying to repent, but fearing the struggle and the suffering. Manly regret for wrong never weakens, but always strengthens the heart. As some plants of the bitterest root have the whitest and sweetest blossoms, so the bitterest wrong has the sweetest repentance, which, indeed, is only the soul blossoming back to its better nature. (H. W.Beecher.) Dead works When anything is separated from its source there must be death. Separate the stream from its fountain and there is death. Separate the branch from the tree and there is death. Separate the body from the soul and there is death. Separate the soul from God and there is death. There may be natural life but there is spiritual death. The intellect lives, the will lives, the heart lives, the conscience lives, the instrumental faculties of action are all alive, but all the works to the production of which they combine, not being instinct with the love of God, are dead works. (C. Stanford, D. D.) The doctrine of baptisms The doctrine of baptisms If the sons of Aaron, before they were invested with the priestly garments, or entered upon the functions of their sacred office, plunged in ceremonial waters; if the proselyte from heathenism, before he took his station amongst the Temple worshippers, or was naturalised amongst the holy tribes, always did the same; if the Israelite who had contracted legal impurity from the stroke of leprosy, the touch of death, or from contact with any other unhallowed thing, always did the same; if on the occasion for the performance of those ceremonies which sealed the recovered leper’ s right to be received into society again, the priest dipped the mystic dove in water, then flung it up into the air to soar away on glistening wing to the rocky covert or the shady grove, symbol of the ransomed spirit in its flight to heaven; if these and other baptisms were administered under the Mosaic economy, all these baptisms held a doctrine, and the first part of the doctrine they taught was, that our nature, and the whole of our nature, needs cleansing to fit it for the presence of God. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Mercy in cleansing “ The doctrine of baptisms,” however, was not merely that man is vile, but that God is merciful. Those baptisms told not only of sin, but of a fountain opened for sin, and we know where that precious fountain flows. It was opened on Calvary, and from that hour to the present, baptism there--the baptism of the soul--has been the only essential baptism, the only act by which, through the eternal Spirit, the penalties of sin are all remitted, and all its pollutions finally cleansed away. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Laying on of handsConfirmation Here you see we have some truth or other--some first principle or other--respecting the “ laying on of hands,” following close upon some “ doctrine of baptisms.” Now the only laying on of hands that we read of in the rest of the New Testament is that which took place in the instances of the Samaritans and of the twelve upon whom St. Paul laid his hands, except the laying on of hands when ministers are ordained to their office. Now I do not think that this latter is only alluded to here, and for this reason: the writer of my text is evidently speaking of six matters or principles, or foundations, as he calls them, which concern all men equally, so that all men who profess Christ’ s doctrines should realise their importance, and be grounded in all needful truth respecting them. All men are to repent--all to believe in God--all to be baptized--all will rise again--all will be judged. Now, associated with these five other first principles, which all men undeniably have to realise, we have this “ laying on of hands.” It seems to me, then, that it must allude primarily to (or at least that it cannot exclude) that laying on of hands by the chief ministers of the Church, of which, in those early times, all the baptized partook. We now come to consider the question, Was it discontinued after the apostles’ time? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 6:4-6 The powers of the world to come The powers of the world to come That is to say, belonging to, and operating from, that world which, as to us, is” to come,” though now existing. And by “ powers,” we easily understand forces, energies, agencies, influences, virtues, and these in action upon their proper subjects. Now, we are subjects to be acted upon. Our nature has almost its whole exercise, we might almost say the verification of its existence--in being acted upon, by influences and impressions, from things extraneous to it. “ The powers of the world to come.” There is one pure, salutary, beneficent order of influences, tending to work the absolute, supreme, eternal good of our nature. But it confounds the mind to reflect what proportion this class of influences bears to others, in the actual operation on mankind. This world, too, has” powers,” which it exerts, we do not say in rivalry with the “ powers” of the other, but with a fearful preponderance of efficacy. ]s it not as evident to our view as the very face and colour of the- earth, that incomparably a greater proportion of human spirit and character is conformed to this world than to the other? That “ world to come” comprehends the sum, the perfection of everything, the sublimest, the best, the happiest. But what is it all to me? I feel no congeniality nor attraction. But is not this a lamentable and fearful state for the soul to be in? But what is to be done? What but to implore that “ the powers of the world to come” may be brought upon us with irresistible force? and that we should make earnest efforts, if we may express it so, to place ourselves exposed to them? This is to be done in the way of directing the serious attention of the mind to that world. Let us fairly make the trial--what agency,, what influences, that world can convey upon us. The proof of its influential power has been displayed on very many, in effects the mesh salutary and noble. One of these effects is, that it causes the unseen to predominate in our minds over what is seen; the future over the present; add these are great and admirable effects. From that world come the influences to fix and keep us in one great sovereign purpose of life, and that a purpose high above all the mere interests of this world. From that world comes the enlightening and active principle which at once exposes the nature of sin, and renders and keeps it odious to the soul. From that world comes the supporting, animating power for endurance of the ills of life, and for overcoming the tear of death. They are “ powers” of influence which all the best beings conspire to send. For even the d, parted saints are placed, as it were, in combination with God, the Mediator, and the angels, in sending a beneficent influence on us below--by their memory--by their examples--by their being displayed to our faith as in a blissful state above--and(we may believe,) by their kind regard and wishes for those below. And good and wise men have thought it not irrational to suppose that they may sometimes even be employed in real, actual ministries here on earth. These “ powers” of the other world we are regarding chiefly under the character of influences, proceeding at the will of God, and conceived as exclusive of personal agency. But far oftener than we suspect there may be the interventions, though invisible, of such an agency. All these “ powers,” these forces of influence, are sent, throng), the medium, and in virtue of the work, of the Mediator, and bear in them a peculiar character derived from Him. (J. Foster.) The powers of the world to come One of the popular names for Messiah among the Jews was, “ The coming one.” “ He that should come “ we have rendered it in our version. In like manner, the entire order of things, here and hereafter, which the Messiah was to introduce, they called “ The world to come.” “ The powers of the world to come, “ were the Divine energies, truths, and influences brought into operation by the Lord Jesus Christ. I. IS ONE OF “ THE POWERS OF THE WORLD COME.” None of the woe of evil is there. Above, purity is unimpeded and its joy suffers no eclipse. II. AN AND FUTURE IS ONE OF “ THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO COME.” Before we reach that world, the burdens of this will have been laid down. There activity will no more fatigue. None shall sit down and brood over anxious thought and wearing toil which have left only failure and wreck behind. III. IS ONE OF “ THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO COME.” 1. Eternity is the name for all that is great. Eternity is the realm of all things vast and wonderful. So, whatever a godly man does for eternity, must be great. Whatever in the Christian life pertains to eternity, partakes of its grandeur and sublimity. The Son of God filled earthly duties with heavenly motives, and linked the fleeting moment and the transitory deed to the grandeur of eternity. 2. But to the eternal world, as well, we ascribe stability. It is the realm where all things abide, No abandoned palaces are there, no prostrate temples. No flower weeps upon a grave, no verdure fringes the rents of gaping tombs. 3. Eternity is not only inseparable from greatness and stability, but it is the theatre of progress. There souls ever grow. Intellect, heart, character, knowledge, love, power, never halt. IV. GOD IS THE GREAT “ POWER OF THE WORLD TO COME.” What has been the most ardent aspiration of the righteous in every age? Has it not always been, to see God? to stand in His presence? to realise His contact with the soul? Lessons: 1. You must have strong faith in “ the world to come,” if its realities are to be “ powers” to your souls. It is not an easy attainment. It demands industrious culture. 2. One great end of the life, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension of our blessed Lord, was to make the verities of “ the world to come” “ powers” to the mind and conduct of men. All the tender memories of Gethsemane and Calvary centre in His risen and living person, to allure the affections and uplift the aspirations of the holy to the skies. 3. Oh, ye who are heated in the chase for riches and honour, worldly fame and earthly enjoyment, walk out to the hallowed lights of eternity, as men at eventide cool their feverish pulses beneath the heavens when the hot sun has gone down and the stars shine forth. Act with an awakened consciousness of your immortality, live for eternity, realise the everlasting years which stretch before you. Among the ruins of Petra there are temples and mansions excavated in the faces of the rocks. Some, massive in their proportions and elaborate in embellishment, are unfinished. What an exquisite perfection the artificer would have given to his work, if informed beforehand that the monuments of his skill would survive all these long centuries, and be numbered among the wonders of the world! Christian men and women, let your souls be aglow with the inspiration and ardour of working for eternity, and, when this is over and the hour of rest shall come, going home to meet the approbation of your God. (H. Batchelor, B. A.) The influence of futurity There can be no doubt that the apostle here marks out as a possible thing, the making great apparent progress in religion, and then of so offending, as to be finally excluded from the mercies of the gospel. The parties, of whom the apostle speaks, are such you see as have “ tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come.” There is no difficulty as to the meaning of “ Tasting the good Word of God.” You all understand the words to denote an appreciation of the beauty and excellence of the gospel, and, therefore, the feeling its suitableness, and receiving it with delight in the soul we are very much struck with this expression, and greatly wish to make you conscious of its energy. We desire, if it be possible, that you should all understand how the invisible world comes out, as it were, from its impenetrable secrecy, and operates on those who feel themselves strangers upon the earth; and we desire yet further, that every one of you should learn that there is such a thing as anticipating the future; ay, and that there may be experienced on this side of the grave so much of the wretchedness, as well as of the gladness, which shall enter into everlasting portions, as justifies the assertion that the powers of eternity are already brought to bear on mankind. Take two cases--consider, in the first place, how the powers of the world to come are tasted by a man in the season of conversion; in the second place, how they may be tasted in the continued experience whether of the godly or of the wicked. It is surprisingly strange, and would be wholly inexplicable if we did not know how man’ s powers were disordered by the fall, that beings who have a thorough persuasion of their deathliness, can go on, day after day, and year after year, as though certain that the soul would die with the body. This is, perhaps, the strongest of all demonstrations, that our powers have been shattered and perverted through some great moral catastrophe; for in this it is that man offers a direct insult to himself as a rational being, acting with a fatuity and short-sightedness that could only have been expected from the inferior creation. And hence the chief matter, in working upon men as the recipients of moral impressions, is to rouse them to the feeling themselves immortal. The world which now is, exerts incessant power over all of us: persuading us, by the objects which it presents, and the duties which it imposes, to give our toil and our industry to certain pursuits and occupations. And the world which is to come will exert the very same kind of power if it can only gain our belief and attention, so that it may set forth its objects with the duties which their attainment demands. The man, therefore, who is in earnest as to the saving of the soul, is not a man within whom has been implanted a new principle of action; he is rather one in whom a principle of action, vigorous from the first, but contracted in its range, has received a fresh direction, so that in place of limiting itself to the brief stage of human existence, it expatiates over the whole, providing for the distant as well as for the near. Here, then, it is that you have the general case of the putting forth of the powers of the world to come. You observe one man, and you perceive that he is giving his whole energy to the things of time and sense; you observe another man, and you perceive that, though not neglectful of providing for the present, his main labour is employed on securing his welfare in an invisible but everlasting state. The difference between these men is, therefore, the one has received his impulse from the world which is; the other, from the world which is to come. The one has submitted himself to no powers but those wielded by things which are seen and temporal, whereas the other is obedient to the powers put forth by the things that are unseen and eternal; the one is no consciousness of belonging to more than one world; the other is practically persuaded that he is a citizen of two worlds. Ay, there hath risen before the man who is gathering eternity within range of his anxieties, the image of himself as inextinguishable by death; but thrown without a shred and without a hope on scenes whence he cannot escape, and for which he cannot then provide, and this has roused him. But the force of this expression, “ tasting the powers of the world to come,” will be far more apparent if you consider the men as acted on by the communications of the gospel. We are sure of any one of you who has been translated out of darkness into marvellous light, that he must have had at times a sense of God’ s wrath, and of the condemnation beneath which the human race lies, such as has almost overwhelmed him, and made him feel as though the future were upon him in its terrors. He has risen as though the avenger of blood were just crossing his threshold, he has not tarried, he has not turned either to the right band or to the left, but has gone straightway to the one Mediator between God and man, and cried for mercy passionately, as a condemned criminal would plead for his life. And whence this energy? Why, when every other beneath the same roof, or in the same neighbourhood, is utterly indifferent, moved with no anxiety as to death and judgment--why has this solitary individual who has no greater stake than all his fellows in futurity, started up with irresistible vehemence of purpose, and given himself no rest till he has sought and found acceptance with God? We reply at once, that he has been made to “ taste the powers of the world to come.” The world which now is arraying before him its fascinations; the world which is to come arraying before him its punishments. The one put forth its influence in the objects of sense; the other put forth its influence through the objects of faith. The one solicited him by the wealth and the revel; but the other threatened him with the fire and the shame. The one used its power of ministering to carnal passions; the other asserted its power of making those passions our tormentors; and the future has carried it over the present. Nor is this all. We should convey a most erroneous impression in regard to the process of conversion, if we represented it as carried on exclusively through a terrifying instrumentality. If one man is driven, so to speak, to God, another may be drawn; the promises of the gospel being more prominently employed than the threatenings. For we may rather say, in the majority of cases, and perhaps in all, conversion is brought about through a combination of agency; the coming wrath being used to produce fear and repentance, and the provided mercy to allay anxiety, encourage hope, and confirm in holiness. We cannot imagine a converted man who has never dreaded the being lost; neither can we imagine one who has never exulted in the prospect of heaven. And though fear or joy may predominate according to circumstances, which we need not attempt to define, we may venture to speak of conversion as a process through which man is alike made to feel that he is a fallen creature doomed to destruction, and a redeemed creature admissible into glory. He is as much acted on by promises as by threatenings; he does not take half the Bible, but places as much faith in declarations which speak of honour and peace and triumph made accessible to man, as in others which set forth the fact, “ that the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God.” And is it not then certain that the world to come brings to bear upon him its instruments of happiness as well as its instruments of vengeance--that the future in struggling into the present, is equally energetic and equally influential, if regarded as the scene in which the good shall be rewarded, or considered as charged with the overthrow of the reprobate? And if therefore you can say of the converted individual, surveying him merely as one who is moved by great and impending destruction, that he manifests the having imbibed the influences of another state of being, will you not make a like statement when you regard him as animated by the hope of pleasures stored up at the right hand of God? And what is this, inasmuch as in the invisible world are the magazines of Divine retribution, so that the powers with which it is replete, are those of exacting the penalty of crime, and rewarding the efforts of obedience? what, I ask you, is this but saying of an individual--“ He hath tasted the powers of the world to come “ ? And now let us consider how the powers of the world to come may be tasted in the continued experience, whether of the godly or of the wicked. For we may be persuaded, that through not endeavouring to bring the future into close connection with the present, or rather through not regarding the future as in every sense the continuation of the present, men strip the realities of another state of much of that influence which they must otherwise have. We put it to yourselves to decide, whether you are not accustomed to place, as it were, a great gulf between the two states of being, to regard the invisible as having few or no points in common with the visible? When heaven is mentioned, there is ordinarily altogether an indefiniteness in your apprehension of its delights; and when hall is mentioned, there is the like indefiniteness in your apprehension of its torments. You consider, in short, that little or nothing can be ascertained in regard to the nature of future joy and misery; they differ so widely from what now hear the names, that they must be felt before they can be understood. But we hold it of great importance that men should be reminded that whatever the changes effected by death and the resurrection, they will be identically the same beings, with the same organs, the same capacities, the same in nature, though, we doubt not, marvellously quickened and mightily enlarged. And if the grave shall give us up, the same, except in the degree in which we can admit either happiness or misery, it is quite evident that both heaven and hell may begin on this side eternity. There may be the commencement, however vastly we come short of the consummation. It is in thorough consistency with this view that the apostle speaks of men “ tasting the powers of the world to come.” It is not necessary that they should die, and actually enter another world, before they can know anything of the powers of that world. In their sohourning upon earth ere there hath passed on them aught of that mysterious change through which the corruptible shall put on incorruption, they may have acquired a degree of acquaintance with those powers--the power of making happy, the power of making wretched. The evil man may have the commencement of an anguish, which shall be the same in kind, though not to be compared in intenseness to that by which he shall be racked if he die in impenitence. The righteous man may enjoy a peace and be elevated by a rapture which shall be as an introduction to the deep tranquility and lofty ecstasy of the land in which the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The effect of realising “ the powers of the world to come” I. THERE WILL BE A UPON OUR PRESENT LIFE. 1. The inward life will become increasingly pure and holy. 2. The outward life will become increasingly human, just, unselfish. II. THERE WILL. BE A . In times of despondency, sadness, loss, and temptation, we shall bravely bear all, and wait for the “ eternal years.” III. THERE WILL BE A . 1. Thoughts, motives, professions, deeds, will be kept in the right direction. 2. There will be no apostasy of heart or life. (James Foster, B. A.) The world to come The world to come. Is there indeed such a world? Is man to exist beyond the present life? No one comes back from that future to tell us of it, and open to us its experience. To the natural eye man’ s life goes as does that of the beast; neither his life nor his death speaks anything more. Is this all? Is there no more to man and no more for man than there is to and for the brute creation around him? I. Our intuitions give us answer. The Creator has given a voice to our soul. It tells us of immortality. It creates the conviction of a “ world to come.” 2. Also, man’ s attributes give answer to these questions. Though in some things he is like the brutes that perish, in many things he is most unlike them. In the wonderful gift of speech, in the endowment of reason, in the possession of conscience, in the intelligent and holy emotion of love, he belongs to another domain of being from that in which mere animals have their existence. He is a moral being, and amenable to the bar of right and wrong. Can it be that a being of such capabilities is the mere creature of a day? My whole being revolts at such a conclusion. 3. But finally the Scriptures give answer to these questions. 4. This world to come is very near to us; to some of us oh how near! “ The world to come” --can we to-day make this real? Can we open our hearts and enfold the truth that this “ world to come” is a “ world to come ‘ to you and to me? Let us bring it near, let us make it personal. The Christian should be glad to do so; it will strengthen his faith, it will confirm his hope, it will quicken his zeal, it will purify his love, it will wean him from this world, it will lift up his life to nobler and holier experiences. (C. P. Sheldon, D. D.) If they shall fall awaySpiritual declension and recovery I. WHAT PERSONS HAS THE APOSTLE HERE IN VIEW? He enumerates respecting them a variety of marks, which certainly belong to real Christians. 1. The first of these is, that they have been enlightened. As there are various kinds of enlightening in visible nature, as by the sun, by the moon, and by lamps, so are there various kinds of enlightening relative to the human soul. There are many persons who certainly know what is the one thing needful, and what are the several stages on the road to heaven; but they know it only from human instruction, and have their light at second or third hand. Theirs is a moonlight, which neither warms nor fructifies; neither makes that which is dead, alive, nor that which is withered, green. Such enlightening we may have, and yet be as far from the kingdom of God as the most unenlightened heathen. There are others who show that they partake of a better enlightening, and even of a kind of warmth accompanying it. But they are excitable persons, who are easily moved at hearing of Christ, and the experiences of His saving grace, and become, perhaps, irresistibly convinced that such things are true. But should any of their lamps have burned down, or their oil have been spent, so as to yield a fainter light, or those who carry brighter lamps happen to have withdrawn, then are those persons as much in darkness again as ever; and this because they have not cherished the true light in themselves. Now, neither this, nor the former class of persons, does the Scripture call enlightened. It gives this name, not to those who receive their light at second or third hand, but only to those who cherish within them a light which is received immediately from Christ Himself; to those of whom it is written, “ Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” And this light pervades the soul and spirit, “ piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” ; that is, it is a light which discovers to the sinner his misery, and makes him feel it. And if we have been thus enlightened, then doubtless we are children of God, and born of the Spirit. 2. The apostle further says, they “ have tasted of the heavenly gift” ; which is another exclusive characteristic of true Israelites. This heavenly gift is no other than that spoken of by our Saviour to the woman of Samaria. 3. Another mark attributed to them is, that they have been “ made partakers of the Holy Ghost” ; and this surely will not allow us to remain uncertain what sort of persons the apostle has in view. Who can doubt that they are children of God? 4. And that we might know that they have received the Spirit of God as aa earnest of their salvation, it is added, that they “ have tasted the good Word of God.” This expression clearly intimates that they have experienced the Word of God in themselves as a good word; as a word which takes the most kind and sympathetic part in whatever happens to us, or oppresses us; as a word that has upon all occasions counsel and deliverance for us, and stands by us in the most gracious manner with its light and healing balm. 5. And now for the last mark: they “ have tasted the powers of the world to come.” Understand by this expression whatever you can think of it as implying those outpourings of grace which enable us to overcome the world and death; or, as implying a lively foretaste of eternal joy, a powerful assurance of the final consummation, and of our being “ ever with the Lord” ; or, as signifying our present triumphant elevation upon the wings of faith above time, above all afflictions and crosses, above death, judgment, sin, and hell; or, understand whatever as believers you please by these words--this you must allow, that St. Paul could have had only children of God in his eye when he declares of them, that they “ have tasted the powers of the world to come.” II. THE OF WHICH THE OF GOD ARE CAPABLE. St. Paul then, speaking of children of God, and even of such as have gone on for a considerable time in the way of salvation, and have attained maturity of growth and decision of character, says, “ It they shall fall away.” In strict language every fall is a falling away; for it is a temporary forgetfulness and turning aside from Him who hath said, “ Abide in Me.” But the Scripture evidently makes a distinction between falling and falling away. In the 4th verse of the 5th chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians we meet with persons who had fallen away. They had lost the lively sense of their unworthiness and inability; and, instead of abiding implicitly at the foot of the cross, so as to live upon grace and forgiveness alone, they had become bewildered with the unhappy notion of being their own saviours and intercessors. “ Ye did run well; who hath hindered you that ye should no longer obey the truth? “ This was a falling away; a departure from grace; it was an erring from the way of God’ s children rote the way of self-righteous, natural men; a virtual renunciation of Christ; a tacit declaration that they no longer needed Him, and could do without Him. It was a depreciation of His precious blood; a contempt of His sacrifice, and a rejection of His person: so that St. Paul could utter that reproach with the utmost propriety and justice, Christ is again “ crucified among you.” But there is a falling away which is more fearful still. Not only a falling away from grace into legal bondage, but a falling away into lawlessness, or into a course without law altogether; a falling away from God to idols; from the kingdom of heaven to the world; from the way of light into the way of the flash and of darkness. This would seem hardly credible, did not sad experience show it to be true. Look at David at one period of his life. But no, on David’ s crime, dreadful as it was, we will not insist; it was rather an awful fall than a falling away. Think then of Solomon, that precious man of God, that Jedidiah from his cradle: observe him in his career; and how can you help shuddering? Twice does the Lord appear to him, and give him a commandment not to walk after other gods 1 Kings 3:14; 2 Chronicles 7:12-22); but he obeys it not; he continues in his departure from Jehovah the God of Israel; so that the Lord is obliged, at length, to come against him with the thunder and lightning of His judgments. And, oh! how many of the children of God have brought upon themselves, in like manner, His rebukes and visitations! How many, to whom the world had been already crucified, have gone back again to the world! III. THE WARNING GIVEN. Hearken to that awful thunder of the Divine oracle, which declares that “ it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,” &c. How terribly does this sound I almost like, “ Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” And, indeed, it is evident at once how difficult must be the restoration of those who, having taken root in a life of holiness, and having been blessed with sweet experiences of Divine love, could, after all, have fallen away! Whoever is conscious that he is guilty of this, may well tremble. The word “ impossible” in our text is enough to fill him with horrible dread. And if so, “ Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!” Let all of us watch and pray; let our abiding station be ever at the foot of the cross. There let us lie down and take our rest; there let us arise in the morning; there perform every duty of our daily life; there let us be formed, and fixed, and live; there wait for the Bridegroom; there breathe bur last: so are we safe. (F. W. Krummacher, D. D.) The danger of apostasy from Christianity I. THERE ARE THREE THINGS WHICH THE SIN HERE SPOKEN OF IN THE TEXT FROM “ THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST” BY OUR SAVIOUR. 1. The persons that are guilty of this sin here in the text are evidently such as had embraced Christianity, and had taken upon them the profession of it; whereas those whom our Saviour chargeth with “ the sin against the Holy Ghost,” are such as constantly opposed His doctrine, and resisted the evidence He offered for it. 2. The particular nature of “ the sin against the Holy Ghost” consisted in blaspheming the Spirit whereby our Saviour wrought His miracles, and saying He did not those things by the Spirit of God, but by tie assistance of the devil, in that malicious and unreasonable imputing of the plain effects of the Holy Ghost to the power of the devil, and consequently in an obstinate refusal to be convinced by the miracles that He wrought; but here is nothing of all this so much as intimated by the apostle in this place. 3. “ The sin against the Holy Ghost” is declared to be absolutely “ unpardonable both in this world and in that which is to come.” II. That this sin here spoken of by the apostle is NOT SAID TO BE . It is not “ the sin against the Holy Ghost” ; and, whatever else it be, it is not out of the compass of God’ s pardon and forgiveness. So our Saviour hath told us, “ that all manner of sin whatsoever that men have committed is capable of pardon, excepting only the sin against the Holy Ghost.” And though the apostle here uses a very severe expression, that “ if such persons fall away it is impossible to renew them again to repentance,” yet there is no necessity of understanding this phrase in the strictest sense of the word impossible, but as it is elsewhere used for that which is extremely difficult. Nor, indeed, will our Saviour’ s declaration, which I mentioned before, that all sins whatsoever are pardonable, except “ the sin against the Holy Ghost,” suffer us to understand these words in the most rigorous sense. III. The sin here spoken of IS NOT A PARTIAL FROM THE BY ANY VICIOUS , Whosoever lives in the habitual practice of any sin plainly forbidden by the Christian law may be said so far to have apostatised from Christianity; but this is not the falling away which the apostle here speaks of. This may be bad enough; and the greater sins any man who professeth himself a Christian lives in, the more notoriously he contradicts his profession, and falls off from Christianity, and the nearer he approaches to the sin in the text, and the danger there threatened; but yet, for all that, this is not that which the apostle speaks of. IV. BUT IT IS A TOTAL FROM THE , more especially to the heathen idolatry, the renouncing of the true God, and our Saviour, and the worship of false gods, which the apostle here speaks of. And I doubt not but this is the sin which St. John speaks of, and calls “ the sin unto death,” and does not require Christians “ to pray for those who fall into it,” with any assurance that it shall be forgiven (1 John 5:16). V. We will consider the reason of the OF SUCH PERSONS BY . 1. Because of the greatness and heinousness of the sin, both in the nature and circumstances of it. It is downright apostasy from God, a direct renouncing of Him, and rejecting of His truth, after men have owned it, and been inwardly persuaded and convinced of it. It hath all the aggravations that a crime is capable of, being against the clearest light and knowledge, and the fullest conviction of a man’ s mind, concerning the truth and goodness of that religion which he re-nounceth; against the greatest obligations laid upon him by the grace and mercy of the gospel; after the free pardon of sins, and the grace and assistance of God’ s Spirit received, and a miraculous power conferred for a witness and testimony to themselves, of the undoubted truth of that religion which they have embraced. Now a sin of this heinous nature is apt naturally either to plunge men into hardness and impenitency, or to drive them to despair; and either of these conditions are effectual bars to their recovery. 2. Those who are guilty of this sin do renounce and cast off the means of their recovery, and therefore it becomes extremely difficult to renew them again to repentance. They reject the gospel, which affords the best arguments and means to repentance, and renounce the only way of pardon and forgiveness. 3. Those who are guilty of this sin provoke God in the highest manner to withdraw His grace and Holy Spirit from them, by the power and efficacy whereof they should be brought to repentance; so that it can hardly otherwise be expected but that God should leave those to themselves who have so unworthily forsaken Him, and wholly withdraw His grace and Spirit from such persons as have so notoriously offered despite to the Spirit of grace. I shall now draw some useful inferences from hence by way of application, that we may see how far this doth concern ourselves; and they shall be these. 1. From the supposition here in the text, that such persons as are there described (namely, those who have been baptized, and by baptism have received remission of sins, and did firmly believe the gospel, and the promises of it, and were endowed with miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost), that these may fall away--this should caution us all against confidence and security; when those that have gone thus far may fall, “ Let him that standeth take heed.” 2. This shows us how great an aggravation it is for men to sin against the means of knowledge which the gospel affords, and the mercies which it offers unto them. 3. The consideration of what hath been said is matter of comfort to those who, upon every failing and infirmity, are afraid they have committed “ the unpardonable sin,” and that it is impossible for them to be restored by repentance. 4. This should make men afraid of great and presumptuous sins, which come near apostasy from Christianity; such as deliberate murder, adultery, gross fraud and oppression, or notorious and habitual intemperance. For what great difference is there, whether men renounce Christianity, or, professing to believe it, do in their works deny it? 5. It may be useful for us upon this occasion to reflect a little upon the ancient discipline of the church, which in some places was so severe, as, in case of some great crimes after baptism, as apostasy to the heathen idolatry, murder, and adultery, never to admit those that were guilty of them to the peace and communion of the church. This, perhaps, may be thought too great severity; but I am sure we are as much too remiss now as they were over-rigorous then; but were the ancient discipline of the church in any degree put in practice now, what case would the generality of Christians be in? 6. The consideration of what hath been said should confirm and establish us in the profession of our holy religion. (Abp. Tillotson.) The Palestinian apostates, and the impossibility affirmed of renewing them again to repentance Under a fierce, though--thanks to Roman supremacy--a bloodless persecution, the intensity of which no one at all familiar with Jewish hate will be at a loss to realise, members of she churches were falling away, first into backsliding, then into apostasy, to the extent of returning to their temple service; and the difficulty of reclaiming them from amid those environments prompts the apostle to impart to his warnings special potency and pungency. I. Notice THEIR AND . The state that preceded their apostasy, if there be meaning in words, was that of actual conversion; and but for the exigencies of a vicious creed no other idea would have been entertained. They were “ once enlightened” ; and the same word is used of them in the tenth chapter under the rendering “ illuminated.” No stronger expression could be used to denote conversion. “ Once ye were darkness, but ye are now light in the Lord.” Again, they are here affirmed to have “ tasted of the heavenly gift,” which, however it may be explained, it would be arbitrary in the extreme to understand as falling short of salvation. The same remark applies to the next thing attributed to these apostates, “ they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.” Full of the Holy Ghost we need not suppose them to have been; but none the less does the expression denote the saving fruits of faith as contrasted with the fruits of those that continue in the flesh. (Compare Galatians 5:19-25; Ram. 5:5.) On the same principle, consistency demands it at we explain the attribution--“ they have tasted the good Word of God,” in the spirit of David in such places as Psalms 119:1-176., or of Jeremiah when he sweetly says, “ Thy Word was found of me, and I did eat it, and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” “ To the above tastings,” or spiritual experiences, the apostle adds that those apostates h d “ tasted the powers of the world to come” ; or, as the expression means, “ the age to come.” This was the New Testament age, and had long been familiarly so denominated. The word “ power” is the same as that rendered “ miracles” in Hebrews 2:4; and it is here intimated, therefore, that the spiritual evidences and influences so grandly characteristic of that period had previously operated their due effects on the minds and hearts of these apostates. II. We now pass to THEIR PRESENT STATE--that of men who have apostatised. 1. The fact of their apostasy is expressly affirmed. They had “ fallen away.” Their fall, as we shall see, would not be precipitate. The gradient of the downward path is at first exceedingly imperceptible; it is not till a further stage down that it becomes recklessly headlong. 2. Let us now pass from the fact to the nature of their apostasy. It was a lapse from all the Christian experiences above detailed, and that by a lapse from the source of these--namely, faith, and from all the means by which we are enabled to “ stand fast in the faith.” This lapse would be stealthy, and so in fact the word implies. It was probably no sudden flight, no leap, no bound, no run, or even deliberate, walk, but a partially passive and insensible process of “ falling away.” Like the fleecy envelopment of air which, from its yielding nature, falls behind in the diurnal revolution of our globe (causing our trade and oblique winds) such retrogressors gradually yield to dragging influences and lag behind. First, the Bible is neglected, then prayer, then family duty, then Christian converse, then Christian zeal in every form, then the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and all the means of grace. At whose bidding? we need hardly ask, seeing the seducers are legion. It may have been at the prompting of Mammon, or of Belial, of vanity, or of pride. It may have been in the name of free thought, under the license of free speech, or under the baser dictation still of indolence and cowardice that shrink from encountering pain, and toil, and loss. Any way, the sphere of salvation in the soul contracts and grows dim; the fruits of the new life shrivel up; the heart, now “ an evil heart of unbelief, departs from the living God,” and day by day becomes “ hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” III. Let us now endeavour to understand Him: HERE Of again renewing these recreants unto repentance. Be it noted in the outset, that vain is the attempt of those who would substitute for the word “ impossible” some milder translation, such as “ difficult,” or the like. In the original, just as in our version, the word incontrovertibly and immovably stands “ impossible.” But then the question is still left open to us--In what sense impossible? First, and surely plainly enough, no suchthing as absolute impossibility is for a moment to be thought of, for we are here in a far other sphere than that of strict omnipotence. We are in the moral sphere; and in the moral sense only are we to understand the word impossible. And even in that sense the impossibility lies not on the side of God, but wholly on the side of man. How? Only in the moral sense; and in no such sense even of the moral kind as need doom any apostate to despair, though certainly such as ought to make his ears tingle and his knees tremble, and his frame shake and his heart quake. It was impossible to renew those men, merely in the sense of Christ’ s impossible, when He said, “ How can ye believe, who receive honour one of another?” --this state of mind, while it lasted, being a moral bar to their believing: but then it had no need to last. It was impossible, in the sense in which we ourselves freely use the word every day; as when we say, It is impossible to love this man, or hate that man, or to respect or trust that other--that is, impossible only in the sense of being extremely hard or difficult by reason of moral dispositions or circumstances; which moral causes, however, it is all the time understood by us, it is quite in the power of the man concerned to alter or surmount, if he choose. IV. THESE MORAL CAUSES FOR THE , in the case of the apostates in my text, it only remains that, in the last place, I now briefly explain. For very special they were, and frightful in the extreme--amply sufficient, and more, to account for the very strong word “ impossible” which the inspired writer here employs. These singular causes are briefly but expressively set forth in the appended reason, “ seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.” They not only renounce Christ, they do it with every circumstance of contumelious indignation and scorn. They re-enact for “ themselves” what they are now too late literally to join in--the crime and the jeering concomitants of the Saviour’ s crucifixion. This they do, not only in the arena of the inner spirit, but in open avowal, by shamelessly homologating and glorying in the deed. They say, “ though for a time deceived, we now see that the deed was right.” They this gather into themselves the combined virulence of both Jew and Roman; for while with the Jew they cry, “ Crucify Him,” with the Roman they do in effect “ crucify Him,” so far as it is in them to re-enact the deed. And unlike that tumultuous rabble, who were stirred into frenzy by their rulers, and borne many of them they knew not whither, so that Christ affectingly said of them, praying, “ They know not what they do,” these apostates, on the contrary, re-enacted the crime deliberately, from amid the full flood of gospel light, and life, and power, and after they them elves had tasted the sweets of gospel love. This, the terrible attitude and its implications, were explanation enough of the word impossible, were we to say no more. But to stop here would leave unexplained the fact, otherwise incredible, how they could ever have been led to take such an attitude at all. This is the only thing further I have to explain, and then the shadow over the word “ impossible” will have deepened into the most hopeless gloom. The explanation is to be found in the strongly marked peculiarities of the Jew, and in the then conditions of social and religious life in Palestine. These were such as to leave no neutral ground. A Jew’ s wrath, in religious matters, easily intensifies to frenzied rage. Hence their scorn of Jesus, their vindication of His death, their hate of all who bear His name, their practice by spitting, gesticulation, or terms of execration, of blaspheming and cursing the Holy One under the opprobrious name of “ the Nazarene.” In such a state of society, to renounce Christianity was not to lapse into negative indifference; for indifference or neutrality there was none. It meant positively a return to Judaism; and to Judaism aroused awed armed in deadly antagonism to Christianity. The process would be this. Expelled the synagogue, put under the ban, disowned by their nearest, if they perished in clinging to the hated Nazarene in spite of the entreaties, the tears, and ere long the curses of their kin, the Palestinian Christian would at first waver, then absent himself occasionally from the Christian assemblies. Urged by his relatives, the occasionally would become frequently, till, now fairly on the decline, he came to abandon them entirely. And now the entreaties, the blandishments, the impassioned warnings would be renewed. Let him only pass through the needful discipline and be welcomed anew into the synagogue and into the bosom of his home. He does so: and the die is cast. To quit the church for the synagogue was to pass from one hostile camp to another, with no intermediate resting place or ground even for parley. It was to quit all Christian ordinances and restoring influences, and to raise a brazen wall between. And it was to enter the synagogue to join the anti-Nazarene crusade. The apostates, and with proverbially apostate zeal, now persecuted the faith they formerly preached. In conclusion, there result two vitally important lessons, which we briefly state in Scripture language. 1. “ Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 2. “ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The sin of rejecting the gospel That we may understand this Scripture, and make it unto us a good comfort, which might seem otherwise a heavy threatening, let us consider in it these two things: first, the purpose of the apostle for which he speaketh it, then themselves what they signify. The apostle’ s purpose is to stir us up, desirously to hear, diligently to learn wisely to increase in knowledge, and obediently to practise that we have learned: for this purpose it was first spoken, to this end it is now written. 1. The first mark of them is that they be lightened; that is, endued with the knowledge of God, not only by the heavens, which declare His glory, nor by the firmament, which showeth His work, nor by any of God’ s creatures in which His eternal power and Godhead cloth appear and shine, and of which light all nations are made partakers, but they are also lightened with His holy Word, which is a lantern to their feet and a light unto their steps, and have heard His gospel preached unto them, unto the which they have agreed that it is the Word of Life. 2. The second note of them is, that they have tasted of the heavenly gift: the heavenly gift is the life and great salvation that is in Christ Jesus, by whom we are reconciled, which likewise our Saviour Christ calleth the gift of God, speaking to the woman of Samaria; and this is that knowledge into which they are lighted by the gospel, and this they not only know, but of this gift they have also tasted: which is, they have gladly some time received it, and rejoiced in it; like as our Saviour Christ describeth them by the parable of the stony ground, that incontinently with joy they receive the seed, and which also He noteth in the Pharisees, speaking of John Baptist, which was a shining lamp among them, and they for a season did rejoice in his light. 3. The third note of these men is, that they have been partakers of the Holy Ghost: which is, that many graces of the Spirit of God have been given unto them, as these two above named, that they are lightened with knowledge, and rejoice in their understanding, which is neither of flesh nor blood, nor of the will of man, but of the Holy Ghost. 4. The fourth note is, that they have tasted the good Word of God, not much differing from that He first spake of, that they were lightened, that is, that they had knowledge of God, not only by His creatures, but much more by His Word. But here naming the good Word of God, he noteth especially the gospel, by comparison with the law. 5. The fifth note here set forth is, that they know and confess that this gospel hath in the end eternal life: and Christ is a mighty Saviour, who will keep for ever those whom He hath purchased. And he nameth the world to come, because the Spirit hath lightened them to see the latter end of this corruptible world, and to know assuredly that here they have no dwelling city, but another habitation made for God’ s chosen, not with mortal hands, but everlasting in heaven, and calling it the powers, because it is made so strong in Christ Jesus, that it can never be assaulted; for all power is given unto Him in heaven and in cart,, and He hath made that heavenly city glorious for His saints throughout all worlds. And thus far of the persons, what gifts they have received; wherein yet let us understand a great difference between these men which fall away and the gifts which are in Gods elect that cannot perish, nor ever sin against the Holy Ghost. Nosy let us see the manner of rebellion, how far they tall away: first, we must observe what points the apostle hath before named. In the beginning of the chapter he mentioneth repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptism, and laying on of hands, and resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment, which here he calleth the beginning and foundation of Christian amity; then he speaketh of an apostasy or falling away from all these points here named even from the foundation and first beginnings of the Christian faith, so that all the former light is quite put out, and the first understanding is all taken away; they laugh now at repentance, and the first faith they account it foolishness. (E. Deering, B. D.) What relapses are inconsistent with grace? I. FOUR FALLS OF THE GODLY. 1. The first and lightest fall of the godly is that in their daily combat between flesh and spirit (Romans 7:1-25; Galatians 5:17). Our duties are imperfect, graces defective, our gold and silver drossy, “ our wine mixed with water.” Sin deceiveth, surpriseth, captivateth, slayeth, yet reigneth not. These falls or slips are unavoidable and involuntary. There is no saint but complains of them, no duty but is stained with them. In our clearest sunshine we see a world of such motes, which yet hinder not the light and comfort of our justification, avid destroy not sanctification. True grace consists with these; yea, is not separated from the assaults and indwelling of such motions. “ Will we, will we,” said Bernard, “ we are pestered with swarms of these Egyptian flies, and have these frogs in our inmost chambers.” This first fall is but like the fall of a mist in a winter morning: the sun gets up, and it is a fair day after. This is the first fall: the second is worse, which Isaiah 2. An actual and visible stumble as to offence of others, yet occasioned by some surreptitious surprise of temptation, for want of that due consideration which we should always have: this the apostle calls “ a man’ s being overtaken with a fault,” who is “ to be restored with a spirit of meekness, considering we also may be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). Such falls (or slips rather) all or most are subject to (James 3:2). We sometimes trip, or slip, or “ miss our hold,” and so down we come, but not out of choice. Thus did Peter slip or halt, when he did Judaise out of too much compliance with the Jews; whom therefore Paul did rebuke and rest- Galatians 2:11; Galatians 2:14). 3. The third fall is much worse, “ a fall from the third loft,” whence, like Eutychus, they are “ taken up dead” for the present; but they come to themselves again. These are falls into grosser and more scandalous sins which do “ set the stacks or corn-fields of conscience on fire” ; whereas the other two forenamed, especially the former, are such as Tertullian calls “ of daily incursion.” These are very dangerous, and befall, not all professors: (they had not need!) but, now and then, one falls into some scandalous sin; but they not usually again into the same sin after sense and repentance of it. Thus fell David and Peter into foul flagitiousness, but not deliberately, nor totally, nor finally, nor reiteratedly. This fall is like the fall of the leaf in autumn. Life remains safe; a spring in due time follows, though many a cold blast first. 4. There is yet one worse fail than the former, incident to a child of God too--to be of the decaying kind, and to remit and lose his former fervour and liveliness. And it may be he never comes (as the second temple) up to the former pitch and glory (Ezra 3:12). Thus Solomon’ s zeal and love were abated in his old age. This is like the fall of the hair in aged persons. Life yet remains; but strength, native beat, and radical moistness decay, and the hair never grows alike thick again. II. THE FOUR FALLS OF THE . 1. The first whereof is a final fall, but not a total at first, but insensible, by degrees, “ gradually and without perceiving it,” grow worse and worse; as the thorny ground, choked with cares, or drowned with the pleasures of the world. 2. Some fall totally and finally, but not premeditately and voluntarily at first; but are driven back by the lion of persecution, and tribulation in the way, and they retreat (Mark 4:17; 1 Chronicles 28:9). This is like the fall of Sisera at the feet of Jael (Judges 5:27). 3. Some more fearfully, totally, finally, voluntarily, deliberately, but not yet maliciously. Thus Demas is supposed to fall, who, of a forward disciple or teacher, is said to have become after an idol priest at Thessalonica. Thus fell Saul (1 Samuel 16:14). 4. The fourth and last fall follows, which is like the opening of the fourth seal, and the fourth horse appears (Revelation 6:8): when men fall totally, finally, voluntarily, and maliciously. Thus Simon Magus, Julian the apostate, Hymenaeus, and Alexander, whose names are in God’ s black book. Here the gulf is fixed, and there is “ no retracing of the steps” hence. These are not to be renewed by repentance. This fall is like that of Jericho’ s walls: they fell down flat with a curse annexed (Joshua 6:26); or as Babylon’ s walls, with a vengeance (Jeremiah 51:53-58); both without hope of repairing: or like the fall of Lucifer the first apostate, without offer, or hope of offer, of grace any more for ever: or like the fall of Judas, who, “ fading headlong, burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed Acts 1:18). III. THE MIXED FALL. There is also another kind of fall, of a mixed or middle nature; and to which side of the two (godly or reprobate) I should cast it, is not so easy to determine. Relapses into sin are like relapses into a disease after hopes and beginning of recovery. 1. This informs us that possible it is for men (yea, too ordinary) to fall from grace. We wonder not to see a house built on the send to fall, or seed not having root wither, or trees in the parched wilderness decay (Jeremiah 17:6), or meteors vanish, or blazing stars fall, or clouds without rain blown about, or wells without springs dried up. So, for hypocrites to prove apostates is no strange thing, and utterly to fall away. 2. Even godly and gracious persons are subject to fall, and therefore must not be secure: they must “ work out their salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) They are bidden to “ fear lest they should fall short” (Hebrews 4:1): “ stand fast” (1 Corinthians 16:13): “ take heed lest they fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12): “ look diligently lest any fail of,” or “ fall from” (so is the other reading) “ the grace of God” Hebrews 12:15): “ take the whole armour of God, that they may he able to stand” (Ephesians 6:13). 3. Yet a truly regenerate soul, a plant of God s planting by the waterside, a plant or graft grafted into Christ, and rooted in Christ, can never fall away totally or finally: Peter could not, when Christ prayed for him: the elect cannot (Matthew 24:24). 1. This text is thunder and lightning against apostales. Awake, you drowsy professors! There is no sin like apostasy: adulteries, manslaughter, theft, idolatries, &c., nothing to this. 2. This speaks terror to professors fallen, or lying in scandalous sins.--You cannot sin at so easy a rate as others. You know your Master’ s will, and do it not, therefore ye “ shall be beaten with more stripes” (Luke 11:47). You are as a city set on a hill. Your fault cannot be hid, no more than an eclipse of the sun. 3. Terror to such as, after conviction and engagements under affliction and distress, after some prayers, vows, and a begun or resolved reformation, return to former courses.--As they, after what they promised in their distress, returned when delivered, and started aside like a broken bow Jeremiah 34:15-16). The new broom of affliction swept the house clean for the present; but afterwards the unclean spirit returns, and this washed sow is wallowing in the mire again. 4. Terror to such as lapse and relapse into the same sin again.--As Pharaoh, Jeroboam, and those antichristian brood which repented not Revelation 9:20-21). Notwithstanding all judgments, convictions, confessions, promises, they go from evil to worse, from affliction to sin; from sin to duty, and from duty to sin; repent and sin, sin and repent Jeremiah 9:3); and from repenting of sin in distress, go to repent of their repentance when delivered. Discrimination. 1. There are some who have fallen into foul sins; and they think their case desperate, because of the greatness of their sins. But their sin is not the sin against the Holy Ghost, because not committed after light, taste, partaking of the Holy Ghost. &c., but in the days of their ignorance, as Paul mice. Some fall foully after conversion, as Peter, but not deliberately, maliciously; and both these may be the spots of children: they see “ the plague” in their heart (1 Kings 8:38), feel the smart. These have foul scabs; hut they go to Jordan and wash, go to “ the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness” ; and then “ though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be as white as wool” Isaiah 1:18). 2. There be some relapses through human infirmity, which are truly bewailed. This is not the sin against the Holy Ghost neither. 3. But there are others that make a trade of sin, “ drink up iniquity like water,” that “ add drunkenness to thirst,” and fall and rise, and rise and fall: they lapse and relapse, and slide away as water Shall I say such shall have peace? Not What peace to such so long as their sins remain? I shall, to conclude, give a few short directions, to prevent falls and relapses, but cannot now enlarge upon them. 1. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation (Matthew 26:41).--Watch in prayer, watch after, watch when alone, watch when incompany, especially against ill company and all occasions of sin. 2. Keep conscience lender, and shun the first motions and occasions of sin.--“ If thou find thyself given to appetite, put a knife to thy throat” , is thewise man’ s counsel; if to wine, “ hook not on the glass” ; if to wantonness, “ come not near her corner.” 3. Take heed Of having slight thoughts of sin.--As to say, “ As long as it is no worse” ; “ It is the first time” ; “ It is but now and then a great chance, when I meet with such company” ; and many have such foolish pleas, and so play at the mouth of the cockatrice’ s den till they are stung to death. 4. Take heed of having light thoughts of God’ s mercy.--“ When sin abounds, grace superabounds,” &c. The Lord saith, He “ will not spare” such, nor be merciful to them. 5. Take heed of reasoning from God’ s temporal forbearance, to eternal forgiveness. 6. Take heed of presuming of thy own strength: “ I can, and I mean to repent; I can when I will, and I will when time serves. I trust I am not so bad, that God hath not given me over. Many have gone further than I: why may I not repent at my last hour?” 7. Take heed of a mock repentance, saying, “ I cry God-mercy, God forgive met I sin daily, and repent daily. When I have sworn or been drunk, I am heartily sorry. Is not this repentance?” I answer, No! Repentance is quite another thing. “ The burnt child,” we say, “ dreads the fire.” (John Sheffield, M. A.) The terrible hypothesis; or, the irrecoverable fall I. IS A OF DIVINE . 1. It is an idea. 2. It is a feeling. 3. It is a power. II. FROM IS AN IMMENSE SIN. 1. The falling away here mentioned is that of total apostasy. 2. The apostasy here spoken of is stated purely as an hypothesis. 3. Although the apostasy is spoken of only as hypothetical, it is, nevertheless, possible. The man who parts with Christ through the force of old prejudices, is the Caiaphas of the age; he who parts with Him for money, is the Judas; he who parts with Him for popular favour, is the Pilate. The tragedy of Golgatha has many actors; every generation every day reiterates these multiplied crucifixions. III. THE SIN OF SUCH AN WOULD ENTAIL THE MOST RESULTS. 1. The lamentable results of this sin would be irremediable. (1) Their first repentance could only have been produced by the whole force of the moral considerations contained in the gospel. (2) The supposed apostates have triumphed over the whole force of the most powerful considerations that can ever be addressed to them. 2. The lamentable results of this crime are consonant with character. Their doom answers to their state. 3. The lamentable results of this crime are terribly awful The conscience in flames! 4. The lamentable results of this crime are ever just at hand. “ Nigh unto cursing.” (Homilist.) Indefinite renewal impossible The impossibility here asserted consists not in a single repentance, but in the indefinite renewal of the first vivid life of the Spirit in the case of Christians who are meanwhile continually crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh: the spiritual impressions that were wrought once for all at their conversion must of necessity be weakened by repetition. The passage, as it stands in the text, is in thorough harmony with the previous context, which maintains the need for progressive teaching as the child grows into the man in Christ and protests against the continual reiteration of truths which have lost their freshness; and with the subsequent context, which condemns spiritual barrenness under the figure of sterile soil which, season after season, in spite of fertilising rain and human tillage, produces only thorns and thistles. (F. Rendall, M. A.) Final perseverance If Christians can fall away, and cease to be Christians, they cannot be renewed again to repentance. “ But,” says one, “ you say they cannot fall away.” What in the use of putting this “ if “ in, like a bugbear to frighten children. If God has put it in, He has put it in for wise reasons. Let me show you why. 1. First, it is put in to keep thee from falling away. God preserves His children from falling away; but He keeps them by the use of means; and one of these is, the terrors of the law, showing them what would happen if they were to fall away. There is a deep precipice: what is the best way to keep any one from going down there? Why, to tell him that if he did he would inevitably be dashed to pieces. In some old castle there is a deep cellar, where there is a vast amount of fixed air and gas, which would kill anybody who went down. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 6:7-8 The earth which drinketh in the rain Spiritual realities in material emblems Nature is a parable. The seen adumbrates the unseen. Here we have the soul, truth, God, and character in emblem. I. THE SOUL. 1. Contains in itself the germs of all that it will ever manifest. 2. Only develops those germs as it turns itself towards the sun. II. TRUTH. 1. Like rain in variety. 2. Like rain in origin. 3. Like rain in preciousness. Congenial. Fertilising. III. God. The great Husbandman of souls. 1. Prepares soil. 2. Deposits seed. 3. Supplies cultivating influences. IV. . The fruit of a man’ s life. As gardens, landscapes, forests, grow out of the earth, moral character grows out of conduct. (Homilist.) The dispensation of the gospel word I. THE MINUS OF ALL MEN BY NATURE ARE AND EQUALLY BARREN WITH RESPECT TO FRUITS OF MEET FOR AND UNTO GOD. They are all as the earth under the curse. There is a natural difference among men as to their intellectual abilities. But as to the fruits of spiritual holiness, all men by nature are alike. For our nature, as unto a principle of living unto God is equally corrupted in all. Something is wanting, something must he done to this barren earth, to make it fruitful And this is done by rain. And that is described by 1. Its communication or application unto the earth--it fails upon it. 2. An especial adjunct thereof in its frequency-it falls often on it. 3. By that reception which the earth is naturally fitted and suited to give unto it--it drinketh it in. 1. The thing itself is rain. It is the administration of the Word that is intended. And in other places the doctrine of the Scripture is frequently compared unto rain and watering (Deuteronomy 32:2; Zechariah 14:17). This is that whereby God watereth the barren souls of men, that whereby He communicates unto them all things that may enable them to be fruitful. 2. This rain is said to fall often on the earth. And this may be considered either with respect to the especial concern of these Hebrews or unto the ordinary dispensation of the gospel. In the first way it expresseth the frequent addresses made unto the Jews, in the ministry of the Word, for their recovery from those ways of ruin wherein they were engaged. And so it may include the ministry of the prophets, with the close put unto it by that of Christ Himself. Take it in the latter way for the dispensation of the Word in general, and the manner of it, with frequency and urgency, is included in this expression. Where the Lord Christ sends the gospel to be preached, it is His will that it should be so, instantly, in season and out of season, that it may come as abundant showers of rain on the earth. 3. This rain is said to be drunk in--the earth drinketh in the rain. There is no more intended in this expression but the outward hearing of the Word, a naked assent to it. For it is ascribed unto them who continue utterly barren, who are therefore left unto destruction. But as it is the natural property of the earth to receive in the water that is poured on it, so men do in some sense drink in the doctrine of the gospel when the natural faculties of their souls assent unto it, though it works not upon them, though it produces no effects in them. II. THE OF THE WORD OF THE GOSPEL UNTO MEN IS AN EFFECT OF THE POWER AND OF GOD, AS IS THE GIVING OF RAIN UNTO THE EARTH. He sendeth His Word unto one people and not to another, to one city and not to another, at one time and not at another, and these are those matters of His whereof He giveth no account. 1. The principal end which He designeth in His disposal of the dispensation of the gospel in that great variety wherein we do behold it is the conversion, edifications, and salvation of His elect. This is that which He aimeth to accomplish thereby, and therefore His will and purpose herein is that which gives rule and measure unto the actings of His providence concerning it. 2. He doth, according to His sovereign pleasure, call and send persons to the preaching of it to those to whom He will grant the privilege thereof. (1) By endowing them with spiritual gifts, enabling them unto that work and duty. The gospel is the ministration of the Spirit; nor is it to be administered but by virtue of the gifts of the Spirit. (2) This communication of gifts unto men is ordinarily accompanied with a powerful inclination of the minds of men to undertake the work against those discouragements which present themselves unto them in their undertaking, III. GOD SO ORDERED THINGS IN HIS THAT THE GOSPEL SHALL BE SENT UNTO, AND IN THE OF IT SHALL FIND INTO, WHAT PLACES, AND AT WHAT TIMES, SEEMS GOOD UNTO HIMSELF, EVEN AS LIE ORDERS THE RAIN TO FALL ON ONE PLACE AND NOT ON ANOTHER. IV. IT IS THE DUTY OF THOSE UNTO WHOM THE OF THE WORD IS OF GOD TO BE , , INSTANT IN THEIR WORK, THAT THEIR MAY, AS IT WERE, DROP AND DISTIL UPON THEIR HEARERS THAT THE RAIN MAY FALL OFTEN ON THE EARTH. So hath God provided that “ the ridges of it may be watered abundantly, to make it soft (or dissolve it) with showers, and so He blesseth the springing thereof” (Psalms 65:10). V. UNTO THE WORD , HEARING OF IT WITH SOME , AND GIVING OF IT SOME KIND OF , MADE NO GREAT AMONG MEN, FOR THIS IS COMMON UNTO THEM WHO NEVER BECOME . VI. GOD IS PLEASED TO MUCH TOWARDS THOSE TO WHOM HE ONCE GRANTS THE MERCY AND THE OF HIS WORD. He doth not presently proceed against them far and on account of their barrenness, but stays until the rain hath often fallen on the ground. But there is an appointed season and period of time, beyond which He will not wait for them any more. VII. WHERE GOD GRANTS MEANS, THERE HE EXPECTS FRUIT. Few men consider what is the state of things with them whilst the gospel is preached to them. Some utterly disregard it any farther than as it is suited to their carnal interests and advantages. His business by it is to make men holy, humble, self-denying, righteous, useful, upright, pure in heart and life, to abound in good works, or to be like Himself in all things. VIII. DUTIES OF GOSPEL ARE FRUITS MEET FOR GOD, THINGS THAT HAVE A PROPER AND UNTO HIS GLORY. As the precious fruits of the earth which the husbandman waiteth for are meet for his use, that is, such as supply his wants, satisfy his occasions, answer his labour, nourish and enrich him; so do these duties of gospel obedience answer all the ends of God’ s glory which He hath designed unto it in the world. “ Hereby,” saith our Saviour, “ is My Father glorified, if ye bring forth much fruit.” IX. THERE ARE ANY SINCERE FRUITS OF FAITH AND FOUND IN THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF , GOD ACCEPTS AND THEM. Nothing is so small but that, if it be sincere, He will accept; and nothing so great but He hath an overflowing reward for it. (John Owen, D. D.) Moral village The apostle is showing the effect of character on our power to understand truth. Neither soil is barren. Both lands drink in the rain that often comes upon them. But the fatness of the one field brings forth thorns and thistles, and this can only mean that the man’ s vigour of soul is itself an occasion of moral evil. The richness of the other land produces plants fit for use by men, who are the sole reason for its tillage. This, again, must mean that, in the case of some men, God blesses that natural strength which itself is neither good nor evil, and it becomes a source of goodness. We come now to the result in each case. The soil that brings forth useful herbs has its share of the Creator’ s first blessing. What the blessing consists in we are not here told, and it is not necessary to pursue this side of the illustration further. Bat the other soil, which gives its natural strength to the production of noxious weeds, falls under the Creator’ s primal curse and is nigh unto burning. The point of the parable evidently is that God blesses the one, that God destroys the other. In both cases the apostle recognises the Divine action, carrying into effect a Divine threat and a Divine promise. I. IN THE RAIN THAT OFTEN COMES UPON THE LAND TO BEING ONCE , tasting of the heavenly gift, being made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasting the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come. II. THE RESULT OF NOT FORTH ANY USEFUL HERBS TO FALLING AWAY. God has bestowed His gift of enlightenment, but there is no response of heart and will. The soul does not lay hold, but drifts away. III. THE RESULT OF BEARING THORNS AND TO TO THE SON OF GOD AFRESH AND PUTTING HIM TO AN OPEN SHAME. IV. To be nigh unto a curse and to be given in the end to be burned TO THE OF RENEWAL. God renders men incapable of repentance, not because they have fallen away once or more than once, but because they scoff at the Son, through whom God has spoken unto us. The terrible impossibility of renewal here threatened applies, not to apostasy (as the early Church maintained), nor to the lapsed (as the Novatianists held), but to apostasy combined with a cynical, scoffing temper that persists in treading the Son of God under foot. It hardens the heart, because God is jealous of His Son’ s honour, and punishes the scoffer with the utter destruction of the spiritual faculty and with absolute inability to recover it. This is not the mere force of habit. It is God’ s retribution, and the apostle mentions it here because the text of the whole Epistle is that God has spoken unto us in His Son. (T. C.Edwards, D. D.) A Divine herbal; or, garden of graces Here be two kinds, a good and a bad soil; the one a garden, the other a desert: the former an enclosure of sweet herbs, excellent graces; the latter a wild forest of briers and thorns. For the better ground we will consider 1. The operative means or working cause of the fertility, “ The rain that cometh often upon it.” 2. The thankful returning of expected fruit, “ It bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed.” 3. The reward of mercy, “ It receiveth blessing from God.” All is an allegory. I. The earth is MAN. II. The rain, God’ s WORD. III. The herbs are GRACES. And IV. The blessing is A SWEET OF MERCY. I. The earth is the best ground that lies betwixt heaven and earth, man; the noblest part of this world; the worthiest creature; the Creator’ s image. The blessed Deity (which hath in it a trinity of most equal and eternal Persons) is the first and best of all beings; the holy angels next; man next them. Let not all this make man proud. Even this word earth, though here used in a spiritual sense, puts him in mind that this excellent man is a mortal creature. Therefore I will say from the prophet, “ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord” (Jeremiah 22:29). Bestow not too much pains inadorning this perishable earth, thy flesh: the earth thou must be careful of, and which God here waters from heaven with His holy dews, is thy heart, thy conscience. I could willingly step out a little to chide those that, neglecting God’ s earth, the soul, fall to trimming with a curious superstition the earth’ s earth, clay and loam: a body of corruption painted till it shine like a lily; rottenness hid under golden leaves. But the earth here meant is a divine, spiritual, immortal nature--called earth by a metaphor--incapable of suffering terrene fragility. This is God’ s earth, and that in a high and mystical sense, though proper enough. Indeed, “ The earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof,” saith the Psalmist. But He hath not such respect to the earth He made, as to this earth for whom He made it. This is earth that He hath sealed and sanctified for Himself, by setting His stamp upon it. Now, the good man’ s heart is compared to earth for divers reasons. 1. For humility. The earth is the lowest of all elements, and the centre of the world. 2. For patience. The earth is called terra, quia teritur; and this is the natural earth. For they distinguish it into three sorts: terra quam terimus; terra quam gerimus; terra quam quaerimus, which is the glorious land of promise. That earth is cut and wounded with culters and shares, yet is patient to suffer it, and returns fruits to those that ploughed it. The good heart is thus rent with vexations and broken with sorrows, yet endureth all with a magnanimous patience, assured of that victory which comes by suffering, Neither is this all: it returns mercy for injury, prayers for persecutions, and blesseth them that cursed it. 3. For faithful constancy. The earth is called solum, because it stands alone, depending on nothing bat the Maker’ s hand: “ One generation passeth away, and another generation comeht; but the earth abideth for ever” Ecclesiastes 1:4). She often changeth her burden, without any sensible mutation of herself: “ Thy faithfulness is to all generations; Thou hast established the earth, and it standeth” (Psalms 119:90). Such a constant solidity is in the faithful heart, that should it thunder bulls from Rome, and bolts from Rome, impavidum ferient ruinae. So the first terror hath moved the ungodly, not removed them; they return to themselves, and rest in a resolved peace. Lord, do what Thou wilt: “ if Thou kill me, I will trust in Thee.” Let us hear it from him that had it from the Lord: “ Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established,” &c. (Psalms 112:6-8). Oh sweet description of a constant soul! 4. For charity. The earth brings forth food for all creatures that live on it. Green herb for the cattle; oil and wine for man. A good man is so full of charity, he relieves all, without improvidence to himself. He gives plentifully, that all may have some; not indiscreetly, that some have all. 5. For riches. The earth is but poor without: the surface of it, especially when squalid winter hath bemired it, seems poor and barren; but within it is full of rich mines, ores of gold, and quarries of precious minerals. The sanctified heart may seem poor to the world’ s eye, which only beholds the husk, and thinks there is no treasure in the cabinet, because it is covered with leather. But within he is full of golden mines and rich ores, the invisible graces of faith, fear, love, hope, patience, holiness; sweeter than the spices of the East Indies, and richer than the gold of the West. 6. Lastly, for fertility. The earth is fruitful: when the stars have given influence, the clouds showered down seasonable dews, and the sun bestowed his kindly heat, lo, the thankful earth returns fruits, and that in abundance. The Christian soul, having received such holy operations, inspirations, and sanctifying motions from above, is never found without a grateful fertility. Yea, as the earth to man, so man to God, returns a blessed usury: ten for one; nay, sometimes thirty, sometimes sixty, sometimes a hundred-fold. II. THE CAUSE THAT WORKETH THE GOOD EARTH TO THIS IS A “ rain that falleth upon it” ; and the earth doth “ drink it up.” Wherein is observable that the rain doth come, that it is welcome; God sends it plenteously, and man entertains it lovingly. 1. God’ s Word is often compared to rain or dew. (1) It is the property of rain to cool heat. The burning heat of sin in us, and of God’ s anger for sin against us, is quenched by the gospel. It cools our intemperate heat of malice, anger, ambition, avarice, lust, which are burning sins. (2) Another effect of rain is thirst quenched. The Christian soul “ thirsts after righteousness,” is dry at heart till he can have the gospel: a shower of this mercy from heaven quencheth his thirst; he is satisfied (John 4:14). (3) Rain doth allay the winds. When the potentates of the world storm against us, God quiets all our fears, secures us from all their terrors by a gracious rain, drops of mercy in the never-failing promises of the gospel. (4) Rain hath a powerful efficacy to cleanse the air. We know that too often filthy fumes of heresies surge up in a land, that the soul of faith is almost stifled, and the uncleanness of corrupt doctrine gets a predominant place: the Lord then drops His Word from heaven; the pure rain of His holy gospel cleanseth away this putrefaction, and gives new life to the almost-smothered truth. (5) Rain hath yet another working: to mollify a hard matter. The parched and heat-hardened earth is made soft by the dews of heaven. Oh, how hard and obdurate is the heart of man till this rain falls on it! (6) Lastly, rain is one principal subordinate cause that all things fructify. This holy dew is the operative means, next to the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, that the souls of Christians should bring forth the fruits of faith and obedience. I know God can save without it: we dispute not of His power, but of His work of ordinary, not extraordinary, operations. God usually worketh this in our hearts by His Word. 2. Thus far the matter; the manner is (1) “ It cometh.” (2) “ Often.” (3) “ Upon it.” (1) “ It cometh.” It is not forced, nor fetched, but comes of His own mere mercy whose it is (James 1:17). They that want it have no merit of congruity to draw it to them; they that have it have no merit of condignity to keep it with them. It is the mercy and gratuital favour of God that this gospel cometh to us. (2) “ Often.” God hath respect to our infirmities, and sends us a plentiful rain. One shower will not make us fruitful; it must come “ oft upon us.” The rain dints the hard stone, not by violence, but by oft-falling drops. Line must be added to line; “ here a little, and there a little.” God could pour a whole flood on us at once. If much were poured at once, a great deal would fall besides, and be spilt. Like children, we must be fed by spoonfuls, according to the capacity of our weak natures. It is not an abundant rain falling at once that make the plants grow, but kindly and frequent showers. When Christ spake of the “ bread of life,” the transported disciples beseech Him, Lord, evermore give us this “ Lord, evermore give us this bread” John 6:34). So pray we: Lord evermore shower down upon us this rain! (3) “ Upon it.” God so directs this dew of His word that it shall fall on our hearts, not besides. A good shower may come on the earth, yet if a man house himself, or be shrouded under a thick bush, or burrowed in the ground, he will be dry still. God sends down His rain: one houseth himself in the darkness of security; another sits dallying with the delights of lust under e green bush; a third is burrowed in the ground, entrenching himself in the quest of riches. Alas, how should the dew of grace fall upon these! Thou wouldest not shelter the ground from the clouds, lest it grow barren: oh, then, keep not thy soul from the rain of heaven! III. You have heard how the rain is come; now hear HOW IT IS MADE WELCOME. The good ground drinks it; nay, drinks it in. The comparison stands thus: the thirsty land drinks up the rain greedily which the clouds pour upon it. You would wonder what becomes of it; you may find it in your fruits. When your vines hang full of clusters, your gardens stand thick with flowers, your meadows with grass, your fields with corn, you will say the earth hath been beholden to the heaven. That hath rained moisture, this hath drunk it in; we see it in our fruits. There is a blessed sort of drinkers which drink in this sweet rain of grace and mercy. They do not only taste it; so do the wicked: “ They have tasted of the heavenly gift; they have tasted of the good Word of God, and of the powers of the world to come” (verse 4). Nor drink it only to their throats, as carnal politicians and formal professors do. It shall never come into their stomachs, never near their hearts. But these drink it in, digest it in their consciences, take liberal draughts of it, and do indeed drink healths thereof. This is a hearty draught of the waters of life; the deeper the sweeter. The vessel of our heart being once thus filled with grace shall hereafter be replenished with glory. (T. Adams.) The gospel rain The blessing that good hearers receive is a further increase of all graces in this life: “ To him that hath shall be given,” &c. Matthew 13:8); and eternal blessedness in the life to come. Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it. 1. All people are as the ground that stand in need of the rain of the Word of God. The earth must have rain all the year long, more or less, else it drieth and withereth away; so do we if we want the rain of the Word. In what a miserable case were they in Israel when there fell no rain for the space of three years and six months; and in what a pitiful taking are those towns and countries, though they feel it not, which want the rain of the Word of God? You that have it be thankful to God for it, and learn to esteem more highly of this blessing than ye do. If it rain on your wheat and barley in the due time of the year, ye praise God for it; and will ye riot bless Him for the heavenly rain that falleth on yourselves to make you fruitful to eternal life. 2. As this rain by the goodness of God falls on you, so let it not pass by you as water running from the rocks and stones, but drink it in, that it may cause you to increase in all virtue. If your hearts be as stone, hardened in sin, though ye have never such plenty of this rain, it will do you no good; therefore drink in the rain of the Word of God that falls on you at every sermon; let not the profitable instructions pans from you. If it be not a ground rain that goes into the bowels of the earth, it is to small purpose; and if the rain of the Word do not sink into the bottom of your hearts, if it go no further than your ears, you shall reap small benefit by it; therefore drink in this rain, that it may be fruitful to you all. 3. None can well drink but they that thirst after drink; if the ground be not thirsty it will not drink in the rain. If it be full already, the rain lieth aloft, and makes ponds that are noisome to men. Therefore bring thirsting souls to every sermon, when this rain is poured down on you, that ye may drink it in to the salvation of you all. 4. The more rain the ground hath, the more fruit it ought to yield; the oftener that any people hath had the rain of the Word of God falling on them, the more plentiful should they be in good works: “ To whom much is given, of them much shall be required.” You in this town have had much rain, therefore much is required of you. 5. As it hath the rain often, so it must bring forth fruit; the more dressing, the more fruit. As ye have this heavenly rain in most plentiful measure, so bring forth fruits answerable to it: leaves will not serve the turn. (W. Jones, D. D.) Bringeth forth hers The praise of fertility 1. “ It brings forth.” It is not barren, like a dead ground that yields neither herbs nor weeds. This is no idle heart that doth neither good nor harm. Here is no such stupid neutrality, nor infructuous deadness: “ It brings forth.” 2. They are not weeds it produceth, but “ herbs.” A man had as good do nothing as do naughty things. They that forbear idleness and fall to lewdness, mend the matter, as the devil, in the tale, mended his dame’ s leg: when he should have put it in joint, he broke it quite in pieces. It is not enough that this ground bring forth, but that it yield herbs. Of the two, the barren earth is not so evil as the wicked earth; that men pity, this they curse. “ It brings forth herbs.” 3. Neither is it a paucity of herbs this ground afforded, but an abundance; not one herb, but herbs; a plural and plentiful number. There is neither barrenness nor bareness in this ground; not no fruits, not few fruits, but many herbs. 4. Lastly, they are such herbs as are “ meet for the dresser” ; such as God expects of the garden, who planted it; such as he will accept, not in strict justice for their own worth, but in great mercy for Jesus Christ. “ Meet for them by whom it is dressed.” 1. Fertility: “ It brings forth.” Barrenness hath ever been held a curse, a reproach (Luke 1:25). When God will bring the gospel, and with it salvation to the Gentiles, He is said to take away their barrenness. So was it prophesied (Isaiah 54:1); so was it accomplished (Galatians 4:27). The primordial praise of this good ground is that it is not barren. This fertility in the Christian heart doth (1) Conclude thankfulness. (2) Exclude idleness. (a) For the former. God hath given him rain for this purpose, that he should bring forth fruit; if he should take the rain, and not answer the sender’ s hopes, he were unthankful. The good man considers the end why he received any blessing, and examines what God meant in conferring on him such a benefit. Hath God given him wisdom? Solomon hath taught him to “ let his fountains be dispersed abroad, and his rivers of waters in the streets” (Proverbs 5:16). As we must not be wise in ourselves, so nor only wise to ourselves. He that conceals his knowledge, cancels it, and shall at last turn fool. Do not enclose that for several which God hath meant common. The not employing will be the impairing of God’ s gifts. This is the fruit which the good ground must send forth, for all the seeds of grace sown in it. Neither doth this instruction bound itself with our spiritual, but extends also to our temporal gifts. Hast thou riches? When God scattered those blessings upon thee, in the seed-time of His bounty. He intended thou shouldst return Him a good crop at the ha-vest. Be thankful, then, in doing that with them for which God gave them. God meant them to promote and help forward thy journey to heaven; let them not retard thy course, or put thee quite out of the way. Be merciful, be charitable, be helpful. God did also mean that thyself should take comfort in these things. It is a part of that blessedness which the Psalmist promiseth to him that feareth the Lord: “ Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee” (Psalms 128:2). For God gave wine for this purpose, “ to make glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen his heart” Psalms 104:15). How doth man divert God’ s goodness, when he turns His blessing into a curse, and puts His flood creatures from their intended uses! (b) This good ground lies not dead and barren, nor returns all heaven’ s rain with a naked and neutral acceptation: it brings forth. Idleness doth neither get nor save; there is nothing more empty of good fruits, nor more abundantly pregnant with evil. That man doth ill that doth nothing, and he loseth whilst he gains not. Many beholding, with cowardly and carnal eyes, what a long and troublesome journey it is to heaven, sit them down and fall fast asleep. O barren ground! will ye bring forth nothing? Is difficulty made your hindrance, that should be a spur to your more eager contention? Know you not that the violent shall get the kingdom of heaven? If thy soul be watered with the dew of heaven, thou must needs bring forth. What? (2) “ Herbs.” There is fertility in goodness. The eldest daughter of idleness is to do nothing; the next-born to do something to no purpose. But the good man is not only doing, but well-doing (Matthew 24:46). This so consists in doing bonum and bene; as the former verse may seem to intimate. He “ gives them meat,” there He doth good; “ in due season,” there he doth it well. The forbearance of wickedness is not enough to acquit, the soul, but the performance of righteousness. The rich glutton is tormented in hell, not because he did hurt, but because he did not help, Lazarus. But if that ground be near unto cursing that brings not forth herbs, what shall we say to that which brings forth weeds? (3) Plenty--many herbs. The good ground is plentiful in fruits. It bears fruit, good fluff, much good fruit. Multiplicity of grace is requisite, though not perfection. What garden is only planted with one singular kind of herb? The Christian hath need of many graces, because he is t,, meet with many defects, to answer many temptations, to fight with many enemies (2 Peter 1:5). Happy then is that ground which abounds with good herbs; the fruits of faith, patience, content, charity! Not our riches, but our “ works shall follow us.” Goodness shall only give pulchrum sepulchrum; and as we use to stick dead bodies with herbs, so these herbs, our fruitful good works, shall adorn and beautify our memorials, when “ the name of the wicked shall rot?” (4) “ Meet for them by whom he is dressed.” The word “ by whom” may as well be translated “ for whom.” (a) By whom it is dressed. God is the Husbandman that dressed this ground, and causeth in it fertility. God begins the work; He makes the ground good, sanctifies the person. Here is gratia co-operans, God that begins, performs the work; He raineth upon, He dresseth the heart, and so causeth it to produce herbs. Here is gratia salvans, whereby He crowneth our will and work in the day of our Lord Jesus. “ It receiveth blessing from God.” The sap of grace which appears green and flourishing in the branches and fruit, comes from the root. God induceth the good to good by alacrity, not enforceth against their wills. God doth not work upon us as upon blocks and stones, in all and every respect passive; but converts our wills to will our own conversion. (b) Thus by whom; now tot whom. Meet for them who dressed it. And is it possible that man should produce herbs meet for the acceptation of God? Hath He not pure eyes, which see uncleanness and imperfection in all our works? Is there any man so happy as to be justified in His sight? No; but it pleaseth Him to look upon our works in the crystal glass, Christ; and because they are the effects of a true faith in Him, to esteem them meet. (T. Adams.) A contemplation of the herbs I. That the herbs of our graces may be meet for the dresser--contentful to God, who hath planted, watered, husbanded the garden of our hearts--we will require in them four virtues: 1. Odour. 2. Taste. 3. Ornament. 4. Medicinal virtue. 1. That they have a good odour. God is delighted with the smell of our graces (Son 6:2). The virtues of Christ are thus principally pleasant; and all our herbs only smell sweetly in His garden Son 1:3). This savour is sweetly acceptable in the nostrils of God (Psalms 45:8). It is His righteousness that gives all our herbs a good odour; and in Him it pleaseth God to judge our works sweet. The way to make our herbs smell sweetly is first to purge our garden of weeds. For if sin be fostered in our hearts, all our works will be abominated. God heareth not the prayers of the wicked (Leviticus 26:31). But being adopted by grace in Christ, and sanctified to holiness, our good works small sweetly (Philippians 4:18). It seems God highly esteems the herb charity in our gardens. He that serveth the Lord shall smell as Lebanon (Hosea 14:6-7). 2. That they taste well. Many a flower hath a sweet smell, but not so wholesome a taste. Your Pharisaical prayers and alms smelt sweetly in the vulgar nostrils; taste then, and they were but rue, or rather wormwood. Herbs have not only their savour, but their nutriment (Psalms 104:14). Herbs then are food, and have an alimental virtue. So we may both with the herbs of charity feed men’ s bodies, and with the herbs of piety feed their souls. If thou wouldest make Christ good cheer in the parlour of thy conscience, bring Him the herbs of obedience. Where spavour His Church is, there is He: exercise thy piety. Wheresoever His members are, there is He: exercise thy charity. 3. That they be fit to adorn. Herbs and flowers have not only their use in pleasing the nostrils and the palate, but the eye also. They give delight to all those three senses. Good works are the beauty of a house, and a better sight than fresh herbs strewed in the windows. Good works are the best ornaments, the most lasting monuments. They become the house wherein thy soul dwelleth, whilst it dwells there; and bless thy memory, when those two are parted. Every good heart that knew thee is thy tomb, and every tongue writes happy epitaphs on thy memorial. Thus height up your souls with a treasure of good works. 4. That they be medicinable, and serve not only as antidotes to prevent, but as medicaments to cure the soul’ s infirmities. The poor man’ s physic lies in his garden; the good soul can fetch an herb from his heart, of God’ s planting there, that can help him. Pliny writes of a certain herb, which he calls thelygonum; we in English, “ The grace of God.” A happy herb, and worthy to stand in the first place as chief of the garden. For it is the principal, and, as it were, the genus of all the rest. We may say of it, as some write of the carduus benedictus, or holy thistle, that it is herba omni morbo--an herb of such virtue that it can cure all diseases. This may heal a man who is otherwise nullis medicabilis herbis. Wretched men, that are without this herb, the grace of God, in their gardens! Hyssop and humility. Is a man tempted to pride--a, d that is a saucy sin, ever busy amonggood works, like a Judas among the apostles--let him look into his garden for hyssop, humility of spirit. Let him be taught by this herb to annihilate his own worth, and to cleave to the Rock whereout he grows, and whereof he is upholden, Jesus Christ. Or let him produce the camomile, which smells the sweeter the more it is trodden on. Humility is a gracious herb, and allays the wrath of God; whereas pride provokes it. But when dust and ashes humbles himself, and stands to his mercy, the wrath of God is soon appeased. This camomile or hyssop grows very low. Humbleness roots downward, yet no herb hath high branches. Bulapathurn, the herb patience.--Is a man, through multitudes of troubles, almost wrought to impatience, and to repine at the providence of God, that disposeth no more ease? Let him fetch an herb out of the garden to cure this malady--bulapathurn, the herb patience. The adamant serves not for all seas; but patience is good for all estates. Heart’ s-ease and spiritual joy.--Doth sorrow and anguish cast down a man’ s heart, and may he complain that his “ soul is disquieted within him” ? (Psalms 42:1-11.) Let him fetch an herb out of this garden, called heart’ s-ease, an inward joy which the Holy Ghost worketh in him. Though all “ the days of the afflicted be evil, yet a merry heart is a continual feast” (Proverbs 15:5). This is heaven upon earth, “ Peace of conscience and joy of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17). His conscience is assured of peace with God, of reconciliation in the blood of Jesus, and that his soul is wrapped up in the bundle of life. Balsamum, or faith.--Hath the heart got a green wound by committing some offence against God? for actual iniquity makes a gash in the soul. The good man runs for balsamum, and stancheth the blood--faith in the promises of Jesus Christ. He knows there is “ balm at Gilead, and there are physicians there, and therefore the health of his soul may easily be recovered” (Jeremiah 8:22). St. John’ s work, or charity.--Doth the world, through sweetness of gain that comes a little too fastupon a man, begin to carry away his heart to covetousness? Let him look in this garden for the herb called St. John’ s work, charity and brotherly love. It is called St. John’ s herb not improperly, for he spent a whole epistle in commending to us this grace, and often inculcated, “ Little children, love one another.” And he further teacheth that this love must be actual (1 John 3:17). Penny-royal and content.--Doth poverty fasten her sharp teeth in a man’ s sides, and cannot all his good industry keep want from his family? Let him come to this garden for a little penny-royal, content. This will teach him to think that God who feeds the ravens, and clothes the lilies, will not suffer him to lack food and raiment. Agnus castus and continence.--Doth the rebellious flesh, upon a little indulgence, grow wanton, and would concupiscence enkindle the fire of lust? The good soul hath in this garden an herb called agnus castus, the chaste herb, and good store of lettuce, which physicians say cool this natural intemperate heat. His agnus castus and lettuce are prayer and fasting. Barley-water or cool-anger.--Doth the heat of anger boil in a man’ s heart, and enrageth him to some violent and precipitate courses? Let him extract from this garden the juice of many cooling herbs, and among the rest a drink of barley-water--a tysan of meekness to cool this fire. He that hath proceeded to anger is a man; he that hath not proceeded to sinful, harmful anger is a Christian. Parsley or frugality.--Declines a man’ s estate in this world, as if his hand had scattered too lavishly, there is an herb in this garden; let him for a while feed on it--parsley, parsimony. Hereon he will abridge himself of some superfluities; and remember that moderate fare is better than a whole college of physicians. He will wear good clothes, and never better, knowing there is no degree beyond decency. The wise man knows it is better looking through a poor lattice-window than through an iron gate; and though he will lend what he may, he will not borrow till he must needs. Liver-wort, or peaceable love.--Is a man sick in his liver by accession of some distemperature? Doth his charity and love to some neighbours, for their malignancy against him, fail and faint in his heart? Then let him step to this garden for some jecuraria; we call it liver-wort. He asks of his heart for his old love, his wonted amity. Lily, or pureness of heart. Doth a man perceive his heart a little begilded with ostentation, and desires he to seem better than he is? And how easily is man won to answer his commenders’ speculation! Let him fetch the lily--pureness of heart--which is a herb of grace, growing in the humble valley of a meek spirit, yet is white and lovely, Enula campana, or obedience. Perhaps evil example hath suddenly, and without provided consideration, led a man into evil. Let him run to this garden for enula campana. This herb is that Christ enjoined us: “ Search the Scriptures’ ; add hereto the Word of the Lord. This shall give decision of all doubts, and teach thee what path to fly, what way to take. Heart-wort, or affiance in Gods promises. It may be sorrow of heart for sin hath cast a man down, and he is swallowed up of too much heaviness. There is a herb to comfort him called heart-wort, affiance in the merciful promises of God passed to him by word, oath, seal, scriptures, sacraments, and therefore infallible. Hyacinth, or following Christ. Say that the Christian hath met with some gilded pill of corruption, some poisonous doctrine, yet plausible to flesh and blood. Let him Search his garden for byacinth, or solsequium, turnsol, an herb treat duly and obediently follows the sun. Do thou follow the Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2), and let His bright beams guide thy course, who hath promised to teach all those that with a humble heart and earnest prayer seek it at His hands. Care-away. If worldly troubles come too fast upon a man, he hath an herb called care-away. Not that he bequeathes himself to a supine negligence, as if God would fill his house with provision, while he sits and sings care away; but as he is free from idleness, so also from distrust. He considers the ravens and lilies, and knows that the Lord is the “ Preserver of men “ as well as of fowls; that He respects man above those, and His own above other men. Therefore he throws all his cares upon God, as if they were too heavy a load for himself. Solicitous thoughtfulness can give him no butt, but this herb care away shall easily cure it. Holy thistle, or good resolution. Yield that he is pressed with injuries; as “ who will live godly in Christ, and shall not suffer persecution?” He is oppressed by force or fraud, might or subtlety, and cannot help himself. He hath a good herb in this garden, called carduus benedictus, holy thistle, a godly resolution, that through many miseries he must enter heaven. He rests himself on God, and rather wisheth his harmlessness should suffer than himself not to give passive and patient obedience to lawful authority (Daniel 3:17). There are many other herbs in this garden as if he be to deal with crafty adversaries, let him fetch some sage--honest policy--and such as may stand with an untrenched conscience. For Christ gave us this allowance, to be “ wise as serpents” ; though withal a condition that we be “ harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). II. It receiveth blessing from God. The reward gives a happy conclusion to this good ground. So it pleaseth the Lord to accept our labours that He will reward them, not after our own merit, for that is not an atom, but after His own mercy, which exceeds heaven and earth. Receive this blessing with a thankful heart; thou hast not earned it. “ It receiveth.” Such is the immense goodness of God that He will add grace to grace, and when He hath shown mercy He will show more mercy. As if He expected no other argument of future bounty but his former bounty. “ Blessing.” This word is of a great latitude. What good is there which will not be brought within this compass? This blessing bath a double extent. There is beatitudo viae and beatitude patriae1. A blessing of the way, and 2. A blessing of the country; one of grace, the other of glory. (1) The former is either outward or inward. (a) Outward (Psalms 132:15; Deuteronomy 28:4). Which things do often come to the godly even on earth, and that in abundance. For as all have not riches that exceedingly love them, so many have them that do not much care for them. (b) Inward. The godly on earth is, as it were, in the suburbs of heaven, whose “ kingdom consists not in meat and drink, but righteousness, peace of conscience, and joy of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17). Could his life be as full of sorrows as ever Lazarus was full of sores, yet he is blessed. The sunshine of mercy is still upon him, and the blessing of God makes him rich. (2) Thin blessing hath yet a further extent to the blessedness, of our country, when we shall hear, “ Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). No tongue can declare this blessing; happy heart that shall feel it! Wall, this is God’ s blessing, and He will give it to the good ground. Labour we then to be fruitful gardens, and to abound with gracious herbs, that God may in this world shower upon us the dews of His mercy, and after this life transplant us to His heavenly paradise. (T. Adams.) The diverse results of similar Christian privileges When we compare this parable with any of our Lord’ s there is a great falling off in point of felicity and instructiveness. One purpose it doubtless serves, to make clear the matter of fact, that the same Christian privileges and experiences may issue in widely different ultimate results. The soil is supposed in either case to be well watered, not only rained upon, but often saturated with water, having drunk up the blessing of the clouds, and moreover to be carefully tilled. Yet in one case it yields a useful crop, in the other only a useless crop of thorns and thistles. But why? On this important question the parable throws no light. The land which bears the useless crop is not a barren rock; for it drinks in the rain, and it is considered worth ploughing. Nay, it is doubtful if the case supposed in the second alternative can occur in the natural world. Was there ever a land well tilled and watered that produced nothing but thorns and thistles? The writer describes a case in the natural world which can hardly happen to represent a case which may happen in the spiritual world, that viz., of men whose hearts have been sown with the seed of truth and watered with the rain of grace becoming so utterly degenerate and reprobate, as in the end to produce nothing but the thorns and thistles of unbelief and ungodliness. Mixture of metaphor and literal sense is indeed manifest throughout, the phrases “ receiveth blessing,” “ reprobate” “ nigh to a curse,” “ whose end is unto burning,” expressing moral ideas rather than physical facts. This is particularly evident in the case of the last phrase. It plainly points to a judicial visitation of the severest kind, the appointed penalty of spiritual unfruitfulness. But in the natural sphere burning is remedial rather than punitive, to burn land which has become foul being a good method of restoring it to fertility. In yet another respect the comparison fails us. Supposing there were such a thing as burning unprofitable land by way of judicial visitation, as the land of Sodom was destroyed by fire and brimstone--an event which may have been present to the writer’ s thoughts--the fact might serve to symbolise the Divine judgment on apostasy. But the matter on which we most of all need light is the asserted impossibility of renewal. That the finally impenitent should be punished we understand, but what we want to know is, how men get into that state; what is the psychological history of irreconcilable apostasy? To refer to Divine agency in hardening human hearts does not help us, for God hardens by means naturally fitted and intended to soften and win. Neither can we take refuge in the supposition of insufficient initial grace, at least from the point of view of the writer of our Epistle: for he assumes that the fruitful and the unfruitful have been equally favoured. The rain falls not less liberally on the land that bears thorns and thistles than on the land that brings forth an abundant crop of grass or grain; and the rain represents the enlightenment, enjoyment, and power previously mentioned. In the parable of the sower the diversity in the results is traced to the nature of the soil. In each case the issue is exactly such as we should expect from the character of the ground. In the parable before us opposite results are supposed to be possible in the same soil. That is to say, the effect is conceived to depend on the will of each individual, on the use one makes of his privileges. The Hebrew Christians might have been teachers instead of childish learners, had they chosen to take the necessary pains; they might have been full-grown men, had they only properly exercised their spiritual senses in discerning between good and evil. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Ideal fruitfulness We know of certain church members who are so completely under the cold shade of the world that the half-dozen sour, dwarfish apples they yield are not worth any man’ s gathering. We know, too, of others so laden that you cannot touch the outermost limb without shaking down a golden pippin or a jargonelle. Such trees make a church or land beautiful. They are a joy to the pastor who walks through them. Every stooping bough and every purple cluster that hangs along the walls bespeaks the goodness of the soil, the moisture of the Spirit’ s dews, and the abundance of God’ s sunshine. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) That which beareth thorns and briers is rejectedThe bad heart 1. The thing signified in general is sinful man, and especially his heart. 2. The second protasis or proposition is concerning bad ground, which (1) Appears to be bad by bearing thorns and briers. (2) Is used as bad ground. (a) By being rejected. (b) Nigh unto cursing. (c) In the end burned. This ground is a bad heart, which is manifested by the fruits, which are words and deeds, tending to the dishonour of God, and the hurt of man. And this sin is so much the greater because of the means of grace and workings of the Spirit over and above the light of nature, which God hath graciously afforded them. The punishment of this barrenness in all fruitfulness in sin followeth. (G. Lawson.) The forest of thorns 1. The different word the apostle useth. For the good earth, he says, it is τίκτουσαβοτάνην, bringing forth herbs. For the evil it is ἐκφέρουσα, bearing, not bringing forth. Our proverb says, An evil weed grows apace. Herbs grow not without preparing the ground, planting, and watering them by seasonable dews and diligence. Weeds are common; it is hard to set the foot besides them. The basest things are ever most plentiful. Man, by a proclivity of his own natural inclination, is apt to produce thorns and briers; but ere he can bring forth herbs, graces, God must take pains with him. No husbandman so labours his ground as God doth our hearts. Happy earth, that yields Him an expected harvest I But that which beareth thorns is near to be cursed and burned. 2. Observe that a wicked man is compared to bad earth, and that fitly, in five respects: (1) For baseness. The earth is the heaviest of all elements, and doth naturally sink downwards, as if it had no rest but in the centre, which itself is. A wicked man is base-minded, and sinks with a dull and ponderous declination, not regarding the things above, but those below. All his affections have a low object, not of humility, but base dejection. His hope, desire, love, joy, are set on these inferior things. (2) For coldness. Experience teacheth that the earth is cold, and coldness is a natural quality pertaining to it, though accidentally there be bred in it fiery vapours. The wicked man hath a cold heart, frozen up in the dregs of iniquity, though there be an unnatural heat sometimes flaming in him, the fire of lust and malice tormenting his bowels; but this is no kindly heat to warm his conscience. That is derived from the fire of the temple, that never goes out, and only given by Jesus Christ, that “ baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” (3) For foulness. (4) For obscurity and darkness. The earth is called a “ place of black darkness, the land of forgetfulness.” (5) The main resemblance between an evil ground and worse man consists in the ill fruits that they both produce--briers and thorns, and such not only unhelpful, but hurtful vices. This is the principal analogy which our apostle intends, the pith and marrow of this comparison. But before we come to a particular survey of this wood, some observable doctrines fall profitable to our instruction. (a) The Word of God will work some way. It falls not upon any ground in vain; but will produce herbs or weeds. It is such physic as will either cure or kill. (b) That thorns are produced, the fault is not in the good rain, but the ill ground. “ What could I,” saith God, “ have done more to My vineyard?” (Isaiah 5:4). Let not the mercy of God be blamed for this man’ s misery. God hath done enough to save him. (c) The ground is very unthankful which answers the kindness of heaven in raining on it, with briers and thorns. Wretched man, that receives so blessed dews from the fountain of mercy, and returns an ungrateful wickedness! Unthankful it is, as failing in both those essential parts of gratitude, acknowledging and requiting a benefit, and so guilty both of falsehood and injustice. (d) Wicked men prove commonly so much the worse as they might have been better, and divert the means of their conversion to their confusion. The more rain of the gospel they receive, the more abundantly they thrust forth the thorns of iniquities. The roots of these briers are earthed in their hearts, and do boil out at the warm dews of the Word. It fares with them as with a man of a surfeited stomach--the more good meat he eats the more he increaseth his corruption. The former crudities undigested, unegested, having the greater force, turn the good nutriment into themselves. It now remains to examine more narrowly the nature of the sins these ungodly hearts produce. They are called thorns and briers. Now let us consider what resemblances may be found betwixt those natural and these allegorical thorns and briers. 1. Where is abundance of thorns, there is most commonly a barren ground. For they hinder the happy influence of the heavens, the kindly heat of the sun, the dews of the clouds, and all those working causes of fertility. The very company of the wicked is harmful, for they are as thorns to stifle any goodness. “ The companion of fools shall be afflicted,” saith Solomon. 2. Thorns and briers grow most commonly on heaps, and seldom are found single, or destitute of company of their own kind; and though they be troublesomely harmful to other trees, yet they fold and embrace one another without hurt. It is so usually seen that wicked men hold together, and sins grow in united clusters. There is a combination of the ungodly, even so far as to the very participation of their estates (Proverbs 1:14). They are entangled in mutual amity, like beds of eels, nothing but thunder can break their knots. 3. Thorns and briers, by reason of their thickness and sharpness, are refuges for serpents, snakes, adders, and such other venomous beasts. Where the ungodly have a strong part, oppression, rapine, robbery, murder, and all those fatal serpents, are fostered. 4. Neither do the wicked, only with their thorns and briers, hinder others’ passage, but even their own. No marvel if it be so difficult for an ungodly man to get to heaven, for he hedgeth up his own way. 5. Sins are fitly compared to thorns and briers, for their wounding, pricking, and such harmful offences. Therefore they are called tribuli, a tribulando, from their vexing, oppression, and tribulation they give those that touch them. These briers and thorns have such pricking and wounding effects in regard of three objects, whom they strike. For sins are like thorns 1. To men. 2. To Christ. 3. To the own consciences of the committers. (1) What say you to the usurer? Is he not a thorn amongst you? (2) What do you think of adultery? Is it not a thorn? Yes, a sharp thorn, wounding the purse, envenoming the body, condemning the soul. The ground that bears it is lust. (3) There are furious malecontents among us, a contemptible generation of thorns, that, because their hands are pinioned, prick only with their tongues. They are ever whining, and upon the least cause filling the world with importunate complaints. (4)There are briers, too, growing near the Church--too near it. (T. Adams.) Barren soil Some observe that the most barren grounds are nearest to the richest mines. It is too often true in a spiritual sense that those whom God hath made the most fruitful in estates are most barren in good works. (T. Seeker.) Whose end is to be burnedThe end of thorns 1. That we labour our hearts betimes to a sensibleness of these thorns. A thorn swallowed into the flesh, if it be not looked to, rankles. Sin without repentance will fester in the soul, and is so much more perilous as it is less felt. 2. After sense of the smart, will follow a desire of remedy. The throbbing conscience would be at ease, and freed from the thorn that vexeth it. Take we heed that we despise not this medicine. The law was so far from drawing out these thorns, that it would drive them in further, and cause them to rankle in the heart, without any hope of ease. There is a threefold gradation in the penalty: rejection, malediction, combustion--“ is rejected,” “ is nigh unto cursing,” “ and the end there of is to be burned.” And it seems to have a relation to a threefold distinction of time. 1. For the present, “ it is rejected.” 2. For instance, or appropinquation, “ it is nigh unto cursing.” 3. For future certainty, “ the end of it is to be burned.” As men commonly deal with thorns: first, they cut them up with bills and mattocks; then they lay them by to wither; and, lastly, burn them in the furnace. 1. Rejection. This which we here translate “ is rejected,” is in the original, ἀδόκιμος, which may signify reprobus, or, reprobatus--so Beza hath it--is reproved, or disallowed of God. This ground shall have no ground inheaven, no part in God’ s inheritance. It is reprobate silver, not current with the Lord. 2. The second degree of the punishment is cursing; and this may seem to exceed the former. The whole vial of wrath is not poured on at once; but first there is a despising or rejection, to let the wicked see how hateful their vices are in God’ s sight. If this serve not, they are not suddenly cursed; but there is a merciful space between cursing and burning. So slowly cloth God proceed to judgment. He is speedy to deliver, to save, to give His blessing; but He hath leaden feet when He comes to strike. 3. The last and sorest degree of the punishment is burning. I will not discourse whether the fire of that everlastingly hot furnace be material or spiritual. Surely it is strangely terrible; and we are blessed if we neither understand it nor undergo it. (1). This privation of blessedness may seem to be implied in the first degree here mentioned--rejection. The reprobate are cast away of God. Much like that form of the last sentence (Matthew 25:41). (2). This is not all. The privation of blessed joys is not enough: there must follow the position of cursed torments. They rejected God, and He rejects them; they adhered to wickedness, and it shall adhere to their hones for ever, and bring them to burning. Their torments, which are here expressed by fire, have two fearful conditions--universality and eternity. (I). They are universal, vexing every part of the body and power of the soul. (2). They are eternal. Let the commination of hell instruct us to prevent it, as the message of Nineveh’ s overthrow effected their safety. 1. Let us flee by a true faith into the arms of our Redeemer, that God reject us not. 2. Let us pour forth floods of repentant tears, that we be not nigh unto cursing. 3. And let us bring forth no more briers and thorns, that our end may not be to be burned. Faith, repentance, obedience; this same golden rule of three will teach us to work up our own salvation. This done, we shall not be rejected, but known to be elected; we shall be so far from cursing, that we shall presently receive the blessing; and our end shall be, not fire, but glory and peace (Psalms 37:37). (T. Adams.) Are we herbs or briers? What solemn admonition does this latter part of the representation, and what sweet encouragement does the former part of it afford I Are we bringing forth the appropriate “ herbs,” or are we yielding the “ thorns and briers” --we who have been so favourably tended--we among whom the seed has been so liberally cast, and on whom therain hat so copiously fallen? In answering this question, let us not be deceived by mere superficial appearances. Natural kindliness and outward decency are no sure evidences of” a field which the Lord hath blessed,” and which the Lord approves. A pretty plant may spring beneath the shadow of the “ brier.” A pleasant flower may even blossom on the branches of the “ thorn.” Yet still, the thorn is but a thorn, the brier is but a brier, and the soil which they cover has run to waste, is lost to its higher uses, and is marked out for clearance and conflagration by the wise and cautious husbandman. (A. S. Patterson.) Hebrews 6:9 We are persuaded better things of you Pastoral solicitude I. THE BETTER THINGS. 1. Better things than to be moral dwarfs. 2. Better things than treating the Son disrespectfully. 3. Better things than to be withering for the flames. II. THE SAVING THINGS. 1. Inward change. 2. Love to God and the brethren. 3. Prayer. 4. “ Perseverance in spite of obstacles. (A. Griffiths.) Judging in charity Those of us who have read classic history may remember an incident in the history of the Macedonian emperor. A painter was commanded to sketch the monarch. In one of his great battles, he had been struck with the sword upon the forehead, and a very large scar had been left on the right temple. The painter, who was a master-hand in his art, sketched him leaning on his elbow, with his finger covering the scar on his forehead: and so the likeness of the king was taken, but without the scar. Let us put the finger of charity upon the scar of the Christian as we h,ok at him, whatever it may be--the finger of a tender and forebearing charity, and see, in spite of it and under it, the image of Christ notwithstanding. (J. Cumming, D. D.) A good persuasion I. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE OF THE GOSPEL TO SATISFY THEIR HEARERS IN AND OF THEIR LOVE IN” JESUS CHRIST TO THEIR SOULS AND PERSONS. II. IT IS OUR DUTY TO COME UNTO THE BEST WE MAY, IN THE OF THEM WITH WHOM WE ARE TO HAVE . III. WE MAY AS REQUIRE, TESTIFY THAT GOOD WHICH WE HAVE THE ” OF OTHERS, AND THAT UNTO . IV. THE REST WE CAN ARRIVE UNTO THE OF ANY LEAVES YET ROOM, YEA, MAKES WAY FOR THE GOSPEL , , , AND . V. AMONG OF THE GOSPEL, SOME ARE OF BETTER THINGS THAN OTHERS. 1. Spiritual gifts are of one kind. For although there are several sorts of them, yet they have all the same general nature, they are all grits and no more. The difference therefore that is amongst them being not to be taken from their own especial nature, but their use and tendency unto the common end of them all, I take it only to be gradual. 2. There are spiritual things which differ in their whole kind ,n,I nature from other things, and are better than they as to their essence and being. Such is all saving grace, with all the fruits of it. All that eat outwardly in ordinances of the bread -f life do not feed on the hidden manna. All that have their names enrolled in the Church’ s book, may not yet have them written in the Lamb’ s book. There are yet better things than gift,, profession, participation of ordinances, and whatever is of the like nature. And the use hereof in one word is to warn all sorts of persons, that they rest not its, that they take not up with an interest in, or participation of, the privileges of the Church, with a common profession, which may give them a name to live; seeing they may be dead or in a perishing condition in the meantime. VI. THERE ARE, TO THE TENOR OF THE OF GRACE, SUCH THINGS ON SOME PERSONS, AS DOTH AND ENSUE UPON--BETTER THINGS, AND SUCH AS HAVE OF THEY. VII. IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL TO EXAMINE , THEIR OF THOSE BETTER THINGS WHICH . Their condition is deplorable who under an outward profession do satisfy themselves with those common gifts, graces, and duties which are separable from salvation. (John Owen, D. D.) Encouragement in the midst of warnings Though the Church be persuaded of thee that thou art a wise man, witty, learned, that is to small purpose. So live, that both the preachers and all good people may be persuaded you have that in you, for the which they may judge you to be heirs of salvation. Here be prevents an objection that might be made. What, Paul, hast thou been so bitter towards us? Hast thou called us babes and novices in religion? Hast thou set before our eyes such a terrible example of backsliders, as if we were birds of the same feather, and now art thou well persuaded of us? Thou dost but flatter us, we can hardly think so. Oh yes, says St. Paul, assure yourselves, we have a good opinion of you; though we thus speak, these are but trumpets to waken you out of sin, the wounds of a lover to cure you withal; they be but spurs of fatherly admonitions to prick you forwards unto all goodness. We made mention of these men, not as it you were such, but to warn you that you be not such. Though the preacher be sometimes round and vehement, yet the people must not imagine that he is hardly conceited of them. A father loves his child when he chides him, a physician his patient, though he give him bitter pills; and we love you, though we be hot against the corruptions that reign among you. (W. Jones, D. D.) Things that accompany salvation Things that accompany salvation Picture to yourselves the march of some ancient monarch through his territory. We read stories of eastern monarchs in the olden time, that seem more like romance than reality; when they marched with thousands of flying banners, and with all kinds of riches borne with them. Now you are to take that as the basis of my figure, and suppose salvation to be the sacred treasure which is being carried through the world, with guards before and guards behind, to accompany it on its journey. I. First, then, IN THE MARCHES OF TROOPS AND ARMIES THERE ARE SOME THAT ARE , AND GO FAR AHEAD OF THE OTHER TROOPS. So in the march of salvation there is a certain body of great and mighty “ things that accompany salvation,” which have far preceded it to clear the way. I will tell you the names of these stupendous Titans who have gone before. The first is Election; the second is Predestination; the third is Redemption; and the Covenant is the captain of them all. Now, this advance-guard is so far ahead that you and I cannot see them. These are true doctrines, but very mysterious; they are beyond our sight; and if we wish to see salvation, we must not stop until we see the vanguard, because they are so far off that only the eye of faith can reach them. Then Election is thine. Dost thou believe? Then Predestination is as surely thine as thou art alive. Dost thou trust alone in Jesus? Then fear not; Redemption was meant for thee. II. But mark, we are about to review THE ARMY THAT ; and, first, in the forefront of these, there marches one whose name we must pronounce with sacred awe. It is God the Holy Spirit. Before anything can be done in our salvation, there must come that Third Person of the Sacred Trinity. Without Him, faith, repentance, humility, love, are things quite impossible. And now, close in the rear of the adorable Spirit follow the Thundering Legion. No sooner does God the Holy Ghost come into the soul, than He brings with Him what I have called the Thundering Legion; and those of you that hay, been saved will not be at a loss to understand what I mean. Some of the men in this Thundering Legion bear with them swords; with these swords they are to slay the sinner. For, be ore he can be made whole, he must b, spiritually killed; the sword must pierce him, and must slay all his selfishness before he can be brought to the Lord Jesus. Then another body of them carry with them axes, with which they cut down the thick trees of our pride and abase the goodly cedars of our righteousness. There are with them those that fill up the wells with stones, and break up all the cisterns of our carnal sufficiency, until we are driven to despair, having all our hopes despoiled. My friend, has this Thundering Legion ever come to your house? Have they ever taken up their quarters in your heart? For, rest assured, these are some of the “ things that accompany salvation.” More or less of terrors every man must feel Before he is converted. Oh, Thundering Legion, ye are gone; we hear their trumpets and the dying echoes still apped us. What see we in the rear of them? Close in the rear there follows a broken heart. Are you sorrowful at this very hour? Be of good cheer, salvation is not far behind When there is once a broken heart, there is mercy very near. God is looking on thee with love, and will have mercy upon thee. But who are those that follow in the rear? Another troop; but these are far different from the rest. The Silken Legion follow. No weapons of war in their hands; no thunders do they utter; but they speak kind words of pity, and their hands are full of benedictions. Shall I tell you who this Silken Legion are? There is a troop of them who take the poor wounded heart, and wash it first in blood; they sprinkle on it the sacred blood of the Atonement; and it is amazing how the poor broken heart, though faint and sick, revives at the first drop of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, what a washing it is? The heart that was once black as the coals of hell, seems white as the snow of Lebanon. When it has once been bathed in the bath of the Saviour’ s blood and water, oh, how pure it becomes Then follow those who pour oil and wine into the wounds of this poor broken heart, so that where it smarted before, the wounds begin to sing. The sacred oil and wine of the precious promise is poured into every wound. The whole heart sings for gladness; for God hath rest, red its strength and bound up all its wounds, according to His promise: “ He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” And then, since the work is not quite done, there come those who carry the King’ s wardrobe; and with the things out of this rich storehouse thy array the soul from head to foot; they clothe it with everything that for lustre and for glory could adorn it, and make it bright as the spirits before the throne. And then the King’ s jewellers come in and complete the whole; they array the soul with ornaments, and bedeck it with precious stones. And now we have not yet come to a full conviction of salvation. The silken legion are gone. What cometh next? Now come those that are the actual attendants upon salvation or rather, that march in the rank immediately before it. There are four of these, called Repentance, Humility, Prayer, and a tender Conscience. Has Humility ever come to you? Has she ever abased your pride, and taught you to lie in the dust before God? Has Repentance ever watered the floor of your hearts with tears? Have you ever been led to weep in secret for year sins, and to bewail your iniquities? Has Prayer ever entered)our spirit? Remember, a prayerless soul is a Christless soul. And, lastly, are you tender of Conscience, for unless your conscience is made tender, salvation has not met you, for these are the immediate attendants upon it. III. And now comes IS ALL ITS FULNESS. And now comes the precious casket set with gems and jewels. It is of God-like workmanship; no hammer was ever lifted on it; it was smitten out and fashioned upon the anvil of Eternal Might, and cast in the mould of Everlasting Wisdom; but no human hand hath ever defiled it. And who are those that are close around it? There are three sweet sisters that always have the custody of the treasure--you know them; their names are common in Scripture Faith, Hope, and Love, the three Divine sisters; these have salvation in their bowels and do carry it about with them in their loins. Faith, who layeth hold on Christ, and trusteth all in Him; that ventureth everything upon His blood and sacrifice, and hath no other trust. Hope, that with beaming eye looks up to Jesus Christ in glory, and expects Him soon to come: looks downward, and when she sees grim death in her way, expects that she shall pass through with victory. And then sweet Love, the sweetest of the three; she, whose words are music and whose eyes are stars; Love also looks to Christ and is enamoured of Him; loves Him in all His offices, adores His presence, reverences His words; and is prepared to bind her body to the stake and die for Him, who bound His body to the cross to die for her. IV. Now! MUST BRING UP THE BEAR GUARD. It is impossible that with such a vanguard, grace should be unattended from behind. Now see those that follow salvation. The first is Gratitude--always singing, “ Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.” And then Gratitude lays hold upon its son’ s hand; the name of that son is Obedience. In company with this fair grace is one called Consecration--a pure white spirit that hath no earthliness; from its head to its foot it is all God’ s, and all gold. Linked to this bright one, is one with a face serene and solemn, called Knowledge. “ Then shall ye know when ye follow on to know the Lord.” Those that are saved understand mysteries, they know the love of Christ; they” know Him, whom to know is life eternal.” Now, have you these four? They are rather, the successors of salvation than the heralds of it.” “ Oh yes,” the believer can say, I trust I have Gratitude, Obedience, Consecration, and Knowledge.” I will not weary you, but there are three shining ones that follow after these four, and I must not forget them, for they are the flower of them all. There is Zeal with eyes of fire, and heart of flame, a tongue that burneth, a hand that never wearies, and limbs that never tire; Zeal, that flies round the world with wings swifter than the lightning’ s flash, and finds even then her wings too tardy for her wish. This Zeal always dwells near one that is called Communion. This, sure, is the goodliest of all the train; an angel spiritualised, an angel purified and made yet more angelic, is Communion. Communion calls in secret on-its God; its God in secret sees. It is conformed to the image of Jesus; walks according to His footsteps. And as a necessary consequence, on the other side of Communion--which with one hand lays hold of Zeal, is Joy--joy in the Spirit. Joy, like the nightingale, sings in the dark, and can praise God in the tempest and shout His high praises in the storm. This is indeed a fitting cherub to be in the rear of salvation. Just in the rear is Perseverance, final, certain and sure. Then there follows complete Sanctification, whereby the soul is purged from every sin, and made as white and pure as God Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Things that accompany salvation This is the only place in this letter where the readers are addressed as “ beloved.” The especial tenderness of the appellation follows very beautifully and significantly upon one of the sternest and solemnest warnings which Scripture contains as to the impossibility of those who were first enlightened, “ if they shall fall away,” being renewed again to repentance, and as to the rejection, and cursing, and destruction of the barren and profitless ground. It is as if the writer had felt that after these dark and terrible thoughts he must soften his voice still more, and make haste not only to show how affection had dictated the warning, but also how joyful confidence in his brethren was present throughout it. The writer assumes, as understood and inspired by all to whom he is speaking, that what he calls “ salvation” never comes into any man’ s hand or heart alone. This great gift never draws near singly. That precious stone is always set in a cluster of little stones around it. This angel of God never enters unattended by the virgins, her companions following her. There is ever a courtly dance of graces and fair figures that pass into the heart, and sweep in unison through the life which has received salvation. And what are these inseparable accompaniments; these continual companions of this central gift? The context distinctly bears the answer. They are all the things which the writer includes in the “ herbs brought forth meet for the husbandman.” All the things which he includes under another figure, in “ your work and labour of love.” That is to say, a fruitful Christian life of joyful obedience, of manifest issues, of a supreme love to God, which flashes out into all kinds of gentleness and amiabilities towards others, and has other regions, often nobler, in which it manifests itself. These are the companions, “ the things which accompany salvation.” All that lustrous beauty and radiant completeness of human character is treated here as being a secondary and a consequent thing. The queen is salvation; they that follow her are all these great and beautiful things. Which is just to say, if a man wants to be good let him begin by taking for his own God’ s great gift of forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus Christ. What would you think of a master who said he bad found out a new way of architecture, and he was about to begin building a house at the chimneys? It would be about as wise as the man that seeks, by painful effort, which effort I would be the last to say a word to despise, to make his life full of these beauties of conduct and character without having laid the foundation with Christ, who is the only foundation. If you take and plant some aromatic shrubs, hitherto unknown, upon some bare and sandy down, a whole fleet of bees and butterflies will come, drawn to the blossoms, that never were seen there before. And so if, and only if, we have in our hearts by faith in Jesus Christ, that tree of immortal life and manifold fragrances, round it will buzz and hover, and from it will draw honey and sustenance, all manner of fair and flying things, else and otherwise strangers to our spirits. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The true order in salvation In those days (Cornwall, 1851), when I was building my new church, and talking about the tower and spire we were going to erect, an elderly Christian lady who was sitting in her wheel-chair, calmly listening to our conversation, said, “ Will you begin to build your spire from the top? “ It was a strange question, but she evidently meant something, and looked for an answer. I gave it, saying, “ No, madam, not from the top, but from the foundation.” She replied, “ That is right--that is right,” and went on with her knitting. This question was not asked in jest or in ignorance; it was like a riddle. What did she mean? In a few years this lady passed away, but her enigmatic words remained. No doubt she thought to herself that I was beginning at the wrong end, while I went on talking of the choir, organ, happy worship, and all the things we were going to attempt in the new church; that I was aiming at sanctification, without justification; intending to teach people to be holy before they were saved and pardoned. This is exactly what I was doing. I had planted the boards of my tabernacle of worship, not in silver sockets (the silver of which had been paid for redemption), but in the sand of the wilderness. In other words, I way teaching people to worship God, who is a Spirit, not for love of Him who gave His Son to die for them, but in the fervour and enthusiasm of human nature. (W. Haslam ,M. A.) Hebrews 6:10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work The guarantee of usefulness I. GOD KNOWS OF EACH ITEM OF OUR SERVICE. Our deeds of love populate the Divine mind with immortal images. II. GOD’ S IS AN ACTIVE FENCE IX HIS NATURE. It gives quality to all that He is, and thinks, and does. It is the guarantee of right becoming victorious; the pledge of the final supremacy of love; the rock on which faithful service may build its hopes. III. GOD’ S RENDERS CERTAIN THE FINAL OF ALL SERVICE. 1. His righteousness creates interest in our service. He looks on our deeds with pleasure. 2. His righteousness creates sympathy with us in what we do. Because the holy feeling that prompts us to deeds of love is akin to that which dwells in God, He feels towards our work the same as we do, He enters into our longing to bless others, He shares in our yearning to cheer and guide and save men. 3. His righteousness ensures the using up of our deeds of love in the line of His own purpose. There is not a true prayer uttered, not a holy wish cherished, not a kind word spoken, not a deed of mercy performed, not a single Christian act in the service we daily seek to render to our Lord, in public or in private, known of men or out of sight, but that He knows it, holds it before His mind, graciously delights in it, enters into its spirit, and, as a consequence, actually lays hold of it as a precious element of good, to blend it with His own volitions, and make it harmonise with, and give impetus to, all that He once did when, on earth in the person of His dear Son, He laid the foundation that is to be both blessed and everlasting. (C. Chapman.) God’ s righteousness as an encouragement to Christian service I. THE OF THE CHURCH. The work distributed amongst us may be very different in quality, in interest, in popularity, in result; yet God does not overlook any of it. He sees the mother talking of Jesus to her children at home, as well as the preacher who expounds Divine truth in the great congregation. The words which in weakness and fatigue are penned by a writer for the press, on the side of purity or national integrity, or peace among the nations, or fairness between the classes, are as much thought of by God as the society organised for the defence of theological truth. The medical man who heals the poor without reward, the employer who dares to give unto his servants what be knows to be just and equal, the merchant or tradesman who for the sake of the Lord he loves refuses to receive an advantage which his competitor would eagerly seek--all these, in time of disappointment, may remember the assurance, “ God is not unrighteous to forget your work.” And what of work more directly religious? Is not the Lord mindful of that? Even we think sometimes with sympathy of our brothers in distant lands, exposed to hostility from the heathen, and to perils by land and by sea, perils from malaria, accident, and privation; but the all-seeing God knows them, and cares for them far more than we, and He will not forget their work. And if your service is less public than theirs, it is none the less regarded by Him, whose wisdom not only built the mountains, but clothed the lilies of the field. We know but little of each other, but He knows us altogether, and He is as pleased with the child’ s prayer as with the martyr death of the bravest soldier in His army. II. THE OF THE LORD. The idea seems to be this; God will not overlook your work, so as to make no use of it; it will not be forgotten, but will find its place in the fulfilment of the Divine purpose. Man is unfaithful and forgetful in such matters. An editor may ask some one to write a paper, and when with toil and care it is finished, he may have forgotten all about it, and may issue his work without finding any place for the author’ s labour--men are often forgetful. The other day, in crossing a wild part of Dartmoor, I saw a magnificent block of stone, carefully and skilfully cut into a hexagon, and there it lay unheeded amid the heather, beaten by storms, bleached by sunshine--useless. Perhaps the builder had forgotten to fetch it, or perhaps he thought the block too heavy to carry over the rough roads; but, whatever the reason, some skilful stonemason had worked hard, but uselessly. Now, looking down upon our work in obscure homes, in nut-of-the-way offices, in quiet spheres of service, this inspired man says: “ God is not unfaithful to forget your work.” (A. Rowland, LL. B.) The present and future rewards of charity I. HOW GOOD WORKS ARE TO GOD, AND WHAT REWARDS HE HATH TO THOSE WHO SHALL BE FOUND IN THEM. II. A OF LOVE AND CHARITY IS OF ALL OTHER THE MOST TO INDUCE MEN TO SUCH GOOD WORKS III. BY THE “ LABOUR OF LOVE” IS PLAINLY THAT GOOD WORKS ARE OFTEN WITH MUCH TROUBLE AND . IV. TO THE WANTS AND OF OUR IS SHOWING-A REGARD TOWARDS THE NAME OF GOD. V. WE HAVE IN THOSE: DUTIES TO US, BY THE EXAMPLE OF THOSE HEBREWS, WHO ARE NOT ONLY AS TO THE OF THEIR , BUT AS TO DO THE SAME. (S. Knight, D. D.) The righteous reward I. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour Of love; AS HIS DOING SO WOULD RE , , UNKIND. Were He not to acknowledge it, He might seem to be damping your zeal. In this view the statement is fitted seasonably to encourage you. Few and faulty your best services may be; unsatisfying to yourselves; much more to your God. Well might He reject them all. But would He be justified in doing so? Would it be in harmony with what He has revealed to you of the riches of His glory, and what lie has made you to taste of the fulness of His grace? No. He does not upbraid you with the value of His undeserved benefits to you. He will not upbraid you with the worthlessness of what you give to Him. All that He bestows, He bestows in good faith. All that you render, He will take in good part. II. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love; AS HIS DOING SO WOULD BE WITH HIS AND TRUTH. He is to be regarded as hiring you, and assigning to you your service. He does so in the exercise of His own requestionable discretion, according to His own good pleasure, and the freedom of His own will. Be does not leave it to you to devise a way in which you may, at your own discretion, manifest your loyalty. But He enlists you as His soldiers and subjects, under command. You are to offer service voluntarily. But when your offer is accepted, you are to obey orders. This consideration may seem, in one view to detract from any claim on your part for any recompense of reward. It divests your work and labour of love, which you show to His name, of the character of a spontaneous or strictly self-prompted and self-directed offering. What you do or suffer is not at your own hand, but by His appointment. But, in another view, the certainty of your being amply recompensed is thus placed on the highest possible ground. I feel, indeed, that I have nothing which, as from myself, I can offer to my God. I am myself His property, His purchased possession; not my own. All the store of talents and resources out of which I can offer comes from Him, and is all His own. And I, His servant, must offer it, not as I choose, but as lie desires and directs. But does that thought, I ask again, detract in the least from my confident persuasion that what I offer will be accepted and requited? Does it not, on the contrary, enhance my assurance tenfold? Would it be fair for a master enlisting servants in such a way, on such terms, under such obligations, to forget their work, to let it pass into oblivion unrequite? Be it that it is work or service to which they are indispensably bound, and which they have no discretionary liberty to accept or decline; for which, therefore, they have no title to stipulate for payment beforehand, or to demand payment afterwards. Be it even that they understand that condition of their engagement, and consent to it, that does not acquit the master, in his own judgment at least, whatever they may think. If he is honest, high minded, he will not suffer his servants to entertain a moment’ s doubt of his intention to acknowledge their faithfulness, and make all ,he world know that he does so. And is God unrighteous? Is He who solemnly binds you in so strict a covenant of service to let it be supposed that He can act unfaithfully or unfairly? And is He unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love--the work and loving labour of His chosen and His redeemed? Surely it is no vain thing, but rather a very blessed thing, for you thus to serve the Lord, having such a simple, single-eyed, meek, and honourable confidence as this in the truth and faithfulness of Him whom you serve! III. There are other OF A GENERAL SORT that might be brought forward to strengthen this quiet assurance. For instance, here is one. If, in one view, God commits Himself to you; in another view lie commits you and binds you to Himself. In the service of God, if loyal, you must make up your mind to relinquish not a few of those sources of pleasure which the world presents to you. And for whatever you may thus give up, He whom you serve may be expected, if He is to act worthily of Himself, to provide some kind of equivalent. If you lose the favour of men, you have the favour of God. If you cease to have the peace which the world gives, when, with its refuges of lies, it soothes your conscience, you have the peace of God which passes understanding. If you have to cut off a right hand, to pluck out a right eye, maimed as you are and wounded, you enter into life. If the good things of earth are to be your treasure no more, you have better treasure in heaven, where no moth corrupts and no thief breaks through to steal. Thus far I have spoken of the recompense of the reward, God’ s not forgetting your work and labour of love, as simply righteous on His part. But, before leaving that topic, I must remind you that the righteousness is still always of grace. It is the righteousness, not of law, but of equity. It gives you no such claim or title as you might enforce in a court of justice by procedure of a legal sort. All your claim must rest upon the good faith or kind favour of the other party. This does not touch the certainty of your being rewarded. But it divests you of all title to reckon upon it as your due. How blessed a thing is it in this view, to disown all right of yours, and lean on the righteousness of God! Further, the righteousness in question is not that of express compact, but rather that of a fair and amiable understanding. It is not a case, as between debtor and creditor, to be adjusted upon a balance of business accounts and books. Your remuneration is rather an honourable acknowledgment of the spirit in which you work than an exact and formal discharge of the work itself. Hence this principle, while it leaves no room for presumption on your part, leaves abundant room for the most liberal discretion on the part of God. Lessons: 1. As God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, be not ye unrighteous to forget your duty to Him. As He is, so to speak, on honour with you, be you scrupulously and sensitively on honour with Him. Many motives should prompt this duty. Think on the way in which He receives you into His favour; on the amazing sacrifice of His Son, whom He gives to the death of the Cross, that He may reconcile you to Himself; receiving you graciously, and loving you freely. He opens His heart to you. Will you not give your hearts to Him? 2. If God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love towards His name, you need not care to remember it. You need not keep a record of your doings. Your record and theirs is on high. (R. S.Candlish, D. D.) Good works not meritorious I. IN WHAT SENSE GOD WOULD NOT BE , THAT IS, UNJUST, THOUGH HE SHOULD FORGET OUR GOOD WORKS, that is, though He should not reward us with eternal life for them. 1. Whatsoever good action a man can perform, that he upon many accounts owes unto God, his Maker, his Preserver, his Benefactor. But no one, surely, who pays to another what he strictly owes him, can thereby oblige that other to bestow on him a reward, or can make him properly his debtor. 2. Even amongst equals no one is of right, and in strict justice, obliged to recompense the labour and pains of another, but he who hath voluntarily bound himself thereunto by some covenant, or who at least is enforced thereunto by the law of some superior. What consideration, therefore, can oblige God to bestow upon man eternal life but His own free and gracious promise, since He hath no superior; nor can any law be prescribed to Him but what He vouchsafes to prescribe to Himself, and to guide His own actions and dispensations by? 3. To this it may be farther added that all our good thoughts, words, and works proceed entirely from the grace of God, and are His free gifts bestowed upon us, out of His mere bounty and mercy. Should God, therefore, by bestowing on us one grace, be thereby in justice obliged, for that very reason, to bestow on us another? II. But now, lest to avoid one extreme, we should foolishly” run into another; lest for fear of carrying the value of our good actions too high, we should on the other side sink their price too low; it will be proper to show that, notwithstanding what has been said hitherto by way of abatement of their pretended worth, THEY ARE STILL IN MANY HIGHLY BEFORE GOD; and that though they cannot by way of purchase procure for us, yet upon other considerations they will secure to us eternal happiness. Now the least that can be said concerning the value of good works proceeding from the love of God, and designed to His glory, is this: that though we should not be made partakers of eternal happiness merely because of them, yet neither can we be saved without them; though they are not the meritorious causes, yet they are the necessary conditions, of our salvation; though where they are found, they do not give a legal title to salvation; yet where they are not found, the persons destitute of them have not so much as an equitable title to eternal bliss from the mercy of God. For virtuous and religious actions are the way chalked out by God, by which we must arrive at the glories which shall be revealed; they are the means ordained by Him, by which we may certainly and effectally, though not of right acquire, yet in fact obtain everlasting happiness. (Bp. Smalridge.) God’ s righteousness as it implies faithfulness By the argument of the apostle, as righteousness is put for faithfulness, it is manifest that God’ s righteousness is a prop to man’ s faith and hope. Man may and must believe and expect a reward of every good thing from the righteousness of God, even because He is righteous and will not tail to do what He hath promised. This righteousness of God assureth us of the continuance of His mercy. What grace moved Him to begin, righteousness will move Him to continue and finish. 1. This informs us in the wonderful great condescension of God to man; even so low as to bind Himself to man, and that so far as if He failed in what he had promised, He is willing to be accounted unrighteous Psalms 7:17). 2. This doth much aggravate the sin of infidelity, which is not only against the grace and mercy of God, but also against His truth and righteousness. 3. This teacheth us how to trust to God’ s mercy, even so as God may be just and righteous in showing mercy. (W. Gouge.) Works of love These Christians gave themselves to “ work.” Active and practical exertions, indeed, when the case admits of them, are essential to personal Christianity. Their “ labour” is here attributed to “ love” ; and this soft and sacred principle is well fitted alike to prompt, to sustain, to sweeten, and to sanctify active efforts for the glory of God and the good of man. The love specified had been “ shown towards God’ s name.” God Himself was one special object towards whom it had been directed; and in loving believers, the persons spoken of had loved them for the Father’ s sake. Towards Him, then, they had exercised--towards Him, also, the) had shown--this love; for it did not sleep invisible among the secrets of their soul--it raised itself up for effort, it aimed at practical results and performed a practical work, and not, indeed, by ostentatious display, but, by its exertions and its fruits, it showed itself. And in what did their love appear? to what particular enterprise did it address itself? These Christian Hebrews “ had ministered,” and still continued to “ minister,” to “ saints” --to pious persons who required their pecuniary or active aid. The wants of other followers of Christ who were in humble circumstances, or by whom, in some way, their help was needed, secured their sympathy and received their succour. A meet field for Christian love to occupy! An appropriate work for Christian kindness to perform. (A. S. Patterson.) Known unto God One evening a gentleman was strolling along a street to pass the time. His attention was attracted by the remark of a little girl to a companion in front of a fruit store, “ I wish I had an orange for ma.” The gentleman saw that the children, though poorly dressed, were clean and neat, and calling them into the store, he loaded them with fruit and candies. “ What’ s your name?” asked one of the girls. “ Why do you want to know?” queried the gentleman. “ I want to pray for you,” was the reply. The gentleman turned to leave, scarcely daring to speak, when the little one added, “ Well, it don’ t matter, I suppose; God will know you, anyhow.” (Baxendale’ s Anecdotes.) Encouragement for the less successful minister Though God may grant more of spiritual in gathering to one minister than to another, this is no proof that the less successful minister is the less valuable with Him. Some surgical instruments are used constantly, others but occasionally; yet the latter may be as valuable as the former. If the falling of a tree require fifty strokes, and one man give three, another five and forty, and another finish the business with two strokes more, we do not debate which of these men did most to fell the tree, which of them ought to have most wages, or which, at least, know how much he has contributed to the work. Nor have we any more reason to be jealous about our own private importance in the great work of converting our fellow-sinners. (J. A. Bengel.) A full reward expected A military gentleman once said to an excellent old minister in the north of Scotland who was becoming infirm, “ Why, if I had power over the pension list, I would actually have you put on half-pay for your long and faithful services.” He replied, “ Ah, my friend, your master may put you off with halfpay, but my Master will not serve me so meanly; He will give me full pay. Through grace I expect a fall reward.” (Clerical Library.) Certain reward Dionysius caused musicians to play before him and promised them a great reward. When they came for their reward, he told them they had already had it in their hopes of it. God does not disappoint His servants. (New Encyclopaedia of Illustrations.) Small efforts recognised by God A certain king would build a cathedral; and that the credit of it might be all his own, he forbade any from contributing to its erection in the least degree. A tablet was placed in the side of the building, and on it his name was carved as the builder. But that night he saw, in a dream, an angel, who came down and erased his name, and the name of a poor widow appeared in its stead. This was three times repeated, when the enraged king summoned the woman before him, and demanded, “ What have you been doing, and why have you broken my commandment? “ The trembling widow replied, “ I loved the Lord, and longed to do something for His name and for the building up of His church. I was forbidden to touch it in any way; so, in my poverty, I brought a wisp of hay for the horses that drew the stones.” And the king saw that he had laboured for his own glory, but the widow for the glory of God; and he commanded that her name should be inscribed upon the tablet. (Ralph Wells.) God rewards His servants When Calvin was banished from ungrateful Geneva, he said, “ Most assuredly if I had merely served man, this would have been a poor recompense; but it is my happiness that I have served Him who never fails to reward Ills servants to the full extent of His promise.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 6:11-12 Show the same diligence The attainment of heaven I. THE MEANS BY WHICH THE OF HEAVEN MAY BE . “ Faith and patience.” Faith describes the sound state of the understanding in the perception and application of religious truth; and patience denotes that calm fortitude of heart which enables us to resist every seduction, and, at the call of faith, to hold onward undaunted in the path which conscience prescribes. These virtues form, by their union, the perfection of the human character. II. THE TO IN PURSUIT OF IT. “ Followers of them who … inherit the promises.” Faith and patience, like all other blessings, descend from heaven. They are the gifts of God through Jesus Christ. But the use and improvement of them, from which alone they become blessings to us, are left dependent on ourselves. Many motives concur to excite our diligence in improving them; but there is a peculiar tenderness and force in that which is suggested by the text. Through them the saints who have gone before us are now inheriting the promises. This argument addresses at once our interest, our understanding, and the best affections of our heart. It raises our view to the recompense of reward; it places before us a visible proof that the attainment of this inheritance is not beyond the reach of men like us; it warms within us the sentiment of generous emulation; and it attracts us onward by ties that are dear as life to the virtuous soul--by the love of those whom death has consecrated in our imagination, and by the ravishing prospect of rejoining them in heaven. (James Finlayson, D. D.) Motives to diligence Suppose every day a day of harvest; suppose it a market-day; suppose it a day wherein you are to work in a golden mine; suppose it a ring which you are to engrave and enamel with your actions, to be at night presented on God’ s altar. (N. Caussin.) Spiritual diligence I. THE OF THE PERSONS WHOM THE APOSTLE WAS AT THIS THE . They were converted characters. Christianity consists of three things--knowledge, experience, and practice. These three things the persons whom the apostle was now addressing evidently possessed. They were acquainted with the principles of religion, and had tasted the heavenly gift. II. THOSE WHICH WERE HELD OUT TO THEIR . “ Let us go on unto perfection” --such a perfection as was commanded by Christ, and which formed the subject of the ministrations and preaching of the apostle. 1. I conceive this implies, comprehending as it does all the blessings of Christianity, a perfect knowledge of Christian doctrine, that we should no longer be tossed to and fro by every wave of the sea, but be settled in the faith of the Bible. 2. I conceive it implies also a perfect possession of all Christian graces, of which one is the full assurance of hope, as in the text--“ Resting in full assurance of hope in Christ.” I conceive it implies also that perfect love that casteth out all fear. 3. It implies also the perfect performance of Christian duty. 4. It implies also entire sanctification to the will of God. In the Old Testament dispensation, God promised that the day should come when He would sprinkle clean water on His inheritance and make it clean; wen from all their filthiness and idols He would cleanse them: when He would take from them hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh, and write upon the fleshly tables of their heart His law and commandments, that they might do them. 5. It implies the entire dedication of ourselves to God, doing all to the glory of God, looking for the glorious appearance of Jesus Christ unto eternal life. III. THE WHICH IS IN ORDER TO THE OF THIS HIGH AND HAPPY STATE OF . And here we shall have to answer a query: If this be Christianity, how is it that we see so little of it in the world? The answer is here: “ Be not slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.” These blessings, of which I have been speaking, are not given to idlers. Spiritual sloth is incompatible with Christianity. Christianity is exhibited to us under the character--and a strong figure it is--of a warfare, of a race in which a candidate for the prize is to put forth all his energies. And what kind of diligence, then, is to be put forth on this occasion? 1. “ That you do show the same diligence” as they had shown in the commencement. Oh, let the Christian continue to use the same diligence in his career which he did when he first became awakened! Oh, what zeal, what energy, is evinced in young converts! Oh, the sincerity, the loveliness, and the excellency of religious experience when they have perceived their danger, and fled from it to Christ, and experienced somewhat of the consolations of the Divine regard! 2. Thus, then, we are to use the same diligence-diligence proportioned to the end to be obtained. We profess to be Christians: what, then, is the object proposed to us by a profession of Christianity? Surely it is more than a name! Surely it is eternal life--it is to save the deathless, immortal soul! 3. It is to be proportioned, not only to the blessings to be obtained, but to the evil to be avoided. The evil to be avoided here is the everlasting loss of the soul, the punishment which awaits disobedience to God throughout eternity! 4. There must be diligence, again, proportioned to the time allotted to us. How long have you and I to live? How long will probation continue? 5. There must be diligence, again, proportionate to that which our enemies are using in seeking our destruction. Are you ignorant of Satan’ s devices? Does he ever slumber? Are not his temptations, as well as his emissaries, countless? 6. There must be diligence, again, proportionate to the means that God giveth us for this important end. God has given grace to every one of us; a measure of the Spirit is given to every one to profit withal. We have the influences of the Holy Ghost, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the instituted ordinances of religion, and all the opportunities of drawing near to God to receive continual strength of grace. 7. There must be diligence proportioned to our daily mercies. Our whole life is one continued mercy. Our creation is a mercy. Then ought we not to be diligent in the service of God, seeing that the mercies of God are so inexhaustible? 8. There must be diligence proportioned to the price paid for our redemption. “ We are not redeemed with silver and gold and corruptible things, but we are bought with a price.” Ought we not- considering how valuable we are in the sight of God, considering at what we have been estimated by Jehovah, who created us--to use diligence proportionate, that we rob not God? 9. There must be diligence, finally, in proportion to the relation in which we stand to God, who is our Master, our Father, and our God; and in proportion to the accountability which we must render up to Him in that awful and dreadful day to which we are hastening. (John Hawtrey.) Diligence in seeking salvation If in thought we compare the efforts of an excited crowd to enter some building, or to see some remarkable sight, or to get some freely offered advantage; if we compare their earnestness with what we observe to be the ordinary attitude of men concerning religion! How on the contrary we observe apathy and delay! There is no pressing forward to enter in but rather an indolent lounging outside the gates, as though we could pass in whenever we liked, and there was no need for haste m the matter. Only a short time ago there came from America a curious account of the government throwing open to settlement a tract of country which had before been closed to white settlers. A certain day and hour was fixed on which emigrants might cross the boundary. Meanwhile “ the cordon” was defended by a party of military. A motley multitude gathered on the bank of the dividing river. Rough “ cow-boys “ from the west, with their swift ponies, and waggons with oxen, and poorer emigrants, with their wives and children trudging by their side, hungry and weary, waited till the day and hour came, and hardly had the midday hour come when a strange scene ensued. Horsemen spurred their steeds into the river, heavy waggons plunged into the water at the ford, all pressed forward with the utmost speed and impetuosity to seize upon some portion of the new territory, and ere darkness came hundreds of tents had been set up, and even houses had been started, All this wild excitement and confusion; all this eagerness and energy, to gain a few acres of earthly possessions; whilst in the matter of laying hold of that kingdom, of which we have been made heirs by baptism, how little interest is taken to make sure an inheritance I But if it be asked, why this haste and unnecessary excitement? Does not God at all times “ wait to be gracious “ ?--then we answer, True, “ He doth devise means whereby his banished ones may be restored.” True, “ He willeth not the death of a sinner” ; but yet remember that though he invites us to enter His kingdom, He does not force men to be saved. He has laid this responsibility on us. Then, too, those dangerous enemies--the world, the flesh, and the devil--are thrusting back the souls that seek to enter in. Every one who goes in must be prepared for a struggle, and for the exertion of all his powers--“ tire kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.” (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.) Full assurance of hope unto the end Full assurance of hope I. THE . “ The full assurance of hope.” II. THE COURSE . Being diligent in every religious exercise, as prayer, reading the Scriptures, the worship of God, &c. III. THE MODELS . “ Those who through faith,” &c. A long roll of such worthies is given in chapter eleven. Their earthly course was distinguished by 1. Believing obedience. “ Faith.” 2. Patient endurance. They patiently waited for good, and meekly suffered evil for God’ s sake. This is (1) A profitable virtue. “ It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” (2) A necessary virtue. “ Ye have need of patience.” (3) A rare virtue. There are few patient waiters for promised good, or passive endurers of present evil. IV. THE MOTIVE ADDUCED. Those whom we are urged to imitate now inherit the promises, and this is mentioned as a motive to stimulate us to the same diligence. They now inherit the promises which they embraced here, and which sustained them in all their trials. 1. Eternal immunity from (1) Physical, (2) Mental, (3) Moral evil. 2. Eternal possessions. (1) Moral dignities. (2)Social festivities. (3) Perennial enjoyments. (J. Elstob.) The believer’ s assurance I. THE PARTIES . The apostle was writing to converts from Judaism to Christianity; persons, who by reason of the persecutions to which they were exposed and the strong persuasive efforts of the followers of Jewish customs and laws, were in danger of apostatising from the faith they had embraced. II. THE . “ The full assurance of hope.” Paul has referred in his epistles to three kinds of assurance. In writing to the Colossians he speaks of the “ riches of the full assurance of understanding.” In the Epistle from which our text is then, he exhorts the Hebrew Christians to approach the throne of grace with “ full assurance of faith.” Whilst in the passage before us he recommends the” lull assurance of hope.” By the first, he means a clear lively, knowledge of Divine truth; by the second an unwavering belief of the Gospel promises; and by the third, a firm conviction of the soul’ s union to Jesus and adoption into the family of the Most High. Though these three assurances are closely allied, yet each is different from the other. There are two reasons why we may speak of this assurance as a desirable attainment. 1. It will be profitable to ourselves. An old divine well said, “ The greatest thing that we can desire, next to the glory of God, is our own salvation; and the sweetest thing we can desire is the assurance of our salvation. In this life we cannot get higher than to be assured of that which in the next life is to be enjoyed. All saints shall enjoy a heaven when they leave this earth; some saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth.’ The original word here rendered “ full assurance: means full lading or full burden. It is a word which may be applied to a ship and her cargo. If, then, we are fully laden with the treasure of assurance, our sails being well filled by the gales of faith and love we shall steer straight for the harbour of God. Full assurance shall keep us from being all our life, “ through fear of death, subject to bondage.” We shall not be like the empty vessel tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doubt. Our full lading shall keep us stable in the sea of life, and we shall at last ride triumphantly into the regions of repose amid the applause of the heavenly host. The original word is likewise applied to the plenitude of fruit produced by a tree. Sty, will it not be better for him to be fully laden with precious fruit, richly decked with luscious clusters, than to have expended all his time and strength in sending out useless tend for his support, fearing lest the roots, though firmly grounded, should not be able to sustain him? Depend on it, we shall find assurance a blessing of no mean order. It will make our devotional exercises doubly delightful, because we shall feel that the promises will be fulfilled, and the earnest prayer receive the attention of our Father. Aye, all our engagements shall have a tenfold interest and we shall have a double amount of decision in the discharge of our duties. Our peace shall flow as a river--steadily--evenly--uninterruptedly. 2. This full assurance of hope will be pleasurable to God. We all know how pleasant it is to discover that our friends and associates have firm faith in our integrity--truthfulness--love. The Eternal God is pleased with our confidence in Him. He wishes us to believe His Word. He is grieved by our doubts and fears. III. THE MEANS OF THIS . “ Show the same diligence unto the end.” 1. Watchfulness against all sin is included in showing diligence. 2. Waiting at the feet of God is also included in “ diligence.” They who have walked in the light of God’ s countenance and felt the Spirit’ s clear witness within them, have been men of prayer; men, whose closets were oft-frequented spots: men who upon their knees fought their way through ranks of foes. So must it be with us. 3. Perseverance in all religious duties is likewise necessary. We must “ give the same diligence unto the end.” There must be “ a patient continuance in well doing.” Our sighing after assurance, to-day, will avail us little, it to- morrow all desires for the blessing are foreign to our souls, and our hearts are engrossed with earthly matters. Our purpose mast be unwavering. (J. H.Hitchens.) Sure and certain hope Many of us have seen a picture in which the artist paints “ Hope” as a pale, fragile figure, blind and bent, wistfully listening to the poor music which her own fingers draws from a broken one-stringed lyre. It is a profoundly true and pathetic confession. So sad, languid, blind, yearning, self-beguiled is Hope, as most men know her. Put side by side with that the figure which an unknown sculptor has carved on one of the capitals of the Ducal palace in Venice, where Hope lifts up praying hands, and a waiting, confident face, to a hand stretched out towards her from a glory of sunbeams. Who does not feel the contrast between the two conceptions? What makes the difference? The upward look. When Hope is directed heaven wards she is strong, assured, and glad. I. Let us look, first, at THE of Christian hope. Universal experience tells us that hope means an anticipation which is less than sure. Hopes and fears are bracketed together in common language, as always united, like a double star, one black and the other brilliant, which revolve round a common axis, and are knit together by invisible bands. But if we avail ourselves of the possibilities in reference to the future, which Christianity puts into our hands, on, hope may be no less certain than our memory; and even more sure than it. For the grounds on which Christian men may forecast their future as infinitely bright and blessed; as the possession of an inheritance incorruptible; an absolute and entire conformity to the likeness of God, which is peace and joy,--are triple, each of them affording certitude. 1. It rests upon the eternal God to whom all the future is certain and upon His faithful Word, which makes it as certain to us. 2. Our hope further rests on a past fact (1 Peter 1:3). The one real proof that, when we paint heaven we are not painting mist and moonshine, is the fact that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. There were many reasons for believing in America before Columbus came back and said “ I have been there.” And there are many reasons, no doubt, that may incline sanguine spirits and wearied spirits, and desiring spirits, and even sin-stricken and guilty spit its to anticipate a life beyond, which shall be a hope or a dread; but there is only one ground upon which men can say, “ We know that it is not cloud-land, but solid earth” ; and that is, that our Brother has come back from the bourne from which “ no traveller returns” ; that He thereby has shown us all, not by argumentation but by historical fact, that to die is not to cease to be; that to die draws after it the resurrection of the body. We lift our eyes to the heavens, and though “ the cloud receive Him out of our sight” the hope, which is better than vision, pierces the cloud and travels straight on to the throne whilst He bends from His crowned glory and says, “ Because I live ye shall live also.” 3. The Christian hope is based, not only on these two strong pillars, but on a third--namely, on present experience. You can tell a cedar of Lebanon, though it is not yet bigger than a dandelion, and know what it is coming to. You can tell the infant prince. And the joy and peace of faith, feeble and interrupted as they may be in our present experience, have on them the stamp of supremacy and are manifestly destined for dominion over our whole nature. They are indeed experiences “ whose very sweetness yieldeth proof that they were born for immortality.” I have often seen in rich men’ s greenhouses some exotic plant grown right up to the roof, which had to be raised in order to let it go higher. The Christian life here is plainly an exotic, growing where it cannot attain its full height, and it presses against the fragile over-arching glass, yearning upwards to the open sky and the throne of God. So, because we can love so much and do love so little, because we can trust thus far and do truest no more, because we have some spark of the Divine life in us and that spark so contradicted and thwarted and oppressed, there must be somewhere a region which shall correspond to this cur deepest nature, and the time must come, when the righteous, who here shone, but so dimly, shall “ blaze forth like the sun in the kingdom of the Father.” II. Now as to THE of the Christian hope. Certainty is one thing, and assurance is another. A man may have the most firm conviction based upon the most unsubstantial foundation. His expectation may have no roots to it, and yet the confidence with which he cherishes the expectation may be perfect. There may be entire assurance without any certainty; and there may be what people call objective certainty with a very tremulous and unworthy subjective assurance. But the only temper that corresponds to and is worthy of the absolute certainties, with which the Christian man has to deal, is the temper of unwavering and assured confidence. Do not disgrace the sure and steadfast anchor, by fastening a slim piece of packthread to it that may snap at any moment. Do not build flimsy structures upon the rock, and put up canvas shanties that any puff of wind may sweep away, upon such a foundation. If you have a staff to lean upon which will neither give, nor warp, nor crack, whatever stress is put upon it, see that you lean on it, not with a tremulous finger, but with your whole hand. Let me remind you further, that this assured hope is permanent. “ The full assurance unto the end,” my text says, “ Unto the end.” How many a lighthouse that you and I once steered towards is behind us now I As we get older, how many of the aims and hopes that drew us on have sunk below the horizon! And how much less there is left for us people with grey hairs in our heads, and years on our backs to hope for, than we used to think there was! But, dear brethren, what does it matter though the sea be washing away the coast on one side the channel, if it is depositing fertile land on the other? What does it matter though the earthly hopes are becoming fewer and those few graver and sadder, if the one great hope is shining brighter? Winter nights are made brilliant by keener stars than the soft summer evenings, and the violet and red and green streamers that fill the northern heavens only come in the late year. So it is well and blessed for us if, when the leaves fall, we see a wider sky; and if as hope dies for earth, it revives and lives again for heaven. III. Lastly, note here THE CULTURE Of this certitude of hope. My text is an exhortation to all Christian people “ to show the same diligence” in order to such an assurance. The same diligence as what? The same diligence as they had shown “ in their work and labour of love towards God’ s name.” The fashionable type of a Christian to-day is a worker. By common consent theology seems put into the background, and by almost as common consent there is comparatively little said about what our fathers used to call “ experimental religion,” feelings, emotions, inward experiences, but everything is drive, drive; drive at getting people to work. God forbid that I should say one word against that. But “ we desire that ye should show the same diligence” as in your mission halls and schools and various other benevolent operations, in cultivating the emotions and sentiments--yes, and the doctrinal beliefs of the Christian life, or else you will be lopsided Christians. Further, did it ever occur to you, Christian people, that your hope was a thing to be cultivated, that you ought to set yourselves to distinct and specific efforts for that purpose? Have you ever done so? Hew is it to be done? Get into the habit of meditating upon the objects towards which it is directed, and the grounds on which it is built. If you never lift your eyes to the goal, you will never be drawn towards it. If you never think about heaven it will have no attraction for you. If you never go over the bases of your hope, your hope will get dim, and there will be little realisation or lifting power in it. Let me say, lastly, in the matter of practical advice, that this cultivation of the assurance of hope is largely to be effected by pruning the wild luxuriance and earthward-stooping tendrils of our hope. “ If you want the tree to grow high, nip the side shoots and the leader will gain strength. “ If you desire that your hope should ever be vigorous you must be abstinent from, or temperate in earthly things, (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Full assurance of hope Some men may be assured of their good estate. St. Paul is so sure of it that he sings a triumph over all his enemies Romans 8:33-34), &c. Neither is it his song alone, but the song of all the faithful (Job 19:25; 2 Corinthians 5:1). How come we by this assurance? not by revelation from heaven, but by good works practised by us here on the earth (2 Peter 1:10). When St. Paul was ready to depart out of the world, he was sure of the crown of life. How? Not by revelation, but by the godly life which he had led (2 Timothy 4:8; 2 Timothy 2:19). Depart from sin, be sure of good works, as Dorcas was, and thou mayest have a full assurance of the kingdom of heaven. It is not a bare and naked faith that can assure thee of heaven, but such as worketh by love. Men in this age flatter themselves in a supposed faith, and cast away the care of good works. But how long must we be diligent? Nut for a time, but to the end. It is a folly to run at all, unless we run to the end: a folly to fight at all, unless we fight to the end’ . Remember Lot’ s wife, she went out of Sodom, but because she looked back she was turned into a pillar of salt, Let not us be diligent for a time, but to the end; we must be working to our lives end, so long as any breath is in our body; it is not enough to be young disciples, but we must be old disciples, as Mnason was. As we have been diligent in prayer, almsdeeds, in hearing of sermons, in crucifying of sin, so we must be diligent to the end. (W. Jones, D. D.) False assurance I would not give one straw for that assurance that sin will not damp. If David had come to me in his adultery, and had talked to me of his assurance, I should have despised his speech. (John Newton.) Going on to full assurance Indeed nothing else seems interesting enough--nothing to repay the labour, but the telling of my fellow-men about the one man who is the truth, and to know whom is the life. Even if there be no hereafter, I would live my time believing in a grand thing that ought to be true if it is not. No facts can take the place of truths, and if these be not truths, then is the loftiest part of our nature a waste. Let me hold by the better than the actual, and fall into nothingness off the same precipice with Jesus and John and Paul and a thousand more, who were lovely in their lives, and with their death make even the nothingness into which they have passed like the garden of the Lord. I will go further, Polwarth, and say, I would rather die for evermore believing as Jesus believed, than live for evermore believing as those that deny Him. If there be no God, I feel assured that existence is and could be but a chaos of contradictions, whence can emerge nothing worthy to be called a truth, nothing worth living for. No, I will not give up my curacy. I will teach that which is good, even if there should be no God to make a fact of it, and I will spend my life on it, in the growing hope, which may become assurance, and there is indeed a perfect God, worthy of being the Father of Jesus Christ, and that it was because they are true, that these things were lovely to me and to so many men and women, of whom some have died for them, and some would be yet ready to die. I thank my God to hear you say so. Nor wilt you stand still there, said Polwarth. (G. Macdonald’ s “ Thomas Wingfold.”) Fitful assurance We hear, sometimes, a great deal said about possessing a full assurance of being a child of God; and then, every now and then, we hear of a doubt, a hope. As good Joseph Irons used to say, “ They keep hope, hope, hoping--hop, hop, hopping--all their lives, because they can’ t walk.” Little faith is always lame. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Assurance of hope The celebrated Philip de Morney, prime minister to Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest statesmen, and the most exemplary Christians of his age, being asked, a little before his death, if he still retained the same assured hope of future bliss which he had enjoyed during his illness, he made this memorable reply, “ I am as confident of it, from the incontestable evidence of the Spirit of God, as ever I was of any mathematical truth from all the demonstrations of Euclid.” (K. Arvine.) Inspiration of hope Once on a time, certain strong labourers were sent forth by the great king to level a primeval forest, to plough it, to sow it, and to bring to him the harvest. They were stout-hearted and strong, and willing enough for labour, and much they needed all their strength and more. One stalwart labourer was named Industry--consecrated work was his. His brother Patience, with thews of steel, went with him, and tired not in the longest days under the heaviest labours. To help them they had Zeal, clothed with ardent and indomitable energy. Side by side there stood his kinsman Self-denial, and his friend Importunity. These went forth to their labour, and they took with them, to cheer their toils, their well-beloved sister Hope; and well it was they did, for they needed the music of her consolation ere the work was done for the forest trees were huge, and demanded many sturdy blows of the axe ere they would fall prone upon the ground. One by one the giant forest kings were overthrown, but the labour was immense and incessant. At night when they went to their rest, the day’ s work always seemed so light, for as they crossed the threshold, Patience, wiping the sweat from his brow, would be encouraged, and Self-denial would be strengthened by hearing the sweet voice of Hope within singing, “ God will bless us; God, even our own God, will bless us.” They felled the lofty trees to the music of that strain; they cleared the acres one by one, they tore from their sockets the huge roots, they delved the soil, they sowed the corn, and waited for the harvest, often much discouraged, but still held to their work as by silver chains and golden fetters by the sweet sound of the voice which chanted so constantly, “ God, even our own God, will bless us.” They never could refrain from service, for Hope never could refrain from song. They were ashamed to be discouraged, they were shocked to be despairing, for still the voice rang clearly out at noon and eventide, “ God will bless us; God, even our own God, will bless us.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Assurance desirable A man can never be too sure of his going to heaven. If we purchase an inheritance on earth, we make it as sure, and our tenure as strong as the brain of the law, or the brains of the lawyers, can devise. We have conveyances, and bonds, and fines, no strength too much. And shall we not be more curious in the settling our eternal inheritance in heaven? (T. Adams.) How to realise full assurance An old author (alas, they were more familiar with these things long ago than the moderns seem to be!) says epigrammatically, truthfully, and scripturally, that God gifts His acceptance, but He sells assurance. And His people buy assurance by a life of secret prayer, not prayer meeting prayer, by crucifying the deepest lusts, by a sweet and holy life. The traffic for this great blessing goes on between God and the sinner; and the reward for gospel obedience comes in the shape of full assurance to his weak and trembling heart. (A. Whyre, D. D.) Hope--an uncultivated grace A Christian without love would be an anomaly; a Christian without faith, a self-contradiction; and yet Christians without hope are as common in the Church as empty shells on the sea-shore, and unlighted gas lamps in the city on dark nights when the almanac says the moon is shining. The three graces are reduced to two; and they mourn their sister dead and buried. Even Christian ministers forget that the Bible is a book of hope, and treat it as a book chiefly of warnings. Children learn to regard it as an awful book, and never quite recover from the misapprehension. The “ God of hope” is converted into a “ God of fear,” and we are driven to duty by a rod instead of drawn to life by inspiring hope. The Christian repeats the experience of his prototype in the vision of Bunyan, and forgets that he has a key in his bosom which will let him out of Castle Doubting anti the custody of Giant Despair. Hope is one of the threefold cords out of which Christian experience is woven. If a man has no hope, let him examine himself and see if he have any faith; let him beware lest love, unfed by its mother hope, die and leave him without either faith, hope, or charity. Men scoff at the optimistic spirit. It is fashionable to be cynical and mildly despairing. Dean Swift’ s spirit is contagious among men of Dean Swift’ s type; and his beatitude is accepted for substance of doctrine by many men who do not know of its existence: Blessed are they who do not expect much, for they shall not be disappointed. Bat what pessimist ever achieved anything for himself or for humanity? Hope is the inspiration of all noble activity. The world’ s leaders have all been men of great hope, (Christian Union.) Hope An assured hope is not like a mountain torrent, but like a stream flowing from a living fountain, and often so quietly that it is scarcely visible but for the verdure of its banks. (G. Spring.) Development of hope Hope takes fast hold of heaven itself. A Christian’ s hope is not like that of Pandora, which may fly out of the box, and bid the soul farewell, as the hope of the hypocrite does; no, it is like the morning light, the least beam of it shall go on into a complete sunshine; it shall shine forth brighter and brighter till the perfect day. (T. Brooks.) Hope an active grace Hope is an active grace; it is called a lively hope. Hope is like the spring in the watch, it sets all the wheels of the soul in motion; hope of a crop makes the husbandman sow his seed; hope of victory makes the soldier fight; and a true hope of glory makes a Christian vigorously pursue glory. Here is a spiritual touch-stone to try our hope by. (T. Watson.) Not slothfulAn exhortation to diligence I. THE . “ Be not slothful.” 1. I should think you would not be if you thought of your Master. Good old Rutherford, when he lay in prison, said, “ I wish all my brethren did but know what a Master I have served.” If you thought more of your Master, methinks you would be inclined to say such a Master deserves your service. 2. Then your work: this is a service that may well call forth all your energies. Don t imagine that you have done all now you have begun to make a Christian profession. You have but just put on the sandals; you have the pilgrimage to go yet. There is a great work before thee to do; but He float hath called thee to fight will strengthen thee. What a precious thing when the soul is intent upon noble objects! Oh, young people, to give your youth to holy purposes; to take so noble an object as this of glorifying God and blessing your fellows as the object for which you are living--oh, what a grand thing is this, the giving of your youth to Him! it is like harnessing a steed of fire to some noble chariot. How much evil you will prevent, how much good you will do, how many tears you will wipe away, how many sad hearts you will make happy! May God give you a holy emulation in this matter. Think of your work. It was said of Dr John Harris, of Oxford, who lived soon after the time of Cromwell, that when he came to die he called his friends and said this--“ Of all the sins which I have ever committed, the sin of misspent time troubleth me most,” and yet he had been a very busy man; but when he came to look at the past from his death-bed, he thought how little he had done. When Leigh Richmond was dying, a minister came and sat by his bed-side, and he said to him, “ Oh, if you could see the value of the golden moments now as you will see them when you stand at the rim of the grave, and look back, how earnst would be your work!” It was the prayer of Alline every morning--“ Lord, Thou hast given me a new day; help me to make my crown brighter and to bless my fellows.” What a blessed effect such a prayer would have on each of our lives! It was said of Boston, when he came towards the close of his life, that he used to say--“ Hold out, faith and patience, thou shalt soon be crowned, the battle shall not last much longer.” Work while thou canst, there are many things thou canst not do in eternity. Many a good thing you can do now that you cannot do then. You cannot hold up a sinking head in heaven, for there is no sickness or sorrow there. Be not slothful--think of your Master, think of your work, think of your reward. Now I want to tell you why a great many of you become slothful. There are many slothful, because they are not sufficiently aware of those crises--times when special difficulties come in upon them. You may be very busy for the world and very slothful for God. John Bunyan describes two sleeping-places in his “ Pilgrim’ s Progress,” and he does it exceedingly wisely. When Christian was going up the hill Difficulty, and when half-way up the hill, he fell asleep in the arbour and lost his roll, and had a sore journey back again to recover it. The other sleeping-place was on the Enchanted Ground. The one was in the midst of difficulties, ‘ and the other where the sky was clear and the scenes were like fairyland; clusters hung from every tree, and the earth was carpeted with green and flowers. This is true religious experience. The two times of greatest danger to our spiritual vigilance are, special adversity and special prosperity. In times of the world’ s adversity, if you do not go to Him who layeth on the burden, for strength to bear it, you will go to sleep in spiritual things--you will be losing your roll. And if the sky is clear and everything go smoothly, you will be in the same danger. Sometimes when things look very smiling in this world we get wrong for the next. I have no doubt Israel were quite willing to go on when they were at the bitter waters of Marah; but when they came to Elim, with its fountains and palm-trees, they would have liked to have stopped a little longer. Let us take care that we hold nothing on earth so dear that we would make our rest here. Be not slothful. In order that you may not be so there must be self-culture, self-discipline, self denial. Another reason for tour slothfulness is, that you have not fixed upon any standard of Christian character. The Lord Jesus is the standard that you should set before you. II. THE EXAMPLE. “ Followers of them,” &c. Many a man admires the martyrs who does not mean to follow them. The noble army of martyrs were faithful to their duty and to truth. They were not fanatics. They did not seek after suffering out of a spirit of bravado. When holy Bradford lay in prison, and Queen Mary sent offers of mercy to him if he would give up his gospelling, what said the good man? “ If I might have her Majesty’ s favour, without losing that of my Lord, gladly would I accept of it; but it is too dear a price to give God’ s favour for that of the Queen.” Give me a man who really fears God, and I know he will fear nobody else. It is a grand thing for a man to have the presence of Jehovah. Those are striking words of St. Basil to an empress who tempted him to sin, and theatened punishment, because he would not comply with her--“ How can you make me fear confiscation, who have long since learned that nothing I have is my own? or exile, when I know that the remotest province of your empire is no farther from heaven than Constantinople? Or how can you make me tear even death, when to me death would be the entrance to glory?” The martyrs were sustained by their faith. When Polycarp came to the stake, they wanted to fasten him with a chain. “ You need not do that,” said he, “ for my Master, who brought me here, will keep me in the fire.” Sometimes their place, on such occasions, swelled into ecstasy, as when holy Bradford said, “ What am I, and what is my father’ s house, that the Lord for me, as for Elijah, should send a chariot of fire?” and so he went up into the fiery chariot to heaven. These were men who through faith and patience inherit the promises. They showed their fidelity to the truth by sealing it with their blood. Oh, how many of our privileges do we owe to the faithfulness of such men But notice further, you must be followers of those who showed their fidelity to the Word, by their diligent study of it. How much you owe to the translators of the Scriptures, who toiled at their work night and day! Think of the marvellous story of the venerable Bede, who died, just as he had finished the last word of the translation of the Scriptures, over which he had toiled in faith and patience for many years. Then you must be followers of those who keep on with their duty under all circumstances. What a beautiful description that is which John Bunyan gives of one Mr. By-ends, and he tells you he was related to one, Mr. Face-both-ways, and to one Mr. Fair-speak, and to some other people with strange and significant names. He tells yea that By-ends had a great love for religion when she went in silver slippers, when the sun shone upon her and the people applauded; but he had no liking for being with her when the mob hooted and yelled; no liking for Christ when the mob cried, “ Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” But that won’ t do; you must follow Christ at all times, it at all. You must be followers of those who did their duty when duty was costly. You must go where Christ would have you go, and do what Christ put you to do, and be willing |o work for God in secret, and without the applause of the world. How blessedly many who have now received the promises showed their faith and patience! Think of Abraham waiting five-and-twenty years for the promise of Isaac. But though the time was so long, Abraham’ s heart never misgave him. The language of his h, art was, “ My Lord has said it, and I believe my Isaac will come.” And the Lord fulfilled this promise. How long Monica, the mother of Augustine, waited for her son’ s conversion! He indulged in all manner of wickedness, and she went to Ambrose and told of her prayers and tears for her son. “ Ah! “ said Ambrose, “ a child of so many tears and prayers shall not perish.” At length Augustine was converted, and became the great luminary of the Western Church. When your prayers are long in being answered, do not give up. Sometimes the ship that is longest on its voyage brings home the richest freight. If the promise tarries, wait for it. A promise long waited for is very precious in its fulfilment. III. THE . Those who endured--where are they now? Inheriting the promises. Those early martyrs--early Christians, those who were often in tears and troubles--as many of you will be--where are they now? Inheriting the promises. Oh, ye of little faith, look up and take comfort. There they stand. They used to fear just as you do; they thought, sometimes, they should never get there, just as you do. Now, if you be not slothful, just as they have triumphed you shall triumph, just as they are crowned you shall be crowned. (S. Coley.) The warning against slothfulness Slothfulness is the same as idleness. An idle person is one who neglects his duty, and who never can succeed in anything. Solomon says that “ slothfulness” --or idleness--“ will clothe a man with rags.” We need not wonder therefore, to find among the warnings of the Bible, one against idleness, or slothfulness. And God, who gives us this warning, has set before us splendid examples of industry. See what an example of this we have in God Himself. When our Saviour was on earth, He said to the Jews--“ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” And then think of the angels of heaven. They wait before God continually to do His bidding. And the moment He tells them to go any where, or do anything, they fly away and do it. There is no slothfulness, or idleness among the angels. And then think of the sun. God made it, thousands of years ago, by its shining to light up our world, and the worlds around it. And since then it has kept on shining day and night, without ever stopping for a moment. And so it is with the moon, and the stars, and the seasons, and day and night. There is no slothfulness or idleness about any of them. I. The first reason why we ought to mind this warning is--FOR THE SAKE OF OUR EXAMPLE. About the year 1725, an American boy, nineteen years old, found himself in London, where he had to earn his own bread. He went one day to a printing office, and asked for employment. “ Where are you from?” asked the foreman. “ From America,” was the answer. “ Ah!” said the foreman, “ from America! a lad from America seeking employment as a printer! Well, do you really understand the art of printing? Can you set type? “ The young man stepped up to one of the type-eases, and in a short time set up the following passage, from St. John’ s Gospel, which he handed to the foreman--“ Nathaniel said unto him, ‘ Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?; Philip saith unto him, ‘ Come and see.’” The foreman was so pleased with the readiness and smartness of this American youth, that he took him into his employ at once. He was very industrious, and soon gained the confidence and respect of all connected with the office. He was always in his place, and did his work well. He never would drink beer or strong drink. He saved his money, and after a while returned to his own country. Then he had a printing establishment of his own. He became an author, a publisher, the Postmaster General of the country--a member for Congress--a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and an ambassador from his country to some of the royal courts of Europe, and finally he died in Philadelphia, on the 17th of April, 1790, at the age of eighty-four, full of years and honours. This was Benjamin Franklin. No one can tell the influence which his example for industry has had upon thousands of the youth of our country. But we may form a pretty fair idea of this when we bear in mind that there are more than a hundred and filly counties, towns, and villages that have been called Franklin, in honour of this industrious printer’ s boy. II. The second reason why we ought to mind this warning is--FOR OUR SUCCESS IN LIFE. A lady once asked Mr. Turner, the great English painter, what the secret of his success was? His reply was: “ I have no secret, madam, but hard work.” “ The difference between one man and another,” says Dr. Arnold, “ is not so much in talent, as in industry.” “ Nothing,” says Sir Joshua Reynolds, “ is denied to well-directed labour, and nothing is to be attained without it.” “ Success,” says Dr. Johnson, “ may be won by patient industry, but it is not to be looked for in any other way.” Solomon says--“ The hand of the diligent maketh rich.” Again he says, “ Seest thou a man diligent in his business; he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men.” Periander, one of the seven wise men of Greece, wrote a motto, which was inscribed on the walls of the celebrated temple of Delphos, in these words--“ Nothing is impossible to industry.” III. The third reason why we ought to mind it is--FOR OUR REWARD IN HEAVEN. If we get to heaven at all, we shall owe it entirely to the grace and love of Jesus. But what our place in heaven shall be, when we get there, will be decided according to the way in which we have served Jesus on earth. And this is a good reason why we should mind the warning against slothfulness. (R. Newton, D. D.) Spiritual sluggishness Almost everywhere is the fact recognised that novelty has much to do with enthusiasm. Very few are prepared to judge of the value of a worker by what he is at the commencement of his work. “ Wait a while,” they say. “ He is new to the duties as yet; when the charm of their freshness is over then we shall be able better to estimate what we may daily expect from him.” Splendid enthusiasm to start with! If it were only kept up, the worker would soon have everything at his feet, but unfortunately, it is not kept up. Soon the inquiry has to be raised, “ Who did hinder you?” The fine gold has become dim. The simple fact is that the novelty of the experience has gone, and then the enthusiasm with it. Such was the great danger of these Hebrew Christians. Let us consider the sluggishness here referred to, and how it may be avoided. Spiritual sluggishness. The word is one which usually relates to a bodily condition, and we must therefore first gain a clear idea of it in that sense before we can understand its use by the writer in relation to the soul. It is a difficult matter to define health in a way that will satisfy a scientific mind, but generally speaking, it is that condition when “ all the functions of the body are performed easily, naturally, and well.” All of us, however, have passed through seasons when some one bodily organ was not capable of performing its function, and when, in consequence of some complaint or other, it caused us considerable pain. We had no difficulty in localising the matter; we could lay our finger upon the exact spot, and our ability to do so led to the use of remedies which, happily, soon restored us. All disorders, however, are not of his acute kind. Although sharp pain is the usual herald of a deviation from the standard of health, there are conditions in which the body is not us it should be, though there is no great suffering. There are other heralds besides pain, and sluggishness is one of them. In this case you cannot put your finger upon any one spot and say, “ The pain is here! “ No, there is a dulness, a lethargy which affects the whole body. Such was precisely the condition of these Hebrews in relation to spiritual things. There was no glaring sin to rebuke. They went to the same places as before, and performed the same acts; yet they were not the same men. The difference was here: formerly, whatever they did, they did zealously; now, whatever they did, they did sluggishly. The stream was confined within the same banks; but whereas once it rushed on, smiling in the sunlight, carrying away many a poisonous element, turning many a water wheel--musical, purifying, useful--now it moved slowly--the music a as gone, the poison was accumulating, and the wheels were still. The same stream? Yes; if you looked only at the old landmarks, but not the same stream by any means, if you looked at its flow and the purposes it served. To particularise they still spoke of Christ as their Saviour, but there was no glow of affection on their faces or in their hearts. They prayed to Him still, but the old fervour was not there. They ministered to the needy, but the poor felt that the gift and the giver were separate. They had drifted into another zone and they who in the warmer climate had been full of activity, now were almost torpid in the cold. Two other points in the analogy demand our attention, although I can only touch upon them lightly. In its milder forms sluggishness is generally the result of the neglect of healthy exercise, and further, although it does not always imply organic disease, yet, if not remedied, it is likely to lead to it, and so shorten the days. There were certain exercises of the Christian life which these Hebrews had neglected. They had not forsaken their teachers, but they did not give them proper attention. The truth was explained, but they were not mentally on the alert, and so it found no lodgment within them. The neglect of that duty was yielding its baneful fruit. Disease was threatening them. Thorns and thistles spring up on neglected land, and the apostle feared that such growths would speedily appear in them. What had been a garden of the Lord was likely to become a fruitless tract, bearing growths only fit to be burned. Observe, it is not a mere matter of slowness or swiftness; rightly regarded, it is one of life or death. “ Not sluggish,” but “ imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Who can tell how much inspiration men have received by considering a noble end and noble human examples? Now, the writer calls his readers to that twofold contemplation. He reminds them first of the promises of God. Some of them had already been fulfilled, but many of them were still but promises--i.e., they had relation to the future. The reference, of course, is to the heavenly life which he wished them to contemplate, so that they might patiently endure their present afflictions. God had in store for them a tranquility such as they had never yet known--a tranquility which should never be ruffled by the stormy winds of trial, and a service which should never be hindered by persecution, or in which they should ever tire or grow weary. In that higher life work and rest should sweetly blend. In their present circumstances they were sharply and painfully separated from each other; but then the twain, by a heavenly we, doth, should become one for ever. Did any of them, however, regard their difficulties and hindrances as insuperable? If so, the apostle corrects the error by reminding them that many had already inherited the promises. Was their case while on earth different in any essential respect from that of his readers? Nay, they inherited the promises “ through faith and patience.” (W. S. Page.) Slothfullness “ Slothful” --a word which has quite passed out of common use. It is a strong old Saxon word, very little changed. The Saxon form is slewdeth, from slaw, slow; and the idea of the word is tardiness, disinclination to action or labour. This slothfulness was the characteristic sin of the civilised and effeminate times of the Book of Proverbs. It is the great sin, in respect of religious things, of all highly civilised and luxurious ages and nations, and the great peril of all persons who are not placed under the stern necessity of working with band or brain for their daily bread. But a more precise idea can be given to this term as it is used in this Epistle. Slothfulness is action which has in it no energy; nothing of that essential characteristic of manliness--energy. I. THE SIN OF IN THE LIFE. We know the sin and its ruinous consequences well enough in business life. We have often been wearied out with the kid-gloved young man, who counts business a bore, dawdles about, puts no soul into anything, drags through his day’ s work and tries the patience of everybody that has to do with him. Can it possibly be that he represents the way in which, by our Christian slothfulness, we are wearying God and all good men? It must be a sin to live a listless, easeful Christian life: a sin like that of the soldier who hides among the stuff or feigns a sickness when the trumpet blast is summoning all heroic souls to the front. It must be sin in view of those all-absorbing claims of King Jesus under which we come. He demands body, soul, and spirit, life, time, powers, all. No man can be truly His without being wholly His. It must be sin in viewer the consecration vow which we have made, yielding ourselves up as living sacrifices, like the whole burnt-offering, given over, body, and fat, and skin, and blood, and life, for a whole consuming on the Lord’ s altar. It must be sin in view of that great work in the world which has yet to be done ere Christ shall “ see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.” It must be the sin of the most shameful ingratitude, when we remember how He bought us with His precious blood, giving Himself unto the death for us. II. THE TO THE SIN OF IN MODERN LIFE. Certainly there is no temptation to slothfulness in modern business life. Intensity, haste, keenness, over-grasping, are the modern business sins. But this business life of ours in many ways brings temptation to a weak Christian living. Observe how it tends to exhaust energy, expending all the gathered stores of physical and mental strength, and leaving none to be given to Christian uses. Then, too, it brings wealth and the enervating influence of luxury--precisely the sin of old Sodom, old Jerusalem, and old Tyre, against which a prophet’ s voice is ever needed. Other things besides business are seriously telling on the energy of religious life. To what an alarming extent personal Christian effort is excused by an arrangement for most payment; as if cold cash could ever do in the world for Christ what living souls can! The extravagant pursuit of mere pleasure, and interest in the excitingly sensational and weakly sentimental in literature. And then in other departments of life we have the open enthronement of intellect as the deity for modem worship. III. THE WHICH PUTS UPON THOSE SAINTS AND HEROES WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US, AND WHO SEEK TO LIVE AGAIN IN us. Oh, the glorious vision of the saints of God! Sainted fathers, mothers, pastors, heroes! They have inherited the promises, and now they rest. But how? Through “ faith,” which is but another name for energy--energy seen on another side; and through “ patience,” which enabled them, amid all their toils, and discouragements, and failures, to keep up their energy. They live again in us. What dishonour do we put upon them, if our Christian living is faithless and weak, self-indulgent and restless and fretful! How we disgrace them, if we sink down as low as to make our lives a mere response to the questions, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed? They live again in us. They were the Church of Christ for their time, and we are for ours. Would to God that in earnest, energetic, Christian lives we could be worthy of them. Nay, would to God that we might be worthy of Him whom they and we alike should imitate, who hath called us by His grace unto His kingdom and glory. (R. Tuck, B. A.) The evil of sloth Among the disciples of Hillel, the wise teacher of the sons of Israel, was one named Saboth, to whom every work was a great trouble, and who gave himself up to idleness and sloth. Hillel was grieved thereat for the youth, and resolved to cure him of his fault. To this end he took him out to the valley of Hinnom, by Jerusalem. There was a standing pool full of snakes and vermin, and covered with muddy weeds. When they reached this place, Hillel put down his staff, and said, “ Let us rest here from our way.” The youth was surprised, and said, “ How, master, near this foul bog? Dost thou not perceive what poisonous vapours it exhales?” “ Thou art right, my son,” answered the master: “ this bog is like the soul of a slothful man. Who would wish to be near it? “ Then Hillel took the youth to a waste field, producing nothing but thistles and thorns, which choked the corn and the salutary herbs. Now, Hillel leaned on his staff, and said, “ Behold this field has good soil to produce all that is useful and pleasant, but it is forgotten and neglected, therefore it brings forth thistles, and thorns, and poisonous weeds, beneath which lurk toads and serpents. A little while ago thou didst see the soul; now behold the life of an idle man.” Then Saboth was full of shame and repentance, and said, “ Master, why leadest thou me to these lonely and dreary spots? They are the reproachful picture of my soul and life!” Hillel answered, and said, “ Thou wouldst not believe my words, therefore I tried whether the voice of Nature would penetrate to thy heart.” Saboth pressed his master’ s hand, and said, “ Thy endeavours shall not be in vain; thou wilt see that a new life has begun within me.” And after this day Saboth became an active youth. Then Hillel took him to a fertile valley, by the side of a clear brook, which flowed meandering between fruitful trees, flowery meadows and shady shrubberies. “ See here,” said the old man to the rejoicing youth, “ the picture of thy new, industrious life. Nature, which warned thee, will now reward thee. Her beauty and grace can only give joy to him who sees in her life a picture of his own.” (F. A. Krummacher.) Indolence The soul’ s idling time is the devil’ s working time. Followers of them who … inherit the promises Departed saints our examples It must be owned, although it is a melancholy confession, that fear comparatively set out in the road to heaven, and fewer still persevere unto the end. “ Many of the disciples of Jesus turned back, and walked no more with Him.” I. THE CAUTION against a sore evil in the Church of Christ. “ We desire that ye be not slothful.” Can he be slothful who has for long years felt the bitterness of bondage, but having shaken off, through the might of another, the bonds of misery, is now on his way to the land of liberty? Can he be slothful who has seen the wild storm gathering in the heavens, with destruction, and is on the road to the refuge set before him? Can he be slothful who flees, while sin and Satan and avenging justice are pursuing? Can the Christian ever need such an exhortation when he has so much to excite him to diligence? So prevalent is the evil, that no Christian should regard himself as not standing in need of caution here. Such, too, is its deceitful nature that it is often overlooked or mistaken for something else. It is a kind of negative vice; not so much the doing of what is directly wrong, as the omitting to do what is obviously right. Depend upon it, if we omit a duty, we are on the high way to the perpetration of an actual crime. The great tempter knows ,his full well, and therefore strives thus to draw us aside rather than to drive us into evil. The citadel has come into the possession of the foe, not by the might, but by the stratagem of the enemy; it has been brought low, not by the strength of the assailants, but through the indifference of the defenders. But there is a class of persons whose strength seems paralysed, and who shrink from effort, because they see everything in an unfavourable light. They behold difficulties in the way, and regard them as unscaleable; they consider the exertions demanded as beyond their strength, and I he self-denial required as more than they can bear. Such characters as those to which we have alluded seek, but do not strive. They do not set about the matter with all the heart and soul and strength; there is none of that combating with the habit of evil which will not rest until it is destroyed. Love with its note of tenderness, peace with its words of sweetness, joy by its language of rapture, zeal with its burbling syllables, and faith by the accents of assurance--all urge us never to be slothful. Remember the nature of that duty which is laid upon you. You have a prize to win and a soul to save. Shall earthly competitors and worldly combatants put you to the blush? Think, again, of the character you bear and the profession you make. You are children of God, whose meat and drink should be to do their Father’ s will, to “ count all things but loss for Christ.” Can you, then, bear the thought of belying your character, of regarding spiritual things as little worth when earthly interests come in the way? II. A to diligence, as enforced by the example of those who have preceded us in the road to heaven--“ Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” There is something in this mode of exciting the Hebrew Christians to diligence, which by its suitableness recommends itself to us. It shows how practicable it is to accomplish that which sloth suggests is impossible; it puts to flight every false fear by giving instances of complete success, and assures us of what may be done by reminding us of what has been done. Think of the zeal of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, the trials they endured, and the difficulties they overcame. Look at Abraham hoping against hope, obeying the Divine command regardless of the consequences. Look at Moses” choosing affliction with the people of God” in preference to all the riches of an Egyptian throne. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 6:14 Blessing I will bless thee God’ s abundant blessing The blessing is amplified by doubling the phrase, thus, “ blessing I will bless. ” 1. The certainty of a thing (Exodus 3:7). 2. Diligence and pains in a thing. 3. Celerity and speed in doing a thing: as where David saith, “ It is better that escaping I should escape” (1 Samuel 27:1). 4. Abundance in giving a thing. 5. Success in doing a thing, or a thorough doing of it, or doing it to purpose: as where Saul saith to David, “ Doing thou shalt do, and prevailing thou shalt prevail” (1 Samuel 26:25). 6. Finishing and perfecting a thing: as where Solomon saith to God, “ Building I have built Thee an house” (1 Kings 8:13). His meaning is, that he had perfectly finished it. 7. A wonderful increase of a thing, as in this phrase, “ Multiplying I will multiply.” 8. Long continuance as, “ Waiting, I have waited” (Psalms 40:1), that is, I have long waited. This phrase, “ Blessing I will bless.” gives us to understand that blessings appertaining to Abraham and to his seed are abundant blessings. God is no way scanty to the faithful. God proprtioneth His blessings according to His own greatness. He setteth forth His magnificence in blessing children of men. Who would not depend upon such a Lord for blessing? How ought we to enlarge our hearts, and open our mouths in blessing God for so blessing us! (W. Gouge.) Hebrews 6:15 After he had patiently endured, he obtained Endurance and reward I. . 1. Trials. 2. The frailties of human nature. 3. The Christian contest. II. . 1. Gives calmness. 2. Bestows strength. 3. Takes away the bitterness of the endurance. III. REWARD. Not anything actually tangible--a promise. Not the thing itself, but the shadow of the thing. This is to try our faith. But is not the promise really as sure as the reality? It was to Abraham. For there is no uncertainty with God. (Homilist.) Patience and the promises Good old Spurstow says that some Of the promises are like the almond tree--they blossom hastily in the very earliest spring; but, saith he, there are others that resemble the mulberry--they are very slow in putting forth their leaves. Then what is a man to do, if he has a mulberry tree promise which is late in blossoming? Why, he is to wait till it does. If the vision tarry, wait for it till it come, and the appointed time shall surely bring it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Time necessary for development O impatient ones! Did the leaves say nothing to you as they murmured when you came hither to-day? They were not “ created this spring, but months ago; and the summer, just begun, will fashion others for another year. At the bottom of every leaf-stem is a cradle, and in it is an infant germ; and the winds will rock it, and the birds will sing to it all summer long; and next season it will unfold. So God is working for you, and carrying forward to the perfect development all the processes of your lives. (H. W. Beecher.) Patience Patience is but lying to, and riding out the gale. (H. W.Beecher.) Pray and stay Pray and stay are two blessed morn)syllables. (J. Donne.) Patience The husbandman is fain to have much patience, before he have his corn into the barn: with great toil he ploughs his ground, harrows it, casts his seed into the earth; he knows not whether he shall see it any more, but rests patiently in God’ s providence. The merchant is fain to have much patience, before he can mount up to any wealth: many a storm he endures on the sea, often in danger of his life. The clothier must have much patience, in buying of his wool, is making of it out, in selling of his cloth, he is fain to stand to many casualties; yet hope of a convenient gain in the end, makes him with cheerfulness to pass through them all. They do it for earthly things, that are h re to-day and gone to-morrow; and shall not we be patient for heavenly treasures, for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, but is eternal in the heavens? Be patient a while: pass through poverty, sickness, malevolent tongues, and all other calamities in this life, that we may at length be taken up into that place, where we shall have need of patience no more; for all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. (W. Johns, D. D.) Hebrews 6:16 An oath … the end of all strife The lawfulness and obligation of oaths I. FOR THE NATURE OF AN OATH, AND THE KINDS OF IT. An oath is an invocation of God, or an appeal to Him as a witness of the truth of what we say. So that an oath is a sacred thing, as being an act of religion and an invocation of the name of God; and this, whether the name of God be expressly mentioned in it or not. There are two sorts of oaths, assertory and promissory. An assertory oath is when a man affirms or denies, upon oath, a matter of fact, past or present: when he swears that a thing was, or is so, or not so. A promissory oath is a promise confirmed by an oath, which always respects something that is future; and if the promise be made directly and immediately to God, then it is called a vow; if to men, an oath. II. THE GREAT USE AND EVEN OF OATHS, IN MANY CASES, WHICH IS SO GREAT, THAT HUMAN SOCIETY CAN VERY HARDLY, IF AT ALL, SUBSIST LONG WITHOUT THEM. Government would many times be very insecure, and for the faithful discharge of offices of great trust, in which the welfare of the public is nearly concerned, it is not possible to find any security equal to that of an oath; because the obligation of that reacheth to the most hidden practices of men, and takes hold of them, in many cases, where the penalty of no h ,man law can have any awe or force upon them; and especially it is the “ best means of ending controversies.” And where men’ s estates or lives are concerned, no evidence, but what is assured by an oath, will be thought sufficient to decide the matter, s,, as to give full and general satisfaction to mankind. III. THE OF OATHS, WHERE THEY ARE . 1. I shall prove the lawfulness of oaths from the authority of this text, and the reasons plainly contained, or strongly implied in it. Because the apostle doth not only speak of the use of oaths among men, without any manner of reproof, but as a commendable custom, and in many cases necessary for the confirmation of doubtful matters, and in order to the final decision of controversies and differences among men. 2. The insufficiency if the grounds of the contrary opinion, whether from reason or from Scripture. (1) From reason. They say the necessity of an oath is occasioned by the want of fidelity among men; and that every man ought to demean himself with that integrity as may give credit to his word; and then oaths will be needless. This pretence will be fully answered, if we consider these two things. (a) That in matters of great importance, no other obligation besides that of an oath hath been thought sufficient amongst the best and wisest of men, to assert their fidelity to one another. (b) This reason, which is alleged against oaths among men, is much stronger against God’ s confirming His promises to us by an oath. For He, who is truth itself, is surely of all other most to be credited upon His bare word, and His oath needless to give confirmation to it; and yet He condescends to add His oath to His word” and therefore that reason is evidently of no force. (2) From Scripture. Our Saviour seems altogether to forbid swearing in any case (Matthew 5:33-34). (a) That several circumstances of these words of our Saviour do manifestly show that they ought to be interpreted in a limited sense, as only forbidding swearing in common conversation; needless and heedless oaths, and in general all voluntary swearing, unless upon some weighty cause, in which the glory of God and the wood of the souls of men is concerned. For that in such cases a voluntary oath may be lawful, I am induced to believe from the example of St. Paul, who useth it more than once upon such occasions. (b) It is very considerable to the explaining of this prohibition, that there are like general expressions in other Jewish authors concerning this very matter, which yet must of necessity be thus limited:--Maimonides, from the ancient, rabbles, gives this rule, that “ it is best not to swear at all” : and Philo useth almost the same words. And Rabbi Jonathan comes very near our Saviour’ s expression when he says, “ The just man will not swear at all; not so much as by the common names of God, nor by His attributes, nor by His works, as by heaven, or the angels, or by the law.” Now it is lint imaginable that these learned Jews should condemn oaths in all cases, when the law of Moses did in many cases expressly require them. And therefore they are to be understood of voluntary oaths in ordinary conversation. (c) This prohibition of our Saviour’ s cannot be understood to forbid all oaths, without a plain contradiction to the unboubted practice of the primitive Christians and of the apostles, and even of our Lord Himself. Origen and Tertullian tell us that the Christians refused to swear by the emperor’ s genius; not because it was an oath, but because they thought it to be idolatrous. But the same Tertullian says that the Christians were willing to swear “ by the health and safety of the emperor.” Athanasius being accused to Constantius, purged himself by oath, and desired that his accuser might be, put to his oath,” by calling the truth to witness: by which form,” says he, “ we Christians are wont to swear.” But, which is more than this, St. Paul, upon weighty occasions, does several times in his epistle call God to witness for the truth of what he says; 153 which is the very formality of an oath (Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 1:20; Philippians 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:5). These are all unquestionable oaths; which we cannot imagine St. Paul would have used had they been directly contrary to our Saviour’ s law. And whereas some defend this upon account of his extraordinary inspiration, I cannot possibly see how this mends the matter. For certainly it is very inconvenient to say that they who were to teach the precepts of Christ to others, did themselves break them by inspiration. But I go yet farther, and shall urge an example beyond all exception. Our Saviour Himself (who surely would not be the first example of breaking His own laws) did not refuse to answer upon oath, being called thereto at His trial. So we find Matthew 26:60. IV. THE SACRED OF AN OATH: BECAUSE IT IS A SOLEMN APPEAL TO GOD AS A WITNESS OF THE TRUTH OF WHAT WE SAY: to God, I say, from whose piercing and all-seeing eye, from whose perfect knowledge, nothing is or can be hid; so that there is not a thought in our heart but He sees it, nor a word in our tongue, but He discerns the truth or falsehood of it. Whenever we swear, we appeal to His knowledge and refer ourselves to His just judgment, who is the powerful patron and protector of right, and the almighty judge and avenger of all falsehood and unrighteousness. So that it is not possible for men to lay a more sacred and solemn obligation upon their consciences than by the religion of an oath. (Abp. Tillotson.) Hebrews 6:17-20 Heirs of promise Heirs of promise I. WHEREIN THE PORTION OF : THEY ARE “ HEIRS OF PROMISE.” Though they have little in possession, they have much in prospect; if not rich in enjoyment, they are rich in faith and hope. Amongst men, promises are often of little worth; but all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, unto the glory of God by us. 1. With regard to their subject matter, they include all things pertaining both to life and godliness; ensuring support in this world, and glory in the world to come. 2. There are promises made to the church in general, and others to individual believers; and ‘ both are the portion of the saints. Of the former it is said, “ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall he)p her, arid that right early.” Promises also are made to individuals, for their comfort and encouragement, and which are applicable to all the saints. “ He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” “ My grace is sufficient for thee; My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “ Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, fur I am thy God.” “ As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.” 3. The promises of God are either absolute or conditional. Some of the promises are absolute, not suspended on any act or endeavour of ours, or on any previous qualification; and such are all those which relate to the first bestowment of grace. “ For who maketh thee to differ; and what hast thou that thou hast not received? It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God that showeth mercy.” But there are promises conditional to grace received, and which are made only to those who believe. “ God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” 4. The Divine promises have various degrees of accomplishment. Some have already been fulfilled, either in whole or in part; as in the case with those relating to the coming of Christ, the establishment of His kingdom, and the universal spread of the gospel. Some are daily fulfilling, and others are yet to be fulfilled. II. WHO ARE THE “ HEIRS” OF PROMISE, AND WHAT DO THEY BEAR? 1. They may be known by their perception of the promises themselves. They view them not only more distinctly and clearly, but in a light very different from that in which other persons either do or can consider them. They are represented as seeing them afar off, and being persuaded of them. Thus they see the suitableness and excellency of the promises, that they are the fruit of free and unmerited love, and are adapted to all cases and circumstances. As David saw the commandments, so they see the promises to be exceeding broad. 2. The heirs of promise may be known by the powerful application of the promises to their own hearts. 3. They may be known by the regard they bear towards them, and the desire they feel for their accomplishment. The promises contain all their salvation, and all their desire; they meditate therein both day and night, and view them with a satisfaction similar to that of a man who looks over the title-deeds of an estate which secures to him the possession of a large inheritance. 4. The practical effects which the promises produce in us are another means of showing who are the prop r heirs; for “ every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as Christ is pure.” Improvement 1. If not heirs of the promise, what are we? Heirs of the curse--of that curse which cuts off on every side, and will one day enter into our bowels like water, and like oil into our bones. 2. If heirs of the promises, we are interested in all the blessings contained in them, relating both to this world and that which is to come. If the promises are ours, all things are ours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the words, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are ours, and we are Christ’ s and Christ is God’ s. 3. If heirs of the promises we are heirs of God; all that He is and has, that is communicable, is made over to us in a way of covenanted mercy. 4. Being heirs of God, we are also joint heirs with Christ Jesus, to whom the birth-right blessing properly belongs. (B. Beddome, M. A.) God’ s faithfulness to His promises The Bible is a book of promises, as well as of revelations, or Divine statements. These promises are our heritage. Faith in the promises makes the future present, and the heirship possession. It is thus “ the substance of things hoped for.” Shall the promises fail? Is God unfaithful? Shall a Queen Elizabeth value her promise, as when she gave the first vacancy to one unfit? Shall a Chatham have a wall rebuilt, rather than seem to break a promise to his son? Shall a Napier refuse an invitation that he may keep a promise to a poor girl? And shall God refuse to honour drafts made on His promises in the name of His Son? Shall the promises fail? Is there inability or unwillingness to perform? (John Gill.) The immutability of His counsel God’ s counsel in relation to His people I. THAT THEIR FROM SIN SHALL BE A AND PERFECT . This is the avowed design of 1. All His purposes (Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Hebrews 3:1; 1 Peter 1:2; Romans 8:29 : Ephesians 2:10). 2. All His promises (Isaiah 1:18; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 11:19-20; 2 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 1:9). 3. The earthly mission of His Son (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29;Corinthians L 21-22; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:7; Hebrews 9:26). 4. The constant operations of His Spirit (Ephesians 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). 5. The heaven which He has prepared for their eternal residence. Only the pure in heart shall see God. “ Without holiness,” &e. II. THAT THEIR AND PERFECT FROM SIN SHALL BE BY THEIR OWN . 1. What is the perseverance of the sailors? (1) An increasing acquaintance with God’ s word, implying diligent examination, thoughtful investigation, careful comparison of part with part, and discriminating deductions from the whole. (2) An increasing confidence in God’ s promises; implying intelligent trust in Him for pardon of sin, sanctification of spirit for seasonable strength in temptation, support in trouble, and victory in death. (3) An increasing conformity to the image of Christ; implying the embodiment of Christianity in our lives, making our practice agree with our profession, yielding to Christian impulses, cherishing Christian affections, displaying Christian tempers, speaking Christian words, practising Christian actions 2. The proposition that God secures the complete salvation of His people by their own perseverance, is confirmed by (1) The injunctions of Scripture. (2) The nature of the case. Can you teach a child to walk without its constant effort and perseverance? (3) The example of saints (Philippians 3:13-14). III. THAT THEIR SHALL BE SECURED BY GOD’ S OWN . 1. It is God’ s counsel that the salvation of His people shall be a complete and perfect salvation. 2. It is also God’ s counsel that this shall be secured by their own perseverance. 3. It is also God’ s counsel that their perseverance shall be secured by His own blessing. (B. Preece.) Confirmed it by an oath The oath of God The Divine hath is one of the mysteries of revelation. To one duly considering the majesty of God, and His relation to His creatures, nothing can be well more awful than His swearing to us, and swearing by Himself. I. THE MEANING OF THE DIVINE OATH AND ITS FAIL TO BE . 1. The Divine oath is represented as analogous to an oath among men, and yet different from it. The design in both is the same; it is for confirmation, whether of a fact or of a promise; and so for the ending of all strife and doubt (Hebrews 6:16; Hebrews 6:37). There is a difference, however, between the two oaths, arising out of the difference between the parties swearing. Men swear by the greater (Hebrews 6:16). But this God cannot do; and therefore He swears by Himself (Hebrews 6:17). Still the appeal in both cases is virtually the same. What are the two immutable things which the oath of God, swearing by Himself, brings upon the field! What can they be but the Divine word and the Divine name or nature? Take first the Divine word. That is an immutable thing. The word or promise of God is always sure and trustworthy. But take in now the second of the two immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie; His name, His character, His nature, His being and continuing to be such as He is. What new security is thus given? Is it not in substance this:--That God discovers to us a ground or reason of what He designs to do farther back than the mere sovereign and discretionary fiat of His absolute will; deeply fixed and rooted in the very essence of His being? Is it not that He puts the certainty of that to which He swears, not only on the ground of His having intimated it beforehand, but on the ground of a stronger necessity, in the very nature of things, and in His own nature; lying far back and far down, in His being God, and being the God He is? The thing is to he so not merely because God has said it shall be so, but also because it cannot but be so, God continuing to be, and to be the God He is. This is what, in swearing by Himself, He means to tell us. 2. The graciousness of the oath is as wonderful as its meaning. It is indeed more so. Even among men; if the heart is true, and the eye, even turned on empty space, beams keen with honour: there is a certain feeling of repugnance to being called to swear. And undoubtedly no one who possesses right feeling, as regards the sacredness of a spoken word, will volunteer an oath. It is on this principle that our Lord gives forth His utterance against not only false but promiscuous swearing, It is of evil that this practice of swearing, even when most right and fitting, cometh among men on earth; of the evil of men’ s deceitfulness, their proneness to prevaricate and lie. It is at the best a necessary evil. And is it anything else when it is God who swears from heaven? Of that oath also, of that oath pre-eminently, may it not be said that it cometh of evil? Not indeed of the evil of anything false or suspicious on the part of Him who swears; but of the evil heart of unbelief in those to whom He swears. II. THE USES TO WHICH IT IS APPLIED IN MAY SERVE STILL FARTHER TO THE REAL IMPORT AND THE OF THE OATH. 1. We have an instance of the Divine oath in connection with the mediatorial priesthood of Christ. And what is very seasonable and providential, we have an ample inspired explanation of it, as viewed in that connection. I refer to the oracle in Psalms 110:4, as expounded in Hebrews 7:1-28. The priesthood of Christ is no mere arbitrary, discretionary ordinance, which, as being expedient to-day, God may institute by His sovereign authority in His word or law, and which, by the same sovereign authority, He may supersede to-morrow, as no longer needed and no longer useful. No; it is an office having its deep root in the very nature, the essential glory and perfection, of God Himself. It is therefore unchangeable, not merely as God’ s word, but as His very being, is unchangeable. The word of God is indeed immutable, under the conditions attached to it when it is uttered. But it may be, according to these conditions, the basis of what is merely temporary, insufficient, and provisional. What is based on the absolute immutable nature of God must necessarily be both permanent and perfect. 2. Founded on this primary use, if I may so speak, of the Divine oath, as bearing on the constitution of the mediatorial economy in the person and work of the great High Priest, there are other instances of its use in Scripture, connected with the carrying out of that economy, to which it may be interesting and useful to advert. (1) The Divine oath may be viewed in its bearing on the gospel call. In that connection it occurs often virtually; and expressly it occurs in this at least among other passages: Ezekiel 33:11. Thus viewed, the oath of God is peculiarly significant. It places the assurance which you may have, all of you, any of you, of God’ s perfect willingness, His earnest longing, to receive you back to Himself, on a footing such as, if you would but consider it, must make you feel that you dare not doubt, and cannot withstand, His affectionate importunity. (2) The oath of God stands connected with the doom of unbelief. This is one of the most impressive and awful of all its uses. It is indeed a terrible thought. For it means that God executes His threatened judgments, not because He delights in the infliction of evil; nor even because He is determined to verity His word; but because, being such as He is, even He has no alternative! 3. The Divine oath is all-important in its bearing on the security of the believer’ s hope. That indeed is its immediate application here. The question of your progress and perseverance to the end has been raised; by the reproof and exhortation and warning contained in the previous passage. Your only safety against backsliding and apostasy lies, as you are told, in getting out of the mere elements of the gospel viewed as a method of personal relief, and passing on to the perfection of insight and sympathy, as regards the higher aspects and bearings of it, in relation to the glorious name of God. But, alas 1 one may say, what confidence can I ever have in that line? The perfection to which I am to go on, alas! how distant. The sin into which I may relapse, alas! how near. What is to give me confidence? Is it my own diligence in following; not slothfully, the saints that have gone before? Or is it my own carefulness to depart from the iniquity that dogs my steps behind? No. Both of these conditions are indispensable, but neither of them is to be relied on as giving assurance. But thou art in the hands of a God whose name, and nature, and character thou knowest. And, to put an end to all debate in thy heart, He swears By Himself to thee. He points to His essential perfection. He bids thee consider, not only what He says, but what He is; what thou in Christ hast seen and found Him to be. And He tells thee that, as surely as He is what He is, as surely as He liveth, so surely He pledges Himself to thee, and must keep faith with thee. 4. One other application of the Divine oath I can but touch upon; it is the connection in which it stands with the ultimate triumph of the Lord’ s Church and cause in the world (Isaiah 45:22-23). The purpose of Godto all the earth with the knowledge of Himself and of His glory is a purpose founded, not upon His mere sovereign word, but upon His essential nature. It is no arbitrary decree, but an absolute necessity of His very being, which requires that the light which has come into the world shall ultimately dispel the world’ s darkness, and that the kingdom which the God of heaven has set up in the earth shall in the end make all other kingdoms its own. The time may seem long; the struggle arduous and doubtful. But as surely as God continues to be the God He is; as surely as the Lord liveth; so surely shall His gospel make way among the nations, till all the earth is filled with His glory. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) The end of God’ s oath God doth not give it to make His word or promise sure and steadfast, but to give assurance and security to us of their accomplishment. Every word of God is sure and certain truth itself, because it is His; and He might justly require of us the belief of it, without any further attestation. But yet, knowing what great objections Satan and our own unbelieving hearts will raise against His promises, at least as to our own concern in them, to confirm our minds, and to take away all pretences of unbelief, He interposes His oath in this matter. What can remain of distrust in such a case? If there be a matter in doubt between men, and an oath be interposed in the confirmation of that which is called in question, it is to them, as the apostle fells us, an end of all strife (Hebrews 6:16). How much more ought it to be so on the part of God, when His oath is engaged? And the apostle declares this end of His oath, it is to show the immutability of His 161 counsel (Hebrews 6:17). His counsel was declared before in the promise; but now some doubt or strife may arise, whether, on one occasion or other, God may not change His counsels; or whether He hath not charged it with such conditions as to render it useless to us. In what case so ever it be, to remove all doubts and suspicions of this nature, God adds His oath, manifesting the unquestionable immutability of His counsel and promises. What therefore is thus confirmed, is ascertained to the height of what anything is capable of. And not to believe it is the height of impiety. (John Owen, D. D.) Two immutable things Immutable things Now what are those “ two immutable things’ which cannot fail? Some have seen in them the two covenants--the covenant which God made with Abraham; and the covenant which God made with Christ. Some have understood it to mean, first, the promise of the fact made to the patriarchs; and then the great fulfilment of that promise revealed in the gospel. But it appears to me far better, and much more accordant with the whole line of thought, to take it as meaning, first, the nature and the character of God; and then God’ s “ oath,” or covenant, whereby He has made over that character to man, and pledged Himself to our salvation. Here, then, every believer finds his double rest. First, I have the being of God--all faithfulness, all love. That God is my Father. I am dearer to Him than I am to myself. It is His glory and His necessity to be kind to me. In that great “ I AM” I find my argument. He revolves within Himself. And it is for His own glory that His own creature should be happy, holy, useful here; and with Him and like Him for ever. But, after all, everything else--the Bible, redemption itself, is only a platform to exhibit the character of God. But then as if this were not enough, 1 have all those attributes, and all that nature, made over to me, as my own, in solemn compact, sealed with blood. His justice is pledged to accept my Substitute, and to release me. His word is committed to it, that, if I am Christ’ s, however unworthy I be, I shall be “ accepted in the Beloved” One. And that nature and that oath are my “ two immutable things.” Can the eternal Jehovah change? Can God’ s truth fail? Can He deny Himself? Has not He “ made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure?” So, as the “ anchor” has its two cables, my hidden “ hope” has its two strong confirmations. And nothing can divide them. It lies in its own adamantine, indissoluble power. And its twofold power is one that never can be broken. Therefore, well did St. Paul say, “ Sure and stedfast.” “ Sure,” in God’ s being; “ stedfast,” in God’ s covenant; and in both it is just what a poor, wretched sinner wants, in such a world as this--“ a strong consolation to those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them.” They say the ship “ always drops to her anchor.” So, by secret influences, the soul, which is held to Jesus, will continually, and almost insensibly, be getting nearer and nearer to Him every moment; nearer in converse; nearer in likeness; nearer in love. Nor will it rest till it is as near Him now as the circumstances of this present life allow--looking for the time when there shall be no hindrances; and we shall be near Him, and one with Him for ever. But, though the “ anchor” be cast--and though the holdings be sure--and though the ship “ drops to her anchor” --still the winds beat on, thewaves may roll, and the vessel toss. Only, so long as the chain holds, she can never break off; and she can never become a castaway. There is no warrant, brethren, you are in Christ, that, therefore, you shall not be buffeted by storms; or that you should not feel the roughnesses of this world’ s troubles. Rather because you are bound to Him, you may strain the more, that you may ride in perfect peace. No feat” that that “ anchor” may slip. There may be trials, but there is no danger; distress, but not despair; and welcome even the tempest, in its fury, if it prove the firmness of the tenure by which you are held, and the goodness by which you are encouraged. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The immutable grounds of a believer’ s confidence I. God’ s single word is an immutable ground; having this, you have enough. And so it will appear if you consider the power and the certainty of it. 1. The power of God’ s word. His wind is nothing else but the declaration of His powerful will; the force of it was discovered in creating the world. God created all things by His word (Psalms 33:9). All the works of God subsist by the force of His word (Hebrews 1:3). Therefore if you have this immutable ground, if God bath deposited and plighted His word you have enough to establish strong consolation, for it is powerful to all purposes whatsoever. 2. Consider the certainty of it. When the word is gone out of God’ s mouth it shall not be recalled. The Lord prizeth His faithfulness above all things. The Scripture must be fulfilled whatever inconveniences come of it. Mark the whole course of providence, and you will find that God is very tender of His word; He value it above all His works (Luke 21:33). II. The main thing is, what ground of consolation we have in God’ s oath. 1. For the reasons why God should give this oath. (1) To show us the certainty of our privileges in Christ. (2) God sweareth, as for the confirmation of His grace in Christ, and to show the certainty of our privileges in Christ, so for the commendation and excellency of them. An oath is not lawful but in weighty matters; it must be taken m judgment, as well as in righteousness and truth (Jeremiah 4:2). 2. The advantages we have by God’ s oath. What greater assurance can we have? (1) Consider the sacredness of an oath in general. Perjured persons are the scorn of men, and they have forfeited the privilege of humanity. Well, then, if the oath of man be so sacred and valuable, how much more is the oath of God? It is impossible for God to lie. He can do all things which argue power, but nothing which argueth impotency and weekness, for this were to deny Himself. (2) This oath is so sacred, because the name of God is invoked in it. It is the name of God that giveth credit to all other oaths. (3) This advantage faith hath by God’ s oath, it is a pledge of His love and goodwill, that He would condescend so far to give us His oath for our assurance and satisfaction. (4) God’ s oath is an argument that He delighteth in our comfort and assurance. He would deliver us not only from hurt, but from fear. (5) Consider the special nature of God’ s oath. God appeals to the reverence and confidence we put in His holiness, excellency, and power; nay, and there is somewhat that answers the imprecation and execration, and all His excellency is laid at pawn, and exposed, as it were, to forfeiture, if He doth not make good His word. Application: 1. We see the greatness of the condescension of God. 2. What reason we have to bind ourselves to God. There was no need on God’ s part why God should bind Himself to us, but great need on our part why we should bind ourselves to God. We start aside like a deceitful bow, and therefore we should solemnly bind ourselves to God (Psalms 119:106). 3. You see the great wrong you do to God in giving so little credit to His promises. You make God a liar (1 John 5:10). 4. To press us to improve these two immutable grounds, that we may grow up into a greater certainty. His saying is as immutable as His swearing; God’ s word is valuable enough of itself, but only because we count an oath more sacred. God hath added it over and above. Men are slight in speech, but serious in an oath. Well, then, since you have a double holdfast on God, make use of it in prayer and in meditation; in prayer, when you speak to God; in meditation, when you discourse with yourselves. (T. Manton, D. D.) Impossible for God to lie Inferences from the impossibility of God to he 1. The impossibility of God to lie is a great aggravation of the heinousness of unbelief. For he that believeth not God, hath made Him a liar (1 John 5:10), which is in effect to make God no God. 2. This is a strong motive to believe: a greater cannot be given: for as there is no will, so neither power in God to lie. 3. This should make ministers who speak in God’ s name to be sure of the truth of that which they deliver for God’ s word, else they make God a liar, for their word is taken for Gods (Colossians 2:13). They are God’ s ambassadors. An ambassador’ s failing is counted his master’ s failing. 4. Though we cannot attain to such a high pitch of truth, yet every one ought to endeavour to be like God herein, namely, in avoiding lying. Lying is a sin unbesseming any man: but most unbeseeming a professor of the true religion. General arguments against lying are these: 1. Lying is condemned by those who were led by no other light than the light of nature: as philosopher, orators, poets. 2. Every man’ s conscience condemns lying. If one be not impudent, he will blush when he tells a lie; and infinite shifts are ordinarily made to cloak a lie, which show that he is ashamed thereof, and that his conscience checketh him for it. 3. No man can endure to be accounted a liar. 4. Lying over throws all society. 5. A man taken tripping herein will be suspected in all his words and actions. He that is not true in his words ,’ an hardly be thought to deal honestly in hi, deeds. Arguments against lying in professors of the Christian religion are these: 1. Lying is expressly forbidden in God’ s word (Leviticus 19:11; Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9). 2. It is against knowledge and conscience. 3. It is a filthy rag of the old man, and one of the most disgraceful; and therefore first set down in the particular exemplification of those filthy rags Ephesians 4:22-25). 4. It is most directly opposite to God, who is Truth itself, and concerning whom we heard that it was impossible that He should lie. 5. Nothing makes men more like the devil, “ for he is a liar and the father thereof” (John 8:44). A lying spirit is a diabolical spirit. 6. As a lie is hateful to God, so it makes the practisers thereof abominable Proverbs 6:16-17; Proverbs 12:22). 7. Lying causeth heavy vengeance. In general, it is said, the Lord will destroy them that speak lies (Psalms 5:6). Memorable was the judgment on Gehazi (2 Kings 5:27). And on Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5-10). (W. Gouge.) Strong consolation Strong consolation I. Who are THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 1. Observe, then, that the favoured children of God are first described as “ the heirs of promise,” by which at once most solemnly are excluded all those who are relying upon their own merits. Dost thou confess that thou hast nothing of thine own wherein to boast, and dost thou hope alone in the mercy of God in Christ Jesus? Then let me hope thou art one of the heirs of promise. “ Heirs of promise,” again. Then this excludes those who are heirs according to their own will, who scoff at the mighty work of grace, and believe that their own free choice has saved them. One more thought: “ Heirs of promise,” then heirs, not according to the power of the flesh, but according to The energy of grace. 2. A plainer description of the favoured people follows in the eighteenth verse. “ Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Then all the people of God were once in danger. II. Let us look to the ways and dealings of OUR GOD to these favoured people. Notice each word, “ God willing.” Whenever God does anything in a way of grace, He does it as we say con amore, He does it in the highest sense willingly. It is not the will of God that sinners should perish; but when He reveals Himself to His saints, He doeth it with a sacred alacrity, a Divine cheerfulness. It is an occupation divinely suitable to His generous nature. “ Willing more abundantly.” Do notice that expression. It has in the Greek the sense of more than is necessary, and is secretly meant to answer the objection concerning the Lord’ s taking an oath. God is willing to reveal Himself to His people, and He is willing to do that “ more abundantly,” up to the measure of their need. He would let them know that His counsel is immutable, and He would not only give them enough evidence to prove it, He would give them overwhelming evidence, evidence snore than would be or could be possibly required by the case itself, so that their unbelief may have no chance to live, and their faith may be of the strongest kind. “ the word “ to show” is remarkable; it is the very word used in the Greek when our Lord showed His disciples His hands and His side, as if the word would say that God would lay bare the immutability of His nature, would as it were strip His eternal purposes, and let His people look upon them, handle them, and see their reality, their truth and certainty. “ God is willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel.” Oftentimes a man will not give further assurance of the truth of what he states, when he believes he has already given assurance enough. Observe with wonder that our ever gracious God never standeth on His dignity in this style at all, but He looketh not so much at the dignity of His own person as at the weakness of His people, and therefore being willing more abundantly to show unto His poor, feeble, trembling people the immutability of His counsel, He not only gives one promise, but he adds another and another and another, till to count the promises were almost as difficult as to count the stars or number the sands on the sea shore. Yea, and when He has done all this, He comes in with a master clap to crown it all, and confirms every promise by an oath, that by not one immutable thing, but by two, the promise and the oath, in both of which it is impossible for Jehovah to lie, His people might never dare to doubt again, but might have strong consolation. 1. The first immutable thing upon which our faith is to stay itself, is the promise. Oh, what consolation is this, then, our refuge is secure, our confidence is firm! Look ye here, ye people of God. This promise of God was not made in a hurry. A man makes a promise on a sudden, and he cannot keep it afterwards; but through the everlasting ages the promise was on Jehovah’ s heart before He spoke it with His lips. Men sometimes make promises that they cannot fulfil, they are in circumstances which do not permit them. But can God ever he in a difficulty? Men sometimes make promises which it would be unwise to keep, and perhaps it is better to break them; but the Lord cannot be unwise, His is infinite wisdom as well as infinite strength. The promise, then, because of its wisdom, will surely stand. Beside, the promise He has made is to His own honour. It redounds to His glory to show mercy to the unworthy. Moreover, His promise is made to His own Son, and His love to Him is interwoven with His promise. He could not break His word to one of us without breaking it to His dear Son, since we are in Him, and trust in Him. The Divine promise must stand good. 2. But it is added that God, in order to prevent our unbelief effectually, has taken an oath. God has with an oath sworn by Himself that all the heirs of pro-raise shall be blessed for ever, saying, “ Surely blessing, I will bless thee.” Now, who among us dare doubt this? Where is the hardy sinner who dares come forward and say, “ I impugn the oath of God” ? III. But I must note THE STRONG WHICH FLOWS OUT OF ALL THIS. There is strong consolation, says the text, for the heirs of grace, which implies that the children of God must expect to bare trouble. All the followers of the great Cross-bearer are cross-bearers too; but then there is the strong consolation for the strong tribulation. What is strong consolation? 1. I think strong consolation is that which does not depend upon bodily health. What a cowardly old enemy the devil is! When we are vigorous in body, it is very seldom that he will tempt us to doubt and tear, but if ,ye have been racked with hours of pain and sleepless nights, and are getting to feel faint and weary, then he comes in with his horrible insinuations: “ God will forsake you. His promise will fail t” He is vile enough to put his black paws on the brightest truth in the Bible, say, upon even the very existence of God Himself, and turn the boldest believer into the most terrible doubter, so that we seem to have gone bodily over to the army of Satan, and to be doubting every good thing that is in the Word of God. Strong consolation even at such times, enables us still to rejoice in the Lord though every nerve should twinge, and every bone should seem melted with pain. 2. Strong consolation is that which is not dependent upon the excitement of public services and Christian fellowship. We feel very happy on a Sunday i ere when we almost sing ourselves away to everlasting bliss, and when the sweet name of Jesus is like ointment poured forth, so that the virgins love it. But when you are in colder regions, how is it? Perhaps you are called to emigrate, or go into the country to a barren ministry where there is nothing to feed the soul. Ah, then, if Son have not got good ground for your soul to grow in, what will ye do? 3. The strong consolation which God gives His people is such as no mere reasoning can shake. You might as well reason me out of the toothache, or convince me that I do not exist, as reason me out of my consciousness that I love Christ, and theft I am saved in Him. They cannot touch the essentials of vital godliness, and this is a strong consolation which reasoning no more woundeth than men come at leviathan with spears and swords, for he laugheth at them, and accounteth their spears as rotten wood. 4. Strong consolation, again, because it will bear up under conscience, and that is a harder pressure than mere reasoning can ever bring. 5. Ay, and we can deal with Satan with his horrible insinuations and blasphemies, and still can say, “ I will trust in the Lord and not be afraid.” To rejoice then, and say, “ Though these things be not with me as I would have them, yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure” ; this is strong consolation. 6. And it will be proved to be so by and by with some of us, when we stall be in the solemn article of death. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Consolation the fruit of assurance That the fruit of this certainty and assurance which we have by God’ s Word and oath is strong consolation. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY STRONG ? Consolation. There ate three words by which the fruits of assurance are expressed, which imply so many degrees of it. There is peace, comfort, and joy. 1. Peace. That we have as a fruit of justification (Romans 5:1). 2. Then there is consolation which notes an habitual persuasion of God’ s love; there is an habitual serenity and cheerfulness of mind. Though there be not high tides of comfort, there is support, though not ravishment. It is called “ everlasting consolation” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17). 3. Then there is joy, or an high and sensible comfort (Romans 15:13). The next term is “ strong consolation.’” Why is it so called? 1. It is called so either in opposition to worldly comforts, which are weak and vanishing 2. Or else it is called “ strong consolation” in comparison with itself, with respect to less or more imperfect degrees of comfort. There is a latitude in comfort, some have more and some less; some have only weak glimmerings and drops, others have strong consolation, “ joy unspeakable, and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). Now a Christian should aim at the highest degree; the stronger your consolation, the better is Christ pleased with it (John 15:11). 3. It may likewise be called strong in regard of its effects. (1) It marreth carnal joy, it puts the soul quite out of taste with other things. Men used acorns tilt they found out the use of bread. (2) It is stronger than the evil which it opposeth; it swalloweth up all our sorrows, whatever they be. II. How THIS STRONG ARISETH FROM AND . To establish joy and comfort, two things are necessary--excellency and propriety. The thing in which I rejoice, it must be good, and it must be mine. Suitably here in the text there is an assurance of excellent privileges; and then there is a qualification annexed that we may understand our own interest. God by His oath assures us of excellent privileges in Christ, and that is a ground of strong consolation. Then He requireth a duty of us, that we fly for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. 1. For the excellency of our privileges. You know that which will minister solid comfort to the soul it had need be excellent. A small matter, though never so sure, will not, occasion a strong consolation; the joy is according to the object. Now, whether a Christian look backward or forward, there is matter of rejoicing to the heirs of promise. Backward, there is the immutability of His counsel; forward, there is a hope set before us. From one eternity to another may a believer walk and still find cause of rejoicing in God. 2. Another cause of strong comfort is interest and propriety. Besides the excellency of the privilege, there must be the clearness of our interest. The object of joy is not only good in common, but our good. It doth not enrich a man to hear there are pearls and diamonds in the world, and mines of gold in the Indies, unless he had them in his own possession; so it doth not fill us with comfort and joy to hear there are unchangeable purposes of grace, and that there was an eternal treaty between God and Christ about the salvation of sinners, and that there is a possible salvation, but when we understand this is made over to us. III. HOW IT IS ON GOD’ S PART, AND HOW FAR IT IS ON OURS BECAUSE EVERY HEIR OF PROMISE CANNOT SPEAK OF THESE LIVELY , THOSE SWEET AND STRONG OF THE SPIRIT. First, on God’ s part. There is a great deal of difference between Christians in respect of God’ s dispensations. 1. Consider Christ, though He loved all His disciples, yet He did not use them all alike familiarly; some were more intimate with Him, and were more in His bosom. So though all the elect are dear to Christ, yet there are the elect of the elect, some chosen out above others, with whom God will be more intimate and familiar. 2. Though God deals here with great difference, yet it is usual with the Lord to give most comfort to three sorts of persons. (1) To the poor in spirit. A broken vessel is fitter to hold the oil of gladness than a full one, I mean such who are empty and broken, and possessed with a sense of their own wants. (2) Though God is at liberty, yet usually He fills those which are exercised with hard and long conflicts with their corruptions. Comfort is Christ’ s entertainment for those that return from victory over their lusts (Revelation @:17). (3) Those that are called forth to great employments and trials are seldom without comfort, and this strong consolation, that they may behave themselves worthy of their trial. Look, as men victual a castle when it is in danger to be besieged, so God layeth in comfort aforehand when we are like to be assaulted. This we have in the example of our Lord Himself. Just before Christ was tempted He had a solemn testimony from heaven Matthew 4:1). Secondly, on our part. It is not absolutely required that we should enjoy it, but only to seek after it; and if we want it, to submit to God’ s pleasure. Comfort is seldom withheld when it is long sought and highly prized. I cannot say he is no child of God that bath not a feeling of this strong consolation, but he is none that doth not seek after it, and that hath low and cheap thoughts of the consolations of God (Job 15:11). (T. Manton, D. D.) Strong consolation for the Lord’ s refugees I. WE HAVE FLED FOE REFUGE.” 1. The man-slayer, the moment he had in the heat of passion killed a man, became an apt representative of an awakened sinner who discovers himself to be in an evil case. It is the work of the Spirit of God to convince men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, and it is well when the soul begins to fear, for then it begins to live. 2. The alarmed man-slayer would next, if he could calm himself at all, consider what he could do, and he would soon come to the conclusion that he could neither defy, nor escape, nor endure the doom which threatened him. Thus in the days of our conviction no hope was discovered to natural reason, and our dread increased till fear took hold upon us there, for we saw what we had done, but we knew not what we could do to escape from the consequences thereof. 3. Then there came to our ear what perhaps we had heard before, but had heard so indifferently as never to have really understood it--we heard of a divinely provided way of escape. When under a sense of sin men value Christ Jesus. How wonderful is the system of grace! Here it is: that as in Adam we die through Adam’ s sin, so if we be in Christ we live through Christ’ s righteousness. 4. The text, however, not only implies that we need the refuge and have heard of it, but that we have fled to it. To flee away from self to the provided refuge is a main act of faith. II. BUT WE HAVE COME TO “ LAY HOLD.” Here we have a change of figure, unless we recall the case of Joab who fled for refuge to the temple and laid hold upon the horns of the altar Justification by faith in Jesus is set before us. What are we to do according to the text? We have to “ lay hold” upon it. You are drowning; there is a rope thrown to you; what have you to do? “ Lay hold.” You are not to look at your hands to see whether they are clean enough. No, lay hold, dirty hand or clean hand. “ But my hand is weak.” Lay hold, brother, as best you can, weak hand or not, for while you are laying hold of Christ God is laying hold of you; you may rest assured of that. If you have the faintest grip of Christ, Christ has a firm grip of you such as never shall be relaxed. Your business is at this moment to lay hold and keep hold. What is to be done in order to lay hold? 1. Well, we must believe the gospel to be true. Do you believe it to be true that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them? Yes, I know you believe that God has sent His Son to, be a propitiation for sin. So far, so good. The next thing is to apprehend for yourselves this truth. Christ justifies believers; He is worthy of trust; trust Him, and He has justified you. “ I do not feel it,” says one. You do not need to feel it. It is a matter of believing. Believe in Jesus, and because you are a believer be assured that yon are saved. 2. While a man lays hold upon a thing he goes no further, but continues to cling to it. We have fled for refuge, but we flee no further than the hope which we now lay hold upon, namely, eternal life in Christ Jesus. We never wish to get beyond God’ s promise in Christ Jesus to believers, the promise of salvation to faith. We are satisfied with that, and there we rest. 3. Did you notice that the apostle speaks of laying hold upon a hope? This does not mean that we are to lay hold by imagination upon something which we hope to obtain in the dim future, for the next verse goes on to say “ which hope we have.” We have our hope now, it is not a shadowy idea that possibly when we come to die we may be saved. We know that we at this moment are safe in our refuge, and we lay hold on our confidence as a present joy. Yet that which we lay hold upon is full of hope, there is more in it than we can now see or enjoy. What is the hope? The hope of final perseverance, the hope of ultimate perfection, the hope of eternal glory, the hope of being with our Lord where He is that we may behold His glory for ever--a hope purifying, elevating, and full of glory; a hope which cheers and delights us as often as we think of it. III. This is our last point, WE ENJOY “ STRONG .” We call that liquor strong of which a very few drops will flavour all into which it falls. How wonderfully the consolation of Christ has affected our entire lives! There is such potency in it that it sweetens everything about us. It is so strong that it masters all our fears, and slays all our scepticisms. 1. What I want you to note is that the consolation of the Christian lies wholly in his God, because the ground of it is that God has sworn, and that God has promised. Never look, therefore, to yourselves for any consolation; it would be a vain search. 2. Remember, too, that your consolation must come from what God has spoken and not from His providence. Outward providences change, hut the oath never changes, hold you on to that. Your comfort must not even depend upon sensible realisations of God s favour, nor on sweet communions and delights. No, but upon--He has said it and He has sworn it--those are the two strong pillars up n which your comfort must rest. 3. Remember, however, that the power of the strong consolation derived from the oath of God must in your personal enjoyment depend very much upon your faith. What is the consolation of a promise if you do not believe it, and what is the comfort of an oath if you doubt it? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Strong encouragement When stars, first created, start forth upon their vast circuits, not knowing their way, if they were conscious and sentient, they might feel hopeless of maintaining their revolutions and orbits, and despair in the face of coming ages. But, without hands or arms, the sun holds them. Without cords or bands the solar king drives them, unharnessed, on their mighty rounds without a single misstep, and will bring them, in the end, to their bound, without a wanderer. Now, if the sun can do this, the sun, which is but a thing itself, driven and held, shall not He who created the heavens, and gave the sun his power, be able to hold us by the attraction of His heart, the strength of His hands, and the omnipotence of His affectionate will? (H. W. Beecher.) Strong consolation It is impossible, wrote Dr. Doddridge, after an illness, to express the comfort God gave me on my sick bed. His promises were my continual feast; they seemed, as it were, to be all united in one stream of glory. When I thought of dying, it sometimes made my very heart to leap within me, to think that I was going home to my Father and my Saviour. (Tinling’ s Illustrations.) Who have fled for refugeThe city of refuge I. THE VIEW GIVEN OF THE SAVIOUR IN THE TEXT. He is called “ the hope set before us.” In the Scriptures we read of hope that is in us, hope that is laid up for us, and hope that is set before us. The happiness of heaven--heaven itself--its light and glory, its songs, and its blessedness--this is the hope laid up for us: that good work of the Holy Spirit’ s operation on the heart, here and now, whereby we look for the former, and for the earnest of it, is the hope that is in us; and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the only foundation and hope, for sinner or for saint, for pardon or for holiness, is the hope set before us. II. THE CONDUCT OF THE MAN IN THE TEXT IN TO THIS BLESSED OBJECT. He is said to “ flee for refuge,” and to “ lay hold upon it.” In this there is an allusion to the flight of the man-slayer to the city of refuge. Methinks I descry the man-slayer looking behind him; he sees the avenger of blood; he sees the horrible burning frown upon his brow, he hears the dismal tramp of his feet, and away he flies; he stops not, turns not out of his course, but presses on and on with accelerated speed, until at length, all punting and breathless, he enters the hallowed gates of the city of refuge, and enters into peace. Such is the flight of the sinner’ s soul to the arms of Christ Jesus. This representation sets before us the case of a man struck with a conviction of guilt, smitten with an apprehension of danger, despairing of relieving himself, coming out of himself, and trusting to another. The very name of Jesus, which was before an insipid sound, is now to him like music. His soul leaps within him to know that “ God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing to men their trespasses” ; his heart dances for joy when he finds that “ it is a faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” But observe: his conviction of guilt, and danger, and ruin, being now no longer superficial, but pervading, individual, and thorough, he is not surf-fled with this merely general representation of the matter. It is not now enough for him to know in so many general terms that God is merciful, and that Christ is a Saviour; he now narrowly pries into the whole affair, into the authority and commission of Christ to save into His ability and His qualifications to save, into His willingness and readiness to save. III. THE AND OF THOSE WHO HAVE THUS FLED TO CHRIST JESUS FOR REFUGE. “ By two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie,” they have “ a strong consolation.” What is consolation? It is the relief of the mind under any trouble or pain; or the presence and enjoyment of a good which is able to prevent altogether, or else carry away and bear down before it, as in a full tide or flowing stream, all evil felt or feared. Two things would occur to the mind of the man-slayer in connection with his flight to the city of refuge. One would be: “ Is it true--is it really, incontrovertibly true, that if I get to the city of refuge, the avenger dares not, must not touch me?” The other would be: “ Suppose I get to the city, and am secure against the stroke of the avenger, what kind of accommodation and provision shall I find within that city?” These two things would occur to him on his way to, or on his arrival at the city of refuge; and if he had had any uncertainty as to the one or the other, he would have been overwhelmed with confusion and dismay. But he had no doubt; he knew, he was quite sure, that if he got to the city of refuge, the avenger could not touch him, that he would be as safe in the city as if he were in heaven. He also knew that, if he got to that city, and should remain in it, all his wants would be supplied, everything necessary for his accommodation and support would be provided for him. Thus he had consolution. Now apply these two things as an illustration of the nature of the happiness of believing in Christ. “ There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” “ They that believe enter into rest.” “ Who is he that shall lay anything to the charge of God’ s elect? It is God that justifieth.” What is it you are afraid of? Is it the justice of God? I know the justice of God has the impenitent sinner by the throat, and says, “ Pay me that thou owest! But I know also that the hand of the penitent sinner lays hold on the hope set before him, and justice takes his hand off. It must be so; otherwise God were unrighteous in demanding two payments for one debt. “ He that believes shall be saved.” “ There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” What are you afraid of? Is it of the fiery law? The law is not roaring after you if you have got into the city of refuge: it is not muttering its tremendous maledictions against you if you have laid hold of the hope set before you. If you hear anything at all of the demands of the law, it is the echoes of those demands dying away amid the battlements of the city wall; for he to whom you have fled, and on whom you have laid hold, has “ magnified the law and made it honourable.” Then what is it you are afraid of? Is it of the roaring lion of hell? He is indeed “ going about seeking whom he may devour” ; but your faith in Christ is a shield wherewith you may quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Then what is it you have to fear? Is it death? You may give up that fear along with all the other fears; for Jesus, to whom you have come, on whom you have laid hold, has put down death, abolished it, and buried it in His own grave; and has brought life and immortality to light. This is consolation, but that is not the whole of it. I said that the consolation of the man-slayer on reaching the city of refuge would also include an assurance that he should be provided for, while there, with everything necessary for his accommodation and support. This answers to the other half-the happiness of believing in Christ--which consists in the infinite assurance that God has given the believer that he never shall want any manner of thing that is really good, and that he never shall be in inextricable danger. “ The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger” ; and well they may; “ but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” Can that man want water who lives on the brinks of an everlasting spring? Can that man want light who lives in the centre of the eternal sun? Now look at the grounds on which this consolation rests. We have it, says the apostle, “ by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie.” What are these immutable things? Where are they to be met with? We cannot write the word immutable on the rock; it is constantly wearing away: nor on the sun; the sun himself shall grow old and dull. But there are two immutable things--the word of promise and the oath of God. These are called the “ counsel of God,” to intimate that His promise is the declaration of His counsel. Promises very often are the result of anything but counsel; but the promise of God is the counsel of God, the manifestation and publication of His counsel, The promises of God--what are they like? Whereunto shall I compare them? They are like so many silver cords let down from heaven, hanging out from the pavilion of infinite clemency, I had almost said, sent down from the heart of God itself, for the hand of faith to lay hold on. The promise of God is an immutable thing; and by that we have our consolation. But there is another ground of this happiness. God, knowing the million ills of human life, the million jealousies of the human heart, knowing the backwardness of your mind, and the slowness of your heart to believe His own eternal word of promise, hath condescended to superadd to that His solemn oath. What is that oath like ? Is it not as if Jehovah was laying all the perfections of His nature, staking the very glory of the Godhead, on the truth of His promise previously made? These are the two immutable things by which we have our consolation. Finally, let me mention the quality of this happiness. It is called in the text a “ strong consolation” ; a consolation amongst the most substantial, the most abundant and efficient; a consolation available for every exigency of life, for the solemnity of death, for the crisis of the judgment day. How strong is this consolation? It is stronger than the afflictions of life. It turns the dungeon into a gate of heaven, the place of stocks into the vestibule of glory. If, like the Hebrews, to whom the language was originally addressed, you were called to bear the spoiling of your goods for Christ’ s sake; with this consolation you would bear it joyfully. Soaring on the wings of grace, you may defy the power of affliction, calamity, sickness, and change. He, whose word of promise and solemn oath you have, has said He will be with you “ in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.” Strong consolation! How strong? Stronger than the dread of wrath. Oh, what a mountain is gone when the fear of hell is gone! Oh, what a load is removed from the human spirit when the dread of the wrath to come is removed! And it is removed from the man who has fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him. Strong consolation! How strong? It is not only stronger than all the afflictions of life, and stronger than the dread of the wrath to come, but stronger than the fear of death. “ The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death.” Go and see the righteous die. Death has come in at the window; laying his hand upon the heart; freezing up the life-blood of the fountain. Death is there; but Christ is there also. Death, the last enemy, is there; but Christ, the Lord of life and glory, is there too. Death is there as the servant; Christ as the Master. “ I heard a voice from heaven saying, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” Strong consolation! How strong? Stronger than all the terrors of the final judgment, than the desolations of universal nature. (J. Beaumont, D. D.) Flying for refuge The true heirs of promise, with whom God hath pawned His word and oath to do them good eternally, are such as have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them. In the description there are two parts, “ flying for refuge,” and “ taking hold of the hope set before them.” The one relates to their justification, or their first acceptation with God in Christ, “ Flying for refuge” ; the other relates to their carriage after justification, “ To take hold of the hope set before them.” I. For the first branch--“ Flying for refuge.” It is an allusion to the cities of refuge spoken of under the law. 1. That Christ is a believer’ s city of refuge, or the alone sanctuary for distressed souls. 2. It is the property of believers to fly to Christ for refuge. This flying may be explained with analogy to the two terms of every motion, which are terminus a quo and ad quem, from what we fly, and to what; and so we have the perfect method which the Spirit observeth in bringing home souls to God. In this flying to Christ as a city of refuge there is a driving and a drawing work; the first belongs to the law, the second to the gospel. The law driveth us out of ourselves, and the gospel draweth us, and bringeth us home to God. (1) Let us speak of thy terminus a quo, the term from which we come, or-the driving work; it is comprised in these two things--a sense of sin, and a sense of the wrath of God pursuing for sin. (2) Let us come to the terminus ad quem, from what we c me to what; they run to Christ as their city of refuge. (a) It implies earnestness, as in a case of life and death. A dilatory trifling spirit shows we are not touched at heart. (b) Running to the city of refuge implieth avoiding all byways. A soul that is rightly affected cannot be satisfied with any other thing; another place would not secure the man, nothing but the city of refuge. (c) This running implies an unwearied diligence. The man was running still till was gotten into the city of refuge, for it was for his life; so we are unwearied until we meet with Christ (Son 3:2). (d) When they are got into their city of refuge, they stay there; having once taken hold of Christ, they will not quit their holdfast for all the world. II. For the second branch, “ To lay hold upon the hope that is set before us,” and you must repeat the word “ flying” or “ running” again. 1. What is this hope? Hope is put for the thing hoped for, heaven with all the glory thereof; for it is a hope “ that lies within the veil (Hebrews 6:19), or a hope “ laid up for us in heaven” (Colossians 1:5). Mark the double end of him that cometh unto Christ, refuge and salvation; for in Christ there is not only deliverance from pursuing wrath, but eternal life to be found; first we fly from deserved wrath, then we take hold of undeserved glory. This is more easy of the two (Romans 5:10-11). 2. Why is this hope said to be set before us? (1) To note the divine institution of this reward; it is not devised by ourselves, but appointed by God. (2) It is proposed and set before us for our encouragement. As it is said of Christ (chap. 12:2). (3) What is it to run to take hold of the hope set before us? Sometimes it implieth a challenging it as ours; as 1 Timothy 6:19 : “ That they may lay hold on eternal life.” Here it signifies holding fast, never to let this hope go. It implieth diligence of pursuit, perseverance to the end, and all this upon Christian encouragement. (a) Diligence in pursuit of eternal life in the heirs of promise. It is expressed by working out our salvation, making it our business Philippians 2:12). When we will not be put off with anything else, but have heaven or nothing, this is to seek heaven in good earnest. (b) This flying to take hold of the hope set before us imptorteth perseverance in well doing, notwithstanding the difficulties in the way to heaven. (c) All this upon Christian encouragements, for the hope that is before them. A man may know much of his spirit by what bears him up, and what is the comfort and solace of his soul (Titus 2:13). Application 1. Comfort to those that can apply it, even to those who are thus qualified, that are driven and drawn to Christ, and then go on cheerfully with the work of obedience, waiting for their inheritance in heaven. 2. Conviction. It showeth the hardness of their hearts who have neither felt the law work nor the gospel work, but remain like the smith’ s anvil, softened neither with hammer nor with oil; neither driven by the threatenings of the law, nor drawn with the glad tidings of salvation; neither John nor Jesus worketh on them. Of such Christ speaketh Matthew 11:17). 3. To persuade you to this temper. Three sorts of people usually we speak to (1) The carnal secure. (2) Those that are affected with their condition. (3) Those that esteem Christ, and embrace Him that own Him as ready and willing to save sinners, (T. Manton, D. D.) Christ typified by the cities of refuge I. EVERY SINNER IS JUSTLY EXPOSED TO DEATH. Pursued by the righteous avenger of blood, who will cast the wicked into hell, with all the nations that forget God. II. GOD HATH JESUS AS THE REFUGE FOR SINNERS. He came that men might not perish, but have everlasting life. He came not to destroy men’ s lives, but to save them. Now in this He was strikingly typified by the cities of refuge. 1. In their number we are reminded of the sufficiency of Christ. There were six of these cities. Doubtless amply sufficient for the cases which might require them. Jesus is the sufficient Saviour of all men. In Him is room for the whole world. Merit, mercy, and willingness for every child of man. 2. In their diversified localities we see the accessibility of Christ. These cities were placed in various parts of the land, so as to be near to every quarter, and accessible to the inhabitants throughout. Here we see at once pointed out to us the nearness of Christ to every portion of the family of Adam. 3. In the spacious well-directed roads to the cities of refuge, we are reminded of the free, full, and plain declarations of the gospel of Christ. 4. In the signification of the names of the cities we also perceive the glorious excellency of Christ. One of these cities was called “ Kadesh,” which signifies “ Holy.” Jesus is the Holy One of God. He redeems and saves men to holiness. Another was called “ Shechem,” which signifies “ Shoulder,” representing Christ as bearing the sins and burdens of the sinner. Another was called “ Hebron,” signifying “ Fellowship.” Thus Christ is the medium and ground of fellowship between God and men, and between the whole body of believers. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 7:1-10 Melchisedec, king of Salem Melchisedec I. WAS “ KING OF SALEM.” 1. Salem was certainly in Canaan--the land where Melchisedec and Abraham met. (1) It is not a matter of course that Canaan was already wholly given up to idolatry and crime; and therefore Melchisedec may have been himself a Canaanite, and may also have found a body of worshippers of the true God among whom he could discharge his functions. (2) Even if Canaan was more idolatrous than we have sufficient reason to believe that it now was, Melchisedec, who was, perhaps, of the Japhetian stock, may have been raised up by Heaven as “ a light in a dark place,” and a harbinger and representative of the future ingathering of the Gentiles to Christ. 2. Two places of the name of Salem are mentioned in the Old Testament. The one is Salem in the land of Shechem (Genesis 33:18)--the same, perhaps, as John 3:23. The other is Jerusalem itself (Psalms 76:1-2). (1) The situation of the great metropolis of Palestine was one likely to be early fixed upon for a town in the colonisation of the land. (2) That point lay near to the route which Abraham may be supposed to have taken on his homeward way “ from the slaughter of the kings.” (3) If Jerusalem was the place of which Melchisedec was king, he was thus the more strikingly representative of Christ (Psalms 2:6).” 3. It is certainly in respect chiefly of the priesthood that Melchisedec is compared to Christ. But, considering the object and design of the present specification of particulars, it must be understood that the royalty of the former has a typical, or at least a figurative, application to the latter. With Salem, both in the literal and figurative application of the name, Christ as King has especially to do. It was through Jerusalem that, “ in the days of His flesh,” He rode in lowly, but royal stateliness” (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:1-11). To Israel and her great metropolis was Messiah promised as a Sovereign Prince, ere ever the Magi came to welcome the regal visitor; and as He was, in His birth, saluted as Israel’ s King Matthew 2:1-6), so, over His cross on the heights of Salem, the unchangeable inscription bore that He was “ King of the Jews” (John 19:19-22). And there is another Zion on which His throne is set--another Salem in which He reigns--the Zion, the Salem, of the Church. Amidst hostile arms and quaking dynasties, “ let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” II. WAS “ PRIEST OF THE MOST HIGH GOD.” 1. The phrase “ of the most high God” serves two ends. (1) It contra-distinguishes Melchisedec and his priesthood from priests of “ the gods many and lords many” of Paganism, and from the functions, often gross and cruel, which these performed. (2) It suggests the solemnity and importance of the sacerdotal work which Melchisedec performed, and the reverence and awe with which not only ministers, but private believers, should maintain intercourse with that glorious One into whose presence they are called to enter, and whose business they are called to do. 2. The priesthood of the King of Salem, in all probability, comprehended the two functions of sacrifice and intercession. III. “ MET ABRAHAM FROM THE OF THE KINGS AND BLESSED HIM.” To a spiritual warfare we have all been called; and while Christ is the Captain of the host, the better Abraham leading on His followers to battle and to victory, He, as the anointed Priest, the better Melchizedec, blesses His conquering, and even His struggling, troops. With His priestly hands extended, in generous benediction, over His first disciples, He left the world. In the same attitude, as it were, He stilt is standing, as Be looks down from His heavenly throne on the earthly charge which He loves so well. The good which on their behalf He seeks, it is His own prerogative and office to bestow. Nor can it be withheld. What is wanted for the fight--wisdom, strength, courage, hope--He d, lights, when His soldier looks to Him in faith and earnestness, to give. At length comes victory. Nor is that promise obsolete (Revelation 3:21). IV. TO ABRAHAM GAVE A TENTH PART OF ALL THE SPOILS. The contribution of gold and treasures to the cause of the kingdom of Messiah is one of the facts recorded respecting Him in Hebrew prophecy Psalms 72:10; Psalms 72:15). Since the day when the Magi cast their gold, and frankincense, and myrrh at His blessed feet, thousands and tens of thousands have laid a like tribute on His altar. Christ deserves, and Christianity needs, it all. That, independently of any money of ours, He could work successfully is, of course, in some sense true. But, in unswerving wisdom and condescending mercy, He chooses to work by means; and among the appointed means is money. By ministers and missionaries, who are dependent on money for support--by Bibles and other practical and precious books, which must be printed and circulated at the cost of money--by places of worship, which it requires money to erect--and by other ordinances and institutions, which it is for money to establish and maintain--Christ upholds His cause and extends His kingdom. V. WAS BY “ KING OF AND KING OF PEACE.” This statement refers to the import of the names Melchisedec and Salem. Melchi means, king; Sedec, righteousness; and Salem, peace. It is probable that Melchisedec was a righteous and pacific king. At any rate, the name he bore, and that of the city where he dwelt, involved the ideas of righteousness and peace. And it is here distinctly intimated that, in this respect, he was fitted to represent the character and government of Christ. Christ in very deed is “ King of righteousness.” His soul, how pure! His life, how undefiled! His laws, how just! His administration, how upright! The issues and outgoings of His sufferings and His glory, of His humiliation on the earth and His triumphs in the heavens, how suffused and fraught with righteousness! Nor is He less truly “ King of peace.” His personal ministry was neither the earthquake nor the thunder, but the “ still, small voice.” Peace He bequeathed to His disciples as a legacy of love (John 14:27). He “ made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20). His gospel breathes of peace. They who believe it enter into peace. Theirs is peace with God; theirs, too, is peace with man; and a “ peace which passeth understanding” keeps their ,” hearts and minds by Christ Jesus” Under the sceptre of Messiah, the wars which so long have wrought desolations in the earth shall pass away VI. WAS “ WITHOUT FATHER, WITHOUT MOTHER, WITHOUT DESCENT,” &c. By the series of particulars it is manifestly meant to intimate that the parents, the ancestry, the birth, and the death, of this royal priest are all unrecorded in the sacred narrative--that, in this respect, there is a remarkable difference between him and the priests of the house of Levi--and that, in so far as the record is concerned, he comes before us as the priest of unlimited existence, who had no predecessor and no successor in the sacred line. He was thus, it is still further intended to suggest, a meet representative of that “ great high-priest” who, as God, had no mother--as man, had no human father--as Divine, never began to be, and never died--as Mediator, carries on His priesthood still, interceding for believers in the heavens, even as, on earth, He made atonement for their sins, and wrought out redemption for their souls. (A. S.Patterson.) The parallel between Christ and Melchisedec I. THE TITLE OF , AS KING. “ For this Melchisedec, king of Salem.” It were idle to discuss here the various conjectures which have been started as to who this Melchisedec was--considered as he is by some to have been Enoch, by others to have been Shem, by others to have been an angel, by others to have been the Holy Spirit, by others to have been the Eternal Son of God Himself; it seems only needful to remark, that the nature of the apostle’ s argument throughout the chapter positively requires that Melchisedec should have been a man, and a man, too, living, and performing the functions here attributed to him, in the time of the patriarch Abraham. Melchisedec becomes a remarkable person, were it only from the singular conjunction of the two offices of king and priest--a conjunction which of itself would suggest his being a type of Christ. Thus he is a type of Christ even with regard to his kingship, and that both in his acts and in the titles by which he is distinguished. Even the first act recorded of him m Genesis we can hardly think was without some spiritual significance. You will observe, he is there represented as coming out to “ the father of the faithful,” bringing him a present of bread and wine, in order that his followers might be refreshed after the toils of conquest, and be sent on their way with lightened and rejoicing hearts. What is this but a picture of the way in which Christ, the true Melchisedec, rewards and refreshes all the followers of faithful Abraham? Are they wearied with the toils of their spiritual warfare? He is wont to say to them, “ Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will” refresh you. Are they tired out with the world’ s disappointing vanities, having “ spent their money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not” ? His language is, “ He every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; yea, come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without price.” Nay, are they desirous of realising nearness of spiritual communion--of being brought more closely into the presence of their God and Saviour? Are they desiring to “ see the King in His beauty,” and to receive from Him tokens of reconciliation and peace and love? He comes forth like Melchisedec bringing “ bread and wine,” offering to believing hearts the blessed sacrament of His passion, that in the memorials of His body broken, and the blood of redemption shed, believers, like the faithful followers of Abraham, may go down to their homes in peace! Still more typical of the Redeemer’ s royalty are the titles here given to Melchisedec. You will observe it is said of him--“ first being by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is, king of peace.” These are the titles of the typical Melchisedec, and as applied to him may probably mean no more than that such names were given to him by the common consent of his subjects--as one who was distinguished for the righteousness which characterised his regal administration, for the integrity and uprightness of his judicial decisions, for the amicable relations which he maintained with all neighbouring states, and for the tranquillity which marked his government at home. But who sees not at once the application of these titles to Christ in the exercise of His spiritual royalty? He is a “ King of righteousness.” If He cannot satisfy every demand of a violated law, if He cannot meet all the conditions of unsullied holiness, if He cannot cancel every claim which Heaven may have against our souls, nay, if He cannot present my soul as unblameable--as pure from stain or blemish as His own--the ground of my confidence is gone. A mere king of compassions, a king of love and pity, will not suit me, He must be a “ King of righteousness.” “ and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace.” This, again, is a beautiful type of Messiah’ s kingship. “ Therefore being justified by faith” --(there is the righteousness)--“ we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” II. THE . “ For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God:” Now, that to which I would specially direct your attention here is, that Melchisedec is the first instance we have in the sacred record of a person specially set apart for the office of the priesthood. You will observe that he is not one of a line succeeding to the sacerdotal office in a certain family order; he is not one who has received that sacred appointment by the investiture of others, according to any prescribed order of ecclesiastical polity, but he is one who, long before the Levitical priesthood had been established, stands alone in a strange country, challenging homage from the greatest saint of antiquity as an ordained priest of the most high God. Now, we see at once in this certain resembling features to Christ, the true Melchisedec. He is not descended of any line of human priesthood; there was no laying on of hands to designate Him to the sacred office; yet there rested on Him tokens of a Divine consecration. The opened heavens testified to the power of the Lord’ s anointing; “ the Spirit of the Lord” was upon Him, and when He had “ made His soul an offering for sin,” when He had “ borne the sin of many,” when He had “ poured out His spirit unto death,” believing souls were drawn to His cross, and exercising faith in the great oblation hailed Him--“ Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.” And then observe, that special office of the typical high priest here mentioned by the apostle, namely, that of benediction, “ who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him.” Have we not here a close resemblance to Christ? Benediction, we know, seems never to have been off the lips of the holy Saviour. With streams of blessing did He open His first sermon on the mount; with hands of blessing He drew the little children to His embrace; with the uplifted voice of blessing He went up to the right hand of Power; blessed are the sleeping dead who die in His faith and fear; and when at last He shall separate the great congregation of risen dead, He shall first call to His redeemed ones, saying, “ Come, ye blessed children of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” Yes, blessing was the first act of our High Priest, after He had “ returned to the Majesty on high” : “ Unto you first God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you” ; and never will He lay down that His special prerogative of mercy, until He hath blessed us “ with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” But observe, another act of the typical Melchisedec noticed by the apostle is his receiving a portion of the spoils. “ To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all.” There can exist no question but that this act of the patriarch was a separation of a portion of his newly acquired wealth to the service of God. It was an offering to God through Melchizedec His appointed priest. Abraham had been prosperous; he had been honoured and eminently successful in the mission he had undertaken; how could he do otherwise than dedicate the firstfruits of his success to God? “ What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?” The passage plainly throws some light on the perpetual obligation of almsgiving, independently of all dispensations whatever; and seems to prescribe to us the minimum of our substance which we ought to set apart for God’ s service. If you have been prosperous in the work of your hands, if you are returning like Abraham with the spoils of conquered difficulties, if your spiritual Melchisedec has met you with tokens of acceptance, give unto Him a tenth part of all. Let one strength, one help, one hope, one outstretched arm be recognised in all your successes:--showing that on earth you will lay all your prosperity, even as in heaven you will lay all your crowns, at the feet of Him who was ordained a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. III. THE MYSTERY OF ’ S ORIGIN. He is declared to be, in the third verse, “ without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.” Melchisedec is a person of whose death or birth no record had been preserved, both of which would have been if he had ever bad any accredited place in the Jewish polity. But this man has no record, has no genealogy: he starts up on the page of sacred history, exercising the mysterious functions of the priesthood, shrouding in a veil of impenetrable obscurity all the antecedents of his history, as well as all that relates To his “ end of days.” All this was especially meant to perfect the typical character of this Melchisedec. It was, in fact, to show to us that Christ Himself was not to succeed to His office in the order of any human priesthood--that He should not claim office in virtue of any transmitted rights, but that He should receive consecration direct from the hands or God: “ a Priest” of the Most High God, “ after the order of Melchisedec.” And then see how we are to apply to Christ the last remarkable words applied to Melchisedec--to Christ, the true, the spiritual Melchisedec. He is said to be “ without father” ; is not this true of our Lord’ s human nature? He is said to be “ without mother” : is not this true of our Lord’ s Divine nature? He is said to be “ without beginning of life, or end of days” : must not this be true of Him whom prophecy describes as “ the Ancient of days,” as the Father of eternity, as One who throws out the challenge to every finite intelligence, “ Who shaft declare His generation?” nay, as One whom God Himself had solemnly designated and set apart. “ Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” IV. THE OF ’ S . This is declared in the third verse: “ He is made like” --namely, that He “ abideth a Priest continually.” Then turning to the twenty-fourth verse of this chapter you read--“ But this Man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood” --a passage which, on looking at the margin, you will find thus rendered, “ a priesthood which passeth not from one to another.” Now, to understand this, you must remember the stress of the apostle’ s argument. It was a new theology to the Jews to suppose that Messiah was to be “ a Priest” at all; they thought of Him, they expected Him, only as the “ Lord” Christ, as the King of righteousness and peace. But suppose Christ were to be a Priest, then the Jew would say, “ He must be a Priest according to the order of Aaron.” Then says the apostle, “ Christ can have no claim in this behalf; for He sprang from the tribe of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.” What, then, is the conclusion? Why, that the real type of Christ’ s priesthood is to be found, not in men having infirmity under the law, but in that remarkable personage expressly raised up of God in a particular age of the Church, in order that he might be a perfect, or, at least proximately perfect, type of Christ, as one who neither received his priesthood from any, nor yet transmitted his priesthood to any; and therefore, in so far as there was no delegation of the sacred functions, he might be said to “ abide a priest continually.” Herein he becomes a glorious and eminent type of Christ--the type of Him, who as He received His priesthood from none, so will He delegate it to none, not to human priesthoods, not to saints and angels, not to the ten thousand mediators of a corrupt and apostate church, but rather will continue, in all the might, in all the prevalency, in all the sovereign sufficiency of an unchangeable priesthood, “ ever living to make intercession for us.” (D. Moore, M. A.) Our Melchisedec The Jews were very fond of beautiful mysteries, which awakened the sense of wonder and the desire for deeper knowledge; and, as the Psalms and Proverbs show, they love to have truth in pairs or in halves. Their minds moved, as a railway engine moves, on parallel lines and with corresponding wheels; their piety soared as the lark soars on equal wings. As in this subject of Melchisedec, they often gained their idea of the whole truth, just as in geography you gain your idea of the whole earth by uniting the two half-spheres that are separated” on ,he map. The mystery of Melchisedec is thus explained by four pairs of truths. I. HE WAS A MAN AND MORE THAN A MAN. Many things about him are “ hard to be uttered” or explained (Hebrews 5:11). Here, I think, is the key that opens the difficulty:--there are two Melchisedecs: the on, lived in Salem, and the other lives in this page. King Henry VIII., the queen-killer; was, as most people believe, a had man; but Froude makes him a good man. There are thus two Henrys: the one lived at Windsor, the other lives in Froude’ s history. What Froude did for Henry by hero-worship, Moses did for Melchisedec by omission; but with this difference, that Moses keeps to exact truth. As we have Froude’ s Henry and the real Henry, so we have, as we may say, the Melchisedec of Abraham and the Melchisedec of Moses. Melchisedec was “ made like unto the Son of God” Hebrews 7:3). He was not like Him, but was made like Him. I have watched an apprentice wood-carver. Before him was a tree, like any other tree. Beside him stood a life-size statue of Christ. Glancing now and again at the statue, and guided by his teacher, he hewed out a piece here and there, and soon the tree became a statue. He made it more by making it less, for he thus put a grand idea into it. As that carver elevated the tree into an image of Christ, so Moses, guided by God, fashioned or rounded off the Melchisedec of his story into an image of Christ. It was not an after-thought, but a fore-thought to liken Christ to Melchisedec; for Christ is the original and Melchisedec the copy, expressly “ made” beforehand for New Testament teaching. What a man of mystery that Melchisedec of Moses is! He seems to have dropped down from heaven. He seems to be his own ancestor and his own heir; one sprung from himself, a cause uncaused; one ever living among the dead and dying. He stands quite apart, has not his fellow in the Bible, and is like himself only. Fix your eye upon this portrait drawn by the Divine hand, grasp it as it lies there, and the subject is delightfully simple. “ This Melchisedec” on whom you and I gaze, not that whom Abraham gazed upon; this literary Melchisedec, not that literal one; “ this Melchisedec” is an image of Him who was “ without father” as to His human nature, and “ without mother” as to His Divine; as God “ having neither beginning of days nor end of life” ; who in His office was “ without descent” and without succession, and so “ abideth a Priest continually.” Melchisedec was a man and seems more: Jesus is a man, and is more. II. CHRIST IS LIKE , A PRIEST AND A KING. Pity belongs to Him as Priest, and power belongs to Him as King. His priestly pity and kingly power temper and sustain each other, and as two uniting streams roll along in one full flood of communicated joy. He saves with all the power of a king; He rules with all the gentleness of a priest. His kingly power enables Him to do His priestly work right royally, with royal graciousness and munificence. He saves with sovereignty, with a sovereign’ s generosity. The rebel Themistocles appealed for pardon to the Persian king Xerxes. The king pardoned him in his sovereignty; not as one who had to study petty economics, whose grace was a miser’ s hoard; for he gave Themistocles the country of Magnesia for bread (about £12,000 a year); Myus for condiments, and Lampsacus for wine. That is how a sovereign pardons, and illustrates one part of what we mean by the sovereignty of God. Our great High Priest has a royal right and a royal power to save, as He makes one thing of Priesthood and Kinghood. The golden sceptre of grace is ever in His hand; and whosoever will may touch it and live, shielded by the whole power of His kingdom. What can sin, death, and hell do against those who have Him as their ally? III. IS A TYPE OF CHRIST BECAUSE HE UNITES AND PEACE. His name means “ king of righteousness,” and he was king of Salem, or peace. He was, no doubt, a righteous man and king, doing all he could to right the world’ s wrongs. But much more than that is meant here. For he was a priest, and no priest was he unless he represented God to man and man to God, and so provided righteousness for the unrighteous. They for whom he acted should have had righteousness, but had it not; and it was the part of their priest to gain for them the “ abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.” To us, at least, priestly righteousness means all that. The righteousness our High Priest has to do with is held out as a free gift to the most unrighteous among us; and it is thine for the taking. Melchisedec was also king of Salem. A dense mass of meaning lies for us in this title also. Salem, like the salaam given to-day in the East, means peace. A King of Peace! Earth’ s kings are war-makers; ours is a Peacemaker. Earth’ s great cities have often been Aceldamas, streaming fields of blood; our mother city is peace. And what a union of contraries is here! Let the bare idea of God’ s righteousness enter the heart of a man in sin, and lo! his peace is gone, and he is the prey of remorse. But Christ brings us a peace founded upon eternal righteousness. IV. IS A TYPE OF CHRIST. BECAUSE HE UNITES JEW AND GENTILE. Aaron, the priest, was only for the Jews; but Melchisedec, who was out of Aaron’ s line and above it, was a Gentile, and he was a priest for Abraham the Jew, and for the Gentiles dwelling in Salem. He was a world-wide priest, opening his arms to all the races of humankind, and his city was meant to be the mother-city of all the earth, emblem of the heavenly Jerusalem into which people of all nations shall be gathered. Thus Christ is a Priest, not after the ruder of Aaron, who was for Jews only, but He is “ a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” ; and any sinner under heaven may receive the blessings He brings. (James Wells, M. A.) King of righteousness Righteousness first, then peace I. A OF CHRIST’ S WORK. First, King of Righteousness, afterwards King of Peace. There is no peace with God possible, except on the basis of righteousness. It is a true gospel, howsoever harsh it sounds, which proclaims “ Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in iniquity, neither shall the wicked dwell in Thy sight.” This is the dictate of conscience; this is the dictate of what people call “ natural religion.” This, the necessity of righteousness for friendship with God, is the message of the old covenant; and this, the absolute need of purity of life and heart for all true enjoyment of the Divine favour, is Christ’ s message as truly. Nay, further, the first thing which the gospel--which Christ, who is the gospel--does when He comes into a man’ s heart is to emphasise two facts, the absolute need for righteousness in order to friendship with God, and the want of it in the heart to which He has come. And so the conflict is intensified, the sense of discord is kindled, the alienation between man and God is made conscious on the first entrance of Christ into the spirit. The oil comes after the arrow, the bandage after the wound. II. A SUMMARY OF CHRIST’ S IN THE SOUL. There is no inward harmony, no peace of heart and quietness of nature except on condition of being good and righteous men. The real root of all our agitations is our sinfulness; and wherever there creeps over a heart the love of evil, there comes, like some subtle sea-born mist stealing up over the country and blotting out all its features, a poisonous obscuration which shrouds all the spirit in its doleful folds. Disturbance comes not so much from outward causes as from an inward alienation towards that which is pure and good. Peace within comes from righteousness within, and no man is righteous unless he has Christ’ s righteousness for the very spring and strength of his life. III. THE OF CHRIST’ S IN THE WORLD. The herald angels sang “ on earth peace.” Nineteen centuries have passed, and Christianity is still a disturbing element who, ever it comes, and the promise seems to linger, and the great words that declared “ Unto us a Child” should “ be born,”… and His name shall be … “ the Prince of Peace,” seem as far away from fulfilment as ever they were. Yes, because He is first of all King of Righteousness, and must destroy the evil that is in the world before He can manifest Himself as King of Peace. If we are the followers of the Prince of Peace, who is, first of all, King of Righteousness, we are called to be His faithful servants and soldiers. For all the social evils that swarm round about us to-day, intemperance, impurity, commercial dishonesty, follies of fashionable and of social life and the like, for all teachings that dim and darken the face of His great counsel and purpose of mercy, we are to cherish an undying hatred and war against them an unceasing warfare. IV. A OF THE END. The true Salem, the city of peace, is not here. One more conflict every soldier of the Cross, ere he treads its payment, has to wage with the lust enemy who is to be destroyed by Jesus Christ, but only at the end. For us and for the world the assurance stands firm--the King who Himself is Righteousness is the King whose city is peace. And that city will come. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) First king of righteousness, and after that king of peace I. ADMIRE THIS KING. 1. Melchisedec is such a king as God is. He is according to Divine model. At the fall God first set up a Judgment-sent, and right speedily a Mercy-seat. Righteousness must ever had the van, All along in the history of God’ s dealings with men, He kept to this unvarying rule. 2. tie was such a king as Christ is. Christ preached no peace apart from purity. He never made little of vice or error; He was the deadly foe of all evil. He said, “ I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” 3. Note, next that He is such a King as right-hearted minds desire. My heart rejoices in a sin-killing King, and then a peace-bestowing King, sweeping out the buyers and the sellers from the temple, and then manifesting Himself there in all His majesty to His waiting people. 4 Melchisedec is such a king as Jesus must be to every one of you who have not yet known Him, if you are ever to receive Him as your Saviour. Righteousness must hold the sceptre, or peace will not attend the court. 5. This is the kind of king that God would have every one of us to be. II. ENJOY THIS KING. 1. Our Lord is first King of Righteousness. (1) He who religiously obeys Mahomet may yet be doing grievous moral wrong; but it is never so with the disciples of Jesus: obedience to Jesus is holiness. (2) Notice, next, that if we trust this King of righteousness we are righteous in His merit. 2. And then, next He is after that King of peace. I want you to enjoy the King of Salem, the King of peace. Do you know that at this moment, if you are believer, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Melchisedec, king of righteousness The word “ Melchisedec” leads our minds at once to theft remarkable passage in the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah, where it is declared of Christ that this is His name, whereby He shall be called, “ Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord our Righteousness.” For Zedek and Tsidkenu being the same in their root, the only difference between the passages is that in the prophet He is the Lord of Righteousness, while here He is its King. Whether we look therefore into the pictures of Genesis, or the shadows of prophecy, or the originals of the gospel, righteousness and royalty meet together to make the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us endeavour to catch the meaning of that word “ righteousness.” Before God righteousness means justification. “ There is none righteous, no not one “ this is literally true. No child of man has ever paid all his debt to God. No child of m n has ever fulfilled all his relationships. Therefore no child of man is just. But that was a truer word than he who spake it thought of, when the centurion said, “ Truly this was a righteous man.” Christ was perfectly righteous; because what He undertook to do He did. He undertook to pay, and He fully paid, the whole human debt to God. He never swerved from His engagement. He kept, He beautified, every iota of the law. And what relative duty did He ever leave undone? But His righteousness being so exceeding, and being the righteousness of an infinite being, it was far above all that He needed as man for Himself, and left a treasury of righteousness available for every poor sinner. Very happy it is for us that of that righteousness--both the imparted and the inherent, both His and ours--which He so requires, He is also the king. For He can give, and He will give, it royally. A Melchisedec indeed He stands--Righteousness the habitation of His throne--His sceptre a sceptre of righteousness--Righteousness the girdle of His loins--Righteousness His breastplate--Righteousness the signet of His crown--and all for the sake of that one highest prerogative of His power--that one climax of His righteousness, “ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) King of peace Christ a Prince of peace Two things there be which especially declare Him to be a King of peace. 1. That peace which He made betwixt the Creator and creatures. 2. That which He made among creatures themselves. God at first made all in perfect peace. There was a sweet harmony and consent. No discord, no dissension. Creatures by sin brought all out of frame. But Christ being made King, made up all these breaches. For 1. He satisfied God’ s justice, pacified His wrath, and reconciled man to Romans 3:25; Romans 5:8-10). 2. Christ took men and made them members of His mystical body: and having so united them to Himself, made angels to be at peace with them Colossians 1:20). 3. He communicateth His Spirit unto men, whereby all the powers of their souls and parts of their body are renewed and brought into a sweet harmony. 4. He brake down the partition wall betwixt Jew and Gentile Ephesians 2:14), and made all one in Himself (Galatians 3:28), and so alters their disposition as they may lovingly live together (Isaiah 11:6, etc.). (W. Gouge.) The King of peace There are many things which the world can give you--it can give you amusement; it can give you excitement; it can give youpleasure--but it can never give you peace of mind--no, not for an hour. Peace--all Salem--is Christ’ s exclusively--by legacy from His cross, by deed of gift from His throne. Need I say how incomparably peace is better than pleasure? If you want peace, you must look for it in Christ,--not in the evidences of your own soul--not in certain religious acts or feelings--not in ordinances--not in man--not in doctrine,--but in Christ--a personal, felt, loved, present, real, living Christ,--in His nature, in His attributes, in His work, in His glory, in His return--all peace lives there--it is Salem. The more peace you take, the better subject you are of that kingdom, which is called Salem. Every fear is a rebellion against its King. Nothing honours Christ like the peace of His people--peace is Salem’ s loyalty. The wars of nations make a discord in the works of God. Therefore never measure war, or talk of war, as the light world does; for it is, and it must be, a grief in Salem. But pray more earnestly to the Prince of Peace that prayer, “ Give peace in our time, O Lord!” There will be no war and “ no evil occurrent” presently when Christ comes; but this earth will be one holy Salem its circuit commensurate with creation, “ its walls salvation, and its gates praise.” For that day the Chinch looks out; but, happy thought! Christ looks out for it more than the Church, and not one of us is as anxious for his Lord to appear, as that Lord is now longing to come. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Consider how great this man was Melchisedec a type of greatness I. TRUE IS NOT , BUT . II. TRUE IS NOT , BUT IN THE SOUL. III. TRUE IS NOT THE OF , BUT ON THE THEM. IV. TRUE EXISTS AND ONLY IN CLOSE TO GOD. V. TRUE IS SEEN IN THE AND UNION OF AND PEACE. VI. TRUE ITSELF IN TO THE WELFARE OF OTHERS. VII. TRUE WILL RECEIVE ITS DUE , AND INCITE TO A KINDRED . VII. TRUE REACHES ITS HIGHEST IN JESUS CHRIST. (B. Dale, M. A.) King and priest I. THE HONOURS HE . One of the highest marks of greatness is to be had in honour by the good. We should not attach so much importance to a eulogy, as to the character of those by whom it is uttered. II. THE DUTIES HE 1. Those of a king. Living in peace; striving to bless his subjects, and honour his God. 2. Those of a patriarch. 3. Those of a priest. This is true greatness, when the spiritual is not neglected for the secular, nor the secular for the spiritual. III. THE TENTS OF HE . 1. Stability. Did not allow the idolatry around to influence either his heart or life. 2. Peacefulness and wisdom. Did not embroil himself in quarrels, or resent fancied grievances. 3. Tolerance. Did not go to war himself, but respected the valour of Abraham, believing he engaged in the conflict by command of God. 4. Cordiality. No gloomy ascetic, or lofty monarch. IV. THE FAME HE SECURED. He was great, because good; illustrious, because beloved of God. V. THE REWARD HE ENJOYS. Conclusion: 1. It is possible for us to be great after the manner of Melchisedec. Are not Christians made like unto the Son of God? 2. If we would be thus great, we must seek to be invested with the righteousness of Christ. (R. A. Griffin.) The greatness of the Man Christ Jesus I. LET ME EXHORT YOU TO HOW GREAT THIS MAN, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IS. 1. This subject claims your consideration. It is His right that you should consider His greatness. 2. Certainly the subject needs consideration; for we shall never gain an idea of how great He is unless we do consider, and consider much. Here is a great deep, and it cannot be fathomed by the thoughtless. 3. I go a little further, and say that not only does my subject claim your consideration and need your consideration, but it solemnly comma rids it. The text is not a mere piece of advice; the apostle charges you to think of Melchisedec, but much more would he have you remember Melchisedec’ s Antitype. Oh, do not need to be pressed to this Divine study: love it, never cease from it. 4. Follow out this meditation, I pray you because there is an exceeding great reward for any man who will “ consider how great this man was.” I find for myself that the only possibility of my living is living in Christ and unto Christ. II. LET ME ASSIST YOU TO HOW GREAT THIS MAN WAS. 1. Lest the very use of the expression, “ this man,” should leave any body for a moment in doubt as to our faith in His Godhead, I bid you consider how great this man was in His relationship to God. For though He was man, He was not merely man. 2. You are not in doubt upon this vital matter; let me, therefore, ask you to consider “ how great this man was” as to His relationship to men. Christ Jesus is the second man, the Lord from heaven. 3. Come a little closer, and reach forward to that which will delight your hearts far more; consider the relationship of Christ to His own people. Long before the heavens and the earth were made, God with prescient eye beheld the person of His Son as God in human nature, and He saw all His elect lying in Him. The Church is His body. “ Consider how great this man was.” He is so great that all the saints are blessed in Him. III. THE of the whole subject. Consider how great this man was, and as you consider, believe in His infinite power to bless men. He is full of b e, sing as the sun is fall of light, that He may shine upon His needy creatures. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Human greatness There are various relations in which human greatness is a fit object of consideration. 1. It is to be considered in relation to the providence of God. All real greatness--intellectual, moral, and circumstantial--is intimately associated with the sovereignty of Heaven. In certain recorded instances, the connection of God with the attainment of such greatness is very distinctly indicated. It is so in the instances of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Saul, David, and many other Scripture-characters. In these, the direct interference of the Divine Being is at certain points, definitely marked; and the thoughtful reader of the narrative is thus prepared to acknowledge His hand throughout the whole tissue of the events that led the individual on to greatness. But the Scriptural doctrine of God’ s universal providence involves the fact that, even in more ordinary cases, His superintending care and administrative wisdom are employed (1 Chronicles 29:11-12). Now, it is reasonable, and fitted to be practically useful, to trace the Divine sovereignty and the Divine wisdom in the production of personal and national greatness, and, when such greatness flashes on the eye, to see and feel that the hand of Jehovah has been there. 2. Human greatness is to be considered in relation to the ravages of death and time. “ All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of 1 Peter 1:24). Riches take to themselves wings and fly away” Proverbs 23:5). Power waxes weak as infancy. Even Fume’ s green garland is wont to wither on the brow (Ecclesiastes 8:8). How important, by the consideration of earthly greatness as, like other earthly objects, frail and fleeting, to be disabused of vain ambition, and to learn the lesson (Isaiah 2:22). 3. Human greatness is to be considered in relation to the example and encouragement which, in certain cases, it is fitted to afford. Some men have been greatly good. Their moral aims have been lofty, their moral enterprises vast, and their moral attainments bright. And independently of their importance as models, the consideration of them is fitted to inspire the soul with a moral enthusiasm both honourable and useful. 4. Human greatness is to be considered in relation to the typical character which certain great ones of the world possessed. If God has assigned such a character to some of the principle personages of the Bible, and given us the means of tracing it, surely it would be unreasonable and sinful to neglect to do so. By the consideration of those elements of greatness wherein patriarchs, princes, priests, and prophets represented Christ, distinct and vivid views may be obtained of Christ Himself. Thus, too, may be clearly apprehended the intimate relation subsisting among the various moral economies of God, and the antivipative and Messianic character of God’ s providence from the very birth of time. (A. S. Patterson.) The greatness of character Wherein lay his greatness? He was not in the priestly line. Neither do we read that he was appointed of God. Yet no man taketh this honor unto himself. God had made him king and priest by conferring upon him the gift of innate spiritual greatness. He was one of nature’ s kings, born to rule, not because he was his father’ s son, but because he had a great soul. He became a priest in virtue of what he was as man. His authority as king sprang from character. Such men appear on earth now and again. But they are never accounted for. All we can say of them is that they have neither father nor mother nor genealogy. They resemble those who are born of the spirit, of whom we know neither whence they come nor whither they go. It is only from the greatest One among these kings and priests of men that the veil is lifted. In Him we see the Son of God. Such priests remain priests for ever. They live on by the vitality of their priesthood. They have no beginning of days or end of life. They have never been set apart with outward ritual to an official distinction, marked by days and years. Their acts are not ceremonial, and wait not on the calendar. They bless men, and the blessing abides. They pray, and the prayer dies not. If their prayer lives for ever, can we suppose that they themselves pass away? The king-priest is heir of immortality, whoever else may perish. He at least has the power of an endless life. If he dies in the flesh, he lives on in the spirit. An eternal heaven must be found or made for such men with God. (T C. Edwards, D. D.) Hebrews 7:11-13A change also of the law Change in the law It is modified in these circumstances: 1. In regard of justification (Acts 13:39). The law was first given to justify the observers thereof; but now in regard of man’ s corruption that is impossible (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:11). God therefore now hath appointed another means for that end, which is Christ and faith in Him Acts 13:39; Romans 3:28). 2. In regard of the rigour thereof. The law accepteth no duty but that which is every way perfect. This much is implied (Romans 10:5). This, there, fore, is the doom of the law (Galatians 3:10). Yet there is a righteousness (though not framed according to this exact rule) which is accepted of God. This is the righteousness of faith, whereby laying hold on Christ’ s righteousness to be justified (Acts 24:16). 3. In regard of an accidental power which the law, through man’ s corruption, hath to increase sin, and to make it out of measure sinful Romans 7:13). For the very forbidding of a sin by the law maketh the corrupt heart of man more eagerly pursue it: as a stubborn child will do a thing the more, because it is forbidden. There is a secret antipathy in our corrupt nature to God’ s pure law. But by the Spirit of Christ that antipathy is taken away, and another disposition wrought in true believers: namely, a true desire and faithful endeavour to avoid what the law forbiddeth; and to do that which it requireth. In this respect, saith the apostle, “ I delight in the law of God concerning the inward man” (Romans 7:22). 4. In regard of the curse of the law. Yet the law peremptorily denounceth a curse against every transgressor and transgression (De Galatians 3:10). The law admits no sure y, nor accepts any repentance. Thus, “ all men having sinned, come short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23). Yet this curse doth not light on all (Galatians 2:13). In this respect, “ there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1). Though the moral law be altered in the forementioned respects, yet still it remains to be of use for instruction and direction. 1. For instruction, it demonstrateth these points following: (1) What God Himself is (Exodus 20:2). (2) Want His holy will is (Psalms 40:8). (3) What our duty is to God and man (Matthew 22:37-39). (4) What sin is (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:20). (5) What are the kinds of sin (James 2:11; Romans 7:7). (6) What the pravity of our nature is (Romans 7:14). (7) What the sinfulness of our lives is (Romans 7:19). (8) God’ s approbation of obedience (Exodus 20:6; Exodus 20:12). (9) God’ s detestation of transgressors (Exodus 20:5; Exodus 20:7). (10) The fearful doom of sinners (Galatians 3:10). (11) Man’ s disability to keep the law (Romans 8:3). (12) The necessity of another means of salvation (Romans 3:20-21). 2. For direction. The law is of use to these points following: (1) To convince men of sin. (2) To humble them for the same. (3) To work an hatred of sin. (4) To restrain them from it. (5) To work self-denial. (6) To drive men to Christ. (7) To put them on to endeavour after as near a conformity to the law as they can. (8) To make them fearful of pulling upon their souls a more fearful doom than the curse of the law: which is by despising the gospel. (9) To make impenitents the more inexcusable. (10) To make believers more thankful for Christ’ s active and passive obedience; whereby as a surety He hath done for them what they could not, and endured that curse which they deserved, to free them from the same. (W. Gouge.) Divine institutions abrogated I. THE GREAT OF THEM BY WHOM IT WAS AND , YET GOD TOOK IT NOT AWAY, UNTIL IT HAD THE END IT WAS . 1. Neither the wickedness of the people nor of the priests themselves could provoke the Lord to revoke His institution until the appointed end of it was come. 2. God took it not away till He brought in that which was more excellent, and advantageous unto the Church, namely, the Priesthood of Christ. And if this be not received through their unbelief, they alone are the cause of their being losers by this alteration. 3. In abundant patience and condescension, with respect unto that interest which it had in the consciences of men from His institution, God did not utterly lay it aside in a day, after which it should be absolutely unlawful to comply with it. But God took it away by degrees. II. THE OF ALL OR OF WORSHIP DEPENDS ON THE WILL OF GOD ALONE. Whilst it was His will that the priesthood should abide in the family of Levi, it was useful and effectual unto all the ends whereunto it was designed. But when He would make an alteration therein, it was in vain for any to look for either benefit or advantage by it. And although we are not now to expect any change in the institutions of Divine worship, yet all our expectations from them are to be resolved into the will of God. III. DIVINE CEASE NOT WITHOUT AN EXPRESS DIVINE . Where they are once granted by the authority of God, they can never cease without an express act of the same authority taking of them away. IV. GOD WILL NEVER OR TAKE AWAY ANY OR OF WORSHIP UNTO THE LOSS OR OF THE CHURCH. He would not remove or abolish the priesthood of Levi, until that which was incomparably more excellent was introduced and established. V. GOD IN HIS WISDOM SO ORDERED ALL THINGS, THAT THE TAKING AWAY OF THE OF THE LAW, GAVE IT ITS GLORY. For it ceased not before it had fully accomplished the end whereunto it was designed, which is the perfection of any ordinance: even the mediation of Christ Himself shall cease when all the ends of it are fulfilled. And this end of the priesthood was most glorious; namely, the bringing in that of Christ, and therein of the eternal salvation of the Church. VI. IT IS A FRUIT OF THE WISDOM OF GOD, THAT IT WAS A GREAT MERCY TO GIVE THE LAW, AND THE GREATER TO TAKE IT AWAY. VII. If under the law the whole worship of God did so depend on the priesthood, and that failing or being taken away, the whole worship of itself was to cease, as being no more acceptable before God; HOW MUCH MORE IS ALL WORSHIP UNDER THE NEW BY HIM, IF THERE BE NOT A DUE REGARD THEREIN UNTO THE LORD CHRIST, as the only High Priest of the Church, and to the efficacy of His discharge of that office. VIII. It is the highest vanity to pretend use or continuance in the Church, FROM OR , OR BENEFIT, BEAUTY, ORDER, OR , WHEN ONCE THE MIND OF GOD IS AGAINST IT. The pleas of this kind for the old priesthood and law excelled all that can be insisted on with respect unto any other things for which any pretend a veneration in Divine worship; yet were they of no validity or efficacy. (John Owen, D. D.) Hebrews 7:14-24 Our Lord sprang out of Juda A new priesthood 1. Jesus sprang from the royal tribe of Judah, not from the sacerdotal tribe of Levi. The apostle intentionally uses a term that glances at Zechariah’ s prediction (Hebrews 7:14) concerning Him who shall arise as the dawn, and be a Priest upon His throne. We shall therefore entitle Him “ Lord,” and say that “ our Lord “ has risen out of Judah. He is Lord and King by right of birth. But this circumstance, that He belongs to the tribe of Judah, hints, to say the least, at a transference of the priesthood. For Moses said nothing of this tribe in reference to priests, however great it became in its kings. The kingship of our Lord is foreshadowed in Melchizedec. 2. It is still more evident that the Aaronic priesthood bar been set aside if we recall another feature in the allegory of Melchisedec. For Jesus is like Melchisedec as Priest, not as King only. The priesthood of Melchisedec sprang from the man’ s inherent greatness. How much more is it true of Jesus Christ that His greatness is personal! He became what He is, not by force of law, which could create only an external, carnal commandment, but by innate power, in virtue of which He will live on and His life will be indestructible. The commandment that constituted Aaron priest has not indeed been violently abrogated; hut it was thrust aside in consequence of its own inner feebleness and uselessness. It has been lost, like the light of a star, in the spreading “ dawn” of day. The sun of that eternal day is the infinitely great personality of Jesus Christ, born a crownless King; crowned at His death, but with thorns. Yet what mighty power He bar wielded! The Galilaean has conquered. Since He has passed through the heavens from the eyes of men, thousands in every age have been ready to die for Him. Untouched by the downfall of kingdoms, and the revolutions of thought, such a King will sit upon His moral throne from age to age, yesterday and to-day the same, and for ever. 3. The entire system or covenant based on the Anionic priesthood has passed away and given place to a better covenant, better in proportion to the firmer foundation on which the priesthood of Jesus rests. Beyond question, the promises of God were steadfast. But men could not realise the glorious hope of their fulfilment, and that for two reasons. First, difficult conditions were imposed on failible men. The worshipper might transgress in many points of ritual. His mediator, the priest, might err where error would be fatal to the result. Worshipper and priest, if they were thoughtful and pious men, would be haunted with the dread of having done wrong they knew not how or where, and be filled with dark forebodings. Confidence, especially full assurance, was not to be thought of. Second, Christ found it necessary to urge His disciples to believe in God. The misery of distrusting God Himself exists. Men think that He is such as they are; and, as they do not believe in themselves, their faith in God is a reed shaken by the wind. These wants were not adequately met by the old covenant. The conditions imposed perplexed men, and the revelation of God’ s moral character and Fatherhood was not sufficiently clear to remove distrust. The apostle directs attention to the strange absence of any swearing of an oath on the part of God when He instituted the Aaronic priesthood, or on the part of the priest at his consecration. Yet the kingship was confirmed by oath to David. In the new covenant, on the other hand, all such fears may be dismissed. For the only condition imposed is faith. In order to make faith easy and inspire men with courage, God appoints a surety for Himself. He offers His Son as Hostage, and thus guarantees the fulfilment of His promise. (T. C. Edwards, D. D.) Incentive to Christians to promote the spiritual welfare of the Jews Our Lord sprang not from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah. That tribe, originally one of the twelve, was in an early period of the history of Israel the most distinguished by its numbers, its power, its talents, and the many favours and honours conferred upon it by God. Upon the unhappy and criminal apostasy of the ten tribes in the reign of Rehoboam, the tribe of Judah remained faithful to the royal house of David, and it was preserved and became a great nation after the whole of the others were swept away and lost for ever. In the fulness of time God sent forth His Son--the Lord of glory becoming incarnate--of the tribe of Judah; and among the honourable names which He condescends to wear, He is called, “ The Lion of the tribe of Judah” --the Lion for His majesty and power, but never forgetful of His parentage and descent. Does not this contain a fact, then, which appeals to the judgments and to the hearts of serious Christians in relation to the claims which the descendants of Judah, and consequently the kinsmen after the flesh of our Lord prefer on Christian piety and exertion? I would endeavour to place before you two plain considerations, with the view of increasing this sentiment in your minds. I. It receives an increase FROM THE NATURAL FEELING WHICH WE ALL HAVE BY . FROM ANY , WITH A BELOVED NAME. AND BELOVED PERSONS. Who, for example, can go to Runnymede, who can go through the aisles of the Abbey at Westminister, without having the most lively feelings awakened in his heart, from associations connected with our national history? Now, in reading that our Lord sprang out of Judah have we any affection, any gratitude of soul at the thought of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us? The fact that our Saviour, our life, our hope, our righteousness, sprang out of Judah--oh how it should endear to us the helpless race of Judah! We see in them the countrymen of our blessed Redeemer, we see in them His relations according to the flesh, and ought not this to work in our minds some strong sentiment of concern, and pity, and desire that they may be brought out of the gulf of darkness and ruin in which they are paced? II. This feeling of human nature receives an increase of power and tenderness WHEN THERE IS A IN ANY TO WHOM SUCH AN ENDEARS US. Have none of us known the pain of such a feeling? When we see the child of an honoured friend sunk in circumstances, broken in character, cast down from the station of respectability and dignity in society in which their honoured parents moved--such facts as these are exceedingly painful; and in proportion as theeminent merits, the usefulness, or the Christian godliness of the progenitors may be inscribed in our affection, in that proportion should we bitterly lament when their prosperity have their honours laid low in the dust. This is a feeling which applies in the present case, “ Our Lord sprang out of Judah,” but what has since happened to Judah? The Prince of life deigned to take our nature, to be born of the tribe of Judah, but that tribe and the other branches of the nation of Israel who were connected with it are now in a state of dispersion. See the tribe from which our Lord sprung trampled down under foot, the sport of cruelty and oppression. It is no excuse for Christians that the descendants of the tribe of Judah have rejected the glory of their tribe; this in the sight of God is infinitely criminal, but this will not be remedied by adding insult and cruelty to their condition. And when, triumphant over death and hell, Christ rose and sent forth His servants to go into all the world, and preach in His name repentance and remission of sins to mankind universally, He said, “ Begin at Jerusalem.” Are we then the servants of the Lord Jesus? Then we must be animated with His temper an,! spirit. The unbelief and opposition of the Jewish nation, taken in general, against the Lord Jesus, so far from being a reason why we should be insensible to their spiritual condition, and leave them to perish in unbelief, affords the highest of all reasons why we should do all that we can to remove the evil from their eyes. (Dr. J. P. Smith.) After the power of an endless life The power of Christ’ s endless life This endless life is not the eternity He had with the Father before worlds began; it is His endless life as Mediator. The words mean an indissoluble or indestructible life, safe against the assault of all enemies, and secure from all decay, or possibility of diminution. It may be said, But is not this, after all, the same, for none but the eternal Son of God could become the endless Mediator? Yet, granting this, it leads us to a different point of view for contemplating the work of Christ. Do we not feel that in His incarnation, as God manifest in the flesh, we can have thoughts about God which we could never have gained from the study of the Divine nature in its absolute essence? And so, in considering the endless life of Christ, we may rise to conceptions and feelings about the world to come, and our share in it, which we could not receive from any attempt to grasp the idea of Christ’ s original and eternal nature. I. The first thought is the power which this endless life has of ITSELF. The very idea of such a life brings with it an inspiration of hope. That we should be able to think of a life like our own, but free from all the impurity which attaches to us going forward, age after age, without a break and without a check, rising and widening, a joy to itself and a source of joy to others: is it not something to make us hopeful about the soul of man? There is no creature around us that has such a power, and may we not then cherish the expectation of something corresponding to it in reality? But if moreover, we can come to the reasonable conclusion that such a life really exists; that One of the race has risen above the power of death; that He gave such evidence of it to those who were about Him as made them willing to endure any extremity, even to death, for this conviction; if He has been giving proofs of it since, by new spiritual life in the men, and new moral life in the nations, that have come into contact with Him, must there not be power in the faith of such an endless life? But the power of Christ’ s endless life does more than communicate the hope of it to others, it gives the possession. When the original well of life had been talented and poisoned by sin, He came to open up a new and pure fountain. He secures for us a pardon consistent with righteousness, without which it could have brought no real life. He begins a new life in the soul, which has hard and manifold struggles with the fierce reluctance of the old nature. He encourages, strengthens, renews it, and at last makes it victorious. All this He does not merely by presenting knowledge, but by an act of creation through the Holy Spirit. He gives, not the perception or hope, but the possession of it. “ I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Now we may begin to see what power there is in the endless life of Christ. It belongs to Him, not to reserve it for Himself, but to be-tow it on all who will take it from His hand who do not shut their eyes and steel their hearts against the gracious influences that are visiting the world through His death on earth and His life in heaven. But in order to this He must have a continued life. Ha,! it been merely an example, a system of doctrine. He might have diet and left it to itself, but for a power He must live, and live onward. Men are being born who need Him, and they will be born while this world exists, men who have sins, sorrows, temptations, death; nothing can help them--none but Christ Himself, and so He must have the power of an endless life. And even when all are gathered in from earth, when time in its present form is closed, and another kind of time, an eternal time, begins, He will be needed. He will be the Mediator between the unseen God and man for ever, through whom they see God, and know Him, and have fellowship with Him. II. This thought, which we have been trying to express, contains the germ of all we can say, but we may attempt to unfold it in some of its applications. Let us think then of the power Christ has in His endless life of AND . Death is the one great barrier between man and growth. What secrets might the man of science wring from the bosom of nature, if he had countless years in which to put his questions, and mark the answers! What wisdom might philosophers gain if they could watch for ages the course of thought and the currents of emotion! But what wrecks lie scattered around us of plans scarcely begun, and what noble thoughts have passed away without an utterance! We do not say that there are no compensations for these short earthly lives, and no sufficient reason for this sad check to our fallen nature in the pursuit of knowledge. Sometimes, when we are disappointed and weary, we get reconciled to the pause, and are glad to think of rest. But when the soul is strong and wisdom sweet, the conception of endless progress in knowledge answers to something very profound in human nature. We recoil from death, not merely as the animal recoils, but because it cuts us off from answers to the greatest questions the spirit can raise. How fitting it would be that beside the tree of knowledge there should be the tree of life! And this want is met when we think of One in our nature with the power of an endless tile, who can be our Leader in all the paths of nature and providence and grace, by which souls can advance in the wisdom of God. All the experience which He gained in His own earthly life is carried up into the higher life, and with it all the experience of all the ages since, in His contact, through the Holy Spirit, with doubt and struggle and grief in the lives of men. Thus Christ is full of endless, fresh life in His Word, so that we find it deeper and higher, and need to grow at, to it. And when we pass in thought from this side of death to those who have entered into the immediate presence of Christ, we can see that the endless life of Christ has its relations to them. What we have in the word of God, they have in the living Christ. III. We may think, next, of the SENSE OF UNITY IN CHRIST’ S PLAN, which we may derive from the “ power of His endless life.” There are two things secured for the unity of Christians by Christ’ s unending life. 1. The first is a oneness of heart and sympathy. He became the centre of common affection, not a dead abstraction, but as a living person who draws them all to Himself, and infuses into them common feelings, not at one time or in one place, but through all time and in all places; and so the apostle, speaking of the unity of the Spirit, puts first the one Lord, and then the one God and Father. They are scattered through many generations and many lands, but the thought of an abiding, living Christ makes them brethren of the same family, puts into their heart the same life-blood, and prepares them for dwelling at last in the same house. 2. The other unity secured by this endless life of Christ is that of action. The Christian Church grows up under the hands of innumerable labourers. They come and go, and” are not suffered to continue by reason of death” ; they have their own views and temperaments, and portions of the building bear the marks of it. There are chasms in the walls, raising and removing of scaffolding in dust and noise, to the perplexing of our brief lives. In the midst of all this there are minds eager for unity, and ready to take whatever seems to promise it. It is not to be found in any ecclesiastical despirtism, nor even in the outward gathering of faithful men under one discipline, good though this may be in its place. It is to be sought in the one heart of which we have spoken, going toward Christ, and then in ,he overruling plan which He carries out through all their work. IV. Think, moreover, how the power of Christ’ s endless life may fill us with the SPIRIT OF . Many of the evil schemes of the world come from the impatience that belongs to short lives. Even good men take ill-advised ways, because they are anxious for speedy results. They wish for something they can see, “ Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants.” But he who has the power of an endless life will not only choose no ways that are unrighteous, he will not be hurried into any that are premature. A subject that causes doubt with many is the slow progress of justice and mercy in the world. See how sanguinary wars, iniquitous acts of oppression, great national vices and follies, run the weary round. There is progress; yes, there is progress; Christianity is slowly forming a moral opinion which compels men to have some pretext of right for war, and it is sending its messengers of healing to help friend and foe alike. But how tardy in its approach is the reign of righteousness and peace! The endless life of Christ is a source of comfort to us. He could very soon check the symptoms, but the disease would remain. The great problem is to put down sin not merely because it is opposed to the will of God, but because it is also opposed to the happiness of His universe; it is not simply a contention of power, but of goodness, and this needs time. The endless life of Christ gives Him patience in working for it, bringing His moral and spiritual motives to bear, and using His power at last for those whom no motives could persuade. V. The last remark we make is that the power of Christ’ s endless life opens THE OF ABIDING JOY. There is a philosophy of the present day called Pessimism, which holds that life is so entirely wretched, and the universe so tainted with misery, that the only resource possible is utter extinction. It proposes in various ways the question, Is life worth living? and after weighing its short pleasures against its long suffering, it concludes that non-existence for men, and, if it could be, for the universe, is the desirable goal. If those who put such questions would only be led to widen their inquiry, they might find that there are other balances than theirs in which the pains and pleasures of life are to be weighed. When we come to the emotions of the soul, the measure is not by quantity but by quality. There are moments of joy which outbalance years of toil and pain. The first glimpse of the New World to Columbus, the tremulous delight which seized Newton when he was in sight of the new law of gravitation, and which made him unable to finish the last figures of the calculation--these led them to forget as nothing sleepless nights and long anxieties and depressing fears. And there are greater things than these. The joy of selfsacrifice for the cause of truth and righteousness has been to some men more to be chosen than crowns and palaces, and has made flames unfelt as if He who walked in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar were with them in the fire. This is the joy of souls, and Jesus Christ is the Lord of that kingdom where its home is fixed. (J. Ker, D. D.) The power of an endless life This word “ after” is a word of correspondence, and implies two subjects brought into comparison. That Christ has the power of an endless life in His own person is certainty true; but to say that He is made a priest after this power, subjective in Himself, is awkward even to a degree that violates the natural grammar of speech. The word translated power in the text, is the original of our word dynamic, denoting a certain impetus, momentum, or causative force, which is cumulative, growing stronger and more impelling as it goes. And this is the nature of life or vital force universally--it is a force cumulative as long as it continues. It enters into matter as a building, organising, lifting power, and knows not how to stop till death stops it. We use the word “ grow “ to describe its action, and it does not even know bow to subsist without growth. In which growth it lays hold continually of new material, expands in volume, and fills a larger sphere of body with its power. And yet we have, in the power thus developed, nothing more than a mere hint or initial sign of what is to be the real stature of his personality in the process of his everlasting development. We exist here only in the small, that God may have us in a state of flexibility, and bend or fashion us, at the best advantage, to the model of His own great life and character. What Christ, in His eternal priesthood, has done; or the fitness and practical necessity of it, as related to the stupendous exigency of our redemption. The great impediment which the gospel of Christ encounters in our world, that which most fatally hinders its reception or embrace, is that it is too great a work. It transcends our belief--it wears a look of extravagance, We are beings to insignificant and low to engage any such interest on the part of God, or justify any such expenditure. The preparations made, and the parts acted, are not in the proportions of reason, and the very terms of the great salvation have to our dull ears, a declamatory sound. How can we really think that the eternal God has set these more than epic machineries at work for such a creature as man? Christ therefore comes not as a problem given to our reason, but as a salvation offered to our faith. His passion reaches a deeper point in us than we can definitely think, and His Eternal Spirit is a healing priesthood for us, in the lowest and profoundest roots of our great immortality, those which we have never seen ourselves. (H Bushnell, D. D.) Heaven--an endless life Such is the nature of that life which Christ came to secure for the children of men. It is life, and life in its noblest sense--glorious, divine, eternal--in comparison with which all we haveknown of existence in this world is but a dream. The power of such a life! Life endless, unchangeable, save only from accumulating glory; perpetual in its freshness and boundless in its infinitude for ever and ever! It is this glory which is held out for our attainment. We who are here even in the death of trespasses and sins, are invited to seek it. It was to secure for us such a life, and to redeem us from the cause of death, that Christ came. He was made, not after the law of a carnal commandment--that is say, one that had merely to do with the body and with time. He was constituted, not for any temporary purpose, but in accordance with the plan of an eternal salvation. “ The power of an endless life” --what is it? 1. It is a perfect life. They who enter upon it are without fault before the throne of God. There is no sin, no defilement, no spot, nor wrinkle, nor fear of evil. 2. This endless life is a social life. All the communicative and compaionable tendencies of our nature and powers of our being will be exercised in an enjoyment intensified by being shared with the beatific experience of others. The sight of others in glory will be infinite icy, a study of salvation, a rapture of delight. There will be the good and the holy of all gee and all worlds to love and rejoice with. There will be communion with Christ, sweeter than on the way to Emmaus, more frank and more loving than it hath entered the heart of man to imagine. There will be revealed to all the principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God in the salvation of man. There will be mutual study, nothing solitary, nothing exclusive, no need of guardian forms of courtesies, nor any distant or reserved civilities--no sense either of superiority or inferiority--all pride, jealousy,distrust, and envy, can find no entrance there. Divine love is the atmosphere of heaven; its blessed inhabitants dwell in love, for they dwell in God, and God is love; and in sweet forgetfulness of self, the happiness of others is as dear and delightful to each as their own. 3. It is a progressive life. The power of an endless life! The idea is truly magnificent. The idea of a life of an antediluvian--a life of a thousand years--is grand and imposing. What an accumulation of impulse and of power from generation to generation! But a thousand years are as one day in the arithmetic of an endless life. Our plans on earth are contracted, fragmentary, broken, and incomplete; but in the infinitude of eternal existence there will be nothing to prevent the execution of schemes encompassing all ages and all worlds. The understanding will be divinely illumined, the memory retentive and capacious. (1) There will be progression in holiness--we mean in the power of holy habit. Perfect in the righteousness of Christ, there can be no improvement in the legal qualification for heaven; but as star differeth from star in glory, so in the reflection of that glory, which will be brighter and brighter as the soul knows more and more of the holiness and character of God. (2) There will be progression in knowledge. For this there will be boundless room throughout eternity. What heart can conceive, what mind can measure, even in imagination, the infinite riches of the Creator’ s wisdom and love! And thus the power of an endless life will progress in delight, in joy, in happiness unutterable, inconceivable. For ever increasing with the increase of the knowledge of God in Christ, ages on ages shall witness an undiminished freshness and novelty in the glory still to be revealed, a capacity of bliss for ever enlarging, and a volume of pleasure for ever accumulating. The joy arising from a sense of the love of God can have no limit--nay, must be, in the nature of things, positively and eternally progressive. The experience of a dying servant of God, recorded not long since, was in these words: “ This is heaven begun. I have done with darkness for ever. Satan is vanquished. Nothing now remains but salvation with glory--eternal glory.” This was of God. It is His smile, His presence, His love, that cheers the pilgrim through the valley. (G. B.Cheerer.) The indestructibility of Christ In what way had the Jewish priests been appointed? “ According to the law of a carnal commandment,” or ordinance, which was descent from Aaron. But this involved no certainty of their endowment with the true priestly helpfulness; they might or might not possess the gifts which distinguished their illustrious progenitor. Nay, it was rather a presumption against their endowment with these; for eminent qualities of mind and soul are not usually transmitted thus from generation to generation in the same family. Well, now, the apostle claims for Jesus that He was a Priest infinitely transcending them, and destined to set them aside, to banish them from the scene. And why? Because He was “ made not after the law of a carnal ordinance, but after the power of an endless life.” He held the position undeniably. Multitudes of all classes and in many lands were looking up to Him and leaning on Him in spiritual matters; were turning confidingly to Him for spiritual guidance and succour; were calling Him, with eager reverence, Lord and Master. And how had He gained such position? Not by any appointment from without, nor by any recognised social rank into which He had been born, but by the might of what He was in Himself. He had been raised to it by no external edict or arrangement, but by an inward force--the force of the life with which He throbbed and overflowed. But it was the power of “ endless life” which made Christ a Priest, aa, s the apostle, of life indissoluble, indestructible; by which He meant, I fancy, the irresistible strength and energy of the life in Him as distinguished from the dead perfunctoriness of the hereditary priests; that being life, and not death, it could not be suppressed or baffled, but was bound to thrust itself out and make itself felt, in spite of all difficulties and hindrances. How irresistibly strong and energetic the living spirit in Jesus, the force of His spiritual vitality, did prove itself! All the hostile circumstances and influences by which He was surrounded were unable to suppress it or prevent its triumph. They raged at Him, and eventually trampled Him to death. Nevertheless, He rose, and survived, and impressed Himself deeply on the world, became the acknowledged High Priest of millions, and the hereditary priesthood of Judea melted away before Him. But this is what I want to ask you: Is there not in Jesus a power of life indissoluble, indestructible--a power of life that withstands victoriously the wear of time, the shakings and convulsions wrought by the progress of knowledge, by the march of ideas, and the severest assaults of hostile criticism? Reiterated attempts have been made to resolve Him into mist or to reduce Him to clay. They have never succeeded; He has always reappeared; has always shone out afresh, with lustre undimmed, after each attempt; has been found looking down on us from above when the smoke of the attack has cleared away, with the same calm eyes and commanding aspect as before, like an angel in the sun. And, morally and spiritually, does not He remain the ideal, unsurpassed and unsurpassable--the ideal which gathers up and collects within it all the finest elements, all the best features of the various ideals represented by religions or nursed in the breasts of individuals--an ideal which we have never yet improved upon or advanced beyond? Yea, and after all our experiences and experiments in society, after all our projects and panaceas, who will not admit that the religion of Christ, generally embraced and practised, would be the life of the world--that nothing could bring us nearer to some realisation of the dream of the Golden Age than a general diffusion of His ethical ideas? After the lapse of nearly two thousand years, are we not learning to feel more than ever that if a new heaven and a new earth are to be reached, it must be by our uniting to follow these ethical ideas; that the way thither lies enfolded for us in His spirit and principles; that the penetration of society with Him would be the redemption of society. (S. A. Title.) The incomparable priesthood I. CHRIST’ S IS NOT AN , BUT A FACT. 1. Christ is a priest by the necessity of His own nature--God-man. 2. Christ is a priest by the necessity of depraved souls. II. HIS IS NOT A , BUT AN ENDLESS POWER. 1. His priesthood was not for the mere temporal interests of mankind. 2. His priesthood was not merely for the spiritual interest of the soul in time. (Homilist.) The power of an endless life There is a deep, mystic sense in which the life that Christ lived in this world--its infancy, its development, its temptations, its solitude, its conflicts, its sufferings, its joys, its holiness, its love, its dying, its rising--all is enacted over and over again in the soul and in the experience of every individual that lives in time, nay, beyond time into eternity. Who has not sometimes traced within himself the antitype to the type of Christ’ s life that He lived upon this earth? What a view that gives us of the endlessness of that life which Jesus lived from Bethlehem to Bethany. And what a force there is in the fact; with what a power it must have invested, to the mind of Christ, every act, every deed, every word He spoke, as He walked His path of thirty years and three. But, apart from this mystic sense, in which the Holy Spirit re-casts in every Christian’ s soul every feature of his Master’ s life, see it more simply. Christ taught many things, and when He had taught them He passed away; but every word He said, as a precept, or a doctrine, or a promise, lives for the Church always. It stands now, and shall stand for ever, for evidence of faith or comfort to every one who is ever received into the Church’ s pale. Or see Christ’ s prayers--what were they? The first voices of that eternal intercession which goes up within the veil--beginnings ,.f petitions for His people’ s sake, that will never cease--spoken here, this side the horizon, for this very end, that we might all know and realise how He is praying beyond it. And Christ, with His own hands, laid the foundation of the Church. And there it stood in its safeness, its gatherings, its order, its discipline, its unity, and its mission; and it is that same Church which He laid then, which is to outlive the universe, and “ the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.” And Christ offered up, once for all, the sacrifice of Himself, to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world: but once though it be for all, do not we know that there is a sense--a sense, oh! how true to the eye of faith!--in which that blood is always flowing. Wherever there is a stain of guilt felt, is it not there ready to be poured out again to wash that stain away? But the efficacy of the “ power” of Christ’ s “ endless life” does not stop here. It is the marvel of His grace that whatever is united to Christ by that union, shares His power; and hence it is not only His prerogative, it is yours and mine--“ the power of an endless life.” You say a word--the word flies, and is lost, and never can be traced. But where is that word? It lives, and must live. It will meet you again. It, and all its effects--effects, it maybe, multiplying themselves into thousands and thousands, on and on, for ever and for ever. You think a thought--you receive an impression--you are conscious of a feeling. That thought, that feeling, that impression goes to make character, moral being; and that moral being is eternal; and in that eternity of being will be found again that thought, that impression, that feeling, which scarcely filled a space or occupied a moment. You do an act. It makes its little way, and that way gets marked; and so another way and another mark, in circles which have ,me centre, but no shore. You said a prayer, and there is no answer to it. But the prayer is recorded, and the record is imperishable, at the throne of God; and that prayer will live when you are dead. And who shall limit the answers, down to all generations of people? You form habits--you are always forming habits--every separate thing goes to habit--and these are to be your habits--your habits of mind and being to millions of ages. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) After the order of Melchisedec The resemblance of Melchisedec to Christ There is something very solemn in the thought that a man shall be lifted above his generation, moulded distinct from all his contemporaries, and thus stand out, not in respect of his own interest, but with a reference to some personage of a remote futurity--a pledge that he shall arise, a portraiture of his character and a specimen of his history. These instances are but few, and only appear in relation i o Him who was to come, and to the purposes of His mission. Prophet does not announce and foreshadow prophet. Christ only is thus predicted and prefigured. It is very important, in all these examinations, to hold fast as a first, principle that he correspondence which is supposed is not of the Messiah to any earlier personages, but of them to Him. He is the Prototype. Theirs only is the conformity. Like the morning planet that announces and catches the first light of the sun, these herald and reflect Him to whom they are so mysteriously bound. I. WE SEE IN THE OFFICE OF AN IDEA AND A WHICH BEAR UPON THE AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. From the beginning, the function of offering sacrifice was known and practised. The individual might act it for himself. It soon became vicarious. It grew into a service and a dignity. It widely, if not universally, obtained. 1. It was religious. All adoration and piety were founded upon it. 2. It was representative. He who was invested with it was “ ordained for men in things pertaining to God.” But this was not all: he was rather appointed between heaven and the people than between the people and heaven. 3. It was divinely conferred. “ No man taketh this honour unto himself; but he that is called of God.” 4. It was imparted by solemn induction. The candidate must pass through many ceremonials the most solemn and impressive. It resolved itself into invariable duties. 1. To offer sacrifice. “ Every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices.” “ Gifts” were oblations of a votive and eucharistic kind; “ sacrifices” were the inflictions of death upon a victim, with confession of sin and hope of expiation. The flowers which grew just on the border of Eden might suffice for the one; the firstlings of the earliest folded flock were demanded for the other. The Messiah is the anti-type. “ He has come a high priest of good things to come.” His temple was His own Body. His altar was His own Divinity. His ephod was His own authority. Yet in abasement and economic subordination, “ He glorified not Himself to be made a high priest.” The blood of His sacrifice realises the twofold use of the emblem; it is the blood of sprinkling--toward the Divine throne for its honour and vindication, for its exercises of justice and mercy--toward the penitent sinner for his relief and hope, for his obedience of faith and love. 2. To present intercession. The priests, the ministers of the Lord, might weep between the porch and the altar; but our attention is turned to an advocacy more efficacious and direct. The high priest went alone into the holiest once every year. “ We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” His sacrifice is single and complete. It cannot be repeated. ‘ But it is continually presented. “ He now appeareth in the presence of God for us.” 3. To pronounce benediction. “ The Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bless in His name.” “ Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them.” The language is preserved (Numbers 6:23, &c.). It seems the outline of Christian formula. But it was not to be given until the sacrifice had bled and until the incense was kindled. The more painful and anxious ministrations were first to be accomplished. Our Lord, clothed in the days of His flesh with poverty and humiliation, seen in the form of a servant and the fashion of a man, having laid aside the ensigns of His glory, has now gone into heaven. His array on earth was for abasement, for sacrifice. “ Many were astonished at Him.” He is now within the veil, and the heaven has closed upon Him as the curtain hid the most holy place. His intercession there is the cause and source of all spiritual blessings. Perfect analogies we cannot expect in relations like these. The law was the “ shadow,” but not the “ perfect image.” In the priesthood of our Saviour there must be peculiarities which cannot be reflected nor transferred. (1) It is real. The title is not allusively conferred upon Him because it is common and known. Whatever is common and known in the title is only derived from His office. (2) It is roundest on His actual death. He was at the same time Victim and Priest. He was “ made perfect,” or consecrated to His work, “ by sufferings.” (3) It is strictly meritorious. There could be no congruity between the hecatomb and the effacement of human guilt. But in the death of Christ is a moral strength and right which the Scripture most emphatically describes. (4) It is most tender in its design. “ For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (5) It is associated with all other necessary offices. His suretyship of the new covenant involves these relations. He is Priest, Prophet, and King. Melchisedec was a priest and a king, but not a prophet; Samuel was a prophet and a priest, but not a king; David was a king and a prophet, but not a priest. All these high trusts and duties unite in Him who is the Prophet raised up unto us, the High Priest of our profession, and the King set upon the holy hill of Zion. The eternal perpetuity of His priesthood, which the text affirms, must, as a fact, embrace certain consequences which may be readily defined. It is not the exaggeration or poetry of truth, but a simple statement of it. What does it involve? 1. The influence of the atonement and intercession of Jesus Christ is supposed in the one idea of mediation. Merit and moral power are its effects. To this we owe all that justifies and cleanses the soul. We must ascribe to the same source the blessing of eternal life. Such an office can never cease to operate. 2. The union of the Divine and human natures in the person of Immanuel, as necessary to His priesthood, cannot, if that priesthood be eternal, admit of termination. 3. Whatever be the honours and rewards of His priesthood, they shall be eternal. His robe of light shall not decay. His tiara shall not dim. We may look deeper into this truth. There shall be a manifestation of principles, arising out of His incarnate and mediatorial work, which can only gather strength and clearness through all duration. He will be glorified in their exhibition and influence. There has also been brought by Him to His heavenly kingdom a countless multitude of redeemed sinners of our race. These were once enemies; all of them were alienated from the favour and the service of God. By His priesthood He has reconciled them to both. They have access to the Divine presence and sympathy with the Divine will. They stand forth before Him. He shall see His seed. They have become a holy nation--a royal priesthood, priests of God and of Christ. They offer themselves a living sacrifice. They offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually, II. WE PROCEED TO THAT RIFLE OR IN WHICH THE HIGH- OF CHRIST IS AND . It is necessary to collect, if we would form a proper and consistent judgment, whatever is recorded of Melchisedec, from his first appearance in sacred history, until he is made in far later inspired Scripture the subject of allusion and illustration. 1. It seems probable, though we would lay upon it no undue stress, that the fragmentary history of Melchisedec was not destitute of design. A sort of ambiguity belongs to it, not inherent in it as a whole, but because it is so singularly told. The curtain arises, there passes before us the suddenly apparelled actor; but ere we can discern his intent, it drops. The stranger crosses our path, hut as we would require his anxious errand, he disappears. The star shoots along the firmament, and all again is dark. Advantage seems taken of this sudden emergence, this undeveloped character, to give greater depth of resemblance to that Prototype whom it respects. “ Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after My name?” “ No one knoweth who the Son is.” “ As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father.” “ He hath a name written, that no one knoweth but He Himself.” 2. “ The order” of this priesthood was doubtless primaeval. There is no disproof from chronology that Melchisedec might be Shem, “ the father of all the children of Eber.” He lived five hundred years after the flood. We know that in him is the direct genealogy of Christ. But this is unimportant to our argument. It was assimilated to patriarchal service. It was that religion. Long before the Levitical ritual was given, the same “ pattern” prevailed. The Aaronic rule was defective, a temporary relief, a mere substitute: Christ shall not be “ called of God a high priest” in subjection to it. The Melchisedaican class was unchanging, germinant, comprehensive, initial; it is according to its perfect idea of pontificate that Christ shall be installed. 3. The resemblance is much promoted when we observe in type and counterpart the union of the regal and sacerdotal dignities. Censer and sceptre are in his hand; crown and mitre are on his head. Be passes from temple to palace, from palace to temple; from throne to altar, from altar to throne. His personal name and puissant style are significant. He is king of righteousness and king of peace. His capital, notwithstanding a thousand revolutions, still endures. He was not “ the mighty hunter before the Lord,” the bloody tyrant, the desolating scourge; his reign was that of blameless justice and of benignant concord. The king is not lost in the priest. It is a sanctified alliance. Now our Lord is a priest for ever after this order. 4. The priesthood of Salem knew no separating demarcation. It regarded man with perfect impartiality. The high, altar of Calvary is covered wit, the “ propitiation for the sins of the whole world.” The breast-plate of our High Priest is inscribed with all peoples. There is henceforth no middle wall of partition. Rival distinctions of speech, climate, and complexion are abolished, Nor is this anomalous. It is but a reverting to principles older than Judaism. 5. This order of priesthood involves an entireness and self-independence. It is pronounced by the historian that “ he was the priest of the most high God.” The inspired commentator dilates upon this ministry in words confessedly remarkable: “ Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life: he abideth a priest continually,” or uninterruptedly. We may premise from language so strong as this, that his office was immediately conferred, and that it could not possibly be alienated. 6. The oath which confirms the Saviour’ s “ order” is calculated to give it the deepest impression. “ The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent.” Bow much of interest must be contained in this order of priesthood! How should it awaken our study! The Lord doth not lift up His hand to heaven and swear by Himself, but for that which is great and dread and glorious! He will not afford this sanction to any dispensation and its priesthood which is temporary, national, interstitial; but seizing the purest Conception of atonement which earth could afford--the least diverted, admixed, corrupted by any taint of earth--the truest idea, the simplest abstract, the surest pledge of priesthood--as when God pitched the awful tent at the east of Eden and wrought for the guilty, naked fugitives garments from their sacrifices--honouring all this in the person and vocation of His servant Melchisedec--“ the Lord said unto my Lord--the Lord sware and will not repent--Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec!” 7. Nor is another descriptive feature of this early priesthood to be depreciated. That strangeness which surrounds it simply arises from the broken and incomplete character of the narrative. It is not in any sense even the biographic sketch. It is but a segment, a single section, without reference to the extremes of human being. Nothing is guessed. That bare and abrupt account is made the basis of every reasoning. All we have to do with him is contained in that account. There consists all his typic importance. Not a single extraneous point is pressed. And this is not without its lesson. The everlasting priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ is wholly a revelation. Any idea that illustrates it, in cypher and image, is wisdom from above. 8. The symbols which this royal priest brought forth in meeting Abraham are not to be overlooked. They were the signs of oblation. The bread was for a perpetual offering in the ancient temple, and the wine was a libation poured continually upon the ancient altar. And when we hear that Christ is after this “ order,” is it vain imagination to think of Him “ who took bread and brake it, who took the cup and gave it” ? Was it but accident that bread and wine were before Him? Were they not Paschal relics? Is their appropriation arbitrary? Is it not conformable to sacrificial law? Did not these aliments always signify the flesh and blood of sacrifice? And in our Christian feast, that feast on sacrifice, we behold them dedicate to one commemoration--Christ’ s offered, though sinless, humanity! (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.) Christ a Priest after the similitude of Melchisedec I. THE OF WITH IT REGAL . II. THE OF WAS FOR MANKIND RATHER THAN FOR A CLASS. III. THE OF WAS MORALLY . It touched the heart of Abraham, so that he “ gave the tenth of the spoils.” 1. Christ’ s priestly blessings, wherever truly received, will awaken gratitude. 2. Gratitude awakened will prompt generous contributions. 3. Such contributions are the only legitimate secular instrumentality for promoting the gospel. IV. THE OF HAD NO HUMAN . V. THE OF CHRIST REMAINS FOR EVER WITHOUT A . (Homilist.) Christ--a Priest and King As a Priest, He relieves us from the curse and the guilt of sin; as a King, He relieves us from the power and the dominion of sin. By His sacrifice as a Priest He restores us to the Divine favour; by His sceptre as a King He creates within us the Divine image. If Jesus were not our Priest, we should lie under the curse; if Jesus were not our King, we should lie under the power and dominion of sin. By His priestly office we are pardoned; by His kingly office we are sanctified. In the first we have a title to heaven; in the last we have a fitness for heaven. It is as necessary that we should be made fit for the enjoyments of the blessed, as that we should have a title and a right to enter on the privileges of the blessed. And hence we believe in Christ, not only as our great High Priest, but also as our great and Almighty King. (J. Cumming.) A priest after the order of Melchisedec Two orders of priesthood are referred to in the Scriptures-that of Melchisedec and that of Aaron. Certain functions were common to both, such as sacrifice, intercession, and blessing. The text implies peculiarities in the order of Melchisedec, and that it was in some respects superior to that of Aaron. These were 1. That it was a royal order. Melchisedec was berth king and priest, which was never the case in the Mosaic economy. He was arrayed with double honour--a king of righteoustness and a priest of the Most High God; He received tribute from Abraham, and conferred his blessing upon him. In these respects he typified Christ, who was the Head of His Church, and thus their King; while He was also Saviour of the Church, which is His body, and so their Priest. 2. Its universality. The Levitical order was national and limited in its scope, and its honours and privileges were for the Jew alone. In Melchisedec’ s day there were no Jews. No nation bad yet been chosen as the peculiar people of God. Humanity was one, and Melchisedec was a priest of humanity. The shadow of his mitre extended as far as the shadow of his crown, and the incense of his intercession covered all that his sceptre swayed. Christ was a Priest of this higher order. He never once called Himself the Son of Judah, but on sixty-three occasions the Son of Man. The intercession of the high priest was bruited to those for whom he offered sacrifice, arid no sacrifice was offered for Gentiles on the Great Day of Atonement. The extent of Christ’ s intercession was evidenced by three little words. All, every, the whole. “ Christ died for all.” “ He tasted death for every man” ; “ for the sins of the whole world.” 3. It was intransissible. Melchisedec’ s priesthood began and ended with himself, and thus differed from the Levitical, which was strictly dependent on an unbroken pedigree, on both father’ s and mother’ s side. Melchisedec was selected as one specially qualified for the office. The Levitical priests were officially, but not always personally, holy. Christ, too, fulfilled this requirement. 4. It was a perpetual priesthood. Under the Levitical law the priest could hold his office only between the ages of thirty and fifty. In Melchisedec’ s day no such law obtained. The Levitical priest died out of his office, Christ in the exercise of His office. In the grave of Joseph He was still a Priest. That was His robing-room, where He was preparing for His everlasting work of intercession, putting off mortality that He might put on immortality. The golden bells on the hem of the high priest’ s robe rang when he sprinkled the blood of the covenant upon and below the mercy-seat, and thus conveyed the assurance to the silent multitude without that their priest still lived, and that their sacrifice was accepted. These golden bells were paralleled by the declarations of the Word of God, such as “ He is consecrated a Priest for evermore” ; “ I am He that liveth and was dead,” &c. Then there was the great bell of God’ s oath, “ The Lord hath sworn and will not repent; Thou art a Priest for ever,” &c. (R. Roberts.) The law made nothing perfectThe old and new dispensations The text tells us plainly that “ the law made nothing perfect.” Now what are we to understand by this? It is not said that the law did not perfect everything, but that “ the law made nothing perfect.” Are we, then to say that it was useless? The law in this passage means the dispensation of Moses, and are we at liberty to say that, since it “ made nothing perfect,” that dispensation was in every point of view utterly useless? But of what is the apostle speaking when he says that “ the law made nothing perfect” ? Does he mean that it did no good to the Jews? Does he mean that it made no perfect, consistent, definite discoveries to them? This were to make it useless indeed. But the apostle means no such thing; he is speaking of the salvation of the world, and when he speaks of the law as “ making nothing perfect,” he means to say that, with regard to the spiritual salvation of the world, it made nothing perfect. It did not touch that salvation at all; it did nothing for the spiritual salvation of the Jews; it did nothing for the spiritual salvation of the Gentiles; it could do nothing, it was intended to do nothing, for either. When we speak of the law as making nothing perfect with regard to spiritual salvation, it may be asked whether the Jews then had no salvation revealed to them. We answer that they had, but not in the law of Moses. You are not to take the whole of the Old Testament as belonging to the dispensation of Moses because it was delivered under that dispensation. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many of the prophets often discourse about the spiritual condition and character of the people, but there is nothing of that kind in the law of Moses. Here are discoveries made while the Jewish dispensation yet continued, but they are no part of the ancient economy. We must not receive any portion of the Old Testament which does not belong to the law of Moses as a part of that law. Looking at the subject, then, as leading us to a division between the parts of the Old Testament--the one part including the economy of Moses, the other the instructions of the prophets, of John the Baptist, and of the Saviour Himself--we shall find that the Jews had spiritual discoveries made to them beyond and irrespective of the disco-reties of the law of Moses. The law of Moses was not intended to teach them this spiritual department; it made nothing perfect there, though it made everything perfect within its own province. It provided a perfect division of the tribes; it provided a perfect appropriation of the land; it provided a perfect arrangement for rites and ceremonies; it provided a perfect arrangement for distinguishing between the Jews and Gentiles; it provided a perfect provision for the prevention of idolatry and of the practice of idolatrous rites; it provided, moreover, a perfect system of civil legislation for the management of affairs between man and man among-t the Jewish people. All these arrangements were perfect, and in all these respects instead of making nothing, the law made everything perfect. If its perfect commandment were not obeyed, that did not make them the less perfect in themselves. The imperfection rested in that case with the disobedient. So far as the provisions of the law of Moses were concerned, they came from a perfect God, and they were perfect provisions. 1. In the first place, the Jewish dispensation was temporal, while the Christian is spiritual. Look through the whole of the law of Moses, examine every precept which it contains, and you will not find one enactment connected with spiritual and eternal salvation. Hence with regard to this you see at once that it “ made nothing perfect.” It was intended to form a nation; it was intended to preserve that nation from mixing with the idolatrous nations of the earth; and hence you will find that all its rites and sacrifices were meant and adapted to remind the people of their transgressions, and to prevent them from going after other lords and other gods; whilst other peculiar provisions of their economy were intended to keep up the middle wall of partition between them and the Gentiles, lest the idolatry of the one should overwhelm the worship of the true God offered by the other. The altar, however, was a national altar; the sacrifices were national sacrifices; they all had reference to present things, to the present world, to the state of the Jewish people in the present world; and there is not, within the whole range of them, one single allusion to the world to come. Hence you will find that the priests and the Levites were instructors of the people, not instructors of the people in their eternal salvation. Prophets were raised up from time to time for this purpose, sometimes from the priesthood and sometimes from the sheepfold; not official characters described by the law of Moses, but characters raised up by Divine Providence to treat of the spiritual and eternal salvation of the people. You see, therefore, how the Jews might receive knowledge of the way of salvation, though they did not receive it through the law of Moses, and yet the law of Moses was necessary to prevent them from being lost amidst the idolatrous nations around them. We have said that the New Testament dispensation is spiritual as contrasted with the old economy, which we have shown you was temporal and worldly. Now, when we come to look at the New Testament dispensation, we not only find that it was spiritual, but we find that it was nothing else. As the economy of Moses was temporal, and temporal only, so the economy of Christ is spiritual, and spiritual only. It sets up no class of men clothed with worldly authority; it gives to no kingdom on earth worldly power. It deals with its disciples as persons having immortal souls that are to be trained by holy consistency in time into meetness for the glory of immortality. 2. The Jewish economy was limited m its extent, while the Christian economy is universal. The Jewish economy, as you are aware, was to be confine! to the Jewish nation. They were to have only one place of sacrifice, and that a place which God should choose. To this place they were to go up three times a year, at least all the males in Israel, to celebrate the feasts; and as there was a prohibition against carrying out the law in any place except Judaea, the one place appointed for that purpose, it is quite clear that the Jewish economy was to be an economy of limited range with regard to territorial extent. It is very true that there might be Gentile proselytes, proselyted to the Jewish economy, and acknowledging the one living and true God, and if they were in Palestine they might, in that part of it which was appointed for that purpose, present their offerings; but it was only in Palestine, and in that one spot which God had chosen, that the Jewish economy could be fully acted upon. Thus it is evident that the Jewish economy was to be of limited extent as to territory. Bat this was not the case with the Christian dispensation. The Christian economy, a, you arc aware, was intended to spread from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and from the rising to the setting of the sun. 3. The Jewish dispensation was temporary and intended to be temporary, while the Christian is intended to be perpetual. That a dispensation should be confined to one country, and yet be intended to be perpetual, would imply that God had doomed all other countries to everlasting darkness and everlasting alienation. This was far from being His intention. It was His intention to enlarge the range of territory over which His religion should spread; it was His intention to remove and abolish the temporary system by which the territory of true religion had long been limited. The whole of the Epistle to the Hebrews proceeds upon this principle; it shows that the Jewish dispensation was temporary, and the Christian perpetual, in duration; and it contrasts the one with the other. It shows that Aaron and his descendants were priests only for a tithe, but that Christ is a Priest for ever. Looking, then, at the Jewish dispensation as thus contrasted with the Christian economy, the perpetuity of which we need not dwell upon because it is admitted by all, I think we may clearly see the characteristic distinctions between the two. And if we look at one as worldly and the other as spiritual; if we look at one as limited in the range of its observances and the other as universal; if we look at one as temporary in its duration and the other as perpetual, we must see that we have no right at any time to blend the two dispensations of the Word of God; the distinction between them is clear if we will but keep it; and if we lose sight of it, away with ever, thing like sound principles of interpretation in reference to the New Testament. We defy any one to make a correct interpretation of the New Testament if there is to be a blending of the two dispensations. 4. But, finally, to show you that it is of great importance to distinguish between the Old Testament dispensation and the new, and that a serious evil is likely to result from blending them, we have now to notice two steps in the abolition of the ancient economy. The first step is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Saviour expired, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. This was heaven’ s own intimation--that heaven’ s own economy had now passed away. It had done its work; it was required no more; and henceforth any person that would blend it with the new dispensation would be acting against the intimation which God had given of its abolition when He rent the vail of the temple. But there was another step in the abolition of the law of Moses. The Jews did not attend to this intimation. They maintained the perpetuity of the law; they refused to yield. The sacrifices at Jerusalem were still continued. The rites and ceremonies of Moses were still observed. But did this perseverance in keeping up the Jewish dispensation succeed? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 7:25 Able also to save them to the uttermost Christ the Saviour of sinners I. THE ABILITY OF CHRIST TO SAVE TO THE . That Christ is able to save, may be argued from His appointment to that work by the Father, whose infinite wisdom could employ no means inadequate to the purpose they were designed to accomplish. That He is able to save, may be argued from the dignity of His person, and His possession as God and as man of every qualification necessary in a Saviour. That He is able to save may be argued from the unequivocal testimony to that ability borne by all the subjects of His grace, both in earth and in heaven. That He is able to save, may be argued from the tokens of His Father’ s approbation, by bringing Him forth from the prison of the grave, to which He was consigned by our sins, and investing Him with universal dominion for the Church’ s weal. But we limit ourselves to the proof of His power to save to the uttermost, derived from the fact mentioned in our text, “ that He ever liveth to make intercession.” To understand this, let us remember that in this chapter the apostle is setting forth, in various points, the superiority of the High Priest of our profession to the high priests of the legal dispensation. II. SOME POINTS IN WHICH THAT POWER TO SAVE IS , 1. His ability to save reaches to the uttermost depths of guilt and depravity; the greatest sinners may be pardoned, sanctified, and glorified through His power and grace. 2. He can save to the uttermost verge of life and time. “ Though late repentance is seldom true, true repentance is never too late.” Let not the impenitence of sixty or seventy years tempt the aged man to cast his soul away. Long as the hardening process has gone on in his heart, a look to Christ on the cross may yet dissolve it in tears of deepest penitence. It is only when unmoved to the last that we can say, “ The sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed.” As Christ is thus able to save to the close of life, so He is not less able to save till time shall terminate. So long as there shall be guilty and perishing men, He can stretch forth His hand for their deliverance. 3. Christ can save to the uttermost extent of His people’ s need. Salvation consists of innumerable benefits, all of which Christ is mighty to impart; but this topic being so extensive, we shall illustrate our statement by showing that He can save both body and soul, and save to eternity. III. THE PERSONS ON WHOM THE POWER OF CHRIST TO SAVE SHALL BE : “ all who come unto God through Him.” Without Him none can be saved; with Him none can be lost. (James Kirkwood, M. A.) Salvation to the uttermost I. JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THE WORLD FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAN’ S . The pride of the evil heart is hardly willing to confess that it really needed a Saviour. The duty, then, of the preacher is to insist that Christ is the Saviour, and the only Saviour, of mankind. Sin had cast you down headlong to such an infinite depth that, bruised and bleeding by the fall, you could not climb up the steep ascents from darkness into light, from the power of Satan unto God. You were ruined, and you were helpless in your ruin; and to save you, to snatch you from perdition, Christ Jesus came into the world. II. THE OF THIS WHICH IS BY CHRIST. 1. His salvation covers the whole race of mankind. 2. It is salvation to the uttermost as regards the completeness and perfection of the means provided for the work. 3. In respect to its perfect consummation. III. As TO THOSE WHO SHALL BE OF THIS . 1. Christ can only save in one accepted way, and that way is through Himself. 2. The atonement of Christ is made effectual for us by the exercise of sincere and loving faith. 3. If wisdom or amiability or any natural morality could save us, then Christ’ s salvation would not be “ salvation to the uttermost.” If what we can do is necessary to fill up the measure of demanded sacrifice, then Christ’ s sacrifice is not infinite after all. And if Christ’ s sacrifice is not infinite, then Christ Himself is not infinite. But if, on the other hand, Christ be infinite, if, therefore, His sacrifice be infinite, then the possibility of our coming acceptably to God in any other way is in the nature of things impossible. 4. Nay, more, it is an insult to Christ. Would it not be a grievous detraction from His glory who is worthy of all honour and praise if, after He had opened a new end living way for us through His flesh, God should accept the sinner coming to Him in any other way? IV. FLOWING FROM THESE TRUTHS. 1. What a debt of gratitude is imposed upon us by the preparation for us and the offering to us of this perfect salvation through Jesus Christ I 2. The perfection of Christ’ s salvation is an inducement to an immediate acceptance of it. 3. A lesson of comfort and hope. In this world, even the best of men are continually obliged to struggle with sin. What a light, then, of consolation and hope is kindled for us in the text. He will save to the uttermost. The weak shall yet be strong; the impure shall yet be pure; the struggling, weary heart shall yet rest in perfection and peace beneath the smile of God, (W. Rudder, D. D.) Salvation to the uttermost I. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TO BE SAVED. 1. Where these people come to. “ Unto God.” 2. How they come. By Jesus Christ. 3. What they come for. Salvation. 4. In what style they come. Not with the pompous pride of the Pharisee, not with the cant of the good man who thinks he deserves salvation, but with the sincere cry of a penitent, with the earnest desire of a thirsty soul after living water. As my God who sits in heave, liveth, if you have not come to God in this fashion, you have not come to God at all; but if you have thus come to God, here is the glorious word for you--“ He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.” II. WHAT IS THE MEASURE OF THE SAVIOUR’ S ABILITY? 1. Sinner! Christ is” able to save to the uttermost” ; by which we understand that the uttermost extent of guilt is not beyond the power of the Saviour. Can any one tell what is the uttermost amount to which a man might sin? 2. To the uttermost of rejection. There are a thousand prayers on which you have trampled, there are a hundred sermons all wasted on you, there are thousands of Sabbaths which you have thrown away; you have rejected Christ, you have despised His Spirit; but still He ceases not to cry, “ Return! return!” He is “ able to save thee to the uttermost,” if thou comest unto God by Him. 3. There is another case which demands my particular attention: it is that of the man who has gone to the uttermost of despair. Let me whisper to him words of consolation. Despairing soul! hope yet, for Christ “ is able to save to the uttermost” ; and though thou art put in the lowest dungeon of the castle of despair, though key after key hath been turned upon thee, and the iron grating of thy window forbids all filing, and the height of thy prison wall is so awful that thou couldst not expect to escape, yet let me tell thee, there is one at the gate who can break every bolt, and undo every lock; there is one who can lead thee out to God’ s free air, and save thee yet, for though the worst may come to the worst, He “ is able to save thee to the uttermost.” 4. And now a word to the saint, to comfort him; for this text is his also. Christ is able to save thee to the uttermost. Art thou brought very low by distress? hast thou lost house and home, friend and property? Remember, thou hast not come “ to the uttermost” yet. Badly off as thou art, thou mightest be worse. He is able to save thee; and suppose it should come to this, that thou hadst not a rag left, nor a crust, nor a drop of water, still He would be able to save thee, for “ He is able to save to the uttermost.” So with temptation. If thou shouldst have the sharpest temptation with which mortal was ever tried, He is able to save thee. If thou shouldst be brought into such a predicament that the toot of the devil should be upon thy neck, and the fiend should say, “ Now I will make an end of thee,” God would be able to save thee then. Aye, and in the uttermost infirmity shouldst thou live for many a year, till thou art leaning on thy staff, and tottering along thy Weary life, if thou shouldst outlive Methuselah, thou couldst not live beyond the uttermost, and He would save thee then. Yea, and when thy little bark is launched by death upon the unknown sea of eternity, He wilt be with thee; and though thick vapours of gloomy darkness gather round thee, and thou canst not see into the dim future, though thy thoughts tell thee that thou wilt be destroyed, yet God wilt be “ able to save thee to the uttermost.” III. Now, in the last place, WHY IS IT THAT JESUS CHRIST IS “ ABLE TO SAVE TO THE ” ? The answer is, that He “ ever liveth to make intercession for them.” This implies that He died, which is indeed the great source of His saving power. Oh I how sweet it is to reflect upon the great and wondrous works which Christ hath done, whereby He hath become “ the High Priest of our profession,” able to save us t That Man who once died on the cross is alive; that Jesus who was buried in the tomb is alive. If you ask me what He is doing, I bid you listen. “ O My Father I forgive--! “ Why, He mentioned your own name!” O My Father, forgive him; he knew not what he did. It is true he sinned against light, and knowledge, and warnings; sinned wilfully and woefully; but, Father, forgive him!” Penitent, if thou canst listen, thou wilt hear Him praying for thee. And that is why He is able to save. A warning and a question, and I have done. First, a warning. Remember, there is a limit to God’ s mercy. I have told you from the Scriptures that “ He is able to save to the uttermost” ;. but there is a limit to His purpose to save. If I read the Bible rightly, there is one sin which can never be forgiven. It is the sin against the Holy Ghost. Tremble, unpardoned sinners, lest ye should commit that. And now, lastly, the question. Christ has done so much for you: what have you ever done for Him? Oh t there are some of you that will loathe yourselves when you know Christ because you did not treat Him better. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A great Saviour Jesus is above all praise. As the stars disappear when the sun rises, so all subject fade away when we think of Christ. He is spoken of elsewhere as a Friend, Teacher, Light, Redeemer, Ransom, Physician, and here as a Great Saviour. I. How JESUS SAVES. 1. Kindly. It is often said, “ He was moved with compassion” (John 11:35). 2. Quickly. Sometimes accidents are long before they are healed. Christ heals and forgives “ straightway.” 3. Fully. “ From their sins.” From pride, anger, hate, wrong words, evil thoughts. From death and hell to heaven. II. WHOM HE SAVES. 1. “ Them that come.” Christ is a Spring. If we thirst we must come. Bread of Life, Burden-bearer, Physician. 2. All who come. “ To the uttermost.” Some children are much worse than others. They know more, and yet sin against God. But Christ can save the worst among us. III. A GREAT . Jesus still lives. The priests died. Our friends die. Jesus never dies. Let us come to Him to-day, and receive His great salvation. (R. Brown.) Christ’ s salvation I. WHOM DOES CHRIST SAVE? “ Them that come unto God by Him.” II. THE WAY IN WHICH HE SAVES THEM. “ He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Christ stands for them, not they for themselves. He answers for their sins, He gives virtue to their services, He obtains supply for their wants. 1. The intercession of Christ is to us the source of safety. 2. The intercession of Christ Is to us the source of acceptance for our services. 3. Christ’ s intercession procures the supply of all our wants. III. THE AND OF THE OFFERED IN CHRIST. “ He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God through Him.” 1. He is able to save them to the uttermost from their guilt. 2. He is able to save them to the uttermost from their sins. 3. He is able to save to the uttermost through every obstacle. (G. Innes, M. A.) Soul restoration I. THE of man is THE MORAL COMING OF THE SOUL TO ITS GOD. 1. In low. 2. In likeness. 3. In fellowship. II. The true coming of the soul to its God is THROUGH THE OF JESUS CHRIST. By bringing man back to God. 1. By demonstrating God’ s love. 2. By revealing God’ s character 3. By manifesting God’ s presence. III. The mediatorship of Christ for he purpose is . 1. The saving virtues of His system are permanently available. 2. The saving agency of His Spirit is permanently available. IV. The permanent availableness of His mediation RENDERS TO ALL. (Homilist.) A Saviour to the uttermost I. THIS COMING TO GOD BEGINS IN . The pinch of hunger makes the prodigal cry out, “ I am perishing with hunger.” This leads him to reflect on the past, and lays on his conscience the sense of guilt. “ I will arise and go unto my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned.” That is his errand. Thus, want creates desire; desire expresses itself in prayer; faith sustains prayer; God’ s promises and perfections sustain faith. Hence the universal law, “ He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” But though, in the Word, and through His works, God is revealed infinite in wisdom and in power, “ able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or even think,” though He is here revealed as condescending to our lowliness, pitying our weakness, merciful to our transgression; yet He is the Infinite Spirituality. Our senses cannot reach Him. No thought of ours can grasp His greatness. He is ineffably exalted, infinitely glorious, eternally true, inflexibly just, spotlessly pure--a moral glory, the blaze of which would entirely consume us if we got directly confronted with it. The reflecting man then asks, “ How can I think of Him, of approaching Him, of speaking to Him?” You hope to be accepted. There is an intercessor--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. That intercessor has revealed His Father’ s love, inviting us to go on. He has met every claim; He pleads our cause. Believing it, the mind enters into rest; the heart grows calm; there is a conscious approach to the Most High. II. But, secondly, WE WILL GLANCE AT THE WORK OF CHRIST. “ He ever liveth to make intercession.” An intercessor is a third person coming betwixt two others. He stands related to both, and is accepted by both. Thus it is said that the Holy Spirit intercedes. On the other hand, and God-ward, we say, “ He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” The Divine Spirit dwells in the Divine mind, and all His impulses must be in perfect harmony with the Divine will. And, on the other hand, and in view of man, we say, “ We know not what to pray for as we ought.” “ The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.” We are sometimes so ignorant or so troubled that we can only groan out our desires; but as He prompts them, He fills them with meaning and secures their acceptance. Thus, too, the Divine Redeemer exalted in heaven is said to intercede, and to intercede on behalf of all those who offer prayer to God. III. In the third place, we glance AT THE RESULT OF THIS ABIDING . By virtue thereof He saves. He is “ able to save.” He is “ able to save to the uttermost.” Oh, priceless words? Is there one sinburdened, beclouded mind, one needing a Saviour and conscious of it, one who feels that God is supreme good--that away from Him happiness and rest will be impossible, yet conscious of much to keep Him away--afraid? Oh I think of the Intercessor and the result of His intercession. He can save. “ His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” This is the brief and yet full exposition of the message of the great and blessed Saviour, for concerning Him it is, to the end of time, “ a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” even the very chief. All the divinely illuminated have seen that Saviour. Their language is, “ Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” They have welcomed Jesus, and they have Him in their hearts, and they have heard the words, “ This day has salvation come to his house.” There is nothing of the kind anywhere else. I have read of all the systems of philosophy and religion, from the earliest days, and all over the world until now; but I know of nothing that pretends to bring this salvation but the glorious gospel. “ Neither is there salvation in any other. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved.” But this is enough. “ He is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him.” Now, He not only saves, but He has power distinctively, for He is “ able to save.” The old predictions and invitations proclaim this. “ Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.” This, therefore, is the position in which the whole thing is presented to our minds in the New Testament. “ Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” This, therefore, is our Lord’ s special claim. Doubting, troubled soul, weary with the burden of thy sin, and anxious for rest, this is our Lord’ s special claim. What He said to the blind man He says to you--“ Believe ye that I am able to do this?” He honours faith, faith honours Him. “ Be it unto you according to your faith.” One of the most familiar similitudes to represent the salvation of the soul is the deliverance of captives--men who have been made prisoners in war; These are lost men--lost to country, to kindred, to liberty, to honour, to hope; bound in chains, cast into dungeons, to suffer without pity, to toil without recompense, to weep, to groan, to die--no friend but death, no shelter but the grave. One comes to deliver. With strong hand He smites down the captor, and sets the captive free. In doing that He lost His life. He knew that He should, but He did it, notwithstanding- nay, with that very end in view. As the captives move away, gladly they say, “ He died for me! He died for me!” “ He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” “ Ever liveth,” and therefore “ able to save to the uttermost.” In the margin the word is “ for evermore.” “ To the uttermost” perfectly, in every sense, and for every object. “ To the uttermost.” Oh, sinking soul, the hand is strong; the hand is loving. Take hold of it. (John Aldis.) Christ able to save What is salvation? We cannot fully answer this question unless we knew the extreme evil and demerit of sin; unless we understood the worth of the soul, the duration of eternity, and the felicity of heaven. This we know, salvation is deliverance from sin and all its consequences; freedom from the curse of a broken law, and from the wrath of an offended God; the possession of pardon, peace, and growing purity in this life; and the full fruition of holiness, happiness, and glory in the life which is to come. Salvation includes whatever constitutes the perfection of our immortal nature, its highest enjoyment; and this enjoyment perpetuated to the countless ages of eternity. Christ is “ able to save.” We notice I. His NATURAL ABILITY. His ability of nature, irrespective of any office He fills, or engagement He has made: in plain words, His ability as God. II. HIS ABILITY. His ability of office, in virtue of which it is His right, His prerogative, to save. The Son of God undertook the cause of ruined man: He became Mediator. This was the office He condescended to sustain; and in pursuance of this office He saves. III. His MORAL ABILITY. His ability of mind, if it may be so expressed; His inclination: in one word, His willingness to save. And how does this appear? How is it proved? Consider 1. What He hath said. He hath given the strongest assurances of His ability, His resolution, to save; and shall we not believe Him? 2. What He hath done. He hath saved sinners, the greatest sinners; and facts are decisive. 3. What He is now doing is farther proof of the ability, the willingness, of the Saviour. I refer not to His intercession in heaven, though this is decisive; but to the grace which He bestows on earth, the saving power which He now exerts among the sons of men. (T. Kidd.) Christ saves fully and evermore The Greek term includes two things: to save fully, and to save evermore--both are included. They are put in the text, to save to the uttermost; they put into the margin, very properly, the other term, evermore; and both are included. The Lord Jesus saves to the uttermost from all the power of sin. He will give you power to conquer every evil--the yoke of iniquity will be removed--the chain by nature takes away, snapped asunder--and your souls enter into liberty through the blood of the covenant. He is able to save to the uttermost from all past guilt. He is able to save to the uttermost from all pollution. To cleanse the polluted heart--to destroy everything contrary to the Divine nature--to raise the soul to bear the stamp divine of the lovely image of our Lord. The marginal reading (evermore) is also to be included. “ He is able to save evermore.” Oh, how common is the fear with many that if they were to enter into the heavenly way, and that if they were to connect themselves with the people of God, that they should very soon fall from grace, and make shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience. Cannot Jesus keep you? Will not His grace prove sufficient for you? Will He not save you in your dying hour? Is He not an almighty Saviour? We may often reflect on that subject when you and I stand on the verge of eternity. But whom will Jesus save? “ All them that come unto God by Him.” We can only come to God through His atoning blood; there is no other way. (G. Marsden.) Christ’ s power to save sinners I. THE POWER OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO SAVE SINNERS, 1. The perfection of His atoning sacrifice. (1) The appointment of the Father. (2) Immaculate purity. (3) Voluntary substitution of Himself. (4) The infinite majesty of His person. 2. The duration of His life, and the perpetuity of His office. 3. The prevalence of His never-ceasing intercession. II. THE OF THOSE WHO ARE IN HIS . 1. The expression, “ to come to God by Him,” implies a practical conviction of the existence of the one true God, in opposition to the polytheism and idolatry of the heathen nations. 2. It implies a conviction of guilt and ruin, and a simple dependence on Him for acceptance before God. 3. It implies an ardent attachment to those ordinances which God, through this High Priest, has in mercy appointed. It is in His ordinances that He has promised to bless. 4. It implies a consecration to Jehovah. III. THE VAST EXTENT TO WHICH HIS SAVING POWER REACHES. 1. He is able to save to the utmost limit of this world’ s duration. 2. He is able to save from the lowest gulf of guilt and ruin. 3. He is able to save from the lowest depths of defection and apostacy. 4. He is able to save at the last moment. Lessons: 1. The vast importance of the doctrine of the Atonement. 2. The vast importance of the essential deity of Christ. 3. The necessity of a personal application of the blood of the Atonement. 4. The encouragement which this doctrine affords to the weeping, broken-hearted penitent. 5. The most astonishing display of the love of God to man. (W. Thorpe.) The suitableness of Christ as a Saviour to all who believe in Him I. THE TRUTH . “ He is able to save to the uttermost.” 1. The extent of His atonement. (1) Infinite in merit. (2) God has promised to pardon the sins of those who believe in His only begotten Son. (3) The invitations of Scripture to believe in Christ are universal--without regard to persons. (4) All men are directly or indirectly commanded to believe in Christ, or encouraged to do so. (5) The Scriptures evidently assert that unbelief is a sin, and a sin which is threatened with endless punishment. 2. He is able to save to the uttermost as it regards the perfection of the work. The work of salvation by Christ will be perfect in the highest degree. And this will appear more glorious when you consider the lengths to which some have gone in a sinful course towards misery before they were arrested by the poser of sovereign grace. 3. He saves to the uttermost as it regards the duration of the work. And this may be considered in two respects. (1) As it regards the work in this world. To the progress of Divine grace in the heart, there is often much opposition made by temptations, trials, and the remaining corruptions of a sinful heart of unbelief: but through all, Jesus Christ, as our faithful High Priest, is engaged to carry on the work to perfection, even in the weakest and the humblest of His people. (2) His saving to the uttermost, with regard to the duration of it, may be considered in reference to the world that is to come. This salvation will be eternal. II. THE MANNER WHICH THIS IS . “ Them that come unto God by Him.” 1. Christ as a Mediator is the only way of worship. 2. This implies faith in Him as our great High Priest, whereby we become interested in His saving power Faith in Him enables the believer to feel and Hebrews 10:19-22). As He is the Legislator of the New Testament dispensation, as well as the only Priest, we must worship God in the way of His appointment. We are to come unto the Father in His name, seeking the influence of the Holy Spirit to help our infirmities. We must also come with affiance in His mediatorial office, as to the acceptance of every act of worship and obedience. Without this simple reliance and humble confidence we can have no saving interest in the blessings of redemption through Him (John 15:6). 3. This will enable us to judge whether we are among the number of those who are saved through Him. If we are, we know what it is to plead His all-sufficient atonement before the mercy-seat as the only ground of our acceptance with God. III. The REASON which the apostle assigns in confirmation of this truth: “ Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” This shows us 1. That the mediatorial work of Christ, while on earth, was accepted of God. 2. He lives to carry on the work of redemption. Though exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high, yet He remembers His people below, and makes intercession for them above. (N. M. Harry.) The almighty Saviour I. First, let us look at THE OBJECT OF THE ’ S WORK. It is “ to save.” What is it “ to save” ? To save implies much. It implies that it was the design of God that poor fallen man should be raised higher in felicity than he had sunk low in misery: “ Who hath saved us, and called us, not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace, which were in Christ Jesus, before the world began.” Then it implies that there is a Saviour; and who is that Saviour? And what is His name? And where does He dwell? If I turn to fallen man, he say, “ Oh! He is not among us; I have not even righteousness enough to save myself.” If I turn to angels, they say, “ He is not amongst us; we have no righteousness to spare.” If I turn to the sea, it says, “ It is not in me.” If I turn to the earth, it brings me nothing but shame, and poverty, and want. And while I am musing and turning hither and thither, lo, a voice from the heavenly world arrests my attention, and says, “ Behold My servant whom I uphold, Mine elect in whom My soul delighteth; I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall show salvation unto the Gentiles, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” And it includes, as well as implies, mark you, what it is to save. To save is to deliver an individual from the curse and condemnation of sin, from the rule and slavery of sin “ from the consequences and dismal end of sin. II. But you say to me, “ Yes, it is true that this is the salvation that I should desire to enjoy; BUT NOW CAN I BE SURE THAT CHRIST WILL SAVE ME?” Well, that matter is quite settled; but, just to bring it before you a little, let me illustrate it. There are three things that make this sure in the ability which He has to secure this object. First, it is ensured by the dignity of Hi-person; secondly, it is ensured by the perfection, of His work; thirdly, it is ensured by His never-failing success. III. Then here are THE PEOPLE WHOM HE WILL SAW: “ them that come unto God by Him.” Mark the phraseology, for it is peculiar. “ Them that come to God.” Ah! here is a change; all the man’ s life was going from God; now he is coming to God. Here is the prodigal coming home; here is the criminal coming to God for mercy. But how can a poor, wretched, lost, guilty, undone criminal expect to find mercy of God? “ Coming to God by Him.” Ah! that explains the difficulty, and removes it out of the way. O Lord! I have no name to come in, but I come in the name of Thy Son; I have no righteousness to offer before Thee, but I come in the robe of Thy Son; I have no merit, but I come in the merit of Him who hung upon the tree. IV. Finally, here is THE REASON WHY THIS IS TO BE UPON THESE PERSONS. “ Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” And an important reason this is. The comparison is drawn here between the priests under the law and Himself. They died; and they had to make atonement for themselves, as well as for the people. He had none to make for Himself; and He “ ever liveth.” Oh! what a mercy for me that I have a living Saviour; that He is not dead, but that He lives, and lives to plead tot me; that His voice is heard in heaven--“ whom the Father heareth always!” --and heard for me! What an encouragement it is to know that you have some one who will introduce you into the presence of the King, who will speak well for you, and is not accustomed to be refused! And here is one that “ ever lives to make intercession” ! You recollect that about the throne of glory there are certain vials, and these are the “ praters of the saints.” So precious are these prayers, poor and imperfect as you think them, that they are put into vials to keep them; and so high is the estimation of them that they are put into golden vials, and God Himself says they are used as odours in the heavenly world. And if the prayers of my father, and my mother, and my sister, and my brother are so precious in God’ s estimation, what must my Saviour’ s intercession be? (James Sherman.) The ability of Jesus Christ to save to the uttermost In the text two things engage us: first, the character of the persons to whom it relates, “ Those that come to God by Jesus Christ” ; and, secondly, the ability of Jesus Christ to save such, and the extent of that ability, “ He is able to save such to the uttermost.” I. THE IS THAT OF THOSE WHO COME TO GOD BY JESUS CHRIST. The grand assumption of Christianity consists of two parts: first, that we stand in a natural relation to God; and, secondly, that we have violated this relation. The idea of coming to God seems to be taken from the practice of the Israelites as coming to the temple in their local worship: it is no longer now a local approach, it is a mental approach, a movement of the mind, a turning of the heart to God. This coming may be regarded under two aspects: we must come as subjects to obey God, and come as suppliants to enjoy God. Whoever so comes is the character that has t e comfort of the text, has a share in the redemption of Jesus Christ. But all that come to God must come by Jesus Christ. II. THE ABILITY OF JESUS CHRIST TO SAVE SUCH, AND ITS EXTENT, “ TO THE .” 1. His ability. (1) He alone is appointed by God: “ Him hath God the Father sealed” to dispense the bread of life to dying sinners. (2) He actually shed His blood as an atonement for sin. (3) It is a clear evidence of His ability to save that God has raised Him up to sit at His own right hand. (4) Since “ He ever liveth in heaven to make intercession for them,” therefore He must be able to save believers. Whether His intercession is actual or merely virtual, literal or merely figurative, we may not be able to determine: probably it is the former; probably, as He interceded on earth for His followers, so He does in heaven; He continues the priesthood which commenced from His sacrifice and ascension: this seems implied in His words, “ I will pray the Father.” He stands as a High Priest before the throne of God. 2. His ability to save extends “ to the uttermost.” (1) Every kind and degree of guilt is here included. The sins of men are very various; every man’ s conscience reads a different history to him, peculiar to himself; every one that knows the plague of his heart is apt to suppose that he must be a greater sinner than all beside; must be, as the apostle considered himself, “ the chief of sinners” ; though this can be strictly true of only one of so many aggravations of sin present, themselves to his view, so many chicks and resolutions broken, so much light and grace resisted, so many mercies despised; surely no other offender ever equalled himself! But let these aggravations be what they may, the blood of Jesus Christ is adequate. And Jesus Christ saves “ to the uttermost,” not only in regard to the first conversion of the sinner: there remains much yet to be effected aft-r his conversion, and Jesus Christ effects it. (2) The extent of His ability through all duration is everywhere asserted. His blood, so to speak, is just as warm and fresh as when it was first shed; it has an undecaying virtue. (R. H Calf, M A.) The power of Christ to save I. As to the ability of Christ to save--this is considered under two different aspects: as to its extent or range, and as to its intrinsic efficacy. IT EXTENDS TO ALL THOSE WHO COME TO GOD BY HIM. For though the word “ all” does not occur in the passage, it is of course implied. The phrase is precisely analogous to our Lord’ s own words: “ Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out,” which is equivalent to saying, “ Every one that cometh to Me shall certainly be received.” And this is a source of absolute and unqualified encouragement. For if you wish to come to God at all, how are you to come unless it be by Christ? His interposition as a third person is not the introduction of a harrier that arrests or impedes your approach On the contrary, as it is the aim of this Epistle to show, it is the one thing that makes that approach possible, and prevents it from being vain. For you cannot come to God in Himself just as you are. He is a remote impalpable presence, who retires in proportion as you advance, and who evades and eludes the embrace of the human heart. He may be a bright vision or an awful presence, but He will always remain above and beyond yet, a Being with whom you can have no fellowship, and who renders you no conscious help in the hour of temptation or the article of death. Besides, you are sinful, and the more earnestly’ you try to reach Him, the clearer to your own consciousness becomes the gulf between you, and the strength of the power that holds you back. You must either renounce the hope of reaching Got at all, and suffer Him gradually to vanish from your sight; or you must become content with a vague sentiment which will never quicken or sustain the heart, though it may invest your life with a certain measure of mystery and reverence. “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” Now this definite knowledge of God, which otherwise we lack, and this restraint which is exercised by the power of our sin, is precisely what the intervention of Christ on the one hand provides, and on the other removes. In Him God becomes manifest in such a why as to be present clearly and powerfully to our thoughts. He is no longer an assemblage of qualities such as holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, which we painfully try to group together and cement into some sort of cohesion in our own mind. But in Christ all these receive their highest and purest conceivable expression, and are combined into the unity of a living Person, whose history lives before us in the pages of the Evangelists, and is impressed with an individuality at once most definite, unique, and indelible. Indeed, if you choose, you can know Christ better than those who are nearest to you on earth, and can have a much greater certainty as to His will. Moreover, in Him the mercy of God towards sinners, of which we have otherwise no assurance, workout for itself a perfectly free and unambiguous channel. In His sacrifice the claims of justice are satisfied, and satisfied by a love that willingly submits to the last extremity to achieve its beneficent end. His atonement opens His arms to the whole world, and presents Him in the attitude of an inviting and pitiful Saviour. Not to strike is His hand reached forth, but to help. Not to avenge is His arm uplifted, but to bring salvation, and beckon the weary and heavy laden to His rest. As One who will without fail bring you to God, as One who can forgive all your iniquities, and heal all your diseases, He calls you to Himself. When He cries it is God’ s mercy that cries, a mercy that is boundless because it rests on a propitiation for the whole world. And if you wish to come to God there is nothing to hinder and everything to help you. Christ does not block the way, but opens it. “ I am the door.” No one is met with a refusal, for every possible ground of refusal He has Himself abolished. None have failed of salvation because Christ could not save them. No one has come to Him and found that while He could bring every one else to God there was something in his case that baffled His power, or made him an exception to the free and universal offer of His help. But Christ’ s ability to save not only meets us at the threshold, as it were, of our approach to God, and assures us of its sufficiency to bring us into His fellowship, it also assures us of His power to complete the process which He thus begins. He is able to save to the uttermost. This does not mean to the end of life, or up to the time of the Second Advent, though that is no doubt involved in the words. Nor does it mean that Christ’ s power extends so far as to reach and include those that have gone even to the farthest verge or extremity of wickedness, for that has already been implied in the words we have just considered. The idea rather is that His power is adequate to secure the perfect salvation of all who come to Him, so that nothing shall be requited mr its completeness which He is unable to supply. And this is the assurance that we need. The smouldering fires of half-extinguished passion flicker up on the slightest provocation and strive to resume their old ascendancy. Evil habits reassert themselves at times, and seem as stubborn and unyielding as they ever were. Subtle currents of envy and malice betray their presence in the most humiliating ways, and a deep-seated pride and s If-righteousness refuses to acknowledge the power of the Cross. Not only so, winds of doctrine carry you about, spectres of doubt start up to trouble you. A dull indifference to Divine things, a sullen reluctance to rise to higher heights of holiness or consecration to God, baffles you and holds you down as with a dead weight. Indeed, there is so much in you that is opposed to God, and that seems to resist the influence and supremacy of grace, a perfect salvation, seems to you an almost impossible consummation. Now the successful issue of the process of salvation depends on what Christ is able to provide and to do. If there is any limit to His power, or any defect attaching to it, there will be a corresponding risk. If in any respect He is incompetent, then you may anticipate disaster. But in Him dwells all the fulness of Divine grace. Everything that we lack and require to have we find in Him and in its infinite perfection,. There is no weakness which He cannot develop into strength, no spiritual emptiness which He cannot fill, no darkness which He cannot enlighten. There are no hindrances so determined that He cannot carry you triumphantly over them, no temptations so insidious or strong but that He can make a way of escape so that you shall be able to bear them. II. This saving ability of Christ rests upon THE FACT OF HIS EVER LIVING TO MAKE . In this respect He presents a contrast to the Levitical priesthood. It passed from one to another as death removed the successive occupants of the office. But Christ abideth for ever, and there is no interruption to the continuity of His mediation. At no point does it cease even for a moment so that those He represents can possibly have their interests imperilled. Unbroken, it prolongs itself from age to age, unchanging in its character, and unintermittent in duration. For He is made a priest, not “ after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” It is not, then, on the fact of a past atonement, but on the power of a bring Saviour your safety depends. That Christ died would be of no use to us if He were not alive now, and alive, so to speak, more mightily than He ever was before. Other men death removes from their intercourse with the world It brings Their direct influence and agency to an end. But death did not so affect Him. It produced no change in His activity, except to widen its range and intensify its energy. And now the whole of His priestly functions are taken up and absorbed in this one attitude or act of intercession How it proceeds it is difficult for us to say, anti it is not necessary that we should know. But He has left us an illustration in the prayer which He offered in the days of His flesh of how it was accomplished then, “ and translating this into the modes of heavenly communion so far as we can imagine them we may perhaps form some conception of its character.” Of this at least we are assured--that it embraces and takes into account the whole sum of our necessities, and provides effectually for their supply. Our strongest and most earnest prayers, our confused and importunate petitions, our dumb and mute appeals, when the weight and pressure of life lie too heavily upon us, and we groan being burdened--all receive their pure, articulate, and prevailing expression in Him who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and knows the frailty of our frame. Again, we may gather that the power of Christ’ s intercession springs from His atonement. This is, so to speak, the basis on which it proceeds, the great argument which makes it conclusive. And what can make it more so? It is true our sins cry out for vengeance, but Christ’ s blood cries still louder mercy. And its cry continues sustained, penetrating through all obstructions, resistless, clear, never failing to enter into the ears of God. (C. Moinet, M. A.) Christ’ s saving ability I. CHRIST’ S SAVING ABILITY. 1. The nature of this ability. Jesus possesses (1) Meritorious ability. (2) Official ability. (3) Efficient ability. (4) Gracious ability. He is as willing as able. 2. The extent of Christ’ s saying ability. He is able to save “ to the uttermost” (1) From all the present and future consequences of sin. (2) Into all the positive enjoyments of the Divine favour. (3) From the lowest depths of sin and misery. (4) At the last extremity of life. (5) From the beginning to the end of our world’ s duration. (6) All and every man within our world’ s circumference. (7) Into all the inconceivable glories of eternal life. II. THE WHOM THIS . Those who come unto God by Christ. This implies 1. Our distance from God. And in coming to God we must be sensible of it, feel it, deplore it, &c. 2. The movement of the heart towards Him. 3. The reception of God’ s favour through Jesus Christ. Application: Here see 1. The greatness of the salvation of the gospel. 2. Supreme dignity and power of the Redeemer. 3. The only way to obtain eternal life. (J. Burns, D. D.) Why not be saved? “ Man’ s extremity is God’ s opportunity.” To convert the youthful soul which has never yet yielded to the fascination of sinful indulgence is a great work of God; but to save the man who knows the pleasures of sin and whose chief delight is to drink from its cup so that he shall loathe it as an abominable thing, is a greater miracle than the creation of the world. Now, the gospel is specially addressed to those who have given up all hope of being able to save themselves. Its chief statement is very startling, namely, that God loves the sinner. Let any man believe this fact, and salvation is half done already. I. ALL MEN NEED FROM SIN. YOU may exclaim, “ Am I not as God made me?” You are not. He made you in His own image; but you have defaced that likeness by your own doing. Men give evidence against each other in the witness-box at the court of justice, but God is in each heart witnessing there to the sinner himself. God’ s witness is true. We sometimes think it is our own better nature which warns us to avoid sin, but it is the voice of the Holy Spirit of God. A minister was preaching one day about the certainty of judgment, and sail, “ I have warned you faithfully and earnestly, but if you do not hear my words, there is another voice which shall summon you to judgment.” At that moment a soldier jumped up, crying, “ Oh, sir, stop! do not go any further” The Lord was speaking in that soldier’ s soul, and showing him the vileness of his sins until he could sit still no longer. He thought the minister was speaking specially to him, and he cried out for fear of his sins. If there be sorrow for sin in your heart, let me repeat that it is caused by the Spirit of God. You say, “ But I feel such an awful sinner!” I tell you in reply that it is the Lord who gives you the knowledge which makes you feel you are so wicked. Is it not an evidence of His love? You may be saved to-day. But, perhaps, you may tell me that you never have done anything wicked enough to send you to hell. In reply, I ask you to look at the record of your life. Does not that show you have done things of which you would be utterly ashamed if I were to mention them in your ear? If you have not done wickedly, why try so carefully to hide it from others? The Lord, through me, is now reminding you of sins which He saw you do. Likewise, God cannot allow you to enjoy any peace until you have confessed your sins to Him. Why have you continued in sin so long? Is it not because you think you can continue to hide it? It is often the greatest kindness God can do us when men discover and punish us for our sin. A few weeks ago, walking down Lower King Street, I saw one of our detectives place his hand upon the shoulder of a man who was looking into a shop window. When the thief turned his face and saw who had touched him, he was so startled as to jump in fear. The thief knew that he had broken the law, and he was afraid of the discovery. But you hay, sinned against God, and His Word is now the spiritual detective which lays hold of you. You tremble, but, remember, God lays hold of you to save you. He does not come to punish you, but to bless you. Instead of taking you to the prison of hell, He leads you to the Cross of Jesus to receive a full and everlasting pardon. Then He gives you grace to sin no more. But, others may tell us that they have never done any wickedness either in secret or in public. You have indeed much for which to be thankful. I should like to have you for my master or for my servant. But if you have done nothing that you think is wicked, have you not forgotten to attend to the wants of your suffering neighbour? If you have loved God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself, you do not need any Saviour. But have you not been selfish? Let me exhort you to cry to God for salvation to-night. You do not intend always to be wicked and selfish. Then, why not seek for salvation at once? Why delay? Will you not cry to God for pardon and mercy at once? We say sometimes, “ It is a long lane that has no turning.” Stop! Cry for mercy! A friend of mine some time ago, through the carelessness of one of his men had a serious accident at his works through the bursting of a boiler. I said to him, “ I suppose you will not employ the same man again.” He replied, “ Oh yes, because he will always take good care in the future; and we shall not have a ,other explosion.” No doubt that man would be careful. But in)our case, you have not only sinned once and twice, but your life has been a continual fall. Ought not God to give you up? Surely He will be weary of trying to save you. But no, the Lord answers, “ How can I give him up for whom I died?” Confess your sins to God. Say to Him, “ Father, I am an unsaved wretch; I am Thy wicked child who begs for mercy!” Behold, the Lord calls you to come to Him for mercy, for pardon, and for peace. Come and trust. Him. II. CHRIST IS ABLE TO SAVE ALL WHO COME UNTO GOD BY HIM. 1. The words and teaching of Christ tell us the truth. If we believe the word of Christ concerning God to be the truth we cannot help but love God. He tells us that God is our Father. Christ tells us that God has compassion on the penitent, and this makes us glad to come to Him. If He really loves us, why stay away? 2. The death of Jesus is the way by which God saves us from the penalty of sin. He is the Good Shepherd who layeth down His life for the sheep. Behold Him bearing our sins in His own body on the Cross! Behold the Lamb of God on the Cross and you shall be saved. 3. He ever liveth to intercede for us. The body of Jesus Christ is somewhere in the universe an evidence of God’ s willingness to save sinners. Where is He? Is He not speaking to you and saying, “ I died for thee” ? Our Father needs no persuasion to look upon us with compassion. But there is one thing that is necessary--it is that God should come to you and persuade you to be saved. To-night, the Lord is not afar off, but near to all of us, and if you will read the words of Jesus you will clearly perceive that there is salvation to the very uttermost. (W. Birch.) “ To the uttermost” I was once reading to a blind and aged Christian the verse in chap. 7.: “ Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them,” and he stopped me with the remark: “ I like that word uttermost; it seems to me to have in it everything that a poor sinner can want.” (Sir E. Bayley, B. D.) God offers a whole salvation He comes to us with a whole salvation, with healing, cleansing, vivifying grace, which will grow in us, and develop us into perfectness. It is not the finger of direction, but the hand of help He gives us. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) God’ s illimitable power to save There is no limit to the power of the grace of God, save that which is imposed by ourselves. (Bp. Thorold.) Salvation to the uttermost Suppose I were drowning, and you drew me out of the deepest water, just in time to save my life, but then left me wet and shivering and exhausted on the bank, to run the more than risk of wretched after-effects of cold and rheumatism, from which I might never entirely recover! That would not be saving “ to the uttermost” in this sense of the word. But if you did the thing completely,--carrying me home, and doing everything necessary to restore me and avert evil effects, and that effectually; never relaxing in care and effort, nor letting me go, till you had me safe and well, however long and difficult it might be, then you would have saved me “ to the uttermost,” in the true meaning of it. This is what Jesus is able to do for you. Having saved you from destruction, His very name is the guarantee that He will not leave you to struggle helplessly with your sins, much less to “ continue” in them, but that He shall save you from them. You will find it a daily continual salvation, by which He will keep you by the power of God through faith, unto the consummated salvation of body and soul, “ ready to be revealed in the last time.” (F. R. Havergal.) Christ’ s saving power The Emperor Theodosius, having on a great occasion opened all the prisons, and released his prisoners, is reported to have said. “ And now, would to God I could open all the tombs, and give life to the dead!” But there is no limit to the mighty p wet and royal grace of Jesus. He opens the prisons of justice and the prisons of death with equal and infinite ease: He redeems nut the soul only, but the body. (C. Stanford.) Salvation in Christ Our salvation is in Christ and with Him, but not apart from Him. When a bank note or a gold coin is put into my hands, my money is in that, not apart from it. When a deed is signed, sealed, recorded, and delivered to me, my title is in my deed, and not apart from it. My bank note or gold coin will pay my debt and pay my journeying expenses. My deed will ensure me my farm. Even so in Christ I have my debt cancelled, my journeying support, and my heavenly inheritance all secure. (W. E. Boardman.) A tested remedy It is related that Bishop Kavanagh was one day walking when he met a prominent physician, who offered him a seat in his carriage. The physician was an infidel, and the conversation turned upon religion. “ I am surprised,” said the doctor, “ that such an intelligent man as you should believe such an old fable as that.” The Bishop said, “ Doctor, suppose years ago some one had recommended to you a prescription for pulmonary consumption, and you had procured the prescription and taken it according to order, and had been cured of that terrible disease, what would you say of the man who would not try your prescription?” “ I should say he was a fool.” “ Twenty-five years ago,” said Kavanagh, “ I tried the power of God’ s grace. It made a different man of me. All these years I have preached salvation, and wherever accepted have never known it to fail.” What could a doctor say to such a testimony as that? And such testimonies are what men need to turn them from the error of their ways, to the personal experience of the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. “ How would you prove the Divinity of Christ?” said some ministers to a young backwoods preacher whom they were examining. “ What?” said be, puzzled by their question. “ How would you prove the Divinity of Christ?” “ Why, He saved my soul,” was the triumphant reply. But to give” this answer one must be saved, and know it in his heart, and show it in his life, and he then becomes a living epistle known and read of all men. Salvation to the uttermost Mr. Carl Steinman, who in 1846 made a trip to Iceland, thus describes a visit to the crater of Mount Hecla. On the brink he was prostrated by an eruption of the crater, and held a prisoner by the lava surrounding him. He says, “ Oh, the horrors of that awful realisation! There, over the mouth of a black and heated abyss, I was held suspended, a helpless and conscious prisoner, to be hurled downward by the next great throe of trembling Nature. ‘ Help! help! help! for the love of God, help!’ I shrieked in the very agony of my despair. I had nothing to rely upon but the mercy of Heaven, and I prayed to God as I never prayed before, to blot out my sins, and not let them tallow me to judgment. All at once I heard a shoot; and looking around. I beheld, with feelings that cannot be described, my faithful guide hastening down the side of the crater to my relief. ‘ I warned you!’ he said. ‘ You did!’ cried I, ‘ but forgive and save me, for I am perishing.’ He reached out his hand and took me, and set my feet on solid ground. I was free, but still on the very verge of the awful pit.” Reader, is the lava of hell beginning to flow about you? are your feet already being entangled? Oh! make haste to reach out your hand to your Saviour and Guide, who is able to set your feet on the solid rock, and to stablish your ways. Oh! that you could see your danger, and seek refuge before it is too late. (C. W. Bibb.) That come unto God by Him Coming to God A friend of one of the Imperial Caesars came to him with sad face and murmuring voice on account of the many troubles that oppressed him, but the Emperor replied, “ Do not complain of thy misfortune so long as thou hast Caesar for thy friend.” Though most of us know what it is to suffer pain and grief, and often are overwhelmed by seas of trouble, yet we do not complain so long as we have the great King of kings for our friend. His kindly eye beholds every movement of our daily lives, and His sympathising mind numbers the very hairs of our head; His strong arm holds us in the narrow path of righteousness, and when we are weary His loving heart seeks to draw us to the pillow of His breast. Having God for our Friend, none need despair. I. THE TEXT IMPLIES A FROM GOD. This separation is not of the body, but rather of the spirit within us, which directs our thoughts and actions. 1. It is a want of sympathy with God. Like a Christian father who has a wayward son. How near the two bodies are when the father grasps his son’ s hand! Alas, what a distance there is between their souls! 2. It is a separation from communion with God. There has been a time in your life when, kneeling in your chamber, you have communed with God in prayer; you have sought a blessing and have obtained it; and your daily life was a continual walking with God. But sin like a mighty ocean, has separated you from the companionship of your Heavenly Father. 3. It is also a rebellion of heart. Oh, sinner, remember that though you have ceased to love your God, He still yearns over you, and even as a mother always keeps the image of her erring son in her heart, so your God never forgets you. II. THE TEXT SPEAKS OF COMING TO GOD. III. THE TEXT DIRECTS US HOW TO COME TO GOD. 1. We come to God, by Christ, as our Saviour. We, therefore, have full liberty to come to God, seeing that Jesus has saved us from the penalty due to us on account of our transgressions of the law. 2. Jesus is to us as our Priest bringing us nigh to God. He did not seek the blood of an angel to present it to God for us; but He, the Lamb of God, presented Himself as a sacrifice for us. 3. Christ also is our Deliverer; breaking the fetters of sin and opening the door, so that we may come to God. IV. THIS TEXT US WITH A SWEET FACT. “ He ever liveth to intercede for us.” Christ’ s work is not yet done. We sometimes say, “ It is finished.” True, His sufferings for you are finished; but His work is not yet completed until He has saved you from your sins. ‘ Tis a great work to create a world, but ‘ tis a greater to make you a holy child of God. Well, we are comforted by the assurance that “ He ever liveth for us.” (W. Birch.) All who come I. . “ All” --whole human race, without respect to nationality, attainments, or character. II. ACTION. “ Come.” Sitting still will not save. III. . Salvation--safety, satisfaction, joy. IV. . We may be left behind. How needful to regard the warning! (T. Heath.) He ever liveth to make intercession for them A living Saviour, therefore a complete salvation The long interval between the fall of man and the Redeemer’ s advent showed the hopelessness of men without Him. Through those four thousand years all they could desire and do to rise to a higher state was tried in vain, till it is not too much to say that they were fast settling into despair. But when the hope of saving themselves was dying out, there appeared One who lived, and taught, and died, and rose again to heaven, of whom it was affirmed with utmost emphasis in the words before us, “ He is able to save.” And This His ability is because “ He ever liveth to make intercession.” Our Lord liveth. We cannot dwell too much on the glorious truth that “ Christ died for our sins,” but we can dwell too little on the truth which is even beyond that, “ He rose again for our justification,” aye, and for our sanctification too. Salvation will be to us what it might be in proportion as we look for it, not to the Cross, but to Him who, once crucified, is now living--living for evermore, to continue in heaven the work begun on earth. I. Then, in the first place, the text reveals OUR LORD AS LIVING TO SAVE. In our jealousy of the truth of the sufficiency of His atonement we may think of it to our great impoverishment as though there were nothing more for Him to do. But the atonement does not include the whole work of salvation, as Saviour Christ never rests, He ascended to carry on His work to further developments, and we need for His praise and our own comfort to train ourselves to think of Him as living to make redemption complete. Certainly this is true of Him, for 1. Nothing less reaches the perfection of grace. A Saviour that died for us were much, how much! but a Saviour who then goes on to live for us is more, and we can believe even that possible. Then it is true. We cannot think God greater than He is, His grace must be beyond our thought, and that we can imagine grace like this is in itself the assurance that Christ liveth to save. 2. Without this His work on earth were unavailing. His death alone would not avail for redemption. Christ for us once was not enough; the world were lost, the cross were useless, were that all; we need Christ for us still--by His life making it possible for us to accept the salvation He securedby His death. 3. Only this explains our continued spiritual enrichment. We have visible assurances of many an unseen cause. Behind the works of nature we see the unseen God; only God, we say, could work thus. So the history of the church is an assurance of a living Redeemer. If she has passed unharmed through ages of fiery trial it can only be because a Divine hand, never withdrawn, followed her with an encircling shield. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 7:26-28 Such an High Priest became us The priest whom we need I. WE ALL NEED A PRIEST, AND WE HAVE THE PRIEST WE NEED IN JESUS CHRIST. In fair weather, when the summer seas are sunny and smooth, and all the winds are sleeping in their caves, the life-belts on the deck of a steamer may be thought to be unnecessary, but when she strikes on the black-toothed rocks, and all about is a hell of noise and despair, then the meaning of them is understood. When you are amongst the breakers you will need a life-buoy. When the flames are flickering round you, you will understand the use and worth of a fire-escape, and when you have learned what sort of a man you are, and what that involves in regard of your relations to God, then the mysteries which surround the thought of the High Priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ will be accepted as mysteries, and left where they are, and the fact will be grasped with all the tendrils of your soul as the one hope for you in life and in death. II. WE NEED FOR A PRIEST A PERFECT MAN, AND WE HAVE THE PERFECT PRIEST WHOM WE NEED IN JESUS CHRIST. The writer goes on to enumerate a series of qualities by which our Lord is constituted the priest we need. Of these five qualities which follow in my text, the three former are those to which I now refer. “ He is holy, harmless, undefiled.” Taken generally, these three characteristics refer to the priest’ s relation to God, together men, and to the law of purity. “ He is holy” ; that is to say, not so much morally free from guilt as standing in a certain relation to God. The word here used for “ holy” has a special meaning. It is the representative of an Old Testament word, which seems to mean “ devoted to God in love.” Such is the first qualification for a priest, that he shall be knit to God by loving devotion, and have a heart throbbing in unison with the Divine heart in all its tenderness of pity, and in all its nobleness and loftiness of purity. And, besides being thus the earthly echo and representative of the whole sweetness of the Divine nature, so, in the next place, the priest we need must, in relation to men, be harmless--without malice, guile, unkindness; a Lamb of God, with neither horns to butt, nor teeth to tear, nor claws to wound, but gentle and gracious, sweet and compassionate; or, as we read in another place in this same letter, “ a merciful High Priest in things pertaining to God.” And the priest that we need, to bridge over the gulf between us sinful and alienated men and God, must be one “ undefiled,” on whose white garments there shall be no speck, on the virgin purity of whose nature there shall be no stain; who shall stand above us, though He be one of us, and whilst “ it behoves Him to be made in all points like unto His brethren,” shall yet be “ without blemish and without spot.” I pass on just to notice, in a word, how this assemblage of qualifications which, taken together, make up the idea of a perfect man, is found in Jesus Christ for a certain purpose, and a purpose beyond that which some of you, I am afraid, are accustomed to regard. Why this innocence; this G d-devotedness; this blamelessness; this absence of all selfish antagonism? Why this life, so sweet, so pure, so gentle, so running over with untainted and ungrudging compassion, so conscious of unbroken and perfect communion and sympathy with God? Why? What He might, “ through the Eternal Spirit, offer Himself without spot unto God” ; and that by His one offering He might perfect for ever all them that put their trust in Him. III. WE NEED A PRIEST IN THE HEAVENS, AND WE HAVE IN CHRIST THE PRIEST WHOM WE NEED. The two last qualifications for the priestly office included in my text are, “ separate from sinners; made higher than the heavens.” Now, the “ separation” intended is not, as I suppose, Christ’ s moral distance from evildoers, but has what I may call a kind of half-local signification and is explained by the next clause. He is “ separate from sinners,” not because He is pure and they foul, but because having offered His sacrifice He has ascended up on high. He is “ made higher than the heavens.” Scripture sometimes speaks of the living Christ as at present in the heavens, and at others as having “ passed through “ and being “ high above all heavens” ; in the former case simply giving the more general idea of exaltation, in the latter the thought that He is lifted, in His manhood and as our Priest, above the bounds of the material and visible creation, and “ set at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Such a priest we need. His elevation and separation from us upon earth is essential to that great and continual work of His which we call for want of any more definite name, His intercession. The High Priest in the heavens presents His sacrifice there for ever, We need no other; we do need Him. Oh, friend! are you resting on that sacrifice? Have you given your cause into His hands to plead? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Sinlessness of Jesus He was without sin, as a child, as a youth, as a man. In the synagogue, when they were singing psalms, with tears on their cheeks, I wonder how He felt, and what He did. He would have liked to join them, but lie could not. He knew nothing of the remorse and misery of the young men and grey heads coming up with the week’ s sin on their heads. He knew the sin was there: He saw it in every eye, saw it in the workshop sod in the street, in the malice and ill-will hat made riots there; but He did not feel it in Hires, if. (A. Whyte, D. D.) The unstained life of Jesus His life resembled a polished mirror, which the foulest breath cannot stain, nor dim beyond a passing moment. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Christ undefiled Christ walked through the midst of sinners undefiled. Like a beam of light piercing into a foul dung, on, or like a river purifying and fertilising, itself untainted, so did Christ pass through this world. (R. M.McCheyne.) The sinless High Priest A priest who could be charged with the slightest infraction of the law would have been no Saviour. The hopeless debtor can never be a surety for a debtor; the helpless slave never liberates his companion slave; nor the fallen lift the fallen from the dust. So that all our religion, with its perfection ‘ of righteousness and infirmity of consolation, depends upon the single fact that Christ is the Hey One of God. (C. Stanford, D. D.) The excellence of Jesus According to Renan, the excellence of Jesus was due to the climate and soil of Palestine I But he forgets to ask how it is that the climate and soil of Palestine have never produced such another! (C. Clemance, D. D.) HolyThe holiness of Christ I. THE REALITY of our Lord’ s holiness is most clearly and strongly declared in Scripture. 1. We are told that He came into our world with a holy nature. 2. His life, too, was holy. II. THE of His holiness. 1. It was holiness amidst sin and temptation, perfect holiness amidst abounding sin and the utmost possible temptation. 2. His was holiness also amidst weakness and suffering. III. Let us come now to THE of Christ’ s holiness. The character He had to sustain, and the work He had to perform, required it. 1. It was necessary in order to constitute Him a real manifestation of God. 2. It was needful to make Him an effectual sacrifice for our sins. 3. But our Lord’ s office as our great Redeemer was not to end with His life on earth, He was to go into the eternal heavens in the same character that He bore here, and to carry on there, though in a different manner, the same work. We sometimes think of Him as simply entering there into His glory and joy, but He is intent on our salvation in the midst of His glory and joy; as much engaged in it on His throne as He was on His cross. The apostle accordingly represents Him in this passage as our High Priest in the heavens, “ ever living to make intercession for us” ; and tells us that it became Him to be holy in order to qualify Him for this heavenly office and work. 4. As the pattern and example to which all His people are to be conformed, it was needful that our Lord should be holy. We want a perfection like His, the perfect on of holiness, and earthbound as our affections sometimes are--nothing below this will satisfy us. But now there is this perfection in thehey Jesus, a sinless perfection. We cannot look higher. Be is purity itself, the Divine purity embodied. To be made like unto Him comprehends m it all that is blissful and glorious. We feel that we shall indeed be satisfied when we awake with His likeness. Lessons: 1. Let us rejoice in His holiness, and admire and adore Him for it. 2. Let us seek for ourselves a share in this holiness of Christ. 3. And let us banish from our minds for ever the thought, that though living ungodly lives, we may yet be followers of this holy Saviour. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The doctrine of the Incarnation While the sacred writers inform us that “ Jesus Christ the Righteous” came into the world to save sinners, and to take upon Him our infirmities, they are most careful to tell us that He Himself was without sin. Ever since order and beauty arose out of chaos, only two who might properly be termed perfect beings have appeared in, our world. The first Adam was of the earth, earthy. The other the Lord from heaven, produced not out of nothing, or of the dust but conceived in a supernatural and miraculous manner by the direct power and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. That in every point He might be like us, with the exception of sin, He was born a babe, underwent all the weakness, s peculiar to our infantine years, and passed in progression through the very steps that we do from youth to manhood. Now, He behoved to be thus like us in advancing to maturity; yet His whole thoughts, sayings, and doings, through all the progression to which He submitted were in entire conformity to the Divine will and commands. Had the Lord our righteousness been man, of a sinful nature, that He must have proved for us an unsuccessful representative is but too evident, when we reflect that the trial of Christ Jesus was of a severer nature than that endured by Adam; for whilst our first progenitor had merely one object placed before his eyes as a trial of obedience, the man of sorrows had a continued conflict of sufferings, from the manger to His crowning act of obedience in Geshsemane and on the cross. If sin had been interwoven in His nature, it would have manifested something of its existence; and surely in His interesting history, there were not wanting occasions awfully trying, when betrayed by a fed wet, deserted by friends, assailed by the powers of wickedness, and suffering an eclipse by the hidings of His Father’ s countenance in the hour and power of darkness. But here let us consider how it became requisite for this Divine personage to assume the nature of man, and to take upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh. As it was man who had transgressed, it was necessary that the penalty should be paid by man--not that the punishment should be endured by a nature different fromthat which had fallen. Accordingly, that our iniquities might be all put to His account, and expiated by Him, He took to Himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, and died, the just for the unjust. Probably, had He interposed on behalf of intelligences of a higher order, instead of us who had sunk so low in the mire of sin, He would have assumed the nature of those intelligences. Between the person of Christ and His blessed work, between the inherent splendour and excellency of His character, and the exalted dignity of His station, there is therefore an intimate and beautiful connection. The being who would redeem another from misery and ruin by yielding a vicarious righteousness, must be one who is not himself under any obligations to obey, or to endure the penalty of the law on his own behalf. Apply this principle in reference to Christ Jesus, who undertook our cause, and you will see that He could not be chargeable with presumption or disaffection to the Divine government, by His laying claim to the character of independence and self-existence; for He was “ in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” No exactions of a personal kind could hay, been required of Him who, of His own free choice, was made under the law, and who magnified it and made it honourable. Could this perfect and unchangeable law have been fulfilled if the second Adam had not been altogether independent, holy, and Divine, and thus placed in the most favourable circumstances to ensure our salvo, ion? But we are to remember that Christ not only required to be independent and self-existent, to make an atonement at all, but also to be a person of the highest worth, in consequence of the demerit of sin as an offence against all the glorious perfections of infinite and unblemished purity, whose name is holy, and who is altogether glorious in holiness; and this being an unchangeable perfection of His nature, it would seem that a Redeemer was required, equal in dignity and worth to the Mighty Being offended, and to the extent of the evil committed. But who in heaven or earth could be fit for the undertaking but the incarnate God, the Man that was Jehovah’ s fellow? (G. Mitchell, M. A.) Separate from sinnersChrist’ s detachment from sinners Look at Christ’ s detachment from sinners I. As A VAST FEELING IN THE MIND OF HIS . (Luke 4:14-27; Matthew 8:5-13; Matthew 21:12; John 8:1-11.) 1. This feeling of distance which they had in relation to Him cannot be accounted for on the ground of (1) Miraculous manifestations; (2) His social superiority; (3) His non-sociality. 2. It was purely moral. His incorruptible truthfulness, exquisite sensibilities, calm reverence, overflowing benevolence, unconquerable love of eternal right, invested Him with that Godlike air and bearing which made them feel that He stood at an unapproachable moral distance. II. AS AN FACT BY HIMSELF. This is seen in 1. His frequent personal withdrawal from men in order to hold fellowship with His Father. 2. Much of the language He addressed to men, “ Ye are from beneath; I am from above.” “ I and My Father are one.” III. As ARE POWER IN HIS . 1. It was just that power which rendered His services as a Redeemer acceptable to God. 2. It was just that power that rendered His services as a Redeemer efficacious to man. (Homilist.) Christ as separate from the world With us of to-day it is the commendation of Jesus that He is so profoundly humbled, identified so affectingly with our human state. But the power He had with the men of His time moved in exactly the opposite direction, being the impression He made of His remoteness and separateness from men, when He was, in fact, only a man, as they supposed, under all human conditions. With us it is the wonder that He is brought so low. With them that He could seem to rise so high, for they knew nothing as yet of His person, considered as the incarnate Word of the Father. What I propose, then, for my present subject is--The separateness of Jesus from men; the immense power it had and must ever have on their feeling and character. I do not mean by this that Christ was separated as being at all withdrawn, but only that, in drawing Himself most closely to them, He was felt by them never as being on their level of life and character, but as being parted from them by an immense chasm of distance. These impressions were not due, as I have said, to any distinct conceptions they had of Him as being a higher nature incarnate, for not, even His disciples took up any such definite conceptions of His nature till after His death and ascension. It was guessed, indeed, that He might be Elias, or some one of the old prophets, but we are only to see, in such struggles of conjecture, how powerfully He has already impressed the sense of His distinction or separateness of character, for such guesses or conjectures were even absurd, unless they were instigated by previous impressions of something very peculiar in His unearthly manner requiring to be accounted for. His miracles had undoubtedly something to do with the impression of His separateness from ordinary men, hut a great many others, who were strictly human, have wrought miracles without creating any such gulf between them and mankind as we discover here. It is probably true also that the rumour of His being the Messiah--the great., long-expected Prince and Deliverer--had something to do in raising the impressions of men concerning Him. But their views of the Messiah to come had prepared them to look only for some great hero and deliverer, and a kind of political millennium under His kingdom. There was nothing in their expectation that should separate Him specially from mankind as being a more than humanly superlative character. I. Pursuing, then, our inquiry, let us notice, in the first place, How THE PERSONS MOST REMOTE AND , EVEN THEY THAT FINALLY HIS DEATH, WERE OR BY HIM. They deny His Messiahship; they charge that only Beelzebub could help Him to do His miracles; they are scandalised by His familiarity with publicans and sinners and other low people; they arraign His doctrine as a heresy against many of the most sacred laws of their religion; they charge Him with the crime of breaking their Sabbath, and even with excess in eating and drinking; and yet we can easily see that there is growing up, in their minds, a most peculiar awe of His person. And it appears to he excited more by His manners and doctrine and a certain indescribable originality and sanctity in both, them by anything else. II. TURN NOW, , TO THE , AND OBSERVE HOW THEY WERE OR BY THE MANNER AND SPIRIT OF JESUS. And here the remarkable thing is, that they appear to be more and more impressed with the distance between Him and themselves the longer they know Him, and the more intimate and familiar their acquaintance with Him. III. WHAT NOW IS THE OF THIS OF MADE BY CHRIST ON THE WORLD? That His miracles and the repute of His Messiahship do not wholly account fur it we have already observed. It may be imagined by some that He produced this impression artificially, by means of certain scenes and observances designed to widen out the distance between Him and the race; for how could He otherwise obtain that power over them which He was properly entitled to, have by His own real eminence, unless He took some pains to set them in attitudes in which His eminence might be felt. In o her words, if He is to have more than a man’ s power, He must somehow be more than a man. Thus, when He says to, His mother, “ Woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come” ; or when, being notified that His mother and brethren are standing without waiting to see Him, He asks, “ Who, then, is My mother, and who are My brethren?” it will be imagined that He is purposely suggesting His higher derivation and His more transcendent affinities. But, even if it were so, it must be understood only that He is speaking out of His spiritual consciousness, claiming thus affinity with God, and with those who shall embrace Him in the eternal brotherhood of faith; now, as boasting the height of His natural Sonship. The remarkable separation, therefore, of Christ from the sinners of mankind, and the impression He awakened in them of that separation, was made, not by scenes, nor by words of assertion, nor by anything designed for that purpose, but it grew out of His life and character--His unworldliness, holiness, purity, truth, love; the dignity of His feeling, the transcendent wisdom and grace of His conduct. He was manifestly one that stood apart from the world in His profoundest human sympathy with it. He often spent His night, in solitary prayer, closeted with God in the recesses of the mountains. He was plainly not under the world, or any fashions of human opinion. He was able to be singular, without apparently desiring it, and by the simple force of His superiority. 1. How great a thing now is it that such a Being has come into our world and lived in it--a Being above mortality while in it--a Being separate from sinners, bringing unto sinners by a fellow-nature what is transcendent and even deific in the Divine holiness and love. Yes, we have had a visitor among us, living, out, in the moulds of human conduct and feeling, the perfections of God! What an importation of glory, and truth! Who that lives a man can ever, after this, think it a low and common thing to fill these spheres, walk in these ranges of life, and do these works of duty which have been raised so high by the life of Jesus in the flesh? The world is no more the same that it was. All its main ideas and ideals are raised, b kind of sacred glory invests even our humblest spheres and most common concerns. 2. Consider, again, as one of the points deducible from the truth we have been considering, how little reason is given us, in the mission of Christ, toe the hope that God, who has such love to man, will not allow us to fail of salvation by reason of any mere defect or neglect of application to Christ. What, then, does this peculiar separateness of Christ signify? Coming into the world to save it--taking on Him our nature that He may draw Himself as close to us as possible--what is growing all the while to be more and more felt in men’ s bosoms but a sense of ever-widening, ever-deepening, and, in some sense, incommunicable separateness from Him? And this, you will observe, is the separateness, not of condition, but of character. Nay, it grows out of His very love to us in part and His profound oneness with us, for it is a love so pure and gentle--so patient, so disinterested, so self-sacrificing--that it parts Him from us in the very act of embrace, and makes us think of Him even with awe! How, then, will it be when He is met in the condition of His glory, and the guise of His humanity is laid off? There is nothing then to put Him at one with us or us at one with Him, but just that incommunicable and separate character which fills us even here with dread. If He was separate before, how inevitably, insupportably separate now. 3. Consider, also, and accurately distinguish, as here we may easily do, what is meant by holiness, and what especially is its power, or the law of its power. Holiness is not what we may do or become in mere self-activity or self-culture, but it is the sense of a separated qualify in one who lives on a footing of intimacy and oneness with God. 4. But the great and principal lesson derivable from this subject is, that Christianity is a regenerative power upon the world only as it comes into the world in a separated character--as a revelation or sacred importation of holiness. This brings me to speak of what is now the great and desolating error of our times. I mean the general conformity of the followers of Christ to the manners and ways, and, consequently, in a great degree, to the spirit of the world. Christ had His power, as we have seen, in the fact that He carried the impression of His separateness from it and His superiority to it. He was no ascetic, His separation no contrived and prescribed separation, but was only the more real and radical that it was the very instinct or freest impulse of His character. A true Christian, one who is deep enough in the godly life to have his affinities with God, will infallibly become a separated being, The instinct of holiness will draw him apart into a singular, superior, hidden life with God. And this is the true Christian power, besides which there is no ,thee. And when this fails everything goes with it. Neither let us be deceived in this matter by our merely notional wisdoms, or deliberative judgments, for it is not a mat,st to be decided by any consideration of Jesuits--the question never is, what is really harmful, and so wrong, but what will meet the living and free instinct of a life of prayer and true godliness? There is no greater mistake, as regards the true manner of impression on the world, than that we impress it being homogeneous with it. If in our dress we show the same extravagance, if our amusements are theirs without a distinction, if we follow after their shows, copy their manners, busy ourselves in their worldly objects, emulate their fashions, what are we different from them? It seems quite plausible to fancy the great honour we shall put on religion, when we are able to set it on a footing with all most worldly things, and show that we can be Christians in that plausible way. This we call liberal piety. It is such as can excel in all high tastes, and make up a figure of beauty that must needs be a great commendation, we think, to religion. It may be a little better than to be openly apostate; but alas I there is how little power in such a kind of life! If we are to impress the world we must be separate from sinners, even as Christ our Master was, -r at least according to our human degree, as being in His Spirit. Oh, that we could take our lesson here, and plan our life, order our pursuits, choose our relaxations, prepare our families, so as to be truly with Christ, and so, in fact, that we ourselves can say, each for himself, “ The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” And this exactly is our communion with Jesus; we propose to be one with Him in it. In it we connect with a Power transcendent, the Son of Man in glory, whose image we aspire to, and whose mission, as the Crucified on earth, was the revelation of the Father’ s love and holiness. We ask to be separated with Him and set apart to the same great life. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Christ separate from sinners There are certain senses in which Jesus was not “ separate from sinners.” 1. He was not separate from them in respect of nature. It was a true, though immaculate, humanity which He assumed, and in which He tabernacled in the midst of men. 2. He was not “ separate from sinners” in respect of residence. He lived on earth. He laboured in Galilee; and Galilee was proverbially bad. He preached, and suffered, and died in Jerusalem; and the voice of Jerusalem’ s crimes “ entered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth.” 3. He was not “ separate from sinners” in respect of society. As one who came, “ not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance,” He held intercourse with wicked men. The Physician was found beside the sick-bed. The Deliverer of guilty and ruined souls “ ate and drank with publicans and sinners.” 4. He was not “ separate from sinners” in respect of His personal experience at the hands of men, or even at the hands of God. He shared in the ordinary trials incident to sinful man. He was the object of harsh reproach and contumelious scorn. He was judicially condemned to a tremendous kind of death. And it was, literally, in the midst of malefactors that He died. What, then, is meant by the statement that Christ was “ separate from sinners” ? Plainly, that in respect of character He was altogether different from them. Partaker of the same humanity as they, in Him, characteristically and exclusively, it was immaculate; and thus, even while He moved in the midst of sinners, and was come to “ seek and to save that which was lost,” His Spirit, in some sense, dwelt apart. Christ was morally perfect in all the parts of His constitution. His intellect was filled with pure and lofty thoughts. His conscience was true to the dictates of eternal rectitude--quick to discern the right, and bold and strong to choose and follow it. His heart was the home, alike of the mild, and the majestic, forms of feeling. His ears were ever wont to hearken to the plaint of sorrow. With a simplicity to which ostentation and art were strangers, His eyes were bedewed with tears for human wretchedness and sin, and anon lifted up in prayer to Heaven. His hands--how busy were they in the cause of goodness and of God! And even as, in the ark, the stony tablets of the law were kept, so in the soul of Jesus that good and: righteous law found a habitation and a home. Every class of virtues was nobly realised in Christ. 1. In Him the devotional virtues were perfect awed complete. Prayer was His recreation and delight. Even when “ it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” He gave Jehovah thanks (Luke 22:17; Luke 22:19). And “ truly,” His “ fellowship was with the Father.” 2. In Him too, the active virtues were gloriously displayed. The exclamation of His boyhood might serve as a general motto for His earthly history:--“ Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’ s business?” His aims were high, His heart was earnest, and His hand was busy. “ The work of Him that sent Him” was His regular, His uniform pursuit. He “ went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). 3. And in the passive virtues, how pre-eminently great was Jesus! How “ meek and lowly in heart” ! How calmly did He bear the abuse of man! How patiently did He submit to the hand of God! “ Abba, Father, not My will, but Thine be done,” “ The cup which My Father giveth Me, shall I not drink it?” were not only the memorable expressions of His tongue, but also the genuine spirit of His soul. It is indeed a glorious character, the character of Christ--fitter for a seraphic harp than for a human pea to celebrate. In His gentleness He was great, in His greatness He was gentle. Truly, He was “ the Lamb of God,” and yet “ the Lion of the tribe of Judah” John 1:29; Revelation 5:5). The moral glory of Divinity, and the perfect virtue of an unsullied human nature, met in Him. (A. S. Patterson.) Made higher than the heavens The transcendent majesty of Christ In what sense is Christ higher than the heavens? I. In a sense. Is not the painter greater than his painting; the engineer than his machine; the architect than his building; the author than his book? So Christ is higher than the heavens, because He created them. II. In a MORAL sense. The untold myriads of unfallen and redeemed spirits that populate those heavens are very good, very affluent in holy thoughts and Divine aspirations; but Christ, in goodness, is higher than them all. 1. Their goodness is derived. Christ’ s is original--His is the primal fount whence theirs flows; His the sun whence their radiance beams. 2. Their goodness is measurable. “ The Spirit is not given to Him by measure.” 3. Their goodness is contingent. Christ’ s is absolute. III. In a sense. He is in the midst of the throne. He is to all what the sun is to the planets--the centre round which they all revolve, and from which they all derive their life, strength, beauty radiance, joy. (Homilist.) . He offered up Himself The only offering for sin I. THE AND THE OFFERER. “ He offered up Himself.” I never knew any other priest do that. Priests under the law offer costly things; but they plunder the people for them. They do not even offer their own property, much less offer themselves. But here is the gracious, glorious High Priest of our profession who, because no other offering could be found suitable, and acceptable, and sufficient, offered Himself--“ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Oh, pause a moment over this precious offering, and note the voluntary manner in which it was offered--an offering adequate to the purpose for which it was intended. The other priests offered offerings, first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people--this glorious Priest found in the one offering of His own precious body and soul an adequate amount of merit for all the sins of all the election of grace, and presented it as such to God the Father. Pass on to mark that this offering, so valuable and perfect and acceptable to God the Father, is administered to the faith of God’ s elect by the Holy Ghost. It is expressly His work to plant faith in the heart of a poor, ruined sinner; which faith is to bring nothing, to find nothing in the creature, to come empty-handed, just to receive the application of blood Divine, by the Holy Ghost administered to personal experience; so that in the offering itself is found all that is adequate for the sinner’ s salvation, and redemption of the Church of God, in the Father’ s acceptance of it, a receipt in full of all demands for the whole Church, and in the Holy Spirit’ s ministry, the application of it to the hearts of all the election of grace. Now look at the offerer--“ He offered Himself.” It is the business of a priest to offer a sacrifice. He goes forth as our Priest, after the order of Melchisedec, to offer Himself a sacrifice acceptable unto God. 1. Here is, first of all affection. He so loved the Church that He gave Himself for it. The Father sends the Son, and the Son comes voluntarily. 2. Moreover there was affinity. Christ loved His Church as the apostle exhorts husbands to love their wives; as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might wash it, and cleanse it, and present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. 3. For one moment glance at the agony which this voluntary act involved. The whole amount of Divine wrath poured out like a cataract upon His soul--all the vengeance of stern justice waiting with its sword to smite Jehovah’ s fellow was felt when He bowed His head and died--all the curse of the law, like barbed arrows, penetrated His very soul. He endured all this for His Church. Go a little further, and you find Him typified under the Old Testament dispensation, and becoming Himself the fulfilment of all its types. Time would fail me here to enter largely upon them, but I will just mention the morning and evening lamb. Ages of offerings of the blood of animals never blotted out one sin--they only pointed to Christ--but the six hours of a precious Christ on the cross carried back a flood of atoning blood to Adam’ s day, and it rolled its tide forward to the end of time, that the whole election of grace might be for ever exonerated by that one offering. “ He hath obtained eternal redemption for us,” saith the apostle. I dwell upon that phrase with peculiar delight. “ Eternal.” Can you put a termination to it? It runs backward to the first transgressor, and it runs forward to the end of time, and then into eternity with its blessings. “ Eternal redemption.” “ Aye,” say you, “ that little word ‘ us,’ I dare not claim it.” Why not? “ Having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Who was it for? I want the appropriation put forth by you and me upon simple principles. How do you know that some poor slave, under a foreign yoke of tyranny, was redeemed? How would he know it himself? Why, in the first place, he would be thoroughly sick and tired of his chains; in the next place, he would know that the price has been paid for his ransom; and, in the third place, he would be set free; and when a man is set free he will not stay under the yoke of the tyrant any longer, he will be off to his own country. Now you and I may know it in the same manner. “ Having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Lay hold of it by faith, if God enables you, and go and plead it at the throne, and never fear losing it--it includes all the blessings of the gospel for time, all the fulness of the covenant for enriching the Church, and all the glories of heaven for everlasting possession. Well, this He did officially, relatively, not as a common-place sufferer, but under appointment, and, consequently, under responsibility. This He did as the covenant Head, in the name and on befall of His whole Church; and He did it openly in His life and death, before all worlds. II. THE OF THIS ONE . The apostle, in addressing the Colossians, tells them concerning these illustrious triumphs, that He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly on His cross, triumphing over them in it. The triumphs are vast and extensive, and they shall never be subdued. The first feature of these triumphs we see in new covenant terms of salvation met and fulfilled. Terms? say you. Yes, terms--not made with man, though, nor left to man. If they were, woe to the whole race of Adam. Away with all conditions and terms only as they belong to Christ. Still, there ale terms of salvation, and let me mark what they are. Why Jehovah says He will by no means clear the guilty; then if a man be saved at all his guilt must be cleared away, or there is no salvation for him, for God says He will by no means clear the guilty. Jesus met the terms, allowed the whole mass of guilt and transgression which pertained to His Church to be laid upon Him, and the Father Himself did it. “ The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Go on to mark that in these New Testament terms which are met there is another condition--“ without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” What a mercy that this is not left to you or me! Our glorious High Priest, who offered Himself, impart, His own life, His own nature and will, sends down His Holy Spirit, to take possession, of the souls of all for whom He bled, that they may stand complete in the holiness of God. Moreover, if I may mention a third term, I would say it is the being clad in a spotless, perfect, sinless righteousness for justification. Where is the man to get it? Hear what Jehovah, by His prophet Isaiah, says. The prophet was directed to set it down, that everything pertaining to the creature should wear out as a garment, and that the moth should eat up all creature excellencies; but, says God, “ My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation shall not be abolished.” That is an everlasting righteousness. Paul perfectly understood it, and blessedly appropriated it, when he said, “ That I might be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Again, His enemies are all vanquished, and an expiation accomplished in behalf of all His Church. “ O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will he thy destruction,” said He. “ He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.” The conquest of the heart is one of Jesu’ s triumphs. Moreover, the expiation coupled with it includes the whole Church of God. “ He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” Oh, the prospect is bright while Jesus is kept in view. Only let the Sun of Righteousness shine upon us, and our prospects for eternity must be brightened. Just pass on to observe that this glorious High Priest of our profession has opened His new and living way unto the throne of God for all that the Father gives into His hands, and will infallibly bring them all home to everlasting glory. III. THE OF EITHER OR MOCKING THIS ONE FOR SIN. I cannot possibly look for merit in the creature without believing ,hat the merit of Christ is not sufficient--without announcing, in that wry act, that I am not satisfied that Christ spoke the truth when He said, “ It is finished.” If it is finished, an eternal redemption is obtain d; any pretension to add to it is nothing less than a blasphemous insult to Christ. Negotiation with the Father is not attainable by any human power, but in and by this offering. “ No man cometh to the Father but by Me.” Go to the footstool of Divine mercy, guilt-burdened sinner, and name the blood and righteousness of Christ. Go and print the Father to His sufferings in Gethsemane and on Calvary. Go and tell what Christ has done perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and dare assert, under all the load of your guilt, “ Lord, I believe in the efficacy and power of that offering” ; and go on till you are enabled to say, “ I believe it was offered for me.” Then begins your peace and happiness. I pray you to mark, once more, that all our negotiations must be successful when the name, and merit, and righteousness of Jesus are pleaded. This leads me to the last, thought, that the trust and confidence of all the elect of God will be found placed there. (J. Irons.) Our Lord’ s offering Our fundamental conception of the offering of Him who ascended the cross of Calvary to die must be, that it was an offering of life, not of death. It began with the cross, with the moment when He was lifted on high out of the earth; and then, separated from all that was material, local, or limited, He was able to enter upon a spiritual, universal, and everlasting priesthood. Then, as One bearing, the sins of all who had committed, or should afterwards commit, themselves to Him in faith, He yielded up His own life, and theirs in His, as the penalty due to sin. For Himself and for the members of His body He accepted the sentence, “ The soul that sinneth shall die” ; while at the same time He bowed Himself in submission to the law so mysteriously linked with that sentence, that, as things are in a present world, it is only through death that we can conquer death and find the path to life. On the cross He gave Himself for us, the just for the unjust; so that when we think of Him as the Victim upon which our help is laid, and identify ourselves with Him by faith, we may see that in Him our sins are expiated, and that they no longer bar our admission to the Divine presence and favour. All this, however, was no more than the first stage of the offering made for us by our heavenly High Priest; and the mistake of many is to think that, as the offering was begun, so also it was finished on the cross. In reality, only the initial step was taken when Jesus died. As the blood, or in other words the life, of an animal sacrificed under the law was liberated in death, not merely that the offering might be completed, but that the true offering might be made by the sprinkling; so the blood, or in other words the life, of Christ was liberated on the cross, that His true offering might be made by the surrender of that life to God in a perpetual service of love, obedience, and praise. 1. The conception of Christ’ s priesthood as a heavenly priesthood, and of the life that He now leads in heaven as the consummation of His offering, alone gives us the accomplishment, and that too in their appropriate order, of everything that was involved in the separate offerings of the law. In the life now offered to the Father and before the Father’ s throne we see, not only the perfected Sin and Trespass, but the perfected Burnt and Peace-offerings. There the life won through death is surrendered into the Father’ s hands. There it burns in the never-ceasing devotion of love and praise. There it is passed in the enjoyment of a fellowship with God undisturbed and glorified. And thence it descends to all the members of the body, so that they find, in Him who gave and still gives Himself for them, reconciliation, union, nourishment for a heavenly service, and the comfort and joy of a heavenly feast. 2. As an offering of life Christ’ s offering is complete, embracing in its efficacy the whole life of man. In this respect the offerings of the law were necessarily incomplete, and so also must be the offering presented in any single act of the life of Christ. But when, as our High Priest and Representative, Jesus offers His life to God, that life covers every stage or department of our life. There is no part of our life in which, by the very fact that He lived a human life, the Redeemer of the world did not share. Must we labour? He laboured. Must we suffer? He suffered. Must we be tempted? He was tempted. Must we have at one time solitary hours, at another move in social circles? He spent hours alone upon the mountain top, and He mingled with His disciples as companions and friends. Must we die? He died. Must we rise from the grave? He rose from it on the third morning: Must we appear before the Judge of all? He appeared before Him who sent Him with the record of all that He had accomplished. Must we enter into eternity? Eternity is now passing over Him. More even than this has to be said; for our High Priest not only moved in every one of these scenes, He has also consecrated them all, and made them all a part of His offering in heaven. In each He was a conqueror, and the fruits of His conquest in each are made ours. 3. As an offering of life Christ’ s offering is everlasting. His life is presented continually to God; and in it the children of God, whose own it is made by faith, are kept consecrated for evermore. The efficacy of the legal offerings lasted for a time. This offering never ceases, and its efficacy never fails. 4. As an offering of life Christ’ s offering is made once for all, and cannot be repeated. It is simply impossible to repeat it, for we cannot repeat what has not been first brought to an end; and since the offering on the part of the eternal Son is His life. It follows that His offering must be as eternal as Himself. That offering of our Lord, then, which is the leading function of His priesthood, was only begun, and not completed, on the cross. It is going on still, and it will go on for ever, as the Divine and perfect sacrifice in which our great Representative and we in Him attain the end of all religion, whether natural or revealed, as that sacrifice in which we are made one with His Father and our Father, with His God and our God. (W. Milligan, D. D.) The Son, who is consecrated for evermore.--He giveth a special reason why it beseemeth not us under the gospel to have a sinful man for our priest, because ibis is the very difference betwixt the law and the gospel. 1. The law maketh men which have infirmities high priests; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, and none but the Son, who is consecrated for evermore. 2. He maketh the difference of the law and the gospel to stand amongst other things in the difference of priests, so as the gospel cannot admit such priests as the law admitted. 3. The differences, as the apostle setteth them down here, are (1) The course taken about priests under the law was alterable, they were made without an oath, the lawgiver declaring it to be his will to change that course when he saw fit; but the course taken about the priests -f the New Testament is with an oath, and so cannot be changed. (2) The next difference he maketh this: The law admitteth men in the plural number, a plurality of priests; but the gospel admitteth no plurality of priests, but the Son only to be priest. Melchisedec’ s order in the type hath no priest but one in it, without a suffragan or substituted priest. Therefore Christ, the true Melchisedec, is alone in His priesthood, without partner or deputy or suffragan. Then, to make plurality of priests in the gospel is to alter the order of Melchisedec, and to renounce the mark set betwixt the law and the gospel, 3. The third difference: The law maketh men priests; but the evangelical oath maketh the Son of God priest for the gospel. Then, to make a man priest now is to mar the Son of God’ s privilege, to whom the privilege only belongeth. 4. The fourth difference: The law maketh such priests as have infirmity; that is, sinful men. But the evangelical oath maketh the Son, who is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God, through Him. Then to make a sinful and weak man a priest now is to weaken the priesthood of the gospel, and make it like the law. 5. The fifth difference: The law maketh men priests which have infirmities over whom death had power, that they could not be censer, rated but for their sliest life time. But the evangelical oath maketh the Son, whom the sorrows of death could not hold, and hath consecrated Him for evermore. Then as long as Christ’ s consecration lasteth, none must meddle with His office. 6. The last difference: The law instituting priests was not God’ s last will, but might suffer addition. But the evangelical oath is since the law, and God’ s last and unchangeable will. Therefore to add unto it and bring in as many priests now as did serve in the temple of old, is to provoke God to add as many plagues as are written in God’ s book upon themselves and their priests also. (D. Dickson, M. A.) Hebrews 8:1 We have such an High Priest.Our great High Priest You can hardly fail to observe the tone of triumph of St. Paul in giving his summary; in announcing it as an established fact, that we have such an High Priest, a High Priest such as had been described--“ holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” He speaks as though nothing more could be needed, nothing more wished. Now then, as a preliminary view of this summary of the apostle, you will all admit that in speaking of our High Priest, St. Paul is evidently to be understood as speaking of a mighty Friend or Supporter. He is manifestly anxious to magnify this High Priest, that he may possess us with an exalted opinion of His greatness and His goodness. Yet we are not for a moment to think it implied that salvation is not a difficult thing, requiring effort, exertion, and sacrifice. In a preceding chapter St. Paul had said: “ Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” Though he here describes the same blessed truths, as in the summary of our text, he evidently indicates that we are in danger of letting go our profession through the greatness of the struggle needed for maintaining it. Thus you should set before yourselves the privilege of the Christi, n in treat his cause has been undertaken by a Being “ who is able to save to the uttermost” : and at the same time the duty of the Christian, in that he must labour with all his might at a task which is both difficult and dangerous. And we are to labour at this difficult and dangerous task on the very account that “ we have such an High Priest,” that our cause, that is, is in hands which are certain to make it prevail, Without a Mediator, repentance, even if it; might have been genuine, must have been unavailing; whereas, with a Mediator, repentance wrought in us by God’ s Spirit, may be made the condition of our admission into God’ s kingdom. Without a Mediator prayer, even if from the heart, could have brought down no blessing from above; whereas with a Mediator prayer has only to be the prayer of faith, and it will prevail with our Father in heaven. Without a Mediator the effort to keep God’ s commandments, even if made with all diligence and sincerity, could have done nothing towards removing us from under the curse; whereas with a Mediator, our imperfect obedience, though void of any merit what ever, can be graciously accepted as a proof and token of faith, and noted by God, who out of His exuberant mercy designs to “ reward every man according to his works.” He taut in any measure or sense trusts in his own strength, or leans on his own righteousness, as truly depends on a broken reed, now that Christ hath died ,or him, as though no Mediator had risen to make atonement; but Christ, as we have already said, puts us into a new state or condition, not a state in which we may be saved without labour, but a state in which labour may end in our being saved. He “ opened to us the kingdom of heaven,” that kingdom which without Him would have remained for ever closed against the fallen and the feeble; but to open the kingdom, is not the same thing as to put us into the kingdom without any effort of our own. It is rather to encourage us to exertion, which, manifestly of no avail while the everlasting doors are firmly barred against us, may be graciously crowned with success when the bars have been removed by the Redeemer. Therefore, the whole power of the gospel, so far as motive is concerned, is against indolence and indifference, and on the side of energy and endeavour. Seeing that Christ hath been crucified, let us crucify ourselves; it would be of no avail striving to mortify the flesh whilst hell yawned for us and could not be escaped. Seeing that Christ hath died for sin, let us labour to die to sin. It is not a useless labour now, but it was till heaven had been opened, for which holiness makes fitness. Seeing that Christ pleads for us, let us be fervent in pleading for ourselves. Prayer can now be heard and answered, though it could not have been except as presented through an all-powerful Intercessor. Now, hitherto we have only treated the apostle’ s summary as bearing generally on the fact, that the scheme of the gospel is so constructed as to urge us to endeavour, rather than to encourage us in inactivity. We will now, however, take a different view of the case. We will consider it as addressed simply to believers, constructed for the comfort and encouragement of those, who, in the midst of a troubled and sinful world, may be tempted to let go their Christian profession, despairing of being able to persevere to the end. There are two great points, or facts, upon which the apostle fastens as making up the sum of all that he had advanced. First, “ we have such an High Priest” ; such an one as had been described in the foregoing chapter--“ holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners, who being made perfect, became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey.” The apostle speaks of Christ as still being a High Priest. He uses the present tense, and thus he reminds us that the priestly office was not completed or laid aside when the Mediator had offered up Himself, but that it still continues to be discharged, and will be so while the church is in any danger of letting go her profession. And this is a truth which is full of comfort to the Christian. There is an unlimited difference to him between” we have had an High Priest,” and “ we have an High Priest.” What more of encouragement can we desire, what more of assurance of final victory, now that we are able to wind up all discussion upon the Christian scheme, in the words of our text--“ Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have,” not we have had, but we have--we still “ have such an High Priest.” Now we turn to the second point adduced by the apostle, and this relates to the present residence of the High Priest, who, according to St. Paul, is “ set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” And the tone, as we before said, in which he gives his summary would seem to indicate that the fact of Christ having passed into heaven is one which should fill us with gladness and confidence. If that residence in the heavens prove to me that Christ prevailed in the great work which He undertook, and that because He thus prevailed all power has been given unto Him in heaven and in earth, what better reason can I have for adherence to Christianity? It is no “ cunningly devised fable” which I follow, if indeed the Redeemer be thus “ on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” It is on no doubtful aid that I rely, it is no uncertain Advocate with whom I trust my cause, if He who died upon the cross hath been exalted to the throne. What want can there be for which He has not a supply? what sorrow for which He has not a solace? what sin for which He has not an expiation? what temptation which He cannot enable me to resist? or what enemy which He cannot strengthen me to overcome? Shall we, then, let go our profession? Shall we shrink at the approach of danger? Shall we play the coward and the recreant, because of persecution, distress, contumely, and difficulty? Nay, this were to desert a Leader, of whom we have every possible assurance, that no friend can trust Him and not be finally more than a conqueror--no foe resist Him, and not be finally crushed. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The great possession I. THE REALITY OF THE FACT. “ We have such an High Priest.” It is not a matter of useless desire or of future hope, but of present accomplished possession. The truth exists indeed in the unseen world, and is not at present visible to sight, as it will be hereafter. Hereafter the very eyes shall take cognisance of the fact, when forth from the holy of holies, the immediate presence of God, the great High Priest shall come to be manifested before the eyes of an astonished world. But why is that time delayed? Why lingers the great High Priest within the heavenly sanctuary? The answer is, that He waits till the number of the elect shall be completed, and the intercession which He for ever lives to make for His people shall be no longer necessary, when, His people being gathered safely in the last veil shall be for ever removed from between them end the full sight of God. Our High Priest still ministers for us till then. II. THE OF THE PERSON, AND OF THE OFFICE HE FULFILS. “ We have such an High Priest” --not many, but one--one, and only one, so absolutely alone, that it is blasphemy to arrogate any part of His work. But will Christ be Priest for ever? This the apostle notices. Yes, for He liveth in “ the power of an endless life,” and needs no successor. III. THE OF THE OF CHRIST, AND THE OF HIM WHO FULFILS IT. “ We have such an High Priest.” Turn back to the preceding chapter, and you will find that the apostle enumerates beauty after beauty in Christ, as if he were gathering together a cluster of jewels to deck His crown of glory. It is singular, when we read the passage carefully, how we find it crowded with insignia of honour. In human priests, if the most extravagant claims were admitted, It would yet be true that the dignity is only in the office, and not in the men. But when we turn to the true High Priest, how different it is! Here is not only the glory of the office, but the glory of the Person, infinitely qualified in His Deity, to stand between the justice of God and the whole human race. He is no mere dying man like an earthly priest, but clothed with “ the power of an endless life.” He was not made after the law of a carnal commandment, but made after the oath of God Himself, “ a High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.” He has not entered into the “ tabernacle made with hands, with the blood of bulls and goats,” but with “ His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” He is not one among many, like earthly priests, but is alone in His own single and unequalled majesty, “ the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” He does not fill a delegated office, like earthly priests, but fulfils His own office, and that so perfectly that He “ is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” He needs not daily, as earthly priests, to seek forgiveness for His own sins, but is “ holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” He does not minister afar off from God, like earthly priests, but is already “ made higher than the heavens,” and at the right hand of His Father pleads evermore for us. He needs not to repeat His daily offerings, as earthly priests, but has made atonement once, “ when He offered up Himself.” And, lastly, He has no infirmity, like earthly priests, but is the Son of God, Himself God, blessed for evermore--omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infinite! Who perfect as He? and what wonder that, thus perfect, He should govern as well as atone?-not only Priest, but King,--nay, bearing on His head the triple crown of glory--Prophet, Priest, King. (E. Garbett, M. A.) The enthroned servant Christ We have here two strikingly different representations of our Lord’ s heavenly state. In the one He is regarded as seated “ on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty.” In the other He is regarded as being, notwithstanding that session, “ a minister of the sanctuary” ; performing priestly functions there. Reigning He serves; serving He reigns. I. THE SEATED CHRIST. “ We have a High Priest who” --to translate a little more closely--“ has taken His seat on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” If we translate the symbol into colder words, it means that deep repose, which, like the Divine rest after creation, is not for recuperation of exhausted powers, but is the sign of an accomplished purpose and achieved task, a share in the sovereignty of heaven, and the wielding of the energies of Deity--rest, royalty, and power belong now to the Man sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. II. THE SERVANT CHRIST. “ A minister of the sanctuary,” says my text. The glorified Christ is a ministering Christ. In us, on us, for us He works, in all the activities of His exalted repose, as truly and more mightily than He did when here lie helped the weaknesses and healed the sicknesses, and soothed the sorrows and supplied the wants, and washed the feet of a handful of poor men. He has gone up on high, but in His rest He works. He is on the throne, but in His royalty He serves. III. THE LESSONS OF SUCH AS THESE. They have a bearing on the three categories of past, present, future. 1. For the past a seal For what can be greater, what can afford a firmer foundation for us sinful men to rest our confidence upon than the death of which the recompense was that the Man who died sits on the throne of the universe? 2. A strength for the present. I know of nothing that is mighty enough to draw men’ s desires and fix solid reasonable thought and love upon that awful future, except the better that Christ is there. But with Christ in the heavens the heavens become the home of our hearts. See Christ, and He interprets, dwindles, and yet ennobles the world and life. 3. A prophecy for the future. There is the measure of the possibilities of human nature. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The crowning point: Christ the High Priest in heaven The Lord Jesus is our High Priest in heaven. These simple but majestic and weighty words sum up the teaching of the first eight chapters of our epistle. This is the crowning-point of the apostle’ s profound and massive argument, Jesus, who suffered and died, is consecrated the priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, after the power of an endless life. He is the minister of the heavenly sanctuary and the true tabernacle In no other portion of the new covenant Scriptures is the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus explained. Hence in this precious and most essential epistle, more than in any other book, stress is laid upon the ascension rather than the resurrection, and upon the tact that Jesus is in heaven. The object of this epistle was to comfort and also to exhort the Jews, whose faith was sorely tried because they were excluded from the services of the temple in Jerusalem; to confirm unto them the great truth, that they had the reality of those things which were only temporary and signs, and that the real sanctuary was not upon earth but high in the heavens, and that Jesus had gone to be the minister of the holy things, and of the true and substantial tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. It is because the Son of man, who came down from heaven, hath ascended up into heaven, it is because Jesus is at the right band of God, that He is the true and perfect mediator between God and man. From His throne in heaven Be gives repentance and the remission of sins; from thence He gives unto His Church all needful gifts, even as He at first sent forth the Holy Ghost because He had been exalted by the right hand of God. From heaven He shall descend and gather His saints, changing their vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body; from heaven He worketh now, and will work, until He hath subdued all things unto Himself. If Christ is in heaven, we must lift up our eyes and hearts to heaven. There are things above. The things above are the spiritual blessings in heavenly places. “ Seek those things which are above” ; faith and love, hope and patience, meekness, righteousness, and strength. The things above are also the future things for which we wait, seeing that our inheritance is not here upon earth. All that is pertaining unto the inheritance “ incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,” belongs unto those things which Christ has now to minister in the tabernacle which God has made and not man. Our transfigured body, our perfectly enlightened mind, our soul entirely filled with the love of God, all the strength and gifts for government (for we shall be called to reign with Christ upon the ear h), all those powers and blessings which we have now only by faith and in germ, are in the heavenly places with Christ, who shall bring them to us when He comes again at the command of the Father. (A. Saphir.) Hebrews 8:2 The true tabernacle The true tabernacle I. IT HAS A DIVINE . The soul is in the body, animating and controlling it, and revealing itself in it; so God is in the good--the true Church. II. IT HAS A DIVINE . 1. He formed the plan, and a wonderful plan it is, stretching over ages, and involving the agencies of heaven, earth, and hell. 2. He laid the foundations (Isaiah 28:16). 3. He prepares the materials. Digs each stove out of the quarry of depravity, hews it, polishes, makes it suitable for a place m the building. 4. He builds the materials together. III. IT HAS A DIVINE 1. A Deliverer. 2. A Leader. 3. An Educator. (Homilist.) The true tabernacle Here the contrast is not so much that of law and gospel, of grace and works, as in other epistles; the contrast is between the earthly and temporary and the heavenly and eternal. While the temple was still in existence, it was difficult for the Hebrews to understand the heavenly character of their calling and worship.. The apostle shows that Jesus is High Priest in heaven, and that therefore ours is a heavenly sanctuary, where all is substance, and possessed of an eternal vitality and glory. He is the minister of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. This tabernacle is contrasted with the tabernacle in the wilderness. It is “ true,” in the sense in which Jesus says, “ I am the true vine” ; that is, the real and substantial vine, of which the outward and visible vines are merely emblems. In the second place, this tabernacle was made, not with hands, and not through the mediation of human beings, as was the tabernacle in the wilderness; but it was made by God Himself. And, in the third place, this tabernacle is not a tent in the wilderness, but it is an abiding place in the heavenlies, there to be for ever. The tabernacle is one of the most important and instructive types. 1. In the first place, the tabernacle is a type, a visible illustration, of that heavenly place in which God has His dwelling. 2. In the second place, the tabernacle is a type of Jesus Christ, who is the meeting-place between God and man. 3. And, in the third place, the tabernacle is a type of Christ in the Church--of the communion of Jesus with all believers. The tabernacle presented wonderful truths to Israel. In the sacrifices and ordinances of the tabernacle God declared unto His people the forgiveness of their sins: He brought them near unto Himself through expiation and mediation; He healed their diseases and comforted their hearts. But the ultimate object in all this was to reveal Himself, to manifest His Divine perfection, to show forth His glory. Everywhere the twofold object was accomplished, the need of sinful, guilty, and failing man was supplied, and in this very grace the character and glory of Jehovah was revealed. Thus, as in Christ crucified we possess all we need, and behold all the thoughts and purposes of God, so in the tabernacle the believing Israelite, receiving pardon and help, was taught to exclaim, “ Who is a God like unto Thee?” The tabernacle was a symbol of God’ s dwelling. There is a sanctuary, wherein is the especial residence and manifestation of the glorious presence of God. The throne, from which He issues His royal law and the declaration of His sovereign grace, is between the cherubim, a symbol of the heavenly throne of Divine majesty. “ The temple of Thy holiness,” is the name both of the earthly and heavenly sanctuary. God, who dwells in heaven, and from His heavenly throne dispenses all blessings, manifests Himself on earth and holds communion with His people, and the place or sanctuary chosen for this purpose is a symbol of heaven, and there subsists a real connection between the celestial archetype and the earthly image. When Jacob awoke out of his sleep, in which the Lord appeared unto him, he said, “ This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” In the sublime prayer of dedication, Solomon constantly expresses the same thought. But the tabernacle is, secondly, a type of the Lord Jesus Himself. For it is in Him that God dwells with us; in Him dwells the fulness of Godhead bodily, that we dwelling in Him should have communion with the Father. See the fulfilment of the type in the first place in the Incarnation. “ A body hast Thou prepared for Me.” He dwelt in the midst of us even as the tabernacle was in the midst of the people. And as that tent, although it was made of materials which were common and earthly, was irradiated and sanctified by the indwelling glory of the Lord so although He was born of the Virgin Mary, and was in every respect like unto His brethren, and was found in fashion as a man, yet is the humanity of Jesus called that holy thing, for it is the tabernacle in which was beheld the glory of the Only-begotten. It was by a gradual development that Jesus became the true tabernacle. First, by His Incarnation. The tabernacle was pitched of God, and not of man. The Holy Ghost came upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her. Then Jesus, in His holy humanity, in His perfect walk of obedience, in His words and works, manifested the Father: God was with Him: the Father was in Him; the glory of the Only-begotten shone through His body of humiliation. Then, by His death on the cross, the holy place became, as it were, the holy of holies; the veil being rent, all that separated God from sinners was removed according to righteousness. Then, by His resurrection and ascension, He actually entered in--as our representative for us, and, so to say, with us. It is difficult to combine all the aspects of Christ, who is Sanctuary, Priest, Sacrifice; but the more we dwell on Him as the One who is all, the more fully are our hearts established. Behold Him, then, as the tabernacle where all sacred things arc laid up. All that was in the tabernacle is in Him. He is the true Light, the true Bread of the countenance, the true Incense of intercession, with which our prayers and offerings come before God. All spiritual blessings in heavenly places are in Christ. But the tabernacle has yet a third aspect. There God and His people meet. God now dwells in His saints by His Spirit, whereby they become an holy temple unto Him. We are builded together in Him (Christ) for an habitation of God through the Spirit. We are, according to the testimony of another apostle, a spiritual house, in which sacrifices and offerings of thanksgiving and obedience are continually brought unto God. In this chosen Temple God has His rest and His joy. This is the glorious gospel: God in Christ, we in Christ, Christ in us. Thus we have seen that the tabernacle was a picture of heaven, a type of Christ Jesus, and of Christ Jesus in the saints. And therefore, when Jesus Christ comes again with His saints, it will be said, “ Lo, the tabernacle of God with men.” True, there is a locality where Christ and His saints have their abode. But the glory and substance of that heavenly place in the Lord Jesus, one with the saints. (A Saphir.) Hebrews 8:3 If He were on earth, Be should not be a priest Jesus’ limitations, His power and glory The fact which the writer of the Epistle here cites, bears witness to the truth that there will be earthly aspects of limitation to the character of Christ, and tells us how they are to be looked at, so as to lead to His ultimate elevation. Jesus is always falling short of men’ s ideal. There arose the ideal of the ascetic: that was the holiest, the best, the noblest life, to men’ s minds; and that man whose life was open to all the influences of His fellow-men, that man who was reproached by the malicious distortions of enemies as a glutton and winebibber, could no more fit that character than He could that of the sacrificing priest of the ancient temple. The time of chivalry and of crusades exalted the warrior; and He who sent forth His disciples without sword, and healed the ear of Malchus, was no figure to vie with the bold knights in their valorous reputations, any more than the plain garments of the humble Galilean could shine beside the imposing vestments of Jewish priests. Or, some down to modern days, and take the standards of any class in life to-day. The scientific thinker asks for facts, for analysis, for knowledge of the structure of earth and heaven: and those beautiful parables and wonderful miracles enter into no such details; and Jesus in a scientific assembly to-day would be as completely out of place as He would have been beside the high priest in the holy of holies. And the business, the commercial, ideal of life, does not look for its leader to Him who said, “ Lend, hoping for nothing again,” and “ Take no thought for the morrow,” any more than priest and Levite consulted Christ as to the best mode of offering sacrifices. Polities and society would find it equally impossible to discover their ideal in Him who originated no new system of Government, and associated always with the lowly. The words of Isaiah’ s prophecy have a real meaning: “ And when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” All this causes difficulty. We need not inveigh against the earnestness of pursuits which have erected such ideals, any more than this writer found it necessary to heap reproaches on the Jewish system of priesthood because it found no place for Christ within it. Would Jesus lead the life of the modern clergyman to-day? is the taunt which, from the outsider, may be thrown at the preaching of His gospel. Better than to answer it by asking whether He would find it possible to lead the life of the modern merchant, or statesman, or scholar, better is it for all of us to recognize that He would lead the life of no one of us. No forms or modes of action, which we find it necessary to observe, could hold the power of Divine life, any more than the life of an ordinary Jewish priest, God-ordained as he was, could be the measure of the life of the Saviour of the world. And as we say that, we reach the ground of the solution which is given to this difficulty. Jesus was not a priest of the old covenant, because He was the Mediator of a new and better covenant, He was not a priest in descent from Aaron, because He was a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. The limitations of Jesus are His glory; the fact that He does not claim any of these ideals of earthly greatness is because He sets up a greater ideal, to which they all belong. We can find an illustration in our common life. A king steps down among his people; he mingles with them, and sees them at their work. And there is not one of those workmen that cannot do something better than he can. If they should bring their difficulties of work to him, he could not answer one of them; he fulfils the ideal of no one of their positions. And yet all those interests are his, and are strong and healthy through his power and character. His kingly character remains untouched by the superiority of any one of those who are eminent in their departments, and the carelessness and scorn of some man who thinks a man no king who does not know his secrets, never moves his mien of royal dignity. The lifting-up of every one of those subjects to the higher conception of the nation over which he rules, is a work truly his as no mechanical knowledge or minute practice can ever be. Such was Christ’ s position as king; and so He stands far above, though never apart from, every standard of human attainment. He helps every one of them, as He brings them all into connection with the very centre of life. He set forth for ever the truth, that the life of the lower is to be found in the higher. Low and compromised mortal life comes from narrow views; from fixing our minds on some immediate object, and making that the measure of all our existence. He who sees such an object only as a part of something greater is the man who will cease sacrificing nobleness of character and purity of life, which are treasures that will lash to eternity, for ends that must be limited and transient. Is not that precisely the kind of assistance which we need? We men must be priests in our own temples, and we are made to aspire to the highest places in the region of life where God has placed us. That earnestness, as it limits our sight, may be destroying our character and hope of eternal life. We plead as an excuse that we are doing our best, and cannot be expected to see the full Divine meaning of all our work. But when that is showed to us, when, through such a life as that of Jesus, we see that our little pursuit is not the end of our being, then with that revelation goodness stands forth as a real power in life, and we hold to it in spite of every sacrifice for which it may call, in the name and spirit of Him who has thus consecrated it for us. Our pursuit shall still be vigorous and successful; but, by connection with Him, character, too, shall be purified and elevated by it. That is one advantage of Christ’ s position outside of our special pursuits. We find another in the way in which it draws us all together. He is for all, because no special pursuit causes Him to belong specially to any. Is not the way that Christian worship calls us together, men, women, and children, without distinction, a part of Christ’ s greatest blessing in telling us of our manhood which is beneath all our pursuits and greater than them all? We all come from our different pursuits; but it is the same take of mingled joy and sorrow, success and discouragement, struggle and triumph, sin and holiness, which we bring. It is the same word of love, forgiveness, hope, and strength that we want to hear. The bands of life are strengthened in the presence of Him who belongs to us all. We feel the influence in deepened friendship, widened sympathy, enriched family feeling. It will be harder for our variety of pursuits to separate us when in truth we recognise our relation to Him who is the common Lord and Saviour of us all. (Arthur Brooks.) Hebrews 8:5 According to the pattern shewed to thee Plan and pattern and purpose Moses, when he went down from God on Sinai, knew what he was going to build, and how he was going to build it. The thought of a thing, the conception of it, is its first and largest half. It is easier to pour in the molten iron than to make in the sand the mould into which it is to be poured. I want, first, to say something generally about plan and pattern and purpose. As I look through Scripture I discover that the men who did the best work and the most of it first wrought out in thought what they were afterwards going to work out in act and word. The Creator Himself wrought out first His creative designs. In that sense the world is as old as God. When at the end of the first week He said “ All very good,” He meant that things had now become in fact what they had first and for ever been in idea. Nothing, perhaps, comes nearer God’ s workmanship in this respect than art; hence our ha it of speaking of the creations of art. The modern architect, like the one on Sinai, sees the building he is going to construct before the timber has been cut or the ground broken. Gerard von Rile, six hundred years ago, saw the cathedral which has just been completed at Cologne. Slowly since the year 1200, German artisans have been copying into stone Von Rile’ s thought, working from his plan, and the cathedral is perfect to-day because it was perfect then. All that God does is in prosecution of a plan, an eternal idea come to utterance. The tree ripens to the grade of a purpose that was ripe before the tree, and before the third day. It is all one whether we say that the plan is deposited in the seed, or that God builds the plant each moment against the pattern of His thought, as the mason lays bricks close to the plumb-line. It all sums up into the same result. With such examples of pattern and purpose before us, I want to go on and say that there are at least three advantages that come from having a plan in our life and work, and working and living from that plan. 1. One is, that in an open field and with a long prospect our purposes will lay themselves out in a larger and wiser proportion than when framed at close quarters and at the dictation of momentary impulse. The captain brings his ship to Liverpool in less time by having the whole course settled at the outset than by settling a little of it every day. A man’ s longest purposes will be his best purposes. Immediate results are meagre results. The men who are doing most for their own day are such as are working toward an aim that is a score or a century of years away. In the days of American slavery the poor fugitive reached liberty by walking towards the stars. 2. Not only shall we think wiser and grander purposes when we mature them in advance; there is also a solidifying and invigorating power in a long purpose clearly defined. You can generally tell from a man’ s gait whether he has a purpose. Plan intensities. Pursuance of a purpose makes our life solid and consecutive. Plan concentrates energies as a burning-glass does sunbeams. We cannot do to-morrow’ s work to-day, but we can have to-day’ s work shaped and but ressed by what we are intending to do to-morrow. In a life which has meaning in it, past and future sustain each other. 3. Then, in the next place, knowing with definiteness what we are attempting to do is a moral safeguard. Purposelessness is the fruitful toothier of crime. When men live only in conference with circumstances lying next them, they lose their bearings. A drifting boat always drifts down-stream. Young aimlessness is the seminary of old iniquity. Out of 904 convicts received at the Michigan State in the three years ending 1880. 822 (91 per cent.) were unskilled labourers--prison had never been taught how to work. Such facts challenge the attention of the Church as well as of the political economists. Character, purpose, and apprenticeship will never get far apart from each other, whether among immigrants or native population. But Moses not only approached his work with a purpose and a pattern, but brought down his pattern from on high. This teaches that there are celestial ways of doing earthly, things, and that human success consists in getting into the secrecies of God’ s mind and working in the direction o! His method. Human success is a quotation from overhead. Men are enriched with presentiments of the way God would work if placed in our stead. These presentiments we call ideals. We discover, not invent, them. “ In the mount” we reach after them and ascend to them. They are a continuous firmament that overarches us, but a clouded firmament that yields itself to us only in broken hints. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Character-building according to pattern All of us are builders--builders for time and for eternity. The building of the sacred edifice of character, which is to be a holy temple for God to dwell in; the raising of the stately structure of a lifework which shall be enduring as the years of God; the laying of secure foundations for that heavenly home in which we all hope to dwell--these are the high and heaven-appointed employments of our earthly years. I. THE DIVINE PATTERN IS GIVEN TO US ALL. Not blindly nor ignorantly do we pursue our life vocation. Up into the mount of privilege God calls each of us, and there reveals the heavenly pattern of our life work. The yearning of all true hearts to hear the voice of God and to know His thought and will concerning us is fully met in these Divine revealings. What are these holy heights where God reveals to you the heavenly plan according to which you are to build? 1. The mount of Divine illumination, where cons, fence sits enthroned, and utters her authoritative voice as she summons you to her tribunal. That voice of warning and restraint, of persuasion and guidance, is often heard above the Babel of earthly voices that press their urgent pleas. That voice, sanctioning the right, condemning the wrong, is God’ s own call to a life of fidelity to Him. 2. There is also the mount of Divine revelation through the inspired word. In the pages of Bonier and Virgil, of Shakespeare and Milton, you are invited to the mount of communion with these illustrious men. Great, indeed, is that privilege. You live in their immediate presence; you breathe the atmosphere which surrounded them; you listen to their voices; you think their thoughts, and learn the priceless lessons garnered from their lives. In the Bible you are permitted to commune with the eternal God, to hear His voice as certainly as Moses heard it on the quaking mount. And here God reveals to each of us His own plan for all our earthly building and work. The plan reveal d is set before us with sufficient distinctness, completeness, and fulness of detail. It is given to us not only in doctrine and in precept, but it is clearly illustrated in the histories and biographies with which the sacred book abound, and which, as their subjects follow or disregard the Divine direction, always secure or miss life’ s highest good; and thus, in a peculiar sense, they serve as “ guides” or “guards” to us who are favoured with the inspired record of their successes and failures. 3. But in a preeminent sense is the pattern revealed to us on ,he mount of Divine manifestation. Moses saw only in vision the plan of the tabernacle which be was to build, but we, more privileged than was he, are permitted to behold the glorious pattern which we are to follow, clothed in concrete and tangible form, taking on our own humanity, standing before our ravished eyes incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ. Looking at this incarnation of truth, purity, duly, sacrifice, and love, we hear the heavenly voice calling to us, “ See that thou make all things according to” this “ pattern showed to thee” in this most sacred mount of Divine manifestation. 4. There are also given to us all seasons of special revelation, times when the height to which we are lifted is greater, and earth with its blinding atmosphere seems farther removed--its strife and clamour more faint and ineffectual--while God’ s voice sounds clearer, and the heavenly vision is brighter. There are times when the soul seems more susceptible of good influences, and the powers of evil relax their grasp, and tender memories steal in upon the mind, and the thoughts of another’ s love, and a lather’ s prayers, and a teacher’ s counsels, and a Saviour’ s sympathy, and the Spirit’ s gentle wooings, hold the entire being for one supreme hour under their hallowing spell. Cherish these favoured seasons. As travellers in mountainous regions, climbing to some high eminence where the glories of the entrancing view ravish the soul, carry the glorious vision with them, through all the future years of life; so take with you these clearest visions of the heavenly pattern, these best thoughts and holiest purposes and lofty ideals, down into the lowest valley of temptation and strife. II. THE DIVINE PATTERN MUST BE IN ORDER TO A TRUE AND LIFE. 1. Let it be kept in mind that this is God’ s plan for your life-work. God’ s ideal life for you. Whether a life-pattern coming to us from such a source is worth our acceptance, whether it can be rejected or neglected without wreck of all worthy hopes, none but a madman can ever pause to question. Once let the thought that God’ s ideal of your life has been really revealed to you actually possess the mind, with all its legitimate force, and nothing can prevent your yielding to its sway. Henceforth, your fife has a significance in it which belongs to nothing merely human; it is a Divine thing; it is God’ s propose and God’ s thought taking on a human form incarnated in you. You think God’ s thoughts, you utter His words, you crystallize His will into actual deeds; you project into this needy and sinful world of humanity a life that is heaven planned and heaven-inspired, the copy of a Divine ideal given to you by the Almighty World-Builder. 2. All the lessons from analogy teach us the majesty of Divine law--the penalty of violating, and the profit of obeying, its behests. See everywhere in nature a perfect adjustment of part to complementary part, an adaptation of means to ends. Everything shows purpose and plan. Law reigns; order and harmony are the universal resultants. Attempt to disregard one of the laws which God has ordained, and you pay the penalty. Despise or forget the law of gravitation; step from the roof of a house or the edge of a precipice as though the air were like the solid pavement for your feet, and, quickly dashed to the ground below, your mutilated body attests the foolhardiness of your lawless act. What have you done but violated God’ s order--set aside His laws? Can you, then, disregard no single part of His plan, in nature, without peril, and yet expect to set at naught His entire plan for the government of your life with immunity from evil consequences? 3. And this Divine pattern must be followed in its completeness and comprehensiveness, with all its particularity of detail. Three perils lie in ambush, even for those who, with more or less strength of purpose, regard themselves as accepting the revealed plan for their life-building. The first is the peril of accepting it in part, but not in its completeness; the second is that of accepting it theoretically, but rejecting it practically; the third is the peril of accepting it for a time, but abandoning it before the life-work is completed. (C. H. Payne, D. D.) Our hours of vision I. There comes to us all TIMES OF INSIGHT, of moral elevation, yes, of inspiration, when in a special way our spirits are touched by the spirit of truth and goodness--times when we are, so to speak, upon the mount, and see heavenly only things clearly, and a higher pattern of life is shown to us. These hours of vision may be associated with the utmost variety of circumstances giving occasion to them. It may be simply interruption of our ordinary work. We have been going on from day to day in the regular customary routine. Each day has been so filled with its multiplicity or engagements, its interests, its distraction, its pleasures, its annoyances, as to leave little leisure and less inclination for that quiet and serious thought in which we seek to see life steadily, and see it whole. We need to stand a little back from it, as an artist has to do to judge of the effect of the picture he is painting. And sometimes God compels a man to stand aside and look upon his life and his work from a little distance. He takes him apart from the multitude that He may open his ears to voices that cannot be heard amid the bustle of the crowd. In the confinement of his chamber his spirit chafes at first as he thinks of the great tide of men with eager interests which flows every morning citywards and ebbs at evening, and of all the busy life from which he is excluded; by-and-by a change has come over his spirit--the roar of that loud stunning ride sounds faint and far off; his interest in it has become strangely weakened; other visions are opening out before his mind; he is seeing deeper than the surface stir and bustle of life, its ambitions and its rivalries, into the meaning of life itself, its possibilities and its purpose. He is learning to see things in their true proportions, and is waking up to the discovery that he has been exaggerating terribly certain aspects of them. A diviner pattern of life is being shown to him--an ideal higher in its aims, its methods, and its motives; and when he comes back to take up again among men his daily tasks, surely it is with an earnest purpose to make all things according to the nobler pattern that has been shown him. But there are experiences tending towards similar results that enter much more frequently into life than such as that. To all men, and most of all to those who have youth and hope on their side, a period of leisure and recreation and contact with nature is not more a rest than an inspiration, a time of sanguine and earnest forecasting of the future, a time of forming of plans and contemplating ideals, of storing up impulse and stimulus, of girding up the loins of the mind with strenuous self-denying purpose. There are other times-sadder times--which have worked to the same effect: hours, not of elevation, but of deep depression, when we saw things after the pattern of the heavenly. It may have been an hour of stern self-rebuke, of humiliation and shame, when conscience justly scourged and spared not, or when you felt yourself baffled and helpless in the presence of a great perplexity; or the day you came back from standing beside a new-filled grave, and realised that the world was emptier and poorer than it had been a week before. Men looking up from deep places, it is said, see stars at noon-day; and sometimes it is when it is sighing its De Profundis that the soul catches its vision of God. There are countless hours of vision which we need not stay to classify. We wake up one day to feel as if all our previous knowledge of God had been but hearsay: we feel, “ I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ears, but now mine eye seeth Thee.” Life seems to begin anew from times like that. We have accepted truth upon the authority of others; the time comes when we say, “ We see.” The entrance of God’ s Word gives light, and so certifies itself. Our own hold of truth is never satisfactory until we thus see. The man who is to influence others must first himself see heavenly things upon the mount. II. These times of vision leave behind them . “ We cannot command those higher moments--at least not directly--not otherwise than by habitual obedience to the laws of Christ’ s spiritual kingdom. “ To him that hath shall be given.” The seeing may be special times; the acting out what we have seen belongs to our common life. That is the only possible way of keeping the vision clear--of retaining it as our lasting possession. For “‘ Tis the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain.” It is so very easy to be a seer as well as a hearer, and not a doer, to be like the man who beholdeth his natural face in a glass, to whom there comes a bright perception of truth, which reveals him to himself, with all his blots and stains and flaws, and who assents to it, and goeth his way, and forgetteth what manner of man he is. It is possible to do even worse: to use that kind of experience--even visions and revelations of the Lord--for our own self-deception. It is one of the great dangers of what may be called the religious temperament, to care a great deal more about what it can see and feel upon the mount than about faithfulness in commonplace duty on the ordinary levels of life. It is a frequent temptation after we have been touched by admiration for some aspects of duty, and mate to thrill at the thought of seeing ourselves doing it--especially if we have been led to speak warmly about it--to indulge in a soft, self-complacent, feeling, as if we had really done it or were doing it, although we may not have touched it with one of our fingers. Is not this the difference between the man of mere emotion and the man of principle--between the man of feeling and the man of faith--that the one can be thrilled with high ideals, and can proceed to work them out while the glory is upon him, and continue only so long as the excitement or emotion lasts; while the other, who has hid in his heart that which he has seen, will toil on steadily along the dull, flat levels, keeping to the path of duty when the brightness has faded from the sky? It is a great thing, an unspeakable privilege, to have seen the beauty of the Lord that our heart and conscience have said to Jesus, “ My Lord and my God” ; and yet it is His word, “ Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven” --not be that seeth and even prophesieth in My name, but he that maketh his life according to the pattern that hath been showed to him. (A. O. Johnston, M. A.) The pattern in the mount As the old Tabernacle, before it was built, existed in the mind of God, so all the unborn things of life, the things which are to make the future, are already living in their perfect ideas in Him, and when the future comes, its task will be to match those Divine ideas with their material realities, to translate into the visible and tangible shapes of terrestrial life the facts which already have existence in the perfect mind. Surely in the very statement of such a thought of life there is something which ennobles and dignifies our living. A child is born into the world thus morning. Its lessons are unlearned, its tasks untried, its discoveries unmade, its loves unloved, its growth entirely ungrown, as the little newborn problem lies unsolved on this the first day of its life. Is that all? Is there nowhere in the universe any picture of what that child’ s life ought to be, and may he? Surely there is. If God is that child’ s Father, then in the Father’ s mind, in God’ s mind, there must surely be a picture of what that child with his peculiar faculties and nature may become in the completeness of his life. Years hence, when that baby of today has grown to be the man of forty, the real question of his life will be, what? Not the questions which his fellow-citizens of that remote day will be asking, What reputation has he won? What money has he earned? Not even, What learning has he gained? But, How far has he been able to translate into the visible and tangible realities of a life that idea which was in God’ s mind on that day in the old year when he was born? How does the tabernacle which he has built correspond with the pattern which is in the mount? All this is true not merely of a whole life as a whole, but of each single act or enterprise of life. We have not thought richly or deeply enough about any undertaking unless we have thought of it as an attempt to put into the form of action that which already has existence in the idea of God. You start upon your profession, and your professional career in its perfect conception shines already in God’ s sight. You set yourself down to some hard struggle with temptation, and already in the fields of God’ s knowledge you are walking as possible victor, clothed in white, and with the crown of victory upon your head. You build your house, and found your home. It is an attempt to realise the picture of purity, domestic peace, mutual inspiration and mutual comfort, which God sees already. The distinction between ideas and forms is one which all men need to know, which many men so often seem to miss. The idea takes shape in the form, the form expresses the idea. The form, without the idea behind it, is thin and hard. The form, continually conscious of its idea, becomes rich deep, and elastic. If all that I have said be true, then it would seem as if there ought to be in the world three kinds of men--the men of forms; the men of limited ideals, or of ideals which are not the highest; and the men of unlimited ideals, or the highest ideas, which, are the ideals of God. And three such kinds, f men there are, very distinct and easy of discovery. First, there are the men of forms, the men whom all their self-questionings about what they ought to do, and in all their judgments about what they have done, never get beyond the purely formal standards which proceed either from the necessity of their conditions or from the accepted precedents of other people. They never get into the regions of ideas at all. How many such men there are! To them the question of their business life never comes up so high as to mean, “ What is the best and loftiest way in which it is possible for this business of mine to be done?” It never gets higher than to mean, “ How can I best support myself by my business?” or else, “ What are the ways and rules of business which are most accepted in the business world?” To such men the question of religion never becomes: “ What are the intrinsic and eternal relations between the Father God and man the child?” but only, “ By what religious observances can a man get into heaven?” or else, “ What is the most current religion of my fellow-men?” It would be sad, indeed, to think that there is any man here to-day who has not at least sometimes in his life got a glimpse into a richer and fuller and more interesting sort of life than this. There is a second sort of man who does distinctly ask himself whether his deed is what it ought to be. He is not satisfied with asking whether it works its visible result or not, whether other men praise it or not. There is another question still, Does it conform to what he knew before he undertook it that it ought to be? If it does not, however it may seem successful, however men may praise it, the doer of the deed turns off from it in discontent. If it does, no matter how it seems to fail, no matter how men blame it, he thanks God for it and is glad. Here is a true idealism; here is a man with an unseen pattern and standard for his work. He lives a loftier, and likewise a more unquiet life. He goes his way with his vision before his eyes. “ I know something of what this piece of work ought to have been,” he says, “ therefore I cannot be satisfied with it as it is.” What is the detect of such an idealism as that? It is, that as yet the idea comes only from the man’ s own self. Therefore, although it lies farther back, than the mere form, it does not lie entirely at the back of everything. It is not final; it shares the incompleteness of the man from whom it springs. Therefore it is that something more is needed, and that only the third man’ s life is wholly satisfactory. Literally and truly he believes that the life he is to live, the act he is to do, lies now, a true reality, already existent and present, in the mind of God; and his object, his privilege, is not simply to see how he can live his life in the way which will look best or produce the most brilliant visible result, not simply to see how he can best carry out his own personal idea of what is highest and best, but how he can most truly reproduce on earth that image of this special life or action which is in the perfect mind. This is the way in which he is to make all things according to the pattern which is in the mount. What quiet independence, what healthy humility, what confident hope there must be in this man who thus goes up to God to get the pattern of his living. To-morrow morning to that man there comes a great overwhelming sorrow. What shall he do, what shall he be in this new terrible life, terrible not least because of its awful newness, which has burst upon him? Where shall he find the pal tern for his new necessity? Of course he may look about and copy the forms with which the world at large greets and denotes its sorrow, the decent dreadful conventionalities of grief. That does not satisfy him. The world acknowledges that he has borne his grief most properly, but he is not satisfied. Then behind all that, he may reason it over with himself, think out what death moans, make his philosophy, decide how a man ought to behave in the terrible shipwreck of his hopes. That is a better thing by air means than the other. But this man does something more. The pattern of his new life is not in the world. It is not in himself. It is in God. To get up, then, into God, and find that image of his grieved and sorrowing life, and then come back and shape his life after it patiently and cheerfully, that is the struggle of the Christian idealist in his sorrow, of the man who tries to make all things according to the pattern which is in the mount. Can we not see what quiet independence, what healthy humility, what confident hope there must be in that man’ s struggle to live out through his sorrow the new life which his sorrow has made possible? But now it is quite time for us to ask another question. Suppose that all which we have said is true; suppose that there is such a pattern of the truest life, and of each truest act of every man lying in God’ s mind, how shall the man know what that pattern is? Is not Christ the mountain up into which the believer goes, and in which he finds the Divine ideal of himself? As a mountain seems to be the meeting-place of earth and heaven, the place where the bending skies meet the aspiring planet, the place where the sunshine and the cloud keep closest company with the granite and the grass: so Christ is the melting-place of divinity and humanity; He is at once the condescension of divinity and the exaltation it humanity; and man wanting to know God’ s idea of man, any man wanting to know God’ s idea of him, must go up into Christ, and he will find it there. All kinds of men have found their ideals in Jesus. Entering into Him, the timid soul has seen a vision of itself all clothed in bravery, and known in an instant that to be brave and not to be cowardly was its proper life. The missionary toiling in the savage island, and thinking his whole life a failure, has gone apart some night into his hut and climbed up into Christ, and seen with perfect sureness, though with most complete amazement, that God counted his life a great success, and so has gone out once more singing to his glorious work. Martyrs on the night before their agony; reformers hesitating at their tasks; scholars wondering whether the long self-denial would be worth their while; fathers and mothers, teachers and preachers whose work had grown monotonous and wearisome, all of these going to Christ have found themselves in Him, have seen the nobleness and privilege of their hard tires, and have come out from their communion with Him to live their lives as they had seen those lives in Him, glorious with the perpetual sense of the privilege of duty, and worthy of the best and most faithful work which they could give. This, then, is the great truth of Christ. The treasury of life your life and mine, the life of every man and every woman, however different they are from one another, they are all in Him. In Him there is the perfectness of every occupation: the perfect trading, the perfect housekeeping, the perfect handicraft, the perfect school teaching, they are all in Him. To go to Him and get the perfect idea of his, and of every action of life, and then to go forth, and by His strength fulfil it, that is the New Testament conception of a strong successful life. How simple and glorious it is! We are like Moses, then--only our privilege is so much more than his We are like a Moses who at any moment, whenever the building of the tabernacle flagged and hesitated, was able to turn and go up into the mountain and look once more the pattern in the face, and come down strong, ambitious for the best, and full of hope. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.) Heavenly visions As we read the story with which this passage has to deal, we feel how great are the tasks which are committed to great souls. None but a great soul could have mounded a horde of slaves into a nation, could have inspired them with national ideals, or could have kept the ideal of their future clear and bright before his own soul. Never was heavier task committed to man; and broad must have been the heart and constant the fidelity which sustained the load through the greater part of a hundred years. Great tasks like these are either easy or impossible--easy, while the deer is sustained by the inspiration which pricked and goaded his heart to perform it; impossible, when he labours in his native strength, or leans for support upon anything short of the Eternal. The Divine power which called Moses to this work, and which originated in him the genius to conceive it, m st sustain him in every turn and juncture of its execution. All great ideas like his widen and expand with the expanding visions of the growing soul. The grand outlines of such a vision, indeed, come to the soul in a flash of inspiration, but the details are filled in as the soul broods over the great revelation. Hence the world’ s great teachers, its prophets and seers, have been ever given to solitude, to self-communion, and to prayer, that in silence they might hear that Voice which speaks only to the listening ear. “ On a certain day,” says Plato, in one of his deepest books, “ all the gods mount to the topmost heaven, and gaze upon the reams of pure truth, and all noble souls that can do so follow in their train and gaze upon the fair outlook; then they sink to earth, and all the worthiest part of their lives thenceforward is but the endeavour to reproduce what they have seen: their highest moral achievements are wrought by the power of remembered truth.” This wonderful passage is an intuition of one of the foundational truths of our highest life, and one of the greatest truths of revelation. Once or twice only does Moses gain an insight into the “ life of things.” and then only when his eyes are purged of their grossness; but these rare occasions are sufficient to inspire him, and his noblest work is wrought out in obedience to his vision. As he moved about the camp, or when consulted by captains and artificers as to the manner of their labour, daily he would hear the Divine imperative admonishing him to shape it thus and thus; to remember what he had seen; to make his vision take actual shape in gold, or precious stones, or carved work. For him, too, there would be shining the “ seven lamps of architecture” --the lamp of sacrifice and the lamp of truth, of power, beauty, life, and obedience, and, not the least, the lamp of memory. Great tasks, we say, are committed to great souls; but is it not true that great tasks are committed to us also, whether we be small or great? Is not the shaping of our scattered and sundered life into a habitation for God to dwell in a task as sacred and as imperative as that which was committed to Moses? And do we not see that the first thing which we need for this work is that which Moses had--a great ideal? Do we not know by experience what a difference there is between living and working with such a pattern and without one? There are no Mount Sinais now, we say, scaling which we might gain such a vision as Moses had to equip him for his work. We have no Mount Sinai, but there still stands Mount Calvary, from which a brighter glory streams and a rarer loveliness, and from which, too, a Voice still reaches us, saying: “ See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” That utterly surrendered life gives us indeed the pattern which we need, the ideal to which our own life should be conformed. We know how flawless it was, and how significant; how He did those things which He had seen with His Father. This was the secret of the perfect unity of His life, of His patience, dignity, and peace. Shall we not confess, then, that we, too, have received our heavenly vision? We have, indeed, confessed it to be most beautiful and Divine, but we have allowed it to fade from our memory. Yes, and the finer our sensibility and the quicker our imagination, the greater will be the temptation to allow it to fade out into mist for all strong emotion avenges itself by exhaustion. Thus Moses, before he had well reached the camp, descending the rugged slopes of Sinai, half-blinded by the splendours he had gazed upon, dashed down in anger the tables of stone written by the finger of God. So a man may cast away in sorrowful anger the very records which he has received with fear and trembling. Sometimes in anger and sometimes in disgust, when surrounded by a herd of howling idolaters who do not enter into his thought, or through indolence, or the pressure of sordid care, a man is tempted to let his vision go, and account it but as such stuff as dreams are made of. It is a temptation especially besetting men who work in the things of the imagination and the things of the Spirit. Many men lower their ideal--as they will tell you frankly--for the sake of their wives and children. How bitter it will be hereafter if these same children grow up to be sweet, and pure, and unworldly, and despise the crooked means which have been employed for their elevation, and to be filled with sad pity for the founder of their fortune, who, like Lot, chose the well-watered country, and for the sake of it disowned every noble ambition! Thus, are we severally tempted to disobey the admonishing Voice which bids us make all things according to the pattern which has been revealed to us. But who will be left to rear God’ s tabernacle if they fail who have had vision of its ideal beauty and hope of its foundation among men? It is in such an hour of temptation that we need to renew the old impressions, to revive the faded tints of the picture, and to trace the lost meaning of the vanishing lines of the pattern of heavenly things, once so clear to us. And do we ask, How can our lost impressions be renewed? Then the store before us supplies us with the suggestion. “ And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest.” Yes; He who first gave us the great conception of noble life can renew it when it fades away if with all our hearts we truly seek Him; it may not be with all the early glow of our first inspiration, nor with such glad announcements of its coming to our bosoms: but what we gain the second time more painfully may be cherished more religiously, watched over more prayerfully, and kept with diligence even to the end. (G. Littlemore.) The pattern in the mount I shall consider, in the first place, the fact that all men have ideals--have some kind of spiritual conceptions; and in the second place, I shall urge the results of consistent action upon those conceptions. I. Consider, for a moment, and you will see that this is the great characteristic of the man--THAT HE IS THE OF THINGS AFTER AN INWARD IDEAL OR PATTERN, and thus he transforms the outward world according to his mental and spiritual conceptions. Here, on one part, stands vast, unshaped matter--rock, wood, stream, fluent, air: on the other part is the human agent who is to work upon this world of matter. You may say that the beaver or the bee works upon matter. The one proceeds with the utmost accuracy to build its neat, and the other to construct its dam; but there is a point at which each of them stops. They do not go a jot beyond the line of instinct; they do nothing more wonderful, nothing different from what has been done for six thousand years. But see, out of this same world of matter, man makes houses, weapons, ships, printing presses, steam engines, and telegraphs. He makes implements, and produces combinations that did not exist in nature, but that stood first as shadows on the horizon of his own thought--patterns that were shown him in the mount of intellectual and spiritual elevation. But if this power which man has of working from inward conceptions is expressed in the ways in which he pours his thought into matter, it is still more apparent in the ways in which his thought, so to speak, overrides matter--as he appears not merely in inventions, but in creations. The work of art, for instance--the great work of genius--whence comes that? Something that you do not see in nature, something that can nut be interpreted as a mere combination of matter--a mere putting together of the elements of the physical world; but something that has flowed out of the ideal springs of a man’ s own soul, until we have the splendours of the sunset sky woven in the fibres of the canvas, and the stones of the quarry heaved up in an architectural ant m of grandeur and aspiration. But the main conclusion to which I would lead your thought is this: than a most every man has conceptions higher and better than he realises, or than he even endeavours to make real. Before every man there hovers a high conception--or one more or less high--certainly above the level of his present conduct--of virtue, of moral action, of duty, of righteousness, of truth; and the more h-looks at that, the more vivid it becomes to him. Although he may, at the same time, not move a jot or a hair toward it, nor even endeavour, for a single instant, to come up to it, yet it stands before him, and he sees it clear and bright, kindling upon his thought, and ready to move hi heart. And you see this fact revealed m this remarkable manner by every man. If he does ever so bad an act, he tries to justify it in some way--tries to reconcile it to some ideal of virtue. So that from his own showing, his own confession, there is an ideal standard in his mind higher than that from which he has acted. What better advice, then, could be given to any man than just this? Work out your highest conceptions--the noblest standard of truth and duty that comes to you. It may not be the highest possible, nor the highest conceivable by other men, but that which seems to you the highest possible or conceivable, work up to, and live up to, and endeavour to make it the rule. And so especially it is in regard to the matter of faith about which many are much troubled and perplexed. They say they cannot believe that the Bible is divinely inspired; they are not fully convinced about the immortality of the soul, and they even sometimes incline to doubt the existence of a God. What then are you to do, my be low-men? To throw aside all faith and live outside of its circle, merely as an animal, in a coarse, material existence? No--no; some shred of faith you have. Every man has some. Some conceptions of spiritual things dawn upon every mind; live up to the faith you have. Have you a faith that it is good to do good? Live up to that. Have you a faith that charity is a blessed thing? Live up to that. Work out to the extreme limit of your conception here, and just so sure as you do it, the wider will your circle open before you. II. In the next place, let us proceed to see WHAT WILL RESULT IF A MAN THUS TO WORK UP TO HIS HIGHEST AND BEST . In the first lace, I think he will acquire some comprehension of the worth and certainty of spiritual being, and of the reality of his own soul. Let a man think, when he endeavours to carry out the best conception of duty, how much that is all-controlling and supreme in his life, let him think that the highest claim in his life is from within; hst him think how mind will after all control and master the body. The moment you think of this power to control and master material things, you fall back upon the consciousness theft you have a soul, and that there is more evidence than you have supposed of its existence. In fact, there is more proof of a soul than of a body. When a man asks me what proof I have of a soul, I reply by asking him, What proof have you of a body? You have more logical difficulty to prove an outward world than a soul. Spiritual consciousness, mounting aspiration, ideal influences have controlled you all through life. But more than this; not only will a man, as he begins to work from his best spiritual conceptions upward, begin to comprehend the worth of spiritual things and of the soul, but he will begin to acquire right standards of action. I hardly need say that in the calculations of men, very generally they do not start from the ground of the soul. If you look at a great many of the social fallacies of our time, at a great many of the social faults and errors of men in business, in politics, and in life generally, you will find that the fallacy or error consists in the fact that they do not start from the ground of the soul as a standard, but from outward things. They estimate all outward things by their bulk or glitter. Let a man take up the subject of immortality--of the spirit of man enshrined in time, and working through sense, as destined to live beyond the stars, when banks and warehouses, cities and continents, shall have melted with fervent heat, and crumbled to ashes; when this world shall be dashed from its orbit as a speck of dust from a flying wheel--let him take the grand calculus of the immortality of the soul, and start with that, and then worldly good and gain will take their proper attitude, temporary expediency will sink down, and right will assert its proper place; then he will have a true standard by which to estimate all things. In the next place, if a man really endeavours to work according to his highest a-d best inward conception, he will come to perceive the need of Christ and the worth of Christianity. Working from his best and highest, he gains a better and a higher still, until at length he will come to feel that spiritual aspirations are boundless. And when, from the yearnings of his educated soul, he wants a perfect ideal, he will ask, Where is the excellence that will answer my highest ideal? where is that which will begin to fill up this boundless thirst of the soul, which has only been increased by drinking from narrow cisterns? And Jesus Christ comes out upon the horizon of history, and stands before him in the gospel, and answers that inquiry. He says virtually to man, “ I am the ideal for which you aspire; in Me behold a perfect reflection of that which you now must seek; in Me behold that which continually fills up your yearning want, and makes that want the deeper, that it may fill it with more.” Here stands man on one side, with a sense of imperfection and sin, asking, What is there that will help me in, what is there that will deliver me from the power of sin? No mere man, no mere teacher, like Plato or Seneca, can do it. Man needs some spirit of Divine goodness to enter into him, to cure him of his sin and Jesus Christ embodies that Divine spirit. He comes before man to assure him of mercy, with the encouragement that the vilest sin may be cast off, and that man may throw himself upon the Divine mercy which He represents, and be lightened of his load. And here, on the other hand, are limitless wants and desires; and how does Jesus Christ gratify them? By exhibiting perfect Father; by showing an ideal to us that we never can compass, but can always aspire to. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.) Of the right manner of doing duty 1. The same Lord who enjoins the matter, prescribes the manner. 2. As great respect is manifested to God in the manner of doing what He requires, as in matter. In this was David commended 2 Kings 3:6). This was it that Hezekiah pleaded before God 2 Kings 20:3). 3. Herein lieth a main difference between the upright and the hypocrite, instance the difference between Abel’ s and Cain’ s offering (Genesis 4:4-5). 4. That which is good is altered and perverted by failing in the manner. Good is thereby turned into evil, and duty into sin. 5. Failing in the manner makes God reject that which in the matter He requireth (Isaiah 1:11). 6. God detests things commanded by Himself when they are done in an ill manner (Isaiah 66:3). 7. In this case he that doth the work of the Lord is accursed Jeremiah 48:10). 1. This giveth just cause of examining ourselves even about the good things that we do. This use is the rather to be observed because every one best knoweth his own failings in the manner of what he doth (1 Corinthians 2:11). 2. Upon due examination we cannot but be deeply humbled ever for our failings in the manner of doing good things. The glory of our reading, hearing, praying, singing, partaking of the sacrament, alms-deeds, and other duties, is hereby taken away, which if profane men knew, they would insult over professors. 3. This giveth just occasion of abnegation, and of renouncing all confidence even in our best works, for we must fail therein (1 Samuel 3:2). Did justiciaries well understand this, it would make them cast down their gay peacock’ s feathers. They would not be so conceited of themselves, as the proud Pharisee, but rather as the humble publican (Luke 18:11-13). There is nothing of such force to work in us This lesson of denying ourselves as a consideration of the manner of doing the good things we do. This consideration would soon put an end to all conceits of fulfilling the law, of meriting, of doing works of supererogation, and undry other proud apprehensions. 4. Upon the aforesaid ground be exhorted to learn as well as to do, what we enterprise, as what we do. God loves adverbs. We were as go d be ignorant of the duty itself as of the manner of performing it. To know what ought to be done, and not to know how it ought to be done, will be a great aggravation of sin. 6. For well-doing that which, is good observe these few rules; (1) Exercise thyself in God’ s Word, diligently read it, hear it, and meditate upon it. This is an excellent help and the best that I can prescribe. For God’ s Word doth expressly and distinctly declare both what is to be done and how it is to be done (Psalms 119:105). (2) Think on duty before hand, and endeavour to prepare thyself thereto. Sudden, rash, unprepared enterprising a sacred duty is one occasion of failing in the manner of doing it (Ecclesiastes 5:2). (3) Consider with whom thou hast to do in all things; even with Him who is the searcher of the heart. This will make thee circumspect in every circumstance. Conceits that we have to do with man alone, make us look only to the outward duty (2 Corinthians 2:17). (4) In penitent confessions, acknowledge thy failing in the manner of doing duty. (5) Pray for ability even about the manner of doing duty (2 Corinthians 3:5). The work of the Spirit is herein specially manifested; we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But none can do good in a right manner except the regenerating Spirit be in him and help him. 6. For comfort in this case we must have our eye upon our Surety in whom was no failing at all (Hebrews 6:26). (W. Gouge.) Hebrews 8:6 Mediator of a better covenant.--The covenant of grace opened and explained I. THE GOSPEL- UNDER WHICH WE LIVE IS A . 1. What we are to understand by a covenant in general. 2. What by the covenant of grace in particular. 3. Illustrate two or three particular points which have created some doubts and difficulties in this subject. 4. Consider some of the peculiar titles and distinguishing properties of this covenant. II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE OF THIS . 1. The proper office of a mediator. 2. Christ’ s peculiar qualification for this high office of Mediator between God and man. 3. His accomplishment of it. 4. How admirably this constitution is founded in the Divine grace and wisdom. 5. What regards are due to Christ under this character of Mediator. (1) Does He not deserve and most justly claim all our love, our superlative and most ardent esteem? (2) What exalted honour, adoration, and praise are due from us to Him, who was so wonderfully qualified for this high office by the hypostatical or personal union of the Divine and human natures. (3) As Mediator of the new covenant, let us readily trust Him with all our spiritual and everlasting interests. (4) As our Mediator, we are humbly to seek to Him for that grace, which must make us meet for His salvation; for His awakening grace, to make us more sensible of our guilt and need of Him; for His quickening grace, to encourage, direct, and strengthen us in the way to eternal life. (5) As our Mediator, we are to perform every part of religious worship in His name. He is our way to the Father. III. THE GOSPEL IS A BETTER THAN THAT UNDER WHICH THE JEWS LIVED. 1. Because it contains better terms. Repentance, faith, and sincere obedience are called the terms of the covenant, not only because they are the requisites on which the promised blessings of the covenant are suspended, but because they are of themselves essentially necessary to qualify us to partake of them. 2. Because it affords better helps or assistances. (1) The method of worship under the gospel is more easy, rational, and spiritual. (2) The revelation we enjoy is more plain, full, and extensive. (3) The Divine aids offered to us are more particular, ample, and effectual. 3. Because it is founded on better promises. (1) Because they are the promises of better things; or the subjects of them are more excellent, sublime, and glorious. (2) The promises of the gospel are more plain, clear, and explicit than those of the legal covenant. (3) The promises of the gospel are not only more clear, but more numerous and extensive than those of the Jewish dispensation. (4) Another thing which gives the pre-eminence to the promises of our covenant, is that they are all ratified and confirmed to us in Christ, the Mediator of it. (John Mason, M. A.) The excellency of the Christian dispensation I. The Christian dispensation, or the New Testament, though it be a rich discovery of grace, YET IT THE FAIREST AND FULLEST OF THE MORAL LAW. That law, which is of eternal obligation upon all mankind, is more particularly explained here than in any of the former dispensations. II. In the Christian dispensation THE GOSPEL OR OF GRACE IS MORE AND PLAINLY THAN EVER BEFORE; not in obscure expressions, in types, and carnal metaphors, but in its own proper form and language, i.e., as a covenant relating to things spiritual and eternal. III. THE RITES AND which are superadded to the covenant of grace, in the Christian dispensation of it, ARE MUCH TO THOSE IN FORMER TIMES, and that in three respects; they are fewer, they are clearer, and they are much more easy. IV. THE SON OF GOD, WHO WAS THE REAL OF THE OF GRACE THROUGH ALL FORMER , HAS TO BECOME THE VISIBLE OF THIS . V. THIS OF THE GOSPEL is not confined to one family, or to one nation, or to a few ages of men, but it SPREADS THROUGH ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH, AND REACHES TO THE END OF TIME. VI. I might add here some OTHER OF THE , which the apostle gives it in 2 Corinthians 3:1-18., whereby he exalts it above all the religion of the Jews, and especially far above the Sinai covenant. VII. THE AND HELPS WHICH GIVES US TO FULFIL THE DUTIES OF THE ARE MUCH TO THOSE WHICH WERE ENJOYED UNDER ANY OF THE FORMER . NOW these consist chiefly in examples and motives. 1. Do examples invite us to our duty, and by a soft and secret influence encourage and lead us on to the performance of it? Such indeed were the names of Abraham and David, each in their day a happy pattern to their several ages; but in my opinion all the praises which are due to David and Abraham fall far short of the labours and sufferings, the zeal and patience, the holiness and the love of St. Paul. And not one of them is to be compared with the more excellent and perfect pattern of Jesus Christ. 2. Let us next consider our various motives to duty under the New Testament. Are the motives of love and gratitude powerful principles to encourage and persuade us to every active service? Such indeed were the blessings and gifts which God bestowed on men under former dispensations. But what were all those gifts and blessings in comparison of the unspeakable gift of His own Son, to die as a sacrifice in our stead, which is one of the chief themes and glories of the Christian revelation? Are the promises and threatenings of God another set of motives to duty? Do the awful glories and terrors of a future and eternal world work upon all the springs of our activity and diligence by hope and fear? Yes, certainly, in a high degree. But the former dispensations had but few of these eternal terrors and glories, these threatenings and promises relating to an invisible state. (Isaac Watts, D. D.) The better covenant I. THE GENERAL NOTION OF A OF GOD WITH MAN. By a covenant among men we understand an agreement or compact, by which the parties bind themselves, and each the other, to the fulfilment of certain conditions. Now, when we speak of a covenant of God with men, one important difference is to be observed. In this case there is no natural equality between the parties. God wills, and man must obey. But this revealed mind and purpose of God is called a covenant, because 1. As respects God, He who has no rule of action but His own will is pleased hereby to bind Himself, in His dealings with men, to the observance of certain specified terms. 2. As respects men they are bound to fulfil the conditions herein prescribed to them, under pain of forfeiting the offered benefits, and incurring the attendant penalties. The covenant under which all men are born, as children of Adam, is that of works. It must be evident to every one, that if he be tried according to the letter of this covenant, there remains no hope for him before God, for he is a transgressor of it from the womb. And thus the Scriptures everywhere testify. We are led then to the inquiry: is there any other covenant or dispensation of God for His creatures, whereby (letting go the first, and laying hold on this) we may have that eternal life and blessedness which we have irrecoverably forfeited by the first? Such a covenant there is. The terms of it are fully made known to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the “ glad tidings of great joy.” II. The particular features of this “ BETTER , which was established upon better promises.” 1. Whereas in the old covenant something is required on the part of man, as a title to its privileges, this contemplates in him nothing but sins and unrighteousness, and lays the basis of all covenant good vouchsafed to him in the sovereign grace of God, a promise as large and unlimited as language can express of the free removal of sins, and that for ever. Herein is summed up all the grace of the covenant, that it supposes guilt of every kind and degree, in the objects of it, and meets them with this cheering assurance, I will be merciful to it, I will remember it no more. But has God, then, deserted His justice, in showing mercy to a sinner, and dishonoured His law by suffering the violation of it with impunity? God forbid! The condition of life under the new covenant is precisely that of the old--perfect obedience. But under the gospel this obedience is rendered for the sinner by his surety, and the life which is its due becomes his, not by working, but by believing. Christ has fulfilled the law for us. Mercy, therefore, to man is the jut reward of merit in Christ. 2. Mark another feature, no less distinguishing the gospel as a “ ministration of glory.” This is the exceeding fulness of its promised blessings Romans 15:29). (1) Divine renewal; (2) Divine relationship; (3) Divine illumination. 3. Its security. The effectual provision which God has made in it for the sure enjoyment of its rich benefits. 4. Its everlasting continuance. Hence it is expressly called “ the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20). Lessons: 1. The overwhelming motives afforded us, by this covenant of grace, to walk before God in all holiness and godliness of living. 2. The grievous sin of those who carelessly neglect this covenant of grace, or obstinately refuse to close with it. 3. The abundant encouragement which this covenant holds out to the most guilty and desponding sinner to return to God and be at peace. 4. Lastly, let the established believer recognise in this covenant the charter of all his privileges. Ever rejoice, my Christian brethren, in your entire deliverance from the law of works as a means of obtaining life. Life is yours by free gift, covenant gift of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. Having the Son, you have life. Only abide, then, in Him, your Covenant Head, and walk worthy of your exalted privileges, in all holy and happy obedience. (Francis Goode, M. A.) Christ the Mediator of the better covenant The covenant of grace is, strictly speaking, made between God and Christ; and, in this view, is part of that great covenant of redemption, ordered from eternity between the persons of the Godhead. Man is a party to it only in the second instance, as he is viewed in Christ, coming in for the blessings of it by his surety’ s fulfilment of its terms. To Him we are indebted for its grace; and through Him alone it has all its efficacy in the experience of redeemed sinners. I. Consider it As IT BEGAN IN . As there never was a moment in which God was not, so never was there a moment in which this grace to man was not the determinate counsel and object of delight of the Eternal mind. The purpose of redemption was not (as many unworthily think of it) a purpose conceived only when man fell, to remedy a mischief never contemplated till then. “ Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” Rather, the whole mystery of grace in the gospel, yea, creation itself, with all its consequences, is a result of the purpose of God to make, in the person of Christ, the most illustrious display, before all intelligent creatures, of the glories of the Divine nature, by man’ s redemption. II. As IT WAS CARRIED ON UPON EARTH With His incarnation commenced that active ministry of which the apostle is here speaking as “ more excellent” than that of Aaron, above which it is one great object of this Epistle to exalt it. The main intention of this earthly ministry of Christ was to make atonement. 1. It was the life of a sinless Being, and so was altogether unforfeited; it was that which He had to give to God, in exchange for His people, who are therefore called “ the purchased possession” (Ephesians 1:14); the law of God had no claim upon it, except as He voluntarily subjected Himself to its curse for us. 2. While it was human life, it was life taken into union with Deity; and so it was not only of infinite value, but this Priest as well as Victim possessed in Himself infinite ability both to lay it down and to take it again. 3. But let us look at the effect of this atonement which Christ, as our High Priest, made for the sins of men, in reference to the covenant of which we are treating. The blood of Jesus Christ is represented by Himself, and throughout this Epistle, as the ratification of the covenant. III. AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (Hebrews 6:20). 1. His intercession above gives efficacy to His offering of Himself on earth. 2. His mediatorial dominion. He holds the reign of universal empire. Heaven, earth, and hell--all things in all worlds--obey His sovereign will. (Francis Goode, M. A.) Argument from analogy or Mediator The whole analogy of nature removes all imagined presumption against the notion of a “ Mediator between God and man.” For we find all living creatures are brought into the world, and that life is infancy is preserved, by the instrumentality of others, and every satisfaction of it some way or other, is bestowed by the like means. (Bp. Butler.) Covenant The general meaning of the word διαθήκη, covenant, is a Divine institution for man; it is not συνθήκη, or compact between two parties. God has the ordering of all, and therefore covenant and dispensation are really the same. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) Established upon better promises Better promises In the promises there are these two things, the matter and the manner. As for matter and substance, the promises were all one in the Old and New Testament, that is Christ, and eternal salvation by Him. But ours in respect of the manner are better and excel theirs. 1. Their promises were included within the narrow compass of Judea; our promises are blazed all the world over. 2. Their promises were published by men, by the patriarchs, prophets, which were but servants; ours by Christ the Son of God. 3. They according to God’ s promise had the graces of the Spirit as we have, yet not in such abundant measure as they be now poured out in the time of the gospel. 4. Their promises were dark and obscure, covered under the veil of many ceremonies, and shadowed out by temporal things; our promises are more clear and evident. 5. Theirs were at the delivery of the law with a condition, “ Do this and live. Cursed be he that continueth not in all things,” &c. Ours “ Believe and live.” 6. The sacraments, whereby the promises were confirmed unto them, were more hard and difficult: the cutting off the foreskin, the preparing of a lamb for every house; ours are more easy and familiar: the sprinkling of a little water, or the dipping in the water, the procuring of bread and wine. 7. Their promises were of things to come: there should come a Lamb that should take away the sins of the world; ours are of things already come and exhibited. This Lamb is come, and hath offered up Himself on the altar of the cross for us. (W. Jones, D. D.) Stability of the Divine promises Every promise is built upon four pillars: God’ s justice and holiness, which will not suffer Him to deceive; His grace or goodness, which will not suffer Him to forget; His truth, which will not suffer Him to change; His power, which makes Him able to accomplish. (H. G. Salter.) Fulness of the Divine promises The promises which God hath made are a full storehouse of all kind of blessings; they include in them both the upper and nether springs, the recycle, of this life and of that which is to come: there is n- good that can present itself as an object to our desires or thoughts, of which the promises are not a ground for faith to believe and hope to expect the enjoyment of. (H. Spurstowe.) Hebrews 8:7 If that first covenant had been faultless The imperfection of the first covenant Observe here 1. What is charged on the first covenant, and that is faultiness, by which we are not to understand any sinful faultiness, but defectiveness and imperfection only; for it was not faulty in the matter and substance of it, as it was instituted and ordained by God, but therefore called faulty because it was obscure, was not so surely ratified, and not attended with that virtue, power, and efficacy which the new covenant is accompanied with. 2. Wherein consisteth that defectiveness and imperfection of the first covenant which is here complained of. (1) In its ability to justify and save us, because of our inability, through the weakness of the flesh, to answer the demands of it (Romans 8:3). The law was not properly weak to us, bat we were weak to that. (2) The legal covenant required exact obedience, but afforded no spiritual assistance for the performance of what is required: but the covenant of grace, the new covenant, is called a ministration of the Spirit; and under the gospel we are said not to serve in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit. Now, says the apostle (Hebrews 8:8), Almighty God finding fault with the Jews for the breach of the former covenant, declared by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31), that the covenant He would make with all true Israelites for time to come should vet be like that which He made with their fathers in Egypt, which they continued not in the observation of (wanting those assistances from the Holy Spirit to enable them thereunto, which are procured for us by Christ); accordingly “ I regarded them not, saith the Lord,” but gave them up for their sins into the hands of their enemies. 3. How Almighty God makes the imperfection of the old covenant, and the Israelites’ instability therein, the reason of His making a new covenant with us, in which grace and assistance is offered to enable us to obey and persevere in obedience. From the whole note 1. That the grace and glory of the new covenant are much set off and manifested by comparing it with the old. 2. That nothing but effectual grace from Christ will secure our covenant obedience one moment: what greater motives or stronger outward obligations to obedience could any people under heaven have than the Israelites had? But they quickly turned out of the way; therefore, in the new covenant, is this grace promised in a peculiar manner. (W. Burkitt, M. A.) The two covenants A covenant is properly an agreement between two parties, who bind themselves by certain conditions with the view of attaining some object. A covenant may be between equals, as that between Abraham and Abimelech (Genesis 21:32), or between parties of whom one is superior to the other, as that between Joshua and the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:1-27.). The covenant relation between God and men is of the latter kind, for God imposes the covenant (Hebrews 8:8-10). None the less both parties lay themselves under obligations and contemplate an object by the covenant. A covenant between God and men cannot possibly have any other meaning than that He will be their God and they His people Hebrews 8:10). The Epistle contemplates religion or the relation of God and men under this aspect of a covenant. It distinguishes two covenants, that made at Sinai (Hebrews 8:9), and that made through Christ (Hebrews 9:15). The former is called the first covenant Hebrews 8:7; Hebrews 9:1; Hebrews 9:18); it is not named the “ old “ covenant, although it is said that God, in announcing a new covenant, has made the first old Hebrews 8:13). The latter is called a seceded (Hebrews 8:7), a better (Hebrews 7:22; Hebrews 8:6), a new as having different contents Hebrews 8:8; Hebrews 9:15), and also new as being recent (Hebrews 12:24), and an eternal covenant (Hebrews 13:20, comp. Hebrews 7:22). The first covenant was not faultless--so mildly does the author express Himself (Hebrews 8:7); the second is enacted upon better promises (Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 8:10-12). The Epistle does not speak of a covenant with Abraham, as the Pauline epistles do (Galatians 3:15; Galatians 3:17); it knows of promises to Abraham (Hebrews 6:13; Hebrews 7:6), which the first covenant was ineffectual to realise (Hebrews 11:39), which, however, are realised through the second (Hebrews 9:15). The covenant relation is not its own end. It is rather a relation within which the people are being matured for that final blessedness which God has destined for them. No doubt this maturing of them always more fully realises the covenant relation, and this of itself is a great and blessed end. But it is chiefly regarded as the means to that which lies beyond, which is the bringing of the people to a sphere of existence that shall fully correspond to their capacities and needs. This end is variously described: it is inheriting the promises (Hebrews 6:12), or receiving the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15); reaching the heavenly country Hebrews 11:16), or the city that hath the foundations (Hebrews 11:10); or, receiving the kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28); or entering into the rest of God (Hebrews 3:4); or, having the world to come ,put into subjection to them (Hebrews 2:5, &c.). The covenants are means adopted for realising promises and gracious purposes, the announcement of which was prior to both of them. The new covenant is only a more effectual means of accomplishing the same object pursued in the first. A covenant between God and men is a state of relation in which He is their God and they His people. By being His people is meant that they are dedicated to His service (Hebrews 9:14). that they ale His worshipping people. And the means by which they are translated into this relation of fit worshippers is important. The term that expresses this change is “ sanctify” (Hebrews 2:11; Hebrews 10:10; Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 13:12). Having a conscience defiled by sin, they felt debarred from free access to God so as to serve Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:2; Hebrews 10:22), and for the same reason of their defilement God could not permit Himself to be approached. This defilement of sin is purified away by sacrifice, the blood of which is the blood of the covenant (Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 9:18; Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 13:20), and thus the people are sanctified for the service of God. As the end had in view and the covenant itself, which is the means towards it, are alike due to the grace of Heb 2:9), the sacrifice which effects the sanctification of the people is no less an institution of His provision. Though within the covenant, the people are not supposed to be sinless. They err and are out of the way; they are compassed with infirmity and labour under various “ ignorances” (Hebrews 5:2; Hebrews 7:28; Hebrews 9:7 : comp. Hebrews 4:15). Such errors, though sins and transgressions (Hebrews 9:15), and interruptions of the covenant relation, are not absolutely incompatible with its maintenance, provided they are taken away. A means of removing such sins of infirmity was provided in the sacrificial system. This is the meaning of this system. It was appointed of God for removing sins committed within the covenant. The Epistle does not speculate how it is that men in covenant still continue to sin; it accepts the fact without referring it to any principle such as “ the flesh” of St. Paul. Its distinction of sins of infirmity and “ wilful” sins is unknown to the latter apostle, to whom all sins are deadly and infer the curse (Galatians 3:10). This is revolved in His mode of regarding the law as a commandment of works to be obeyed in order to justification. Any transgression of it is its breach in principle, and makes an end of all pretensions on man’ s part to be righteous before God. The condition of the continuance of the covenant was the keeping of the law. But here a double defect manifested itself in the first covenant. On the one hand, the people abode not in it (Hebrews 8:9), and on the other hand, its institutions could not remove the transgressions done under it Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 10:4). In the new covenant God promises to write His law on the people’ s heart (Hebrews 8:10), as on the other hand the death of Christ redeems the transgressions under the first covenant Hebrews 9:15), and God remembers them no more (Hebrews 10:17). Though in the new covenant the law be written on the people’ s heart, their wills are still practically regarded as mutable; they may sin wilfully (Hebrews 10:26), and fall away from the living God Hebrews 3:12), and they need all the safeguards which their own patient endurance (Hebrews 6:12), the example of those who have gone before (Hebrews 6:12; Hebrews 12:1; Hebrews 13:7), mutual exhortation Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:24), memory of past attainments (Hebrews 10:32, &c.), and the “ throne of grace” (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 7:23-25) can afford, to enable them to hold fast the beginning of their confidence from unto the end. Thus the first covenant failed, and God caused to arise upon the people the light of the promise of a new covenant. The first covenant indeed was conscious of its own Imperfection; hence it gave forth fro,, within itself the promise of “ another priest” (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 7:14), of a “ better sacrifice” (Psalms 40:7; Hebrews 9:23; Hebrews 10:9), and even of a “ new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:8). The structure of the Tabernacle was a perpetual witness to the inability of its ministry to open the way for the worshippers into the presence of God, a witness borne by the Holy Ghost (Hebrews 9:8). And the very continual repetition of the sacrifices year by year was a constant remembrance of sin, and proclamation of their inefficacy to take it Hebrews 10:3). The Epistle is a detailed contrast between the two covenants showing that in all those points where the first failed the second realises the purpose of the covenant. That which gives eternal validity or absoluteness to the new covenant is the person, the Son of God, who in all points carries it through--who reveals, mediates, and sustains it. As initiating the covenant through His blood (Hebrews 9:20; Hebrews 10:29), He is the mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 9:15); and as sitting at the right hand of God, before His face, for ever, as high-priestly representative of the people, He is the surety of it (Hebrews 7:22). the Old Testament holy places and all the vessels of the ministry were made according to the pattern showed in the mount (Hebrews 8:5), and are thus the copies of the things in the heavens (Hebrews 9:23). Again, the law had a shadow of the good things that were to come (Hebrews 10:1; Hebrews 10:9; Hebrews 10:11). Thus the first covenant lay, as a sphere of dim representations, between two regions filled with realities--heaven, the region of the true things themselves, on the one side, and the new covenant, realising the very image of the good things that were to come, on the other. These two regions correspond to one another (Hebrews 12:22). Yet the first covenant having a shadow of the good things that were to come was in truth the introduction of the new covenant, though in a shadowy form. Hence the second covenant, though called new, is new only in a modified sense. The promises on which it was enacted are virtually nothing more than the promise truly to realise the great objects aimed at in the first covenant (see Hebrews 8:6). It contemplates the same end with the first, the bringing of men into the rest of God and the promised inheritance Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 4:3). And it was made with the same persons as the first. These are the people (Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 13:12), the people of God Hebrews 4:9, comp. Hebrews 7:27), or, the seed of Abraham Hebrews 2:16). It is by no means easy to understand what is said in the Epistle in regard to the relations of the two covenants. Two points may be alluded to. 1. The author speaks in a very disparaging way of the Old Testament sacrifices, saying that they could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11), nor perfect those offering them as to the conscience (Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:1; Hebrews 01:2), and that they were carnal ordinances and useless Hebrews 7:18): His language implies that Old Testament saints were burdened with a conscience of sin (Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:2; Hebrews 10:22), consequently that they were oppressed by the sense of the inefficacy of their sacrifices to remove sin, from which it seems to follow that they ha.! no clear light as to any connection of these sacrifices with another the virtue of which they conveyed. To the same effect is the view that the transgressions under the first covenant were left outstanding and only removed by the sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 9:15). All this, however, bears directly only on the question before him of the value of the Old Testament sacrifices in themselves, and whether they effected a true objective atonement. Old Testament saints felt they could not do so, and hence they were burdened with a sense of sin which, among ether things, manifested itself in a bondage from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). 2. Again, when the author says that blood of bulls could never take away Hebrews 10:4), and on the other hand that it sanctified in reference to the purity of the flesh (Hebrews 9:13), it is certainly very far from being his intention to draw a distinction between one class of offences called “ sins” to which the Old Testament sacrifices were inapplicable, and another class that might be named ceremonial defilements which they did remove, and so to erect a general theory of the Old Testament constitution to the effect that it consisted of two spheres, one of ceremonial observances and external government, within which sacrifices had a real validity, and another the sphere of true spiritual relations to God, within which they had no force. The sacrifices were offered for sins Hebrews 5:1; Hebrews 5:3; Hebrews 9:7; Hebrews 10:8; Hebrews 1:11), and if they could have effected the purpose for which they were offered, the worshipper would have had no more conscience of sins (Hebrews 10:2), a condition which the offering of Christ brings about (Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:17). The Old Testament sacrifices could not go further than to purify the flesh. (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.) Hebrews 8:8 Finding fault with them God complaining of the Church I. GOD HATH JUST CAUSE TO OF HIS PEOPLE WHEN YET HE WILL NOT UTTERLY CAST THEM OFF. II. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO TAKE DEEP NOTICE OF GOD’ S OF THEM. Want hereof is that which hath laid most churches in the world under a fatal security. Hence they carry themselves as though they were “ rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing,” when indeed “ they are wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” To consider what God blames, and to affect our souls with a sense of guilt, is that trembling at His word which He so approves of. And to guide them herein they ought carefully to consider 1. The times and seasons that are passing over them. For in a due observance of the times and seasons, and an application of ourselves to the duties of them, consists that testimony which we are to give to God and the gospel in our generation. That Church which considers not its especial duty in the days wherein we live is fast asleep, and it may be doubted whether, when it is awaked, it will find oil in its vessel or not. 2. The temptations which are prevalent, and which unavoidably we are exposed unto. Every age and time hath its especial temptations. And it is the will of God that the Church should be exercised with them and by them; and it were easy to manifest that the darkness and ignorance of men, in not discerning the especial temptations of the age wherein they have lived, or neglecting of them, have been always the great causes and means of the apostasy the Church. III. GOD OFTEN THE CHURCH WITH OF GRACE AND MERCY (Isaiah 7:13-14; Isaiah 43:22-25). And this He will do 1. That He may glorify the riches and freedom of His grace. 2. That none who have the least remainder of sincerity, and desire to fear the name of God, may utterly faint and despond at any time, under the greatest confluence of discouragements. (John Owen, D. D.) I will make a new covenant I. GOD’ S WITH MAN US IN TWO POINTS. 1. In God’ s condescension to man. 2. In the sure prop that man hath to rest on God for happiness. 1. God’ s condescension to man is manifested four ways. (1) In that God being the most high supreme Sovereign over all, vouchsafeth to enter into covenant with His servants. (2) In that God being a Lord hath power to command what He pleaseth, so as He need not covenant or capitulate with them, saying, Do this and I will do that; yet doth He enter into covenant. (3) In that being mot free, and wholly depending upon Himself, He need not bind Himself to any (Job 9:12; Job 34:19; Daniel 4:35), yet by covenant He binds Himself to man. (4) In that God being the Lord God of truth (Psalms 30:5) He binds Himself to perform His promise, as if there might be some tear of His failing therein (Hebrews 6:17-18). 2. The sure prop that man hath to rest of God for happiness by reason of His covenant is manifested two ways. (1) In that God who is good and doeth good (Psalms 119:68) doth covenant to make man happy. God is as a deep, full, open, overflowing, everdowing fountain, so as that might seem sufficient to make us go to Him for everything that may tend to blessedness. But the covenant which God maketh to bring us unto happiness doth much more embolden us to go to Him, and make us confident of receiving from Him what He hath covenanted to give. (2) By covenant God hath caused a special relation to pass betwixt Him and us. He and we are confederates. This is a sure prop. As God is faithful in Himself, so His covenant is most sure. It is a covenant of salt for ever Numbers 18:19). God’ s confederates may thereupon have strong consolation and confidence (Deuteronomy 7:9; Hebrews 6:18). II. THE OF GOD WITH MAN DOTH DIRECT US IN FOUR SPECIAL POINTS. 1. To know what God expects of us; namely, whatsoever is in the covenant to be performed on our part, which we must be careful to observe as we do desire to receive any benefit from the covenant. 2. To understand what we may expect from God; namely, whatsoever on God’ s part is covenanted. 3. To acquaint ourselves with the covenant of God, that thereby we may know what privileges and blessings belong unto us. A wise heir will search after such evidences as give him a right to his lands and goods. 4. To be careful in observing our own undertakings, and as conscionable in performing the covenant on our part, as we are desirous to partake of the benefit of the covenant on God’ s part. This is laid down as a ground of Levi’ s blessing, theft they kept God’ s covenant (Deuteronomy 33:9). This God expressly requireth (Exodus 19:5). We cannot expect that God should keep covenant with us unless we he careful to keep covenant with Him (Psalms 25:10). Great is that loss which followeth upon breach of covenant, yet that is not all, God’ s wrath and vengeance will also follow thereupon. Sole vengeance hath been executed on breach of covenant with man (2 Kings 17:4, &c.; Ezekiel 17:15). How much sorer vengeance may be feared on breach of covenant with God Jeremiah 22:6; Jeremiah 22:9; Jeremiah 34:18-20; Hosea 8:1; 1 Kings 11:11). (W. Gouge.) The blessings of the new covenant New, as contrasted with old, means in Scripture that which is perfect and abiding. The old vanishes, the new remains. God gives us a new heart that we may love and praise Him for ever. The old covenant was temporary and imperfect. God findeth fault with it; for although the law was holy, just, and good, yet by reason of Israel’ s sin neither righteousness nor life could come through it. And as the purposes of Divine love could not be attained by the old covenant, so the character of God, as the God of grace, could not be fully revealed therein. Hence the promise of a new covenant, which in itself proves the imperfection and insufficiency of the old; and this new covenant is represented as a contrast, unlike the old; it is new, that is, perfect, everlasting. God is pleased with it because it shows forth the glory of Jehovah as the God of salvation. How great is the contrast between the old and the new covenant! In the one God demands of sinful man: “ Thou shalt.” In the other God promises: “ I will.” The one is conditional; the other is the manifestation of God’ s free grace, and of God’ s unlimited power. In the one the promise is neutralised by the disobedience of man; in the other all the promises of God are yea in Christ, and amen in Christ. In the new covenant Christ is all; He is the Alpha and Omega: all things are of God, and all things are sure and steadfast. The blessings of the new covenant are all based upon the forgiveness of sin. God promises to put His laws into our minds, and write them in our hearts, and to be to us a God, because He is merciful to our unrighteousness, and will remember our sins and iniquities no more. The forgiveness of sin is not merely the beginning, but it is the foundation, the source; it is, so to say, the mother of all Divine blessings. For so long as sin is upon the conscience, arid man is not able to draw near unto God, he is separated from the only source of life and blessedness. In the forgiveness of sin God gives Himself, and all things that pertain to life and godliness. To know God is the sum and substance of all blessings, both in this life and in that which is to come. Now, although the law manifests to a certain extent the holiness and truth, the justice and unchangeableness, the goodness and bounty of God, the law does not reveal God Himself, the depth of His sovereign and eternal love, the purpose which He purposed in Himself before the foundation of the world was laid. When in Christ we receive the forgiveness of sin, we behold God. Here is also the source and the commencement, the root and strength of our love to God. “ We love Him, because He first loved us.” We eve much, because much is forgiven unto us. The new obedience, the spiritual worship, the fight and victory of faith, the knowledge and fear and love of God, have their starting-point in the pardon of sin. And this is the new covenant blessing. True, the servants of God always knew this blessing. Of the Divine righteousness both the law and the prophets testify. David describeth this blessedness. The sacrifices typified, faith looked forward to the great atonement. But now that Christ has come, and that He died once for all, we receive forgiveness in a full and perfect manner: there is no more remembrance of sins; no repetition of sacrifice is needed; no yearly recurrence of the day of atonement; in Christ we have redemption in His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. It is in giving this perfect pardon that God renews the heart, and writes in it His laws. We must needs contrast law and gospel. Yet let us not forget that the law from the very outset showed its temporary and negative character, pointed beyond and away from itself; sighed, as it were, after Him, who by fulfilling would take it away, and by taking it away would fulfil it in us, raise us to the still greater height of the new love! All spiritual life flows from Jesus as our Saviour. When we believe in Jesus we are not in the flesh but in the Sprit. His precious blood is not merely our peace, but our strength; and our strength because it is our peace. Justification and sanctification emanate from this one source. When Israel is brought in repentance and faith to the Lord, then shall be fulfilled the gracious purpose of God, which under the law was frustrated through Israel’ s sin and disobedience. Although God was a husband unto them, they brake His covenant. But now, forgiven and renewed, Israel will be in actual reality, and not merely in position, God’ s people, and Jehovah will be their God. And because He is God to them, source of light and life, they are His people. Not merely chosen and appointed; not merely called and treated collectively as God’ s people; but in reality, according to truth, according to their individual character and experience, the people in whom God’ s name is revealed, who show forth His praise, who walk m His ways and obey His will. For then each one individually shall know the Lord. “ God is known in Judah,” said the Psalmist. In their marvelous history, in the Divine messages sent by Moses and the prophets, in the types and ordinances, in the Judges and Kings, God had revealed unto His people His name. His character and will, and His great desire was that they should know Him. How touching is the complaint of Jehovah, that after all the signs which they had seen, and after all His mighty works of redeeming and guiding love, a d after all the words of light and of grace which He had sent them, His people did not know Him f So long had He been with them, and, erring in their hearts, they did not know His ways! What could be more grievous to the fatherly heart of God, yearning to be known, trusted, and loved? But when the Holy Ghost shall be poured out upon them they shall all know Jehovah, from the least to the greatest; though one shall encourage and exhort the other, yet they shall not need to tea h and to say to their neighbour, Know the Lord. In the Church this promise is already fulfilled. From Jesus, the anointed, all Christians receive the Holy Ghost; they have, according to their name, the unction from above. Hence, they possess the teacher who guides into all truth. Knowledge is within them. There is within them a well of living water. They are not dependent on external instruction. There is given unto them the Paraclete, who always reveals the things that are freely given unto us of God. The spiritual man knows all things--all the things of the Spirit, all that pertains to life and godliness. True, he does not know all things actually, or in any given moment; but he knows them potentially. There is within him the light which can see, the mind which can receive all truth. (A. Saphir.) The difference betwixt the two covenants of works and grace The covenants of works and grace do differ in the particulars following. 1. In the different consideration of the Author of the one and the other, which are in the first God’ s supreme sovereignty, and in the latter His rich mercy. 2. In the procuring cause of them, which was of the former God’ s mere will and pleasure, of the latter pity and compassion. 3. In the manner of making the one and the other. The former was without a mediator; the latter with one 4. In the time: the former was made before man had sinned; the latter after his transgression. 5. In the occasion of making the one and the other. The occasion of the former was to try man’ s faithfulness in that integrity wherein God made him. The occasion of the latter was to show the necessity of man’ s continual dependence on God. 6. In the confederates or parties with whom the one and the other was made. The former was made with all mankind; the latter with the elect only. 7. In the particular good that was promised. In the former a reward was promised upon fulfilling the condition by man himself (Romans 10:15). In the latter was afforded (1) A Surety for man (chap. 7:22). (2) Ability to do what God would accept (Ezekiel 36:27). (3) A better reward in man’ s communion with Christ (John 14:3; 17:23, 24). 8. In the duties required by the one and the other. Perfect obedience was required by the former; faith and repentance by the latter. 9. In the order of God’ s accepting. In the former God accepted the person for the work; which is thus expressed, “ If thou do well, shalt thou not be accepted?” (Genesis 4:7). In the latter the work is accepted in reference to the person. 10. In the ratification. The former was ratified by word, promise, and seals. The letter was further ratified by oath (Hebrews 7:20) and blood Hebrews 9:16-17) 11. In the issue of the one and the other. The former was violable. It might be forfeited, and was forfeited. The latter is inviolable and shall never be broken (Jeremiah 33:20-21). 12. In the matter of the one and the other. These two covenants do so far differ in the very matter and substance of them as they can no more stand together’ than the ark of God and Dagon (1 Samuel 5:3-4). The apostle doth so far oppose works and grace in the case of justification and salvation as they cannot stand together (Romans 11:6). This difference betwixt the covenant of works and grace giveth evidence of God’ s wisdom in working by contraries and bringing light out of darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6) and good out of evil, as He brought “ meat out of the eater” (Judges 4:14). For man’ s sin and misery that fell thereupon caused this better covenant. This is an especial instance to prove that “ all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). (W. Gouge.) The agreement betwixt the covenant of grace as it is styled old and new The covenant of grace hath continued from Adam’ s fall, and shallcontinue to the end of the world. In this respect it is styled an everlasting covenant. But it hath been variously dispensed in the several ages of the world. The greatest difference in the dispensation thereof hath been manifested in the times float passed before and since Christ was exhibited. This difference is so great, as the covenant of grace, though always one and the same in substance, hath been distinguished into an old and new covenant (Hebrews 8:13). The latitude of the covenant of grace wilt more clearly be discerned if we duly consider the agreement and difference, as it is called old and new. The agreement is manifested--1. In their Author, and that considered in the same respect: namely, as He is our Creator and Lord, and as He is our Redeemer and Father, for so was God of old called and acknowledged (Deuteronomy 32:6). 2. In the procuring cause, which was the bee grace and rich mercy of God Luke 1:54-55; Luke 1:72; Luke 1:78). 3. In the same ground and meritorious cause of both, which is Jesus Christ Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 13:8). 4. In the same promises, which are remission of sins, reconciliation with God, and everlasting happiness (Exodus 34:7; Leviticus 8:15; Psalms 91:16). 5. In the same duties required, which are faith (Genesis 15:6) and repentance (Ezekiel 33:11). 6. In the same ground of stability, which is the continual abode and operation of the Spirit in God’ s confederates (Psalms 51:11-12). 7. In the same general end, which is the praise of the free grace of God Exodus 33:18-19; Exodus 34:6). 8. In the same persons with whom the covenants are made, which are sinners by nature but elect of God (Psalms 33:12; Psalms 89:3). 9. In the same word of faith, whereby the one and other covenant is revealed (Galatians 3:8; Hebrews 4:2). 10. In the same substance of sacraments and the same spiritual food (1 Corinthians 10:3-4). (W. Gouge.) The difference between the covenant of grave as it is styled old and new The difference betwixt the old and new covenant Isaiah 1. In the time. The old was before Christ, the new since (Hebrews 1:1-2). 2. In the manner of delivering. The old was more obscurely delivered under types and prophecies, the new more clearly (2 Corinthians 3:13-14). 3. In the extent. The old was restrained to a select people (Psalms 147:19-20); the new is extended to all nations (Matthew 28:19). 4. In the mediator. Moses, a mere man, was made the mediator of the old Galatians 3:19); but Jesus Christ, God-man, the Mediator of the new (verse 6). 5. In the ratification. The old was ratified by the blood of beasts Exodus 24:8); the new by the blood of the Son of God (Hebrews 9:12). 6. In the efficacy. The old comparatively was a ministration of death, thee new a ministration of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:7-8). 7. In the kind of confederates. Under the old God’ s confederates were in their non-age, as children under tutors and governors (Galatians 4:5; Galatians 4:7). 8. In the kind of seals or sacraments. Under the old they were more in number, more various in rites, more difficult, more obscure, more earthly. By comparing the sacraments of the one and the other together, this will evidently appear. 9. In the manner of setting forth the promise of God. In the old it was set forth more meanly under temporal blessings (Deuteronomy 28:2); under the new, more directly under spiritual and celestial blessings Matthew 5:3, &c.). 10. In the yoke that is laid o, the confederates by the one and the other. By the old heavy yoke was laid (Acts 15:10); by the new, an easy and light Matthew 11:30). So great a difference there is betwixt the new covenant and all other covenants, as it is styled a better covenant. (W. Gouge.) The two dispensatons are one The new covenant deals with the same fundamental conceptions which dominated the former one. These are the moral law, knowledge of God, and forgiveness of sin. So far the two dispensations are one. Because these great conceptions lie at the root of all human goodness, religion is essentially the same thing under both covenants. There is a sense in which St. Augustine was right in speaking of the saints under the Old Testament as “ Christians before Christ.” Judaism and Christianity stand shoulder to shoulder over against the religious ideas and practices of all the heathen nations of the world. But in Judaism these sublime conceptions are undeveloped. Nationalism dwarfs their growth. They are like seeds falling on the thorns, and the thorns grow up and choke them. God, therefore, spoke unto the Jews in parables, in types and shadows. Seeing, they saw not; and hearing, they heard not, neither did they understand. Because the former covenant was a national one, the conceptions of the moral law, of God, of sin and its forgiveness, would be narrow and external. The moral law would be embedded in the national code. God would be revealed in the history of the nation. Sin would consist either in faults of ignorance and inadvertence or in national apostasy from the theocratic king. In these three respects the new covenant excels--in respect, that is, of the moral law, knowledge of God, and forgiveness of sin, which y t may be justly regarded as the three sides of the revelation given under the former covenant. (T. C. Edwards, D. D.) Hebrews 8:10-12I will put My laws into their mind God’ s covenant with the New Testament Church I. WHAT IS IN THE WORDS. 1. That a covenant shall be made, and a covenant-relation shall subsist, between God and every member of the New Testament Church. 2. That both parties, so related to one another, shall behave in a due and becoming manner, agreeable to the relation in which they stand. 3. That the relation itself and the due behaviour of the relatives on both sides shall be wholly the work of God. II. WHAT IS MORE IN GOD’ S TO BE OUR GOD. 1. That God will graciously bring us to have a real and saving interest in Him as our God. Now, in order to our having such an interest in God, two things are necessary; both which are secured by this promise and both are accomplished in behalf of every one who is brought within the bond of this covenant. (1) That God make a gracious grant and offer of Himself to us declaring us welcome to claim an interest in Him, and to look for the rest and happiness of our souls in the enjoyment of Him. Without such an offer it would be impossible that ever we should be interested in Him as our God. Such a happiness is incapable of being purchased by any creature. (2) It is likewise necessary that He enable us to accept this gracious offer, and really to choose Him as our God and Portion. There can be no covenant without the consent of both parties. 2. This part of the promise imports that God will do all that for us that any people has reason to expect or usually does expect from their God. He would be ashamed to be called our God, if He were not to act up to the character. And His allowing us to claim Him in that character may be viewed as an engagement that He will do for us whatever corresponds unto it. (1) Be will set you free from all spiritual bondage, oppression, and misery of every kind, and put you in ample possession of the glorious liberty of the sons of God. (2) He will guide and conduct you through this weary wilderness in every step of your journey towards the land of promise. (3) He will lead you forth against all your enemies, and make you completely victorious over them in due time. (4) In a word, He will bring you home in the event to the possession of a plentiful and pleasant inheritance. III. WHAT IS IN OUR BEING TO GOD FOR A PEOPLE. 1. That God would gather into one all the members of the New Testament Church; so that in whatever place of the world they should have their residence, from whatever nation they should spring, whatever should be their kindred, tongue, or language, they should all be closely united one to another and constituted one body mystical. 2. That this dignified people, and every particular person among them, shall, in due tree, be enabled to dedicate themselves unto God, and cheerfully to acknowledge themselves to be His property. 3. That having made such a dedication of themselves to God, the Church and her members shall be preserved from ever attempting to alienate what they have devoted. 4. That God will graciously accept the dedication that we make of ourselves to Him and all those evangelical services which we perform in consequence thereof. Lessons: 1. From what has been said, we may see one very remarkable difference between the covenant of grace as it is exhibited in the gospel and actually made with every Christian in the day of believing, a difference, I say, between this and all other covenants. In all covenants there are mutual engagements entered into by both parties respectively; and something which they become bound to perform one to another on both sides. So far this covenant agrees with all others. But the amazing difference between this and every other covenant lies in this, that here one party binds Himself for the performance of the engagements of both. 2. We may see that all true Christians are really covenanters with God, however little relish some of them may have for the name. 3. From hence we may see that neither faith, nor repentance, nor sincere obedience, nor anything else wrought in us or done by us, can be the condition of the covenant of grace. 4. We may see from this subject that real Christians are the only happy person- in the world. All the things that men value or esteem, and in which they look for happiness, riches, honours, power, pleasure, they possess in a supereminent degree. They arc the only persons who deserve to be called rich, having an interest in God Himself, an infinite and inexhaustible good as their portion and inheritance. (John Young, D. D.) The religious relations of the intellect That there is mind, and that it is superior to matter, I assume, and I have a right so to do: for assumption is not illogical where the demonstration of the thing assumed can be instantaneous and popular--that is, within the range of ordinary understandings. That our bodies are but the organs of our minds, and therefore inferior to them, and totally distinct from them, is seen in this: that the one can be destroyed, while the other remains intact. The surgeon can cut both legs of a man off near the trunk, and then he can cut both arms off at the shoulder, until a full half of his body as represented by bulk has been destroyed, and still the energies of the man’ s mind are in no way affected. The symmetry of the body is gone, but the symmetry of the undestroyed and the indestructible mind remains. The mind and the saw have not touched it; they cannot. Now, holding that mind is immortal, I would point out to you some of its religious relations, to the end that we may all apprehend how natural to the mind itself are those states, moods, and natures which the Bible enjoins. For religion is only nature corrected--nature perfected. When man stands in his natural powers, with all hisadjustments correct, with all his instincts just, and with all his aspirations holy, he has in him the same mind that was in Christ; for in Him all religion existed organically. Reverence, obedience, affection, humility, truthfulness, and whatever other element piety includes, lived incarnate in Him. He embodied them. Hence, imitation of Him is piety in its highest phase. Hence, His life is the light of men, morally. Hence, Christian studentship is a studentship of His character. 1. Well, the first characteristic of the mind, religiously considered, is activity. Mind is motion, mind is impulse, mind is vibration, mind is only God’ s thought; and His thought keeps for ever thinking. Mind, therefore, in its religious connections, must be for ever active. Be not afraid, therefore, to think, young men. Let your minds go forth continually in search of facts. Knock at the door of every phenomenon; press against the door until the fastenings of it yield to your pressure, and, passing in, you stand eye to eye in presence of its long-pent mystery. Wherever there is darkness, creep into it; and when you have entered within its gloom, kindle the torch of investigation and look around you, to discover the hidden wonder. Explorations, spiritually, are for ever in order. The proof of God is found, beyond all else, in your thinking; and the thinkers of the world are the perpetual evidences of the truth of the Bible when it declares that God made man in His own image. The human intellect is the offspring of the Supreme Intelligence. No less cause than this can be assigned as able to produce such a result. There was but one orb that could throw out such a beam. The primal relation of the human mind to the Deity was filial. Of this there can be no doubt. Nature alone is sufficient evidence. And what, pray, is the peculiar characteristic of filial connection? What is the initial attitude of the child’ s mind into which it grows continually as it advances in years? 2. There is but one answer: the attitude is that of reverence. Well, what shall we say, then, touching the proper attitude of the human mind to its Creator, if not this, that its attitude should be reverential? This conclusion we reach, you observe, not by following the line of any dogma, but by following the line of nature. Nature alone constitutes a perfect bible from which to read the commandment of duty. Your minds are the offspring of that Supreme Intelligence which they resemble. And if your minds are not in a reverential attitude toward God, they are in a state of transgression; not as touching any verbal statute, but as touching the great ineradicable principle of natural relationship. This reverence on the part of the human mind touching God refers not only to Him as to His nature, but to Him equally as to His creations and surroundings. The mind that rightly apprehends its relationship to the Divine Being reverences not only Him, but all that He has made. It apprehends Him in His divergence, in His distributiveness, in the varieties of His expression. Like the Hebrew, it apprehends Him in the beauty of the firmament. Like the Egyptian, it sees Him in the patience, the usefulness, and the cunning of animal life. Like the Greek, it admires the divinity as seen in the symmetry of outline and the loveliness of the human figure. Like the historian, it beholds Him in the progress of events and in the succession of forces, as they have been evolved from the various attempts at government. Nor does such a mind fail to see the evidence of its Master’ s presence in little things. In grasses, in flowers: in shrubs, in trees, in whatever there is of growth round about, the mind which is properly constituted reverentially apprehends Deity. 3. The third characteristic of mind that has a special religious relation is humility, and the exceeding excellence of this trait will be more clearly apprehended when it is set in contrast with its opposite, arrogance. This arrogance of intellect is as old as studentship, and as offensive as human pride. Its results are beyond expression deplorable. Its tendency is to make men self-opinionated, domineering, and insulting. It has been the mother of oppression. It has dictated persecutions beyond number. It has driven the sword of war even to its hilt into the white bosom of peace, and often made the Church, which is by nature a dispenser of the mercies of God, an engine of the devil. Its culmination is seen in the assertion of infallibility. He who lays claim to such powers of judgment advertises himself as the colossal arrogance of the world. The worst phase met with to-day is the arrogance of what is known as Radicalism. There is a class of men whose whole philosophy is that of negation. Their wisdom consists in denial. They deny the existence of God, they deny the exaltation of Christ, they deny the truth of the gospel, they deny the intelligence of piety, they deny everything that faith credits or the converted soul believes. Their sole object seems to be to undermine and pull down every structure which Christian faith and hope have builded. A more self-conceited and arrogant set of men never lived. They fulminate their scepticism as if they spoke with the authority of a god. A scientific supposition is made to subserve the purpose of a fact. Their speculations arc announced as if they were demonstrations. They are all kindred in the fashion of their behaviour. Their utterances are monotonous. He who has heard one of them lecture has heard all. He who has read one volume has mastered their entire system, if such vagaries of thought can be called a system. Bring them all together, strip them of their various names and their personality, lump them in one embodiment, and they represent a solid mass of self-conceit. That such men can have any lasting influence on the thought and morals of the race is preposterous. They are simply an accident of the times. They simply represent human eccentricity. I have now discussed the relations which mental activity, the quality of reverence, and the quality of humility hold to religious development. If you desire religious growth, you must keep your bodily organs thoroughly healthy, your mind active, reverential, and humble. One more thing alone remains to be said. 4. And this one thing which we need, we need beyond everything else: it is the love of the truth. Truth is the soul of form. It is the spirit which lurks in all substance. It is the genius which lives in law. It is the inspiration of love. It is the crown and glory of man’ s noblest effort. In seeking it men have passed their lives. To behold the brightness of its /ace, men have walked bravely into the darkness of death. In order to know truth you must first desire it--desire it with your whole heart, desire it for its own sweet sake. In order to find it you must free your mind from all prejudice, from all vanity, from all pride. You will look for it on a throne, and you will find it in a manger. You will look for it in honour, and you will find it in shame. You will look for it among the wise, and you will find it among the ignorant. You will look for it under the royalty of a crown, and you will find it on a cross. You will search the letter, and you will find that the letter does not include it. You will search for it in creeds, and after forty years of belief, you will discover that your creed does not contain it. You cannot stamp it on the pages of a pamphlet any more than you can tie the wind to the tree tops, But he who searches for it actively, reverently, humbly, and because his soul loveth it, will, somewhere, sometime, find it; not all at once, nor in the way he expected, but little by little, and in the way of surprise. As he finds it, so shall he find delight. It will be sweet to his soul. Peace, too, shall come with it--the peace which passeth understanding--the peace that makes man a marvel unto himself. (W. H. H. Murray.) The highest literature of Christianity I. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST LEGIBLE. Those who know not the alphabet-children and heathens--can read characters. These life-commentaries on the Bible we want. II. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST . Man may write his interpolations in connection with God’ s truth on paper or parchment, but not on souls. III. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST . The arguments of Butler, Paley, &c., are powerless compared with the argument of a true life. IV. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST LASTING. Paper, marble, and brass will decay, but not souls. (Homilist.) Divine renewal I. THE PROPER OF . This, as it is an act of God upon the human soul, consists in the establishment in it of a divine principle of holiness, expressed, here, as the putting God’ s laws into the mind and writing them in the heart. This is begun in regeneration. The law of God, the principle of true holiness, is re-established in the inward parts; the man is brought into habitual conformity to it, in all its spirituality, as the one governing principle of his life. This is the proper character of sanctification, as it is a grace of the true Christian. II. THE SEAT OF . This is, in general, the soul of man: the mind and heart. In both these this blessed principle has its throne, and exerts its paramount, though not undisputed, dominion over the whole man. The body of the believer, itself, experiences the benefit of the sanctification (Romans 6:13; Romans 12:1). Divine grace, in the renewed mind, is a pervading principle, that, like leaven, to which it is compared, never ceases its operation, till it have assimilated to itself all with which it comes in contact. It attacks not one vice, and spares another; corrects not one evil habit, and tolerates the rest. The law of the new creation is nothing less than God’ s law; and whatever in thought, word, or deed, whatever in tempers, habits, and dispositions, consists not with perfect love to God and man , that the renewed man instantly detects, by a kind of spiritual instinct before unknown; an antipathy of nature, as true to itself, as uniform in its actings, as that of water to fire, or of darkness to light. The two cannot exist together in peace. The man now hates sin; strives against it in all its shapes--against corrupt reason and passion both. Satan and his allies in man--the lusts of the flesh and of the mind--are driven into corners; they cannot tyrannise as before; but they yield not easily. The words of the promise lead us to distinguish two parts in this great work, the sanctification of the human soul. 1. The enlightening of the understanding, expressed by putting God’ s laws into the mind. 2. The engagement of the affections, expressed by writing them in the heart. Both these go together when the man is born again of the Spirit. The soul is sweetly but powerfully drawn to choose what the judgment has been taught to approve. There is given, not the rule only of obedience, but the spirit of obedience; there is a taking away the stony heart out of the flesh, and giving a heart of flesh. III. THE AUTHOR OF . “ I will put … I will write.” God, then, is Himself the agent in the establishment of His law in the hearts and minds of His people. None beneath Himself is equal to this great work. The outward means which He uses as preparatory and auxiliary to this great work, are endlessly diversified. 1. The mercy which distinguishes one man from another is not the result of holiness foreseen in the subjects of it. The terms of the covenant of grace run directly counter to such a notion. Sanctification is promised in it to sinners, as a free gift. 2. Holiness is connected with mercy, as the effect with its cause. The revelation of mercy to unrighteousness is God’ s great means for winning the sinner from his enmity, to love and delight in Him. I will sanctify, saith He, for I will be merciful. These two can never be disjoined. 3. Sanctification is never perfect while the believer is in the body. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit continues to the end, with various success; but, upon the whole, the actings of corruption get weaker, and the habit of grace strengthens in the soul. Still, the spark of evil is not extinguished. Satan lives, and, if permitted, can easily re-kindle it into a flame. 4. The law of the Ten Commandments is still the rule of life to the believer. From the law, as a covenant, we are eternally delivered, through Christ. As a means, therefore, of meriting life, we have nothing whatever to do with the terms of it. Eternal life is given us in Christ (1 John 5:11). But we are therefore “ delivered from the law,” “ that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” Romans 8:2; Romans 8:4, compare Romans 7:6). The law of Christ is indeed a law of love; but still this “ new commandment” is “ the old commandment which ye had from the beginning” (1 John if. 7). 5. The security of the believer in Jesus. God has put His hand to the work, and who shall let it? (Francis Goode, M. A.) God’ s law written in the heart I. THE THINGS TO BE WRITTEN ARE THE LAWS OF GOD. But what laws these are may be doubted. For some will have them to be the Decalogue. Yet these are said to be written in the heart of the very heathens (Romans 2:5). Yet suppose they be already in their hearts, yet the writing of them there is very imperfect; for both the knowledge of them and the power to keep them are very imperfect, so that the love of God and our neighbour may be imprinted there more perfectly. Yet the word termed Laws signifies in the Hebrew, Doctrines. And these are the doctrines of the gospel concerning Christ’ s person, nature, offices, and the work of redemption; the doctrines of repentance, faith, justification, and eternal life; and these either presuppose or include the moral law. Further, they are doctrines concerning Christ, glorified, reigning, and officiating in heaven. II. THE BOOK OR TABLES WHEREIN THEY MUST RE WRITTEN ARE THE MIND AND HEART OF MAN. There is the spring and original of all rational and moral operations, of all thoughts, affections, and inward motions. There is the directive counsel and imperial commanding power. There is the prime mover of all humane actions as such. This is the subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural truths, and doctrines, and all laws. There divine characters may be imprinted, and made legible to the soul itself. This is the most noble and excellent book that any can write in. III. THE SCRIBE OR PEN-MAN IS GOD; FOR IT IS SAID, I WILL GIVE OR PUT, I WILL WRITE. He that said so was the Lord. And it must be He, because the work is so curious and excellent that it is far above the sphere of created activity. He alone can immediately work upon the immortal soul to inform it, move it, alter it, and mould it anew. IV. THE ACT AND WORK OF THIS PENMAN IS TO WRITE, AND WRITE THESE LAWS AND WRITE THEM IN THE HEART. HOW He cloth it we know not. That He doth it is clear enough. His preparations, illuminations, impulsions, inspirations, are strange and wonderful, of great and mighty force. For in this work He doth not only represent divine objects in a clearer light, and propose high motives to incline and turn the heart, but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive power, whereby the soul more easily and clearly apprehends, and more effectually affects heavenly things. The effect of this writing is a divine knowledge of God’ s laws, and a ready and willing heart to obey them, and conform unto them, a power to know and do the word of God. This is that work of the Spirit which is called vocation, renovation, regeneration, conversion actively taken, without which man cannot repent, believe, obey, and turn to God. 1. The laws. The laws of God are written in the heart, not the inventions, fancies of men, nor natural, nor mathematical, nor moral philosophy; much less the errors and blasphemies of seducers and false prophets. 2. The heart of man is by nature a very untoward and indisposed subject, and not capable of these heavenly doctrines. It is blind and perverse, and there is an antipathy between it and these laws. As it hath no true notions of the greatest good, so it hath no mind to use the means, which conduce to the attaining thereof. This defacement of so noble a substance is the work of the devil and sin. 3. Concerning God’ s writing His laws in the heart of man, you must know (1) That they are not written there by nature. If they were, what need God write that which is already written? (2) He writes nothing in this heart but His laws and His saving truths. Therefore that which is not written without in the Scripture He doth not promise to write within the heart, and whosoever shall fancy any doctrine received in his heart to be written by the hand of Heaven, and yet cannot find it in the gospel, is deceived and deluded. (3) Before these divine doctrines can be written in the heart, all errors, lusts, false opinions, must be raised and rooted out of the soul, and it must be made like blank paper. (4) God doth not write His laws in our hearts by enthusiasm, rapture, and inspiration, as He wrote His word in the hearts of the prophets and apostles; but He makes use of the word, and the ministers of the gospel, and the instructions of man, as also of the outward senses, as of the eye and ear, and also of the inward, and of reason, and of all the powers He bath given man to do anything in this work. And whosoever will not use these means and exercise this power by reading, hearing, meditation, conference, prayer, let him never expect or think that God will write these things in his heart. (5) The effect of this writing of God is not only knowledge, but also a love of the truth, light, and integrity, power and dominion over sin, and the powerful sanctifications and consolations of the Spirit. And whosoever doth not find these in his heart, let him not think that God hath written His laws in his heart. For He writes with power, and leaves a permanent tincture of holiness, and a constant habitual inclination to that which is good, just, and right. (6) God doth not write these laws perfectly and fully in man’ s heart whilst he is in the flesh; for He proceeds in this work by degrees. Therefore seeing God hath ordained means, and commanded them to be used, no man must neglect them whilst this mortal life continues, for these truths are not written in any of our hearts further than we use these means, which were given not only for the first inscription of these laws, but for the increase and perfection of our Divine knowledge. (G. Lawson) The law in the heart It was a choice tribute that was lately rendered to a noble Christian woman, that “ her natural life was so completely Christian, that her Christian life became completely natural.” (Sarah F. Smiley.) The miracle of miracles The miracle of miracles is this--“ A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” To put the law in the inward parts, and to write it on the heart, is more than to fill the firmament with stars. (J. Parker, D. D.) Commandments, not burdensome Cicero questions whether that can properly be called a burden which one carries with delight and pleasure. ° If a man carries a bag of money given him, it is heavy; but the delight takes oft the burden. When God gives inward joy, that makes the commandments delightful. Joy is like oil to the wheels, which makes a Christian run in the way of God’ s commandments, so that it is not burdensome. (T. Watson.) Obedience from love The son of a poor man, that hath not a penny to give or leave him, yields his father obedience as cheerfully as the son of a rich man that looks for a great inheritance. It is, indeed, love to the father, not wages from the father, that is the ground of a good child’ s obedience. If there were no heaven, God’ s children would obey Him; and though there was no hell, yet would they do their duty; so powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them. (J. Spencer.) Two conversions needed We all need two conversions. First of all, we need to be converted from the natural man to the spiritual man, and in the second place, we need to be converted from the spiritual man to the natural man, until the spiritual man becomes a natural life, and the burden is opportunity and the bondage is delight. (Theodore Monod.) Inner-devotion If those who are in the employ of others do but meet the outward and visible engagements into which they have entered with their masters, the latter are satisfied. Let but the proper hours be kept and the day fully and diligently filled up, let but the books be accurately posted, and the articles of merchandise which are being manufactured be put together in a workmanlike way; and the wages are cheerfully and promptly paid. The majority of masters do not concern themselves with the motives of their men. The latter might profess to like other masters better than they do their own, yet if they but fulfil their tasks their employers are content. The preferences and motives of their servants most masters regard as being no concern of theirs. In this respect there exists a striking contrast between the claims of God and those of men. The Almighty will accept of no service which is not a service of love. The heart must first be given before the service is accepted. The connection subsisting between God and those employed by Him resembles rather the services rendered to each other by the members of a loving and united household. (T. Thompson, M. A.) The law in the heart Just as each plant in its growth spontaneously obeys the law put into its inmost parts by God, so the believer who accepts the new covenant promise in its fulness, walks in the power of that inner law. The spirit within frees from the law without. (Andrew Murray.) Attraction Just as the water naturally follows the channels which are constructed to conduct it from the mountains to the sea, so the holy heart follows the channels of Divine law, marked out by Divine law, not through compulsion, but through the power of attraction. The grand morality A noted secular paper once prophesied concerning Moody and Sankey that Professor Tyndall would do more to purify London than “ these men!” Professor Tyndall may help us to purify the atmosphere of our houses and streets, but what word has he ever dropped that would purify a human heart! He may discourse eloquently of “ duty,” but Plato could have done that; Aristotle did that. But who has not found out before he has had many years’ experience in dealing with men, that what is needed is not so much to show men their duty as to get them to do it? To show men their duty yon want light, to get them to do it you want power, and the only adequate power is love. God’ s clearest light, God’ s mightiest power is in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! (C. Clemance, D. D.) I will be to them a God Divine relationship I. A MUTUAL OF GOD AND MEN. “ I will be to them a God.” In other words, Whatever I am in Myself, that I will be to them; of that they shall have the free use and blessed experience: all My perfections will I exert for their present and everlasting welfare. How greatly do we need the increase of faith, to receive this amazing promise I to embrace it, to the comfort and joy of our souls. We shrink from appropriating it; we try to live on something less for happiness. But He who knows the souls that He has made, knows that nothing beneath Himself can ever fill their boundless desires. No gifts of nature, no, nor even the largest gifts of grace itself, can supply the place of Him who is the Author of them all. God, then, makes Himself a God to His people, communicates Himself to them by indwelling. “ I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God.” Two things are necessary for your enjoyment of this promise. 1. Realize God as your God. Claim the relation of a child; live as if you were one; and God will so own the relation that you can hesitate no longer. 2. Live on God as a God to you--and this in two ways. (1) Live on Him for all your need. (2) Live on Him for all your happiness. Under this twofold aspect God revealed Himself to Abraham (Genesis 12:1) for the encouragement of His faith, in the long-continued trial of it. (Francis Goode, M. A.) They shall be to Me a people Divine relationship I. This relation of redeemed sinners to their GOD. “ They shall be to Me a people.” 1. His people owning God as theirs. (1) They yield themselves to His authority. (2) They separate themselves from an evil world. (3) They devote themselves to His services. (4) They live on Him for protection and happiness. 2. God owning them as His people. Consider the terms of endearment under which He speaks of them. He calls them His children; the sheep of His pasture, for whom the Shepherd bled. Such is the preciousness of His purchased people in His eyes. (1) How infatuated are the enemies of God’ s people! How great is the folly (to say nothing of the wickedness) of hating those whom God loves! (2) How glorious is the character, how exalted the privileges, of the saints! II. God’ s own engagement to establish this BETWEEN US AND HIM. “ They shall be to Me a people.” These words clearly express a resolve of God in this matter. He Has so ordered the covenant of grace, that it is a sure covenant to all who have once embraced it. “ They shall be to Me a people.” His word is passed for the effectual accomplishment of His grace; and, therefore, His own Divine character and glory are involved in it. If God be able to do what He has resolved to do, this relation cannot fail to be made good between Him and them. This doctrine is a precious cordial for the fainting soldier in the day of battle. It strengthens his weak hands; confirms his feeble knees; animates him under all the terribleness of conflict. (Francis Goode, M. A.) All shall know Me Divine knowledge I. A knowledge of God covenanted under the GOSPEL. “ They shall know Me.” This is a knowledge little thought of, or valued, by men in general; and, which is stranger still, it is that of which all men in Christian countries think they are in possession. But to know God indeed, according to the true sense of the term, is to have such an apprehension of His infinite majesty and holiness as shall lay us low before Him, and to bow with deepest submission to His will. It is to have such a knowledge of His glorious goodness as shall fill us with holy delight in Him, intense desire after communion with Him, and enjoyment of His favour. Further, it is so to behold His glory, as to be ourselves transformed into the same image of holiness and goodness; to be ourselves “ partakers of the Divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4). This knowledge of God, which is matter of promise to His covenant people, we may consider under two heads. It consists in saving acquaintance with God (1) As He is in Himself, in His revealed nature and character. (2) As He is to us, in His purposes towards us, and the interest which we have in Him. II. The universality of this knowledge of God BY HIS PEOPLE. “ All shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” There is not one true child of God under the gospel but has his measure of it. He discerns the perfections of God, as they are displayed in the work of redemption; that “ mystery which, in other ages, was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His apostles and prophets (and by them to the Church) through the Spirit.” The “ least” of God’ s covenant’ people, as well as the greatest, has now a satisfying, soul-quieting acquaintance with God; such an understanding of the method of peace with God, through Christ, as even prophets, and righteous men of old, the most spiritual of their day, desired in vain. Yea, often the poor and ignorant and weak in intellect of this world are, in the sovereignty of Divine grace, pre-eminently “ rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him.” III. A SUPER-HUMAN SOURCE OF THIS . “ They shall not teach,” &c. This is certainly not said to disparage God’ s appointed ordinance of public preaching, or mutual exhortation. It was under this very gospel covenant that He first gave the command, “ Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” But the believer does not so learn of man as that He receives the truth in that uncertainty, or sense of possible error, which attaches to every mere word of man. There is a revelation of God to His children, a knowledge of Himself by His Spirit, that is, like light, its own witness. The man who has it is sure that he has it, and that it is of God. Lessons: 1. Do we possess such superior light and knowledge of God to any which the saints of old enjoyed? O, then, let the superior effects of this knowledge be clearly discernible in our conduct. To see God indeed is to be like God. 2. Be satisfied with no knowledge of God to which you have yet attained. Though, like Paul, you had been caught up into the third heaven, yet should your prayer be, with Paul, “ That I may know Him” ; yet should your language be, as his was, “ Not as though I had already attained.” Still have you reason to say, “ Now I know in part.” 3. Learn to live on God in the use of ordinances. This is a very different thing from that pernicious conceit of living above ordinances. That is the privilege of heaven alone. God can indeed supply the place of means, and, in particular cases, He does so; acts independent of them; to teach us to trust in Him, in the dearth of them. But, ordinarily, it is otherwise. 4. This promise of the covenant, like the preceding, has its complete fulfilment only in an eternal world. The knowledge of God which the believer now has is real and delightful; all the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto it. But the sweetest part of its enjoyment is, that it is an earnest of what shall be. (Francis Goode, M. A.) The knowledge of God I. In the first place, WHAT IS IN THE TEXT BY THE OF GOD. “ All shall know Me.” It cannot be a mere knowledge of the existence of God, for the devils believe that God is. It cannot be a mere partial acquaintance with the character of God; because we cannot for a moment doubt that the Jews were partially acquainted with God’ s character, and yet our Lord said to them, “ Ye neither know Me nor My Father.” Neither can it be a dry, uninfluential, notional knowledge of God, however accurate (2 Peter 2:20-21). To know God includes far more than this. It implies a real, personal, experimental, sanctifying acquaintance with God. 1. It especially regards Him as a reconciled God in Christ. 2. But more than this; the knowledge of God implies a knowledge of Him as our God in covenant; a God who has pledged His very perfections to bring His people safe to glory; who will not have them to judge Him by their feelings, nor by their providences. Who can unfold the knowledge of God which springs from the consideration of Him as a pitying Father? “ He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” To know God implies a knowledge of Him as a God all-sufficient; My brethren, how long you and I have been learning this lesson, and how little we know of it after all! II. Observe, in the second place, here is a positive word of certainty THAT ALL GOD’ S PEOPLE SHALL KNOW HIM, “ from the least to the greatest.” This was no small part of the work of our adorable Immanuel. It is sweet and pleasant to look at Him as bearing the very name of the Word of God, because He is the revealer of God. He does indeed tell us the secrets of God’ s heart; He brings to light those perfections in Deity which we could never conceive to have existed but for His work. The work of Jesus is glorious throughout, and there is no part of His work which ought more to endear Him to our hearts than this, inasmuch as He disclosed more of the Father, and brings us into more intimate acquaintance with the character of God, than could have been devised by any other means. But it is not this that secures the infallible teaching of all God’ s Israel; it was the covenant “ ordered in all things and sure.” But there is a point connected with this that I would not overlook, and that is, the way by which the Holy Spirit (for it is His especial work), brings the knowledge of God into the soul. “ I will give them a heart that they may know Me, saith the Lord.” It is not, “ I will give them knowledge,” but “ I will give them a heart.” Now this was communicated in regeneration. Oh the wonders of redeeming love, flowing out from the heart of God by Christ Jesus! Oh what a beam of light is that which the Holy Spirit brings into the conscience, developing God our Saviour in Christ Jesus! III. But observe, WHAT ARE THE OF THIS OF GOD. I hardly know where to begin or where to end. It is true wisdom: “ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of Him is understanding.” Here lies also the secret of peace, “ They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.” Whence is it that the careworn brow marks thy countenance? If thou weft only conversant with the great secret, “ Casting thy care upon Him that careth for thee,” thou wouldst find out the blessed lesson, of living above the region of disappointment, and finding peace in believing, ‘‘ Acquaint thyself with Him, and be at peace.” In a word, this true knowledge of God has in it the material of all holiness. Whatever there is of love, whatever there is of hope, whatever there is of obedience, whatever there is of careful walking, whatever there is of watchfulness unto prayer, whatever there is of making a conscience of one’ s deeds, whatever there is of walking secretly with God as in the sight of God--it is all involved in one truth, a true, real, personal, experimental knowledge of God in Christ. 1. Be thankful, then, for the least measure you have of the true knowledge of God. 2. Covet earnestly the most. The true secret for a heavenly walk with God is a real acquaintance with Him. 3. Do not quarrel with the way by which God makes Himself known to thee. I remember the expression of a child of God who, feeling her heart too much attached to some earthly object, prayed that God would take away the idol, whatever the idol might be. In the course of a week He took away her husband. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) The universal diffusion of Scriptural knowledge These words, quoted Jeremiah 31:34, are here applied to New Testament times. They plainly teach, that these times shall be greatly superior to all that preceded them, in the general diffusion of that knowledge which is essentially necessary to the everlasting salvation of the soul. This blessing, which is of infinite importance, belongs to a new economy, different from the ancient covenant which God made with Israel, the peculiar privileges of which were of an earthly character, were shadowy or emblematical, and were chiefly confined to one nation. But the privileges of the new economy were to be of a spiritual character, and were to extend to men of all ranks, and of all nations, on the face of the earth. I. THE OF THAT WHICH SHALL THIS PERIOD. 1. It is the knowledge of God, of things divine, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. 2. This knowledge is communicated to the ignorant as the fulfilment of a gracious promise by the agency of the Divine Spirit (Isaiah 54:13). 3. This knowledge of the Lord, by which the period referred to in the text shall be eminently distinguished, shall be very generally diffused among all ranks and descriptions of men. II. THE MEANS WHICH OUGHT TO BE USED BY US FOR THIS PERIOD. It is said in the text, that when this happy era is come, they shall not teach, or, as it is expressed in the prophecy, they shall teach no more, every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, “ Know the Lord” ; which seems plainly to intimate, that certain means, which are now very properly used for advancing this period, shall then become unnecessary. (Wm. Schaw.) Coming of the millenium The world is preparing day by day for the millenium, but you do not see it. Every season forms itself a year in advance. The coming summer lays out her work during the autumn, and buds and roots are forespoken. Ten million roots are pumping in the streets; do you hear them? Ten million buds are forming in the axils of the leaves; do you hear the sound of the saw or the hammer? All next summer is at work in the world; but it is unseen by us. And so “ the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.” (H. W. Beecher.) I will be merciful to their unrighteousness Mercy to unrighteousness I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS GRACE IS . IS it I, will each of us inquire, whom God means to include in a promise so cheering, so all-sufficient? II. THE IN WHICH IT THEM TO BE. Throughout this covenant no mention is made of anything in man but guilt and ruin. The promise in my text obviously assumes such to be his condition. Man is in himself all unrighteousness, as it is written, “ there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Sorely there is nothing more suited to respire hope in the breast of an awakened sinner than the consideration of this truth. My sins, such an one may say, are exceeding great; but, thanks be to God, He who best knows them speaks to me of mercy I But it is long, in general, before an awakened sinner, though again and again God discover to him the vanity of all attempts to bring any deservings of his own, can be persuaded to go quite without hope or plea of any kind but this--Lord, I am a sinner, and Thou art a free Saviour. We dare not believe that grace is indeed so free, so unbounded, to those who will go to God in Christ. III. GOD’ S TO THIS . “ I will be merciful … I will remember no more.” In these words God promises the removal of all kinds and degrees of sin. 1. Freely. “ I will be merciful.” This is both the reason with God for blessing, and the method by which He works upon the souls of His people; winning them from their natural enmity and distrust of Himself, by the effectual revelation of His mercy to them. 2. Eternally. “ I will remember no more.” Guilt makes the soul of the sinner fearful; he is ever recurring to the memory of his past sins, and he fears God does the same. He has had some momentary glimpses of mercy; but when the present sense of it is gone, conscience is afraid again; he is ready to suspect God of yet harbouring some latent feeling of resentment; fears the reconciliation has been partial, and that wrath, so deeply deserved, is ready to break out afresh on fresh provocation. But oh, blessed be God, this is indeed the way of men; but His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. Those whom He forgives freely, He forgives entirely, forgives eternally. (Francis Goode, M. A.) Forgiving mercy Many years ago in Russia a regiment of troops mutinied. They were at some distance from the capital, and were so furious that they murdered their officers, and resolved never to submit to discipline; but the emperor, who was an exceedingly wise and sagacious man, no sooner heard of it than, all alone and unattended, he went into the barracks where the men were drawn up, and addressing them sternly, he said to them, “ Soldiers! you have committed such offences against the law that every one of you deserves to be put to death. There is no hope of any mercy for one of you unless you lay down your arms immediately, and surrender at discretion to me, your emperor.” They did so, there and then. The emperor said at once, “ Men, I pardon you; you will be the bravest troops I ever had.” And so they were. Now, this is just what God does with the sinner. The sinner has dared to rebel against God, and God says, “ Now, sinner, you have done that which deserves My wrath. Ground you weapons of rebellion. I will not talk with you until you submit at discretion to My sovereign authority.” And then He says, “ Believe in My Son; accept Him as your Saviour. This done, you are forgiven, and henceforth you will be the most loving subjects that My hands have made.” (W. R. Bradlaugh.) A glorious position Mr. Lyford, a Puritan divine, a few days previous to his dissolution, being desired by his friends to give them some account of his hopes and comforts, he replied, “ I will let you know how it is with me, and on what ground I stand. Here is the grave, the wrath of God, and devouring flames, the great punishment of sin on the one hand; and here am I, a poor sinful creature, on the other; but this is my comfort, the covenant of grace, established upon so many sure promises, hath satisfied all. The act of oblivion passed in heaven is, ‘ I will forgive their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more, saith the Lord.’ This is the blessed privilege of all within the covenant, of whom I am one. For I find the Spirit which is promised, bestowed upon me, in the blessed effects of it upon my soul, as the pledge of God’ s eternal love. By this I know my interest in Christ, who is the foundation of the covenant, and therefore my sins being laid on Him, shall never be charged on me.” (K. Arvine.) Justice and mercy The Jews have a saying that Michael, the angel of God’ s justice, has but one wing and he comes slowly; but Gabriel, the angel of Divine mercy, has two wings, and is made to fly swiftly. (H. R. Burton.) Their sins … will I remember no more The new covenant--its promises It will be observed that the last-named promise is pardon. But though the last mentioned, it is the first bestowed, as indicated by the conjunction for, by which it is introduced. Pardon is not only promised, but is here represented as the reason for the preceding blessings. It is evident that the author, in his enumeration of these blessings of the better covenant, presents them in the inverse order of their realisation. In them he traces the Divine process of salvation, but starts at a point where that salvation has reached its highest fruition on its moral side, that grand moral achievement, the complete surrender of the soul to the Divine will, indicated by the writing of the law in the heart, and descends by the several steps of the process to the initiatory one, the pardoning of sins. It follows, then, that in order to understand duly these truths of overwhelming interest, we must deal with them according to their logical sequence. I. THE PARDON. 1. Its source. This is indicated by the expression, “ I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.” The source, then, of the promised pardon is the mercifulness of God. We mean, of course, its moral source, for its legal source is the atonement of Jesus Christ. 2. We have also the fulness of this act of mercy indicated in the expression, “ their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” This oblivion of transgression is a feature of the Divine pardon much emphasised in the Scriptures, with a view, no doubt, of duly impressing men with the fact of its absolute entirety. Nothing can be more emphatic than the prophet’ s declaration regarding God’ s dealings with the sins of Israel--“ And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). Absolute oblivion is the prominent idea of this graphic figure. That which is cast into the depths of the sea cannot be commemorated. An incident in connection with the laying of the Atlantic cable furnishes a striking illustration of the insuperable difficulty of marking spots in mid-ocean. When the first Atlantic cable was being laid it broke in mid-ocean, and the severed pieces dropped into the bottom, and the vessel was compelled to return to England to procure the means of recovering the broken end. Before, however, leaving the spot, means were adopted to mark the place, so that on their return the lost end might be found. So a suitable buoy was constructed, and every precaution taken to render its foundering or drifting impossible, as they supposed. But on the vessel’ s return the buoy laid down with such care was found, but, as careful astronomical observations showed, it had drifted over five hundred miles away from the spot where it had been originally moored. The broken end of the cable was never recovered. Thus is strikingly illustrated the impossibility of erecting memorials in mid-sea. God, therefore, by representing Himself as casting our sins there, would tell us how completely He forgets them, and how certain it is that He will never charge us with them again. II. THE OF GOD ASSURED BY THE BETTER . The knowledge of God forms a very important part in the Divine redemption. It is, so to speak, the Alpha of the whole process. Our Lord represents it so--“ And this is eternal life, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). The knowledge, however, referred to here, is introductory to the blessings of salvation, whereas that of the text is the outcome of the blessing realised. We come to the blessing through the knowledge in the one case, but in the other we come to the knowledge through the blessing. In the first instance the knowledge is our schoolmaster to the blessing; in the second the blessing becomes our schoolmaster to the knowledge. The knowledge of God obtained through experience of His pardon is the grandest of all knowledge of Him. It is also the only infallible knowledge. An eminent minister, recently addressing a number of young ministers starting for the mission-field, said, “ You will never lack a theme, for your mission is to tell of Him whom you know better than you know any one else besides.” Never was uttered profounder thought or one more true. Those who know God know Him better than any one beside, better than they know their most intimate friends, better than husband knows his wife, or wife her husband, better than children know their parents, or parents their children. We may be deceived in our nearest and most intimate friends and relations, much as we may know respecting them. But God cannot deceive us. The nearest friend may fail us, but God cannot fail us. III. THE DIVINE KINSHIP ASSURED BY THE NEW . The relation to His people indicated by this expression I take to imply fatherhood. When God promises to be our. God, He promises to be our Father, and the pardoned soul apprehends Him in this light. In short, it is the pardoning act that reveals God to the soul first in this light. In this transaction he discovers God becoming his God as a father, for this act of pardon is, above all, a fatherly act. Our Lord has shown us this in that inimitable parable of the prodigal son. In nothing is God so intensely a father as when He forgives. And the child never understands his own father, never has the fatherly attribute so deeply revealed to his heart, as when he has had occasion to experience the joy of his father’ s forgiveness. Again, this relationship is in itself a guarantee of the fullest and most devoted service on their behalf. If the statement, “ I will be to them a God,” is equivalent to the statement, “ I will be a Father unto them,” then we know what it must mean as regards undertaking and acting for them. Some light is thrown upon this by the words already quoted--“ God is not ashamed to be called their God.” To this is added, “ for He has prepared a city for them.” This preparing of a city for them is given as a proof that He is not ashamed to own Himself as their God. As if it should be said, “ He is not ashamed to avow Himself their God, for behold on how grand a scale He discharges the obligations of that relationship.” We have no need to be told what the title “ father” signified to the child: care, love, guidance, support, and all without stint. IV. THE WHICH THE BETTER GIVES OF A LOVING, TO THE DIVINE WILL. Parental government is by means of laws wrought in the heart; magisterial, by laws without. The parental relationship of God, fully and deeply realised by the believer, quickens the filial disposition, inducing such a humble, yet cordial, assimilation to the Divine will, comparable only to the “ putting of the Divine laws into the mind and writing them upon the heart.” Let us try and get at the meaning of these peculiar expressions regarding the law, “ the putting it into the mind” and “ the writing it in the heart.” Now, the mind and the heart represents two sides of our nature, the intellectual and the emotional. Here, then, we have guaranteed to us the fact that the law, the sanctifying principle, shall take possession of these two ruling sides of our moral nature, exerting upon them an influence both subduing and formative. (A. J. Parry.) The new covenant--the superiority of its promises I. THE QUALITY OF THE . 1. The greater excellence of the Christian pardon. The Jewish religion had its pardon, or something that passed for pardon; the superiority, however, of the pardon held forth by the gospel is indicated by the expression, “ and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Contrast this statement with what is said respecting the method of dealing with sins under the old covenant--“ But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:3). In the one case we have the forgetting of sins, in the other the remembrance of them. The ancient pardon, then, was not really such, but only a kind of reprieve annually renewed, a kind of suspension of the sentence, not the removal or abrogation of it. It was in the nature of a “ ticket-of-leave” transaction. 2. The greater excellence of the knowledge of God assured by the new covenant. The knowledge of God acquired under the old covenant was preceptive knowledge, and, like all such knowledge, it needed constant prompting, it needed that every man should say to his neighbour, and every man to his brother, “ Know the Lord,” for they resembled boys learning a lesson, they continually forgot it. A prophet would arise, saying to the people, “ Know the Lord,” and they would learn the lesson; but no sooner did the prophet’ s voice cease than the people forgot the lesson, and wandered after false gods. Then another prophet would arise, and repeat the oft-taught lesson, “ Know the Lord.” But the more excellent knowledge of the better promise needs no such prompting. In the ease of this knowledge,” they shall not teach every man his neighbour,” &c., it is a knowledge in the heart, not in the memory, for the memory may fail, but the heart never. 3. The greater excellence of the relationship between God and His people. It is better in this, that it is individual and spiritual, whereas the corresponding promise of the old covenant was national and temporal. The promise as it related to Israel is given very graphically in Deuteronomy 26:17-19. There is something inexpressibly grand in the abounding sweep of this promise. If we consider it in the light of the history of God’ s dealings with the ancient people, we shall obtain some notion of its meaning. But rich and abounding as its meaning may be, it embraces only the nation, and that in relation to temporal things. The greater excellence of the corresponding promise of the new covenant is that it realises these blessings in a spiritual sense, and to every individual in the wide world that comes within the scope of its conditions. 4. Next, we notice the greater excellence of the formative principle of the new covenant. The superiority claimed here consists in this--that the laws are “ put into the mind” and “ written in the heart.” There is an implied contrast with the corresponding provision of the old covenant. The latter had its laws, but they were inscribed, not in hearts, but on tables of stone. The other consists of an inward principle or motive, the subject of it animated by love, yielding willing obedience from a heart glowing with loving, grateful enthusiasm. This difference in the spheres of their respective laws involves a wide difference in their respective effects upon the course of the lives affected by them. There is a great difference between the sailing vessel and the steam-boat. The one is propelled by influences external to itself, and is, therefore, dependent upon them for the progress it makes; the other is propelled by a principle working within, and is, therefore, independent of external influences, moves without them, and often against, yea, in spite of them. The latter illustrates the method adopted in the new covenant. Hence its greater excellence. It implants the principle of action, the motive power, within, so preventing its subject from becoming a creature of circumstances, and his obedience a mechanical routine, making it rather a thing of the heart and of the affections. The gospel, in this respect, works according to the analogy of nature. In nature, the formative law of everything is within it. II. THE OF THE OF THE NEW . The utmost assurance that these promises will be fully realised in the experience of every one who accepts Christ’ s salvation is given us in the fact that they are called by the term “ covenant.” In verse 6 the promises and the covenant are referred to separately; in verse 10 there is but one word “ covenant.” The term promise is merged in the term covenant. This substitution of covenant for promise indicates the element of certainty belonging to the latter. But it may be asked, were not the promises of the ancient religion established upon a covenant? Certainly, they were, but those of Christianity upon “ a better covenant.” The promises of the ancient religion were ratified by the blood of goats and calves, but Christ ratified the better promises of the “ new covenant” by the sacrifice of Himself. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 9:1-10 The first covenant had also ordinances The ancient tabernacle The writer now proceeds to compare the old and the new covenants with reference to their respective provisions for religious communion between man and God, his purpose being to show the superiority of the priestly ministry of Christ over that of the Levitical priesthood. In the first five verses he gives an inventory of the furniture of the tabernacle pitched in the wilderness; in the next five he describes the religious services there carried on. “ Now [our leading back to Hebrews 8:5] the first [covenant] had ordinances of Divine service and its mundane sanctuary.” The epithet κοσμικόν here applied to the tabernacle evidently signifies belonging to this material world, in opposition to the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8:11) not made with hands out of things visible and tangible. The purpose of the writer is to point out that the tabernacle belonged to this earth, and therefore possessed the attributes of all things earthly, materiality and perishableness. The materials might be fine and costly; still they were material, and as such were liable to wax old and vanish away. In Hebrews 8:2-5 is given a detailed description of the arrangements and furniture of this cosmic sanctuary. No valuator could be more careful to make an inventory of household furniture perfectly accurate than our author is to give an exhaustive list of the articles to be found in the Jewish tabernacle, whether in the holy place or in the most holy. Indeed, so careful is he to make the list complete, not only in his own judgment, but in the judgment of his readers, that he includes things which had no connection with religious worship, bat were merely put into the tabernacle for safe custody, as valuable mementos of incidents in Israel’ s history--e.g., the golden pot of manna, and Aaron’ s rod that budded. It is further to be noted in regard to these articles, that they are: represented as being within the ark of the covenant, though it is nowhere in the Old Testament said that they were, the direction given being merely that they should be placed before the testimony, and it being expressly stated in regard to the ark in Solomon’ s temple that there was nothing in it save the two tables on which the ten commandments were inscribed. Whether these things ever had been in the ark we do not know. The fact that they are here represented to have been does not settle the point. While his doctrine is that the ancient tabernacle was at best but a poor, shadowy affair, he takes pains to show that in his judgment it was as good as it was possible for a cosmic sanctuary to be. Its articles of furniture were of the best material; the ark of fine wood covered all over with gold, the altar of incense of similar materials, the pot with manna of pure gold. He feels he can afford to describe in generous terms the furniture of the tabernacle, because, after all, he will have no difficulty in showing the immeasurable superiority of the “ true” tabernacle wherein Christ ministers. One single phrase settles the point χειροποίητος (Hebrews 8:11). The old tabernacle and all its furniture were made by the hands of men out of perishable materials. The “ gold, and silver, and brass,” &c., were all liable to destruction by the devouring tooth of time, that spares nothing visible and tangible. This eulogistic style of describing the furniture of the cosmic tabernacle was not only generous, but politic. The more the furniture ,was praised, the more the religious service carried on in the tent so furnished was in effect depreciated by the contrast inevitably suggested. The emphasis laid on the excellent quality of these really signifies the inferiority of the whole Levitical system. Looking now at the inventory distributively, let us note what articles are placed in either compartment of the tabernacle respectively. In the first are located the candlestick, the table, and the shewbread, which was arranged in two rows on the table; to the second are assigned what is called the θυμιατήριον, and the ark of the covenant, containing, as is said, the manna pot, Aaron’ s rod, and the tables of the covenant, and surmounted by the Cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat, or lid of the ark. The only article of which there is any need to speak “ particularly” is the θυμιατήριον, concerning which there are two questions to be considered: What is it? and with what propriety is it assigned to the most holy place? As to the former, the word θυμιατήριον may mean either “ the altar of incense,” as I have rendered it, or “ the golden censer,” as translated in the Authorised and Revised Versions. I do not suppose there would be any hesitation on the subject, were it not for the consideration, that by deciding that the altar of incense is intended we seem to make the writer guilty of an inaccuracy in assigning it to the inner shrine of the tabernacle. I have little doubt that this consideration had its own weight with our Revisers in leading them to retain the old rendering, “ the golden censer” ; and the fact detracts from the value of their judgment, as based, not on the merits of the question, but on the ground of theological prudence. A clearer insight into the mind of the writer would have shown them that this well-meant solicitude for his infallibility was uncalled for. This brings us to the question as to the propriety of placing the altar of incense among the things belonging to the most holy place. The fact is, that the altar of incense was a puzzle to one who was called on to state to which part of the tabernacle it belonged. Hence the peculiar manner in which the writer expresses himself in reference to the things assigned to the most holy place. He does not say, as in connection with the first division, “ in which were” (ἐνη), but represents it as “ having” (ἔχουσα) certain things. The phrase is chosen with special reference to the altar of incense. Of all the other articles it might have been said “ in which were,” but not of it. Nothing more could be said than that it belonged to the second division. The question is, whether even so much could be said, and why the writer preferred to say this rather than to say that the altar of incense stood outside the veil in the first division. Now as to the former part of the question, in so putting the matter cur author was only following an Old Testament precedent, the altar of incense being in 1 Kings 6:22 called the altar “ that was by the oracle,” or more correctly, as in the Revised Version, the altar “ that belonged to the oracle.” Then the directions given for fixing its position, as recorded in Exodus 30:6, are very significant. The purport of this directory seems to be: outside the veil for daily use (for within it could not be used save once a year), but tending inwards, indicating by its very situation a wish to get in, standing there, so to speak, at the door of the most holy place, petitioning for admission. So the eloquent eulogist of the better ministry of the new covenant appears to have understood it. He thinks of the altar of incense as praying for admission into the inner shrine, and waiting for the removal of the envious veil which forbad entrance. And he so far sympathises with its silent prayer as to admit it within the veil before the time, or at least to acknowledge that, while materially without, it belonged in spirit and function to the most holy place. In stating the case as he does our author was not only following usage, but utilising the double relations of the altar of incense for the purpose of his apologetic. He wanted to make it felt that the position of that altar was difficult to define, that it was both without and within the veil, that you could not place it exclusively in either position without leaving out something that should be added to make the account complete. And he wished to press home the question, What was the cause of the difficulty? The radical evil, he would suggest, was the existence of the veil. It was the symbol of an imperfect religion, which denied men free access to God, and so was the parent of this anomaly, that the altar of incense had to be in two places at the same time: within the veil, as there were the mercy-seat and the Hearer of prayer; without the veil, because the incense of prayer must be offered daily, and yet no one might go within save the high priest, and he only once a year. How thankful, then, should we be that the veil is done away, so that the distinction of without and within no longer exists, and we may come daily to offer the incense of our prayers in the presence of God, without fear of evil, with perfect “ assurance to be heard” ! After the inventory of its furniture comes an account of the ministry carried on in the Jewish sanctuary (verses 6-10); the description of which, coming after the former, has all the effect of an anticlimax. One can hardly fail to say to himself, What a fall is here! The furniture was precious, but the worship how poor f Every one capable of reflection feels that a religious system in which the vessels of the sanctuary are so much superior to the service cannot be the final and permanent form of man’ s communion with God, but only a type or parable for the time of better things to come, that could last only till the era of reformation arrived. This truth, however, the writer does not leave to be inferred, but expressly points out and proves. On two things he insists, as tending to show the insufficiency and therefore the transitiveness of the Levitical system, and all that pertained to it. First, he asserts that the mere division of the tabernacle into an accessible holy place and an inaccessible most holy place proved the imperfection of the worship there carried on; and, secondly, he points out the disproportion between the great end of religion and the means employed for reaching it under the Levitical system. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) The earthly sanctuary I. EVERY OF GOD HAD ITS PROPER AND . Even the first covenant had so, and those such as were excellent in themselves, though not comparable with them of the new. For to make any covenant with men is an eminent fruit of grace and condescension in God, whereon He will annex such privileges thereunto as may evince it so to be. II. THERE WAS NEVER ANY BETWEEN GOD AND MAN BUT IT HAD SOME , OR OF DIVINE WORSHIP ANNEXED UNTO IT. The original covenant of works had the ordinances of the tree of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil, the laws whereof belonged not unto that of natural light and reason. The covenant of Sinai, whereof the apostle speaks, had a multiplication of them. Nor is the new covenant destitute of them or of their necessary observance. All public worship and the sacraments of the Church are of this nature. III. IT IS A HARD AND RARE THING TO HAVE THE MINDS OF MEN KEPT UPRIGHT WITH GOD IN THE OF THE OF DIVINE WORSHIP. By some they are neglected, by some corrupted, and by some they are exalted above their proper place and use, and are turning into an occasion of neglecting more important duties. And the reason of this difficulty is, because faith hath not that assistance from innate principles of reason, and sensible experience of this kind of obedience, as it hath in that which is moral, internal, and spiritual. IV. THAT THESE OF DIVINE WORSHIP MIGHT BE DULY AND RIGHTLY UNDER THE FIRST , THERE WAS A PLACE OF GOD FOR THEIR . 1. This tabernacle with what belonged thereunto was a visible pledge of the presence of God among the people, owning, blessing, and protecting them. And it was a pledge of God’ s own institution, in imitation whereof the superstitious heathens invented ways of obliging their idol-gods, to be present among them for the same ends. 2. It was the pledge and means of God’ s dwelling among them, which expresseth the peculiar manner of His presence mentioned in general before. 3. It was a fixed seat of all Divine worship, wherein the truth and purity of it was to be preserved. 4. It was principally the privilege and glory of the Church of Israel, in that it was a continual representation of the incarnation of the Son of God; a type of His coming in the flesh to dwell among us, and by the one sacrifice of Himself to make reconciliation with God, and atonement for sins. It was such an expression of the idea of the mind of God, concerning the person and meditation of Christ, as in His wisdom and grace He thought meet to intrust the Church withal. Hence was that severe injunction, that all things concerning it should be made according unto the pattern shown in the Mount. For what could the wisdom of men do in the prefiguration of that mystery, of which they had no comprehension? But yet the sanctuary the apostle calls κοσμικον, “ worldly.” (1) The place of it was on the earth in this world, in opposition whereunto the sanctuary of the new covenant is in heaven (Hebrews 8:2). (2) Although the materials of it were as durable as anything in that kind could be procured, as gold and Shittim wood, yet were they worldly; that is, perishing things, as are all things of the world, God intimating thereby that they were not to have an everlasting continuance. Gold, and wood, and silk, and hair, however curiously wrought and carefully preserved, are but for a time. (3) All the services of it, all its sacrifices in themselves, separated from their typical representative use, were all worldly; and their efficacy extended only unto worldly things, as the apostle proves in this chapter. (4) On these accounts the apostle calls it “ worldly” ; yet not absolutely so, but in opposition unto that which is heavenly. All things in the ministration of the new covenant are heavenly. So is the priest, his sacrifice, tabernacle, and altar, as we shall see in the process of the apostle’ s discourse. And we may observe from the whole V. THAT DIVINE ALONE IS THAT WHICH RENDERS UNTO GOD. Although the things that belonged unto the sanctuary, and the sanctuary itself, were in themselves but worldly, yet being Divine ordinances, they had a glory in them, and were in their season accepted with God. VI. GOD CAN ANIMATE OUTWARD CARNAL THINGS WITH A HIDDEN SPRING OF GLORY AND . SO He did their sanctuary with its relation unto Christ; which was an object of faith which no eye of flesh could behold. (John Owens, D. D.) The simplicity of Christian ritual The language of sign or symbol enters very largely into all the affairs of life. The human spirit craves and finds embodiment for its impalpable, evanescent ideas and emotions, not merely in sounds that die away upon the ear, but in acts and observances that arrest the eye, and stamp themselves upon the memory, or in shapes and forms and symbols that possess a material and palpable continuity. The superiority of sign or symbol as a vehicle of thought is in some sort implied in the very fact that it is the language of nature, the first which man learns, or rather which, with instinctive and universal intelligence, he employs. There is something, again, in a visible and tangible sign, or in a significant or symbolic act, which, by its very nature, appeals more impressively to the mind than mere vocables that vibrate for a moment on the organ of hearing and then pass away. Embody thought in a material representation or memorial, and it stands before you with a distinct and palpable continuity; it can become the object of prolonged contemplation; it is permanently embalmed to the senses. Moreover, it deserves to be considered that the language of symbol lies nearer to thought than that of verbal expression. As no man can look into another’ s mind and have direct cognisance of another’ s thoughts, we can only convey to others what is passing in our own minds, by selecting and pointing out some object or phenomenon of the outward world that bears an analogy to the thought or feeling within our breasts. And if further proof of the utility and importance of symbol were wanting, it might he found in the fact that all nature is but one grand symbol by which God shadows forth His own invisible Being and character. The principle on which symbolic language depends being thus deeply seated in man’ s nature, it might be anticipated that its influence would be apparent in that religion which is so marvellously adapted to his sympathies and wants. But when we turn to that religious economy under which we live, by nothing are we so much struck as by the simplicity of its external worship--the scantiness, unobtrusiveness, and seeming poverty of its ritual observances. And this absence of symbol in the Christian worship becomes all the more singular when contrasted with the sensuous beauty and splendour of the heathen religions amidst which Christianity was developed, and with the imposing ceremonial, the elaborate symbolism, of that earlier dispensation from which it took its rise. I. The simplicity of worship in the Christian Church is a sign of spiritual advancement, inasmuch as it arises, in some measure, from the fact THAT THE GOSPEL RITES ARE , WHILST THOSE OF THE FORMER WERE . TO THE Hebrew in ancient times Christ was a Being of whose person and character and work he had but the most vague and undefined conceptions; to the Christian worshipper He is no shadowy dream of the future, no vague and visionary personage of a distant age, but the best beloved of friends, whose beautiful life stands forth before the mind with all the distinctness of history--whose glorious person and mission is the treasured and familiar contemplation of his secret thoughts. The former, accordingly, needed all the elaborate formality of type and ceremony, of temple and altar and sacrifice--of symbolic persons and objects and actions, to help out his idea of the Messiah and of His mighty work and mission. But to enable the latter to recall his Lord, no more is required than a few drops of water, a bit of broken bread, or a cup of wine. Around these simplest outward memorials, a host of thoughts, reflections, remembrances, are ready to gather. Deity incarnate, infinite self-sacrifice, reconciliation with God, pardon, purity, peace, eternal life through the blood of Jesus, union with Christ, and in Him with all good and holy beings,--these are some of the great Christian ideas already lodged in each devout worshipper’ s mind, and which awake at the suggestive touch of the sacramental symbols to invest them with a value altogether incommensurate with their outward worth. The very simplicity of these material symbols implies that the senses have less and the mind far more to do in the process of spiritual conception than in a system of more imposing and obtrusive materialism. II. The simple and unimposing character of the Christian ritual is an indication of spiritual advancement again, inasmuch as it arises from the fact, THAT WHILST THE RIGHTS OF JUDAISM WERE MAINLY , THOSE OF ARE AND . The Jew could not eat or drink, or dress, or sow or reap, or buy or sell, arrange his household, hold intercourse with neighbour or friend, perform any one function of individual or social life, without being met by restrictions, forms, observances, which forced religious impression upon him, and, in combination with the more solemn ceremonial of the temple, left a constant deposit of spiritual thought upon the mind, and drilled the worshipper into religious habits. In a more spiritual and reflective age, on the other hand, in which the spiritual perceptions have become developed, and the mind has become receptive of direct religious instruction, such sensible helps to the formation of thought are no longer necessary. The mind in which truth has become an intuition needs no longer to spell out its conviction by the aid of a picture-book. The avenue of spirit thrown open to the worshipper, he no more requires to climb slowly up to the presence-chamber of the king by the circuitous route of sense. But if ritual may in such an age be dispensed with in great measure as a means of instruction, it still performs an important function as a means of expression. No longer necessary as a mould for the shaping of thought, it has still its use as a form in which religious thought and feeling may find vent. If the necessity for a visible temple and sanctuary to symbolise God’ s residence with man has ceased, now that He who is “ the brightness of the Father’ s glory and the express image of His person” has dwelt amongst us-if to prompt our minds in conceiving of sin and sacrifice, no scenic show of victims slain and life’ s blood drenching earthly altars be needed, now that the stainless, sinless, all-holy One hath once for all offered up the sacrifice of a perfect life to God--still there is in the Christian heart the demand for outward forms andrites to embody the reverence, the gratitude, the devotion, the love of which it is inwardly conscious. The soul, in its relation to an unseen Father, still craves for some outer medium of expression that shall give form to feeling--that shall tell forth its devotion to the heavenly Friend as the smile, the look, the grasp of the hand, the meeting at the festive board, the gifts and tokens of affection, externalise and express our sentiments towards those we love on earth. And the conclusion to which, from this argument, we are led is obviously this, that the glory of our Christian ritual lies in its very simplicity. For the manifestation of our common life in God, and of our common faith in Christ, the mind craves some outward badge or symbol; and so, in gracious condescension to our needs, our Lord has instituted the two sacramental rites; but even these He has prescribed but in outline, leaving all accessories to be filled in, as the varied needs of His people, in different times and places and circumstances, should dictate. And in this lies the very grandeur of its worship, that in the “ chartered freedom” of our Christian ritual, each nation and community, each separate society and church and individual, lifting up its own note of adoration, all axe found to blend in the one accordant anthem, the one manifold yet harmonious tribute of the universal Church’ s praise. I conclude with the remark, that the simplicity of the Christian rites serves as a safeguard against those obvious dangers which are incident to all ritual worship. 1. The chief of these is the tendency in the unspiritual mind to stop short at the symbol--in other words, to transfer to the visible sign feelings appropriate only to the things signified, or to rest content with the performance of outward ceremonial acts, apart from the exercise of those devout feelings which lend to such acts any real value. A religion in which ritual holds a prominent place is notoriously liable to degenerate into formalism. The true way to avoid this error is, obviously, to remove as much as possible its cause. Let there be no arbitrary and needless intervention between the soul of the worshipper and the Divine object of its homage. Let the eye of faith gaze on the Invisible through the simplest and purest medium-Deprive it of all excuse to trifle curiously with the telescope, instead of using it in order to see. And forasmuch as, to earthly worship, formal aids are indispensable, let it ever be remembered that that form is the best which least diverts attention to itself, and best helps the soul to hold fellowship with God. 2. Moreover, the danger thus incident to an elaborate ceremonial, of substituting ritual for religion, is increased by the too common tendency to mistake aesthetic emotion for religious feeling. Awe, reverence, rapt contemplation, the kindling of heart and swelling of soul, which the grand objects of faith are adapted to excite, may, in a man of sensitive mind or delicate organisation, find a close imitation in the feelings called forth by a tasteful and splendid ceremonial. The soul that is devoid of true reverence towards God may be rapt into a spurious elation, while in rich and solemn tones the loud-voiced organ peals forth His praise. The heart that never felt one throb of love to Christ may thrill with an ecstasy of sentimental tenderness, whilst soft voices, now blending, now dividing, in combined or responsive strains, celebrate the glories of redeeming love. It is easy to admire the sheen of the sapphire throne, while we leave its glorious Occupant unreverenced and unrecognised. Banish from the service of God all coarseness and rudeness--all that would distract by offending the taste of the worshipper, just as much as all that would disturb by subjecting him to bodily discomfort, and you leave the spirit free for its own pure and glorious exercise. But too studiously adorn the sanctuary and its services; obtrude an artificial beauty on the eye and sense of the worshipper, and you will surely lead to formalism and self-deception. (J. Caird, D. D.) Christian sanctuaries material, but not worldly: I. THE OF THE WORLDLY . In contemplating the character of their “ worldly sanctuary” whether in the wilderness or on Mount Zion--we behold God dealing with men in a manner accordant with the character of the covenant under which He saw fit to place them. For whether we review the history of our world at large, or the history of God’ s dealings with His Church, we find it to be a law of the Divine Procedure, that, in civilisation and scientific discovery, and in the attainments of knowledge and of arts, no less than in matters directly spiritual, He allows period of lengthened infancy and childhood. In no respect does He allow men to attain at once to maturity. Thus, in mere secular things, how old was our world ere printing was invented, ere the powers of steam were discovered! Railways and electric telegraphs are but of yesterday, it is with the world at large and with individual nations, intellectually and socially, as with the individual man physically. We are born, not men and women, but babes; we speak, and think, and understand as children; we attain manhood slowly. It has been so with human society: it has been so with our own favoured land, where once savages swarmed, and Druids offered their bloody rites. The history of man in every country had been different had not this principle pervaded God’ s designs and government--intellectual and social infancy--growth from infancy to childhood--from childhood to manhood--the manhood of intellect, and science and art, and civilisation; from the Rome of Romulus and Numa to the Rome of Augustus from the Gauls of Caesar’ s day to the French of the nineteenth century; from the England of Roman conquest and Saxon rule and Norman triumph to the England of our birth. Apply this principle to the subject before us. Israel, long familiarised with material temples and carnal rites in Egypt, was spiritually a nation of children: their worship was wisely and mercifully adapted to their spiritual age and attainment. For the simple worship of the more spiritual dispensation they were wholly unprepared. Form and ceremony--material and sensuous splendour--were needful. To have elevated and simplified their minds and tastes for our simpler worship would have been, in fact, to have forstalled the progress of ages, and changed the whole course of God’ s procedure with His Church and with our world. II. THE BETWEEN THE WORLDLY AND THE WORSHIP OF THE GOSPEL . The blessed truth, that He who was at once the sacrificial Victim and the sacrificing Priest, by His one offering of Himself, hath made an end of sacrifice, and for ever perfected His people, as touching their justification--these truths discerned, experienced, bring with them true spirituality of mind and heart and life. The believer, while he rejoices in Christ Jesus, and has “ no confidence in the flesh,” exhibits also the other feature of the apostle’ s portraiture--he worships “ God in the Spirit.” The temple with which his eye and heart are filled is the spiritual temple, in which himself is a lively stone--the Chinch of the Father’ s election, of the Spirit’ s sanctifying. The glory of Christianity is not in tabernacles or temples, in carnal ordinances. The glory of Christianity is Christ; the glory of the gospel, its message, “ God is love!” And in accordance with the spirit of simplicity which characterises its doctrines should be the spirit of its worship. (J. C. Miller, M. A.) The candlestick The gospel of the golden candlestick: I. A type of the CHURCH (Revelation 1:20). 1. The end and use of the Church is to give light, and to hold forth the Philippians 2:15; 1 Timothy 3:15). 2. The matter of the Church. As the candlestick was of gold, so the matter of the Church is saints. 3. The discipline of the Church as the golden snuffers (Exodus 25:38) did cut off the snuff of the candle, so discipline and censures cut off corruption and corrupt members. 4. The union and distinction of Churches. Several branches and seven lamps--therefore distinct; but all growing on one shaft--therefore one. II. A type of the . As the candlestick supports the lamp and the light., so does the Church the ministry; and as the lamp or candle shines in the candlestick, so does the ministry in the Church. III. A type of the WORD (Psalms 119:105; Psalms 19:10; 2 Peter 1:19). IV. A type of the SPIRIT (Revelation 4:5). 1. The lamps of the candlestick did shine and give light. So the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of light and illumination (Ephesians 1:19). 2. The lamps were fed with off (Exodus 27:20). Now this oil is the Spirit (Isaiah 61:1; Acts 10:38). Of a softening and healing nature. 3. The sacred lamps were ever burning, and never went out (Ex Leviticus 24:3). So it is with the Spirit of God in the hearts of His people. The true believer cannot fall away totally and finally. 4. The dressing and trimming of the lamps signified the revivings of the work of the Spirit, in the hearts of His people, when it begins, or is in danger to decline. This teaches us both the Lord’ s goodness and our duty Matthew 12:20; 2 Timothy 1:6). Also Church discipline and mortification are taught us hereby (Matthew 25:7). Lessons: 1. Learn to prize and see the worth and excellency of Church society. 2. Prize the ministry. 3. Prize the Word. 4. Labour to find the Spirit burning and working in your hearts. (1) Get fresh supplies of oil (Psalms 92:10). Jesus Christ is the Fountain, and the Holy Ghost the immediate Dispenser of it Zechariah 4:12). (2) Stir up that which you have (2 Timothy 1:6; Revelation 3:2). (3) Snuff the wick (James 1:23). (S. Mather.) The candlestick: If the priests had had any duties to discharge at night in the holy place, I should have felt no necessity to make any inquiry at all about the significance of the seven lights; the impossibility of performing the sacred functions in total darkness would have been an adequate explanation. But there was no midnight ritual; why then, when the curtain, which was thrown aside during the day to admit the light of heaven, was closed for the night, was not the holy place left in darkness? There seems to me to be a perfectly obvious and natural answer. The holy place was in the thoughts of every devout Jew when he longed for the mercy of God to forgive his sin, or cried to Him for consolation in time of trouble. It was there that, day by day, the priest offered the incense, which was the visible symbol of all supplication and worship. That was the chamber in which the Lord received the prayers and homage of the nation, as the most holy place was His secret shine. And would not the lamps that burnt there during the darkness, and filled it with light, seem to say to every troubled soul, that God never slumbered nor slept; that the darkness and light are both alike to Him, and that at all times He is waiting to listen to the prayers of His people? (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The tabernacle. The tabernacle, and its three antitypes The tabernacle, of course, was a type. What did it typify? Some say that it typified Christ, and, particularly, that it typified His incarnation (John 1:14). Others hold that the tabernacle represented the Christian Church. Yet a third opinion is that the tabernacle signified heaven. Which of these opinions shall we choose? We shall not choose any one of them to the exclusion of the others. We incline to adopt all three, and to hold that the tabernacle was a type of Christ, and of the Church, and of heaven. The Man Christ Jesus is God’ s tabernacle; so is the Church; so is heaven. God dwells most wondrously in Christ: He dwells most graciously in the Church; and He dwells most gloriously in heaven. Christ is God’ s tabernacle to the eye of the Church; the Church is God’ s tabernacle before the world; heaven is, and, with the gathered company of the redeemed set round the throne for ever will be God’ s tabernacle before the universe. (Andrew Gray.) The golden censer The golden censer: You will have noticed the peculiarity of the expression at the commencement of the Hebrews 9:4; “ which” --i.e., the Holiest of all, “ had the golden censer,” or rather, “ the golden altar of incense.” Of the holy place it is said, in Hebrews 9:2, “ Wherein was the candlestick and the table,” &c. The change of expression is significant. The writer does not mean to say that the altar of incense was within the holy of holies, but that the altar of incense belonged to it. The altar actually stood in the holy place, but more truly belonged to the holy of holies itself. It is very wonderful that any man who had read this Epistle intelligently could imagine for a moment that it was possible for the writer to have been so ill-informed as to have believed that the altar was actually within the most sacred inclosure. Apart altogether from inspiration, the intimate and profound knowledge of the Jewish system which the whole of the Epistle indicates, renders it absurd to suppose that on such a simple matter as the.position of the altar of incense the writer could have blundered. It would, to my mind, be just as reasonable to infer from some peculiarity of expression in Lord Macaulay, that the great historian had erroneously imagined that the Spanish Armada came against this country in the reign of Charles I., or to infer on similar grounds that Dr. Livingstone was under the impression that the island of Madagascar formed part of the African continent. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The ark of the covenant Christ typified by the ark of the covenant I. THE ARK THE DIGNITY AND PURITY OF CHRIST’ S PERSON. It was made of incorruptible wood; was overlaid with pure gold; and had crowns of gold wrought round about it. Here is distinctly pointed out to us 1. The holiness and incorruptibility of Christ’ s human nature. 2. The divinity of Jesus. 3. The regal glory of Jesus. II. THE OF THE ARK THE FULNESS AND WORK OF CHRIST. 1. In it were the two tables of the law. In Jesus these laws were embodied. He had them in His heart. He exemplified them in their fullest extent. 2. In it was the golden pot of manna. So in Jesus is the bread of life. “ His flesh is meat indeed.” He is the soul’ s satisfying portion. 3. In it was Aaron’ s rod that budded. Typifying Christ’ s exalted and abiding priesthood. III. THE OF THE ARK THE OF CHRIST. 1. The ark opened a passage through Jordan to the promised land. So by Christ a way has been opened through the grave to the heavenly Canaan. 2. By the ark’ s compassing the walls of Jericho they were thrown down. So Jesus by His Divine power spoiled the powers of darkness, and He shall finally overthrow all the bulwarks of Satan’ s empire. 3. The presence of the ark broke the idol Dagon to pieces. So shall the Saviour cast down all the idols of the heathen. IV. THE OF THE ARK THE AND OF CHRIST’ S KINGDOM. The ark was possessed by the Israelites, then it was in the hands of the Philistines, and finally it was laid up in Solomon’ s temple. Thus Christ was first preached to the Jews, the gospel kingdom was first set up among them, afterwards it was extended to the Gentiles; and when consummated, it shall consist of all nations in the heavenly temple, there to be permanently glourious for ever and ever. Application: Learn 1. The privilege you possess in having Christ the true ark with you. In it you have treasured up a fulness of all spiritual blessings. 2. With believing reverence draw near to it, and receive mercy, enjoy fellowship with God, and obtain grace to help you in every time of need. 3. Despisers of Christ must inevitably perish. (J. Burns, D. D.) The holy chest: What was the lesson taught by this wonderful article of tabernacle furniture? Are we not to look upon it as a picture of Jesus? I. Let us consider the OUTSIDE. What do we see? a chest most likely about three feet long, by eighteen inches wide, and eighteen inches deep. It is a box made of common wood, but covered with fine gold; and is not our Jesus both human and Divine? Both are there, and you cannot separate them; just as the ark was not perfect, though the right shape and size, till it was covered with fine gold, so Christ could not be Jesus without the gold of divinity. Still we do not overlook the wood, though it is covered with gold. It is sweet to know that Christ shares our nature. He passed over the cedar of angelic life, and took the common shittim, the tree of the wilderness. When we think of our sins, we are thankful that our Saviour was Divine, and therefore able to save to the uttermost; but when we think of our future, we are glad that we are to spend our eternity with the Man Christ Jesus. He is one of ourselves. Do you notice that at each corner there is a ring of gold? What are these rings for? To receive the staves which are passed through the rings. By these gold-covered staves the Levites carried the ark on their shoulders. The holy thing was portable; it went before, and led the people on their march. They were sure to be safe if they went where the ark led them. It would be a blessed thing if” the Church of God would be persuaded to go only where Christ would have gone. But what are these figures which stand at each end of the ark--winged creatures, whose faces are looking with such earnestness at the gold oh the top of the ark? These are the cherubim, the representatives of the angelic world. They gaze with interest upon the mercy-seat. Is it not Jesus who links heaven to earth? Upon what are the cherubim gazing so intently? Follow the direction of their eyes, and what see you? There is a spot of blood! Blood? Yes, blood. Blood on the pure gold? Yes, this ark is the meeting-place between God and man--the only place where the Holy God can be approached by Him who represents sinners. II. We will now lift the lid of the ark and look INSIDE. What do we see? “ The golden pot.” A vessel of gold filled with manna! Does not this teach that in Christ we have spiritual food? Just as the manna fell all the time the children of Israel were in the wilderness, so Jesus is the bread of life to us, all the time we are on this side Jordan. Have another peep inside, and what meets your gaze? “ The rod that budded” (Numbers 17:1-13.). What does this teach us? That in Christ is the true, God-chosen, God-honoured, God-prevalent priesthood. Look again. What see you now? “ The tables of the covenant.” The stones upon which God wrote the law. Not the first tables: they were broken. Moses did not pick up the fragments and patch them together and put them in the ark. No, it was the new, unbroken tables which were put in the ark. And is not Christ Jesus our righteousness? Do we not glory in the fact that our Substitute was sinless? We have no righteousness to plead, but we have a perfect Saviour. Our efforts at reformation are but a clumsy piecing of the broken tables, but in Christ we have a perfect law. (T. Champness.) The golden pot The pot of manna I. THE MANNA (Exodus 16:11). II. THE GOLDEN POT IN WHICH IT WAS may be applied 1. To the Divine Word; which is more precious than gold, and which is the “ Word of Christ,” every part of which is full of Him. 2. To the holy ordinances; where He is so strikingly exhibited. 3. To the preached gospel; where Christ is the Alpha and Omega. 4. To the believer’ s heart. 5. To the holiest place; where He ever dwells in all His glory, as the infinite source of all the blessedness of the heavenly world. Application: (1) Be thankful for this heavenly bread. (2) Receive it with all cordiality and joy. (3) Constantly seek it in those means where His presence and blessing are promised. (4) Despisers of Christ must starve and die. (J. Burns, D. D.) The cherubims of glory.--The cherubim and the mercy-seat I. We are taught by this sacred symbol, an ark thus constructed and accompanied, that THERE IS NOW, UNDER THE , A BETWIXT LAW AND GRACE. 1. The law was there because it is eternal, and must therefore harmonise with every dispensation of religion to man. 2. The tables of the law are there in the ark, and connected with evangelical symbols representing the dispensation of mercy to mankind, because it was the violation of the law by which the dispensation of mercy was rendered necessary. 3. But we see the tables of the law thus connected with evangelical symbols, to intimate to us another truth, that the grand end of the administration of grace to man is the re-establishment of the law’ s dominion over him. 4. This connection between the law and the mercy-seat indicates, finally, that the administration of grace is in every part consistent with law. II. There was not only a connection between the tables of the law and the mercy-seat, but over this mercy-seat the cherubims of glory were placed. We are therefore instructed in the fact, that THERE IS AN BETWIXT THE OF GRACE TO MAN AND THE WORLD. 1. We may, therefore, observe, with respect to the angelic powers, of whom the cherubim were the emblems, that “ they have an intellectual interest in this great subject. 2. We may go farther, and say, that we have evidence from Scripture that the connection of the angelic world with the Christian system is not one of mere intellectual curiosity and gratification, but likewise of large and important moral benefit. 3. There is another view in which we may regard the connection between the angelic world and the Church: they are angels and ministers; ministers to the Church, and ministers to individuals. III. THERE WAS THE OF GOD THE WHOLE. In the sanctuary you have not only the ark of the covenant, the tables of the law, the mercy-seat, and the cherubim shadowing it, but the visible symbol of the Divine presence. God was there. And thus are we shown that all things are of Him, and by Him, and for Him. The tables of the law declared His will; the covenant sprang from His everlasting wisdom and love; the mercy-seat was His throne; the cherubim were His servants; the holiest of all was His “ resting-place” (2 Chronicles 6:41). The people came to worship Him, and were dismissed with His blessing. As creation itself is from the will of God, so is redemption. All is the result of His benevolence. The whole plan of mercy sprang from the depths of His eternal love, and all its arrangements were fixed according to the treasures of His own knowledge and wisdom. This indicates, too, the necessity of Divine agency. As He originated the whole scheme of redemption, so must He be present with it to give it power and efficacy. (R. Watson.) Of which we cannot now speak particularly The inexpediency of dwelling on curious questions: Sundry other things there were about the tabernacle, the narration whereof might have delighted the reader. But St. Paul here is a moderator to himself: you are desirous to hear more, but it is expedient to cut them off. Wherein he may be a precedent to all teachers. Though the discussing of curious and intricate questions would more delight the auditory, yet we must not feed their humour that way. Let us give them but a taste of them, and a whole mouthful of sound and wholesome food. Some, peradventure, in this place would have said, Oh, Paul, why dost thou so slightly handle the things belonging to the tabernacle? Repeat, I pray thee, every particular to us; it doth us good to hear of them. Yet he doth not satisfy their itching ears in that. St. Paul hath more necessary matter. Let us especially be desirous to hear of Christ our High Priest and Bishop of our souls, of repentance, of faith in Him, of making our calling sure by good works, of the true sanctuary of heaven, than of those earthly things: these are more profitable for us. The Spirit of God passeth over sundry other things about the tabernacle, because He had more substantial points in hand tending to our salvation by Christ. (W. Jones, D. D.) Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Ghost thus signifying The overtones of Judaism: Musicians tell us that the quality of the voice in song depends upon its overtones; that is, the accordant notes which are heard sounding faintly above the fundamental tones. It is the same peculiarity which gives the silvery ring to some voices in speech. And so as we listen to the voices of the Law and of the Prophets, we find a wondrous, and, to some, a mysterious charm. But the ear that has been trained by the same master-skill that taught their lips, solves the secret of the spell, and catches with delight, through the deep thunder utterances, the glad overtones of the coming gospel. (Sarah F. Smiley.) The way into the holiest of all 1. He expoundeth what the high priest’ s going through the veil but once a year did mean, saying the Holy Ghost signified something thereby. Then (1) The Holy Ghost is the Author of these ordinances of Levi, and of matters appointed about that old tabernacle, as of the expressions of His own mind to the Church, and so He is very God. (2) The Holy Ghost is a distinct Person of the Godhead, exercising the proper actions of a person, subsisting by Himself; directing the ordinances of the Church, and interpreting the meaning of the types unto the Church. (3) The Church under the Law was not altogether ignorant of the spiritual signification of the Levitical ordinances, because the Holy Ghost was rhea teaching them the meaning. (4) Those rites and ceremonies were not so dark in themselves, as they could not be in any sort understood, but were expressions of the mind of God to the Church of that time. 2. That which the Holy Ghost did signify was this: that the way unto the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. (D. Dickson, M. A.) The mind of the Holy Spirit manifested in the institutions of religion I. THE DIVINE AND OF WORSHIP ARE FILLED WITH WISDOM FOR THE OF THE CHURCH IN ALL THE OF FAITH AND . II. IT IS OUR DUTY, WITH ALL HUMBLE , TO INQUIRE INTO THE MIND OF THE HOLY GHOST IN ALL AND OF DIVINE WORSHIP. Want hereof lost the Church of Israel. III. THE LORD CHRIST WAS NOT IN THE FLESH UNDER THE OLD , FOR HAD OFFERED HIMSELF UNTO GOD FOR US, YET HAD THEN AN ACCESS INTO THE GRACE AND FAVOUR OF GOD, THOUGH THE WAY, THE CAUSE AND MEANS OF IT WAS NOT UNTO THEM. IV. THE DESIGN OF THE HOLY GHOST IN THE , AND IN ALL ITS AND OF WORSHIP, WAS TO DIRECT THE FAITH OF UNTO WHAT WAS BY THEM. V. TYPICAL , UNTO, WERE TO DIRECT THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH UNTO THE OF THE REAL OF SIN, AND. WITH GOD THEREON. VI. THOUGH THE OF THE FIRST WAS A GREAT MERCY AND , YET THE REMOVAL OF IT WAS A GREATER; FOR IT MADE WAY FOR THE IN OF THAT WHICH WAS BETTER. VII. THE DIVINE WISDOM IN THE ECONOMY AND OF THE OF THE WAY INTO THE HOLIEST, OR OF GRACE AND WITH HIMSELF, IS A BLESSED OBJECT OF OUR . VIII. THE CLEAR OF THE WAY OF , OF THE OF SIN, AND PEACE WITH GOD THEREON, IS THE GREAT OF THE GOSPEL. IX. THERE IS NO ACCESS INTO THE OF GOD, BUT BY THE OF CHRIST ALONE. (John Owen, D. D.) An intimation of nearer warship: The idea is, that the exclusion from the inner part of the Jewish tabernacle, and the all but entire restriction of religious service to the outer part, signified “ perfect intercourse with God not yet granted, the highest and therefore abiding form of religion a thing yet to come.” The writer would have his readers see, in the mere fact of such a division of the tabernacle into a first and second chamber, a Divine intimation that there was a higher boon, a nearer approach to, a more intimate fellowship with God in store for men, which for the present was denied. The first part of the tabernacle, he would say, is yours; the second in its spiritual significance belongs to the future, to the time of Messiah, when all things are to undergo renovation. To cling to legal worship then as something that must last for ever is to shut your ear to the voice of the sanctuary itself, by its very structure bearing witness to its own insufficiency, and saying to all who have ears to hear: “ I am not for aye. I have a first and a second chamber, a near and a nearer to God. The first and the near is yours, oh, people of Israel, for daily use; the second and the nearer is as good as shut against you. When that which is perfect is come, the nearer will be accessible to all, and the veil and the place outside and all the services that now go on there will cease toy exist.” (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Hebrews 9:9 Which was a figure Types: Prophecy is the prediction of the coming of the Redeemer in word; type is the prediction in act. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) The types are, indeed, pictures, but to understand the pictures it is necessary we should know something of the reality. The most perfect representation of a steam-engine to a South Sea savage would be wholly and hopelessly unintelligible to him simply because the reality, the outline of which was presented to him, was something hitherto unknown. But let the same drawing be shown to those who have seen the reality, such will have no difficulty in explaining the representation. And the greater the acquaintance with the reality, the greater will be the ability to explain the picture. (Andrew Jukes.) Sacrifices. Love in the ordinance of sacrifice I. If we look over the religious practice of all men in all ages, unquestionably the most remarkable fact, common to them all, is the practice of . “ What is its meaning? I find answer thus. Man’ s Fall was from love into selfishness. All sacrifice is an abnegation of selfishness; a devoting something to God, which otherwise would belong to self. ‘ All sacrifice is offering--bringing as a gift. Whether sin-offering, or thank-offering, or prayer, or thanksgiving, the essence of all these, which are equally sacrifices, is, the rendering up of ourselves or of that which is or seems to be ours, to God. And sacrifice is a direct recognition of One above us whom we wish thus to approach, and in approaching whom we must deny and go out of ourselves. The creature offered represents the person offering. From this, the transition is the simplest possible, if indeed it be strictly any transition at all, to regarding the death of that animal as representing the death which the offerer’ s sin has merited; and the infliction of that death as representing the expiation of that sin. And throughout the nations unenlightened by a written revelation, these things were regarded as not only representing, but as actually being, the expiation required. II. In order to be acceptable to God, the self-sacrifice must be and . It must be the perfect rendering up of the will to His will, of the being to His disposal, of the energies to His obedience. Now it must be obvious to us, that such full and entire rendering up to God is impossible on the part of man, whose will is corrupted by sin. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Who can bring entire and perfect obedience out of one whose very leading principle is that of disobedience--whose thoughts and desires are, however his outward conduct may beordered, in a continual state of rebellion against God? And accordingly the Law, in its typical enactments, set this plainly before the ancient Church. III. Every victim was to be WITHOUT BLEMISH. God would accept nothing which was corrupted, or imperfect, or contaminated. IV. Then again, if each man could not for himself fulfil this spiritual meaning of sacrifice--that sacrifice itself taught him something of a for himself, who in his stead might be offered to God. And the Law, working on this, further continually familiarised the people with the idea of one such substitute for all. The lamb of the passover was chosen, one for each household. The daily morning and evening sacrifice was one lamb for the whole people of Israel. The great annual day of atonement witnessed one goat slain for a sin-offering for all the people. V. But there is plainly more than this--one important element in the meaning of sacrifice is yet unconsidered. Man, as sinful, rests under the just judgment of God. And the conflict of God’ s will and his own will within him, if it end in his becoming united again to God, must obviously include the entire subjection of his own will, as in all other points so in this--the TO THE OF SIN as part of God’ s holy will. The animals offered in sacrifice were almost uniformly slain, and the remnants of them consumed by fire, which fire was the well-known symbol of the Divine wrath; which as uniformly, as we observed, were required to be without spot or blemish. VI. Again, in the substitution indicated by the sacrifice, if any adequate idea of reconciliation to God is to be conveyed, there must be represented a OF GUILT from the offerer to the substitute. For this the Law also took especial care. To mention only one instance: in the ceremonies of the day of atonement two goats are to be offered, typifying the double result of the Redeemer’ s sacrifice--His death for sin, and His life for righteousness; His dying for our sins, and rising again for our justification. VII. The next point is this: that some METHOD OF of its virtue, and its acceptableness to the offerers, should be indicated. Suppose the one atoning sacrifice represented as Offered; suppose God to be set forth as well pleased with it, and as accepting it: how was the offerer to apply these things to himself? In cases of offering for sin, and uncleanness, the blood of the slain animal was sprinkled or placed on the person of the offender for whom the victim was offered, or on the tabernacle or vessels which represented, in their use for holy things, the instrumentality of the whole people of Israel. In the great sacrifice first ordained, viz., that of the passover, this reconciliation by the imputation of blood shed in the offering was even more plainly pointed out. The blood was ordered to be sprinkled on the lintel and side-posts of the house-door of the family which offered the sacrifice; seeing which blood the destroying angel would pass over the house and would not touch them. VIII. But more than this participation was signified also by the ceremonial law. The offerers actually PARTOOK of the sacrifice. The substance of the victim actually passed into their bodies, and was assimilated into their substance, and thus the victim became identified with themselves--their flesh and their blood; and the union between the offerer and the offered became the closest possible. IX. The great and real sacrifice, when offered, is not only to reconcile man to God by the removal of guilt, but to possess a VIRTUE, by means of which man, unable before, shall be first enabled to offer himself, body, soul, and spirit, an offering acceptable to God. In other words, he is not only to be justified by the application of the atonement thus wrought to his person, but he is to be put into a process of , whereby his whole body, soul, and spirit are to be made holy to the Lord. Did the Law in any way sybolise this, the ultimate object, as regards us, of what Christ has done for us? We may trace it in more ordinances than one. In the repeated washings and cleansings with water, of the priests, and all that belonged to the tabernacle service; in the inscription, “ Holiness to the Lord,” on the forehead of the high priest; but above all in the fact that every sacrifice was ordered to be seasoned with salt--that preservative and restoring power, representing the Spirit of holiness, by which the believers are renovated onto the life Of God. X. The Law also set forth the Redeemer and His work by PERSONS as well as by ordinances. A more striking type of Him cannot be imagined than the Levitical high priest. It is an interesting question for us, though not the main question, how far these things may be supposed to have been patent to the Jewish worshipper of old--how far he took in his mind the idea of spiritual reconciliation by the sacrifice of a spotless Redeemer. The only answer to such an inquiry must be found in their own ancient interpretations of those remarkable prophecies which relate to the sufferings and atonement of Christ. And it is well kown that in commentaries of theirs, written probably before the Christian era, those passages such as the fifty-third of Isaiah are interpreted as prophecies of their future Messiah. We may also surmise the answer to such a question from the fact that John the Baptist could make use, when speaking to Jesus, himself a Jew, of such words respecting our Lord as theses” Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” From such facts as these, we are certainly justified in assuming that the meaning of the types in the Law was not altogether unknown to the pious Jew; though whether it influenced, or was intended to influence, his thoughts and the nature of his faith to any great extent, rosy well be doubted. It was perhaps enough for him to be taught, in distinction from all heathen nations, the utter inadequacy of sacrifice or offering to please God; and to be kept shut up under the ceremonial system, in a covenant with God of obedience and fidelity, in the abnegation, if he felt and lived God’ s law, of all self-righteousness--waiting for the consolation of Israel; looking for the prophetic promises to be fulfilled in God’ s good time. For he had not only types of Christ, but the voices of the prophets all point onward to the future Redeemer. (Dean Alford.) Hebrews 9:10 The time of reformation The gospel a time of reformation: Christ then reformed the Law for our sakes, and all things that were in the Old Testament; old things are passed away, and shall we ourselves remain unreformed? As Christ hath reformed the Law for our salvation, so let us suffer Him to reform us There is a formation, a deformation, and a reformation. The formation was at the first Creation of the world; then God put all things into a good form and order: “ He beheld all that He had made, and lo it was good, yea, exceeding good.” After that came a deformation by the Fall of man, and that put all out of order again: upon that a reformation was made. 1. By a general deluge that purged all the earth. 2. By the patriarchs after the Flood. 3. By Moses, when the Law was published in writing. 4. By our Saviour Christ, and that is double: the one at His first coming, the other at the second. The Spirit of God here entreateth of the first. So that the time of the gospel is the time of reformation. Now especially ought Christians to endeavour a reformation. Every one will take on him to reform the Church: weavers and tailors will enterprise that. The Church is out of order; let that be reformed. But true reformation must begin at ourselves. He that will repair a house must begin at the foundation: so if ye will have a reformation, reform yourselves first: and in the reformation of yourselves begin with the heart: cast out the unclean lusts, the pride, envy, malice, covetousness; afterwards reform your eyes, tongues, hands, and all the members of your body: first wash the inside of the cup and platter, then the outside, else ye will be but whited tombs and painted sepulchres, as the Pharisees were: this is the best order in reforming. First let every man strive to reform himself, the vices whereunto himself is given. In the next place let him reform his family: after that, let every one in his place labour to reform the town wherein he dwells, to rid it of drunkards, of idle persons, to establish good orders in it for the credit of the gospel professed by us. This is the time of reformation, let us all in the fear of God reform ourselves: there shall not be a hair amiss on our head, but we will reform it: if we have a spotted coat or garment, we will reform it: and shall we ourselves remain unreformed? While the time of reformation lasts, let us reform ourselves: death may seize on us ere we be aware, and then it will be too late to reform. (W. Jones, D. D.) Reformation upon the gospel scheme I. STATE THE NOTION OF . All things were defective and out of order when our Saviour appeared to set up a new dispensation of grace. But Christ came to fulfil the ancient types, to throw off human impositions, to establish a more pure and spiritual worship and government, and to give a system of doctrines, which, by the power of His Spirit, should make a blessed alteration in the Church and in the world. II. SHOW THE OF THE GOSPEL SCHEME TO PROMOTE A IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 1. It represents the atonement of Christ as the ground or basis of reformation. 2. If gives us the most excellent plan of righteousness as the rule of reformation. 3. It leads us to the best means and assistances for reformation. 4. It affords us the strongest motives and encouragements to a reformation. How inviting and engaging are gospel displays of the Divine philanthropy! III. POINT OUT SOME PROPER METHODS OF THIS SCHEME FOR THE WE ARE AIMING AT. 1. We should be deeply affected with a sense of the great degeneracies of the age which need to be reformed, and of the rich advantages of the gospel scheme which encourage our hopes of a reformation. 2. We should be earnest in prayer to God for His Spirit to reform us. 3. Every one should be seriously concerned about personal reformation upon the foot of the gospel scheme. 4. We should take the best care and pains we are capable of, in our respective stations, to promote the reformation of others together with ourselves. (J. Guyse, D. D.) Hebrews 9:11-12 Christ … an High Priest of good things to come The Lord Jesus as a High Priest God never destroys for the sake of destroying, nor pulls down the old to leave a void in its place. The Divine method is to overcome evil by uplifting that which is good, and to remove the good, after it has served its purpose, by introducing that which is more excellent. I. Jesus Christ as a High Priest much excels in the AND OF THE . Jesus Christ entered “ by a greater and more perfect tabernacle.” By the tabernacle here we are to understand, say some, the expanse above, the stellar firmament, through which Christ entered into the holy place. But the ablest commentators understand by it the body of Jesus Christ. And the author of this Epistle furnishes a strong ground for that interpretation in Hebrews 10:20. A hint to the same purport is to be found in the text, for it is averred of this tabernacle that “ it is not of this building,” that is, not of this creation. The humanity of the Lord Jesus is the beginning of a new creation. But it is not the visible body in itself that is intended by the tabernacle, as it is not the visible blood in itself that is meant by the “ blood” ; but human nature in the person of the Son of God, in which the Word has “ tabernacled” among us, and by which He is the “ beginning of the creation of God.” II. Jesus Christ as a High Priest much excels in the OF THE HOLY PLACE. There was no need for a special word in this place to denote the greatness of the holy place, as it follows naturally from the preceding words. “ Christ, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, entered in once into the holy place” ; and if the tabernacle were “ greater and more perfect,” it follows of necessity that the holy place was so likewise. The same thought belongs to both. Christ entered through the tabernacle of His untainted humanity to a corresponding holy place; He went into the holy place of the eternal world; He entered into the holy of holies of the universe. But God never does anything hurriedly; so Christ, after receiving the keys of the invisible world, took forty days to appear to His disciples at different times, in order to assure their minds that all power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth, and that a clear way, which no one may block, is opened unto them from earth to heaven. Then He ascended, in quiet unruffled glory, to take His proper place as the minister of the sanctuary, and sat down on the right hand of Majesty on high. There is not a higher place in all heaven than where Jesus Christ is to-day in our nature. He is as high as God Himself could raise Him. III. Christ as a high priest excels in the OF THE BLOOD. The worth of the blood was owing to the worth of the life, and the worth of the life to the greatness of the Person. When a man is martyred, the soul does not die; nevertheless, the soul imparts worth to the life of the body, and confers immeasurably more importance on the death of a man than the death of a beast. But notwithstanding the greatness of the difference between man and an animal, it is only a difference of degrees. Man is but a creature as well as the animal. But the difference between man and God is as great as that between a creature and the Creator. And yet, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Creator has come into closer union with humanity than that between our souls and our bodies. Though, perhaps, it be not proper to say that God died, yet the one who died was God. The infinite Person of the Son was in the obedience; the infinite Person was in the suffering; the infinite Person was in the death: imparting boundless worth and merit to all, so as to be a “ propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” Because the Person is so great, the preciousness of the blood has filled all heaven, and has converted the throne of Majesty into a mercy-seat. IV. Jesus Christ excels as High Priest in the OF HIS WORK. The Jewish high priest was obliged to go to the holy place every year, because there was no effectual reconciliation; only the surface was a little washed, only temporal forgiveness was administered. But the sacrifice of Christ effected a thorough reconciliation--there is no need for a second attempt. V. Jesus Christ excels as High Priest in the NATURE AND OF THE . He obtained eternal redemption or deliverance for us. This follows necessarily from the other part of the verse. As He went to the holy place in heaven, it must be that the redemption is eternal. There is not a higher court ever to reverse the verdict. The acquittal is from the throne of God Himself. (Lewis Edwards, D. D.) The superiority of Christ’ s priesthood: The object of right worship has ever been the same, but its mode has undergone two great changes: 1. From no sacrifice to many sacrifices. 2. From many sacrifices to one--from the many mediations of Moses to the one mediation of Christ. I. CHRIST HIGHER THINGS. 1. A higher system of teaching. More spiritual, clear, and diffusive. 2. A higher form of worship. More simple, personal, attractive, and free. 3. A higher state of union. Marked by broader views, higher aims, more expansive benevolence. II. CHRIST IN A HIGHER . 1. Heaven is a more extensive sanctuary. “ Greater.” For all kindreds, &c. 2. A more Divine sanctuary. “ Not made with hands.” III. CHRIST A HIGHER . His own life--the most precious of all. IV. CHRIST A HIGHER WORK. “ Redemption” of forfeited rights and paralysed powers; redemption from guilt and spiritual influence of sin; impartation of pardon and purity to the condemned and corrupt; and all this eternal. (Homilist.) The priesthood of Christ I. THE OF CHRIST IN TO THE PAST--AND THE OF HIS WORK IN BEHALF OF THE OF A FORMER AGE. To this view we are led by the whole course of the apostle’ s argument in this chapter, and the various allusions to sacrificial rites contained in the Old Testament. The doctrine of propitiation is the harmonising doctrine of the whole Bible. It makes the narrative of patriarchal, Levitical, and prophetical life one history. The men who lived under these dispensations all felt their need of mercy, and with certain differences of outward circumstances, all sought for mercy in the same way. The fundamental articles of religion have been the same in every age of the world. Such is the antiquity of Christ’ s priesthood. It reaches far back through all the religious economies under which fallen man has ever lived. Christ is that true Melchisedec who has neither beginning of life nor end of days. “ He has obtained for us,” says the apostle, “ eternal redemption.” Rolling ages impair not the earnestness of His intercession, nor multitudinous offences the worth of the plea He brings. “ He ever liveth.” “ He abideth a priest continually.” II. THE OF CHRIST AS AND THE IN ORDER TO THE OF BEING PERFECT. The priest, in the Levitical sense, is a public person who deals with an offended God in the name of the guilty, by offering an appointed sacrifice for sin upon the altar. 1. According to this definition, we see that in order to the desired reconciliation three things are necessary--a priest, a sacrifice, and an altar. (1) First, there must be a priest. There was no priest under the covenant with Adam upright, for this reason, there was no sacrifice. Man then was dealt with as innocent; he could come to God of himself. But the covenant with man fallen was altogether different; this was entered into with persons in a different moral state, and made for a totally different end. It was a covenant with sinners, with persons who had offended God and cast the words of the first covenant behind them. Hence the design of this new compact was to make peace, to reinstate man in the friendship of his Maker, and to repair the dishonour done to the Divine government. But to give effect to this covenant a mediating party was necessary. The prophet Zechariah expresses this necessity in that fine passage, “ He shall be a priest upon His throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both.” (2) But, secondly, there must in effecting this sublime negotiation be also a sacrifice. “ Gather My sons together to Me,” says the Psalmist, “ those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” The importance of this element of the priesthood will appear to you, if you consider that if a sinless mediator had been all that was required, there seems nothing to forbid that our high priest should have been an angel. But this appended condition of sacrifice, the irrevocable necessity of bloodshed in order to remitted guilt made the mediation of angels impossible; for are they not all spirits?--therefore, having no blood to shed. Hence, while there was blood to be shed which shut out angels, it must be sinless blood which shut out men. And yet the dictates of natural equity would suggest that the blood should be that of a man, and that he who should bear the penalties of a broken covenant should be of the same nature with the covenant breaker. (3) And then, again, in order to a perfect priesthood there must of necessity be an altar--an altar too of such infinite worth and preciousness that it should both sanctify and enhance the gift. Now, considering that the sacrifice offered up was nothing else than the human nature of Christ, consisting of a body rent, broken, and a pure, holy soul, agonised, bruised, smitten of God and afflicted, the only thing there could be to sanctify a gift in itself so sanctified is the Divine nature with which this holy sacrifice was united, 2. Here, then, we have satisfactorily provided for the three pre-requisites for a perfect priesthood, namely, a priest, a sacrifice, and an altar. It should not lessen our confidence in this gospel priesthood, to find that all its constituent elements centre in the same glorious person--that the victim to be sacrificed is Christ, that the altar on which it is laid is Christ, that the priest who is to slay and offer and carry the blood into the most holy place is Christ; for if all these several parts be necessary to a perfect priesthood, how would it have vitiated the whole oblation to have encountered at any stage of its preparation a mixture of infirmity. If, for instance, a perfect sacrifice had been offered on a blemished altar, or if though the altar were unblemished, the offering must pass through the hands of a frail and erring priest. No, Christ will have none to lay hands on His work, none to join Him in it. The wine-press of humiliation shall be trodden by Himself alone. “ By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” III. THE OF CHRIST IN TO ITS MORAL . The apostle, as you perceive, takes as the basis of his comparison the two principal functions of the priestly office under the old economy, namely, the oblation, or the offering of the sacrifice in a part outside the precincts of the temple, and the presentation, or the carrying of blood once a year into the holy of holies to he exhibited and sprinkled upon the mercy-seat. Our Lord suffering without the camp exactly corresponds to the first feature of this Levitical system, whilst His appearing for us continually in the presence of God as plainly answers to the second. And in both, argues the apostle, you cannot fail to discern the measureless superiority of the gospel priesthood. Look at the character of the sacrifice itself. “ Not by the blood of goats, but by His own blood.” Two verses further he puts the contrast still more strongly--“ If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling,” &c. The sacrifices of the law had a double use; the one real, and the other typical; the one ceremonial, and the other spiritual; the one actual, as conferring upon the worshipper certain church rights and privileges, the other contingent as requiring a definite act of faith in the promise of the Mediator. Well, the ceremonial efficiency of this it was no part of the apostle’ s argument to disparage. While the ancient ritual remained it served useful ends. They did sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. They enabled the excommunicated to join in public worship again, reinstated the sinner into the privileges and immunities of church fellowship, and as types reminded the worshipper of that higher union and fellowship from which he had become excluded by sin, and restoration to which would evidently require a nobler sacrifice and better blood; for how could the blood of bulls and goats ever take away sin? Hence the force of the apostle’ s distinction in the text just quoted, between purifying the flesh and purging the conscience. Temple blood may admit you to temple worship, and an outward cleansing may get you an outward interest in the covenant; but if you aspire to peace, to a realised fellowship with God, to anything of the tranquillity or joy of service--in a word, if you desire to get a cleansing and a peace within, any rest for the smitten troubled heart, you will feel that something better than blood of bulls and goats is needed, and with adoring thankfulness will look up to that great High Priest, who, carrying with Him His own all-cleansing blood, hath entered into the most holy place. And this is the second point of contrast on which the apostle insists--on Christ passed into the holy place, that is into heaven, as distinguished from that part of the tabernacle which was within the veil. As one of the patterns of things in the heavens, this inner part into which the priest went was guarded with zealous sacredness. The people were not allowed to follow even with their eyes whilst he was in the act of passing through the veil. Directly he had passed the curtains were drawn as close as possible that even the most curious might not see what was going on within; whilst enshrined in the most sacred part of the holy place itself were preserved time-honoured pledges of the presence and protecting power of God. But Christ, argues the apostle, has passed into a place far holier than your holiest. The curtain which separates Him from human sight is the cloud spread before the eternal throne. Ask we a pledge of the Divine protection--a pledge that He will not forget His holy covenant--a pledge that no penitent and believing sinners are ever to be turned away--we have it in the fact that our Melchisedec stands before the throne, that He combines in Himself all the functions of an everlasting priesthood, being Himself the tabernacle of witness, Himself the altar of sacrifice, Himself the Priest to offer, Himself the Lamb to die; and in the exercise of this priesthood He stands in the midst of the throne, exhibits the sacrificial blood openly that God may see it and pardon, that angels may see it and wonder, that redeemed ones may see it and adore, that the trembling sinner may see it and trust. Consider then, says the apostle, consider Him in all the dignity of His nature, in all the perfections of His sacrifice, in all the mightiness of His pleadings before the everlasting throne, and you will feel that you have, as you ought to have, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, you have, and should feel that you should have, a merciful and faithful High Priest over the house of God, so that if you will draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, in humble but joyous hope, in childlike and tranquil confidence, in and through the merits of the crucified, you shall both obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need: (D. Moore, M. A.) The high priesthood of Christ The high priesthood of our Lord is a matter full of important consequences to us relating to His sacred Person and His work in our redemption. Of course the term is one derived from the Jewish ceremonial worship: and it is to the books in which that worship is ordained, that we must look for its explanation. I find the first ordinances respecting the high priest’ s office in Exodus 28:1-43. There Moses is ordered to take to him Aaron his brother, and with many prescribed ceremonies and adornments to consecrate him as priest; i.e., as afterwards abundantly appears, as chief, or high priest. We need not follow these prescribed ceremonies, further than to cull out from them the general character of each portion of them, as applying to the office of our blessed Lord. As they were to be without blemish or deformity, as they were to be clothed in holy garments for glory and beauty, as they were not to defile themselves with any uncleanness, so was He, as the very first condition of this His office, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. They, these priests of Israel, were like their brethren in outward form, but, unlike them, were not to be made unclean by things which rendered others unclean. And so Christ took on Him the likeness of sinful flesh, but did not become sinful: He partook of the infirmities of our nature to the full, but did not partake of its pollution. But, when the high priest is thus constituted and apparelled, what is the first matter of which we read, belonging to his special duty and office? Precious stones are to be taken, two sets: upon both the sets are to be graven the names of the tribes of the children of Israel: once, on two onyx stones, which are to be worn on the shoulders of the high priest: the other time, on twelve separate stones, whose names are specially detailed; and this last tablet is to be worn on his heart. We have here a double-feature of the office. The high priest is judge; the high priest is intercessor. And this too belongs to the reality of the high priesthood of Christ. All judgment is committed to Him. And thus judging, thus ordering His Church, He bears His people written on His heart. He can never forget them, for He represents them, and He loves them as Himself, and He bears them on Himself as a memorial before God continually. The next point which requires our notice is important, as introducing a whole class of duties which mainly constituted the high priest’ s office (see Exodus 28:36-38). Here we have the high priest in a new character: that of one bearing the iniquity of others, who are made acceptable to God by that his hearing of their iniquity. The plate of pure gold--the “ Holiness of the Lord” inscribed on it--must of course be taken as indicating, in connection with his bearing their iniquity, the acceptance before God, as holy, of the people of the Lord whom he represents. It will be enough at this part to say, that our blessed Redeemer here also fulfils the reality of which these high priests were a shadow. Not only does He carry His people engraven on His heart before God, but He presents them to God as holiness to Him, by virtue of His having Himself borne their iniquities. Take the apostle’ s testimony to this in Ephesians 5:25. Then come, in the book of Exodus, the rites and ceremonies of the consecration, or setting apart of the priests to minister before God. Concerning these, one remark before all is suggested to us by the writer of this Epistle to the Hebrews:--viz., that no man took the office unto himself, but only those who were selected and consecrated by God, as was Aaron. The very name of the Lord by which we call Him, Messiah or Christ, signifies the Anointed. But we now come to that which was by far the larger portion of the duty of the priests of old, and of which we shall have much to say as concerning our great High Priest Himself. “ Every high priest,” says our Epistle, “ is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices.” This was the priest’ s especial office; to minister for the people in the things concerning God, and to offer sacrifices for sin. Now almost every particular is explained by the writer of this Epistle to have immediate reference to our Lord: and of those not so mentioned several are so obvious as to be unmistakable by any intelligent Christian. 1. First of all why all these ordinances of sacrifice at all? Why all this taking away of animal life, and this sprinkling of blood, ceremonies of a kind painful and revolting now to our minds and habits? All these sacrifices, thus divinely appointed, were ordained to signify greater and spiritual truths: “ the Holy Ghost thus signifying,” as we have it written here: God having a matter to make known in His good time, which should be no type or shadow, but His own very truth: and that matter being, the death and satisfaction of our blessed Lord, His eternal Son. But let us follow this out, considering Him as our High Priest. “ If He be a Priest,” says the writer of our epistle, “ He must of necessity have something to offer.” And here we have God’ s High Priest, whom He hath consecrated and sent into the world. By what offering shall He propitiate God towards those His people? Who shall shed the blood that may sprinkle our holy things and make them pure? Who shall go far, far away, bearing upon his head the iniquities of us all? Hear His answer--“ Lo I come to do Thy will, O God.” He is spotless. He unites in Himself our whole nature: strike Him, and we are stricken: let His sacrifice be accepted, and we are cleared from guilt: let that blood of His be carried into the holy place of God’ s presence in heaven, and an atonement is made for us. There are several ether, apparently minor, but really not less interesting points of comparison, between the high priests of old and our blessed High Priest and Redeemer. Their sacrifices were imperfect, and of no intrinsic value or avail. They therefore needed renewing continually, day by day. But His is perfect and all-sufficing. It needs only to be believed in, and applied by the obedience of living faith to the heart., Again: those high priests, by reason of their being mortal men, were continually renewed from time to time. None of them was permanent: they came as shadows, and so departed: theirs was no abiding priesthood, to which all men might look for atonement and acceptance. But the Son of God abideth for ever: “ He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him: in that He died, He died for sin once: in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” For ever does the virtue of His blood endure: for ever does His holy priesthood avail. There is with Him no wearing out, no forgetting, no failure of earnestness, no vacillating affection, no exhausted pleading. He is for all, He is over all, He is sufficient for all, He cares for all. So then, once more--inasmuch as they were human high priests, they were fellows with their brethren. Was then theirs any advantage over Him? In that land of Judaea, under the shade of those walls of Jerusalem, you might perchance see the high priest holding conference with the erring or the penitent: might see the venerable man of God, on whose brow was His anointing, with the hand of the young offender laid in his, pleading eye to eye till the tears chased one another down the cheek glowing with shame: and then might trace the judge of Israel watching, reminding, building up the returning sinner in holiness. Shall we envy them? Were they better off than we? Ah no! The sympathising high priest on earth, what is he to the sympathising High Priest in heaven? Few indeed, and interrupted could be such interviews: narrow indeed and partial such sympathies. But our High Priest is not one who lacks leisure or power to receive all who come to Him at any time. It is for us, for the least among us, that the eternal Son of God is thus constituted a High Priest: for our sins, for our wants, for our daily feeling, and obeying, and approaching to God. It is to purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God, that His holy blood was offered: to make us pure, upright, clear in purpose, and like to our God and Father. (Dean Alford.) Good things brought by Christ: Here we may see what they be that in truth deserve the name and title of good things, Not silver and gold, houses and lands. Christ at His coming brought none of these, yet He brought good things with Him, namely, remission of sins, faith and other graces of the Spirit. These indeed are worthy the name of good things. Forasmuch as our Priest bringeth such excellent things with Him, let Him be most welcome to us. David said of Ahimaaz, “ he is a good man, and bringeth good tidings.” Much more let us say of Christ our High Priest, “ He is a good man, He bringeth good tidings,” that by the blood of His Cross He hath reconciled us to God the Father, hath obtained a general pardon for all our sins, He hath prepared a place for us in His own kingdom; therefore let us receive Him with all joy. (W. Jones, D. D.) The body likened to a tabernacle As Christ’ s body is a tabernacle, so Isaiah 2 Peter 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1). 1. The name of a tent or tabernacle imports warfare. Soldiers have their tents. 2. There is a between a tabernacle and a house; for a house is made of solid matter, wood, stone, &c. A tent is made of old clothes patched together. So our bodies are not made of the sun, of the stars, of the firmament, but of the earth, which is a brittle thing. 3. A tent is weak, easily pierced through. So our body. A knife, a pin may prick it, a fly may choke it. A tent is quickly up and quickly down. So is our body. We come suddenly, and we are gone again in the turning of an hand, though it be the body of a wise Solomon, of a strong Samson, a fair Absolom, yet remember it is but a tent or tabernacle. The time is at hand, says St. Peter, when I must lay down this tabernacle. Now as the tabernacle in the time of the Law was kept neat, clean, and handsome, it might not be polluted with anything. So let us keep our bodies from all pollutions. (W. Jones, D. D.) He entered in once Our Lord’ s entrance within the veil I. THE OF HIS . 1. Unique. 2. Substitutionary. 3. Personal. 4. Of transcendent value. II. THE MANNER OF HIS . 1. Once. 2. Only once. 3. In the fullest and most complete manner. III. THE OBJECTS OF HIS . 1. He made atonement within the veil. 2. He enters there to appear for us. 3. He is there to perfect us. 4. He has entered in once that He may abide there. 5. He is there to admit us to the same nearness. IV. THE GLORIES OF THIS . “ Having obtained eternal redemption.” When Aaron went in with the blood of bulls and goats, he had not obtained “ eternal redemption” ; he had only obtained a symbolic and temporary purification for the people, and that was all. 1. Our Lord enters in because His work is all done. 2. That which He had obtained was redemption. We do not fully know what the word “ redemption “ means, for we were born free; but if we could go back a few years, and mix with the negro slaves of America, they could have told us what redemption meant, if ever, by any good fortune, any one of them was able to buy his freedom. You that have groaned under the tyranny of sin, you know what redemption means in its spiritual sense, and you prize the ransom by which you have been made free. We are to-day redeemed from our far-off condition in reference to the Lord God: we do not now stand outside the veil. This is a great redemption. We are also delivered from guilt, for “ He hath washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Also from the power of sin, its curse, its bondage, &c. 3. And now think of the nature of that redemption; for here is a grand point. He has obtained “ eternal” redemption. If you carefully study the verses around the text, you will find the word “ eternal” three times: there is “ eternal redemption,” the “ eternal Spirit,” and an “ eternal inheritance.” Why is redemption said to be eternal? He has obtained eternal redemption--a redemption which entered into eternal consideration. Redemption isthe drift of creation, and the hinge of providence. 4. When our Lord entered in, He had by His sacrifice also dealt with eternal things, and not with matters of merely passing importance. Sin, death, hell--these are not temporary things: the atonement deals with these, and hence it is an eternal redemption. 5. Now, look forward into eternity. Behold the vista which has no end! Eternal redemption covers all the peril of this mortal life, and every danger beyond, if such there be. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The entrance of Christ into heaven I. The entrance of our Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest into heaven, to appear in the presence of God for us, and to save us thereby unto the uttermost, was a thing so great and glorious, As COULD NOT BE BUT BY HIS OWN BLOOD. No other sacrifice was sufficient unto this end. II. Whatever difficulties lay in the way of Christ, as unto the accomplishment and perfection of the work of our redemption, HE WOULD NOW DECLINE THEM, NOR DESIST FROM HIS , IT COST HIM. III. THERE WAS A HOLY PLACE MEET TO RECEIVE THE LORD CHRIST, AFTER THE OF HIMSELF; and a suitable reception for such a person, after so glorious a performance. IV. If the Lord Christ entered not into the holy place until he had finished His work, WE MAY NOT EXPECT AN UNTIL WE HAVE OURS. He fainted not until all was finished; and it is our duty to arm ourselves with the same mind. V. IT MUST BE A EFFECT WHICH HAD SO A CAUSE; and so it was, even “ eternal redemption.” VI. THE NATURE OF OUR , THE WAY OF ITS , WITH THE DUTIES OF US WITH RESPECT , ARE GREATLY TO RE BY US. (John Owen, D. D.) Christ’ s work on earth and in heaven I. HIS WORK ON EARTH. “ He obtained eternal redemption for us.” 1. The blessing in question. (1) Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, or deliverance from the sentence of condemnation. (2) Redemption by power from the dominion of sin, from the vassalage of the world, and from the power of darkness. 2. The extensiveness of the attribute. “ Eternal redemption.” (1) Completely. (2) Absolutely. (3) Emphatically. 3. Eternal in its procuring. 4. Eternity of the benefit. (1) For men, in distinction from angels. (2) For believers. II. His IN HEAVEN. 1. Where did He enter? “ Into the holy place” --heaven. 2. With what did He enter? “ With His own blood. 3. How often did He enter? “ Once.” (W. Jay.) Having obtained eternal redemption for us Redemption by Christ: Calvary is the central point to which, as all former ages, with a vague expectancy, had looked onward, so all subsequent ages look back, with hearts filled to the full with gratitude and love. In the redemption there won for us there are various points for us to notice. 1. Firstly, it was by His own blood that Christ entered in once into the holy place. It was a sacrifice centring absolutely in Himself. Christ trod the winepress alone. His own blood was shed for the salvation of the world; none other could mingle with it. 2. And Christ entered once into the holy place. We should mark this well. His death was the single act of One who need never repeat it. 3. And the redemption thus won is as eternal for us as it is for Him who won it. This side of the grave we have to struggle, to do battle as soldiers of the Cross, “ not as though we had already attained, either were already perfect” (Philippians 3:12). But we may have sure and certain hope of eternal life, and in this confidence may go forth conquering and to conquer. The redemption, as far as Christ’ s work is concerned, has been made; and if we will but take the crown from Him who offers it to us, no power of earth, nor of hell, shall be able to wrest it from our keeping without our consent. 4. And, lastly, Christ has obtained this eternal redemption for us. Without boastfulness or self-assertion, we may lay stress on that word, and remember that in it Christ associates with Himself the whole human family. We look back down the stream of time which has flowed on to the present. We think of all the lives that have been for a longer or shorter period borne upon that mighty river--lives known and unknown, a blessing or a curse to their generation. In all of these redemption has played its part. It has had an influence and a power on those lives, whether it has been accepted or not. It has been either their hope and encouragement, or it has been a solemn witness rising up to protest against every deed of sin and shame. Man cannot live in the knowledge and light of immortality won for him by Christ, and be the same as if he knew it not. For that knowledge he must be either infinitely the better or infinitely the worse. And, for our great and endless comfort, let us never forget that the redemption is offered to each individual soul; for Christ by His death made each one of us His own, having paid the price which our salvation costs. And that act of surpassing love has been performed as though no other soul but thine required this tremendous sacrifice. Will you, then, reject so great salvation? will you refuse the eternal redemption Christ has obtained for you? (C. W. H. Kenrick, M. A.) Our redemption I. Our redemption from captivity is effected by our Lord in two ways: BY PRICE AND BY POWER. By price paid into the hand of God as the moral Governor; by power exercised on Satan, sin, the world, and death. II. Our Lord obtained eternal redemption for us BY . This implies reconciliation (Colossians 1:20-22; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). III. Our Lord obtained eternal redemption for us BY . This refers to law and justice. (James Kidd, D. D.) Redemption: Once when I was revisiting my native village, I was going to a neighbouring town to preach, and saw a young man coming from a house with a waggon, in which was seated an old woman. I felt interested in them, and asked my companion who they were. I was told to look at the adjoining meadow and pasture, and at the great barns that were on the farm, as well as a good house. “ Well,” said my companion, “ that young man’ s father drank that all up, and left his wife in the poorhouse. The young man went away and worked until he had got money enough to redeem that farm, and now it is his own, and he is taking his mother to church.” That is an illustration of redemption. In the first Adam we have lost all, but the second Adam has redeemed everything by His death. (D. L. Moody.) Release In the debtors’ prison at Sheffield, Howard found a cutler plying his trade who was in jail for thirty cents. The fees of the court amounted to over a pound, and this sum he had been for several years trying to earn. In another jail there was a man with a wife and five children, confined for court-fees of about five shillings, and jailer’ s fees of about eightpence. This man was confined in the same apartment as robbers. All such debtors--and they were numerous in England--Howard released by paying their debts. (Cycloaedia of Biography.) Hebrews 9:13-14 How much more shall the blood of Christ?The sacrifice of Jesus Christ The sacrifice of our Lord admits of being considered from many different points of view. We may consider it as making atonement for our sins, and ask how any such transference and application of His merits to us, as is involved in this thought, is possible; or we may consider why any such atonement should have been necessary at all to satisfy the requirements of the Divine Righteousness in the moral government of the world. Both of these questions are legitimate, and the New Testament does in fact suggest answers to them. But there is another consideration, simpler perhaps than either of these, which is yet full of importance, and comes first in the order of thought; and that is, the nature of Christ’ s sacrifice, considered not in its effect on us, but simply in itself: of what sort was Christ’ s sacrifice, and wherein lay its acceptableness? I. HE OFFERED HIS SELF, HIS PERSON, HIS HUMAN LIFE TO GOD. This human life of ours is meant to move in various directions. It moves out to the interpretation and appropriation of nature; and so man gains in natural knowledge, and develops the resources of civilisation. It moves out again from each man towards his fellows, and so the bonds of humanity are knit, and society advances. It moves out also towards God, to present itself before Him, and enter into communion with Him. “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” All the faculties of man are thus to be directed not only towards nature, towards his fellow men, but also deliberately Godward, and that first of all. It is “ the first and great commandment.” This was the original law of man’ s being. This is his ultimate goal in Christianity (Romans 12:1). This “ reasonable service,” which St. Paul calls a “ sacrifice,” though there be no death involved in it, is what is supremely exemplified in the human life of Jesus. It looked manward in love and ministry. “ He went about doing good.” But first of all it looked Godward in self-oblation. “ Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” Aye, even before “ Thy will be done “ comes “ Thy name be hallowed.” For to please God, to present himself before God, to know God, this is the highest privilege and the primary duty of man. II. HE OFFERED HIMSELF “ WITHOUT SPOT” OR “ BLEMISH.” The metaphor is from the inspection of the victims prepared for sacrifice. In the Lamb of God the scrutiny of the all-seeing eye can detect no disqualifying flaw. A will always vigorous, single, unflagging; an intellect wholly unclouded and unsophisticated, of perfect receptivity and exquisite penetration; a heart of incomparable tenderness and force, which yet never moved out in uncontrolled passion; a perfect humanity which yet showed its perfection in unresisting dependence upon the movement of the Divine Spirit which filled it and directed it; a humanity rich and full in experiences, passing through all sorts of vicissitudes of circumstance, yet found as perfect in one situation as in another, in failure as in success; a humanity in which nothing approaching to moral decadence is to be detected, glorious in its issue as in its inception. He offered Himself to God without blemish. He fulfilled the ideal of humanity. He was the beloved Son in whom the Father--the great Scrutiniser of human oblations--was well pleased. III. THE OF JESUS WAS A FULL, PERFECT, AND SELF- OF MAN TO GOD. It was perfectly “ spiritual.” He, the pattern Man, gave to God an undivided allegiance, an absolute homage. When His mission on behalf of truth, and meekness, and righteousness involved the martyr’ s death--He accepted the condition, and offered the shedding of His blood. But in God’ s sight the shedding of the blood had no value except as the symbol of obedience carried to an extreme. It is a great, a strange mistake to suppose that the death of Christ was, as it were, the act of God. It was the act in which (on the contrary) rebellion against God, the sin of man, showed itself in its true and horrible colours. What God does is to bear with this, as He has foreseen it, to spare not His only Son, to exempt Him by no miracle from the consequences of His loyalty to truth and meekness and righteousness--under the conditions of a sinful world, as things were, its inevitable consequences. God foresees, God bears with this, and He overrules it to the purposes of our redemption. But throughout, as St. Auselm says, in the greatest Christian treatise on the Atonement, what God the Father enjoined upon the Incarnate Son was, primarily simple obedience; only as obedience in fact involved death, then, secondarily, did He enjoin upon Him to die. There are splendid instances in actual history, or imaginative history, of acts in which men have poured out their blood as a sacrifice for their fellow men. It is the deep moral feeling of Euripides which converts the unwilling sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis into a freewill offering for her country. “ The whole of Greece, the truly great, is looking to me now,” she cries to her mother,… “ for all the Greeks and not for thyself alone, didst thou bear me; therefore for Greece I offer my body.” So she gives herself to be sacrificed by the priest’ s knife, and the goddess Artemis accepts the freewill offering--but not the actual life; for as the knife is falling, the place of the maiden is, by the intervention of the goddess, taken by a doe. And of the maiden it is said that the same day beheld her dead and alive again. This is a splendid thought. But it is the nobility of the victim which is supposed to move the compassion of the goddess rather than the simple worth of a human life, and the atmosphere of religious conception as to the Divine nature is still far cloudier than among the Jews. On the Jewish stage a cognate but more truly historical scene is described in Maccabees, where the heroic martyrs for the honour and liberty of the chosen people offer up their lives to God. “ And I,” cries the youngest of the seven martyred brothers, “ as nay brethren, offer up my body and life for the laws of our fathers, beseeching God that He would speedily be merciful unto our nation,… and that in me and my brethren the wrath of the Almighty which is justly brought upon all our nation may cease.” This is a self-sacrifice which comes very near to Isaiah’ s conception of the vicarious self-oblation of Jehovah’ s righteous servant. But it has still accompanying it some ring of the false thought of God as demanding for sin some positive quantity of expiatory death. Now when we describe the sacrifice of our Lord as perfectly spiritual, we mean that it carries with it, in all its silent implications and in the spoken words in which it found expression, the perfect truth about God and about man, as the flawless homage of the self-surrendering will. Jesus taught the perfect truth in words--the truth about God’ s pure Fatherhood; the truth that what God asks of man, who is made for sonship, is not mere isolated acts of obedience or sacrifice, but simply and altogether the homage of an unqualified submission and dependence. He taught the truth about man’ s sin, about his rebellion, about his need of conversion. He taught the truth about the unity of the human race--bidding men see that they may not live each for himself, but are bound to live each for all. He taught all this in words; He taught it in deeds, in His own human relation to the Father; in His own relation to mankind. He taught it most of all in His sacrifice. For when obedience was shown to involve death, tie spared not Himself, even as the Father spared Him not: He used no miraculous power to exempt Himself, though He declared that He possessed it. For us, in our manhood, before God He shed His blood. And this blood-shedding has, in God’ s sight, a perfect value, because it is the expression of a flawless will, of truth unqualified--the truth about God’ s claim on man, the truth about humanity’ s proper homage, the truth about sin. And the self sacrifice of Jesus lives for evermore, over against all our lawlessness, our wilfulness, our slackness, our blindness, our self-sparing, as the perfect recognition in man’ s name and nature of the righteous claim of God, and of the responsibility of man for man. IV. As THE OF JESUS WAS SO IT WAS OFFERED, NOT ONLY IN THE POWER OF THE PERFECT , BUT IN THE POWER ALSO OF THE ETERNAL SPIRIT. Truly was He acting in manhood, really under conditions of manhood: the sacrifice was genuinely human in its moral effort, in its moral and physical pain, in its genuine human faith. It was the Son of Man who offered Himself. But the mind and will expressed was also God’ s mind, God’ s will, and therefore the meaning and value of the act is unchangeable. It is true of all human action at its best that it has an eternal element. “ The truly great have all one age.” But the eternal element, the movement of God which lies hid at all times at the roots of humanity, is obscured and clouded by human independence of God, that is, human sin. In Jesus every human act is also the act of God. He who was acting under human conditions was very God; and the Divine Spirit which indwelt His humanity, indwelt Him perfectly, and found in Him a faultless organ in which His will could be done. Nothing, then, in the acts or sacrifice of Jesus is merely temporary, or imperfect, or inadequate. It belongs to all ages. It is eternal. (Chas. Gore, M. A.) Gospel theology I. THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS A LIVING . This revelation of God as “ living” stands opposed to 1. Heathen idolatry. 2. Secular philosophy. 3. Mere logical divinity. II. THE CHIEF END OF MAN’ S IS TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD. 1. This implies (1) That He has a will concerning our activities. (2) A capacity on man’ s part to understand and obey the will of God concerning him. 2. There are three facts in relation to the service of God which we should always bear in mind, and which marks it off from all other service. (1) That acceptability does not depend either upon the kind, or the amount, or the results of our activity, but upon its principles. (2) That to serve God does not require that we should confine ourselves to any particular department of action. (3) That to serve God is the only way either to serve ourselves or others. III. MAN’ S MORAL NATURE IS IN A STATE WHICH HIM FOR THIS SERVICE. 1. The conscience is polluted. 2. The conscience is polluted through dead works. IV. THE GREAT END OF CHRIST’ S IS TO REMOVE THIS MORAL FOR THE SERVICE OF THE LIVING GOD. 1. By furnishing man with the most complete exhibition of what the service of the living God is. (1) A personal consecration. (2) A voluntary consecration. (3) A virtuous consecration. (4) A consecration Divinely inspired. 2. By supplying the most effective means to generate in the heart the principle of true service--supreme love to God. 3. By providing a medium which renders the service approvable to God. V. CHRIST’ S FOR THIS PURPOSE IS MOST . “ If the blood,” etc. 1. The object in the one case to be realised is of unspeakably greater importance than the other. 2. The means employed in the one case are immeasurably more costly than the other. 3. The agent employed in the one case to apply the means is infinitely greater than in the other. (Homilist.) Christ the purifier of religion I. MAN’ S NEEDS . TO perceive this, contemplate the Jewish ceremonial, and that will shadow forth the spiritual truth. The man who had touched a corpse, or the grave dust, was regarded as defiled--he felt defiled, he trembled to enter the presence of God. Paul says thisis the symbol of an eternal fact. The conscience feels the touch of death. It trembles in worship. Therefore it needs purifying from its dead works to serve the living God. The more bright and keen the conscience, the deeper and more awful is the feeling of death that cleaves to us. II. THE OF CHRIST THE POWER. 1. A perfect and holy sacrifice. That awful expenditure of sinless agony is the only purification. The voice of condemnation pursues us through every path of life until it is hushed before the Cross. Then the death-stains of past sin are cleansed away. Then the spectral forms of the past are laid for ever. Then prayer loses its tremor, aspiration its sadness, praise its undertone of fear. We no more wish to escape from God, for we are made pure by the blood of Christ. 2. A new spirit of devotion; for we need not only absolution but inspiration before we can serve God freely, lovingly, joyously. “ He offered Himself” --not in fear, but voluntarily. Suffering, shame, death, stood in His path.He might have refused to endure them, and from the first turned aside: but daily He chose to bear the daily cross. “ Through the Eternal Spirit.” His was not an offering from the human to avert the Divine anger, but an offering from Himself. There was the true spirit of worship when the Eternal Spirit became enshrined in Jesus. And through that Spirit He offered Himself. III. THE RISES TO LIVING WORSHIP. 1. Living--in the reality of its spiritual emotions. The unpurged conscience is tempted to forget, to doubt, to deny God, or regard Him simply as some awful and mysterious power. The purified spirit feels Him near and can bear the glance of the Eternal without shrinking; for the dead past has been cleansed away by the blood of the Saviour. Thus prayer becomes real; it is no longer a vain cry breathed into the air; for the Spirit through which He offered Himself abides in us, constraining our devotion. 2. Living--for it pervades the whole life. The worship of fear is limited to time and place. But cleansed and inspired by Christ we feel He is everywhere. In suffering we bear His will, and our sighs become prayers. In sorrow, when the heart is weary, we feel ourselves near to the heavenly Friend who is leading us to find in Him rest for the restless and sad. In joys, He who hallowed social gladness by His first miracle--and amid the friendships of life, He who made friendship holy is close to our hearts. In our falls and failures we hear His voice in the hope of rising out of the gloom to a higher and purer slate beyond it. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) The sacrifice of Christ I. THE SPECIAL OF THE , the grand atonement on which we all rest, is, that it is not the blood of the inferior animals, as in the former dispensation; but the blood of Christ. 1. It was the offering of a human being. The death of Christ, considering Him simply as a man, shows a justice in the visitation of sin, as much greater as human life is above the life of irrational animals. 2. He was an innocent and spotless man. Here the value is heightened. It was not the case of one offender selected from many to be an example. He had no part in the offence. 3. But that which carries the value of the offering to its true height, is, that it was “ the blood of Christ” ; of the whole and undivided Christ, who was both God and man. For, though a Divine nature could not bleed and die, a Divine person could. II. ITS SPECIAL . It cleanses not the flesh, but “ purges the conscience from dead works, that we may serve the living God.” Two benefits are here marked as the foundation of, and leading to, all others. 1. The purification of the conscience. The “ dead works,” here mentioned, are sins; and the guilt from which we are purified is in another place termed “ the conscience of sins.” Sins are “ dead works,” because they expose us to present condemnation, and finally to eternal death. By “ conscience” here is meant inward perception of such works as are chargeable upon us, with fearful apprehensions of the death they bring. But on this sacrifice you are to trust in order to salvation. To encourage you to this, think of the Father’ s love. Think of the love of the Son. Can you doubt of that love while He is evidently set forth crucified before your eyes? Think of the value of this sacrifice. If you can conceive of anything more valuable, then doubt the efficacy of this, and fear to trust. Then trust in it. Venture in the same vessel which has carried so many over the stormy waves which now surround you, and who shout to you from the shore beyond, and bid you trust, and not be afraid. 2. The second blessed consequence is, that we may “ serve the living God.” There is the service of worship. We have free access to God, and our services are acceptable. There is the service of obedience. We are delivered from the bondage of sin, and all our powers are consecrated to God. Learn: 1. The infinite evil of sin. It could not be forgiven without a Divine atonement. 2. The awful character of Divine justice. 3. The fulness of the blessings purchased by this sacrifice. The salvation corresponds with the sacrifice by which it was purchased, and comprehends every spiritual blessing, both in time and eternity. (R. Watson.) The character, agency, and efficacy of Christ’ s sacrifice I. THE AGENCY THROUGH WHICH CHRIST’ S WAS , AND THE OF THAT . Christ offered Himself to God, both in obedience and in suffering. His whole life was one season of oblation. II. THE EFFECTS OF THIS . St. Paul’ s representation rather embraces a point than extends itself to the whole of the effects of the atonement: the expression “ dead works,” denotes sinfulness in general, by which all our consciences are polluted, in opposition to those things by which spiritual uncleanness was removed. We have, then, simply to inquire into the truth and meaning of the assertion, that the blood of Jesus cleanseth the soul of the believer from sin, and thus qualifies him for the service of the living God. And, first of all, we have full warrant for affirming that so soon as there is faith in the heart, binding a man to Christ as a member of the head, the sins of all men are swept completely away, being not only forgiven, but actually forgotten by God. It is membership with Christ which gives its might and its majesty to the gospel. Faith admits me into the invisible Church of Christ, and the members of the invisible Church make up one sinless body in the sight of the Father--the perfect righteousness of the Head being considered as belonging equally to the meanest of the members. So that when I have faith in Christ, I am literally one with Christ, and then where are my sins? The countless iniquities of my youth I the multiform transgressions of my riper years! where are they? “ I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgression, for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Oh! how unlike is His forgiveness to that of men, who may forgive but cannot forget! Oh! the word of the Lord is--“ the blood of Jesus Christ shall purge your conscience from dead works.” III. THIS “ PURGING OF THE ” IS TO “ SERVING THE LORD.” The man of whom much has been forgiven will love much, and loving without obeying is a paradox which never yet deformed practical Christianity. Like as Christ offered Himself through the Eternal Spirit unto God, so also must we through the same Spirit present ourselves as living sacrifices to the Most High. This is the service to which we are pledged; this is the consecration bound upon us by all that is most solemn in duty and glorious in hope. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The red heifer I. LET US THE TYPE (see Numbers 19:1-22.). First, the type mentions ceremonial defilements, which were the symbols of the uncleanness caused by sin. The Israelites could very readily render themselves unclean, so as to be unfit to go up to the tabernacle of God. There were uncleannesses connected both with birth and with death, with meats and with drinks, with garments and with houses. A man might become unclean even in his sleep; so closely did the law track him into his most secret places, and surround his most unguarded hours. Even thus doth sin beset us. Like a dog at one’ s heels, it is always with us! Like our shadow, it follows us, go where we may. Yea, and when the sun shines not, and shadows are gone, sin is still there. Whither shall we flee from its presence, and where shall we hide from its power? When we would do good, evil is present with us. How humbled we ought to be at the recollection of this! The Israelite became unclean even in the act of doing good; for assuredly it was a good deed to bury the dead. Alas, there is sin even in our holy things. The evil of our nature clingeth to all that we do. The touching of the dead not only made the man unclean, but he became a fountain of defilement. Pollution went forth from the polluted. Do you and I sufficiently remember how much of evil we are spreading when we are out of communion with God? Every ungenerous temper creates the like in others. We never cast a proud look without exciting resentment and bad feelings in others. Somebody or other will follow our example if we be slothful; and thus we may be doing great mischief even when we are doing nothing. This uncleanness prevented the man from going up to the worship of God, and it separated him from that great, permanent congregation which was called to dwell in God’ s house by residing all around the holy place. He was, so to speak, excommunicated, suspended, at any rate, in his communion: he could bring no offering, he could not stand among the multitude and view the solemn worship, he was unclean, and must regard himself so. Do the children of God ever get here? Ah, so far as our consciences are concerned we too often come among the unclean. Until the pardoning blood speaks peace within your spirit, you cannot draw near unto God. We tremble, we find communion impossible until we are made clean. This much about the defilements described in the chapter; now concerning the cleansing which it mentions. The defilement was frequent, but the cleansing was always ready.. At a certain time all the people of Israel brought a red heifer to be used in the expiation. It was not at the expense of one person, or tribe, but the whole congregation brought the red cow to be slain. It was to be their sacrifice, and it was brought for them all. It was not led, however, up to the holy place for sacrifice, but it was brought forth without the camp, and there it was slaughtered in the presence of the priest, and wholly burnt with fire, not as a sacrifice upon the altar, but as a polluted thing which was to be made an end of outside the camp. Even as our Lord, though in Himself without spot, was made sin for us, and suffered without the camp, feeling the withdrawings of God, while He cried, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Then the ashes were collected and laid in a clean place accessible to the camp. Everybody knew where the ashes were, and whenever there was any uncleanness they went to this ash-heap and took away a small portion. Whenever the ashes were spent they brought another red heifer, and did the same as they had done before, that always there might be this purification for the unclean, There was no other method of purification from uncleanness but this. It is so with us. To-day the living water of the Divine Spirit’ s sacred influences must take up the result of our Lord’ s substitution, and this must be applied to our consciences. That which remaineth of Christ after the fire hath passed upon Him, ever the eternal merits, the enduring virtue of our great sacrifice, must be sprinkled upon us through the Spirit of our God. Then are we clean in conscience, but not till then. II. LET US MAGNIFY THE GREAT . “ For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ?” How much more? He doth not give us the measure, but leaves it with a note of interrogation. We shall never be able to tell how much more, for the difference between the blood of bulls and of goats and the blood of Christ, the difference between the ashes of a red cow and the eternal merits of the Lord Jesus, must be infinite. Let us help your judgments while we set forth the exceeding greatness of our mighty Expiator, by whom we are reconciled to God. 1. First, then, our defilement is much greater, for the defilement spoken of in the text is on the conscience, We cannot have fellowship with God while there is a sense of unconfessed and unforgiven sin upon us. “ Be ye reconciled to God” is a text for saints as well as for sinners: children may quarrel with a father as well as rebels with a king. There must be oneness of heart with God, or there is an end to communion, and therefore must the conscience be purged. The man who was unclean could have come up to the tabernacle if there had been no law to prevent it, and it is possible that he could have worshipped God in spirit, notwithstanding his ceremonial disqualification. The defilement was no barrier in itself except so far as it was typical; but sin on the conscience is a natural wall between God and the soul. You cannot get into loving communion until the conscience is at ease; therefore, I charge you, fly at once to Jesus for peace. 2. Secondly, our sacrifice is greater in itself. I will not dwell upon each point of its greatness, but just notice that in the slaughter of the heifer blood was presented and sprinkled towards the holy place seven times, though it came not actually into it; so in the atonement through which we find peace of conscience there is blood, for “ without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” Death was our doom, and death for death did Christ render unto the eternal God. It is by a sense of our Lord’ s substitutionary death that the conscience becomes purged from dead works. Furthermore, the heifer itself was offered. After the blood was sprinkled towards the tabernacle by the priestly hand, the victim itself was utterly consumed. Read now our text: “ Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered up Himself without spot unto God.” Our Lord Jesus Christ gave not merely His death, but His whole person, with all that appertained unto it, to be our substitutionary sacrifice. Oh, what a sacrifice is this! It is added that our Lord did this “ by the eternal Spirit.” The heifer was not a spiritual but a carnal offering. The creature knew nothing of what was being done, it was the involuntary victim; but Christ was under the impulses of the Holy Ghost, which was poured upon Him, and He was moved by Him to render up Himself a sacrifice for sin. Hence somewhat of the greater efficacy of His death, for the willinghood of the sacrifice greatly enhanced its value. To give you another, and probably a better, interpretation of the words, there was an eternal spirit linked with the manhood of Christ our Lord, and by it He gave Himself unto God. He was God as well as man, and that eternal Godhead of His lent an infinite value to the sufferings of His human frame, so that He offered Himself as a whole Christ, in the energy of His eternal power and Godhead. One who is both God and man has given Himself as a sacrifice for us. Is not the sacrifice inconceivably greater in the fact than it is in the type? Ought it not most effectually to purge our conscience? After they had burnt the heifer they swept up the ashes. All that could be burnt had been consumed. Our Lord was made a sacrifice for sin, what remains of Him? Not a few ashes, but the whole Christ, which still remaineth, to die no more, but to abide for ever unchanged. He came uninjured through the fires, and now He ever liveth to make intercession for us. It is the application of His eternal merit which makes us clean, and is not that eternal merit inconceivably greater than the ashes of an heifer ever can be? 3. As the defilement and the sacrifice were greater, so the purging is much greater. The purifying power of the blood of Christ must be much greater than the purging power of the water mixed with the ashes of the heifer. For that could not purge conscience from sin, but the application of the atonement can do it, and does do it. Now, what is all this business about? This slain heifer--I understand that, for it admitted the unclean Israelites to the courts of the Lord--but this Christ of God offering Himself without spot by the eternal Spirit--what is that for? The object of it is a service far higher: it is that we may be purged from dead works to serve the living God. The dead works are gone, God absolves you, you are clean, and you feel it. What then? Will you not abhor dead works for the future? Sin is death. Labour to keep from it. Inasmuch as you are delivered from the yoke of sin, go forth and serve God. Since He is the living God, and evidently hates death, and makes it to be an uncleanness to Him, get you to living things. Offer to God living prayers, and living tears, love Him with living love, trust Him with living faith, serve Him with living obedience. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Self-oblation the true idea of obedience: Christ offered up Himself. He was both Priest and Sacrifice. The atoning oblation was His perfect obedience, both in life and death, to the will of His Father. From Hebrews 10:5-7 we learn that the mystery of atonement began from the first act of humiliation, when He laid aside His glory, and was made in the likeness of men. It contains, therefore, His incarnation, His hope of earthly obedience, His spiritual and bodily sufferings, His death and resurrection. He overcame sin by His holiness, by perfect and perpetual obedience, by a spotless life, by His mastery in the wilderness, by His agony in the garden. His whole life was a part of the one sacrifice which, through the eternal Spirit, He offered to His Father; namely, the reasonable and spiritual sacrifice of a crucified will. I. First we may learn INTO WHAT TOWARDS GOD THE CHURCH HAS BEEN BROUGHT BY THE OF CHRIST. The whole mystical body is offered up to the Father, as “ a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” Whatsoever was fulfilled by the Head is partaken of by the body. He was an oblation, and the Church is offered up in Him. Even now the Church is crucified, buried, raised and exalted to sit with Christ in heavenly places. In the same act of self-oblation He comprehended us, and offered us in Himself. And in this is our justification; namely, in our relation, as “ a living sacrifice,” to God through Christ, for whose sake we, all fallen though we be, are accounted righteous in the court of heaven. II. The next truth we may learn is, THE NATURE OF THE HOLY . Under one aspect they are gifts of spiritual grace from God to us; under another they are acts of self-oblation on our part to God. They are the emphatic expressions and the efficient means of realising the great mystery of atonement in us. The faithful in early times, in the very act of offering up the living sacrifice of themselves, saw in the bread and wine of the eucharist an expressive symbol of self-oblation, and a fulfilment of the prophet’ s words (Malachi 1:11). : 1. We may learn from this view of the great act of atonement, what is the nature of the faith by which we become partakers of it, or, in other words, by which we are justified. Plainly it is not a faith which indolently terminates in a belief that Christ died for us; or which intrusively assumes to itself the office of applying to its own needs the justifying grace of the atonement. “ It is God that justifieth.” All that faith does at the outset, in man’ s justification, is to receive God’ s sovereign gift. 2. We may thus learn what is the true point of sight from which to look at all the trials of life. We hear people perpetually lamenting, uttering passionate expressions of grief at visitations which, they say, have come on them unlooked for, and stunned them by their suddenness: one has lost his possessions, another his health, another his powers of sight or hearing, another “ the desire of his eyes,” parents, children, husbands, wives, friends; each sorrowing for their own, and all alike viewing their affliction from the narrow point of their own isolated being: they seem to be hostile invasions of their peace; mutilations of the integrity of their lot; untimely disruptions of their fondest ties, and the like. Now all this loose and faithless language arises from our not recognising the great law to which all these are to be referred. It is no more than this: that God is disposing of what has been offered up to Him in sacrifice: as, for instance, when a father or mother bewails the taking away of a child, have they not forgotten he was ,not their own? Did they not offer him at the font? Did not God promise to receive their oblation? What has He done more than take them at their word? And so likewise, when any true servants of Christ are taken away, what is it but a token of His favourable acceptance of their self-oblation? While they were with us they were not ours, but His: they were permitted to abide with us, and to gladden our hearts awhile; but they were living sacrifices, and ever at the point of being caught up to heaven. And so, lastly, in all that befalls ourselves, we too are not our own, but His; all that we call ours is His; and when He takes it from us--first one loved treasure, then another, till He makes us poor, and naked, and solitary--let us not sorrow that we are stripped of all we love, but rather rejoice for that God accepts us: let us not think that we are left here, as it were, unreasonably alone, but remember that, by our bereavements, we are in part translated to the world unseen. He is calling us away, and sending on our treasures. The great law of sacrifice is embracing us, and must have its perfect work. Let us pray Him, therefore, to shed abroad in us the mind that was in Christ; that, our will being crucified, we may offer up ourselves to be disposed of as He sees best. (Archdeacon H. E. Manning.) The more excellent ministry: Stress must be laid on each of three particulars: Christ offered Himself; in offering Himself He presented a spotless offering; He offered Himself through an eternal spirit. I. First, then, Christ’ s sacrifice possesses incomparable worth and virtue because the victim was HIMSELF. In this one fact is involved that Christ’ s sacrifice possessed certain moral attributes altogether lacking in the Levitical sacrifices: voluntariness and beneficent intention, the freedom of a rational being with a mind of his own and capable of self-determination, the love of a gracious personality in whom the soul of goodness dwells. Christ’ s sacrifice was an affair of mind and heart--in one word, of spirit. II. Christ’ s sacrifice possesses incomparable worth and virtue, secondly, because in Himself He presented to God a sacrifice--spotless in the moral sense. He was a perfectly holy, righteous Man, and He showed His moral purity precisely by being loyal and obedient even to the point of enduring death for righteousness’ sake. The victims under the law were spotless also, but merely in a physical sense. Christ’ s spotlessness, on the contrary, was ethical, a quality belonging not to His body, but to His spirit. III. We are now prepared in some measure to understand the third ground of the value attached to Christ’ s sacrifice; viz., that He offered Himself THROUGH AN ETERNAL SPIRIT. Putting aside for a moment the epithet “ eternal,” we see that Christ’ s sacrifice was one in which spirit was concerned, as opposed to the legal sacrifices in which flesh and blood only were concerned. It was a free, loving, holy spirit. But the writer, it is observable, omits mention of these moral qualities, and employs instead another epithet, which in the connection of thought it was more important to specify, and which there was little chance of his readers supplying for themselves. The epithet “ eternal” suggests the thought: the act performed by Jesus in offering Himself may, as a historical event, become old with the lapse of ages; but the spirit in which the act was done can never become a thing of the past. The blood shed was corruptible; but the spirit which found expression in Christ’ s self-sacrifice is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and in its eternal self-identity lends to the priestly deed imperishable merit and significance. This fitly chosen phrase thus makes the one sacrifice of Christ cover with its efficacy all prospective sin. But it does more than that. It is retrospective as well as prospective, and makes the sacrifice valid for the ages going before. For an eternal spirit is independent of time, and gives to acts done through its inspiration validity for all time. One virtue more must be ascribed to this magic phrase, “ through an eternal spirit.” It helps us over the difficulty created by the fact that Christ’ s real self-sacrifice took place on earth, and yet ideally belongs to the heavenly sanctuary. When we think of Christ’ s sacrifice as offered through an eternal spirit, we see that we may place it where we please, in earth or in heaven, on Calvary or on high, as suits our purpose. Do you insist that Christ’ s proper offering of Himself took place in the celestial sanctuary after the ascension, even as Aaron’ s proper offering was the blood-sprinkling within the most holy place? I reply, Be it so; but it took place there through an eternal spirit which gave to it its value; and if we want to know what that spirit was, we must look to the earthly life of obedience and love culminating in the crucifixion, wherein it found its perfect manifestation. Through this eternal spirit Christ offered Himself before He came into the world, when He was in the world, after He left the world. It was as a spirit He offered Himself, as a self-conscious, free, moral personality; and His offering was a spirit revealed through a never-to-be-forgotten act of self-surrender, not the literal blood shed on Calvary, which in itself possessed no more intrinsic value than the blood of Levitical victims. Thus interpreted, the term “ spirit” unfolds the implicit significance of “ Himself,” and gives us the rationale of all real value in sacrifice. It can have no value, we learn therefrom, unless mind, spirit be revealed in it. Death, blood, in its own place, may have theological significance, but not apart from spirit. It goes without saying that the idea of spirit is essentially ethical in its import. Voluntariness and beneficent intention enter into the very substance of Christ’ s sacrifice. Another remark still may be added. In the light of the foregoing discussion we can see the vital significance of the death of Christ in connection with His priestly work. The least priestly act of the Levitical system becomes here the most important, the humble, non-sacerdotal first step the essence of the whole matter. Through the death of the Victim His spirit finds its culminating expression, and it is that spirit which constitutes the acceptableness of His sacrifice in the sight of God. On the epithet “ eternal” attached to “ spirit” it is not necessary further to enlarge. As the term “ spirit” guarantees the real worth of Christ’ s offering as opposed to the putative value of Levitical sacrifices, so the term “ eternal” vindicates for it absolute worth. It lifts that offering above all limiting conditions of space and time, so that viewed sub specie asternitatis it may, as to its efficacy, be located at will at any point of time, and either in earth or in heaven. “ Eternal” expresses the speculative element in the writer’ s system of thought, as “ spirit” expresses the ethical. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Purge your conscienceThe purging of the conscience I. First, consider THE SAD WHICH LIES IN THE WAY OF THE SERVICE OF GOD. The apostle does not say, purge your conscience from evil works, because he wanted to turn our minds to the type of defilement by death, and therefore he said, “ dead works.” I think he had a further motive; for he was not altogether indicating wilful transgressions of the law, but those acts which are faulty because they are not performed as the result of spiritual life. I see a difference between sinful works and dead works which we may perhaps be able to bring into light as we go on. Suffice it to say for the moment, that sin is the corruption which follows necessarily upon spiritual death. First, the work is dead, and soon it rots into actual sin. 1. Upon our consciences there rests, first of all, a sense of past sin. Even if a man wishes to serve God, yet until his conscience is purged, he feels a dread of God which prevents his doing so. He has sinned, and God is just, and therefore he is ill at ease. 2. On the back of this comes the consciousness that we ourselves are sinful, and inclined to evil. We say rightly, “ Who shall bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” We feel that we have not that perfect purity of heart and cleanness of hands which would fit us for the holy place; nor can we ever be saved from this fear, so as to take up our heavenly priesthood and serve God, till the precious blood of Christ shall be applied to the conscience, nor until we feel that in Christ we are accounted righteous. 3. But, besides this consciousness of sin and sinfulness, we are conscious of a measure of deficient life. About us there is a body of death. Dead works are the things we most require to be purged from. Without going into what the world calls actual sin, we carry death about us, from which we daily cry to be delivered. For instance, our prayer in its form and fashion may be right enough, bat if it lacks earnestness, it will be a dead work. An alms given to the poor is good as a work of humanity, but it will be only a dead work if a desire to be seen of men is found at the bottom of it. Are not the sins of our holy things glaring before our consciences this day? Unless we are purged therefrom by the blood of Christ, who offered up Himself without spot to God, how can we serve this living God, and be as priests and kings unto Him? Once more: I told you that the Israelites were defiled by even touching a dead bone, and this teaches us the easiness of being polluted. We have to come into contact with evil in our daily dealings with ungodly men. Can we think of them, can we speak to them, can we trade with them, without incurring defilement? Nay, I go further: do we, as Christian men washed by Christ, ever associate with one another without a measure of defilement? Can we meet together at our homes and feel, when we separate, that everything we have said was seasoned with salt and ministered to edification? Is there not some taint about our purest friends; and does not the touch of that corruption which still remaineth, even in the regenerate, tend to, defile us? II. Now, I want to show, in the second place, WHAT IS THE TRUE FROM THIS EVIL Under the law there were several methods of purification. These things did purify the flesh, so that the man who had formerly contracted impurity might mix with his fellow-men in the congregation of the Lord. Now, if these matters were so effectual for the purifying of the flesh, well does the apostle ask, “ How much more shall the blood of Christ purge our conscience from dead works?” Why does he say, “ How much more?” 1. First, because it is more truly purifying. There was not truly anything of purification about the blood of bulls and of goats. When the Lord Jesus gave His body, soul, and spirit a sacrifice for sin, then in that deed there was a real atonement made, a true and effectual expiation was offered. Therefore he says “ How much more?” if the shadow cleansed the flesh, how much more shall the substance cleanse the spirit? 2. Moreover, our Lord Christ offered a much greater sacrifice. One reason why the precious blood has such power to put away sin is because it is the blood of Christ, that is, of God’ s Anointed, God’ s Messiah, the Sent One of the Most High. Notice, it is not put concerning Christ that His life is purifying, though it had a wonderful relation thereto; nor is it said that His prayers are purifying, albeit everything is ascribable unto the intercession of our risen Lord; nor is it said that His resurrection is purifying; but the whole stress is laid upon “ the blood of Christ,” signifying thereby death, death as a victim, death with reference to sin. See in His agony and His death your joy and life. It is the blood of Christ that alone can make you fit to serve the living and true God. Note what it was that Christ offered, and be sure that you lay great stress upon it. “ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself?” “ What a, splendid word that is! Did He offer His blood? yes, but He offered “ Himself. Did He offer His life? yes, but He specially offered “ Himself.” Now, what is “ Christ” ? The “ anointed of God.” In His wondrous complex nature He is God and man. He is Prophet, Priest, and King. He is--but time would fail me to tell you what He is; but whatever He is He offered Himself. The entire Christ was offered by Christ. 3. It is said in our text that this offering of Himself was “ without spot.” The sacrificial act by which He presented Himself was a faultless cue, without spot. There was nothing in what Christ was Himself, and nothing in the way in which He offered Himself, that could be objected to of God: it was “ without spot.” 4. Further, it is added that He did this “ by the eternal Spirit.” His eternal Godhead gave to His offering of Himself an extreme value which otherwise could not have been attached to it. Observe, then, the sacrifice was a spiritual one. He entered with His whole heart into the substitution which involved obedience unto death. “ For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross.” It was by His Spirit that He offered up a true and real sacrifice; for He says, “ I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” But then you must not forget that this Spirit was Divine--“ by the eternal Spirit.” The Spirit of Christ was an eternal Spirit, for itwas the Godhead. There was conjoined with His deity the natural life of a perfect Man; but the eternal Spirit was His highest Self. What limit can you set to the merit of One who by the eternal Spirit offered up Himself? What bound can there be to a sacrifice Divine? You can no more set a limit to our Lord’ s sacrifice than to Godhead itself. Once more, I must call to your notice the use of that word “ eternal,” --“ who by the eternal Spirit” --for it gives to the offering of Christ an endless value. Now, all this tends to make us feel how clean are they who are purged by this sacrifice which our Lord offered once for all to God. 5. Once more upon this point: as I have shown you that the sacrifice of Christ was more real and greater, so I want you to notice that it was better applied; for the ashes of an heifer mixed with water were sprinkled on the bodies of the unclean; the blood of bulls and of goats was sprinkled upon the flesh, but neither of them could reach the heart. It is not possible for a material thing to touch that which is immaterial; but the sufferings of Christ, offered up through His eternal Spirit, were not only of a corporeal but of a spiritual kind, and they reach, therefore, to the cleansing of our spirit. That precious blood comes home to us in this way: first, we understand somewhat of it. The Israelite, when he was purged by the ashes of the red cow, could only say to himself, “ I am made clean by these ashes, because God has appointed that I shall be, but I do not know why.” But you and I can say that we are made clean through the blood of Christ, because there is in that blood an inherent efficacy; there is in the vicarious suffering of Christ on our behalf an inherent power to honour the law of God, and to put away sin. Then again, we appreciate and approve of this way of cleansing. The Israelite could not tell why the ashes of a red heifer -purified him; he did not object to it, but he could not express any great appreciation of the method. We, as we see our Lord suffering in our stead, fall at His feet in reverent wonder. We love the method of salvation by substitution; we approve of expiation by the Mediator. Further, it comes home to us in this way: we read in the Word of God that “ he that believeth in Him hath everlasting life,” and we say to ourselves, “ Then we have everlasting life, for we have believed in Him.” We read, “ The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,” and our conscience whispers, “ We are cleansed from all sin.” Conscience finds rest and peace, and our whole consciousness becomes that of a forgiven and accepted person, with whom God is well pleased. III. Consider THE KIND OF SERVICE WHICH WE NOW RENDER. After so much preparing, how shall we behave ourselves in the house of God? You should present unto the Lord the constant worship of living men. You see it is written, “ Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Are you not under bonds to serve Him? From this time forth you should not have a pulse that does not beat to His praise, nor a hair on your head that is unconsecrated to His name, nor a single moment of your time which is not used for His glory. Should not our service be rendered in the full strength of our new life? Let us have no more dead works, no more dead singing, no more dead praying, no more dead preaching, no more dead hearing. Let our religion be as warm, and constant, and natural as the flow of the blood in our veins. A living God must be served in a living way. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The purification of the conscience: The offerings in the temple could not have satisfied the conscience; the offerings of Christ do. There are two aspects of sin which trouble the conscience. Sin by religious teachers is thought of as disturbing our relations with God. It stops our convictions, and prevents His Fatherly grace from coming to us. Another aspect of sin takes a place among the forces in the life of man to swell the sum of evil examples, to make virtue more difficult, and vice more natural. No repentance can ever recall what we have done, or make it cease to be a source of evil in the world. There is danger in the other extreme, but Christ is able to deal with the conscience, and set us right in our relations with God. There are principally three proposals for setting the relation right. They are--by man’ s contribution, by God’ s acceptance, and by Christ’ s transforming power. In the early ages of religion, when outward circumstances were held to be an indication of the favour or disfavour of God, the idea of propitiation took shape. They brought Him what they prized most, and supposed that He would prize it the same, and continued in this until the return of sunshine assured them that the Deity’ s wrath was assuaged. On the other side, some imagine that sin lapses after a term of years, or that by a certain system disorder in some things is balanced by the order in others. It is not that twenty years ago a certain deed was done: it is that in your sin you disclosed something in you which remains in you still. Let the same circumstances recur and your weakness reappears. In a very different age there grew up another theory of setting man right with God. Man had received life and power from God, and had used them against Him, and so they thought on the principle of displaying compensation against that which has to be compensated for. Thus there grew up acceptation, a sort of diminutive of acceptation. God takes it as the best that can be given, and declares the account clear. But conscience will not accept such assurance. It still recognises sin clinging to it, and so long as that sin is there, conscience is not cleansed. The third proposal is in the transforming power of Christ. The blood of Christ cleanses the conscience. “ If any man be in Christ,” says Paul, “ he is a new creature.” Paul’ s writings are full of similar verses, in which he expresses the reasonable and joyful satisfaction of conscience. He says that sin is forgiven to all men in Christ Jesus. The relation that ought to exist between God and the soul is then restored. (W. M. Macgregor, M. A.) Dead works Dead works 1. Dead things stink. If we meet with a dead carcase by the way, we hold our noses: even so sins, blasphemy, profanations, pride, envy, hatred, malice, covetousness; these stink in the nostrils of God Almighty: therefore let them be detested by us. 2. Dead men are forgotten. “ I am as a dead man out of mind.” So let not our minds run on these dead works, on the profits of the world, the pleasures of the flesh: let these dead things be no more remembered. 3. That which is dead must be buried: “ Give me a place to bury my dead out of my sight,” as Abraham said to the sons of Heth (Genesis 23:4). Idolatry, blasphemy, all sins, are dead things, therefore let them be buried. 4. Dead things are abhorred of us. We shun dead things by the way, we will not come near them: so let these dead works be abhorred of us. 5. Dead things are heavy: a dead man. So these lie heavy on our consciences. Cain, Judas: they were not able to bear that intolerable burden. (W. Jones, D. D.) Hebrews 9:15-28 Mediator of the new testament The two mediators: I. Is WHAT JESUS AND MOSES ARE ALIKE. 1. Both of Divine appointment. 2. Both give to the world the notion of a covenant with God. 3. Both proposed a covenant that was fundamentally the same. II. IN WHAT JESUS AND MOSES ARE . 1. There is a difference of natures. 2. Jesus is a Mediator with individuals. 3. Jesus is a Mediator giving to man the fullest possible knowledge of God. 4. Jesus is a Mediator giving to man sufficiency of power. (D. Young, B. A.) The old and the new It was a part of the mission of the apostles not to transfer the allegiance of the Jews from one God to another, but to teach them how to serve the same God in a higher dispensation, under a noble disclosure of His character, and by new and better methods. It was to be the same heart and the same God; but there was a new and living way opened. The old was good, the new was better. The new was not an antagonism of the old, but only its outgrowth, related to it as the blossom and the fruit are to the root and the stalk. The old was local and national in its prime intents, and in its results. The new was for all ages. The old was a system of practices. It aimed at conduct--of course implying a good cause for conduct. The new is a system of principles, and yet not principles in a rigid philosphical sense, but principles that are great moral impulses or tendencies of the heart. The old built men for this world. Therefore it hardly looked beyond this world. The whole force of the new dispensation is derived from that which scarcely appeared at all in the old--its supereminent doctrine of the future. That is its very enginery. The aims of Christianity are supramundane. The motives are drawn from immortality-its joys, honours, promises, rewards. The old addressed the conscience through fear, and soon overreached its aim, losing some by under-action, and others--and the better natures--by over-action. What the law could not do, in that it was weak, it is declared, God sent His own Son to do. The new aims at the very springs of moral power in the soul, and that through love. It is a total change, it is an absolute difference, in this regard. The old was a dispensation of secular morals. It lived in the past. The new is a system of aspirations. It lives in the future. We are the children of the new testament, and not of the old. Woe be to us if, living in these later days, we find ourselves groping in the imperfections of the old testament, instead of springing up with all the vitality and supereminent manhood which belongs to the new testament. We are the children of a living Saviour. We are a brood over which He stretches His wings. We ought to have more than a creed which is only a modern representation of an old ordinance or institution. We ought to have something more than an ordinance. To be a disciple of the new testament is to have a living Head. It is to have a vital connection with that Head. It is to be conscious, while all nature speaks of God, and while all the exercises of religion assist indirectly, that the main power of a true religion in the soul is the soul’ s connection with a living God. Ye are the children of the new and not of the old. Let your life mount up toward God. (H. W. Beecher.) They which are called Called To every one of you I say, you are called. You are called because you were baptized as infants, dedicated to the service of the gospel, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. You are called because you have been instructed from the days of childhood to the present hour to believe in the Lord Jesus. You are called because you are in a Christian land, surrounded by those who own that the gospel is the word of God, and having also many within your sight or hearing, who live according to the will of Christ. You are called by the ordinances of the Christian Church, by the voice of the Christian ministry; by the word and sacraments of Christ, and by the preaching of those pastors who address you by His commission, and in His name. This day, this hour I call you in His behalf; therefore you are called. This is your calling. May God give you grace to hear! May God help you to believe His promise! May God make you to enjoy His glory. (C. Girdlestone, M. A.) Effectual calling: God draws His people, not with force, as mere machines, but “ with the cords of a man and with the bands of love.” The subject may be best unfolded by a familiar illustration. How was it that Jacob was drawn into Egypt? He was made to feel the pressure of a grievous famine; he was informed that there was plenty of corn in Egypt, and that his dearly-beloved Joseph was the lord of all that land, and that he disposed of the good things to whomsoever he would. He was told, moreover, that Joseph had expressly invited him, and had sent waggons for the conveyance of his family, together with abundant provisions for the way; and, finally, he was assured that, at the end of this journey, all the good of the land of Egypt should be his. Did he need, after this, to have a chain fastened round him m be dragged into Egypt? No; all that he needed was faith to believe the tidings; and when once he was persuaded of the truth of these things he was willing of himself to go into that good land. Thus God draws sinners. He causes them to feel their need of mercy; He informs them that Jesus Christ has all heaven at His disposal; that He has sent to invite them, assuring them of all that is needful by the way, and all the glory of heaven at the end. Thus a thorough belief of these truths bends the most stubborn heart, and overcomes the most reluctant mind. (C. Simeon.) A testament is of force after men are dead Christ’ s testament I. CHRIST’ S WILL IS IN A WRITTEN RECORD. 1. The record gives a definite meaning and fixed character to the mind of Christ. 2. The record gives to the mind of Christ an abiding existence among us. 3. The written Word renders the will of Christ accessible to all. II. CHRIST’ S WILL IS IN AN RECORD. III. CHRIST’ S IS A WRITTEN AND RECORD OF WHAT HE HAS TO MEN. There are great bequests for each of us. We are guilty--Christ has willed our forgiveness. We are enslaved--Christ has willed our freedom. We are sorrowful--Christ has willed our peace. We are dying--Christ has willed us life for ever. IV. CHRIST’ S HAS BEEN AND BROUGHT INTO FULL AND BY HIS OWN DEATH. (John Davies.) Christ’ s testamentary covenant: It seems to us that St. Paul took advantage of the double meaning of the Greek word which he uses, and illustrates his subject the more copiously by employing it in one place for a “ covenant,” and in another for a “ testament” ; and we shall possibly, as we advance, find reason to conclude, that the full sense of the passage is only to be evolved by our attaching to the word its double signification--by bearing in mind that a “ covenant” and “ testament” are alike designated by the word which the apostle employs. After all, there is not the wide difference which, at the first sight, we may suppose between a covenant and a testament. If I make a will, I may, in one sense, be said to covenant and agree to give certain things to certain parties upon the condition of my death; so that a testament is virtually a species of covenant. And if, on the other hand, two parties enter into a covenant, and the terms of this covenant require that one of them should die, you all see that, without any great forcing of language, the covenant may be considered as the testament or will of the sacrificed individual. God made a covenant with the Israelites, but then this covenant was ratified by the shedding of blood; in other words, there must be death to give the covenant its validity; and the covenant which required death in order to its completeness, might, as we have shown you, without anything overstrained in language, be designated a “ testament.” So that under these limitations, and under these conditions, we can attach the name of a “ testament” to that covenant which God made with Israel at Sinai. The exhibition which we are called upon to survey is that of our Saviour under the character of a testator; as the maker, that is, of a will, which could only become valid by the death of the party who made it. Now you will see at once that there is a peculiarity in this exhibition which marks it off from other representations of the scheme of human salvation. If Christ Jesus is displayed as bequeathing to the world legacies, which legacies could not be paid except after His death, then it may be said that it was the fact, the simple historical fact of His death, and not any merit which there was in that death, which entailed the large blessings on the race of mankind. And if by parity of reasoning the Redeemer is to be considered as a testator, or will-maker, does not the representation take away from the meritoriousness of His death, and, at least, show that it was not because His sufferings were expiatory and precious that such and such blessings have been obtained for us? A few words will suffice for the removal of this objection. If a man is worth £1,000 he may bequeath me that £1,000; and thus his death, considered as the mere separation of his soul from his body, will make me the owner of the money. But take the following case which is perfectly supposable: a criminal is sentenced to die, but is allowed, if he can, to find a substitute. He offers £1,000 for a substitute, and an individual comes forward and agrees on these terms to die in his stead. Now certainly this substitute may will away the £1,000, and yet nothing but his death entitles him to the £1,000. He might, for example, have long striven in vain to earn a livelihood for his family; he might then, calculating that his family would be more benefited by his death than his life, determine to sacrifice himself in order to procure for them the proper remuneration; and, without question, he might make a will which would secure to his children the property to which the value o! his death would alone give him right. He would thus unite the character of a testator and of a man who purchases, by dying, the goods which he bequeathes. Now this supposed case finds its precise counterpart in the matter of our redemption. “ The blessings of the gospel could only be procured by the sufferings and death of the Mediator. Hence, unquestionably, the blessings which Christ bequeathed were blessings which His death, and nothing but His death, could give Him right to bestow; but, nevertheless, He might still be a testator, or still make a will. In dying He might bequeath what He was to obtain by dying; and thus real inconsistency, after all, there is none, between regarding Christ as the maker of the will, and at the same time as procuring by His death the blessings which He made over to His people. In what sense, then, did Christ make a testament or will, or what fidelity is there in such an account of the scheme of our redemption? Now we would, first of all, remark that there is nothing more frequent in Scripture than the speaking of true believers “ as heirs of God,” or as brought into such a relationship to the Almighty that heaven becomes theirs by the rights of inheritance. Yon cannot fall immediately to observe that the correspondence is most exact between this account of the believer as an heir and the representation of Christ as a testator. In dying Christ made us heirs. But this is exactly what would have been done by a testament; and, therefore, it is not possible that the effects of Christ’ s death should be more clearly represented than by the figure of Christ as a testator. But is there then, indeed, no registered will, no document to which we can refer as the testament of the Mediator? We shall not hesitate to say that there is not a single promise in the New Testament which ought not to be regarded as a line or codicil in the will of the Redeemer. If you ask us for a written testament we carry you along with us to the archives of the Bible, and we take cut of it declarations which ensure to the faithful the crown and the rapture, and we join them into one continuous discourse, and we say to you, Behold the last will of the Saviour. What, we further ask, is this but an exact parallel to that which would take place in the case of a testament? Suppose you were permitted to read a will made in your own favour; there might be the bequeathment of a rich and noble estate, there might be the coffers of wealth and the caskets of jewellery consigned to your possession; but you would never think that you had a right to the domain, and you would never be bold enough to put forward a claim to the gold and the pearl, unless you knew that the testator was dead, and that thereby a force had been given to the testament. So that the correspondence is most accurate between the promises of Scripture and the consignments of a will. Had Christ (if we may bring forward such an idea) while suspended on the Cross, and exhausting the wrath which had gone forth against a disloyal creation, dictated a testamentary document enumerating the blessings which He bequeathed to all who believe on His name, not until He had bowed the head, and yielded up the ghost, would this register of the legacy have lived, overpassing in its wealth all the thoughts of created intelligences, and given right to a single child of our race to look and hope for the heritage of the redeemed. A testament is but a combination of promises becoming valid by the death of the promiser, we give the truest description of the promises of the Bible when we define them as “ the last will and testament of Christ our Lord.” Now we would refer for a moment to that connection which we show to subsist between a covenant and testament. The Father and the Son had, from all eternity, entered into a covenant; the Father engaging, on the performance of certain conditions, that blessings should be placed at the disposal of the Son for the seed of the apostate. The covenant between the persons of the Trinity engaged for the pardon and acceptance of all who, in every age, should believe on the Son. Hence, you must all perceive, that what was the covenant between the Father and Son was also a document in favour of man; but, certainly, the covenant could only become valid by death; that in the fulness of time the Son should die, being its grand and fundamental article. And if as a covenant it could only become valid by death, then as a document in favour of man it could only become valid by death; but that document in favour of a party, which only becomes valid by death, is, most strictly, a will or testament. So that by one and the same act Christ Jesus performed His covenant with the Father, and made His testament in favour of man; that, in short, which was a covenant considered relatively to God, was a testament considered relatively to man. It obtained blessings from God; it consigned blessings to man, and both equally through death. You cannot, therefore, view Christ as executing a covenant without also viewing Him as executing a testament. What tie gained as a covenanter He disposed of as a testator; and whilst we say of Him, as making an agreement with God, “ Where a covenant is, there must be the death of the covenanter,” we say of Him, as bestowing gifts on men, “ where a testament is, there must be the death of the testator.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ’ s last will and testament I. We have to inquire IN WHAT SENSE OR SENSES MAY WE SPEAK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS A . What is involved in this idea? If a will is made, two things are implied--that there is something to leave: that there is some measure of interest felt in those who are mentioned as legatees. 1. Now in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see one who has large and royal possessions, and who has these absolutely at His own disposal. All things are described as the property of Christ. All things were made by Him and for Him. Jesus Christ has power and authority to bestow all gospel blessings and privileges upon His people. He gives them grace here; He will crown them with glory hereafter. 2. And then, in making His will, Christ has distinctly in view those who are interested in its provisions--His friends, His relations those for whom, though they had no natural claim upon Him, the Saviour has bound Himself to provide. And we have the means of determining very exactly who these are. His friends are those who love Him, and who show their love by keeping His commandments. 3. A testator, in making his last will and testament, so far as there is in it any different disposition of property, supersedes, renders null and void, any will that may have been previously made. So Jesus Christ disannulled the law of the old covenant by establishing the new. Let us see to it that we put in our claim under the last will and testament of Christ. Let us not expect to receive under the law what can only come to us as a matter of free grace, under the gospel. 4. As in the case of a merely human testator, so in the case of Jesus Christ--where a testament is, for it to have force, for it to take effect, theremust needs be the death of the testator; “ otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” In this particular instance there was need for the death of the testator on several different accounts. Among men it is the death of the testator which renders a testament effectual. And so this testament was confirmed and ratified by the death of Jesus Christ, and but for that death it could have had no force at all. And as after death a will may not be altered or revoked by the testator, but remains the expression of his mind to be carried out as exactly as possible, so it may not be interfered with by others. You may question its meaning, you may question whether it be the will of him who is declared to have drawn it up, you may question his right to make it, or make it in that precise form, yet, admitting it as a will, though it be only a human will, “ no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto.” How much more truly is this the case with the testament, the will of Christ! And we must bear in mind, in the case of this testament, that there was a necessity for the death of Christ, which does not exist in the case of any ordinary testament. The death of Christ not merely rendered His will irrevocable, and afforded the heirs of promise a way of entering upon the enjoyment of their inheritance, as the death of every testator does, but there was this peculiarity--the very blessings which were disposed of by the will of Christ were secured and purchased by His death. A testator appoints executors in trust, who undertake, according to their ability, to see that all the provisions of his will are faithfully carried out. The Father and the Holy Ghost engage to carry out the will of Christ, and are ever actually doing so. But there is a high and important sense in which Christ is His own executor. “ He ever liveth” to carry out those gracious designs which find changeless expression in His last will and testament. In the record of our Saviour’ s visible residence among men, we are told only “ of all that Jesus began, both to do and to teach.” II. Having considered Christ as the testator, let US NOW LOOK AT THE GOSPEL AS THE “ LAST WILL AND OF CHRIST, We are presented with the will of Christ, not as so much mere hearsay--not as a vague and floating tradition--not as the “ lingering echo” of His much-loved voice--not as a general and unaccredited expression of His intention: we haveit in a written record, an authentic document. It is necessary that a human will should be written. And though it has been determined that an oral will, under certain circumstances (as in the case of soldiers on actual service, or mariners at sea), is valid, if properly attested, yet that even must be reduced to a written form. And so have we the will of Christ embodied in words of human speech. Nor can we be too thankful that it has been so handed down to us. It is not enough that a will and testament be written, it must be attested; it must be proved to be authentic and genuine. It must be shown to be the will of that very person whose will it purports to be. This last will and testament of Christ is proved by much concurrent testimony. The gospel of the great salvation, “ which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both by signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.” I feel that I am safe in affirming that the proof which sustains the testament of Christ is immeasurably stronger and more convincing than that which sustains any human and earthly will. There has been a practical proof of a twofold kind. For eighteen hundred years and more this will has been repeatedly disputed by the enemies of Christ. The wit and wisdom and science of the world have done all that they could do to invalidate it, but all these attempts have been in vain. For the same period the will has been proved by Christ’ s friends. We might summon a great cloud of witnesses, all of whom could bear the testimony of personal experience. There is, in every testament, provision implied or expressed that it should, with all convenient speed, be published and made known. This is necessary, that the legatees may become aware of that which has been bequeathed to them, and be in a position to put in their claim. Christ has ordained and provided that His disciples should publish His will and testament to all the children of men. We are “ put in trust with the gospel.” We are bound to publish the glad tidings in every direction. And we ought to ask ourselves how far we are discharging this obligation. This will and testament of Christ informs us of all that is provided for us. All that we enjoy, we enjoy under this will; all spiritual blessings and privileges come to us as they are bequeathed by the Lord Jesus Christ. This will of Christ is our sure and sufficient title to all that we possess as Christian believers. The provisions of a will constitute an absolute title as far as it goes. If you would invalidate my right to what is bequeathed, you must go back and question the right of him who bequeathed it. And so, does any one question us as to our right to the spiritual privileges and possessions we enjoy, we reply by pointing to the last will and testament of Christ, and any further question must be raised with Christ Himself. We must not look for our title to our own merit--to anything we are, or have done--but to the will trod testament of the Saviour. (T. M. Morris.) CHRIST’ S WILL: I. THE ESTATE WHICH HE HAS LEFT BY IT. 1. The pardon of all sin. 2. The merit of His own most glorious righteousness. 3. His own most Holy Spirit. 4. But the most glorious part of the property bequeathed by Jesus to His people is that “ inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,” which is “ reserved for them in heaven.” II. THE EVENT BY WHICH IT IS MADE OF FORCE. Because He hath “ poured out His soul unto death,” that His heirs enter into possession of the property which He hath left them. Indeed, the death of Christ has a bearing on the privileges He has bequeathed among His people beyond what can be said with reference to man’ s bequests. Man’ s death must happen before his will can fake effect because, whilst he lives, he enjoys his property himself. But Christ’ s death is, as it were, the purchase-money of the estate which He bequeaths. His death therefore was as essential to their enjoyment of these blessings as the payment of the sum demanded is to the possession of a piece of land. III. THE PERSONS IN ITS . 1. Convinced of sin. 2. Men of faith. 3. Men of grace. (A. Roberts, M. A.) The testament of Christ I. WHO IS THE ? God’ s everlasting Son, of the same essence, perfections, and glory with the Father. II. WHAT ARE THE BY THIS ? In their nature and number they are very great. The sum of them is expressed thus Revelation 21:7). They have the noblest spring and fountain with all its refreshing streams. In few words, the particular bequests in this great will of the Divine Testator, are complete deliverance from the legal consequences of sin--redemption from the curse of the law--the regeneration of our moral nature, and adoption into the household of faith--support under the trials of life--foretastes of eternal glory--and agood hope through grace which shall issue at length in the full possession of the heavenly kingdom, where every Divine and moral excellence will be perfected in the soul, and the rejoicing spirit for ever supremely happy before the throne of God. III. WHAT ARE THE TERMS ON WHICH THIS DIVINE BESTOWS ITS ? In all deeds disposing of property among men, there are certain conditions to be observed, in order to establish the validity of the claim. In some cases, the estate is conveyed charged with various encumbrances; in others, the observance of sundry specified acts is necessary to the legal holding of the property. Some inherit by descent, others by favouritism of the testator. In the case before us all is of pure mercy and love. There are terms, but they are not hard. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole condition of eternal life; but that faith is productive of holiness, of love, of obedience, and of all good works. IV. WHERE IS THE PROOF OF THE OF THIS OF LOVE? There must be attestation in every case of a human will. In the conveyance of property there must be the seal. If we were to set up a claim to the right of any possession in a court of law, the case would break down if the seal of the party from whom we plead our title was not appended to the deed of conveyance. So, likewise, a will is of no effect, till proof be given of the decease of the testator. Our blessed Lord has made His death, resurrection, and ascension to glory, the seal of His will. To conclude, Have you any part or portion in this testament? Many are anxious to know if some aged and wealthy relative has remembered them in his will. In this will all are remembered, save those who wilfully exclude themselves. (Am. Nat. Preacher.) The dying will of Jesus Christ: Perhaps a consideration of the legal ideas of the time when the. Epistle to the Hebrews was written may help to explain this difficult passage. The idea of a will was derived by the Jews from the Romans, and they probably associated with it the various ideas which had grown up around the Roman will. Let us see what these were. The origin of the ordinary form of a Roman will, was the old testament per ms et libram, by which the father of the family (generally when on his death bed) sold his whole family and estate to some friend in whom he had confidence (called the heres), on trust to carry out his wishes (an obligation which apparently was not originally legally enforceable, though afterwards it was recognised by law). This form was still kept up, though probably at the time when the Epistle was written, the familiae emptor was not generally the same person as the heres. Still the familiae emptor represented the heres, and served to keep the theoretical nature of the transaction before all parties concerned, and the heres was looked upon not merely as a distributor of goods, but as the purchaser and master of the family. It is therefore suggested that the argument is somewhat as follows. By the first διαθήκη the Hebrews were purchased and became the bondsmen of the Law (an idea already rendered familiar to them by Exodus 15:16 and Psalms 74:2); but by a new διαθήκη our Lord purchased them with His blood (Acts 20:28), as the heres or familiae emptor purchased the inheritance, and having thus purchased the inheritance of the Law, became the new master of the bondsmen of the Law, and the mediator, or executor, of a new dispensation. But inasmuch as the right of the heres can only come into operation after the death of the testator (the Law), it is evident that, if the new dispensation has begun, the Law is dead and is no longer their master. In fact, the line of argument seems similar to that in Romans 7:1-4. (H. S. Keating.) The blood of the testament. The blood of Christ is the ruby gem of the ring of love. Infinite goodness finds its crown in the gift of Jesus for sinners. All God’ s mercies shine like stars, but the coming of His own Son to bleed and die for rebel men is as the sun in the heavens of Divine grace, outshining and illuminating all. I. Of that death and of that blood we shall speak in a fourfold way; and first, we shall take the verse as it would most accurately be translated--the blood of Jesus Christ is THE BLOOD OF THE . There cannot be much doubt that the word rendered “ testament “ should be translated “ covenant.” It is the word used for covenant in other passages, and though our translators have used the word “ testament,” many critics go the length of questioning whether the word can bear that meaning at all. I think they are too rigid in their criticism, and that it does bear that meaning in this very chapter; but, still, all must admit that the first, and most usual meaning of the word, is “ covenant.” Therefore, we will begin with that reading, and consider the blood of Jesus as the blood of the covenant. 1. The blood proves the intense earnestness of God in entering into covenant with man in a way of grace. 2. It displayed the supreme love of God to man. Seeing that He entered into a contract of grace with man, He would let man see how His very heart went forth with every word of promise; and, therefore, He gave up that which was the centre of His heart, namely, Jesus Christ. 3. The blood of the covenant, next, speaks to us and confirms the Divine faithfulness. The main object of thus sealing the covenant with blood is to cause it to be “ ordered in all things and sure.” 4. The blood of the everlasting covenant is a guarantee to us of its infinite provision. There can be nothing lacking for a soul redeemed by Christ between here and heaven; for He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 5. This blood manifests the depth of the need which the covenant was meant to meet. II. Now, I take our translators’ own words--“ THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE .” 1. Jesus Christ has made a will, and He has left to His people large legacies by that will. Now, wills do not need to be sprinkled with blood, but wills do need that the testator should be dead, otherwise they are not of force. And so, first of all, the blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary is the blood of the testament, because it is a proof that He is dead, and therefore the testament is in force. If Jesus did not die, then the gospel is null and void not without the sprinkled blood does the promise of salvation become yea and amen. 2. It is the blood of the testament, again, because it is the seal of His being seized and possessed of those goods which He has bequeathed to us: for, apart from His sacrifice, our Lord had no spiritual blessings to present to us. His death has filled the treasury of His grace. 3. The blood of the testament, again, is a direction as to His legatees. We see who are benefited under His will. He must have left them to the guilty because He has left a will that is signed and sealed in blood, and blood is for the remission of sin. III. But now I must speak upon that blood from another point of view. IT WAS THE BLOOD OF . This blood of the covenant and of the testament is a blood of purification to us. Wherever it is accepted by faith it takes away all past guilt. And this is but the beginning of our purification, for that same blood applied by faith takes away from the pardoned sinner the impurity which had been generated in his nature by habit. He ceases to love the sin which ,once he delighted in: he begins to loathe that which was formerly his choice joy. A love of purity is born within his nature; he sighs to be perfect, and he groans to think there should be about him tendencies towards evil. Temptations which once were welcomed are now resisted; baits which were once most fascinating are an annoyance to his spirit. The precious blood when it touches the conscience removes all sense of guilt, and when it touches the heart it kills the ruling power of sin. The more fully the power of the blood is felt, the more does it kill the power of sin within the soul. IV. And then it is THE BLOOD OF . On the day when Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant on the people, and on the book, it was meant to signify that they were a chosen people set apart unto God’ s service. The blood made them holiness unto the Lord. Now, unless the blood is upon you, you are not saved; but if you are saved you are by that very fact set apart to be God’ s servant. “ Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.” “ Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.” A saved man is a bought man; the property of Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The blood of sprinkling: This blood sprinkled on the people was a significant type and figure of the blood of our Saviour Christ, whereby the new testament is confirmed to us. 1. That was the blood of goats and heifers; this of Christ the immaculate Lamb of God. 2. Moses was the sprinkler of that blood: the Holy Ghost is the sprinkler of this. 3. That was sprinkled on the face or garments of the people: this on our hearts and consciences. 4. The aspertorium, the sprinkling stick, there was made of purple wool and hyssop: the aspertorium here is faith. With that doth the Spirit of God sprinkle on us the blood of Christ. 5. That sprinkling did but sanctify the outward man: this the hid man of the heart. 6. The force and power of that sprinkling lasted but a while: the efficacy of this sprinkling continueth for ever. Therefore let us all be desirous of this sprinkling. (W. Jones, D. D.) Hebrews 9:22 Without shedding of blood is no remission No remission without blood I. THE FACT. 1. The observances of the ceremonial law show that men were saved by blood under the Mosaic dispensation. 2. The same way of salvation still obtains under the gospel. The typical sacrifices are indeed superseded by the one sacrifice of Christ. But it is through His sacrifice, and through it alone, that any man is saved. (1) This is capable of direct proof from Scripture (1 Samuel 2:17; 1 Samuel 2:25; Hebrews 10:26-27). (2) It may be yet further proved by arguments, which, though of an indirect nature, are not the less satisfactory than the foregoing, a. If salvation be not by blood the whole Mosaic ritual was absurd, b. If salvation be not by blood, the prophets grossly misrepresented their Messiah (Isaiah 53:1-12.; Daniel 9:24; Daniel 9:26; Zechariah 13:1; John 1:29). 3. If salvation be not by blood, the declarations of the apostles, yea, and of Christ Himself, are fax more likely to mislead than to instruct the world. Christ expressly told His disciples that His “ blood was shed for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). And the apostles uniformly declare that God purchased the Church with His own blood (Acts 20:28); that our reconciliation to God (Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20), and our justification before Him (Romans 5:9), together with our complete redemption (Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 5:9), are by blood, even by the blood of Christ, that spotless Lamb (1 Peter 1:19). II. . 1. The evil of sin. 2. The folly of self-righteousness. 3. The encouragement which the gospel affords to sinners. 4. The wonderful love of Christ. (Theological Sketch-Book.) On the atonement I. The mercy of God, however dispensed to sinners, ARISES SOLELY FROM THE OF HIS OWN NATURE. It is not to be considered as moved and excited by the means which they must use to obtain it. These are only the channel of its communication. II. GOD HAVING A WAY IN WHICH HE WILL HIS GRACE, THAT WAY DERIVES ITS FROM HIS . III. We may remark, THAT THE METHOD IN WHICH GOD HIS MERCY DOES NOT THE OF . IV. ON THE OTHER HAND, WE MUST ALSO OBSERVE, THAT OUR DOES NOT THE OF FAITH. V. I PRESUME NOT EVEN TO ATTEMPT ANY OF THE REASONS WHICH INDUCED THE TO CHOOSE THIS MODE FOR THE OF HIS MERCY TO SINNERS. It becomes us rather humbly to acknowledge our ignorance, and adore the depth both of the wisdom and goodness of God. He has ordained it, and let us be satisfied and thankful. We are permitted, however, to discover some reasons which prove the propriety of such a mode of dispensing mercy. It manifests exceedingly the grace of God, by showing that our salvation is wholly owing to it. Boasting is thus entirely excluded. And who can say whether it may not be suited to the Divine purity and justice, to confer salvation on man, only by subjecting him to the deepest humiliation, by constraining him to feel his own entire inability to save himself, and thus compelling him to ascribe his salvation solely to the Divine mercy? (J. Venn, M. A.) The atonement I. ITS arises 1. From man’ s sin, and its necessary consequences. 2. Man’ s utter incapability to atone for himself. 3. The demands of the law cannot be relaxed with honour to the lawgiver. II. THE NATURE OF THE . The person atoning must 1. Be of superior dignity to the persons for whom the atonement is made. 2. He must possess the same nature as the offender. 3. He must have a right to dispose of his own life, and freely offer himself to this end. 4. He must approve of the law, and recognise the justice of its claim. 5. He must be free from all charges of personal guilt. 6. He must answer all the demands of the law, and endure its curse. III. THE EFFECTS OF THE . 1. All the perfections of Jehovah have been illustriously displayed. 2. The atonement leaves the impenitent without excuse. 3. The atonement has rendered man’ s salvation possible. Application: 1. Let the subject of the atonement be Scripturally investigated, that it may be rightly understood. 2. Let it be cordially received, by a hearty faith (Romans 10:9). 3. Let a Scriptural knowledge, and a cordial reception of it, fill the soul with hope and joy. 4. Let not the dying sinner reject the only way of salvation. (J. Burns, D. D.) On the atonement I. THE FACT OF HUMAN GUILT, AND MAN’ S NEED OF MERCY. Remission signifies the forgiveness of a debt, or the withdrawal of the sentence of punishment, which has been pronounced upon a convicted offender. II. SIN IS . It may be pardoned. Forgiveness is attainable. The guilt of sin can be cancelled, and the sentence of condemnation may be repealed. 1. Upon this ground the sacrifices of the law were instituted. Every victim that bled, every sacrifice of blood upon the altar of the tabernacle and temple, was a conclusive testimony to the pardoning grace of God. 2. The language of Scripture is quite decisive on this great question. It tells us that with the Lord there is mercy--that He is ready to forgive--slow to anger--plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Him, 3. Scripture facts prove the doctrine which our text includes. If there were no collateral proof, the mission of Christ into the world as the Prophet and Priest of the Church would be quite enough. He came to save sinners. 4. We may also look at examples. Sin had been remitted, or forgiven. Paul says, “ I obtained mercy.” The penitent thief was pardoned and taken to paradise the same day, III. WHILE SIN MAY BE IT IS ONLY THROUGH THE OF BLOOD. Some impurities might, under the law, be removed by water and fire, but the stain of sin could be removed only by blood. It is on this principle that the plan of salvation by the death of Christ is placed, and on this that God, in fact, bestows remission of sins. (J. E. Everitt.) Remission of sins by substitution I. OF SINS IS FOR THE OF MAN WITH GOD. It is the first necessity. Till sin is totally removed there can be no agreement between God, the Holy One, and man, His creature. Sin first separated them, and the alienation has grown with every generation where sin has reigned. And so long as sin is present, they must remain separate, both in purpose and action. You will see then, further, it is not a question of only forgiveness. God, in His sovereign mercy, might forgive the sin of our life--He does forgive it--but that does not take the sin away. The heart is still a sinful heart; it has forfeited its rights, and though God forgives, these rights are not restored. If, then, we are at any time to be reconciled with God, and be the recipients of His favour, it must be on the one condition that our consciences are purged from evil. Sin in its action will be removed only as sin in its source is taken away; and only as that is done can the soul have peace with God, or can God return to the soul. When sin is taken right away, there remains no barrier between the creature and his God. The soul, desiring to do right, loving the truth, desires to do what God would have it. The will of the creature, however feeble its action may be, is one with the will of God. Nothing remains, therefore, to prevent Him rendering the help of His favour and strength. And this, we are told, He will do. II. OF SINS IS ONLY BY ; THAT IS, ONE LIFE PAYING PENALTY FOR ANOTHER LIFE. This is the declaration of the sacrifices and services of the temple. It is not our province to explain, it is simply our duty to describe and tell, as well as we are able, God’ s plan for removing sin away from us, so that we might receive His Divine gifts. The animal thus sacrificed was the substitution for the life of the offerer. He died, as it were, for sin, in the beast who had been put into his place. The penalty being thus paid, he was free from sin, and now could stand before God as one who had become reconciled to Him. But of course you will observe, in thus acting, the sinner acknowledges the authority and power of God. He has put aside his own thoughts and purposes, and has done God’ s, thus indicating in the very act of sacrifice that there is a change of his heart. This finds its entire fulfilment in Jesus Christ. The fact was shadowed as a principle of the Divine purpose in redemption--without the shedding of blood, the substitution of life for sin, there could be no remission. We may and must look at His death on the Cross as the substitution of His life for the life of each one for whom He died. That death can have no other meaning, and when we put it side by side, as the apostle does here, with the Old Testament teaching, I don’ t see how we can doubt God’ s intention and method in the death of His Son. God’ s purpose is thus revealed. Sin is not simply forgiven, but it is taken away. The soul is cleansed from its guilt; the conscience is cleared. When the time comes for it to stand stripped of the material and mortal nature of the present, in presence of the seen and known Eternal One, it will be purified, and fit in its sympathies, thoughts, and feelings for companionship with the absolutely holy God. Thus freed from sin, it will for ever be pure, no sin ever again finding place in it, because it will be with God and like God. III. Having stated the principle, WE SAY A WORD AS TO ITS . This substitution appropriated by faith secures our acceptance with God. Jesus died for and in the place of sinners; then are sinners freed from sin? Is there nothing more for us than to eat and drink and go on our way? It is not so. He died for sinners, it is true, but only for sinners who have, so to speak, presented Him to God as their sacrifice. (H. W. Beecher.) Spiritual blood-shedding I. BLOOD- OR SELF- IS TO DELIVER OUR OWN SOULS FROM SIN. II. BLOOD- IS TO DELIVER THE SOULS OF OTHERS FROM SIN. 1. The necessary qualification of a spiritual reformer. 2. The spirit which has governed all genuine reformers. 3. The power of Christ in prosecuting His mission. (Homilist.) The necessity of atonement Atonement always supposes a party offending and a party offended. It supposes that the offended holds the offender justly bound to suffer penal consequences as merited by the offence. The question proposed for present discussion regards the necessity of the atonement of Jesus Christ, in order to God’ s remitting the sins of men. As a preliminary, we are constrained to protest against the adducing of any facts as bearing upon this question, which belong to the present gracious methods of God’ s dealing with the human race. The question is, whether, in order to the adoption of those gracious methods, an atonement was not necessary? The evangelical doctrine of atonement is founded in the independent, essential mercy of God. It originated in His infinite mercy. It was an expedient, devised by boundless wisdom, and furnished by boundless love, to supersede the rigorous execution of justice. The forgiveness of sin essentially depends on the whole character of God, on His moral views and feelings respecting sin, and on the reasons which render its punishment necessary. It is here that we should look for all the obstacles, if there be any, which obstruct the exercise of grace, and oppose the remission of sin, and for all the reasons which render an atonement in behalf of sinful men, with a view to their receiving that blessed benefit, indispensable. Here, then, let us commence the discussion. The doctrine which I propose to illustrate and establish is contained in the following proposition: The great moral reasons which require the punishment of sin render the atonement necessary in order to its forgiveness. I. I am to show that there are GREAT MORAL REASONS WHICH REQUIRE THAT SIN SHOULD RE . 1. God’ s holiness and justice form the first moral reason. This is the “ ground pillar and chief buttress” of my argument. If He is a holy and a righteous God, it is impossible that sin should pass unpunished. You ask me what is God’ s holiness; what is His rectitude? His holiness is an essential part of His eternal character. It is His immutable disposition toward all points that involve morality. I would say it is His most perfect perception of right and wrong: it is His most perfect approbation of right; it is His most perfect abhorrence of wrong. And His justice is also inherent and essential. It is the disposition of His nature to act, in all worlds, on all occasions, in the most exact conformity to His moral sense. In heaven, earth, or hell, no being shall ever have ground of complaint, that in His treatment of him, God has forgotten His own holiness and justice. 2. I proceed to state a second moral reason, intimately connected with the preceding, why sin should not be permitted to pass unpunished. It is necessary, as the means of leading intelligent beings to reverence and honour God as a Being essentially holy and righteous. We contend that even the benevolence of God demands that sin should not be permitted to pass unpunished. To Him the created universe looks up as the Parent of eternal holiness, order, and well being. These are to be found and enjoyed only in subjection to God, and in perfect, undeviating obedience to His laws. That He should enforce such subjection and obedience by holding the transgressor responsible for his misdeeds, and so administering His government as that sin shall not pass unpunished, is required by the best interests of the created system. II. THESE MORAL REASONS WINCH REQUIRE THE OF SIN, RENDER THE IN ORDER TO ITS . NO substantial reason can be given why a Being infinitely benevolent as well as just, who has been pleased to ordain the redemption of guilty men, should not, when the ends of justice are satisfied, remit their doom. And these ends are most fully secured in the atonement. With an efficacy which to that heart which contemplates it in its just light must prove irresistible, the atonement exhibits God as a Being infinitely holy and righteous, regarding Himself as supremely worthy of the entire homage, love, and obedience of all moral existences, whose rectitude is such that He can give no other laws than those which are founded in eternal and immutable right, can administer no other government but that which is conducted on principles of justice and judgment, can hold no communion with rational beings who are unholy, cannot mark sin but to abhor it, and as the Sovereign Ruler, to manifest towards it His abhorrence, cannot pardon it without bearing testimony, heard with astonishment by heaven, earth, and hell, that it is an endless evil. And what inducements does the atonement hold out to moral agents to esteem, admire, adore, and obey, the Most High and Holy God, and to persevere in this exalted and exalting course? As the attainment of a supreme regard for holiness and an entire detestation of sin must produce the most pure and enduring happiness, what measure could so directly and so powerfully tend to promote and extend the highest happiness of the created system as the atonement? (John De Witt, D. D.) Atonement by blood It is asserted by historians that there is not a nation mentioned in history, the blood of whose citizens has not been poured out on its altars as an atonement for their sins, or to propitiate their deities. Even in this nineteenth century, it is said that there is a custom, carefully kept secret by Mussulmen, which shows they believe that “ without shedding of blood is no remission of sin.” In time of great trouble and sorrow, when dreading the death of a favourite child, it is their custom to secretly kill a lamb and sacrifice it, crying, “ Allah, take the life of this lamb for the life of my child.” The flesh of the lamb is then carefully removed, and given to religious beggars, while the skeleton is buried without breaking a bone. (C. W. Bibb.) The blood: The collector of railway tickets did not look to the character or education of the holder of the ticket, but to the ticket itself. In like manner the blood was a token which typically indicated the way they were to be saved. (D. L. Moody.) The doctrine of blood: Some people said they did not understand the doctrine of blood. It was very offensive to the natural man. He knew a man to say that whenever he heard a minister speak of the blood in his sermon, he took up his hat and quietly walked out. But just as the bitterest medicine cured, so the doctrine of blood found that man and he was saved. (D. L. Moody.) Without shedding of blood there is no remission: An aged Jew said: “ I have fasted for seven and twenty hours, praying with all possible earnestness, and trembling too, and after all I feel that my sins have not been atoned for.” No; without shedding of blood there is no remission. “ The only plank between the believer and destruction is the blood of the incarnate God.” To make light of the blood, therefore, is to make light of salvation, and miss it for ever. The patterns of things in the heavens Drama of heaven: The life of Jesus Christ was a celestial drama which has revealed to mankind the nature of heaven. 1. The heavenly life is spoken of as a transparency. The densest thing we know is the pavement on which we walk. In heaven it is “ transparent” ; it is a pavement, but you can see through it like glass. You may recollect reading that a celebrated Roman once came before his fellow-citizens for their votes, saying that he Wished there was a window in his breast, so that they might see the purity of his motive and the goodness of his heart. An old Puritan minister, on recording this incident, adds, “ Poor creature, were he to have had such a window, he would at once have prayed God to give him a shutter to hide his nature from his fellow-men.” Now, if you would take a part in heaven’ s drama, you are to learn to be transparent, that is sincere. Your daily life is to be so much “ above the board,” as we understand those words, that everybody can see, if they will but look with unprejudiced eye, that your words and actions are inspired by pure and honest motives. 2. We are told that the pavement of heaven is of the most valuable material, of “ pure gold.” if, therefore, we take part in the drama of heaven, let us see that our life rests on the purest foundation; let our character be as genuine as the purest gold. Though your outward dress be of the poorest material, see that your inward character is of pure gold. Cultivate within yourself a love for the good and the true, and become a man whose thoughts and feelings are inspirations of God. How beautiful is this peach, with its silken and crimson colour! yet is there not a hard bitter stone at the core? The world spends too much time now-a-days in seeking to be beautiful outside. Let us, who show the drama of heaven on the stage of the earth, seek to be beautiful within. 3. From the description given by John we learn that the light of heaven is superb and effulgent. It is not the blaze of the sun, nor the brilliant flash of electricity; it is the light of the Lamb. By what rule do you walk? Is it by the maxims of society? The light which guides the inhabitants of heaven is -the spirit of the life of Jesus Christ; that sacred nature illumines heaven. The more men know the holy, loving God, whose human body was given for their redemption, the more will they abhor and forsake sin. The drama, therefore, which you and I have to play is to show men the character of God. 4. Notice, next, the clothing of the inhabitants of the land of light and love. It is said that they wear white robes. White is the emblem of purity and innocence. In order to exhibit heaven’ s drama on earth, we have to put on the white robes of Christian charity and self-denial. We are to wear the crown of a king, not the shackles of a slave. We should regulate our passions as a king is supposed to govern his kingdom--for the good of the whole. We have to dare to do pure deeds and to venture on humane exploits. 5. Then remember that in the drama of heaven, you are to show the palms of victory which are waved in the hands of the white-robed in paradise. Let it be seen that you can fight on until you conquer. You may have fallen in past conflicts, but in this drama of heaven you are to show that while we live on earth, God can save us from our sins. I have not time to tell you all the other glorious characteristics of heaven, how we shall hunger no more and thirst no more. Heaven is a state of satisfaction; nothing will be wanting. This life is full of wants, real or imaginary. (W. Birch.) Into heaven itself On the ascension of Christ I. It is remarkable that the Jews, as we learn from Josephus and the writings of the Hebrew doctors, considered THE OUTER COURTS OF THE AS OF THE EARTH, AND THE HOLY OF HOLIES AS AN EMBLEM OF HEAVEN. When, therefore, our Lord had by the sacrifice of Himself upon the Cross made expiation “ for the sins of the whole world,” it became Him, as the great High Priest of mankind, to enter into the holy of holies, not made with hands, even “ into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” II. It appears from many accounts, that while the high priest was making intercession in the most holy place, THE PEOPLE WERE WITHOUT, THEIR SINS, AND THEIR TO THE . Among the uses which have been assigned to the golden bells, which were ordered to be suspended around the bottom of the pontifical robe, it has been supposed, with much probability, that they were to give notice when the high priest entered within the veil on this solemn business, that the people might behave with correspondent sobriety. In like manner, while our Master is in heaven, we in this earth, this outer court of God’ s universal tabernacle, have our work to do. There are conditions of the covenant on our part to be fulfilled. Christ hath instructed His Church to live here, in the exercise of faith and repentance, of patience, devotion, and charity, while He is interceding for them with the Everlasting Father. III. It belonged exclusively to the priests, under the Mosaic dispensation, TO BLESS THE PEOPLE IN BEHALF OF GOD. In like manner, our High Priest hath received of the Father all gifts and blessings for His Church. With the voice of His ministers, He dispenses to the penitent assurances of the pardon of their sins. (Bp. Dehon.) The ancient holy of holies, a type of heaven 1. The holy of holies was the dwelling-place of Jehovah, where He manifested Himself in visible glory. Even so in the upper sanctuary does Jehovah manifest the brightness of His glory to the innumerable hosts of holy angels and blessed spirits, by whom He is unceasingly worshipped. 2. The ancient holy of holies was the most splendid and magnificent part of the tabernacle and temple. In this respect also it was but the type and shadow of heaven. “ Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God! “ It is represented as the paradise of God, where grows the tree of life. It is spoken of as Mount Zion, the antitype of the earthly hill on which were erected the temple of Jehovah and the palace of Judah’ s kings, and which David celebrated as “ beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth.” It is described as a city, the New Jerusalem, the city of the great King, whose foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones. A still more impressive idea of the unrivalled magnificence of heaven is given us when it is described as the peculiar workmanship of the Almighty--as a place which His infinite power has been exerted to beautify, and which His boundless beneficence has been called forth to gladden and bless. Unlike the holy places in the ancient tabernacle and temple, this sanctuary has not been “ made with hands” ; it was not erected by any creature, neither was it formed out of any pre-existent matter, but created immediately by God Himself. It is the “ true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man” ; the sanctuary, “ not of this building” ; the “ city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” 3. The ancient holy of holies was, by Divine appointment, entirely concealed from the view of those who worshipped in the outer courts. With the most vigilant care it was kept sacred from all intrusion. Even from the holy place where the priests were wont to minister, it was separated by a thick curtain or veil of curiously embroidered tapestry, while the holy place itself was hidden from the people at large, who worshipped in the courts without, by means of a second veil of a similar description. There can be no question that all these arrangements were primarily designed to be emblematic of the particular character of that dispensation with which they were directly connected, as “ signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.” At the same time, however, they present us with a beautiful type of the physical concealment which invests the heaven of heavens. For “ no man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came clown from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” Between these, the outer courts of the temple, and that loftiest shrine of this vast universe, God has been pleased to stretch an impervious and impenetrable veil. It is a great and glorious reality; but it is only by the eye of faith that it can be described on “ this dim spot which men call earth.” Even with all the light which the gospel has shed upon it, it is a glory that yet remains to be revealed. 4. In pursuing the analogy subsisting between the holy of holies and the heaven of heavens, it may be added that the office performed by the Jewish high priest in the former was a most significant emblem of the function to be discharged in the latter by Jesus, the anointed High Priest of our profession. (Peter Grant.) Encouragement from Christ glorified The ascension of our Lord into heaven is a subject not only of admiration, but also of infinite importance to us. Its consequences are countless in number, immeasurable in extent, and endless in duration. Man is actually in the highest glory of the divine majesty at the right hand of God, the same glory in which the blessed Son of God dwelt before He came into the world. It cannot but excite our admiring wonder to contemplate human nature so highly exalted. For “ where He is, there shall we be also,” if we are His true disciples, and shall “ behold His glory,” and be ourselves clothed with a body of resplendent light like that of the Lord. But when we compare what we ought to be, and what we really must become in order to our being permitted to follow Christ into His glorious kingdom, with what we actually are, we may be disposed to say, “ Who then can be saved?” The great subject now before us comes to our relief in this awful question, cheering our anxious hearts with hope. “ Christ,” saith the apostle, “ entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” “ For us” means in our behalf, in order to take our part, to stand on our side. But who is this our Advocate? Is He likely to act in our favour with any effect? Is He likely to have influence with the Father? Has He any power of His own? Hath He yet done anything for us? That the influence of Christ with the Father is all-prevailing we cannot doubt, when we consider that He is the only, the beloved Son of God. We shall be strengthened in this confidence if we call to mind that the blessed God gave Him for the very purpose of saving us John 3:16). And not only this, but also He hath made a covenant engagement, wherein He has graciously promised to receive all those for whom His Son pleads. The desire then of accomplishing His own benevolent purpose, the gracious love which He has for us, and His unfailing truth and faithfulness, all combine to strengthen our assurance that He will favourably hear the intercession of His beloved Son in our behalf (John 16:26-27). Will not the consideration of this blessed truth encourage us to return to God, to “ humble ourselves under His mighty hand,” to implore that mercy promised to us through Christ, and render His Father favourable to us? Yes, if we seem as far from God as earth is from heaven, sunk as low in sin as the utmost depths of the ocean, yet when we look up and see One at the right hand of God ready to take our part, we may feel a cheering hope (Hebrews 6:19-20; Hebrews 7:25). But has this our blessed Saviour any power of His own? (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18; Philippians 2:9-11. Colossians 2:9-10; Hebrews 7:25; Philippians 2:12). Most important is this view of the Saviour’ s almighty power to the anxious Christian, who is “ working out his own salvation with fear and trembling.” Thoughtless people, who are not engaged in the struggle against sin, may not perceive its importance. They do not feel deeply concerned about their salvation. They allow their enemies undisputed possession of their heart. Wherefore passively acquiescing in their dominion, they do not feel their claims. But let a man endeavor to “ rule himself after God’ s Word,” and he will immediately find that he has powerful enemies to resist (Romans 7:15; Romans 7:21-23). He finds strong tendencies to sin, dispositions, tempers, passions, disposing and urging him to unchristian language and ungodly practices, and withholding him from the due and faithful discharge of his duty. But looking to Christ, he finds that he has reason to thank God that “ sin shall not have dominion over him.” And thus having felt that of himself he could do nothing, he finds himself enabled to say, “ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” But we shall feel greater confidence that the glorified Jesus will act in our behalf, if we’ can find that He hath already done anything for us. Now surely “ the Lord hath done great things for us already.” He has come clown from heaven to earth for us men and for our salvation. He has endured the miseries of this sinful world for our sake. He has laid down His life for us. When we know that the blessed Son of God has clone and suffered so much for us, what can there be which He will not do for our sake? St. Paul puts this argument very strongly (Romans 5:6-9). Great therefore may be our hope when we think that we have One in heaven on cur side, whose peculiar care we are, who has taken upon Himself our nature, and dwells in our form; who has made our cause His own; One of all-prevailing influence with our heavenly Father, who graciously desires to listen to His intercession in our favour; One of infinite might and dominion; One who has already done and suffered great things for us, exercised mighty power, wisdom, and love for our protection, guidance, and salvation. As each person is able to see what this blessed Saviour has done for his soul, he will experience proportionate encouragement. (R. L. Cotton, D. D.) Presence of Christ incarnate in heaven The presence in heaven of Christ incarnate is perhaps the sublimest doctrine to which a rational faith can reach. It is an extension of His atoning life and death on earth, and the renewal of the eternal glory (once briefly suspended) with the Father in heaven. Considering also how it affects us in the present time by its immediate influence, as distinct, I mean, from His acts in the past and future, it is strange that it does not more often fill our thoughts. There is in the human breast an inextinguishable longing for present sympathy. Love cannot bear separation: it is not content with memory, or expectation! As the heart feels the burden of the passing hour, so does it for every hour want its portion of sympathy and love. Thus the presence in heaven of Christ in the glorified Body is a truth most fruitful in thoughts of the dignity of human life, and in ministries of comfort to those who walk upon the earth. I shall recall some passages in Scripture which throw light on the question of a body possibly existing in heaven, then of Christ’ s Body in particular; and secondly, remark on the influence of His incarnate presence upon us: I. To BEGIN WITH THE FIRST CREATED BODY. If Adam had kept his estate of innocence, he would not have died, nor would he, we imagine, have continued for ever in Paradise, among the trees and beasts of the earth. We believe that he would have been translated in his body, glorified, to heaven. Enoch was thus removed, and afterwards Elijah. Next, coming to the Person of our blessed Lord. His Body after the resurrection was the same which had died, though the life to which He rose was not a return to that which had expired on the Cross. His Body was the same, but endued with new powers and living under other conditions. Again, angels declared that as He was taken up into heaven, so in like manner should He come. If so, in what state does He pass the interval between the ascension and the judgment, that is, the present time? Surely in the same spiritual, glorified Body. Moreover, He has been seen once, and heard once, since His ascension. Is it not too often the case, that Christ is regarded as existing in heaven only as God, in a certain omnipresent nature, as He was from all eternity? Do not men argue, that as a day will come when He shall put aside His mediation that is “ when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,” so also He will then escape from the confines of His humanity, and return to simple God? Is it sufficiently taken into account that His condition there is altered by His Incarnation, and if His condition, then His influence over us? II. To the evidence of Scripture and our Church formularies, I WILL ADD A FEW REMARKS ON SELF-EVIDENT SEASONS, WHY IT SHOULD BE SO. “ The Word was made flesh” ; the manhood of Christ was made perfect. He took not on Him the form of angels, but the seed of Abraham. It is a characteristic of human nature, that once man is man for ever. If then Christ is perfect Man, He is Man for ever. Not only that, but re, elation informs us that man will rise in the body, and live in his body for ever. If Christ has risen according to the laws which govern our resurrection (and this Scripture declares), He now lives, and will live for ever, in the Body with which He rose. What else is meant by Christ being the “ first-fruits of them that slept,” “ the first-Begotten of the dead,” and, in contradistinction from Adam, “ The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit,” unless it be that Christ in His resurrection is the cause of our resurrection, and gives the law by which ours is determined? Once more, He is our Mediator. A mediator is one who represents both parties. In this case one party is God, the other is man. None can represent God but God, and Jesus is God; none can represent man but man, and Jesus is Man. If therefore we have need of a mediator in heaven now, He must be now, as heretofore, God and Man. III. I have now to speak of THE WHICH THE OF CHRIST IN HEAVEN HAS UPON MAN BELOW; AND OF THE WHICH THIS CAUSES IN OUR OF HIS WORK FOR US. IS Christ omnipresent? Some persons will answer broadly, “ Yes,” and go on to say that it is a man’ s faith which makes Him present everywhere--that no possible thing is needed but faith; therefore, that all attempts to give the Saviour’ s grace a local habitation is wrong; that particular ordinances and outward means of grace are superfluous, therefore superstitious. On the other hand, it is the creed of the Church that Christ has ordained that virtue shall go forth from Him in special and particular channels; and these we call outward means of grace. The sacred enclosure, within which these streams of grace are dispersed, is the Church. Now there is of course great diversity between these two views; but does not the difference arise chiefly from the advocates of the former view losing sight of the continuous agency of the Man Jesus Christ, and thinking that His manhood is now absorbed in His divinity. Would it not clear away doubts and misgivings from many, who sincerely love Christ, if they considered this point; viz., our blessed Lord is still in His Body, and many of His blessings He dispenses through the Body, being the fruits of the great things which He did and suffered in the Body. So far as He dispenses these through the Body, His dispensation of grace is not omnipresent, but regulated by orders of time, place, and conditions, as His will ordains. The participation of Christ through faith and obedience is not diminished by the act, which has attached to a particular ordinance a special grace of intimate communion with Him in the Lord’ s Supper. These particular ordinances are the mysterious pathways, down which the several rays, which issue from His glorified Body, travel to earth. Nor is it any objection to this view that the influence of His Body is spiritual. In ordinary language “ body” means matter, and an immaterial body seems to be a contradiction of terms. We cannot explain it; but to some extent it is intelligible that a body should be present only spiritually. For instance, when our Saviour said to the nobleman, “ Thy son liveth,” was He not present by that sick-bed, though His natural Body was elsewhere? And remember, while Christ acts by virtue of His Incarnation, and is to some extent guided in His operations by the laws of His human nature, yet the Body which acts, acts more mightily because of the Godhead which possesses it. Lastly, if Christ be not really and spiritually present in the ordinances which He has instituted, in a sense of more close and intimate communion than can be applied to the generally diffused mercy and power of God, then the idea of any Church is a fiction; then the very acts in which we have been engaged to-day are vain; the gifts of bread and wine, which Christ has bidden us prepare for His consecration of them, convey no grace, but are merely stimulants, by outward signs of the feelings of our hearts; then all means of grace whatever are solely our acts to God, not His acts towards us. How different is the truth! Angels in heaven see in His dispensations of grace within the Church signs of the power of Christ unto salvation, of which without the Church they would not be aware, “ that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.” Thus our acts of worship are not fictions, our sacraments are not representations. There is an electric current ever circulating from Christ Incarnate through the members of His Body, which is the Church. (C. W. Furse, M. A.) Christ the intercessor I. THE THINGS BY THE OF CHRIST INTO HEAVEN ARE THE SAME AS THOSE BY THE OF THE HIGH PRIEST INTO THE MOST HOLY PLACE; namely, that heaven and earth are at variance, that sin has occasioned the feud, that blood is the alone price of expiation, and that this price must be laid upon the altar of the Holy One before He will ever look kindly upon man again. The difference in the case of the two dispensations lies in the application of any permanent and satisfactory relief to the sinner’ s conscience. And this higher form of mediation, argues the apostle, we have in Christ, whose blood is no more to be compared to the blood of bulls and goats than is the heaven into which He has carried that blood to be compared with the holy place of the tabernacle. Christ is gone, therefore, to appear in the presence of God for us; gone to display a memorial of that sacrifice by which He has obtained eternal redemption for us; gone to exhibit the living virtue of His own blood, and to claim the crowns of immortality for those for whom it was shed. II. Christ has gone to appear in the presence of God for us, says the text; that is, AS THE , THE , THE GREAT OF HUMAN CAUSES IN THE COURT OF HEAVEN. Let us consider some of His special qualifications for so great a work. 1. As, first, it is an intercession founded on right. Christ appearing as the slain man is a direct appeal to the righteousness of God. It is the pledge of a price paid, a ransom accepted, a claim substantiated, a covenant signed and sealed. Christ pleads His sufferings no doubt, but this He does not to move pity nor to ask favour, but just to assert His right over all the dispensations of mercy, His boundless and eternal prerogative to forgive. 2. But, secondly, we should have comfort in this mediation of the ascended Saviour, from knowing that He orders all our spiritual affairs with consummate prudence. We often ask and have not, but we little think why. Our Intercessor has been asking for us the direct contrary of that which we have asked for ourselves. He saw that which we did not see, namely, that in the then temper of our minds and spirit the good sought would be no longer good. 3. Further, there is that in the appearance of Christ in heaven which should suggest to His believing people the thought of an individual and personal remembrance. If any man sin--any one man--he has an advocate with the Father. That which I desire to realise, is that the eye, the thoughts, the solicitudes of Jesus are concentrated and fixed on me; my needs to supply, my infirmities to help, my cause to order, my decaying members to revive, my rising corruptions to subdue. 4. But, once more, this appearance of Christ in heaven is an affectionate, earnest, deeply interested appearance. His heart is in the cause. He is a merciful High Priest as well as faithful. In undertaking the cause of believers He is not content to have an eye to see their afflictions, or an ear to listen to their complaints, or a tongue to promote their suit; but casts His lot in with them. He is afflicted in all their afflictions. 5. He has gone to appear in the presence of God for us as the Conqueror. “ Thou hast ascended on high; Thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts for men.” He who died as a Lamb rose as a Lion. With the head of the spiritual Goliath in His hand, the Son of David entered the streets of the New Jerusalem, there to appear in the presence of God for us. 6. Again, as a pledge and assurance that He both can and will order all things for the good of His Church, He appears in the presence of God for us. In describing His own session to the high priest, He tells him, “ Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power” ; power to execute wrath, power to cast down every high thing and every strong thing and every opposing thing that could exalt itself against the knowledge of Himself; power to direct and save; power to reward and bless. Let me note one or two practical thoughts, in conclusion, with which to associate the entrance of our Forerunner into the most holy place, there to appear in the presence of God for us. Thus we cannot but be impressed with a sense of the exceeding great honour which is put upon our human nature, in that one, in our likeness, should be the object of highest adoration to all the heavenly world. We are made more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, because Christ Himself was more than conqueror over all the misery He came to remedy, and all the enemies He came to subdue. And this suggests a kindred thought--the honour reserved for ourselves in that future world. We have a portion in that flesh and blood which is so highly exalted, and which now appears in the presence of God for us. Our interest with our Divine Head is one. If Christ reign, we shall reign; if He be taken up into glory, we shall not be beyond the circle of its diffused and effulgent rays. Lastly, how should our Lord’ s leaving us, to enter into the most holy place, remind us that we have no continuing city here. Christ did not sit down in heaven until He had finished His work on earth: and we must finish our work as Christ did His. He who now appears in the presence of God for us knew no rest, does not know it even now. He ever liveth to make intercession, to sprinkle consciences, to send down grace, to restrain the power of the evil one, to keep the feet of His saints, to suffer no weapon formed against them to prosper. This is Christ’ s work in heaven now, and will be for a time, and times, and a half a time, till the end of redemption is come. Then will come the great Sabbath; the Sabbath that shall sanctify the risen natures, the Sabbath that shall release our Great High Priest from all further appearance for us in the holy place, even the everlasting rest that remaineth for the people of God. (D. Moore, M. A.) Christ the only Mediator: I. THE TEMPLE IN WHICH HE . II. THE WHICH IN THAT TEMPLE HE TO . 1. The ministry of a sympathising friend. 2. Rendering acceptable to God all our worship and service. III. THE WHICH THE OF THESE TRUTHS OUGHT TO ON OUR FAITH AND CONDUCT, “ Let us hold fast our profession.” 1. As respects the writing on which it is based. 2. As regards the consolations which it affords. 3. As regards the hopes which it naturally encourages. (W. Cadman, M. A.) The sacrifice, intercession, and sympathy of Christ in heaven The sacrifice and intercession of Christ are of course distinct in idea, but in fact are so united, that it is more convenient to consider them together. Sacrifice is intercession, not in word, but in act. It makes atonement for man to God; that is, sets God and man at-one. It comes between; that is, in the literal sense of the word, intercedes, mediates between the two, reconciles them; all of which terms apply with equal propriety to the one office as to the other, sacrifice and intercession. Minds unused to meditation on the continuance of these offices in heaven are inclined to the opinion that the whole work of the Atonement was concluded in the sacrifice of the Cross, and to so complete an extent that nothing remains for Christ to do till He returns to gather in His elect. Their thoughts linger around such texts as these, which at first sight seem to imply that at the moment in which the Saviour said, “ It is finished,” His work was ended till the Judgment Day (Hebrews 10:12; 1 Peter 3:18). And all the passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews which draw out the contrast between the repeated sacrifices offered by the Jewish priests and the one oblation once made by Christ, favour the same opinion. The question is, do such words oppose the view that our great Mediator is ever working on behalf of men’ s souls in heaven --My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Do they contradict the doctrine that Christ Jesus in His glorified body continues to exercise the virtue of His holy incarnation? Not in the least. The sacrifice once for all offered on the Cross is being perpetually represented and exhibited in heaven. This indeed is the meaning of the word in the text, inadequately translated “ appear.” It is not merely that Christ stands and is seen before the Father’ s throne; but He is arrayed in the vesture belonging to the Mediator, invested with all the symbols of His office as the Saviour of man, continually presenting to the eternal Father the sacrifice once for all made, interceding, pleading, advocating our cause. Hence it is, that in the Book of Revelation He is described as a “ Lamb as it had been slain;” with the marks of death, the scars of the sacrifice upon Him, though His wounds are healed, and His body raised in glory. And it may be observed, once for all, that every description of His high-priesthood establishes the truth that it is exercised now continually in heaven. The great difference in this respect between the continual sacrifice offered day by day and year by year by the Jewish priests, and that offered by Christ, is that theirs was repeated, His is represented; theirs was begun afresh, as if nothing had yet been done; His is the oblation of the Body sacrificed once for all. There are some who say, and profess to believe, that it is enough to know that Christ once died for sinners; but they do not speak the language of the human heart. Does not the sense of sin pierce them even now? Does not the shame and dread of sin overwhelm at times even those for whom Christ died? Do they not spread their hands abroad in vain, and look out for help against themselves, and seek for some place where they may hide themselves from the confusion and reproach which their own hearts cast upon them?--that is, they need a present Mediator and Advocate. Again, the effect which the continued intercession of Christ must exercise over our destiny cannot be measured by any estimate of ours. His prayers are uttered night and day, hour by hour, whether men pray or whether they sleep. And then, as to their secondary effect, that is, their influence upon us--conceive how great a motive it is for men to pray, that their prayers may vibrate along the chords of His! Lastly, consider what comfort exists in the possession of the sympathy of Christ; and in the knowledge that He exists in the body of man, alive to all the human wants and natural infirmities of the heart. Has not the disciple to bear his cross; to rejoice in suffering; “ to fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in His flesh for His body’ s sake which is the Church” ; “‘ to bear the marks of the Lord Jesus” ; “ to be crucified” with Him; to be “ buried with Him” ; “ to be raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places” in Him; to have “ our vile body changed that it may be like unto His glorious body” ? And all this while there is His painless sympathy with pain in the least as in the greatest things. Many a thought of trouble, too slight or too. Lender to be worth exposure to the nearest friends, is, we may believe, marked by Him and remembered in His prayer, especially if it be one (as all the most inexplicable troubles are) entangled with our own folly or sin. “ For we have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” But sympathy alone and in excess induces softness. Self-control and hardihood, a lofty carriage as of one born to great dignity, a resolute temper that will neither bend or break--these are as much the Christian’ s attributes as a childlike reliance and a looking out for love. How greatly does it add to the dignity of our life to see its perfection in the glorious body of Him who is the Head of the human race! (C. W.Furse, M. A.) To put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself The sacrificial work of Christ I. THE OF THE SAVIOUR, WHICH WE , WAS THE OF HIMSELF. “ No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” Not the Sanhedrim, not Annas, not Caiaphas, not Pilate, not Judas, not the Roman Guard, not the excited mob took away the Redeemer’ s life; had they done so, Christ’ s would have been only a martyr’ s death. “ For this cause came I into the world.” II. THE OF THE SAVIOUR WAS NOT ONLY THE OF HIMSELF, BUT THE ONE OF HIMSELF. The earth can see no second Gethsemane or Calvary! Never in the history of the human race can such another event be recorded, it stands alone as a monument of the august majesty of Divine law and the pitiful depth of Divine love. III. THE OF THE SAVIOUR, WHICH WE , WITH THE JEWISH LAW. They had the ceremonial and symbolical: we have the spiritual and the substantial. IV. THE WE TEACHES US THAT NOT ONLY COULD THE SAVIOUR BE OFFERED BUT ONCE, BUT THAT HE COULD “ SUFFER” BUT ONCE. V. THE WE TEACHES US THAT CHRIST “ ” TO PUT AWAY SIN. Ponder well the words--“ He appeared.” Salvation was accomplished in connection with Christ’ s incarnation. There could be no doubt of the actuality of the atonement: it was in the body that He assumed that He died for our sins, and we can test the validity of the sacrifice by the reality of the incarnation. (W. M. Statham, M. A.) The one perfect offering I. Such is THE OF THE ONE OF CHRIST, THAT IT STANDS IN NEED OF, THAT IT WILL ADMIT OF, NO IN ANY KIND. Hence the apostle affirms that if it be despised or neglected there remains no more sacrifice for sin. And this absolute perfection of the one offering of Christ ariseth 1. From the dignity of His person (Acts 20:28). 2. From the nature of the sacrifice itself. (1) In the gracious actings of His soul; He offered Himself unto God through the Eternal Spirit. Grace and obedience could never be more glorified. (2) In the punishment He underwent, answering and taking away the whole curse of the law; and further offering for atonement is highly blasphemous. (3) From the love of the Father unto Him and delight in Him. As in His person, so in His one offering, the soul of God resteth and is well pleased. (4) From His efficacy unto all ends of a sacrifice. Nothing was ever designed therein, but was at once accomplished by this one offering of Christ. II. This one offering of Christ is ALWAYS UNTO ALL THE ENDS OF IT, EVEN NO LESS THAN IT WAS IN THE DAY AND HOUR WHEN IT WAS OFFERED. Therefore it needs no repetition, like those of old, which could affect the conscience of a sinner only for a season. This is always fresh in the virtue of it, and needs nothing but renewed application by faith for the communication of its effects and fruits unto us. III. THE GREAT CALL AND OF THE GOSPEL IS TO GUIDE FAITH AND KEEP IT UP UNTO THIS ONE OF CHRIST, AS THE SPRING OF ALL GRACE AND MERCY. In the preaching of the Word, the Lord Christ is set forth as evidently crucified before our eyes; and in the ordinance of the Supper especially is it represented unto the peculiar exercise of faith. IV. HAD THE GLORY IN THE OLD LEGAL CARRIED ALONG WITH IT THE OF ITS OWN , WITH THE THING IN CHRIST AND HIS OFFICE. The entrance of the high priest into the holy place was the most glorious solemnity of the law. Howbeit, the annual repetitioin of it was a sufficient evidence of its imperfection, as the apostle disputes in the beginning of the next chapter. (John Owen, D. D.) The all-sufficient sacrifice I. THE PERIOD WHEN “ In the end of the world,” or, rather, “ the ages.” It refers to the several dispensations which have gone before, and which were brought to a close by Christ’ s appearing in the flesh. II. THE PURPOSE. “ To put away sin,” to render sin a legal nullity, so that in respect of condemnatory power it should be as though nonexistent, and the law should cease to recognise its claims or inflict its penalties. III. THE MEANS BY WHICH THIS END HAS BEEN . “ By the sacrifice of Himself.” 1. It was not accomplished without means; it was not at once and offhand that this result was attained. 2. The means employed had reference to the thing necessary to be done. (1) It had to be done by sacrifice--the substitution of one life for another. (2) The sacrifice was Christ Himself. The penalty once borne can never again be inflicted. The curse was not causeless when it came, for guilt had entailed it; but neither is the taking it away causeless, for” Christ hath redeemed us,” &c. The reason is as valid in the one case as in the other; the removal of the wrath is as righteous as the manifestation of the wrath, and the whole universe is the witness to the reality and vitality of the stupendous deed. (Thos. Main, D. D.) The Christian era I. THE ERA IS GOD’ S LAST WITH MEN ON EARTH. II. THE OF CHRIST IS THE GREAT FACT OF THIS ERA. 1. Self-immolation. 2. Self-immolation for all ages. 3. Never to be repeated. III. THE GREAT END OF CHRIST’ S WAS THE PUTTING AWAY OF SIN. This fact serves 1. To correct theological errors. 2. To determine the value of our religion. 3. To show the true aim of philanthropy. 4. To foreshadow the happy state of the world when Christianity shall have accomplished its work. (Homilist.) The one sacrifice of Christ sufficient: I. IT WAS WITH THE WISDOM, , GRACE, AND LOVE OF GOD THAT CHRIST SHOULD OFTEN SUFFER IN THAT WAY WHICH WAS UNTO THE OF HIMSELF, NAMELY, BY HIS DEATH AND . It was not consistent with the wisdom of God to provide that as the ultimate means of the expiation of sin which was insufficient for it; for so it would have been if the repetition of it had been necessary. Nor was it consistent with His unspeakable love unto His Son that He should frequently suffer an ignominious death. And, moreover, it would have been highly dishonourable unto the Son of God, giving an appearance that His blood was of no more value than the blood of beasts, the sacrifice whereof was often repeated. II. IT WAS NOT WITH THE GLORY OF HIS PERSON, AS IT WAS TO BE UNTO THE OF THE CHURCH. That He once emptied Himself that He might be obedient unto the death of the Cross, proved a stumbling-block unto the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. The faith of the Church was secured by the evident demonstration of His Divine glory which immediately ensued thereon. But as the frequent repetition hereof would have been utterly inconsistent with the dignity of His Divine person, so the most raised faith could never have attained a prospect of His glory. III. IT IS , AND WOULD HAVE BEEN USELESS. For, as the apostle demonstrates, by one offering of Himself, and that once offered, He took away sin, and for ever perfected them that are sanctified. V. THE ASSURED OF THE CHURCH OF OLD, FROM THE OF THE WORLD, BY VIRTUE OF THE ONE OF CHRIST, IS A STRONG OF THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH AT PRESENT TO LOOK FOR AND EXPECT THEREBY. VI. IT IS THE OF GOD AND THE EFFECT OF HIS WISDOM TO THE TIMES AND SEASONS OF THE OF HIMSELF AND HIS GRACE TO THE CHURCH. Hereon it depends alone that Christ appeared in the end of the world, not sooner nor later, as to the parts of that season. Many things do evidence a condecency to Divine wisdom in the determination of that season. 1. He testified His displeasure against sin in suffering the generality of mankind to lie so long under the fatal effects of their apostasy without relief or remedy (Acts 14:16; Acts 17:30; Romans 1:21; Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26). 2. He did it to exercise the faith of the Church, called by virtue of the promise, in the expectation of its accomplishment. And by the various ways whereby God cherisheth their faith and hope was He glorified in all ages Luke 1:70; Matthew 13:16; Luke 10:24; 1 Peter 1:10-11; Haggai 2:7). 3. To prepare the Church for the reception of Him, partly by the glorious representation made of Him in the tabernacle and temple with their worship; partly by the burden of legal institutions laid on them till His coming (Galatians 3:24). 4. To give the world a full and sufficient trial of what might be attained towards happiness and blessedness by the excellency of all things here below. 5. To give time to Satan to fix and establish his kingdom in the world that the destruction of him and it might be the more conspicuous and glorious. VII. GOD HAD A DESIGN OF WISDOM AND GRACE IN HIS SENDING OF CHRIST AND HIS IN THE WORLD THEREON, WHICH COULD NOT BE . “ He appeared to put away sin.” VIII. SIN HAD ERECTED A , A TYRANNY OVER ALL MEN AS BY A LAW. Unless this law be abrogated and abolished we can have neither deliverance nor liberty. IX. NO POWER OF MAN, OF ANY MERE , WAS ABLE TO , , OR ABOLISH THIS LAW OF SIN. X. THE AND OF THIS LAW AND POWER OF SIN WAS THE GREAT END OF THE COMING OF CHRIST FOR THE OF HIS OFFICE IN THE OF HIMSELF. No other way could it be effected. XI. IT IS THE GLORY OF CHRIST, IT IS THE SAFETY OF THE CHURCH, THAT BY HIS ONE , BY THE OF HIMSELF ONCE FOR ALL, HE HATH SIN AS TO THE LAW AND POWER OF IT. (John Owen, D. D.) The manner, time, and end of Christ’ s appearance I. CHRIST’ S Isaiah 1. His incarnation. 2. The manifestation of Him incarnate. 3. The presenting of Himself as a Priest, having sacrificed Himself and His Heavenly Father, without which His incarnation and manifestation had been to no purpose. He appeared from the foundation of the world, in the word of the promise, and in types and figures; yet this was but obscure. At length He appeared really, when the Word was made flesh, died, and, as a Priest, offered Himself unto God the Supreme Judge for the sin of man. II. THE TIME of His appearance was the end of the world, which is opposed to the foundation of the world. This end of the worm is called the fulness of the time (Galatians 4:4), because, as some tell us, the time appointed by God was fully come; all things, which were decreed to be before His coming, were fully accomplished. And though we understand not the reasons, yet the end of the world was the fittest of all others for this appearance; and though the last times seem to have the greatest benefit of His exhibition, yet the first times were not without it, for the virtue of this sacrifice extended to all times. III. THE END OF this appearance was to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Where we have two ends, the one subordinate to the other: the first was the sacrificing of Himself, the second by this sacrifice to put away sin. This putting away was not the abrogation of the law transgressed, but a taking away the moral effects and consequents of sin committed against that law, and principally of guilt. The effect of sin is to Tender the party sinning obnoxious and liable to punishment and God’ s vindicative justice, and by this virtue of the commination of the law. God, to make way for pardon, by a transcendent extraordinary power, makes Christ man’ s surety, and Christ voluntarily submits Himself, out of love to His brethren, to God’ s will, so far as to suffer death for man’ s sin, and offers Himself as being slain to the Supreme Judge. Upon His submission He becomes one person with sinful man, as a surety with the principal, and so is liable to that punishment which sinful man should have suffered, as a surety becomes liable to pay the debt of the principal. (G. Lawson.) Jesus putting away sin I. THE TIME OF THIS GREAT PUTTING AWAY OF SIN, in the end of the world, or the age--“ in these last days,” as one of the apostles words it. Why was that time selected? 1. Was it not in order to exercise the faith of ancient saints, who, like Abraham, saw Christ’ s day in vision--saw Him and were glad? They rested in confidence in the Messiah’ that was to come, and their faith received its reward. 2. Did not God place the putting away of sin at the close of the age, in order to glorify His Son, by letting us see that the very anticipation of His death was sufficient for the salvation of men? 3. Was not this sacrifice placed at the end of the world to be, as it were, the crown of all Jehovah’ s works? The great Master of the feast hath kept the best wine until now. II. THE PERSON THE WORK. Once, in the end of the world, hath He appeared. Recollect who it was that came to take away sin, that you may find solid ground for comfort. He who came to take away sin did not come unsent. He was appointed and delegated by God. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 9:27-28 Appointed unto men once to die The two crises: There is a very cheerful emphasis on that word “ once. ” I know people who have so much grace that death seems to be attractive to them, and they really talk as though they would be willing to die half a dozen times. It is not so with me. I submit to the idea only because I have to. But, thank God, we die but once. We take seventeen thousand breaths in a day, but there will be only one last breath. 1. I remark, in regard to the first crisis, that it will be the ending of all our earthly plans. If Napoleon wants to fight Austerlitz, he must do it before that, or never fight it at all. If John Howard wants to burn out the dampness of the dungeon, he must do it before that, or never do it at all. The last moments will snap off all our earthly schemes. If our work at that time be rounded, it will stay rounded. If it be incomplete, it will stay incomplete, like the national monument on Calton Hill, Edinburgh--a row of pillars showing what the building was meant to be, but is not. 2. Again, I remark that the first crisis spoken of in my text will be our physical ruin. However attractive the body may have been, it must come to defacement and mutilation. Dissolution! 3. Again, I remark, in regard to the first crisis of which I speak, it will be the ending of all our earthly associations. From all our commercial, all our social, all our political, all our religious, all our earthly associations, we will be snapped short off. 4. Again, I remark, in regard to that first crisis, it will be the ending of the day of grace. Before that, plenty of bright sabbaths, and golden communion days, and prayers, and sermons, and songs; but at that point a messenger from God will stand with uplifted hand, bidding all opportunities of salvation “ Stand back!” But I have given you only half the text. Is there anything after that? When our physical life is extinct, are we done? No! I am immortal. “ It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment.” In that one word of eight letters are piled up harps and chains, palaces and dungeons, hallelujahs and wailings of eternity. 1. I remark, in regard to that second crisis, that it will be our physical reconstruction. Paul will get back his body without the thorn in the flesh; Payson his, without the pang; Robert Hall his, without the lifelong excruciation; Nero his; Robespierre his; Napoleon III. his; the sot his; the libertine his. Some of the bodies built up into unending rapture, some of them into unending pang. 2. I remark, again, in regard to that second crisis, that it will be the time of explanation. Why is it that the good have it hard and the bad have it easy? Why that the Christian mother is deprived to-day of her only child, and the household of the godless left undisturbed? I appeal to the day of judgment. On that day God will be vindicated, and men will cry out, “ He is right--everlastingly right!” 3. That last crisis, I remark, will be one also of scrutiny. I do not know how long the last trial will take, but I am very certain that all the past will rush through our recollection. And just imagine it, how that man, that woman will feel when displayed before him or her there shall be ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years of unimproved opportunities. 4. I remark, again, in regard to that crisis, that it will be one of irrevocable decision. If we lose our case in the Court of “ Common Pleas,” we take it to the “ Circuit” ; or, failing there, we take it to “ Chancery,” or “ Supreme Court.” If we are tried before a petit jury, and the case goes against us through some technicality of the law, we get a new trial. But, when the decision of the last day shall be given, there will be no appeal. (T. DeWitt Talmage.) Death and judgment I. A SOLEMN EVENT--death and judgment. II. THE WORK OF CHRIST--He was offered to bear the sins of many. III. THE FINAL AND RESULTS--unto them that look for Him shall He appear a second time without sin, unto salvation. (George Hall.) Death, judgment, and salvation I. THE OF DEATH. When it is said “ once to die,” a resurrection from the dead and life after death are implied. Otherwise, had death been the extinction of being, it would have been sufficient to have said simply “ to die” ; for what could have remained beyond it to render repetition possible? One awful truth is established--that, dying once, we can die no more. Whatsoever state, therefore, we enter, whether of happiness or of misery, is eternal. II. THE SUMMONS TO . The sin of another renders us liable to death; but associated with the last tribunal everything is personal. I shall be judged by myself, and must answer for myself. “ So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” III. THE OF LIFE. “ So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “ Offered” --behold here the character of His death. The whole argument of this Epistle is, that the death of Christ was a sacrifice. Connect whatever else with it you please, this is its leading feature--“ to bear the sins of many.” In what sense to bear their sins? Assuredly as their substitute, to suffer in their stead. “ To bear the sins of many.” It is clear that they are not few who shall be saved. Bigotry and party find no ground on which to place their foot here. IV. THE RETURN OF THE SAVIOUR. “ He shall appear the second time without sin,” properly without a sin-offering. He appears not again to make an atonement for sin. For what purpose, then, shall He appear in all this glory the second time? “ Unto salvation.” To bring with Him the glorified spirits of His people; to raise their bodies from the grave, and to transform them into the likeness of His own, to give a public manifestation of their adoption, to place them upon His throne; and so shall they ever be with the Lord. To whom will this second appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ be fraught with such transcendant blessings? “ Unto them that look for Him.” In this fine figure of one watching until the day break and the shadows flee away, what lively faith, unyielding patience, established hope, fixed expectation, unslumbering vigilance, inextinguishable zeal, and ardent love, are implied!--all the graces of the Spirit in full exercise--all present ills swallowed up in the anticipation of the approaching crisis. (W. B.Collyer, D. D.) Death and judgment I. HERE WE SEE AN , A DECREE, A : WHEREIN FOUR ARE TO BE . 1. By whom this appointment is made, namely, by God Almighty, in whom there is not a shadow of turning, and which is able to bring that to pass which He hath appointed. Men are mutable; they appoint and disappoint; it is not so with God; hath He said it, and shall He not do it? Therefore, as sure as God is in heaven, this appointment shall stand. Who at any time hath resisted His will? who can break His appointment? 2. What it is that is appointed--once to die. What is death? Properly to speak, it is a separation of the soul from the body. 3. There is an extraordinary dying, and an ordinary. Some have died twice, as Lazarus, and those that rose with Christ at His resurrection; but ordinarily it is appointed to all men once to die. It is not appointed to all to be rich, wise, learned, but to die. 4. Why was this appointment made? Because of sin (Romans 5:12), “ at what time thou eatest, thou shalt die the death.” Why are we afraid of the plague? Because it will kill us. Sin will kill both soul and body; therefore let us all be afraid to sin. 5. The persons to whom this appointment is made, to men--to all men. There is no man living but shall see death: it is appointed to kings to die, to dukes, earls, lords, knights, gentlemen, merchants, clothiers, husbandmen, to high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. It is appointed to the ministers to die, and to the people; to the master, and servant; to the husband, and to the wife. We read of a woman that had seven husbands, they all died, and in the end the woman died also. None can avoid the stroke of death: the physicians that cure others, at the length die; the godly die; so good men and women die, as well as bad, as the faithful are sick as well as the unfaithful, so also they die as well as others. II. DEATH GOES NOT ALONE, THERE IS ONE THAT FOLLOWS HER, AND THAT IS . Judgment, either of absolution for the godly, or of condemnation for the wicked. If there were no judgment after death, the godly of all others were most miserable; and if no judgment, the ungodly were the happiest men. The drunkard must give an account of his drunkenness, the covetous man how he hath employed his riches; we must give an account of our oppressions, thefts secret or open, of our negligent coming to church and contempt of the Word of God. Let this cause us with a narrow eye to look into our lives, let us judge ourselves in this world, that we be not condemned hereafter. Yet there be a number in the Church that think it a scarecrow, and make a mock at this judgment, as the Athenians did at the resurrection (Acts 17:32). Let it be a means to pull us from sin, and to make our peace with God in this world, that we may stand without trembling before the Son of man. (W. Jones, D. D.) Death and judgment I. This passage, beyond all its solemnity, DOES HONOUR TO MAN. It declares that death leaves his essential nature untouched. After death he is still man. No affection, no principle of human nature is lost. II. These TWO OF MAN WITH THE TWO OF CHRIST, the representative Man of the race. As Christ inherits to eternity what He acquired in His earthly humanity, so shall we. III. Our brief planetary existence IS QUITE LONG ENOUGH FOR THE INNER, THE MAN, TO TAKE THE STAMP, SPIRIT, AND GENERAL OF HIS ENDLESS AFTER LIFE. IV. In the present outer court or vestibule of our nature OUR IS IN PROCESS OF . And who can fail to admire the justice and mercy of the Divine provision by which the hereditary nature, formed independently of our personal choice, is not permitted to be our final nature; but every man’ s final nature shall be the result of the choice and co-operation of his own will and personality. V. A MAN IS UNDER NO OF THE OF HIS PRESENT LIFE ON HIS FUTURE. It is not more time we want, but more will. VI. Whether we are made out of heaven for heaven, or out of more dusky elements for the dusky world, WE SHALL HAVE TO KEEP OUR . VII. By death we go into THE ROOM OF TRUTH. That will not harm us if we invite the truth to search us beforehand. VIII. IT IS WISE AND THAT TIME SHOULD CLOSE WITH US AND OPEN. IX. TIME IS A MERCY BEFORE BEGINS. X. EVERY MAN’ S LOOK FORWARD DEPENDS ON HIS LOOK . XI. IF THE NATURE IS NOT IN US, IT IS THAT THE OF GOD SHOULD PUT US INTO THE SOCIETY OF PERSONS. XII. YOU SHALL NOT BE TO A PLACE OUTSIDE HEAVEN, UNLESS YOU ADJUDGE CHRIST TO A PLACE OUTSIDE YOUR SOULS. (J. Punshon.) One death and one salvation: There are few things which more strike a reflective mind, one which seriously ponders the relation of the creature to the moral Governor of the universe, than that the period of human probation should be so short, when compared with the period of recompense. There seems, at first sight, little or nothing of proportion between the thing done and the penalty incurred: and, accordingly, it is no unfrequent argument with those who wish to get rid of the plain statements of Scripture, that it cannot be just to visit the momentary gratification of a passion with everlasting pains, and that, therefore, there will come a termination of the torments of the lost. We need hardly pause to observe to you, that in every such reasoning there is a grievous forgetfulness of the very nature of sin, as committed against an infinite Being; for it is impossible that any sin should be inconsiderable, seeing that it offers violence to all the attributes of God, however insignificant it may appear in itself. But nevertheless, we are free to own, that had not Scripture been definite on the point, there would have seemed nothing wild in the supposition that men might be admitted to other states of probation, and that the whole of their eternity would not be made dependent on the single trial they pass through on earth. We do not know that we have a right to refer it to anything else but a Divine appointment, that those who fail in the single trial are not allowed to try again, so that no opportunity is afforded for endeavouring to retrieve what is lost: but certainly the statements of the Bible are sufficiently explicit, and leave no room for the supposition that the present life is to be followed by other periods of probation. “ It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment” ; and the judgment as delineated in the figures and assertions of Holy Writ, closes up God’ s dealings with the human race in its probationary character, and is followed by nothing but one interminable dispensation of happiness or misery. So that if there be but one death, and that one succeeded by the judgment, without the intervention of new seasons of trial, it is evident that man’ s portion for eternity is to be decided exclusively by what he now does on the earth: that in the brief space of his present life he is to lose or secure everlasting glory. And is there in this any just ground of complaint, anything that can be proved at variance with either the wisdom or mercy of God? We know that at first thought the persuasion will be, that if the appointment were somewhat less rigid--if men might die twice in place of only once, so that, having failed in the first trial, they might return to the second with all the experience derived from having actually entered the invisible world--there would be a vast increase in the numbers of the righteous; and we may possibly marvel that no further opportunity should be granted, when the result would be to throng heaven with a mightier multitude. But even if you put out of sight that sufficient has been done for every man in his present state of probation, we can have no right to wonder; and we see strong ground for question-in whether there would be any such increase in the number of the righteous as you are inclined to suppose. We rather think, if it had been appointed to men to die twice, far more would die eternally than now that it is appointed unto men to die once. If even now, when we tell you, if you die in your sins you are everlastingly lost, we are heard with indifference, what would it be if you had the thorough assurance that though you threw away the present opportunity, another would yet be vouchsafed? Indeed, if you could only die twice, we could hope to produce no moral impression on any man who had not yet died once. It is impossible to question, seeing that even under the present arrangement everybody is disposed to defer the work of repentance--it is impossible to question, that, with scarce an exception, men would put off seeking the Lord until after the first death; and the rarest thing on earth would be the spectacle of an individual who had resolved to forego the pleasures of sin, without waiting to undergo the second probation. So that we should have to seek the righteous almost exclusively among those upon whom the first death had passed. And here, perhaps, you think we should find them in great numbers. We do not think so. These men would enter upon their second season of probation, with a conscience hardened and seared by the despite done to God through the whole of their first. It is true, they would have been made to taste something of the recompence of sin, and that therefore they would be their own witnesses to the stern consequences of persisting in evil; but in a short time the testimony of sense wears away, and it becomes nothing more than the testimony of faith; and the man who is impervious to God’ s threatenings might easily become proof against his own recollections. And then you are to consider, that with this hardened conscience, and this ever-strengthening tendency to forgetfulness of their sufferings, they have before them the prospect of another long life, and therefore are as likely as ever to procrastinate. We now advance to the statements in the second verse of our text, between which and those of the first we are to search for such a correspondence as may justify the form of expression which the apostle adopts. It will not be necessary that we insist on the great doctrine of the atonement, which is evidently affirmed by the words under review. Without enlarging on points on which we may suppose you to be agreed, we shall lay the stress where the apostle seems to lay it, on the fact that “ Christ was once offered” --a fact which is made to answer to the other, that “ it is appointed unto men once to die.” We wish you again especially to observe how the apostle sets these facts one against the other. You strip his expressions of all force, unless you suppose that the appointment of a single death proves in some way the sufficiency of a single sacrifice. Why was Christ offered but once? Because “ it is appointed unto men once to die.” St. Paul states in the one verse what was the condition of man, and to what he was exposed in consequence of sin, and then he shows in the other verse that Christ had done precisely what was needed in order to man’ s deliverance and happiness. The one verse is the law, requiring that man should die and be then eternally condemned; the other verse is the gospel, proclaiming an arrangement through which death is abolished, and judgment may issue in nothing but salvation. And by putting the one verse in contrast with the other, St. Paul affirms the precision with which the provisions of the gospel meet the demands of the law; the former so answering to the latter, as to prove them constructed for the purpose of setting man free. The whole appointment of vengeance might be gathered into two articles, the death and the judgment. This was the appalling sum of the penalties which man incurred by disobedience to God; it is appointed to him once to die, and after this the judgment. And then there stood forth a Surety for the lost, a Surety so capable of suffering in their stead, that by one offering of Himself, He could redeem the whole race from the curse which had fastened on both body and soul. Yea, and so confident have we a right to be in the extent of that love which was felt for human kind, that we may be sure that had a second sacrifice been necessary, a second sacrifice would not have been withheld; but there remained nothing that love with all its anxiety could suggest, which has not been done for the welfare of its objects. The one death of the Mediator threw life into the dead, and gaining for Him the office of Judge, secured the final acquittal of all that believe on His name. And therefore might the apostle glory in this one death, and magnify it in comparison with the altars and sacrifices of the Mosaic economy; therefore might he insist on the fact that Christ was to die only once, as overwhelming evidence of the awful dignity of the surety, for that myriads were to be quickened through one death--the past, the present, the future being alike pervaded by the energies of one expiatory act. (H. Melvill, B. D.) On death I. UNDER WHAT NOTIONS WE SHOULD DEATH. 1. We should consider death as an event certain and inevitable, in consequence of the irreversible sentence once pronounced to our first parents, and, in them, to all succeeding generations. 2. We should consider death as an event removed at no great, though an uncertain, distance. For, how transitory is life! at the longest, how short! and at the best, how frail! 3. Again, we should consider death as an event that will consign us to an immediate state of happiness or misery. II. THE UTILITY OF THE OF DEATH, 1. It discovers to us the unimportance and vanity of all temporal enjoyments; which, however satisfactory or delightful, are yet short and transitory. It evinces the indiscretion of an intemperate attachment to the world. It serves to extend our views, and elevate our desires. 2. It is the best guard of innocence and virtue. Temptations surround us on all sides, to prevent which nothing can be more effectual than ,serious meditations on that eternity into which we must soon, and may suddenly, enter. 3. It is the best preparative for a comfortable death. Nothing dissipates the fears of death so much as due preparation for it; nothing so effectually disarms it of its terrors, as the consciousness of integrity. (G. Carr, B. A.) Death a Divine appointment: I. ALL THE AND OF DEATH ARE IN THE . II. THIS , THOUGH , HAS VERY ASPECTS. III. THIS THE WISDOM AND OF GOD. IV. THIS SPEAKS AND TO ALL. V. THIS EXERTS A MOST ON THE OF THE . VI. THIS DERIVES MUCH OF ITS FROM THE FACT THAT AFTER “ DEATH THE .” (J. Hewlett.) Man’ s mortality I. That which I shall do, shall be, in an applicatory way, to make some UPON THE OF MEN; who, though they know themselves mortal, yet thrust from themselves the thoughts of death, and neglect due preparations for it. 1. The generality of men are so immersed in the affairs and pleasures of life, that all serious thoughts of death and preparations for it are swallowed up by them. 2. Men put off the thoughts of death and their preparations for it, because they generally look upon it as afar off. 3. Men generally put off the thoughts of death and their preparation for it, because of those frightful terrors and that insupportable dread which such apprehensions bring with them. II. The next thing shall be to lay down some , WHICH MAY FORE-ARM AGAINST THE FEARS AND TERRORS OF DEATH, and make them willing to submit unto this law of dying, unto which God hath subjected all men. 1. If the soul be immortal, as certainly it is, and that, parting from this, it enters upon a better life than this, we may well then be contented to die upon that account. 2. The whole life of a Christian is founded upon a hope that cannot be accomplished but by dying. 3. This death, though so much dreaded, is no other than a quiet sleep. III. But now, beside this general appointment of God, that all shall die, there is a , which reacheth to every particular circumstance of man’ s death; the time when, the manner how, we shall die. These are unalterably determined, in God’ s secret counsel. IV. Let us now make some of this. 1. If God hath thus appointed us to die, let this then serve to convince us of the gross folly of setting our affections eagerly upon this present world, a world which we must shortly leave behind us. 2. Seeing by the appointment of God we must all shortly die, let us he persuaded to be always in a readiness and preparation for it. (1) Wean your hearts from an inordinate love of the world. Death must and will pluck you from it: and, oh! it will be a violent rending, if your affections be glued to it. (2) Would you be prepared for death? Beware, then, that you do not defer your repentance one day or hour longer, upon any presumption of the continuance of your life. Death depends not upon the warning of a sickness. God doth not always afford it; but, sometimes, He doth execution before He shoots off His warning-piece. And why may it not be so with you? (3) Live every day so, as if every day were your last and dying day, and the very next day allotted to you unto eternity. If it be not so, it is more than any of us know; and, since we have no assurance of one day or hour longer, it is but wisdom to look upon every day as that which may prove our very last. (4) Be constant in the exercise of a holy life, and always doing of that which you would be content Christ should find you doing when He comes to summon you before His bar. (5) Labour to get an assurance of a better life, and this will prepare you for a temporal death. When you and all things in the world must take leave of one another and part for ever, then to have the sense of the love of God, of an interest in Jesus Christ, and the sight of your own graces; these will bear up your heart in a dying hour: these things are immortal, as your souls are. (Bp. E. Hopkins.) I. DEATH AS AN :EVENT THE PERIOD OF WHICH IS . Death II. A GOOD LIFE IS THE REST FOR DEATH. Every man dies as he lives; and it is by the general tenor of the life, not a particular frame of mind at the hour of death, that we are to be judged at the tribunal of God. III. DEATH AS PRESENT TO US. HOW will the closing eye contemplate the glitter of life, the evil of avarice, the bustling of ambition, and all this circle of vanity to which we are now enchanted? IV. BY MAKING THE THOUGHT OF DEATH PRESENT TO US, LET US OUR CONDUCT with respect to the friendships which we form, and concerning the animosities which we entertain. However some men choose to live, all men would wish to die at peace with their neighbours; there is no enmity in the grave. (John Logan.) Death an appointment I. IT IS UNTO MEN TO DIE. Man, then, is no exception to the universal doom, to the all-prevailing law of earthly life. We live in a dying world. At any time, under any circumstances, death is appalling. He is well called “ the King of terrors.” The dread of death crowns all our fears. He comes to the work of destruction blind, heartless, inexorable. All the approaches to death make it dreadful. The crowded way of pale disease, of corrupting beauty, of enfeebled powers, of grief and distressing care, of disconsolate old age, of life which enjoys life no longer, makes us dread death. For, if the way be such, what must it be to pass through that crowded gate. Moreover, dying is an utterly new experience, to be undergone alone, and not to be repeated. We cannot practise dying, nor can any one accompany us. II. OUR TEXT, HOWEVER, MEETS THIS DREAD, THE AND GROUND FOR HOPE. It speaks of death as an “ appointment” --a Divine appointment, also, of an “ after-death.” It, moreover, brings ourdeath into relation with the death of Christ, and our “ after-death” with “ His coming again without sin unto salvation.” Death, then, is not an end, still less is it simply a punishment. III. Now LET US SEE THAT DEATH IS AN WHICH IS . The spirit in the full contents of its life looks back upon all opportunity and power, in relation to the possibilities of its being, as closed, and begins to learn from within what have been their use or abuse, and to anticipate their future consequences. IV. FOR DEATH IS AN WHICH IS BECAUSE IT IS ALSO . It looks back, and from the past determines the future. There is an after-death to which our moral nature points, of which it makes demands. Things do not appear on this side the grave in their true relations. Strange combinations present themselves, which are often held together simply by the force of circumstances and the necessities of our temporal forms of life, against which we often carry a deep inward protest. But death resolves all these false combinations and unrighteous alliances, and separates from us all that is foreign to our real life, and restores to us all that is truly ours. (W. Pulsford, D. D.) Life the preparation for death: Why is there such awe in that brief word, “ death” ? It is not the mere loss of this life or its joys, which gives that start of fear. Loss we may grieve over! It does not give that piercing shock of personal fear. The poet truly said, “ Conscience does make cowards of us all.” For the apostle said, “ The sting of death is sin.” Hence was it that a brave man, sent on a forlorn hope, turned back to meet a disgraced death. Death confronted:him; one deadly unrepented sin flashed on his mind; he dared meet death; he dared not meet an unreconciled God. Why did the sight of the decayed remains of his pious and beautiful queen so affect the young Duke of Gandia (S. Francis Borgia), that for his thirty-three remaining years he never forgot that sight, and at once died to the world, that at his death he might live to God? Why, in our own days, did that chance glance at the morning dress laid aside for dinner, awakening the thought of our laying aside this our mortal frame, change in an -instant the whole current of the life of a noble convert, while yet young, and make him give his life, his all to God? What gives to death this solemn aspect? The answer is simple. We can but die once. Every error, negligence, ignorance, sin, can be, in some sort, undone. But if we fail in death, it cannot be repaired. All of life is summed up there. “ It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after that” --what, a second trial? a second plank after shipwreck? a fresh use of all the experience of life? However any may act, you too know that God saith none of these things, but, “ It is appointed unto all men once to die, but after that, the judgment.” . But, because death is an act so alone, so single, so distinct and separate in its nature and its issue from all besides in life, does it therefore stand insulated? If one were to judge from the ways and words of mankind, it must surely be so. It is the one thing in this life, which is absolutely certain! All depends on it. Eternity hangs upon the moment of death; eternal bliss, eternal woe. And yet who prepares for it? The thought is an unwelcome guest, to whom men refuse entrance, if they can; if they cannot, they are fertile in excuses for dismissing him. They would fain never think of him, till he comes to carry them to judgment. We know that we must die. Why embitter life with the thought of it? And yet how should it be, that everything of moment in this life, which has to be done well, is to be studied, and that the weightiest act of all should need no study, no preparation? Is there no science of dying well? Life, will we, nill we, is the preparation for death. We liltSS, but to die. Our death is not the end only, it is the object of our life. Time and eternity meet in that one point. As we are in that last moment of time, such are we throughout eternity. How then can we prepare for that moment, upon which our all hangs, and in which we can do so little, nay, in which almost all must be done for us? What can men do then mostly, but repeat what they have done before? Good, if by God’ s grace they are done sincerely; comforts to survivors. But are such few acts, even if God continue the grace to do them, are such few acts the turning-points of life and death? Would they replace a wasted life? Would they efface whole multitudes of lifelong sins? Death has a great work for grace to do, in itself, without weighting it with a work not its own. Every sort of death has its own trials. It has become a sort of proverb, “ The ruling passion strong in death.” What, if that ruling passion have been something antagonistic to simplicity of character, to the tranquil workings of grace? What if it have been vainglory, or love of praise, or vanity, or impatience, or love of ease, or again disputing, or censoriousness, what pitfalls there yawn on all sides for us, what opening in our armour (if spiritual armour we have) for Satan’ s deadly thrusts, what occasions for unreality, in the face of the truth itself, for loss of faith when faith is our all; for murmuring against Divine justice when about to appear at its bar! Probably those evil deaths after specious lives have had this in common, that it was the evil passion to which such men had often secretly given way, a smothered, smouldering, but unextinguished fire, which burst out at last and destroyed them. I have known of relapse into the deadly accustomed sin on the bed of death. Since then death has enough of trial in itself for the grace of God to master, since those trials are aggravated by all unconquered evil in our whole life, since a good death is the object of our life, and such as we are in life, such we shall almost surely be in death, and what we are in death, such we shall certainly be in all eternity, what remains but that we make all our life a preparation for eternity? Heathen wisdom saw a gleam of this. “ Who closes best his last day?” one was asked. “ He who ever set before him, that the last day of life was imminent.” Not without inspiration of God was that counsel, “ In all thy works remember thy end, and thou shalt never do amiss.” It was a good old-fashioned practice, morning by morning, to think of the four last things, death, judgment, heaven, hell, and to pray to live that day as one would wish to have lived when the last day came. Every day is a part of our death, and enters into it. For death, which sums up all, gathers into one the results of each of our days; and each day as we live well or ill, through the grace of God or our own fault, is the earnest of many like days beyond. It is a stern nakedness of truth, stern only because it is so true: “ He is not worthy to be called a Christian, who lives in that state wherein he would fear to die.” For nothing makes death fearful except the fear of all fears, lest we be separated from Christ. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Confessions of dying men 1. When men come to die, they are wont to feel, with a vividness of impression wholly unknown before, the shortness of life and the unspeakable value of time. Lord Chesterfield, though a sceptic, and devoted to a life of pleasure, was compelled to say, near the close of his days, “ When I reflect upon what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all the frivolous hurry and bustle and pleasure of the world are a reality; but they seem to have been the dreams of restless nights.” Voltaire, after having spent a long life in blaspheming the Saviour and opposing His gospel, said to his physician on his dying bed, “ I will give you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six months of life.” “ O time! time!” exclaimed the dying Altamont; “ how art thou fled for ever! A month! oh, for a single week! I ask not for years, though an age were too little for the much I have to do.” Said Gibbon, “ The present is a fleeting moment, the past is no more, and my prospect of futurity is dark and doubtful.” Hobbes said, as the last hour approached, “ If I bad the whole world to dispose of, I would give it to live one day.” “ Oh! “ cried the Duke of Buckingham, as he was closing a life devoted to folly and sin,” what a prodigal I have been of the most valuable of all possessions--time! I have squandered it away with the persuasion that it was lasting; and, now, when a few days would be worth a heatcomb of worlds, I cannot flatter myself with the prospect of half a dozen hours. 2. Another confession which is wont to be made by dying men is that there is nothing in this world that can satisfy the wants of the immortal soul. When Salmasius, one of the greatest scholars of his time, drew near to death, he exclaimed bitterly against himself--“ Oh, I have lost a world of time; time, the most precious thing on the earth, whereof if I had but one year more, it should be spent in David’ s Psalms and Paul’ s Epistles. Oh, mind the world less and God more!” Grotius possessed the finest genius ever recorded of a youth in the learned world, and rose to an eminence in literature and science which drew upon him the admiration of all Europe; yet after all his attainments and high reputation, he was constrained at last to cry out--“ Ah, I have consumed my life in a laborious doing of nothing! I would give all my learning and honour for the plain integrity of John Urick” --a poor man of eminent piety. Sir John Mason, on his deathbed, said--“ I have lived to see five princes, and have been privy counsellor to four of them; I have seen the most important things in foreign parts, and have been present at most state transactions for thirty years together; and I have learned, after so many years’ experience, that seriousness is the greatest wisdom, temperance the best physic, and a good conscience the best estate. And were I to live again I would change the whole life I have lived in the palace, for an hour’ s enjoyment of God in the chapel.” Philip, the third king of Spain, when he drew near the end of his days, expressed his deep regret for a worldly and careless life in these emphatic words--“ Ah, how happy it would have been for me had I spent these twenty-three years I have held my kingdom, in retirement.” “ Good God!” exclaimed a dying nobleman, “ how have I employed myself! In what delirium has my life been passed! What have I been doing while the sun in its race and the stars in their courses have lent their beams, perhaps, only to light me to perdition! I have pursued shadows, and entertained myself with dreams. I have been treasuring up dust, and sporting myself with the wind. I might have grazed with the beasts of the field, or sung with the winged inhabitants of the woods, to much better purpose than any for which I have lived.” 3. When men are laid upon a dying bed they are wont to feel and to acknowledge the utter insufficiency of a mere moral life to prepare them to appear in the presence of God. “ It is not giving up my breath,” said the nobleman before referred to, “ it is not being for ever insensible, that is the thought at which I shrink; it is the terrible hereafter, the something beyond the grave, at which I recoil. Those great realities which in the hours of mirth and vanity I have treated as phantoms, as the idle dreams of superstitious beings, these start forth and dare me now in their most terrible demonstrations.” “ Oh, my friends,” exclaimed the pious Janeway, we “ little think what Christ is worth on a death-bed. I would not now for a world, nay, for millions of worlds, be without Christ and pardon.” “ God might justly condemn me,” said Richard Baxter, “ for the best deeds I ever did, and all my hopes are from the free mercy of God in Christ.” Said the meek and learned Hooker, as he approached his end: “ Though I have by His grace loved God in my youth and feared Him in my age, and laboured to have a conscience void of offence to Him and to all men, yet, if Thou, O Lord, be extreme to mark what I have done amiss, who can abide it? And, therefore, where I have failed, show mercy to me, for I plead not my righteousness, but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness, for His merits who died to purchase pardon for penitent sinners.” Such too were the feelings of our own venerated Hooker in his dying hour. To a friend who said to him, “ Sir, you are going to receive the reward of your labours,” he replied, “ Brother, I am going to receive mercy.” And not to mention other examples under this head, let me refer to the case of Dr. Johnson. He was a moral man; but his morality could not soften the terrors of a death-bed, nor give him the least peace in prospect of meeting his Judge. When a friend, to calm his agitated mind, referred him to his correct morals and useful life for topics of consolation, he put them away as nothing worth, and in bitterness of soul exclaimed, “ Shall I, who have been a teacher of others, be myself cast away?” This great man had not then fled for refuge to the blood of atonement, as he afterwards did; and, therefore, notwithstanding his moral and useful life, he was afraid to die, and all beyond the grave looked dark and gloomy to him. And so it must look to all who come to the dying hour with no better preparation than is furnished in a moral life. 4. Men at the hour of death are constrained to acknowledge the folly and guilt of an irreligious life, and the supreme importance of a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever apologies are made in the days of health and prosperity for the neglect, of religion, those apologies are found utterly worthless on a death-bed, and are renounced as vain and delusive. Religion is then felt to be indeed the one thing needful, and the whole earth too poor to be given in exchange for the soul. None find peace and hope in that hour but those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. The world retires then, and leaves its wretched votaries in poverty and despair. But heaven comes near to sustain and comfort the faithful servants of God; and they feel that an interest in Christ is of more value than a thousand worlds like this. Look at Enoch walking with God, who through faith was exempted from death, and was not, for God took him; at David comforting himself in the close of life in the assurance that God had made an everlasting covenant with him, ordered in all things and sure; at Paul joyfully declaring in the near view of death, “ I know in whom I have believed” ; at the dying missionary, Ziegenbalger, exclaiming, “ Washed from my sins in the blood of Christ, and clothed with His righteousness, I shall enter into His eternal kingdom” ; at Swartz sweetly singing his soul away to everlasting bliss; at Baxter, saying, amid the sinkings of nature, “ I am almost well” ; at Owen lifting up his eyes and his hands as in a kind of rapture, and exclaiming to a friend, “ Oh, brother, the long looked for day is come at last, in which I shall see the glory of Christ in another manner than I have ever yet done” ; at Edwards comforting his family, as they stood around his dying bed, with the memorable words, “ Trust in God, and you have nothing to fear” ; at Martyn in the solitudes of Persia, writing thus s few days before his death--“ I sat alone, and thought with sweet comfort and peace of God, in solitude my company, my friend, and comforter” ; at Dwight exclaiming, when the seventeenth chapter of John was’ read to him, “ Oh, what triumphant truths!” ; at Evarts shouting “ Glory! Jesus reigns! “ as he closed his eyes on death; at Payson uttering the language of assurance, as he grappled with his last enemy--“ The battle is fought! the battle is fought! and the victory is won for ever!” In a word, look at the great cloud of witnesses, who in the faith of Jesus have triumphed over death and the grave, and peacefully closed their eyes on this world in joyful hope of opening them in another and a better, and you will learn in what estimation religion is held, when the scenes of earth are retiring, and those of eternity are opening upon the vision of dying men. Think of it as we may, while the event is viewed as future and distant, we shall all find, when the last hour comes, that it is indeed a serious matter to die. A future state, said the Duke of Buckingham, dying in despair, may well strike terror into a man who has not acted well in life; and he must have an uncommon share of courage indeed who does not shrink at the presence of God. And even Lord Chesterfield, sceptic and devotee of pleasure as he was, was compelled to acknowledge, as the closing scene drew on, “ When one does see death near, let the best or the worst people say what they please, it is a serious consideration.” “ Remorse for the past,” exclaimed the dying Altamont, “ throws my thoughts on the future. Worse dread of the future strikes them back on the past. I turn and turn, and find no ray of light. Death is knocking at my doors; in a few hours more I shall draw my last gasp; and then the judgment, the tremendous judgment! How shall I appear, all unprepared as I am, before the all-knowing and omnipotent God?” “ O eternity, eternity,” cried the distracted Newport, as he lay upon his death-bed, contemplating the solemn scenes before him, “ who can paraphrase on the words for ever and ever?” Such are the confessions that are wont to be made by dying men; such the feelings and thoughts that crowd upon the mind as the last hour approaches. And in view of them we may remark: 1. They are founded in truth; there is just cause for them It is true that life is short, and that time is of infinite value. It is true that this world contains nothing which can satisfy the wants of the immortal mind. It is true that a moral life is utterly insufficient as a preparation for death and the judgment. It is true that an irreligious life is a life of extreme folly and presumption, and that a saving interest in Christ is a matter of supreme importance to every living man. And the wonder is, not that dying men should feel these things to be true, and be deeply affected by them, but that living men should treat them with indifference. 2. That many of my hearers will, in a short time, view the subject in a very different light from that in which they now contemplate it. Some of you are young, and in the buoyant feelings of youth and health scarcely think it possible that you may soon be called to death and the judgment. Some of you are profoundly careless of your immortal well-being, and are so enamoured of the things of the world that you seldom think of your latter end. Others of you are perhaps sceptical as to the reality of a change of heart to fit you for the closing scene; others of you still, who bear the Christian name, are probably deceived as to the ground of your hope, or are living in a state of backsliding from God, awfully unprepared for His summons to leave the world. To all such the Son of man is likely to come in an hour they think not of; and when He comes, they will be thrown into fearful consternation, and the dreams with which they are now deluded will vanish for ever. 3. It is the part of true wisdom to cherish those views and feelings now, which we know we shall regard as of supreme importance when we come to die. Why should any spend life in treasuring materials for sorrow, disappointment, and despair in the dying hour? Why should any gather food for the worm that never dies, or fuel for the fire that is never quenched? 4. The confessions of dying men are of no avail, only as they indicate the folly of sin and the value of religion. They do not change the character--they do not fit the soul for death or for heaven. The strong bands of sin are not so dissolved, nor is it so that the love of God and Christ is inspired in the bosom, and mettness acquired for a place among the redeemed in heaven. Be wise, then, in this your day, to attend to the things which belong to your peace, lest they be hid for ever from your eyes. Go learn the value of religion in the peaceful and triumphant death of those that die in the Lord; go learn its value in the remorse and despair of those that die in neglect of Christ and His salvation. (J. Hawes, D. D.) The inevitable ending 1. Consider the statement in itself. It affirms a universal law. “ What man is he that liveth and shall not see death?” 2. How are we to account for this great law? (1) It is, says our science, a law of nature: it is an inevitable incident in the chemical development of animal organism. From the moment of our birth we carry within us the seeds, the secrets of our dissolution. The operation of the law may be delayed by precautions which interrupt the action of the causes which would more immediately precipitate it: it may be prematurely enforced through the rapid development of some latent poison or weakness in the system; but in the end will have its way anyhow. (2) It is, says faith, a law of religion. I had better said, it is a law of the Divine government. We do not deny that death is the term of a process which the chemistry of the human body renders inevitable, because we also see in it a great moral act of the living God, a fact which belongs, in all its highest aspects, purely to the spiritual, to the supersensuous world. Death, it has been finely said by a modern writer, is the very masterpiece of the Divine justice. It is not merely a consequence, it is a measure, of sin. It is God’ s way of tracing out, as if before our very eyes, what, in His judgment, sin is, because sin has lodged itself in the inmost recesses of our complex being, where spirit and body find their unseen, their unimagined, point of unity, and so is transmitted with the inheritance of life from sire to son. Therefore, we may dare to say, it was necessary, if sin was to be exposed and vanquished, if it was to be torn forth by the very roots, from the nature with which it was so mercilessly interwoven, that God should sever the most secret bonds which unite soul and body--that He should break up this mould of life which had been so deeply dishonoured in the interests of His enemy. And yet in doing this He was only letting sin take its natural course, for sin is in its essence the germ of death. Death is merely the prolongation into the sphere of physical existence of that disorganisation which sin induces into the sphere of spirit. Death is destruction spreading downwards from a higher to a lower department of being, like a fire which has broken out in the upper story of a palace, and which goes on to enwrap in its fury the floors beneath. 3. The practical bearings of this appointment to die. It teaches us our highest work in this life. We live that we may prepare to die. There are four lines of preparation. (1) There is the discipline of resignation. It may seem hard to part with so many friends, so many interests, so much work, so many hopes, so many enthusiasms. But there is no help for it, and it is better, for our own sakes, and still more for the honour of our God, that we should bow to the inevitable. (2) There is the discipline of repentance. (3) There is the training of prayer--I should speak more accurately--of worship. When we pray, really shutting out the things and thoughts of time, cleansing the inner temple of the soul; when we behold the realities over which death has no power, the realities which have no relation to time--the everlasting throne, the unceasing intercession--we are not onlyinsensibly suffused with the light which streams down from that other world; we learn here upon earth how to behave ourselves in that majestic presence; we learn the manners of another climate, the habits of another society, before our time. And this worship is a training for death. (4) There is the discipline of voluntary sacrifice. By sacrifice man does not merely learn to await death; he goes out to welcome it. He learns how to transfigure a stern necessity into the sublimest of virtues. His life is not simply to be taken from him: he will have the privilege of offering it to God; for each true act of sacrifice, each surrender, whether in will or in act, of self, carries with it the implied power of controlling the whole being, not merely on ordinary occasions, but at the crisis, at the trial time of destiny. Like his Lord, the Christian must, by many a free surrender of that which he desires, or of that which he loves, prepare himself for the last great act which awaits him when, anticipating, controlling the final struggle, the last agony, the rent, the pang of separation between his body and his soul, he will exclaim with the Redeemer, “ Into Thy hands, O Father, I commend my spirit” ; but he will add, because he is a sinner--a redeemed sinner--“ for Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth.” (Canon Liddon.) The time of each man’ s death Divinely appointed The fact that God has chosen us to salvation does not make us careless of the means of salvation; so the fact that God has fixed the day, the hour, and the mode of my death, will not make me less attentive to the duties that devolve upon me as a rational, a sensible and a reasonable being. And the practical fact that we find, wherever that thought is cherished, is, that they who believe it most strictly are most attentive to present duties, but most fearless of possible perils. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Death I had an interview with death. The place, a lonely dell, winter-bound, swathed in spotless snow. The time, new-risen morn; the last star paling, as if in fear, retired, but not extinguished. A spirit strengthened me to brave the enemy of life, and gave me courage to upbraid his cruelty. My speech I do remember well, and death’ s reply. Said I, in heightened tone, as if to keep uncertain courage steadfast and ardent: “ Monster, of thee no man speaks well. Thy silent tread makes the house tremble, and in thy cold breath all flowers die. No little child is safe from death’ s all-withering touch: nor mothers dost thou spare, nor lovers weaving life’ s story into coloured dream, nor saints in lowly prayer. Why not content thyself with warring and succeeding in the gloomy jungle? Smite the tiger crouching for his prey, or the lion in his fierceness, or fly after the punting wolf, or lodge an arrow in the heart of the proud eagle. Why devastate our homes? Why kill our little ones? Why break our hearts and mock our thirst with the brine of useless tears? O death! I would that thou wert dead.” Then death answered me, and filled me with amaze. “ Believe me,” said the weird defendant, “ thy reasoning is false, thy reproach an unintelligent assault.” His voice was gentle, and through all his pallor there gleamed the outline of a smile. I saw transfigured death. “ I am God’ s servant. The flock must be brought home. I go to bring the wanderers to the fold. The lambs are God’ s, not yours; or yours but to watch and tend until He sends for them. Through your own fatherhood read God’ s heart. Through your own watching for the child’ s return conceive the thought that glows in love Divine.” He paused. Said I: “ Could not some brighter messenger be sent? An angel with sunlight in his eyes and music in his voice? Thou dost affright us so, and make us die so oft in dying once. If our mother could but come, or some kindred soul, or old pastor, whose voice we know; any but thou, so cold, so grim.” “ I understand thee well,” said death, “ but thou dost not understand thyself. Why does God send this cold snow before the spring? Why icebergs first, then daffodils? My grimness, too, thou dost not comprehend. The living have never seen me. Only the dying can see death. I am but a mask. The angel thou dost pine for is behind. Sometimes angel-mother, sometimes father, sometimes a vanished love, but always, to the good and true, the very image of the Christ. No more revile me. I am a visored friend.” The dell was then transformed. The snow gleamed like silver. The day a cloudless blue. And suddenly living images filled the translucent space. And then I asked of death if he could tell whence came they? And he said: “ These are mine. A reaper I, as well as shepherd. I put in the sharp sickle; I bound the sheaves; I garnered the precious harvest; and when I come angels sing ‘ Harvest home.’” (J. Parker, D. D.) Death common to all A beautiful story is told of Buddha and a poor woman who came to ask him if there was any medicine which would bring back to life her dead child. When he saw her distress he spoke tenderly to her, and he told her that there was one thing which might cure her son. He bade her bring him a handful of mustard seed, common mustard seed; only he charged her to bring it from some house where neither father or mother, child nor servant had died. So the woman took her dead baby in her arms, and went from door to door asking for the mustard seed, and gladly was it given to her; but when she asked whether any had died in that house, each one made the same sad answer “ I have lost my husband,” or “ My child is dead,” or “ Our servant has died.” So with a heavy heart the woman went back to Buddha, and told him how she had failed to get the mustard seed, for that she could not find a single house where none had died. Then Buddha showed her lovingly that she must learn not to think of her own grief alone, but must remember the griefs of others, seeing that all alike are sharers in sorrow and death. (Heralds of the Cross.) Preparation for death: Prepare to die whilst you are in health. It is an ill time to calk the ship when at sea, tumbling up and down in a storm: this should have been looked to when she was in port. And as bad is it to begin and trim a soul for heaven when tossing on a sick bed. Things that are done in a hurry are seldom done well. Those poor creatures, I fear, go in an ill dress into another world who begin to provide for it when they are dying but alas, they must go, though they have not time to put on proper clothes. (W. Gurnall.) Death should be first prepared for: There was a young man who once went to the city of Rome. He was an intense student. He had studied by the midnight lamp until his face was pale and his eyes were dim, and as he passed along the streets of Rome, he met one who asked him wherefore he had come. The young man replied: “ I have come that I may improve and have opportunities for reading.” “ And when you have done that, what then?” The youth’ s eye brightened with the instinctive ardour of youth, as he said, “ Who can tell? I may become a bishop.” “ And when you have become a bishop, what then?” It seemed almost a vain thing, but still elasticity and youthful hope were there; and he said, “ I may become a cardinal.” “ And when you become a cardinal, what then?” “ It seems almost madness.” was the reply, “ but who can tell? I may become Pope.” “ And when you have become Pope, what then?” Poor lad! he had got to the end, and he said, “ Well, I suppose I must die.” “ Ah!” said the wise old man, “ first get ready for that which must be, and afterwards for that which may be. You may be a bishop; you must die. You may be a cardinal; you must die. You may be Pope; but you must die. First make ready for that which must be.” That was wise advice. (S. Coley.) Certainty of death A good old man who used to go about doing good in the Tasmanian “ bush” stood, shortly before his death, in a small country place of worship to preach the gospel. In the course of his simple address he pulled out a large watch which had long been his faithful companion. “ This watch of mine,” said he, “ has been going for many years--tick, tick, tick. It is one of the old-fashioned sort and a real trusty one, but it stopped the other day, and has refused to go again. Now, I have lived to old age, healthy and well for the most part: my heart has been beating and my pulse throbbing--tick, tick, tick--“ very much like the watch; but I shall stop some day, and be numbered with the dead.” From the way in which the earnest pastor uttered those words, his little congregation knew he spake as a dying man to dying men, and that he realised that he was as likely to go as any. Hence the power which accompanied the exhortation that followed. (Thos. Spurgeon.) Death inevitable: John Asgill distinguished himself by maintaining in a treatise, now forgotten, that death is no natural necessity, and that to escape it is within the range of the humanly practicable. But Asgill’ s biography, like every other, has for a last page the inevitable “ And he died.” (Francis Jacox.) Death Death is a black camel which kneels at every door. (Persian proverb.) Exits Death hath ten thousand several doors for men to take their exits. (John Webster.) Death as a messenger: Death is like a postman, who knocks alike at the door of rich and poor; and brings to this man wedding cards, and to his neighbour a funeral envelope; to one the pleasant news that his richly-laden vessel has arrived in port, and to another tidings of disaster and bankruptcy. Death as a liberator: Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console. (C. Colton.) We can die but once: Daniel Webster once attended church in a quiet country village. The clergyman was a simple-hearted, pious old man, who rose and named his text with the utmost simplicity. He then said, “ My friends, we can die but once!” --and paused. Said Webster: “ Frigid and weak as these words might seem at first, they were to me among the most impressive and awakening I ever heard. I never felt so sensibly that I must die at all as when that devout old man told me I could die but once.” Death the universal lot: There is a fig-tree in India, the branches of which, after growing to a certain height, bend, and grow down into the ground. This tree is a symbol of every human life. From the dust we came, and to the dust we return. Unprepared for death: It is said of the celebrated Caesar Borgia, that in his last moments he exclaimed, “ I have provided, in the course of my life, for everything except death; and now, alas! I am to die, although entirely unprepared.” After this the judgment The last judgment I. THE OF TO COME. TO get rid of the doctrine, a man must plunge into the gloomy absurdities of atheism. And is he safe there? He has conscience still left; he is rebuked for sin. There is its premonition. What passes thus in the court of conscience, may be called a kind of petty session, before the great assize, when the Judge shall come and call the nations round His bar. II. THE TIME OF . At the end of the world. What epithets are attached to this “ day” in Scripture! In some places it is called “ that day.” As if there were no other day. The day of days. In other places it is called “ the day of Christ,” the “ day of the revelation of Christ” ; to intimate that it is the day on which publicly He will be manifested in all His glory, as “ the great God and our Saviour.” It is called in other places “ the day of the revelation of God’ s righteous judgment.” Intimating that then the principles of His moral government are to be exposed and vindicated. In another passage it is called “ the day of wrath.” The impenitent sinner is said to be “ treasuring up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath.” It is called in other places “ the last day.” The close of time; the world’ s dying day. III. THE JUDGE. To call rational creatures to account for their conduct, with a view to final retribution, implies that they are the subjects of Him who thus deals with them. It is an act of authority, therefore, over them which belongs exclusively to God. And God has not only right, not only authority, but every qualification for calling us into judgment. Dwell upon His attributes. He is not only omnipresent, but He is omniscient. All their history, their lives, their words, their thoughts, their feelings. He is omnipotent. He can arrest the sinner. Where will the sinner go, and the hand of God cannot reach him? Then think of His justice. His award must be right. Power cannot awe Him; wealth cannot bribe Him; cunning cannot deceive Him. God is to be Judge. But the Father has delegated this awful commission to the Son. It is part of His mediatorial reward, as God-Man, to judge the world. And how fit that He, who to redeem the world assumed human nature, should in that human nature judge the world! How congruous, that He who came to fulfil the covenant of grace, should be Judge of those who have been placed under it! IV. WHO ARE TO BE JUDGED? “ All.” All kings and their subjects; all pastors and their flocks. All; the great and the small. V. FOR WHAT THEY WILL BE JUDGED. Everything. You must account for all your privileges. Your Bible; your minister; your sabbaths; your sermons; your sacraments. Your religious parents. Your judgment; your conscience; your memory. Your bodies; all the organs of sense. You must be judged as to your actions. All your secret actions; the deeds which many of you would be glad to forget. For your words. Your slanderous words; your impure words; your malicious words; your false words. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 10:1-2 The Law having a shadow of good things to come The Law had only a shadow: He is careful not to say that the Law was itself but a shadow. On the contrary, the very promise includes that God will put His laws in the heart and write them upon the mind. This was one of “ the good things to come.” The Law was holy, righteous, and good; but the manifestation of its nature in sacrifices was unreal, like the dark outline of an object that breaks the stream of light. Nothing more substantial, as a revelation of God’ s moral character, was befitting or possible in that stage of human development, when the purposes of His grace also not seldom found expression in dreams of the night and apparitions of the day. To prove the unreal nature of these ever-recurring sacrifices, the writer argues that otherwise they would have ceased to he offered, inasmuch as the worshippers, if they had been once really cleansed from their guilt, would have had no more conscience of sins. The reasoning is very remarkable. It is not that God would have ceased to require sacrifices, but that the worshipper would have ceased to offer them. It implies that, when a sufficient atonement for sin has been offered to God, the sinner knows it is sufficient, and, as the result, has peace of conscience. The possibility of a pardoned sinner still fearing and doubting does not seem to have occurred to the apostle. To men who cannot leave off introspection and forget themselves in the joy of a new faith the apostle’ s argument will have little force and perhaps less meaning. If the sacrifices were unreal, why, we naturally inquire, were they continually repeated? The answer is that there were two sides to the sacrificial rites of the Old Covenant. On the one hand, they were, like the heathen gods, “ nothings” ; on the other, their empty shadowiness itself fitted them to be a divinely appointed means to call sins to remembrance. They represented on the one side the invincible, though always baffled, effort of natural conscience; for conscience was endeavouring to purify itself from a sense of guilt. But God also had a purpose in awakening and disciplining conscience. The worshipper sought to appease conscience through sacrifice, and God, by the same sacrifice, proclaimed that reconciliation had not been effected. In allusion to this idea, that the sacrifices were instituted by God in order to renew the remembrance of sins every year, Christ said, “ Do this in remembrance of Me”--of Him who hath put away sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Such, then, was the shadow, at once unreal and dark. In contrast to it, the apostle designates the substance as “ the very image of the objects.” Instead of repeating the indefinite expression “ good things to come,” he speaks of them as “ objects,” individually distinct, substantial, true. The image of a thing is the full manifestation of its inmost essence, in the same sense in which St. Paul says that the Son of God’ s love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, is the image of the invisible God. The gracious purpose of God is to forgive sin, and this was accomplished by the infinite humiliation of the infinite Son. God’ s will was to sanctify us; that is, to remove our guilt. We have actually been thus sanctified through the one offering of the body of Jesus Christ. The sacrifices of the Law are taken out of the way in order to establish the sacrifice of the Son. It will be observed that the apostle is not contrasting sacrifice and obedience. The dominant thoughts of the passage are the greatness of the Person who obeyed and the greatness of the sacrifice from which His obedience did not shrink. The Son is here represented as existing and acting apart from His human nature. He comes into the world, and is not originated in the world. The purpose of the Son’ s doming is already formed. He comes to offer His body, and we have been taught in a previous chapter that He did this with an eternal spirit. For the will of God means our sanctification in the meaning attached to the word “ sanctification” in this Epistle--the removal of guilt, the forgiveness of sins. But the fulfilment of this gracious will of God demands a sacrifice, even a sacrificial death, and that not the death of beasts, but the infinite self-sacrifice and obedience unto death of the Son of God. This is implied in the expression “ the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.” The superstructure of argument has been raised. Christ as High Priest has been proved to be superior to the high priests of the former covenant. It remains only to lay the top-stone in its place. Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest, is for ever King; for the priests under the Law stand while they perform the duties of their ministry. They stand because they are only priests. But Christ has taken His seat, as King, on the right hand of God. They offer the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, and wait, and wait, but in vain. Christ also waits, but not to renew an ineffectual sacrifice. He waits eagerly to receive from God the reward of His effective sacrifice in the subjugation of His enemies. The priests under the Law had no enemies. Their persons were sacred. They incurred no hatred, inspired no love. Our High Priest goes out to war, the most hated, the most loved, of all captains of men. The foundation of this kingly power is in two things: first, He has perfected men for ever by His one offering; second, He has put the law of God into the hearts of His people. The final conclusion is that the sacrifices of the Law have passed away, because they are no longer needed. “ For where there is forgiveness, there is no more an offering for sin.” (T. C. Edwards, D. D.) The Old Testament and the New: In the Old Testament the New Testament lies hid; in the New Testament the Old Testament lies open. (Augustine.) Judaism and Christianity: Christianity lay in Judaism as leaves and fruits do in the seed, though certainly it needed the Divine sun to bring them forth. (De Wette.) The Old Testament and the New: To pass from the doctrine of the Old Testament to that of the New is to enter a changed world. It is as if we had lived through an Arctic winter, our long night occasionally lit as by an aurora, or by stars the apparent revolutions of which made the mobility of our own minds the more conspicuous, and had suddenly chanced upon a warm and glorious summer with its unsetting sun and nightless day. The age of symbols is no more. Faint administrations of heavenly truths under material forms have given place to the loud proclamation of the same truths under those less material forms of speech and life. (Principal Cave, D. D.) The two dispensations The former constitution was not abolished, but exchanged, and by that change perfected; and in this manner did Jesus say that He came not to abolish, but to complete or accomplish: secondly, that the former was a type, and merged into its reality, not so much dying as passing into a second existence, where a true sacrifice covered a typical oblation, where redemption given passed before redemption expected, where uncertainty had ripened into knowledge, and hope yielded its kingdom to faith. To illustrate the noble by the base, the former state was as that living but creeping sheath wherein lie infolded for a time the corresponding parts of a more splendid and gorgeous insect, which in due time takes upon itself the vital functions till then by the other exercised, and rises towards heaven--the same, yet different--a transmigration rather than an offspring. (Cardinal Wiseman.) No more conscience of sins Conscience and forgiveness: Conscience naturally knows nothing of forgiveness; yea, it is against its very trust, work, and office to hear anything of it. If a man of courage and honesty be entrusted to keep a garrison against an enemy, let one come and tell him that there is peace between those whom he serves and their enemies, so that he may leave his guard, and set open the gates, and cease his watchfulness; how worthy will he be, lest, under this pretence, he be betrayed! “ No,” saith he, “ I will keep my hold until I have express orders from my superiors.” Conscience is entrusted with the power of God in the soul of a sinner, with command to keep all in subjection, with reference to the judgment to come; it will not betray its trust in believing every report of peace. No; but this it says, and it speaks in the name of God, “ Guilt and punishment are inseparable twins.” If the soul sin, God will judge. What tell you me of forgiveness.? I know not what my commission is, and that I will abide by. You shall not bring in a superior commander, a cross principle, into my trust; for if this be so, it seems I must let go my throne--another lord must come in--not knowing as yet how this whole business is compounded in the blood of Christ. Now, whom should a man believe if not his own conscience? which, as it will not flatter him, so it intends not to affright him, but to speak the truth as the matter requireth. Conscience hath two works in reference to sin--one to condemn the acts of sin, another to judge the person of the sinner; both with reference to the judgment of God. When forgiveness comes, it would sever and part these employments, and take one of them out of the hand of conscience; it would divide the spoil with this strong one. It shall condemn the fact, or every sin; but it shall no more condemn the sinner, the person of the sinner, that shall be freed from its sentence. Here conscience labours with all its might to keep its whole dominion, and to keep out the power of forgiveness from being enthroned in the soul. It will allow men to talk of forgiveness, to hear it preached, though they abuse it every day; but to receive it in its power, that stands up in direct opposition to its dominion. “ In the kingdom,” saith conscience, “ I will be greater than thou” ; and in many--in the most--it keeps its possession, and will not be deposed. Nor, indeed, is it an easy work so to deal with it. The apostle tells us that all the sacrifices of the Law could not do it (Hebrews 10:2); they could not bring a man into that estate wherein he could have “ no more conscience of sin” --thief is, conscience condemning the person; for conscience, in a sense of sin, and condemnation of it, is never to be taken away. And this can be no otherwise done but by the blood of Christ, as the apostle at large there declares. (J. Owen, D. D.) Hebrews 10:3 Remembrance again made of sins Sin remembered no more: Memory is the source both of sorrow and of joy: like the wind, which is laden both with frankincense and with unpleasant odours, which brings both pestilence and health, which both distributes genial warmth and circulates cold. The effect of memory depends on the subject of a particular recollection. This faculty is directed to past events, and if those which memory embraces have been joyous, the effect is joyous; if they have been grievous, the effect, unless there be some counteracting influence, is grievous. Among the multitude of sorrows, which, memory awakens, none is so bitter as that which arises from the recollection of sin. The recollection of sin is in this world variously originated. Sometimes pride leads a man to dwell on his past errors. He has a very high estimate of himself, and his complacency has been disturbed by some act of transgression, upon which be is constantly looking back. Vanity moves men to remember their errors. The vain man is anxious that others should have a good opinion of him, and his mortified vanity occasions him to look back upon his past faults and failures. Or he has a selfish desire for his own happiness: he sees in the past actions which have interfered with his enjoyment, and he cherishes the remembrance of sin because sin has been drying up the fountain of his pleasures. But turning from the evil powers which originate such recollections, we may look at a broken and contrite heart. Contrition of spirit cherishes the memory of transgression. The recollection of sin is occasioned by various influences, and the effect of these remembrances is various. Sometimes the recollection of sin hardens a man; sometimes it produces strong rebellion. On other occasions it induces deep depression. “ The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit, who can bear?” There is a provision for forgetting our sins. But there was no such provision under the Law, nor in any of the ceremonies that Moses ordained. On the contrary, “ in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” That Jew would not be a true disciple to Moses and true child of Abraham who did not on the Day of Atonement call to mind his trespasses, although he had presented a trespass-offering, and all the sins he had committed, although he had presented his sin-offerings. If you look at the chapter, you will find that this passage is introduced for the sake of forming a contrast between the dispensation under Moses and the dispensation introduced by Christ. “ Now there is no remembrance again made of sins.” We have had our day of atonement--the day upon which Christ hung on the Cross. We have had our sacrifice offered: it has been both offered and accepted. We have only to feel that it has been offered, and that it is accepted, and then the atonement which removes the outward guilt takes away also from the conscience the sense of guilt. “ In these sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” “ But by this one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Here the writer penned these words for the sake of expressing something else which these words suggest to every Christian; such as these thoughts: First, God has made provision for the practical forgetting of sin in His own conduct towards a believing transgressor; and, secondly, the state of the penitent’ s heart should respond to this provision. This provision is revealed to him on purpose that he may take advantage of it--that he may get all the peace and joy it is calculated to minister. “ Thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” “ For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.” For the sake of cherishing the spirit of humility, it is right to remember sin; for the sake of learning patience and forbearance and a kind and forgiving spirit towards each other; for the sake of increasing our sense of obligation to the atonement of Christ, and stimulating our gratitude for the everlasting mercy of God, it is right to remember sin; but sin should be forgotten when the remembrance of it would operate as a barrier to intercourse with God. “ Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” “ Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace” ; not with the sullenness of Cain--“ my punishment is greater than I can bear” --but with all the loving reliance of Abel--“ come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” 1. As an obstacle to hope, there is to be no remembrance of sins. “ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” “ Jehovah is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” 2. As a check to filial reliance, there is to be no remembrance of sin. “ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” 3. As marring our complacency in God, there is to be no remembrance of sin. He “ hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ,” and annihilated the distance. “ You who were far off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ.” 4. As hindering our enjoyment in God, there is to be no remembrance of sin. You are not to ask, “ Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” as though you would go if you could, or as though it would be a relief to take your eye from God’ s eye and your lip from God’ s ear; but your resolve must be, I will “ go to the altar of my God, to God my exceeding joy.” 5. As darkening our prospects, there is to be no remembrance of sin. He has” blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.” Why is it that some Christians do not realise all this? Why is it that sometimes fear gets the mastery over them? The answer is at hand. Many persons think that they are Christians when they are not. Their repentance has been a thoroughly selfish state of soul, and not a godly sorrow. (S. Martin.) Reminders of sins: As they in the time of the Law had many sacrifices to put them in remembrance of sin, so we in the time of the Gospel have many remembrancers of sin--sundry monitors to admonish us that we are sinners. The rainbow may be a remembrance of sin to us, that the world was once drowned for sin, and that it might be so still but for the goodness and mercy of God. Baptism daily ministered in the Church putteth us in mind of sin; for if we were not sinners we needed not to be baptized. The Lord’ s Supper puts us in mind of sin: “ Do this in remembrance of Me,” that My body was broken for you and My blood shed for you on the Cross. The immoderate showers that come oft in harvest and deprive us of the fruits of the earth may put us in mind of sin; for they be our sins that keep good things from us. Our moiling and toiling for the sustentation of ourselves with much care and wearisome labour; for if we had not sinned it should not have been so. The sicknesses and, diseases that be among us, the plague and pestilence that hath raged among us, the death of so many of our brethren and sisters continually before our eyes, &c., may put us in mind of sin; for if we had not sinned we should not have died. There be a number of things to put us in mind of sin; but there is nothing that can take away sin but Jesus Christ “ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” Therefore let us all fly to this heavenly Physician for the curing of us. (W. Joules, D. D.) Hebrews 10:4 The blood of bulls and Of goats The insufficiency of Mosaic sacrifices I. IT IS THAT THINGS MAY WHAT IT IS THAT IN AND BY THEY SHOULD EFFECT. This is the fundamental rule of all institutions of the Old Testament. II. THERE MAY RE GREAT AND EMINENT USES OF DIVINE AND , IT BE THAT BY , IN THEIR MOST EXACT AND USE, THEY SHOULD WORK OUT OUR WITH GOD. And it belongs to the wisdom of faith to use them to their proper end, not to trust to them, as to what they cannot of themselves effect. III. IT WAS UTTERLY THAT SIN SHOULD BE TAKEN AWAY BEFORE GOD AND FROM THE OF THE SINNER BUT BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. Other ways men are apt to betake themselves to for this end, but in vain. It is the blood of Jesus Christ alone that cleanseth us from all our sins, for He alone was the propitiation for them. IV. THE OF THE OF ALL OTHER WAYS FOR THE OF SIN IS AN OF THE , , AND OF GOD AGAINST SIN, WITH THE RUIN OF ALL . V. HEREIN ALSO THE GREAT OF THE LOVE, MERCY, AND GRACE OF GOD, WITH AN TO FAITH, in that when the old sacrifices neither would nor could perfectly expiate sin, He would not suffer the work itself to fail, but provided a way that should be infallibly effective of it, as is declared in the following verses. (John Owen, D. D.) The inability of the legal sacrifices As the legal sacrifices did not of themselves take away sins, so it was impossible that they should. There was an essential defect in them. 1. They were not of the same nature with us that sinned. 2. They were not of sufficient value to make satisfaction for the affronts done to the justice and government of God. 3. The beasts offered up under the law could not consent to put themselves in the sinner’ s room and place. The atoning sacrifice must be one capable of consenting, and must voluntarily substitute himself in the sinner’ s stead. Christ did so. (Matthew Henry.) Hebrews 10:5-7A body hast Thou prepared Me The body of Christ: These words of the Psalmist are a prophecy of the Incarnation. I. First, it plainly means THE NATURAL BODY, which He took of the substance of the Blessed Virgin. All that makes up the natural perfection of man as a moral and reasonable intelligence, together with a mortal body, He assumed into the unity of His person. II. As there was a natural, so there is A OF THE BODY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. He said, “ The bread that I will give is My flesh,” &c.; “ Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man,” &c. And when at the Last Supper He gave this great sacrament to His apostles, He said, “ This is My body, this is My blood.” It is not for us to attempt to explain the secrets of this mystery. Who can reveal the manner of the resurrection of the body or the mystery of the Incarnation? Then here let us stay our thoughts. What He has said, that He will give, in spirit, substance, and reality. It is enough for us to know that as truly as the life and substance of the first creation are sustained and perpetuated until now, so in the second, which is the mystical Vine, He is root and trunk, branch and fruit; wholly in us, and we in Him. III. There is yet another and A WIDER MYSTERY UP OUT OF THE LAST. The natural body of our Lord Jesus Christ is, as it were, the root out of which, by the power of the Holy Ghost, His mystical body is produced; and therefore He seems to take this title, “ I am the root and the offspring of David” --the offspring according to the descent of the first creation, the root as the beginning of the new. This great work of the regeneration He began to fulfil when, at His descent into hell, He gathered to Himself the saints who of old were sanctified through the hope of His coming; and although “ they without us” could not, when on earth, “ be made perfect,” yet at His descent unto them they “ came behind in no gift,” but were made equal to the saints of the kingdom. Then began the growth and expansion of the mystical Vine. Upon this unity of patriarchs, prophets, and saints of old were engrafted apostles and evangelists, and all the family of the regeneration. The body which, in its natural and local conditions, was enclosed in an upper chamber or wound in grave-clothes, has multiplied its life and substance as the first Adam in the family of mankind throughout the generations of God’ s elect. Such is the mystical body of Christ. IV. ARE THERE, THEN, THREE BODIES OF CHRIST? God forbid; but one only--one in nature, truth, and glory. But there are three manners, three miracles of Divine omnipotence, by which that one body has been and is present--the first as mortal and natural; the second supernatural, real, and substantial; the third mystical by our incorporation. (Archdeacon H. E. Manning.) A body prepared: It is one of the most striking things connected with our earthly existence that God sends no life into the world unclothed, bodiless. Every life has a body specially adapted for the service which that life has to render. The higher the life the more complex the organism; but in each case there is a wondrous harmony between every life and its embodiment and every body and its surroundings. If it be so, how much more when He will send His Son into the world will He prepare a body for Him--a body that shall be specially adapted for His great mission and for the accomplishment of His great design! The Incarnation is confessedly among the greatest of all mysteries. It is the Infinite One accepting a body. What does this mean? We cannot tell; we can only touch the fringe of the great subject. It means--it at least signifies this: that, for a time, the Infinite One 1. Accepts the limitations of finite existence. We know that as man He hungered, was tempted, wept human tears; we know that He prayed to His Father, and that His was the joy of receiving the Father’ s approval. His acceptance of a finite existence made these things possible in His experience, and thus made Him an example to us. We are very, very far from seeing the full significance of the Incarnation, but we see enough to rejoice in it and glorify God for that Incarnation which, by virtue of the limitations it involved, made a gospel like ours possible. Again, by the Incarnation Christ accepts 2. The conditions of service, the submission of a servant: “ Lo, I come to do Thy will.” How does the Apostle Paul put it? (Philippians 2:6-8). The Incarnation was the form in which the Lord Jesus could render the lowliest service. What a step in the path of obedience was that! Once we accept the story of the birth, and believe that the Christ has accepted a human body, Gethsemane and Calvary are perfectly intelligible and easily accepted. It is as man that Godward He has rendered the most perfect service, and that manward He has left a perfect example that we should follow His footsteps. Again, by the Incarnation He accepts 3. The highest possibility of self-sacrifice. “ By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all This Man, after that He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” The Incarnation finds its full significance in that sacrifice which was made possible by it. Without the Incarnation there could be no Cross. It is the manger that predicts Calvary. (D. Davies.) A prepared body Be careful to see clearly that Christ is the speaker, and that it is He who says to His Father. “ A body hast Thou prepared Me.” It is the Deity of the Second Person in the Trinity--not yet become incarnate, but at the very point--addressing God, and declaring the great mystery of the passing away of all sacrifice and offering--that is, of the death of animals and the presenting of gifts--as utterly inadequate, and nothing worth for the atonement of the soul. He introduces Himself--God’ s one great method with man, in the strange and inexpressible blending of the Divine and human, which was in Him. The God in our Emmanuel explains His own manhood, and traces it all up to the Father’ s pre-arranging mind: “ A body hast Thou prepared Me.” Let us look at the time of the “ preparation.” In the mind and counsel of God that “ body” was before all worlds (Proverbs 8:24-31). So was Christ ready before He came, and, or ever man sinned, the scheme was complete. Then came the Fall, and immediately the ready promise (Genesis 3:15). As the ages rolled on, the plan developed. Then, as the time drew on, the “ preparation,” which was in the bosom of the Father, began to take form and substance. The whole Roman world was stirred, that that “ body” should appear at its destined spot. Through the purest channel which this earth could furnish, by miraculous operation, that “ body” should come into the world, human but sinless, perfectly human but exquisitely immaculate. By what unfathomable processes I know not. “ Curiously wrought” in this lower earth, that “ body” --the prototype, before Adam was made, of all that ever should wear human form--that “ body” came … But let us stand again by that little form laid in the manger outside the caravansaai, and let us reverently ask, For what is that “ body” ? 1. The text answers at once, For sacrifice. There is that dear Babe--lovely as no other babe was ever lovely--only a victim, a victim to be slaughtered upon an altar!… But let me ask, Is your “ body” fulfilling the purpose for which it was “ prepared” ? Is it a consecrated body? Is it a ministering body? Ministering--to what? To usefulness, to mission, to truth, to the Church, to Christ? 2. And that “ body” was “ prepared” for sympathy. Therefore “ He took not on Him the nature of angels,” but He became the Son of Man, that He might have human instincts; that His heart might throb to the same beat; that He might be true, even to every nerve and fibre of the physical constitution of every child of Adam. When you have an ache or feel a lassitude or depression, do not hesitate to claim and accept at once the fellowship of “ the man Christ Jesus.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Care for the body: First of all, I shall name the sloven. We have all seen him at times, and a very objectionable fellow he is; clothes, gait, hair, hands, everything about him, denoting a lazy, indolent creature that is utterly without self-respect. If you keep in mind this little text, “ A body hast Thou prepared me,” you will feel it a sacred duty to keep in proper condition your physical frame. Secondly, I name the boor. It is the greatest mistake in the world to suppose that it is a token of manliness to disregard the courtesies of polite society. “ Be courteous” is a Scriptural admonition. Whatever you are, don’ t be a boor! As little would I like to see you a fop. Dandyism is one of the most contemptible developments of’ humanity, and always betokens extreme littleness of mind. But I cannot dismiss the text without pointing out how it bears upon the sensualist. There is no language in Scripture more startling in its awful solemnity than that which condemns the man “ who sinneth against his own body.” “ The body,” says St. Paul, “ is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Scripture speaks in many a place of a man “ sinning against his own soul.” But there is something exceptionally terrible in the wickedness of those who sin against their own bodies. My subject compels me to warn you, in accents of earnest entreaty, against every form of impurity. Your body is God’ s temple; no marble fane that ever was reared is so beautiful or so perfect. Shudder at the thought of its defilement. “ A body hast Thou prepared me, O God; it shall be kept stainless and immaculate for Thee” --let this be your daily vow. And if it is to be kept, you must first of all guard your heart-purity. There is no fuller’ s soap that will perfectly cleanse the imagination once it is defiled. If a harp be broken, skill may repair it; if a light be extinguished, the flame may be rekindled; but if a flower be crushed, what power can restore it to what it was before? Such a flower is purity. The first step on the down-grade taken, only a miracle of grace can bring you to the level again. The Scriptural doctrine of the resurrection invests this physical frame of mine with an infinite dignity and importance. Death is its temporary dissolution, not its destruction. With what magnitude of interest and importance does this invest these corporeal frames of ours! It confers upon them an awful indestructibility, at the thought of which even the perpetuity of mountains, of suns and stars, become as nothing. You have a bodily as well as a spiritual immortality. These bodies shall claim half of your individuality to all eternity. Can you, then, make them the instruments of sin, or defile them by unholy lusts? Must you not guard with utmost care the imperishable temple of the soul? (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) Lo, I come … to do Thy will, O God The beautiful life of Christ: Our text presents an aspect of Christ of the highest charm. He is the great and only fulfiller of “ the will of God “ the world has ever seen. There was a “ book” in which much concerning Him was “ written.” At different times, in different measures, in different ways, of type in institute and incident, of promise, of comparison and contrast with other men and other doings, did that “ book” perpetually speak of Him. But howsoever diverse its utterances were, they were all wonderfully harmonised in their ascription to Him of the spirit of delighted obedience to God. I. THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE MOST LIFE THAT HAS EVER BEEN LIVED IN THE WORLD. All sorts of beauty were bright in Him--the beauty of virtue, the beauty of godliness, the beauty of love, the beauty of sympathy, the beauty of obedience, and this without crack or flaw; the beauty of wise words, the beauty of holy action, the beauty of kind and gentle disposition; beauty which shone in the house, beauty which flamed in the temple, beauty which lighted up the cornfield and the wayside, beauty which graced alike the table of the publican and the Pharisee; beauty With smiles and tears, gifts and helps for men, women, and children as He found them. II. ONE GREAT REASON WHY THAT LIFE HAS BEEN LIVED AMONGST US MEN IS THAT WE MAY MAKE OUR LIVES BY IT. He came to be an example. He bade men follow Him. He called for imitation of His spirit and character. His servants held Him up in the same light; they bade men “ put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” “ follow in His steps,” let the same mind be in them as was in Him. There is not a single virtue in Christ that should not have its place and power in you. The scale of its play, the special circumstances and relations which throw such grandeur into His career, must, of course, present a vast disparity between Him and us. But in essence, in spirit, we are bound to cultivate His worth; the actual outworking in our lot and relations of each excellence of His is an obligation on our heart and conscience. III. THE SECRET OF THIS MOST LIFE OF CHRIST IS TOLD US. Were you to see a rare and beautiful flower in another’ s garden, you would naturally wish that it might adorn your own also. You would ask whence it came, what soil it liked, and a dozen other questions, so that its true treatment might be leaflet and your own garden enriched with it. And when you are truly roused to spiritual care you ask the like questions about a beautiful action that has struck you or a beautiful character that has crossed your path. Whence came it? What is its inspiration--its culture? Tell me the secret, Never were such queries more seemly than on the survey of Christ’ s beautiful life. Is its great secret ascertainable? Is it within my reach? Well, Christ’ s beauty all came from one thing--He did “ the will of God.” He delighted to do it. Its law was in His heart. IV. WHAT A WILL THE WILL OF GOD MUST BE IF THE LIFE OF CHRIST IS SIMPLY ITS OUTCOME! Few phrases are so inadequately welcomed by us as “ the will of God.” We invest it, perhaps, with all the reverence we can, with sublimity, authority, rectitude, and power, but not with beauty. It is not a charm to us, a ravishing delight. We submit to it rather than accept it. We bow, but we do not sing. Oh! let us correct ourselves. The will of God is beautiful beyond all expression. Each commandment it gives is beautiful, “ holy, just, and good.” The way of life it prescribes is as “ the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” The character it forms and moulds is radiant with a lustre that never dies. The good it diffuses is boundless in worth and variety. V. IF YOU WOULD MAKE YOUR LIFE LIKE THE LIFE OF CHRIST, YOU MUST DAILY STUDY THE WILL OF GOD, AND JUST BE AND DO WHAT THAT WILL ORDAINS. There is the philosophy of a high, noble, beautiful, glorious life--so simple that a child can understand it, so profound and far-reaching that no maturity of power, no elevation in lot, can ever carry you beyond it. It is the one grand law of time and eternity, of earth and heaven. (G. B. Johnson.) Christ the substance of the ancient sacrifices of the Law To take Jesus Christ for our Redeemer and for our Example is an abridgment of religion, and the only way to heaven. If Jesus Christ be not taken for our Redeemer, alas! how can we bear the looks of a God who is of purer eyes than to behold evil? If we do not take Jesus Christ for our Example, with what face can we take Him for our Redeemer? Should we wish that He who came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the devil, would re-establish them in order to fill up by communion with this wicked spirit that void which communion with Christ leaves? I. First, we will consider the text AS FROM THE MOUTH OF JESUS CHRIST. We will show you Jesus substituting the sacrifice of His body instead of those of the Jewish economy. 1. Our text is a quotation, and it must be verified. It is taken from the fortieth psalm All that psalm, except one word, exactly applies to the Messiah. This inapplicable word, as it seems at first, is in the twelfth verse, “ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon Me.” This expression does not seem proper in the mouth of Jesus Christ, who, the prophets foretold, should have no deceit in His mouth, and who, when He came, defied His enemies to convince Him of a single sin. There is the same difficulty in a parallel Psalms 69:5), “ O God! Thou knowest My foolishness, and My sins are not hid from Thee.” The same solution serves for both places. Jesus Christ on the Cross was the Substitute of sinners, like the scapegoat that was accursed under the Old Dispensation. The Scripture says in so many words, “ He bare our sins.” Is the bearer of such a burden chargeable with any exaggeration when He cries, “ My iniquities have taken hold upon Me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of Mine head” ? Moreover, the fortieth psalm is parallel to other prophecies, which indisputably belong to the Messiah. I mean particularly the sixty-ninth psalm, and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. 2. A difficult passage, that needs elucidation. The principal difficulty is in these words, “ A body hast Thou prepared Me.” The Hebrew has it, “ Thou hast digged, bored, or opened Mine ears.” It is an allusion to a law recorded in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, where they who had Hebrew slaves were ordered to release them in the Sabbatical year. A provision is made for such slaves as refused to accept of this privilege. Their masters were to bring them to the doors of their houses, to bore their ears through with an awl, and they were to engage to continue slaves for ever, that is to say, to the year of Jubilee, or till their death, if they happened to die before that festival. As this action was expressive of the most entire devotedness of a slave to his master, it was very natural for the prophet to make it an emblem of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ to His Father’ s will. But why did not St. Paul quote the words as they are in the psalm? The apostle followed the version commonly called that of the Seventy. But why did the Seventy render the original words in this manner? (1) The word rendered “ prepared “ is one of the most vague terms in the Greek tongue, and signifies indifferently “ to dispose,” “ to mark,” “ to note,” “ to render capable,” and so on. (2) Before the Septuagint version the Mosaic rites were very little known among the heathens, perhaps also among the dispersed Jews. Hence in the period of which I am speaking few people knew the custom of boring the ears of those slaves who refused to accept the privileges of the Sabbatical year. (3) It was a general custom among the Pagans to make marks on the bodies of those persons in whom they claimed a property. They were made on soldiers and slaves, so that if they deserted they might be easily reclaimed. Sometimes they apposed marks on them who served an apprenticeship to a master, as well as on them who put themselves under the protection of a god. These marks were called stigmas (see Ga Ezekiel 9:4; Revelation 7:3-8). On these different observations I ground this opinion. The Seventy thought, if they translated the prophecy under consideration literally, it would be unintelligible to the Pagans and to the dispersed Jews, who, being ignorant of the custom to which the text refers, would not be able to comprehend the meaning of the words, “ Mine ears hast Thou bored.” To prevent this inconvenience they translated the passage in that way which was most proper to convey its meaning to the readers. Now as this translation was well adapted to this end, St. Paul had a right to retain it. 3. Jesus Christ, we are very certain, is introduced in this place as accomplishing what the prophets had foretold; that is, that the sacrifice of the Messiah should be substituted in the place of the Levitical victims. On this account our text contains one of the most essential doctrines of the religion of Jesus Christ, and the establishment of this is our next article. In order to comprehend the sense in which the Messiah says to God, “ Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not;” we must distinguish two sorts of volition in God--a willing of a mean, and a willing of an end. God may be said to will a mean when He appoints a ceremony or establisheth a rite which hath no intrinsic excellence in itself, but which prepares them on whom it is enjoined for some great events on which their felicity depends. By willing an end I mean a production of such events. If the word “ will” be taken in the first sense, it cannot be truly said that God did not will or appoint sacrifices and burnt-offerings. Every one knows He instituted them, and regulated the whole ceremonial of them, even the most minute articles. But if we take the word “ will” in the second sense, and by the will of God understand His willing an end, it is strictly true that God did not will or appoint sacrifices and burnt-offerings; because they were only instituted to prefigure the Messiah, and consequently as soon as the Messiah, the substance, appeared, all the ceremonies of the Law were intended to vanish. II. To WHAT PURPOSE ARE , OF WHAT USE ARE JEWISH PRIESTS, WHAT HAYS WE FOR AND AFTER THE OF A VICTIM SO ? The text is not only the language of Jesus Christ, who substitutes Himself in the place of Old-Testament sacrifices; but it is the voice of David and of every believer who is, full of this just sentiment that a personal dedication to the service of God is the most acceptable sacrifice that men can offer to the Deity. Ye understand, then, in what sense God demands only the sacrifice of your persons. It is what He wills as the end; and He will accept neither offerings, nor sacrifices, nor all the ceremonies of religion, unless they contribute to the holiness of the person who offers them. 1. Observe the nature of this sacrifice. This offering includes our whole persons, and everything that Providence hath put in our power. Two sorts of things may be distinguished in the victim of which God requires the sacrifice; the one bad, the other good. We are engaged in vicious habits, we are slaves to criminal passions; all these are our bad things. We are capable of knowledge, meditation, and love; we possess riches, reputation, employments; these are our good things. God demands the sacrifice of both these. 2. Having observed the nature of that offering which God requires of you, consider next the necessity of it (1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 50:16-17, Isaiah 1:11; Isaiah 1:16; Jeremiah 7:21-23). To what purpose do ye attend public worship in a church consecrated to the service of Almighty God, if ye refuse to make your bodies temples of the Holy Ghost, and persist in devoting them to impurity? To what purpose do ye send for your ministers when death seems to be approaching if, as soon as ye recover from sickness, ye return to the same kind of life, the remembrance of which caused you so much horror when ye were afraid of death? 3. The sacrifice required of us is difficult, say ye? I grant it. How extremely difficult when our reputation is attacked, when our morals, our very intentions, are misinterpreted; how extremely difficult when we are persecuted by cruel enemies; how hard is it to practice the laws of religion which require us to pardon injuries, and to exercise patience to our enemies! How difficult is it to sacrifice unjust gains to God, by restoring them to their owners; how hard to retrench expenses which we cannot honestly support, to reform a table that gratifies the senses! How difficult is it to eradicate an old criminal habit, and to renew one’ s self, to form, as it were, a different constitution, to create other eyes, other ears, another body! 4. But is this sacrifice the less necessary because it is difficult? Do the difficulties which accompany it invalidate the necessity of it? Let us add something of the comforts that belong to it, they will soften the yoke. What delight, after we have laboured hard at the reduction of our passions, and the reformation of our hearts; what delight to find that heaven crowns our wishes with success! 5. Such are the pleasures of this sacrifice: but what are its rewards? Let us only try to form an idea of the manner in which God gives Himself to a soul that devotes itself wholly to Him. “ O my God! how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee! “ My God! what will not the felicity of that creature be who gives himself wholly to Thee, as Thou givest Thyself to him! (J. Saurin.) The Son incarnate to do the will of God I. In the first place the text reminds us THAT CAN FIND THEIR AND ONLY IN THE HARMONY OF THEIR WILLS WITH THE WILL OF GOD. But what if the new-made man should abuse his freedom? Who can foresee the consequences? As to his body; what if its hand should pluck forbidden fruit--its tongue utter deceit--all its members become instruments of unrighteousness unto sin? As to the material universe around; what if he should take himself out of harmony with its laws--extracting poison from its plants, and maddening juices from its fruits, and forging its metals into weapons for the slaughter of his fellows? What if he should league with other self-willed beings like himself--league with them solely to augment his power for crushing others, andfor openly disowning his allegiance to heaven? Nay, what if, in the progress of man’ s history, he should come to think of setting up a god of his own? Or worse still--there is a rebel angel at large in the universe--a sworn enemy to the righteous government of God; what if a man should be led captive by Satan at his will? And what if he should complete his degradation and his guilt by calling the worship of his own vices, religion; the thraldom of Satan, liberty? What if here, where the will of God should be done as it is in heaven, the will of Satan should be done instead, as it is in hell? II. I need not say THAT THIS IS HISTORY--THE HISTORY OF MAN. The hour of trial came; and he fell. A law was given him; and, oh, better had a star fallen from its sphere, and been falling still! he broke away from its sacred restraint--deranged the harmony of his own nature--disturbed the tranquillity of the universe--incurred the penalty of transgression. Mercy spared him, but he relented not; justice threatened him, but he quailed not. Generation followed generation, only to take up the quarrel and widen the breach. The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek after God. Alas I they had all revolted: there was none that did good; no, not one. III. But even then, WHEN TO ALL HUMAN EYES THE WAS UTTERLY VOID OF AID, HELP WAS ON THE WAY. Even then, when infatuated man was saying, “ We will not have God to reign over us,” and was vowing allegiance to Satan, that God was saying, “ As I live, I will not the death of the sinner.” And even then a voice was heard replying to that purpose, “ I come to do it--lo! I come to do Thy will, O My God. Thy will is My will--I delight to do it--it is within My heart.” And that voice came from nouncertain quarter--from no angel ranks--it came, if I may say so, from the centre of the Deity, from the mysterious depths of the Triune God. And the world was spared on the ground of that engagement, and the angels of God held themselves in readiness to behold its fulfilment; and Judaea was prepared to be the theatre of the great transaction, and unnumbered eyes were watching for His coming, and unnumbered interests depending on it. But when He comes, what laws will He obey?--what appearance will He assume? What laws? the very laws which man had broken. What appearance? that of the very nature which man had degraded. And when the fulness of time was come, a body was prepared Him--God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And you know what He proceeded to do. All the powers of that body He placed at the disposal of the will of God. Yes, by His obedience unto death, the will of God was done on earth, as it had never been done even in heaven--done in a manner which makes earth, from its centre to its surface, holy ground--done so as to secure the means of converting even this sin-worn world into a loyal province of the King of kings. IV. And this brings us to the consideration of these MEANS. DO you ask how the will of the rebellious world is to be brought back into harmony with the will of God?” Not by might, nor by power” --not by coercion and force; “ but by My Spirit, saith the Lord” --by My Spirit taking of the things of Christ--taking of His voluntary obedience; taking of His love, and showing how He wept over the infatuation of our disobedience; taking of His mediatorial glory, and showing that He is now seated on a throne to receive our submission, to place us once more in harmony with the will of God, and to assure us of His favour. 1. Now, do you not see that when the will of the penitent is secured, the whole man is secured? 2. Here, then, is a willing agent for God. Wonderful as was the creation of a finite will at first--wonderful as was the introduction into the universe of a second will--here is a greater wonder still--the recovery of a lost will to God-a will which had been led captive by Satan, set at liberty and restored, and once more moving in conformity with God’ s will. What if he could prevail on other wills to unite with his will--how vastly would that increase his power of serving God! V. The question naturally arises, then, How is it, if the Divine provision be all complete, and the sanctified human means so well understood--How is IT THAT THE WILL OF GOD IS NOT OBEYED, AFTER THE EXAMPLE OF OUR SAVIOUR CHRIST? Eighteen hundred years have elapsed since He said, “ Lo, I come,” and the redemption of the world was effected. How then, we repeat, is the present condition of the world to be accounted for? By the state of the Church. Whatever the doctrinal heresies of the day may be, the great practical heresy is that of a defective zeal. They seem to forget, that in praying that the will of God may be done in the world, they are presupposing that it is done already in the Church. We do not say that Christians have made no progress in learning this great lesson. All the success which they have achieved of late years, as a missionary Church, is owing to their partial obedience to the will of God. But partial obedience will only be followed by partial success. They have so far obeyed, that they are shut up to the necessity of obeying still further. God has quickened them; and they have given, and prayed, and laboured as the Church had long ceased to do. Let them copy the devotedness of their Lord, and the work will be done. Ask you for motives to such zeal” 1. Need I remind you that one of these motives is the sublime truth--that the brightest example of obedience which heaven now contains is not an angel form, but He who “ learned obedience by the things which He suffered” ? He now reigns in the same spirit in which He suffered. Think what He is doing as your representative there, and say, what ought you to be doing as His representatives here? He is doing your will--answering your highest requests--what ought not you to be ready to do in obedience to His will? 2. Need I remind you, as another motive, what a theme it is we have to obey and to proclaim? The merest despot finds ready instruments to do his will. 3. Think, next, of the happy results of the reception of this message, as compared with man’ s present state. 4. Think, again, how some, influenced by these motives, have copied the devotedness of Christ. 5. And then one motive there is which adds force and solemnity to every other--the fact that He who is the subject and substance of our message, on leaving the world, hath said, “ Behold, I come quickly.” (J. Harris, D. D.) The Atonement It must strike any person, as something that wants accounting for, how it is that a doctrine which has called forth the moral affections of man so strongly, and presented so transcendent an object for them, as that of the Atonement has, should of all criticisms in the world be specially subjected to the charge of being an immoral doctrine. It is based, it is said, upon injustice. What can be the reason of this extraordinary discord in the estimate of this doctrine? Is it not that the Christian body has taken the doctrine as a whole, with all the light which the different elements of it throw upon each other, while the objection has only fixed on one element in the doctrine, abstracted from the others? The point upon which the objector has fixed is the substitution of one man for another to suffer for sin; but he has not taken this point as it is represented and interpreted in the doctrine itself, but barely and nakedly, simply as the principle of vicarious punishment. It is to be observed that, according to this idea of sacrifice for sin, it is not in the least necessary the sacrifice should be voluntary, because the whole principle of sacrifice is swallowed up in the idea of vicarious punishment; and punishment, vicarious or other, does not require voluntary sufferer, but only a sufferer. The victim may be willing or unwilling; it matters not, so long as he is a victim; he endures agony or death in fact, and that is all that, upon the principle of mere substitution, is wanted. It was this low and degraded idea of sacrifice which had possession of the ancient world for so many ages, and which produced, as its natural fruit, human sacrifices, with all the revolting cruelties attending them. Such subtlety of cruelty was the issue of the idea that a mere substitution could be a sacrifice for sin; pain, due in justice to one, be escaped by simple transference to another. But this idea was totally extinguished by the gospel idea, when it was revealed that love was of the very essence of sacrifice, and that there could not be sacrifice without will. A victim then appeared who was the real sacrifice for sin. The circumstance, then, of the victim being a self-offered one, makes, in the first place, all the difference upon the question of injustice to the victim. In common life and most human affairs the rule is that no wrong in justice is done to one who volunteers to undertake a painful office, which he might refuse if he pleased. In accepting his offer this would not indeed always apply; for there might be reasons which would make it improper to allow him to sacrifice himself. But it cannot be said that it is itself contrary to justice to accept a volunteer offer of suffering. Is it in itself wrong that there should be suffering which is not deserved? Not if it is undertaken voluntarily, and for an important object. Upon the existence of pain and evil being presupposed and assumed there are other justifications of persons undergoing it besides ill-desert. The existence of pain or evil being supposed, there arises a special morality upon this fact, and in connection with it. It is the morality of sacrifice. Sacrifice then becomes, in the person who makes it, the most remarkable kind of manifestation of virtue; which ennobles the sufferer, and which it is no wrong-doing in the universe to accept. But this being the case with respect to voluntary sacrifice, the gospel sacrifice is, as has been said, specially a voluntary and self-offered one. It must be remembered that the supernaturalness of the sphere in which the doctrine of the Atonement is placed, affects the agency concerned in the work of the Atonement. He who is sent is one in being with Him who sends. His willing submission, therefore, is not the willing submission of a mere man to one who is in a human sense another; but it is the act of one who, in submitting to another, submits to himself. By virtue of His unity with the Father, the Son originates, carries on, and completes Himself the work of the Atonement. But now with regard to the effect of the act of the Atonement upon the sinner. It will be seen, then, that with respect to this effect -the willingness of a sacrifice changes the mode of the operation of the sacrifice, so that it acts on a totally different principle and law from that upon which a sacrifice of mere substitution acts. A sacrifice of mere substitution professes to act upon a principle of a literal fulfilment of justice, with one exception only, which is not thought to destroy but only to modify the literal fulfilment. It is true the sin is committed by one and the punishment is inflicted upon another; but there is sin, and there is punishment on account of sin, which is considered a sort of literal fulfilment of justice. But a voluntary sacrifice does not act upon the principle of &mock literal fulfilment of justice, but upon another and totally different principle, Its effect proceeds not from the substitution of one person for another in punishment, but from the influence of one person upon another for mercy--a mediator upon one who is mediated with. Let us see what it is which a man really means when he offers to substitute himself for another in undergoing punishment. He cannot possibly mean to fulfil the element of justice literally. What he wants to do is to stimulate the element of mercy in the judge. Justice is not everything in the world; there is such a thing as mercy. How is this mercy to be gained, enlisted on the side you want? By suffering yourself. It is undoubtedly a fact of our nature, however we may place or connect it, that the generous suffering of one person for another affects our regard for that other person. It is true that the sufferer for another, and he who is suffered for, are two distinct persons; that the goodness of one of these persons is not the property of the other; and that it does not affect our relations towards another upon the special principle of justice; that, upon that strict principle, each is what he is in himself and nothing more; that the suffering interceder has the merit of his own generosity, the criminal the merit of his crime; and that no connection can be formed between the two on the special principle of justice. And yet, upon whatever principle it is, it is a fact of our nature, of which we are plainly conscious, that one man’ s interceding suffering produces an alteration of regards toward the other man. But it will be said this is true as far as feeling goes, but it is a weakness, a confessed weakness; this impulse is not supported by the whole of the man. Can you carry it out? it may be said; can you put it into execution? We cannot, for very good reasons, that civil justice is for civil objects, and in the moral sphere final pardon is not in our province. But because this particular impulse to pardon cannot be carried out or put into execution, it is not therefore a weakness. It is something true and sincere which speaks in our nature, though it cannot be embraced in its full bearings and in its full issue. Even if it is a fragment, it is a genuine fragment. It exists in us as a true emotion of the mind, a fact of our true selves; it is a fact of nature, in the correct and high sense of the word. The whole law of association, e.g., is a law of mediation in the way of enlisting feelings for us, by means external to us. The laws of association do in fact plead for persons from the moment they are born; men have advocates in those they never knew, and succeed to pre-engaged affections, and have difficulties cleared away before them in their path. The air they breathe intercedes for them, the ground they have trod on, the same sights, the same neighbourhood. What is the tie of place, or what is even the tie of blood, to the essential moral being; it is a wholly extraneous circumstance; nevertheless these links and these associations, which are wholly external to the man, procure regards for him, and regards which are inspired with strong sentiment and affection. So good deeds of others, with which persons have nothing in reality to do, procure them love and attention. The son of a friend and benefactor shines in the light of others’ acts, and inspires, before he is known, a warm and approving feeling. This, that has been described, is the principle upon which the sacrifice of love acts, as distinguished from the sacrifice of mere substitution; it is a principle which is supported by the voice of nature and by the law of mediation in nature; and this is the principle which the gospel doctrine of the Atonement proclaims. The effect of Christ’ s love for mankind, and suffering on their behalf, is described in Scripture as being the reconciliation of the Father to man, and the adoption of new regards toward him. The act of one, i.e., produces this result in the mind of God toward another; the act of a suffering Mediator reconciles God to the guilty. But neither in natural mediation nor in supernatural does the act of suffering love, in producing that change of regard to which it tends, dispense with the moral change in the criminal. We cannot, of course, because a good man suffers for a criminal, alter our regards to him if he obstinately remains a criminal. And if the gospel taught any such thing in the doctrine of the Atonement, it would certainly expose itself to the charge of immorality. But if there is no mediation in nature which brings out mercy for the criminal without a change in him, neither on the other hand, for the purpose of the parallel, do we want such. Undoubtedly there must be this change, but even with this, past crime is not yet pardoned. There is room for a mediator; room for some source of pardon which does not take its rise in a man’ s self, although it must act with conditions. But viewed as acting upon this mediatorial principle, the doctrine of the Atonement rises altogether to another level; it parts company with the gross and irrational conception of mere naked material substitution of one person for another in punishment, and it takes its stand upon the power of love, and points to the actual effect of the intervention of suffering love in nature, and to a parallel case of mediation as a pardoning power in nature. There is, however, undoubtedly contained in the Scriptural doctrine of the Atonement, a kind, and a true kind, of fulfilment of justice. It is a fulfilment in the sense of appeasing and satisfying justice; appeasing that appetite for punishment which is the characteristic of justice in relation to evil There is obviously an appetite in justice which is implied in that very anger which is occasioned by crime, by a wrong being: committed; we desire the punishment of the criminal as a kind of redress, and his punishment undoubtedly satisfies a natural craving of our mind. But let any one have exposed himself thus to the appetite for punishment in our nature, and it is undoubtedly the case, however we may account for it, that the real suffering of another for him, of a good person for a guilty one, wilt mollify the appetite for punishment, which was possibly up to that time in full possession of our minds; and this kind of satisfaction to justice and appeasing of it is involved in the Scriptural doctrine of the Atonement. And so, also, there is a kind of substitution involved in the Scripture doctrine of the Atonement, and a true kind; but it is not a literal but a moral kind of substitution. It is one person suffering in behalf of another, for the sake of another: in that sense he takes the place and acts in the stead of another, he suffers that another may escape suffering, he condemns himself to a burden that another may be relieved. But this is the moral substitution which is inherent in acts of love and labour for others; it is a totally different thing from the literal substitution of one person for another in punishment. The outspoken witness in the human heart, which has from the beginning embraced the doctrine of the Atonement with the warmth of religious affection, has been, indeed, a better judge on the moral question than particular formal schools of theological philosophy, The atoning act of the Son, as an act of love on behalf of sinful man, appealed to wonder and praise: the effect of the act in changing the regards of the Father towards the sinner, was only the representation, in the sublime and ineffable region of mystery, of an effect which men recognised in their own minds. The human heart accepts mediation. It does not understand it as a whole; but the fragment of which it is conscious is enough to defend the doctrine upon the score of morals. Undoubtedly the story of the Atonement can be so represented as to seem to follow in general type the poetical legends and romances of the infantine imagination of the world. In details--what we read in the four Gospels--not much resemblance can be charged, but a summary can be made so as to resemble them. And what if it can? What is it but to say that certain turning ideas, Divine and human, resemble each other; that there is an analogy? The old legends of mankind represent in their general scope not mere fancy, but a real longing of human nature, a desire of men’ s hearts for a real Deliverer under the evils under which life groans. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. But more than this, do not they represent real facts too? These legends of deliverers would never have arisen had there not been deliverers in fact; the fabulous champions would not have appeared had there not been the real; it was truth which put it in men’ s heads to imagine. Doubtless, in all ages, there were men above the level, who interposed to put a stop to wrongs and grievances; for, indeed, the world would have been intolerable had it been completely given up to the bad: The romances of early times, then, reflect at the bottom what are facts; they reflect the action of real mediators in nature, who interposed from time to time for the succour of mankind in great emergencies. When, then, a heavenly mediation is found to resemble in general language an earthly one, what is it more than saying that earthly things are types of heavenly? So rooted is the great principle of mediation in nature, that the mediatorship of Christ cannot be revealed to us without reminding us of a whole world of analogous action, and of representation of action. How natural thus does the idea of a mediator turn out to be! Yet this is exactly the point at which many stumble; pardon they approve of; reconciliation they approve of; but reconciliation by means of mediation is what they cannot understand. Why not dispense with a superfluity? they say; and why not let these relieve us from what they consider the incumbrance of a mediator? But this is not the light in which a mediator is viewed by the great bulk of the human race. It has appeared to the great mass of Christians infinitely more natural to be saved with a mediator than without one. They have no desire to be spared a mediator, and cannot imagine the advantage of being saved a special source of love. They may be offered greater directness in forgiveness, but forgiveness by intervention is more like the truth to them. It is this rooted place of a mediator in the human heart which is so sublimely displayed in the sacred crowds of St. John’ s Revelation. The multitude which no man can number are indeed there all holy, all kings and priests, all consecrated and elect. But the individual greatness of all is consummated in One who is in the centre of the whole, Him who is the head of the whole race, who leads it, who has saved it, its King and Representative, the First-born of the whole creation and the Redeemer of it. Toward Him all faces are turned; and it is as when a vast army fixes its look upon a great commander in whom it glories, who on some festival day is placed conspicuously the midst. Is there humiliation in that look because he commands them? there is pride and exaltation, because he represents them. Every one is greater for such a representative. So in that heavenly crowd all countenances reflect the exaltation of their Head. (J. B. Mozley, D. D.) The coming Saviour and the responding sinner Who said this? He who of all who ever walked this earth alone could say--“ I have done Thy bidding.” And when did He say it? When all else had failed? When “ Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein.” Then, said He, “ Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” It is the announcement of human weakness. It was the final and only way to harmonise the attributes of God, and to make it a just thing for a Holy God to pardon a sinner--to reconcile man to his Maker. And what was God’ s will? In the first instance God’ s will was to make a lovely creation, and a creature, man, who should be a free agent to occupy and enjoy it. So He made a happy world, and two persons to inhabit and enjoy it. Free agents! That free agency they broke, and so our whole world fell. Then, all praise to His glory and grace, God recalled this world to happiness, and the question was--How could that be done compatible with the truth and justice of His word? That was the problem Christ came to solve. In Him we have a Brother who is the sharer of our weaknesses and of our sorrows and of our temptations. But oh! at what a cost was all this done! With what intensity of anguish I This then is the lesson, “ Lo, I come.” But the Greek word which we have translated “ I come “ is more than that; it is “ I am come. I am come.” Observe, the expression denotes two things that He came, and that where He comes He stays. “ I am come” implies the two facts--the Advent and His presence. “ I am come.” He came to die, to be our Substitute. And now, having done that, He stays. “ I am come.” He is with us still--our Companion, our Brother, our Guide, our Friend. Can you not offer up an echo to such words us these in your heart and say to God; “ Thou didst say ‘ I come.’ To Thee, Lord, I will say back, ‘ I come to Thee! I come to Thee!’” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The volume “ In the volume of the book.” In olden times books were not made out of sheets of paper folded into four, six, or eight, or twelve, and so forming one compact volume, with page following page from beginning to end, from left to right as now. A book was made of one very long strip of papyrus or parchment, rolled like a window blind on a roller; or rather, let me say, it was on two rollers, one roller was attached to the top of the strip, the other roller was fastened to the bottom. The strip of parchment paper-rush was many yards long. The book began at the very top of the long strip. There were no pages and no turning over of the leaf, but the reader read straight down the strip, his book was written all over the yards of material. As he read the top lines he turned the top roller, and it rolled them up, and unrolled some more of the material with the writing on it from off the bottom roller. And when the reader came to the end of the book, he had rolled it all off the bottom roller on to the top one. When he began his book it was all rolled on to the bottom roller. When the words “ volume of the book” are used, it means the roll of the book. A long book of several volumes was a book in several rolls. Our word volume is a Latin word and means a roll, such as a roll of calico or cloth at the draper’ s. This word was used before books were made as they are now, in blocks; when the fashion of making books changed the old name remained on, though it really applied only to books in rolls. When it is said by Christ of His life, “ Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, to fulfil Thy will, O God,” it really means, “ Lo, I come, to do Thy will, so it is written at the head of the scroll,” At the head of every volume was written the title of the book. Now Christ is speaking of His life as if it were a book. As the title and heading of His life is this text, “ I am come to do Thy will, O my God!” Many a book opens with a quotation which gives the key to the meaning of the book, just as a text stands at the head of a sermon. You may have seen how every chapter in Sir Walter Scott’ s stories begins with a piece of poetry, quotation from somewhere or other, and it has reference to all that follows. So the text, the heading of the chapter of our Lord’ s life, is “ I am come to do Thy will, O God.” That was why He was born of a Virgin--to fulfil the will of God. Why He was born at Bethlehem--to fulfil the will of God. Why He was circumcised--to fulfil the will of God. Why He fled into Egypt--to fulfil the will of God. (S. BaringGould, M. A.) Voluntariness of Christ’ s sacrifice Who would say it was unjust of David, when Abigail took--voluntarily took--her husband’ s guilt on herself and said, “ Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be” (1 Samuel 25:24)? Would it not have been unjust to refuse to her the privilege she asked of being allowed to take on herself a burden, that she might throw it off and secure David’ s pacification? Still less can we complain of injustice when Jesus, touched with pity, flies down from the eternal throne, and says to His Father in heaven, “ Upon Me, My Father, upon Me let this iniquity be; let Me bear this burden, let Me set them free!” (C. Clemance, D. D.) Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures: In all the Word of God there is not a page that does not testify of Him. Mr. Moody tells of a visit to Prang’ s chrome establishment in Boston. Mr. Prang showed him a stone on which was laid the colour for the making of the first impression toward producing the portrait of a distinguished public man; but he could see only the faintest possible line of tinting. The next stone that the paper was submitted to deepened the colour a little; but still no trace of the man’ s face was visible. Again and again was the sheet passed over the successive stones, until at last the outline of a man’ s face was dimly discerned. At last, after some twenty impressions, from as many different stones, were taken upon the paper, the portrait of the distinguished man stood forth, so perfect that it seemed only to lack the power of speech to make it living. Thus it is with Christ in the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament. Many persons--even those who know Christ from the New Testament revelations of Him--read rapidly through and over the pages of the book, and declare that they do not see Christ in them. Well, read it again and again; look a little more intently upon these sacred pages; draw a little nearer into the light which the Holy Spirit gives to them that ask Him; read them on your knees, calling upon God to open your eyes, that you may see wondrous things out of His law, and presently the beauteous, glorious face of Him whom your soul loveth will shine forth upon you. Sometimes you will see that dear face in deep shadow, marred more than the face of any man: sometimes He will seem to you as a root out of dry ground; and, again, He will seem fair as the lily of the valley; and as we move toward the end He will rise upon us as the day-dawn and day-star, shining above the brightness of the sun. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) The will of God Socrates, when the tyrant did threaten death to him, told him he was willing. “ Nay, then,” said the tyrant, “ you shall live against your will.” “ Nay, but,” said Socrates,” whatever you do with me it shall be my will.” And a certain Stoic, speaking of God, said, “ What God will, I will; what God nills, I will not; if He will that I live, I will live; if it be His pleasure that I die, I will die.” Ah, how should the will of Christians stoop and lie down at the foot of God’ s will; not my will, but Thine be done. (J. Venning.) He taketh away the first The first and the second: The way of God is to go from good to better. This excites growing wonder and gratitude. This makes men desire, and pray, and believe, and expect. This aids man in his capacity to receive the best things. The first good thing is removed that the second may the more fitly come. I. THE GRAND . First came the Jewish sacrifices, and then came Jesus to do the will of God. 1. The removal of instructive and consoling ordinances. While they lasted they were of great value, and they were removed because, when Jesus came- (1) They were needless as types. (2) They would have proved burdensome as services. (3) They might have been dangerous as temptations to formalism. (4) They would have taken off the mind from the substance which they had formerly shadowed forth. 2. The establishment of the real, perfect, everlasting atonement. This is a blessed advance, for (1) No one who sees Jesus regrets Aaron. (2) No one who knows the simplicity of the gospel wishes to be brought under the perplexities of the ceremonial law. (3) No one who feels the liberty of Zion desires to return to the bondage of Sinai. II. IN HISTORY. 1. The earthly paradise has been taken away by sin, but the Lord has given us salvation in Christ and heaven. 2. The first man has failed; behold the Second Adam. 3. The first covenant is broken, and the second gloriously takes its place. 4. The first temple with its transient glories has melted away; but the second and spiritual house rises beneath the eye and hand of the Great Architect. III. IN . 1. Our first righteousness is taken away by conviction of sin; but the righteousness of Christ is established. 2. Our first peace has been blown down as a tottering fence; but we shelter in the Rock of Ages. 3. Our first strength has proved worse than weakness; but the Lord is our strength and our song, He also has become our salvation. 4. Our first guidance led us into darkness; now we give up self,. superstition, and philosophy, and trust in the Spirit of our God. 5. Our first joy died out like thorns which crackle under a pot; but now we joy in God. IV. TO BE . 1. Our body decaying shall be renewed in the image of our risen Lord. 2. Our earth passing away and its elements being dissolved, there shall be new heavens and a new earth. 3. Our family removed one by one, we shall be charmed by the grand reunion in the Father’ s house above. 4. Our all being taken away, we find more than all in God. 5. Our life ebbing out, the eternal life comes rolling up in a full tide of glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Mosaic dispensation abolished by the Christian dispensation I. THAT THE MOSAIC WAS BY THE GOSPEL. 1. The Mosaic dispensation was of such a nature that it might be abrogated. It was altogether a positive institution. It was founded on mutable and not immutable reasons. 2. It was predicted that the Mosaic dispensation should be abrogated by another and more perfect dispensation under the gospel. 3. The apostles assure us this did actually take place at the death of Christ. II. HOW THE MOSAIC WAS OR SET ASIDE BY THE GOSPEL. There are two ways in which human legislators abrogate their own laws. One way is to pass them for a limited time, and when that time is expired they cease of course; and another way is to pass new particular acts to repeal them. But we do not find that the Mosaic dispensation was abrogated in either of these ways. There was no period specified in the Mosaic laws how long they should continue in force; nor did Christ authoritatively declare that the legal dispensation should be no longer binding. But there were two ways by which He took away the first and established the second dispensation. 1. By completely fulfilling the legal dispensation, which was designed to be typical of Him as Mediator. Just so far as the law had a shadow of good things to come it was entirely abrogated by the incarnation, life and death of Christ. 2. By appointing new ordinances which superseded it. III. WHAT THINGS UNDER THE LAW WERE BY THE GOSPEL. There is room for this inquiry, because the Mosaic laws were not individually and particularly repealed by anything that Christ did or said. They were only virtually abolished; which proved an occasion of a diversity of opinions on the subject in the days of the apostles, and indeed ever since. It is universally allowed by Christians that some part of the legal dispensation is abrogated, but still many imagine that some part of it continues to be binding. 1. All those things which were merely typical of Christ are undoubtedly abrogated. 2. All things of an ecclesiastical nature under the law are abrogated under the gospel. 3. All things of a political nature in the Jewish church were abrogated by the gospel. 4. All things which were designed to separate the Jews from other nations were abrogated by Christ. 5. The gospel abrogated every precept of a positive nature which was peculiar to the Mosaic dispensation. Improvement: 1. If the Mosaic dispensation ceased when the gospel dispensation commenced, then the apostles had a right to disregard, and to teach others to disregard, all the Mosaic rites and ceremonies, 2. In the view of this subject we may clearly discover the absurdity of Dr. Tindal’ s reasonings, who maintains that Christianity is as old as the creation. 3. If the Christian dispensation has superseded the Mosaic in the manner that has been represented, then there appears an entire harmony between the Old Testament and the New. 4. It appears from what has been said that the evidence of the truth and divinity of the Christian dispensation is constantly increasing by means of the Mosaic dispensation. 5. If the Christian dispensation has entirely superseded the Mosaic, then there is no propriety at this day in reasoning from the Mosaic dispensation to the Christian. 6. If the Christian dispensation has completely superseded and abolished the Mosaic, then it is a great favour to live under the Christian dispensation. 7. It appears from what has been said, that sinners are much more criminal for rejecting the gospel under the Christian dispensation than those were who rejected it under the Mosaic dispensation. The gospel was preached to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to all the Jews under the law, but it was wrapt up in a multitude of mysterious ceremonies which it was difficult to explain and understand; and those who rejected it, generally rejected it through much ignorance. But those who live under the light of the gospel have no ground to plead ignorance. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The superiority of Christ’ s priesthood I. The old was COMPLEX--the new SIMPLE. II. The old was --the new . III. The old was --the new ETERNAL. IV. The old was --the new . Hebrews 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified Perfect sanctification I. THE ETERNAL WILL--“ By the which wilt we are sanctified.” 1. This will must, first of all, be viewed as the will ordained of old by the Father--the eternal decree of the infinite Jehovah, that a people whom He chose should be sanctified and set apart unto Himself. 2. This wilt by which we are sanctified was performed of the ever blessed Son. 3. This work is applied to us by the Holy Spirit. II. THE by which the will of God with regard to the sanctity of His people has been carried out. “ By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.” 1. This implies, first, His incarnation, which of course includes His eternal Deity. Jesus Christ, very God of very God, did certainly stoop to become such as we are, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. 2. All this is implied in the text, because it speaks of the offering of the body of Christ. But why does it specially speak of the body? I think to show us the reality of that offering; His soul suffered, but to make it palpable to you, to record it as a sure historical fact, He mentions that there was an offering of the body of Christ. 3. I take it, however, that the word means the whole of Christ--that there was an offering made of all Christ, the body of Him, or that of which He was constituted. III. THE RESULT. 1. The everlasting result of this effectual carrying out of the will of God is that now God regards His people’ s sin as expiated, and their persons as sanctified. Offered, and its efficacy abides for ever. 2. They are reconciled. 3. They are purified. (U. H. Spurgeon.) The offering of the body of Jesus Christ Sermon for Good Friday I. No one can read the Gospels in the most careless manner without noticing THAT IN THEM IS A SPECIAL TO “ THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST, apart from that which belongs to His life, with its absolute sinlessness and perfect obedience. As a general rule, it will be found that Scripture attaches very little importance to a man’ s death, and lays all the stress upon his life. The solitary exception in the Bible is the death of Jesus Christ. Then notice also the way in which our Lord Himself speaks of it beforehand. Again and again He speaks of His death as a necessity, as if there was a Divine “ must” which rendered it indispensable. There are frequent allusions to it in parable and allegory. The shadow of the Cross is resting upon Him. He speaks with the utmost plainness, and tells the Twelve that He has come “ to give His life a ransom for many” Matthew 20:28). All this prepares us for the teaching of the apostles, namely, the fact that throughout their writings the utmost stress is laid on the death of Christ, as distinct from His life; and that the greatest blessings and highest gifts are always connected with His suffering and with the shedding of His blood. You will find that the Epistle to the Hebrews especially is full from beginning to end of the thought of the sacrificial character of the death of Christ. Vie was incarnate “ that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” “ He needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people’ s: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself.” “ By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” “ The blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” shall” purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” “ Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” He was “ once offered to bear the sins of many.” “ He offered one sacrifice for sins for ever.” “ We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” We have “ boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” It is the “ blood of the covenant wherewith” we are “ sanctified.” “ Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” II. THE . What controversies have raged round it! What a stumbling-block it is even now to many! Let us beware not only of endeavouring “ to explain the efficacy of what Christ has done and suffered for us beyond what the Scripture has authorised” --this is a danger on one Side--but also let us beware of endeavouring to explain it away, and of “ confining His office as Redeemer of the world to His instruction, example, and government of the Church” --this is danger on the other side. Both dangers are real ones. A great statesman once said in eloquent words of our own Church, “ Take the history of the Church of England out of the history of England, and the history of England becomes a chaos without order, without life, and without meaning.” And may we not say with all reverence, “ Take the history of the death of Christ out of the history of the world, and the history of the world becomes a chaos without order, without life, and without meaning” ? We must cling to the fact that Christ is “ the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” and that by “ the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,” there was made “ a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” The fact of the Atonement is revealed, but how it is efficacious, or why it was “ necessary,” we are nowhere fully told. Still, we are not to make it more mysterious by shutting our eyes to what is told us; and we must not forget that the doctrine does not stand alone. It should never be dissociated from the great truths of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation. Take the doctrine of the Atonement in connection with these two central doctrines of the Christian faith, and then these three things follow, each of which is worthy of serious consideration: 1. He who bore our human nature, and wrought human acts, and died on the Cross for us was a Divine Person. “ Not, indeed, God alone; for as such,” it has been truly said, “ He would never have been in the condition to offer, or to die; nor man alone, for then the worth of His offering would never have reached so far; but He was God and man in one person, and in this person performing all those acts; man, that He might obey and suffer and die; God, that He might add to every act of His obedience, His suffering, His death, an immeasurable worth, steeping in the glory of His Divine personality all of human that He wrought.” 2. From the fact that He was God the Son, the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity, who is one with the Father, it follows that we must never, even in thought, imagine a discordance of will between the Father and the Son, nor so represent the Atonement as if there was a clashing of will within the Godhead. “ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,” and “ God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And what greater proof of love can be imagined than this? 3. In considering the doctrine of the Incarnation, we are to remember that it was not the death of a man which brought about such great results. He who died for us was the “ Second Adam,” the Head of the redeemed humanity. If it is His Godhead which gives His offering its infinite worth, it is His position as the Second Adam which qualifies Him to represent us. It is often said that if you would win back to self-respect some poor despairing wretch who has fallen so low as to be utterly reckless, and lost to all sense of shame, you must begin by making him understand that there is some one who cares for him yet. And if we can learn at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ that though we are sinful and hardened, it may be, and despairing, yet, in spite of all, God loves us with that yearning, passionate love which led Him to give Himself for us, then I think that our hearts will be broken, and we shall yield to the power of that love which knows no rest, and can never tire until it has found those it died to win. (E. C. S. Gibson, M. A.) Hebrews 10:11-13 This Man, after He had offered The eras of redemption I. THE PAST ERA OF CHRIST’ S HISTORY. He has “ offered one sacrifice for sins.” 1. Christ’ s death was a self-immolation. (1) His self-proprietorship. (2) His unexampled philanthropy. 2. His death was a self-immolation for sin. He died to put away sin: to put it away in its guilt-form--in its idea-form--and in its habit-form. His death was a self-immolation for sin unrepeatable. “ One … for ever.” Sufficient for all lands and ages. II. THE PRESENT ERA OF CHRIST’ S HISTORY. “ Sat down at the right hand of God.” 1. Rest. 2. Heaven. III. THE FUTURE ERA OF CHRIST’ S HISTORY. “ From henceforth expecting,” &c. 1. Christ has enemies. Fallen angels and sinful men. 2. These enemies He will subjugate. Some will be subdued by the moral influences of His truth and love; and some by the resistless might of His retributive justice. Lessons: 1. The repugnance with which humanity should regard sin. 2. The true test by which we may determine the worth of our Christianity. The absence of sin. 3. The certainty of Christianity’ s ultimate triumph. 4. The absurdity of waiting for any further helps to conversion. (Homilist.) The perfection of Christ’ s atonement I. We see Him ON THE EARTH; and this is what He is said to have done here--“ He offered one sacrifice for sins.” The apostle, we must remember, is both comparing and contrasting Him with the Jewish priests. His object is to show us that He is all to the Church these priests ever were, and all in a much higher degree. He compares Him with them. Now one part of their office was to make reconciliation or atonement for the sins of the people. Thus far then our Lord resembles the Jewish priests--He really offered a sacrifice. But the apostle also contrasts Him with them. He made, he says, one sacrifice only. There was in His case no perpetual standing by the altar, no daily ministering, no multiplying of victims. His precious blood once shed, all is over; the fire on the altar goes out, and the altar itself is soon thrown down and destroyed. And here become evident; two blessed truths. 1. One sacrifice serves for all God’ s Church--not only one priest, but one offering. 2. This one offering of Christ serves effectually for all God’ s Church. Not only are all His people cleansed, they are all fully and eternally cleansed, by it. II. We must now follow our Lord INTO HEAVEN. The text carries Him there in His human nature; and more than that--in the character He bore here in His human nature, the great Expiator of our sins. The apostle’ s language intimates to us 1. The repose of Christ in heaven, a repose indicating the completeness and perfection of the work He had performed on earth. 2. The high exaltation of Christ in heaven. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The sacrifice and triumph of Christ I. THIS GOD-MAN OFFERED ONE FOR SIN. That was the sacrifice of Himself, which we may consider as implying surrender. 1. He offered His body (Isaiah 1:6; Psalms 69:21; Isaiah 52:14). These were sufferings of no common kind. 2. But, in suffering, He offered His mind. The sufferings of our Redeemer’ s soul must be considered as the soul of His sufferings. 3. He offered in sacrifice His glory--by which we understand how glory will follow up the shame. Now, our Redeemer’ s feelings were not blunted or stoical--nay, they were delicately fine; and when they called Him “ a deceiver of the people,” “ a glutton, and a wine-bibber” ; when they said He had a devil--that He was not fit to live: He must have felt the indignity with great acuteness. 4. He offered in sacrifice the consolations of heaven’ s protection Matthew 27:46). 5. He offered in sacrifice His life (John 15:13; Romans 5:8). 6. He offered in sacrifice His will. He prayed that the cup of suffering might pass from Him (Matthew 26:42); yet He gave His person into the hands of those who put it to torture: He voluntarily resigned Himself to that train of overwhelming and distressing ideas, that threw His mind into an agony and bathed Him in a bloody sweat. II. FOR WHAT PURPOSE DID HE OFFER THIS ? Whenever we think, or read, about the sufferings of Christ, we are immediately directed to sin 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). This Man offered Himself a sacrifice for sin 1. To avert the consequences of it. Jesus Christ paid the penalty, that He might deliver the sinner from the consequences of his sins. 2. He died that He might remove the presence of sin, by doing away the love of it; by cleansing the guilty in the” fountain opened for sin and uncleanness,” --rendering the person “ without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” 3. He offered Himself a sacrifice to overcome the forfeiture of sin. III. THE OF OUR . 1. This was through the medium of His resurrection. 2. And He has now “ sat down at the right hand of God.” God is a great and invisible Spirit, with whom literally there can be neither standing nor recumbency. We must, therefore, understand this phrase figuratively; and it is (1) Expressive of rest. (2) Honoured. (3) Power, authority, dominion. IV. THE OF HIS WILL SHALL BE . Of the adversaries of Jesus Christ we observe 1. That Satan is the most subtle, ancient, and formidable. 2. Error. Error may be said to be a hydra with many heads. These systems degrade God’ s creatures, rob the Redeemer, murder the souls of men; and as such they must come down: by the general diffusion of knowledge, by the spread of the Scriptures, by the piety of God’ s people. 3. Another enemy is to be found in wicked, unconverted men. But these enemies shall be the footstool of the “ Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Upon unconverted men, Jesus Christ will employ His gospel on their understandings, and His Spirit on their consciences, and His providence on their circumstances and their bodies; and these weapons shall be “ mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” 4. Another enemy of Christ is death. He is said to be the last enemy that shall be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). 5. All these enemies have been made by one worse than the devil himself, and that enemy is sin. To destroy sin the Son of God was manifested--for this purpose He offered Himself a sacrifice--for this purpose He has commanded His gospel to be preached to every creature--for this purpose He is, at this moment, seated at the right hand of God, invested with all power, to employ whatever instrument He thinks proper, and to give a blessing to those means that they may be effectual. Application: 1. Here we discover the character of sinners. They are said to be enemies to Christ. 2. We learn, again, that these unconverted persons must be His footstool, whether at home or abroad. Will you be conquered by the sceptre of His grace; or will you be broken in pieces by the iron rod of His wrath? 3. We see the duty of the people to extend by conquest the triumphs of the Redeemer: to bring home His rebel outcasts, that they may be saved from sin and Satan’ s snare. (W. Atherton.) The matchless Mediator: I. Is His TO CALVARY. 1. He accomplished what all others failed to do. 2. He accomplished what none others need attempt after Him. II. Is His TO HEAVEN. 1. Enjoyment of tranquil repose. 2. Elevation to highest honour. 3. Execution of universal power. III. IN HIS TO THE . 1. He has opponents. 2. His enemies are in process of subjugation. 3. His ultimate supremacy will be complete. (B. D. Johns.) One offering I. THE OF THE OF CHRIST’ S IS NOT FOR THE OF THE . If we look at the influence of it on other beings, good and bad, we can see that the transient acts of Christ’ s life, and the permanent assumption of our nature for our redemption, are an eternal guarantee of His love of the law. If we look at its effects on the pardoned, it is sufficient that Christ lived here thirty-three years, and died once. The mother that bore you, and cherished you in infancy’ s helpless years, needs not repeat all that, in order to convince you of her love, or to strengthen her claims upon your love. A stranger rushed into the flames, and saved you from a horrid death, when you were a child. Will you ever forget it? God needed only to express once, in this form, His unvarying grief at our sins--His uncompromising opposition to them. Nay, more: II. THE OF THE AND WOULD DEFEAT THE VERY END OF . That end is, to diminish suffering in the universe. If we are to be saved at the eternal expense of such a Being; if He is to be for ever buffeted and spit upon, while we are crowned with glory; if He is to sink under the Father’ s frown, while we rejoice in the light of His countenance--then the cost is too great. To awaken the most generous sentiments in the hearts of the redeemed, and to sustain them, Christ must be rewarded with everlasting honour and joy. To enjoy heaven by the continued sufferings of our Friend and Redeemer, would make us selfish; to see His sufferings, and not be selfish, would make our own happiness impossible. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.) Philosophy and sin: When Renan was once asked what he did with sin in his philosophy, he shrugged his shoulders, and laughed and said, “ I suppress it.” (W. J. Dawson.) Sat down on the right hand of God Christ exalted I. THE OF THE SAVIOUR’ S WORK. 1. He has done all that was necessary to make an atonement and an end of sin. He has done so much, that it never will be needful for Him again to be crucified. Oh! if the last thread had not been woven in the great garment of our righteousness, He would be spinning it now; if the last particle of our debt had not been paid, He would be counting it down now; and if all were not complete, He would never rest, until, like a wise builder, He had laid the top-stone of the temple of our salvation. No; the very fact that He sits still, and rests, proves that His work is finished. 2. And then note again, that His sitting at the right hand of God implies that He enjoys pleasure; for at God’ s right hand “ there are pleasures for evermore.” Now I think the fact that Christ enjoys infinite pleasure has in it some degree of proof that He must have finished His work. He has joys as God; but as the man-God, His joys spring from the salvation of the souls of men. That is His joy, which is full, in the thought that He has finished His work and has cut it short in righteousness. I think there is some degree of proof, although not, perhaps, positive proof there, that Jesus must have finished His work. 3. The fact that it is said He has sat down for ever proves that He must have done it. Christ has undertaken it to save all the souls of the elect. If He has not already saved them, He is bound to do something that will save them, for He has given solemn promise to His Father, that He will bring many souls unto glory. 4. Yet, the best proof is, that Christ sits at His Father’ s right hand at all. For the very fact that Christ is in heaven, accepted by His Father, proves that His work must be alone. Why, as long as an ambassador from our country is at a foreign court, there must be peace; and as long as Jesus Christ our Saviour is at His Father’ s court, it shows that there is real peace between His people and His Father. Well, as He will be there for ever, that shows that our peace must be continual. But that peace could not have been continual, unless the atonement had been wholly made, unless justice had been entirely satisfied; and, therefore, from that very fact it becomes certain that the work of Christ must be done. II. THE GLORY WHICH HE HAS ASSUMED. “ After He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right-hand of God.” Now, by this you are to understand the complex person of Christ; for Christ, as God, always was on His Father’ s throne; He always was God; and even when He was on earth He was still in heaven. But Jesus Christ, as the man-God, has assumed honours which once He had not; for as man, He did not at one time sit on His Father’ s throne; He was a suffering man; but as God-man He has assumed a dignity next to God; He sits at the right hand of the glorious Trinity. 1. From this we gather, that the dignity which Christ now enjoys is surpassing dignity. There is no dignity to be compared to that of Christ. 2. In the next place, Christ has real dignity. Some persons have mere empty titles, which confer but little authority. But the man-Christ Jesus, while He has many crowns and many titles, has not one tinsel crown or one empty title. He overruleth all mortal things, making the evil work a good, and the good produce a better, and a better still, in infinite progression. 3. And once more: this honour that Christ hath received (I mean the Man-God Christ) was deserved honour; that dignity which His Father gave Him He well deserved. 4. We must consider the exaltation of Christ in heaven as being in some degree a representative exaltation. Christ Jesus exalted at the Father’ s right hand, though He has eminent glories, in which the saints must not expect to share, essentially He is the express image of the person of God, and the brightness of His Father’ s glory, yet, to a very great degree, the honours which Christ has in heaven He has as our representative there. III. WHAT ARE CHRIST’ S ? 1. We are told, He expects that His enemies shall be made His footstool. In some sense that is already done; the foes of Christ are, in some sense, His footstool now. What is the devil but the very slave of Christ, for he doth no more than he is permitted against God’ s children? What are wicked men but the servants of God’ s providence, unwittingly to themselves? In that sense all things are now Christ’ s. 2. But we expect greater things than these at His coming, when all enemies shall be beneath Christ’ s feet upon earth. We are, therefore, many of us, “ looking for that blessed hope; that glorious appearing of the kingdom of our Saviour Jesus Christ” ; many of us are expecting that Christ will come; we cannot tell you when; we believe it to be folly to pretend to guess the time, but we are expecting that even in our life the Son of God will appear, and we know that when He shall appear He will tread His foes beneath His feet, and reign from pole to pole, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. 3. Christ will have all His enemies put beneath His feet, in that great day of judgment. Oh I that will be a terrible putting of His foes beneath His feet, when at the second resurrection the wicked dead shall rise; when the ungodly shall stand before His throne, and His voice shall say, “ Depart, ye cursed.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The priests standing, Christ sitting: That the ministry of the priests under the law is ineffectual is seen from their continual standing and offering (comp. Verse 2). That the Son’ s is effectual appears from the fact which we know from prophecy fulfilled (Psalms 110:1; chaps, 2:9, 8:1) in Him, that having made His one offering He sat down. He ceased, and no more offers, but awaits the final issue of His one offering, which shall be when He appears a second time unto salvation (Hebrews 9:28). (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.) From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool The destined supremacy of Christianity: The Being presented by this inspired declaration is Jesus Christ; and Christianity is the system of truth of which He is the centre--its Alpha and Omega. Its supremacy is inferred 1. From the fact that God has established and introduced it to human knowledge. 2. From its interior structure, its fitness to man, the reply which it gives to His deepest demands. 3. From the fact that the supremacy of Christianity will nobly complete the circle of history; will give unity, wholeness to the annals of the race, and will show through their courses a sublime method. 4. The specific declarations of God in the Scriptures assure us of that result. 5. The historic progress of Christianity among men, with the nature of the arena on which it now acts, gives assurance of its supremacy. How then ought its friends to labour for Christianity, to spread its truth, its promise, and life I How vividly also does this last thought come to us: the personal obligation of each of us to submit from the heart to Christ’ s dominion. The ancient legend of the Church, that Julian died exclaiming as he expired, “ Galilean, Thou hast conquered,” is certain to be realised in the substance of its history in every soul not submitted to Christ. His rule at last shall be complete, and the period of that sway shall compass eternity. In that last and glorious age there will be found no place on earth, no place in heaven for him who hath not bowed to Christ! The dominion of Messiah hath no promises for him. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.) Christ’ s confident expectation of ultimate victory I know nothing more sublime in the inspired writings than that representation of the Lord given us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which He is depicted as “ seated upon His throne at His Father’ s right hand, expecting till His enemies become His footstool.” Reflect for a moment upon the sight that must meet that omniscient gaze! A world black with appalling crime and hideous depravity. A world reeking with drunkenness, and lust, and violence, and bloodshed. A world wrapped in the night of spiritual ignorance and heathen darkness. Angels beholding it, in ignorance of the Divine purpose, might well have despaired of it as a world too sunken to raise, too hopeless to deliver. Yet it is upon this sad world that the Saviour’ s eye is fixed with such confident anticipation. No fear agitates His mind, no doubt breaks His rest. In His view nothing hangs in uncertainty or remains in jeopardy. To Him the fulfilment is as sure as though it were already realised. Fixing our eyes upon intervening and secondary things, our heart often fails us; but He looks right on through present conflict to the victory beyond; He knows there can be but one result--“ His enemies shall lick the dust.” “ All kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him.” (A. Bax.) The signs of advancing victory: Just as a man in early spring will fall down on some mossy bank over a pale primrose, with a keen joy in his heart, not so much for what it is in itself, but as the harbinger of the great glowing summer so surely advancing. As he looks at it, the leaden skies grow into sapphire clearness, the naked woodlands are once more dressed in living green, and the long winter silence is broken by the wild gushes of sweetest bird-music. He knows that behind that tender plant lies God’ s immutable covenant, that, “ While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter shall not cease” --lie those omnific forces that will soon fulfil all the promise of this prophetic flower. So Christ welcomed each little sign of His advancing victory. A few Samaritans, returning with the woman with whom He had previously conversed at the well of Sychar, drew from Him the exultant utterance, “ Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” The faith of one centurion is regarded at once as the earnest of the whole Gentile world” “ And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” On another occasion two or three Greeks express a desire to see Him, and that desire fills Him with a holy transport. “ The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified … Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.” Aa eloquent expositor has said that “ they were to Him as the first-fruits of the great flock of humanity; and their presence as the first stroke of the bell which sounded the fatal but glorious hour.” And His attitude to-day upon His throne is still that of calm, quiet, confident expectation. (A. Bax.) Christ will have the whole world: It is on record that, during the late civil war in America, and when victory was swaying from side to side, that commissioners from the Confederate States sought and obtained an interview with President Lincoln, with the view of trying to effect an arrangement for the independence of the territory they represented. They knew the tender-heartedness of Mr. Lincoln, and appealed to him to stay the effusion of blood which, at the moment, was flowing in torrents. They were willing to forego several of the States for which they had hitherto fought, if he would consent to the remainder being independent. They pleaded with him for hours, and made use of the strongest arguments and considerations they could adduce to gain their object. When they had finished, the President, who had patiently and attentively listened to all that had been said, raised his hand, and then bringing it down with emphasis on the map which lay before him, replied, “ Gentlemen, this Government must have the whole.” (J. Fleming, D. D.) Hebrews 10:14 Perfected for ever them that are sanctified Perfection in faith I. THE OF GOD ARE HERE , UNDER THE TERM “ ” ; they are described as sanctified persons. There are two meanings to the term “ sanctified.” One is, “ set apart.” God has set apart His people from before the foundation of the world, to be His chosen and peculiar inheritance. We are sanctified by God the Father. There is a second signification, which implies not the decree of the Father, but the work of the Holy Spirit. But the word here, I think, includes both of these senses; and I must try to find a figure which will embrace them both. And what is the apostle speaking about? In the ninth chapter he is speaking about the tabernacle, and the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread, and the sanctuary, and the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid with gold, and the pot of manna; he is talking about priests, and holy things; and he is declaring that all these things of which he speaks were sanctified things, but that though they were sanctified things, they wanted to be made perfect by the sprinkling of blood, Now I believe the sanctification of our text is to be understood in this sense. II. IN WHAT SENSE ARE WE TO THAT CHRIST HAS THESE THAT ARE ? When the golden vessels were brought into the temple or into the sanctuary, they were sanctified the very first moment that they were dedicated to God. No one dared to employ them for anything but holy uses. But they were not perfect. What did they need, then, to make them perfect? Why, to have blood sprinkled on them; and, as soon as the blood was sprinkled on them, those golden vessels were perfect vessels, officially perfect. God accepted them as being holy and perfect things, and they stood in His sight as instruments of an acceptable worship. Just so was it with the Levites and the priests. As soon as ever they were set apart to their office; as soon as ever they were bern, in fact, they were consecrated, they belonged to God; they were His peculiar priesthood. But they were not perfect until they had passed through divers washings, and had the blood sprinkled upon them. Then God looked upon them in their official priestly character, as being perfect persons. Here is one sense of the text. The apostle says that we who are the priests of God have a right as priests to go to God’ s mercy-seat that is within the veil; but it were to our death to go there unless we were perfect. But we are perfect, for the blood of Christ has been sprinkled on us, and, therefore, our standing before God is the standing of perfection. Our standing, in our own conscience, is imperfection, just as the character of the priest might be imperfect. But that has nothing to do with it. Our standing in the sight of God is a standing of perfection; and when He sees the blood, as of old the destroying angel passed over Israel, so this day, when He sees the blood, God passes over our sins, and accepts us at the throne of His mercy, as if we were perfect. Therefore, let us come boldly; let us “ draw near with a true heart in frill assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” And now we will have one more thought, and then I shall have given you the full meaning of the text. In the seventh chapter, the nineteenth verse, there is a word that is a key to the meaning of my text, and that helped me all through it. “ For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God.” Then with this, compare the tenth chapter and first verse, “ The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” There is the word “ perfect” ; and we have it in the text; “ for then,” says he, if they had been perfect, “ would they not have ceased to be offered.” Why offer any more, if you are a perfect man? “ If the sacrifice made is perfect, the worshippers, once purged, should have had no more conscience of sin.” Now mark. The Jewish sacrifice was never intended to make the Jew’ s moral character any better, and it did not; it had no effect upon what we call his sanctification; all the sacrifice dealt with was his justification, and the perfection would be sought after; the perfection is not of sanctification, but of official standing, as he stood justified before God. Now that is the meaning of the word “ perfect” here. It does not mean that the sacrifice did not make the man perfectly holy, and perfectly moral, and so forth; the sacrifice had no tendency to do that; it was quite another matter. It means that it did not perfectly make him justified in his own conscience and in the sight of God, because he had to come and offer again. But now behold the glory of Christ Jesus as revealed to us in our text. “ Those sacrifices could not make the comers thereunto perfect.” They could not feel in their own conscience that they were perfectly justified, and they wanted fresh offerings; but I see the slaughtered Lamb on Calvary. Years ago I sought Him and I found Him. I do not want another Lamb; I do not want another sacrifice. I can still see that blood flowing, and I can feel continually that I have no more conscience of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The one perfect offering 1. The act is to perfect, which may be to a thing perfect; and seeing the end of Christ’ s sacrifice is man’ s full happiness, therefore to perfect is to make us perfectly and fully happy. 2. The subject of this consecration are the sanctified. 3. The effect is glorious and most excellent, and includes regeneration, justification, reconciliation, adoption with the inferior degrees of them all, and also the resurrection and eternal glorification. And surely so rare an effect must have some excellent cause; and so it hath, and that is, that one offering of Christ. (G. Lawson.) Perfected: The word “ perfected” falls with a strange sound on those who are experiencing daily their sad imperfections. But the Christian is a strange paradox. We are unknown, yet well known; chastened, yet not killed; dying, and, behold, we live; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things. Let me speak to you then of this twofold aspect of the Christian. You may be caught up into the third heaven, and yet the abundance of thin revelation will not burn up the dross that is within you, or kill the old man, the flesh which warreth against the spirit. We have died once in Christ, and in Christ are accepted and perfect; but our old nature is not dead, the flesh in us is not annihilated, there is still within us that which has no pleasure in the will and ways of God. Painful this struggle will ever be, though God is with us, and our joy is greater than our pain. We have in us the death of Adam, and we have in us the resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the one we are broken and tormented through sin, and darkness, and sluggishness, and earthliness, and gloom; by Christ we are raised, and strengthened, and comforted. We sin, we fall, we carry about with us a mind resisting God’ s will, criticising it, and rebelling; and we shall experience to the very last breath we draw on earth, that there is a conflict, and that we must strive and suffer in order to be faithful unto death. (A. Saphir.) Importance of the death of Christ: Speculate on it how we may, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is presented to us in the New Testament as the everlasting reason of every happy relation between sinful man and the moral government of God. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) By one offering: As our burnt-offering, Christ became our righteousness in full consecration; as our peace-offering, our life; as our sin-offering, the expiation for our sins; as our guilt-offering, He made satisfaction and’ plenary reparation in our behalf to the God on whose inalienable rights in us, by our sins we had trespassed without measure. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.) Hebrews 10:15-18I will put My laws into their hearts The Bible written in the mind: Christianity in human life is better than Christianity in cold ink, because 1. It contains the Divine things, the other only the symbols. 2. It is the end of culture, the other only the means. 3. It is self-obvious, the other requires explanation. 4. It is imperishable, the other temporary. (Homilist.) A Saviour such as you need I. IT IS THIS WHICH THE GLORY AND OF THE NEW OF GRACE--NAMELY, THAT IT GIVES TO ALL WHO ARE IN PERFECT . Our text tells us that in two points the old covenant was far behind the new: first, in the matter of sanctification the old covenant did not do what the new one accomplishes, for the new writes God’ s law upon our hearts and upon our minds, whereas the old covenant was only written out on tables of stone; and, secondly, the old covenant could not put away the guilt of sin, whereas the new covenant runs on this wise--“ And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” II. The doctrine, then, is that THERE IS NO MORE FOR SIN, BECAUSE CHRIST ALL THAT IS NEEDED. III. Lastly, does not this doctrine ANSWER A that has often been propounded to me, namely, HOW IT IS THAT THERE ARE SO MANY HEARTS WHICH CAN FIND NO PEACE? Some people are always learning, but never coming to the truth. They are good people in many senses, but they cannot be happy. They are always discontented. Now, what do you think is the reason? I am sure it is this, they will not agree that Christ shall be all in all to them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God forgives and forgets: “ Mother forgives me when I’ ve been naughty,” said a little girl; “ but I see in her face all day after, though she does not frown, that she remembers what I did in the morning. She cannot forget. God forgives and forgets, for ‘ He makes it up’ altogether.” Blotted out A little boy was once much puzzled about sins being blotted out, and said: “ I cannot think what becomes of the sins God forgives, mother.” “ Why, Charlie, can you tell me where are the figures you wrote on your slate yesterday?” “ I washed them all out, mother.” “ And where are they, then? Why, they are nowhere; they are gone,” said Charlie. “ Just so it is with the believer’ s sins--they are gone; blotted out; ‘ remembered no more.’” Hebrews 10:19-22 Boldness to enter into the holiest The Christian’ s exalted privilege I. THE HOLIEST PLACE. 1. The special residence of the Deity. 2. The scene of holy services. 3. The residence of holy beings. 4. From this place those blessings are communicated that make us holy. II. THE WAY OF ACCESS. 1. A new way. 2. A living way. 3. A consecrated way. III. THE MANNER OF . 1. With boldness. 2. With a true heart. 3. In full assurance of faith. 4. With hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. 5. With bodies washed with pure water. Application. Learn: 1. The gospel method of salvation. The blood of Jesus. Its expensiveness and its preciousness. 2. There must be personal application before we can enjoy its benefits. 3. All who thus personally approach shall obtain mercy. 4. How shall they escape who neglect so great salvation? (J. Burns, D. D.) The house of God and the way to it I. THE HOUSE OF GOD. What a Divine house is the physical universe, if we had but minds capable of realising its unity and looking upon it as a whole! What a great house even this earth of ours is, full of things innumerable both great and small I And yet this is but the uttermost court to this house. But the physical universe, whatever be its glory, can never be the true house and home of intelligence, thought and will. Only men build up the home of man. And He whose image man wears, and whoso child he is, says, “ My people are My portion; Israel is My inheritance.” What a sphere, then, of intelligence, love, and perfected will there must be as the aim and end of a physical universe which is so glorious! And if man’ s nature rests in nothing less than man, and demands a human home in which to dwell, what a sphere of voluntary thought and reflection there must be for God, the Maker of heaven and of earth, and the Father of us all! But just as within the sphere of the physical, we require the intelligent, so within the sphere of intelligence there must be that of friendship, for the house of God. The universe of His friends, of His innocent, as well as of His redeemed and happy creatures--these form the house of God; this is Mount Zion, “ the mountain of the house of the Lord,” the dwelling-place of the Most High--to which we are invited to draw near, “ to an innumerable company ofangels, to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to God, the Judge of all.” The Father’ s dwelling-place is in the house of His children. But this, the house of His friends is a “ house of many mansions” ; it has its outer courts, its vestibule, its holy chambers, and its holiest; and between the outer courts, occupied by the children of earth, and that holiest of holies, what intervening abodes there are of angels, of elders, of principalities, of thrones, of dominions, of powers, and of the redeemed of all ages and experiences--throughout which, and in whom, God is all and in all! But within the holiest is enthroned, in meekest majesty, One who is “set over the House of God,” and who, in bodily presence, is the House of God, in the express image of His person and the brightness of His glory, in whom it pleases all the Father’ s fulness to dwell, and who is the home of His eternal rest. II. THE WAY TO IT. We must not forget, in considering the way to this house, that the house itself is spiritual, that it is the home for the thoughts, for the affections, for the will of God; a sphere in which His Spirit finds fellowship, satisfaction and rest; in which He is all and in all--the spring, the source of all power and life, and of all the forms of life answering to the power. Then, clearly, it must be a house only accessible on certain definitely determined conditions; conditions, not arbitrary, but imposed by the very nature of things, given in the very nature of God and His relations to His creatures. Everything has its own way by which it may be entered. Things must be related to have access to each other. Spiritual things have spiritual ways of access, and require spiritual discernment. No wonder then that the text speaks of the way to the House of God as a “ new way.” It is not the original way of man’ s primitive nature, but a way newly opened up in view of the necessities of the state and circumstances into which man’ s sin and sinfulness had brought him, a way for sinners into the holiest of holies, the presence of God. The way of His descent to us may become the way of our ascent to Him. But, it is further called a “ living way,” not merely because it leads to life, nor because it gives life, nor because it vitally renews itself, nor because its use is restricted to the living--though in all these senses there is much truth; but because it is a way set up in Him who is the Life. Christ is the way to Christ, as the light is the way to the sun, and the seed-life of the flower the way to the flower. He is the life-fountain and also the stream which conducts to it. But, in addition to its being “ a new and living way;” it is also said to be a way which Christ has “ consecrated for us through the veil of His flesh.” By this expression, “ the veil of His flesh,” the apostle gathers up in unity of significance the whole incarnate relations of the Son of Man, in His representative character, on our behalf, and represents them as a veil of separation between Him and the house of His glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and says, “ Only through that can there be a way for man to God.” And this was true for Christ Himself as well as for us. Only by the rending of the veil of His flesh could He, who “ came out from God,” return to Him. III. THE SEVERAL WITH WHICH WE ARE TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD WITHIN THE VEIL. “ Let us draw near in the full assurance of faith” ; that is, being fully assured that this way of “ access to God” for sinful men has been opened up; thai God has solved His own problem; and that in Christ, His representative and ours, the Son of God and Son of Man, it stands a completed work, with its gate on this side the veil, for us as for Him--the cross, and, through the veil, its goal--the cross crowned in glory. Assured of this, let us draw Hear, none daring to make us afraid; for should any arrest our course, and demand our right; to enter within “ the holiest,” we can point them to the way, and to our hearts, sprinkled with the blood of Him who in our nature and in our name is set over the house of God. Having this assurance of faith, “ let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” An assured faith in the fact that we have the new and living way of access to God cannot fail to beget a stedfast hope. Faith not only warrants but demands hope, is in fact the substance of our hope. And He who is its Author has made abundant provision for its growth and expansion in the great exceeding precious promises He has given us, through which we “ become partakers of the Divine nature,” and “ receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls.” (W. Pulsford, D. D.) Entering into the holiest I. THE WARRANT “ TO ENTER INTO THE HOLIEST.” 1. “ The blood of Jesus.” This blood is the most precious thing that we can conceive of. It is set before us in Scripture in different views. (1) It is compared to the blood of the passover lamb. It may therefore be said to be the blood of protection and of deliverance. (2) It is compared with “ the blood and water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop,” used by Moses at Sinai. It may therefore be said to be the blood that ratifies the covenant. (3) It is compared with “ the blood used on the day of atonement.” It may therefore be said to be the blood by which we draw nigh unto God. (4) As under the Old Testament, “ almost all things were purged with blood,” so it is said to be “ the blood which cleanseth us from all sin.” (5) To show its unspeakable value, it is said to be “ the blood of God” Acts 20:28). 2. Another warrant is, that we have “ a new and living way” --that is, a way quite different from that which the high priest had of old to enter into the “ holy of holies.” 3. This way is said to be “ consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.” Now, every obstacle is removed; and every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is warranted to enter for himself into the immediate presence of God, and there transact all the concerns of his own soul. 4. Another powerful and suitable warrant is expressed in these words--“ and having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near.” When we consider this High Priest, what He is, what He has done, and what He is continuing to do, we have encouragement inexpressible. He is God and man. He is our Brother--our Righteousness--our Sanctification--our Redemption. How glorious is our great High Priest! How happy to be under His guidance--His management--His care! II. YOUR WELCOME. 1. “ Draw near with a true heart.” This implies that you have nothing in view but the supply of grace which you find you need. Let this lead you to inquire of what graces you stand in the utmost need; and let this alone employ all your present desires and petitions to your heavenly Father. 2. Another evidence of your welcome is “ full assurance of faith.” This you can have by the study of Christ, in His person, and offices and intercession. In all He is, in all He does, and in all He has done, He is perfect. He can save every soul, be the condition of that soul what it may. But farther, He can give the Holy Spirit, to unite unto Himself--to conform to the Divine image. In one word, He can give “ full assurance of faith.” Did you ever ask this “ assurance “ from Him? Did He ever deny it to you? This “ assurance” is your welcome. 3. A farther evidence of your welcome is to draw near with “ hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” This is done by the Holy Spirit, for Christ’ s sake. When the Spirit enables you to believe, lie at the same time applies to your heart the virtue of the precious blood of Christ. This removes all opposition to faith--to love--to every other grace in the mediatorial person of Christ. This “ purges the conscience from dead works” (Hebrews 9:13-14). With such attainments you may, with full welcome, draw near to the mercy seat; for these constitute your welcome there. 4. The last evidence of welcome mentioned in our text is, “ our bodies being washed with pure water.” This language is also figurative, and is taken from the act of consecrating Aaron and his sons to the priest’ s office. This is obtained by the promise (Ezekiel 36:25-27). (James Kidd, D. D.) The true worshipper 1. I would first lead you to consider for a moment the term “ brethren” : “ Having, therefore, brethren.” There was a strong feeling of brotherhood amongst the Jews, not only on account of their original stock, but on account of their separation from the rest of the world; but the term here denotes the spiritual brotherhood of believers in Jesus Christ. It is not merely that believers are united by natural affections, without any intervening medium; but they are united to each other in Jesus--and that is the closest tie which the soul of man can ever know. What a difference it would make in our treatment of each other, if we could recognise with a loving heart our brotherhood in Christ Jesus! How many jealousies it would remove; and how many of those heart-burnings, which eat as a canker into our spiritual life! 2. Notice, in the next place, the term “ boldness.” This is put in contrast with the fear under the law, which deprived the worshipper of all confidence; and it marks the holy liberty of the child of God, compared with the bondage in which he was held under the law. One of the great snares of Satan is to endeavour to beat men off from this point, as if it were presumption, But read the Word, and see for yourselves what is said upon the subject. “ He suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 3. But still observe--it is by the blood of Jesus, because “ without shedding of blood there is no remission.” It is the blood of Christ alone that annihilates the distance between the believing sinner and God; there is no approach but through that blood, and “ those who are afar off are made nigh” by it. 4. This is called “ a new and living way,” because it is peculiar to the new covenant of grace, and because it is always new and efficacious; it does not wax old, as did the first covenant; that was for a time only, till “ the times of reformation,” we are told, but this is for ever. And it may be called living, because it is the only way of entering into life. 5. But the apostle goes on to say, that our Lord has consecrated for us this way “ through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.” The meaning of this expression appears to be, that as when the veil was rent at the death of our Lord there was no longer any hindrance to entering into the holiest, so Christ’ s flesh being rent by His death, a way was opened to all believers, by the sacrifice which He offered, into the very kingdom of heaven. There is very much instruction for us here. Every other priesthood but the priesthood of Christ has the effect of keeping the worshipper at a distance from God; but His priesthood is put before us as a motive to draw near. 6. Another expression is made use of, which is full of point. “ In full assurance of faith.” Faith is needed in God’ s service, because “ without faith it is impossible to please Him.” “ Full assurance” is to be understood of faith in the priesthood of Christ. It is the superiority of that priesthood which the apostle aims to establish throughout this Epistle. And the “ assurance of faith” does not respect the assurance which a man has of his own salvation, but of the efficacy of Christ’ s priesthood, and the sufficiency of His atonement and intercession, as opposed to all other ways of access. 7. But the apostle goes on to say--“ having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” This is a consequence of our having a “ full assurance” of the efficacy of Christ’ s priesthood, that we get delivered from the burden of an evil conscience. The conscience of every man has been defiled by sin, nor could the offerings under the law perfect a man with respect to it; but the blood of Jesus can, and when applied to the conscience takes away the condemning power of sin, as respects the guilt of it. 8. Another effect is, that the man desires to “ perfect holiness in the fear of God” ; which is just what we are taught in the last phrase of the text--“ our bodies washed with pure water.” This denotes purity of life and conversation. Thus must we be careful to cultivate holiness of life, if we would approach Him with acceptance; as the former clause, “ having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,” had reference to our justification, so this latter clause has reference to our sanctification, or to our growth in grace and conformity to the image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.) The rent veil I. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. 1. In actual historical fact the glorious veil of the temple has been rent in twain from the top to the bottom: as a matter of spiritual fact, which is far more important to us, the separating legal ordinance is abolished. Jesus has made thee nigh, as nigh to God as even He Himself is. 2. This rending of the veil signified, also, the removal of the separating sin. Pardon, which removes sin, and justification, which brings righteousness, make up a deed of clearance so complete that nothing now divides the sinner from his reconciled God. The Judge is now the Father: He, who once must necessarily have condemned, is found justly absolving and accepting. In this double sense the veil is rent; the separating ordinance is abrogated, and the separating sin is forgiven. 3. Next, be it remembered that the separating sinfulness is also taken away through our Lord Jesus. It is not only what we have done, but what we are that keeps us apart from God. Through the death of our Lord Jesus the covenant of grace is established with us, and its gracious provisions are on this wise: “ This is the covenant, &c., I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” When this is the ease, when the will of God is inscribed on the heart, and the nature is entirely changed, then is the dividing veil which hides us from God taken away: “ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” II. WHAT WE HAVE. 1. We have “ boldness to enter in.” 2. Let us follow the example of the high priest, and having entered, let us perform the functions of one who enters in, “ Boldness to enter in “ suggests that we act as men who are in their proper places. 3. If you will look at the text, you will notice that this boldness is well grounded. “ Having therefore boldness.” Paul is often a true poet, but he is always a correct logician. 4. Why is it that we have boldness? Is it not because of our relationship to Christ which makes us “ brethren” 5. We may have this boldness of entering in at all times, because the veil is always rent, and is never restored to its old place. III. How WE THIS GRACE. 1. We come by the way of atonement. 2. An unfailing way. 3. A living way. 4. A dedicated way. 5. A Christly way. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Objective religion necessary: To be ever lifting ourselves by our will, to be hanging round our own works, canvassing our defects, studying the pathology of our own evils, were enough, of itself, to drive one mad. The mind becomes wearied and lost in its own mazes, discouraged and crushed by its frequent defeats, and virtue itself, being only a conscious tug of exertion, takes a look as unbeautiful as the life is unhappy. Therefore we need, all alike, some objective religion; to come and hang ourselves upon the altar of sacrifice sprinkled by the blood of Jesus, to enter into the holiest set open by His death, to quiet our soul in His peace, clothe it in His righteousness and trust Him as the Lamb of God that taketh away our sin. In these simple, unselfish, unreflective exercises, we shall make our closest approach to God. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) A new and living wayThe new and living way opened by Jesus 1. The way is new, not the old road of outward sacrifice, but the devotion of willing hearts. 2. Jesus dedicated it to the use of the redeemed host by first travelling along it Himself (for the essence of the dedication ceremony consisted in a solemn opening for the first time to public use). 3. It is also a living way, the path of a living spirit, not a routine of mechanical obedience; by quickening in us His own spiritual life Christ brings us near to God, and unless His spirit live in us we cannot follow in His way. 4. This way leads through the veil of flesh. The flesh is a real veil, shutting men out from the sight and knowledge of God, just as the typical veil shut out all but the high priest from the holy chamber of God’ s presence. It forms an obstacle not only against the unclean and sinful, who desire to hide themselves from God’ s holy eye and wilfully build up a wall between themselves and Him, but -even against God’ s own people who, in spite of an earnest desire to come to Him, are hindered by the necessary imperfection of their mortal nature. Even Jesus Himself had to make His way through this veil of flesh; for He was made subject to the infirmity of the flesh, and liable to temptation. Sinless as He was, He had the understanding and the will of the flesh, its thoughts and desires, its natural appetites and affections. He had therefore to crucify the flesh in will and to be crucified in deed, to put off His mortal garment, and pass through death unto life, before He could altogether pierce the veil of flesh. By passing through this Himself He opened a way for His brethren also to pass through. As the typical veil was rent asunder at His death, so a wide road was opened through the veil of flesh, that all those whom He hath consecrated in His blood may enter in the strength of His spirit into the presence of God. (F. Rendall, M. A.) The new and living way: This way may be thus called in opposition to the typical way into the holiest of all, which was a dead way to all but the high priest; none but he might enter into it, nor he himself but once a year, and then not without blood; and that is a dead way through which no man passeth. Again, it is a living way, in opposition not only unto this which led into the most holy place, but unto that into Paradise: for this is a living safeway, and one may pass through it and live; both the other were dangerous and mortal. That in the tabernacle and temple was so: it was mortal to any but the high priest, and to him too at all times but once in the year; and then, too, if he presumed to enter without blood. The other passage into Paradise was obstructed with a flaming sword, and no man could have access to the Tree of Life, but must be slain and burnt to ashes. So that this is a way of life, permanent and safe. (G. Lawson.) A new and living way The apostle says it is “ a new way.” The literal translation of the word is, “ a newly slain way” ; it is evidently an allusion to the sacrifice of Christ. If the word be taken in its strict sense it is not new, for it is as old as Adam in Paradise, it is as old as Abraham journeying from Ur of the Chaldees; but in another sense it is new. It is old in years, but it retains its new and beautiful attraction. It is as if a person were to live a thousand years in the same condition as at thirty-six--he would be always young--he would be old in years, but he would retain the appearance of perfect manhood. So this way is old, in the sense that it has been long revealed; but it is new in this sense, that it retains and expresses on the heart of him who walks in it all the joy that results from the novelty of a possession received for the first time, it is therefore, “ a new way.” We read in the Apocalypse of “ the new song,” that is, a song whose music never palls upon the ear, ever new, ever beautiful. So we say of the gospel, it is a new religion because it never parts with its attractions, it never becomes obsolete because the heart of him who receives it loves it the more he knows it, and the more he loves it the more he studies it; and every fresh view he has of that gospel only deepens the impressions of its excellence which he received when he first heard it. It is called also “ a living way.” If you walk upon a dead road your foot becomes weary as you walk; but this is a living way, it gives life to the walker. The more he walks upon it, the more vigorous, the more delighted, the more able he becomes. It is as if you could conceive a person walking upon a road, and having transferred from the road into his physical economy constant supplies of vigour that would make him walk and not faint, run and not be weary. So the longer you know this blessed gospel, the more you enjoy it; the more you draw from God, and the more you receive: you find real religion is not a dead dogma deposited in the intellect, but a living spring and fountain of life and power ever welling up into everlasting life. (J. C. Cumming, D. D.) A new and living way A way which was new, not only as being a way now opened for the first time, but as being a way which would never become old, worn and obsolete. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The way to God should be inquired about I was coming here (Lame) from Carrickfergus in a gig. Taking for granted that I knew the road well enough I drove right on, passing many people going to market. After a while I began to doubt whether I was right; and meeting a gentleman on horseback, I said to him, “ How far is it to Lame?” “ This is not the way,” said he; “ you are two miles past where you should have turned to the left up the hill. Come back with me and I’ ll show you the right way.” Then, striking his forehead with his hand, he shouted, “ You could fool, why didn’ t you inquire in time?” So you go on from day to day, thinking you are going right to heaven: but you’ re in the wrong way. The great God has told you the right way in His blessed Bible. The priest says you mustn’ t read it; but if you don’ t inquire you’ ll find you’ re wrong, as I did. (Gideon Ouseley.) An High Priest over the house of God The priesthood of Christ I. THE DENIAL OF THE PROPER OF CHRIST BREAKS THE AND BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW . Revelation is the glow of an early morning, shining to the perfect day. The foundation of the building was laid in the patriarchal ages; and it rose to the completion when by the ascension of Christ He became the head of the corner, and gave the weight and beauty of His majesty to give stability and ornament to the building. All the Scriptures testify of Him; to Him give all the prophets witness: as our great High Priest, Christ was seen with Moses and Elias, who “ spake with Him of His decease” which He was about to “ accomplish at Jerusalem.” They had looked forward to His day, not with curiosity merely, but with lively interest, as to the consummation of that sacrifice of which theirs were but the types, and their faith in that alone was imputed to them for righteousness. II. As the connection between the two Testaments would be broken by the denial of the priesthood of Christ, so THE HARMONY BETWEEN THE OF TO MAN WOULD BE . The frame-work of revealed religion has been precisely the same in all ages: that man is a sinner; that on the ground of his own right he cannot be justified; that law, though it admits of atonement and satisfaction, is inexorable in the exaction of its penalty; that the guilty can only be pardoned through the sufferings of the innocent; that God can only be approached through mediation; and that intercession for the guilty is admissible only as it has respect to sacrifice for sin. How impressive, how solemn are these truths, transmitted as they are to us by the testimony of all ages, and marked and signalised by the rites of the Church wherever she has erected her temples! This is sufficient to prove that they are the expression of the counsels of the Divine mind; that they are the axioms on which He governs the guilty race; and that, like Himself, they are unchangeable. III. If we have not in the gospel a real sacrifice and a real priesthood, then LOSES ITS , and can no longer claim to be the religion of mankind. That the religion of Jesus Christ makes such a claim cannot be doubted; and that it was understood by its first preachers to have this exclusive character is matter of history and not of reasoning. IV. IF WE HAVE NO , NO , IN THE GOSPEL, THEN , INSTEAD OF BEING THE AND OF ALL OTHER OF TO GUILTY MAN, IS IN FACT , , AND THE LOWEST IN HOPE AND . Who can lay his hand upon his heart and appeal to God that he has never offended in thought, in word, in temper, or in deed? The same gospel which reveals the righteousness of faith reveals also the wrath of God from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. “ Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” No; thanks be to infinite mercy, we are not so left. We have a High Priest over the house of God. If any man sin, there is a sacrifice of infinite value: the death of the incarnate Son of God. Repentance, and a believing application to the blood of atonement, are followed by conscious pardon. The grace of the Holy Spirit is given to the humble and praying believer to realise in his experience and conduct the holiness of the gospel. (R. Watson.) Hebrews 10:22-24 Let us draw near A triplet of exhortations I. DRAWING NEAR. Observe by way of contrast 1. Moses at the burning bush. “ Draw not nigh hither.” Fire symbolic of judgment. God cannot thus be approached unto. 2. Children of Israel of Mount Sinai. The injunction given to stand off from the mount, God present in holiness, requiring perfect obedience to His law. This man could not render. Therefore there was no hope of being reconciled to God by the law. 3. Yet now the apostle says, “ Let us draw near.” How is this? Because (1) Christ hast fulfilled the law--He has become a daysman between us and God, (2) God has drawn near to us. (3) He Himself has invited us to draw near-” Come unto Me,” &c. II. HOLDING FAST. A very necessary injunction in these days of apostasy from the faith. 1. What not to hold fast (1) Human traditions. These are useful in so far as they are in accordance with Divine revelation, but are to be specially shunned when they make the Word of God of none effect. (2) The speculations of theologians. These vary as the wind, and are not to be relied upon. 2. But (1) The profession or confession of our faith without wavering--“ If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved.” (2) The faith itself once delivered to the saints. Why? That others may see the good works that spring from a lively faith, and be led to ask for the old paths. III. ONE ANOTHER. 1. HOW may we do this? (1) By loving rebuke--not from the love of fault-finding. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. (2) By showing love to our fellows. Christ’ s new commandment: “ Love one another.” (3) By obeying the injunction--“ Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Bear one another’ s burdens. Wash one another’ s feet. 2. What would be the result of thus considering one another? (1) More unity among believers. (2) More power in the Church. (3) More blessing in the world. (4) More glory to God. Application: 1. To the sinner. You are yet afar off. Christ invites you to Him. He will abundantly pardon. 2. To the believer. You need, every day--yea, every hour--to be coming to Christ for blessing. (H. Whittaker.) Christian life I. "LET US DRAW NEAR.” “ Us.” All Christians. Christianity is a spiritual democracy. “ Near.” The “ middle wall” is gone; Jews and Gentiles are near to each other. How? 1. With the heart. Some honour God “ with their lips, bug their heart is far from Him.” You meet an acquaintance, and complain that he was distant, i.e., he was not hearty. 2. With sincerity. “ A true heart.” We may be hearty without being honest. 3. With faith. Note the relative position of this. Only hearty and honest seekers will ever be true believers, such always will “ in an honest and good heart receive the word.” Bug though faith is placed after heartiness and honesty, let it not be overlooked-otherwise our coming is vain. 4. “ With a pure heart.” Sprinkled from an evil conscience, &c. Conscience no longer accuses; our sins are forgiven. Conscience no longer sleeps, allowing us to sin, but is restored to its original office. Conscience is no longer defiled; it is washed, purged. Outward life is, therefore, right--“ Our bodies washed with pure water.” II. “ LET US HOLD FAST.” 1. What to? “ The profession of our faith,” or, “ the confession of our hope.” This is a better rendering. Christianity is a hope--“ Christ in you the hope of glory.” That is Christianity in a sentence. The confession is the outward sign of the invisible hope. Duty to confess, and to hold fast to the confession. 2. “ Hold fast.” A drowning man, holding a rope, brings all the nervous force of his system into his hands, and clings for dear life. Put all the force of the soul into faith, and so cling to Jesus. 3. “ Without wavering.” Very fashionable now to doubt; and we are told if, we certainly believe anything we cannot grow. Be it so. We can only be safe, happy, strong, or useful, by being fully decided--by ceasing to waver. III. “ LET US .” A Christian man is a thoughtful man. From the nature of his position--saved from the wreck--he is in a position to look around--to think. 1. “ To provoke one another.” Not to say: “ I am safe,” or, “ I shall enjoy religion” ; but to consider the work of your fellows and the wants of others. Not to say: “ How little can I do,” but how much. 2. “ Provoke one another.” 3. “ To love and good works.” Who shall love most, who shall do most, is the only question worth asking- the only provocation Christianity allows. (J. Colwell.) Faith, hope, and love: The apostle’ s great argument is concluded, and the result is placed before us in a very short summary. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way; and we have in the heavenly sanctuary a great Priest over the house of God. On this foundation rests a threefold exhortation. 1. Let us draw near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith. 2. Let us hold fast the profession of hope without wavering. 3. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, labouring and waiting together, and helping one another in the unity of brethren. Faith, hope, and love--this is the threefold result of Christ’ s entrance into heaven, spiritually discerned. A believing, hoping, and loving attitude of heart corresponds to the new covenant revelation of Divine grace. 1. Having received, through Christ’ s sacrifice and Christ’ s present priesthood boldness, a full right of access into the holy of holies, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. The privilege is right of access unto God, the duty is that of approach; and no man values the right of access who does not desire to approach. There can be nothing which really satisfies the heart of any man in being told that he is at liberty to approach God, if he has no inclination to approach unto God. We can only approach with our heart, and by faith, which has its seat in the heart; with a heart which is in earnest, true, and purposeful in this very work of approach. God desireth truth in the inward part. A true heart is a heart which accepts the testimony of God, which distrusts itself, which believes God’ s Word, declaring our sin, guilt, and helplessness, and which responds simply, and without reservation, humbly and joyfully to the Divine gospel of the gift of God, eternal life through the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. A true heart is a heart purified by trust in Jesus. A true heart is a heart which desires to be with God and to live unto Him. What is meant by full assurance of faith? Nothing else but faith in full, vigorous, healthy exercise. Faith in what? Not faith in our having faith, in our being accepted; but faith that we have a right of access, that Jesus is the living way, and that He is the High Priest in the holy of holies. The object of faith, of the weakest and smallest spark of faith, as much as of faith in plenitude or full assurance, is not ourselves, but Christ in His person and work. The eye does not see itself; faith is not to stand on itself; your full assurance is to be that Christ’ s blood is precious, and that He has entered as the Forerunner. Then you are at peace. Faith means trust, reliance, confidence, leaning. There is no other worthy of trust, none else reliable but Jesus. But if you wish to have an additional object of faith in your own progress and spirituality, you are, like Peter, looking away from Jesus unto the unstable sea. Nor have I any other proof of my faith’ s genuineness yesterday, but my exercising faith this moment. It is an ever-present tense--“ He that believeth hath eternal life.” 2. We are exhorted to hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering. Before the First Advent believers looked forward in faith and hope to the good things to come. Believing the promise, they expected in hope the glory of Messiah’ s reign. With us this unity of faith and hope is substantially the same; but it appears now in a twofold manner. Faith rests on the past, the accomplished work of Jesus; hope looks to the future, the return of our Saviour. And the more we realise Jesus as the living Lord, the more shall we look forward, waiting for His coming, and going forth to meet Him. If we believe that He has come, we also hope that He will come. The profession of our hope is most practical and testing. Hereby we profess that we are strangers and pilgrims upon earth, that we are seeking heavenly things, labouring for heavenly rewards, laying up for ourselves heavenly treasures. We must forsake the sins, pleasures, and honours of Egypt; we must purify ourselves, as Christ is pure. If we profess hope, we must also rejoice, though we be in tribulation; we must view the sufferings and trials of this present life as not worthy to be compared with the coming glory. Then hope, resting on faith, supports faith, and fills us with courage and patience. “ Till I come,” is the voice of the Saviour, when faith beholds His dying love; and going forth to meet Him, going forth out of the world’ s sin, bondage, gloom, is the response of the bride. 3. But in thus drawing near unto God, and holding fast the profession of our hope, we must bear in mind that we are called to be a brotherhood, and that faith and hope are to be exercised in love. We are the body of Christ, and members one of another. We are to please not ourselves, but our brother unto edification. We are to consider one another as fellow pilgrims; to study our brother’ s need and sorrow, difficulty and trial; to exercise our mind on our duty and relation to him, that thus we may be helpful to him in his course, and stimulate and encourage him to good works. To consider one another in the right spirit is to look above all at the Christian character of our brother; to regard him, not so much in the light of his natural disposition; to love him, not so much on account of qualities congenial and pleasing to us; still less to exercise criticism, and to cherish suspicion and uncharitable judgment; but to fix our thought on the one great fact of brotherhood in Christ. And running together in a holy rivalry the same race, we should behold in our brother features of Christian character and activity in which we are deficient. And in this spirit of love we should cherish Christian communion; “ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” Christianity is eminently an individual heart-affair; but it is also eminently social. The promise of Christ’ s presence is to the assembly gathered in His name. (A. Saphir.) Drawing near to God I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS, “ Let us draw near.” 1. Sin has set us at a distance from God (Isaiah 59:2). 2. Sinners stand at a distance from God till they be called, and that powerfully (John 6:44). (1) Insensible sinners will not (John 5:40). (2) Sensible sinners dare not (Luke 5:8). II. WE MAY DRAW NEAR TO GOD. Glad news this to poor sensible sinners! Come in, ye blessed of the Lord; why do you stand back? you may draw near to God. For 1. God is on a throne of grace in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19). 2. There is a way to the throne never trod, nor designed to be trod, by any but sinners such as you, and the like of you. This is no back entry, but the most glorious way to the throne. Adam had a way to it, but that is blocked up; there is a new and living way consecrated for us (Hebrews 10:20). 3. He is a friend of ours who is set over the house of God (Hebrews 10:21). III. WE OUGHT TO DRAW NEAR: “ Let us draw near.” For 1. It is the command of God (James 4:8). 2. If we do not draw near to God, we dis-honour His Son, and so dishonour Himself, in so far as we frustrate the great design of the mystery of Christ (John 5:23). IV. OF THE SUBJECT, in an use of exhortation. 1. Come back, sinners, draw near towards God and duty. What have you gained by going from Him? 2. Not only draw towards God, but come forward, and draw near to Him as a God in Christ. You may get near to Him ere you come to heaven; in His ordinances in the lower house, there you may have access to Him. Particularly, let us draw near to Him (1) In prayer (chap. 4:16). (2) In the holy sacrament of the supper. God is again coming to us in that ordinance: an ordinance appointed for the most special nearness out of heaven (1 Corinthians 10:16). 3. Let us draw near in these ordinances (1) As rebels accepting the King’ s peace, indemnity in the blood of His Son; draw near, and welcome (Isaiah 27:5). (2) As petitioners to the King. (3) As servants of the house, to serve our Lord, to wait upon Him, and behold His glory (Psalms 116:16). (4) As friends; friends of God, to have fellowship with Him, who may freely converse with Him: to unbosom ourselves to Him, and to be let into the secrets of the covenant (John 15:15). (5) As children to a Father in Christ, to receive the portion of children. (6) As a spouse to a husband, for our Maker is our Husband. Let us embrace Him in the arms of faith, give the love of the heart to Him a full Son 8:6). 4. But how must the business of our drawing near to God be managed? The apostle here lays down four directions: (1) Draw near to God sincerely. Hypocrisy is a disease in the vitals of religion; it pretends one thing and intends another. (2) Draw near in the “ full assurance of faith.” Faith’ s special object is the blood of Christ. (3) Get your hearts beforehand “ sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Are you to come to His table? pray that all controversies be done away between you and Him. If you are to appear before the Lord, go, dip, wash, bathe in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1) that you may be clean. (4) Let your outward conversation be blameless, free from scandalous sins Psalms 24:4). (T. Boston, D. D.) Drawing near to God I. THE DUTY HERE . To draw near to God, in the sense of our text, is to seek Him in the use of the appointed means of grace, that we may be restored to His favour and image, and enjoy a heartfelt sense of that restoration. 1. We draw near to God when we engage properly in the solemn exercise of public worship. 2. Again, we draw near to God when we engage properly in the exercise of social worship. 3. We also draw near to God, in a peculiar sense, when we engage properly in the exercise of secret devotion. II. How THIS DUTY MAY BE . TO draw near “ with a true heart,” means to worship God with sincerity, which is an indispensable ingredient in Christian piety. But do not confound sincerity with worthiness: that is another thing altogether. If we wait for a blessing at the hand of God till we are worthy of it, we shall die unblessed, and be lost for ever. We have nothing to plead but the worthy name of Jesus, and we need no other; and while we pray in His name, we may know ourselves sincerer however unworthy. The “ assurance of faith” is a firm persuasion, a satisfactory evidence, that God does accept, pardon, save, and bless us, for Christ’ s sake; and this firm persuasion, this satisfactory evidence, arises, not only from the exceeding great and precious promises of His Word, but chiefly from the direct influence of His Spirit, bearing witness with our spirit that we are His children. “ Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” There are some evils from which a man may escape; but shall a man flee from a guilty conscience? As well might he endeavour to escape from his shadow when the sun is shining. Wherever he goes, or whatever he does, he feels self-reproach and a sense of the displeasure of the Almighty. Now let us accept the call of grace, be sprinkled from an evil conscience, and restored to the favour and image of God, that, like the apostle, we may “ have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” “ And our bodies washed with pure water,” in Christian baptism. Water baptism is an outward sign of the inward grace of purification. III. A FEW BRIEF, . 1. The first inference from the whole subject is, whoever neglects the means of grace, deprives himself of religious enjoyment. 2. The next inference is, they who use the means of grace will profit thereby. 3. Finally, we infer from this text, what is elsewhere plainly declared, “ Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” (T. A. Morris, D. D.) Approach to God On one occasion the Reformer paid a pastoral visit to a young scholar who was in his last illness, and one of the first inquiries made was, “ What do you think you can take to God, in whose presence you are so shortly to appear?” With striking confidence the youth at once replied, “ Everything that is good, dear father--everything that is good!” “ But how can you bring Him everything good, seeing that you are but a poor sinner?” anxiously asked the Doctor. “ Dear father,” at once added the young man, “ I will take to my God in heaven a penitent, humble heart, sprinkled with the blood of Christ.” “ Truly that is everything good,” answered Luther. “ Then go, dear son; you will be a welcome guest to God.” (Anecdotes of Luther.) Abiding in the holiest of all: Some speak as if the “ Let us draw near” meant prayer, and that in our special approach to’ God in acts of worship we enter the holiest of all. No; great as this privilege is, God has meant something for us infinitely greater. We are to draw near, and dwell always, to live our life and do our work within the sphere, the atmosphere of the inner sanctuary. It is God’ s presence makes holy ground; God’ s immediate presence in Christ makes any place the holiest of all: and this is it into which we are to draw nigh, and in which we are to abide. There is not a single moment of the day, there is not a circumstance or surrounding, in which the believer may not be kept dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. (Andrew Murray.) The effect of dwelling in the holiest of all: Enter into the holiest of all, and dwell there. It will enter thee, and transform thee and dwell in thee. And thy heart will be the holiest of all, in which He dwells. (Andrew Murray,) Full assurance of faith Assurance of faith, and assurance of salvation: The full assurance of faith is a firm and full reliance on God and on. Christ, founded on a firm conviction that what is made known to us in the gospel is true. It has nothing to do with a belief in, or persuasion of, our own personal salvation. No one need wait, then, for this before he approaches God in prayer. Without any thought of self, except as we are conscious of weakness, of want, and of unworthiness, we may with boldness enter in the holiest of all, if we have a firm faith in God and in Christ. Is there, then, some may be ready to ask, no such thing as assurance of personal salvation? Granting that this is not to be confounded with that full assurance of faith of which the apostle speaks, may there not, nevertheless, be such a thing as this personal assurance of salvation, and may we not speak of it under other and more appropriate phraseology? To this I reply at once that there is such a thing, and that Christians may not only speak of it, but ought to seek earnestly, each one for himself, to attain to it. Christians are enjoined to examine themselves, so as to ascertain whether they are in a state of salvation or not; to be very earnest and diligent to certify their calling and election of God; to desire and aim at the attainment of firm and steadfast hope of eternal blessedness: and to regard the possession of joy in the Lord as a blessing to be asked of God, and a state of mind to be continually cherished by the believer. But obviously all this would be in vain if it be not possible for Christians to have some well-founded assurance that they are in a state of salvation. But whilst this seems unquestionably true, and whilst, therefore, there is such a thing as personal assurance of salvation, the doctrine has often been presented in such a way as to engender serious mistakes and lead to very dangerous errors. To some of them I must now advert. 1. It is an error to suppose that assurance of personal salvation does not admit of degrees; in other words, that it may be as full and strong in one just entering on the Christian life as it can be in one who has kept the faith for many years, and has passed through the varied experience of the Christian course. “ In ordinary cases,” says a man eminent for his ability, piety, and experience, “ I entertain a better opinion of the modest, doubting, and fearful professor than of the bold and assured one.” 2. Another error on this head is, that assurance of personal salvation is essential to salvation. This is held by those who teach that the faith which justifies is a confident assurance that the individual is himself in Christ, and so saved; and it is involved in the opinion of those who teach that every man who is in Christ knows this, and so is assured of his own safety. Now nothing can be more unscriptural than such doctrines. In all the New Testament there is not a single instance in which the apostles indicate, in the most distant way, that saving faith is a man’ s belief in his own salvation. No; their invariable cry was, Repent, and believe in Christ; accept the offered salvation through faith in Him. Trust in Him; rest on Him; come unto God through Him and be saved. It is no doubt true that to believe in Christ is to trust in Him for our own individual salvation, for the forgiveness of our own sins and the salvation of our own souls. But to trust in Him for our salvation is a very different thing from believing that we are actually saved in Him; to have assurance that His work affords a sufficient ground for us to rest upon as well as others, is a very different thing from having assurance that we are actually resting on that work for salvation; to know that Christ “ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it,” is a very different thing from knowing that He loved us and gave Himself for us. “ Nothing,” says the sagacious Andrew Fuller, “ can be an object of faith except what God has revealed in His Word; but the interest that any individual has in Christ, and the blessings of the Gospel, more than another is not revealed. God has nowhere declared concerning any of us, as individuals, that we shall be saved; all that He has revealed on this subject respects us as characters. He has abundantly promised that all who believe in Him, love Him, and obey Him shall be saved; and a persuasion, that if we sustain these characters we shall be saved is doubtless an exercise of faith; but whether we do or not is an object not of faith, but of consciousness … The grand object on which faith fixes is the glory of Christ, and not the happy condition we are in as interested in Him … If we be concerned only for our own security, our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins.” To these wise and weighty words I can add nothing, and nothing needs to be added. 3. The last error I notice is, that we can arrive at assurance of our own personal salvation otherwise than by means of a holy life. This is the criterion which Scripture everywhere proposes; and when any other is proposed, the door is opened for all manner of delusions and fanaticism. If men imagine they can directly see the existence of faith in their souls, or if they suppose that a conviction of their being of the number of the elect is borne in on their souls by the Holy Spirit, or if they infer from some pleasant feelings in their own minds that they are the objects of God’ s favour, they are either deluding themselves with what is impossible, or they are trusting to what may be a mere fancy or passing emotion of their own minds. The only sure evidence of our being in a state of grace, is our being in heart and life holy. From this two things follow. The one is, that no man can in this life be absolutely sure that he is sated, because no man in this life can become perfectly holy; the other is, that as holiness of heart and life is salvation, it is only in proportion as this is attained that we have any real ground for believing that we are personally saved. “ By their fruits,” said our Lord, “ ye shall know them.” The great thing for us is to apply the right test to ourselves, and to look for those signs of salvation in ourselves which our Lord and His apostles have laid down, that we might try ourselves by them. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.) Full assurance of faith: Not with a quarter or half wind, but with full assurance, such a gale of faith as fills the sails of the soul, and makes it set up its top-gallant as it were. (J. Trapp.) Hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience Sins of ignorance and weakness: Among the reasons which may be assigned for the observance of prayer at stated times, there is one which is very obvious, and yet perhaps is not so carefully remembered and acted upon as it should be. I mean the necessity of sinners cleansing themselves from time to time of the ever-accumulating guilt which loads their consciences. We are ever sinning; and though Christ has died once for all to release us from our penalty, yet we are not pardoned once for all, but according as, and whenever each of us supplicates for the gift. By the prayer of faith we appropriate it; but only for the time, not for ever. Guilt is again contracted, and must be again repented of and washed away. 1. First consider our present condition, as shown us in Scripture. Christ has not changed this, though He has died; it is as it was from the beginning--I mean our actual state as men. The history of redemption, if it is to be effectual, must begin from the beginning with every individual of us, and be curried on through our own life. (1) When this is borne in mind, how important the Jewish Law becomes to us Christians! important in itself, over and above all references contained in it to that gospel which it introduced. To this day it fulfils its original purpose of impressing upon man his great guilt and feebleness. Those legal sacrifices and purifications which are now all done away, are still evidence to us of a fact which the gospel has not annulled--our corruption. (2) Next, to pass from the Jewish law, you will observe that God tells us expressly in the history of the fall of Adam, what the legal ceremonies implied; that it is our very nature which is sinful. Herein is the importance of the doctrine of original sin. It is very humbling, and as such the only true introduction to the preaching of the gospel. “ Thy first father hath sinned” : this is the legend on our forehead which even the sign of the Cross does no more than blot out, leaving the mark of it. This is our shame; but I notice it here, not so much as a humbling thought, as with a view of pressing upon Tour consciences the necessity of appearing before God at stated seasons, in order to put aside the continually-renewed guilt of your nature. Who will dare go on day after day in neglect of earnest prayer, and the Holy Communion, while each day brings its own fearful burden, coming as if spontaneously, springing from our very nature, but not got rid of without deliberate and direct acts of faith in the Great Sacrifice which has been set forth for its removal? (3) Further, look into your own souls and see if you cannot discern some part of the truth of the Scripture statement, which I have been trying to set before you. Recollect the bad thoughts of various kinds which come into your minds like darts; for these will be some evidence to you of the pollution and odiousness of your nature. Even if you reject them, still do they not answer Satan’ s purpose m inflaming your mind at the instant, and so evidence that the matter of which it is composed is corruptible? 2. Again, reflect on the habits of sin which we super-added to our evil nature before we turned to God. Instead of checking the bad elements within us, perhaps we indulged them for years; and they truly had their fruit unto death. Then Adam’ s sin increased, and multiplied itself within us; there was a change, but it was for the worse, not for the better; and the new nature we gained, far from being spiritual, was twofold more the child of hell than that with which we were born. So when, at length, we turned back into a better course, what a complicated work lay before us, to unmake ourselves! And however long we have laboured at it, still how much unconscious, unavoidable sin, the result of past transgression, is thrown out from our hearts day by day in the energy of our thinking and acting! 3. Further, consider how many sins are involved in our obedience, I may say from the mere necessity of the case; that is, from not having that more vigorous and clear-sighted faith which would enable us accurately to discern and closely to follow the way of life. We stand before God as the Israelites at the passover of Hezekiah, who desired to serve God according to the Law, but could not do so accurately from lack of knowledge; and we can but offer, through our Great High Priest, our sincerity and earnestness instead of exact obedience, as Hezekiah did for them. What I have said is a call upon you, in the first place, to daily private prayer. Next, it is a call upon you to join the public services of the Church, not only once a week, but whenever you have the opportunity; knowing well that your Redeemer is especially present where two or three are gathered together. Christ died once, long since: by communicating in His Sacrament, you renew the Lord’ s death: you bring into the midst of you that Sacrifice which took away the sins of the world; you appropriate the benefit of it, while you eat it under the elements of bread and wine. (J. H.Newman, D. D.) Healing the evil conscience: Suppose that all the people in the place where we live had some disease of the eye, and that in consequence some were not able to see at all, while none of them were able to see anything clearly. What a sad state of things this would be! We read of persons in the Bible who were just in this condition (2 Kings 6:1-33.). It is a good thing that we have no such trouble with our bodily eyes; but the soul has an eye as well as the body. God has put these eyes in our bodies that we may see where to go and what to do. And so God has given to our souls that which we call conscience, and which shows us what is right and what is wrong--what we ought to do and what we ought not to do. But the apostle speaks in our text of “ an evil conscience.” This means a conscience that has been injured like a diseased eye, so that we cannot see clearly. I. WHAT IS THE USE OF ? 1. To guide us and keep us from doing wrong. You know we have reins for our horses to keep them in the way they should go; and our consciences are the reins by which God guides us, and if we only mind the reins we shall save ourselves from sin and sorrow. 2. To keep an account of what we do. Conscience is God’ s scribe or private secretary; it writes down all that we do, or say, or think, or feel. During the reign of Queen Mary, Bishop Latimer was brought to trial for conscience’ sake. In the room in which the trial took place was a curtain, and behind this curtain a man writing. Whenever the bishop answered a question he heard the sound of this man’ s pen as he wrote down each word that was spoken. The bishop said that the sound of that pen made him very careful to say nothing but what was strictly true. And this shows us how we should act at all times. Conscience, God’ s secretary, is writing down everything that we do, “ whether it be good or whether it be evil.” And the book in which this is written is “ the book of God’ s remembrance,” of which the Bible tells us, and out of which we are to be judged at last. 3. As a detector, to find out sin after it has been committed. You know we have what are called detective police. When a robbery has taken place, or a murder has been committed, the business of these men is to try and find out the guilty ones. And God makes use of conscience as His detective police to find out those who have sinned secretly. II. How MAY BE INJURED? 1. By not giving it good light. We have compared conscience to the eye of the soul. We may also compare it to the window of the soul. A window is of use for letting light into room, and also for looking through, that we may see what is outside of the window. But if we wish to have a correct view of the things that we are looking at through a window, what sort of glass is it necessary to have in the window? Clear glass. Suppose that the glass in the window instead of being clear is stained glass--one pane red, another blue, another yellow, and another green. When we look through the red glass what colour will the things be that we are looking at? Red. And so, when we look through the blue glass all things will be blue, they will be yellow when we look through the yellow glass, and green when we look through the green glass. But suppose we have thick, heavy shutters to the window, and keep them closed. Can we see anything through the window then? No. And can we see anything in the room when the shutters are closed? No; it will be dark. And conscience is like a window in this respect. We must keep the shutters open and the windows clean, so that plenty of pure light can get in if we wish to see things plainly. God’ s blessed Word, the Bible, gives us exactly the kind of light we need in order to have a good conscience. Let us be careful that we do not injure our consciences by not letting in this light. 2. By not minding what they say. The apostle Paul speaks in one place of men’ s consciences, which, he says, have been “ seared with a hot iron” 1 Timothy 4:2). Notice how thin and tender is the skin on your hand or face. It is so delicate that it can feel the slightest touch. Not even a feather can rest upon it without your feeling it. But suppose you should have a red-hot iron applied to your hand. It would burn the skin off, and make a sore which would give you great pain. Afterwards it would heal over, and the skin would grow again, but the new skin would be very different from that on your hand now. Instead of being smooth and tender like this, it would be rough and hard, and have very little feeling. And the apostle means to say that if we do not mind what our consciences tell us we shall injure them just as the skin of our hand is injured by being “ seared with a hot iron.” You know what an alarm-clock is. It is a kind of clock made to wake persons at a particular hour by making a loud noise. Suppose you have one of these clocks, and you wish it to waken you so that you can rise every morning at four o’ clock. You wind it up at night and set the index-finger on the dial-plate pointing to four. The clock keeps on through the night, ticking away, till four o’ clock in the morning. Then it begins to strike and ring, and makes such a racket as is sure to wake any ordinary sleeper. This is a very convenient way of being roused from sleep. Yes, it is a sure way, if you only mind the clock, and get up when it calls you. But if you turn over and go to sleep again for two or three mornings, the alarum-clock will lose its power, or rather you will lose your power of hearing it or of being awakened by it. No change will take place in the clock, but a great change will take place in yon. The clock will continue to sound the alarm at the proper hour, and it will make as much noise as ever it did, but it will lose its effect. You will sleep quietly on, just as though the alarm had never been given. Now, conscience is God’ s alarum-clock. If we stop when it says “ stop,” if we do what it tells us to do, then we shall always hear it; but if we get into the habit of not heeding its warning, and not doing what it tells us to do, then by and by we shall cease to hear it. III. How MAY AN EVIL BE HEALED? The answer to this question will depend upon the way in which we injure our consciences. We may injure them by doing wrong to those about us, or by sinning against God. And this must be taken into account in saying how the injured conscience can be healed. Suppose we feel distressed in our consciences on account of some wrong done to a friend or neighbour; then the way to get rid of this trouble, and heal our injured conscience, is to go and tell that friend of the fault--to say that we are sorry for it, and ask his forgiveness, thus making up for the wrong we have done. But if our consciences are troubled on account of our sins against God, then how are they to be healed. How are we to get rid of this trouble? Oh, it is dreadful to feel that God is angry with us I When we know that this is the case we never can be happy till our sins are pardoned and our consciences are healed; and it is for this reason that the Bible tells us of Jesus as “ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” He shed His precious blood and died for us on purpose that our sins may be pardoned, and we may be at peace with God. And this is what the apostle refers to in the text when he speaks of “ having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” (R. Newton, D. D.) The cure for an evil conscience Of course, the expression “ sprinkled” is metaphorical. It means that we must receive into our hearts a sense and full belief of the efficacy of the death of Jesus Christ to cancel all our guilt and condemnation, and of the power of the Holy Spirit to make us yet good and holy and fit for the presence of God. And when we use the word “ sprinkled,” it is to convey the excessive strength and efficacy and virtue of the grace of God--so that even though we may not yet be flooded with that spiritual “ blood” and that spiritual “ water,” its very drops will do the work I And if only you let your heart be imbued with the love of Jesus Christ and the faith which is in Him, and if you accept the gentle distillings of the Holy Ghost upon your soul, you shall be saved--saved from the torment of your own conscience now, and from “ the worm that dieth not, and the fire that never shall be quenched” hereafter--because then the conscience that you are in Christ--and the conscience which God will give you of His perfect pardon and love--will entirely neutralise and destroy all power to hurt and distress you--in the conscience of all the sins you have ever done; and “ the sprinkled heart” will kill the venom of “ an evil conscience.” That gnawing canker! that dogging fear! that burden too heavy to be borne! that black future! There they are! Who sent them? God. And why did He send them? Because He loves you. And who shall take them away? God. Only God. Place yourself under the “ sprinkling” ; if you cannot, ask Him to place you. Beg the great High Priest to “ sprinkle” you; to do it at once, because you are at the worst, and just going to die. The “ water” and the “ blood” are always in His hand. And He is always pouring them out. Only lay bare your secret. Then open your heart of hearts to take it in. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) An evil conscience: When the compass loses its proper polarity at sea, the whole course of the vessel might be altered by it; and when the conscience loses its right direction, its responsibility to God, its deference and inclination to His law, by its continued violation of the higher duties, the heart is filled with fears, the dispensations of Providence are suspected to be judgments, when they may be real and satisfying mercies. Conscience Neighbour Jones has a conscience that looks forward and keeps him from doing wrong. But neighbour Smith’ s conscience is of the ex post facto order, never manifesting itself till after the wrong deed is done, and then acting as a terrible avenger. How many there are of this kind, always sinning and always repenting! No class of men, in a moral point of view, suffer so much as they. An evil conscience When Professor Webster was awaiting his trial, he brought against his fellowprisoners the charge of insulting him through the walls of his cell, and screaming to him, “ You are a bloody man!” On examination it was found that the charge was wholly groundless, and that these accusing voices were imaginary, being but the echo of a guilty conscience. If such things can be done in earth’ s prisons, what are sinners to look for in a future world? Oh, what taunts and curses shall pierce the ears of these who lie down in hell! Conscience will have a terrific power of starting such accusations, and then an ear of keen sensibility to receive the echoes as they roll back upon the soul What an occupation for eternity! What inconceivable agony to be shut up with the ghostly memories of past sin, and to hear, through long centuries of gloom and despair, only the uttered and echoed curses which sin brings down upon the soul! Oh for that grace which sprinkles our hearts from an evil conscience! Saved from an evil conscience: The sailors on the French coast have a legend, that beneath the waters as they lap the shore, deep down, there are the ruins of a buried city, and that on still, quiet nights it is possible for a voyager to overhear the music of the church bells as they gently sound fathoms deep. So in the heart of every man there is, deep down, the buried power of conscience, and in days of pain and sickness and loneliness and bereavement, of holy ministry and quickening, the voice of conscience, fathoms deep, is heard in the breast of man, speaking for God and truth, and of judgment to come. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Hold fast the profession of our faith Holding fast our profession: I. WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE by the grace of God. If we read the text according to our present authorised translation, we have faith. We have made a public avowal of our faith. We have obtained what the apostle calls “ like precious faith” : it is a rare jewel, and he is rich that possesseth it. But another reading--and a very good reading too--runs thus: “ The confession of our hope.” If we have faith we have hope. We will take both renderings; for they are both correct in fact if not in the letter. We have a blessed hope, a hope most “ sure and steadfast, which entereth into that which is within the veil.” The day of our Lord’ s appearing will be the day of the redemption of the body from the dust with which it mingles. We have a joyful, glorious, blessed hope which purifies, and comforts, and strengthens, and sustains us, and this hope is in us now. Are we not enriched with the grace of God? Where faith and hope are found, love cannot be far off; for the three Divine sisters are seldom separated. Let us love the Lord who has given us the first two. II. We have made A OF OUR FAITH, AND A OF OUR HOPE, By the memories of the day when you made that profession, be firm in it to the end. If you were not false then, if you were not deceivers then, hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering, for” He is faithful that promised.” Let us remember also the many times in which we have repeated that profession of faith, that confession of hope; for instead of retracting it, we have gone on to repeat it. We have been marked anew with the King’ s name. If you ask how you have renewed your vows, I reply: you have done it many a time at the table of communion. You have repeated your profession in the shop, and in the market, and in the place of business, and among your friends, and in your family, and to the partner of your life. Those around you know you to be professedly an heir of heaven, a child of God: it is well that they should. We have considered how we began this profession, and we have also seen how often we have made it since. Let us think for a minute what it has cost us. Religion has cost many of its disciples somewhat dear: but it has cost nothing compared with its worth. What bashfulness it cost you to make the first confession of your faith! What a struggle it then appeared! You cried to God about it and you obtained courage; and now you wonder how you could have been so foolishly timid. Do not in future fall into the same fears. But perhaps some of you lost the friendship of many by becalming disciples of the Lord Jesus. I know one who became a member of this Church: she had moved in high and fashionable circles, but she said to me, “ They have left me--everyone of them.” I said, “ I am very thankful; for it will save you the trouble of quitting them. They will do you no good if they profess to be your friends; and they will do you less harm by giving you the cold shoulder.” It is about the best thing that happens to a Christian man when worldlings cut his acquaintance. III. WHAT ARE WE NOW TO DO? 1. We are called upon to hold fast the profession of our faith. (1) Of course this includes the holding fast of your faith. (2) Hold you next to your hope. 2. But that is not the text. It is hold fast your profession of faith, your confession of hope; that is to say, stand to what you have done by way of avowment of these things. Constantly keep up your confession. You made it once. Renew it. IV. WHY ARE WE TO DO THIS? We are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, because He is faithful that has promised. Have you found Him faithful? Has the Lord failed you? Has the Lord been untrue in His promises to you? If He has, then do not hold fast your profession. If, after all, it has been a mistake and a delusion, then give it up. But if He is faithful that has promised--if till this moment you have proved the power of prayer, the wisdom of providence, and the truth of the Sacred Word, then deal with my Lord as He has dealt with you. Be not faithless to the Crucified. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Christian profession I. THE TO. 1. It is put on when we become the members of His visible Church. 2. It is one part of religion itself. 3. It will expose to difficulties and sufferings. (1) Assaults of Satan. (2) Opposition of world. (3) Indisposition of our own hearts. II. THE DUTY . 1. There must be decision of character. Not halting between two opinions. Not half-hearted. All our powers surrendered to God. 2. There must be constancy of spirit. Heart established, mind fixed, soul stayed upon God. Constant in duties; especially prayer, praise, reading the Divine Word, etc. Always setting the Lord before us, etc. Not as the morning cloud and early dew, &c. 3. There must be perseverance in practice. We only retain our hold by pressing onwards, etc. Not weary, but faithful unto death. 4. In short, we must hold fast our profession. (1) By the exercise of vigorous faith. (2) By the constraining influence of Christ’ s love. (3) By the cheering attractions of a lively hope. (4) By the supporting and staying effects of holy patience. (5) By the continual use of all the appointed means of grace. III. SOME MOTIVES BY WHICH THIS DUTY MAY BE . Love to Jesus is a powerful motive. Gratitude for past mercies. Our present happiness, and our prospect of eternal felicity. But Christ’ s faithfulness is here laid down as the great motive. 1. He has promised to give us grace to hold fast our profession; and “ He is faithful.” 2. He has promised to acknowledge our profession; and “ He is faithful.” 3. He has promised to reward our profession; and “ He is faithful.” Application: 1. Learn that religion requires both the devotion of the heart and the profession of the life. 2. The way to heaven is associated with conflicts. 3. Stedfastness is essential to our final salvation. 4. God has provided abundant resources for our comfort and safety. 5. The end will amply recompense for the trials of the way. (J. Burns, D. D.) An unwavering confession: Admiral Foote, of the American navy, was a very godly man. While pacing the deck at night, on the lonely seas, and talking with a pious shipmate, he became convinced of his need of a Saviour and became His disciple, remaining true to his profession to the last. He used to be called the “ Stonewall Jackson of the Navy.” He often preached to his crew on Sundays, and was ever forward in doing good. (H. O.Mackey.) Steady to the pole: Late observations have shown that under many circumstances the magnetic needle, even after the disturbing influence has been removed, will continue wavering, and require many days before it points aright and remains steady to the pole. So is it ordinarily with the soul, after it has begun to force itself from the disturbing forces of the flesh and of the world. (Coleridge’ s Aids to Reflection.) Standing.fire: Some time ago, in one of our great ships of war, there was a solitary sailor who was not ashamed to own himself a follower of Christ. For a long time he was alone; no other sailor joined him. His place of prayer was amid the noise and din of the sailors. One evening he perceived a shadow by the side of the gun. Another Jack Tar was creeping along, and said, “ May I come?” Oh, the joy of the young sailor to have a comrade with him! They met for many nights behind the gun, reading and praying. They became the butt of the men in two or three messes, but still continued, bearing and forbearing. It came to the ears of the commander, who was a Roman Catholic--but I mention this to his honour. The moment he heard that two of his sailors were meeting for reading and prayer behind one of the guns, he sent for one of them, and instantly ordered a portion of the lower deck to be curtained off, and gave orders that no one should molest them. For some nights they were the only occupants, but by and by the curtain was opened, and a blue-jacket said, “ May I come in?” He was welcomed. Another came, and another, and the last account I heard from that ship was this, that every night thirty-two were meeting for prayer, thirty of them believed to be converted characters. And there, by “ standing fire,” by standing firm, true to what was his duty, God has blessed that solitary sailor, and made him a spiritual father to at least thirty of the men on board the ship. Confidence in death: In the reign of Queen Mary of England, a man named Palmer was condemned to die. Before his death he was earnestly persuaded to recant, and among other things a friend said to him, “ Take pity on thy golden years and pleasant flowers of youth before it is too late.” His beautiful reply was, “ Sir, I long for those springing flowers which shall never fade away.” When in the midst of the flames he exhorted his companions to constancy, saying, “ We shall not end our lives in the fire, but make a change for a better life; yea, for coals we shall receive pearls.” He is faithful that promised A sure promise 1. We have a promise. We are secure; when one that is able hath passed his word, and by promise bound himself unto us, then we make sure thus far of the thing promised. The thing which we desire, and which is promised unto us, is not only the reward of eternal glory, which is the object of our hope, but power and ability with assistance to do all things necessary for the attainment thereof; for in the gospel, not only the reward, but power to perform our duty, are promised (Ephesians 1:16-19). 2. This promise is not the promise of any man or angel, but of God; this is more than if all the best men and all the holy angels had bound themselves unto us and given us all security, which possibly they could. The reason hereof is that His power is absolute and almighty, and nothing can resist or hinder it if once it begin to work. Besides, God’ s mercy is like His power, and as He is able, so is He willing to do what He hath promised, and He hath signified His will and purpose, through faith, by His power to preserve us unto salvation. 3. Yet one may be able, and for a time willing, and yet upon several reasons and motives change his mind, for the mind and will of man or angel is not absolutely immutable; and so, though perhaps they will not, yet it is possible, they may fail us. But God will not, God cannot, for God who hath promised is faithful; for as He cannot forget or be hindered by any contrary power, so He cannot change His will. If He say the word, it must be done; if He pass His promise, He will perform. This faithfulness presupposeth His power and His promise, and it is the immutability of His will, for as He is unchangeable in His being, so He is in His promise (1 Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6). So that all is sure on God’ s part, and man hath no cause to waver, except he neglect his duty; and if he perish, his destruction must be of himself. And shall we, who have so great advantage, so many helps, so blessed an opportunity, and the promise of a faithful God, neglect and injure ourselves so much as to lose this glorious and incomparable prize? Shall we come out of Egypt, and come so near the borders of the heavenly Canaan, and turn hack? or refuse to go forward? Let us detest and eternally abhor to waver; let us go on whatsoever it may cost us. (G. Lawson.) The faithfulness of God the Christian’ s support in life and death I. IT IS A FACT--“ He is faithful that promised.” 1. Of whom it is that our text speaks. “ He is faithful that promised.” Our text points to Him who fills the throne itself; we are contemplating Him as engaged to us by a covenant ordered in all things and sure; and as having communicated in consequence exceeding great and precious promises, while He is faithful to each and every promise which He has thus made. 2. We regard the Divine promises themselves. These promises are not mere movements of the Divine mind arising only under the exigencies of new circumstances or of events which spring up in the progress of time, but they flow from the deep fountains of His own grace and love; they embrace all that which is involved in the gift of His dear Son, the great work of the Saviour, the communications of the Divine Spirit, and in the application of every blessing which God has engaged to bestow on His Church on earth. They are all written with His own hand, they are all stamped with His own authority; and in His own Word they stand out in all their truth and in all their fulness. 3. We now consider the faithfulness of God to His promises. The first promise was that the seed of the woman should arrive in the fulness of time, and that He should bruise the serpent’ s head; that He should give Himself as a ransom, and purchase the Church with His own blood. That promise has been fulfilled. Then, the promise of the Holy Ghost. The Redeemer ascended up on high; and He has poured forth the Divine Spirit: it has been granted and it is still continued to the Church. II. As IT IS THE OF THE ’ S --“ He is faithful that promised.” When you are brought by the Holy Spirit to a just consideration of your own state as sinners, and with your eyes fixed upon the Infinite One, and stripped by transgression of all the rights with which you were originally invested, and when you see the manner in which God bestows everything out of His own fulness, and supplies your daily and your hourly wants; it is not on yourself or fellow-men that you can depend, for they are weak and evanescent as you are. It is not on your own works and your own productions that you can repose. It is not on your toil, your labour, your skill, or your acquisitions, that you can depend; for whatever your gains, they may take to themselves wings and fly and leave you desolate and utterly worthless. But the eye of faith contemplates the Infinite Being. It takes hold of God through His gracious word of promise; it looks at the atoning sacrifice of Jesus; it stands by that sacrifice, and embracing that Saviour as the only hope, the soul contemplates a faithful God. (Owen Clarke.) The security of the promise I. THE NATURE OF THE . 1. They flow solely from the free and sovereign good pleasure of Jehovah. 2. They have all an immediate connection with the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). 3. The form in which they are directed is not always the same, but sometimes assumes a more absolute, and sometimes a more conditional, appearance. 4. None of the promises, how conditional soever in their form, are altogether beyond the reach of sinners, so long as they are in the land of the living and place of hope. 5. They are many and various, every way suited to the numerous and diversified wants both of saints and sinners. II. SOME TENDING TO OUR IN THE DIVINE AS A THAT THE WILL BE . 1. Faithfulness is an essential perfection of the Divine nature. The name of the Lord is faithful and true. 2. The promises upon the accomplishment so much of our comfort depends are promises of grace. 3. The truth of God is pledged in the most solemn manner for the accomplishment of His promises. 4. Nothing unforeseen or unexpected can occur as a reason why we should doubt the Divine faithfulness. 5. God is omnipotent, and therefore it is not the want of power that can render Him unfaithful. 6. God is unchangeable both in His nature and purpose; it is impossible, therefore, that He can ever disappoint the hopes that His goodness has raised. (G. Campbell.) Divine promises: The doctrine of the Incarnation is a promise; it assures us that God has become man to save us from sin. The doctrine of the Atonement is a promise; it explains the ground on which God grants the pardon of sin. The doctrine of Justification is a promise that the penalty of sin may be cancelled; the doctrine of Sanctification, that the power of sin may be destroyed. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Hebrews 10:24-25 Consider one another, to provoke unto love Mutual consideration: This is a matter of very wide counsel. We consider ourselves--our health, peace, comfort, &c. as a rule, quite enough. We consider, too, our families full well. But Christian life brings us into the great broad sweep of humanity. Wherever there is another, we are to consider him. Consideration implies thought, and thought is costly material burning up the brain. I. MUTUAL IS TO BE A . If YOU place your children under Christian culture, they will develop considerate natures. Just in proportion as you do that you will feel the need of the renewing grace of God, and you will ask God’ s help through the Holy Ghost. But you must train as well as teach and pray, because God will not rain graces into your children. The Divine counsel to us is: Go to work: get the soil ready; do your duty, and help will come. II. MUTUAL IS TO BE A . Provoke unto love. You can show persons so much love that they are obliged to love you in return. III. MUTUAL IS TO BE A CHURCH . “ Not forsaking the assembling,” etc. What has that to do with mutual consideration? Why, this: it is only by commingling in the communion of the Church that we can get into these mutual relationships at all. If you forsake the assembling of yourselves together, how can we know your power or weakness, your want or your grief? How can there be something provocative to service, if you are not obedient to the roll-call, if you are not in the ranks? There is more than this in it--there is a subtle element in the fellowship of the saints that elevates the entire spiritual manhood and womanhood in us, that stirs up the flagging influence. (W. M.Statham, M. A.) Mutual Christian incitement It is better for a man to provoke himself to love and to good works than to be incited thereto by his fellows. But it is far better to be stirred by his fellows than to remain unloving and inactive. The highest state is that in which the goodness of love and the rightness of good works afford sufficient incitement; or in which love wells up, like the waters of a fountain, without any outward exciting cause, and good works are performed easily and naturally by the force of the inner life. This is the state of the Divine nature--a condition reached, it may be, only in measure by the most Godlike creatures of God. “ Love is of God” --not of His creation and of His law merely, but of God Himself. “ God islove.” This is more than can be said of some other principles essential to our spiritual life. The universe did not teach God to love, or move Him to love, but the world was born into the arms of love. And this pre-existent goodness had much to do with the objects and designs of creation. Look at love from another point. God requires us not only to love Him, but to love one another. Now, when we do love each other, we are in the best state to know God and to have the closest fellowship with Him. “ Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” “ If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Again, upon the supposition that God is love, we cannot conceive that any code of laws can issue from Him but that which love fulfils; or that in providing a remedial dispensation for man the principle of love would be overlooked. And what is the case? Love is not only the fulfilling of God’ s law, but, as embracing God and man, it is the inward realisation of God’ s great salvation. “ This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment.” In the same strain we might proceed to speak of “ good works.” There is that in shy right and useful deed which, when contemplated, may justly move a man to perform it. When you do what is “ true,” “ honest,” “ pure,” “ lovely,” and “ Christian,” you are embodying an idea conceived in eternity; you are working out a deathless principle; you are rising into the ideal of your nature; you are expressing that which the Creator designed to utter in the creature; you are yielding to Christ the fruits of His mission; you are doing what in some form or other will never be destroyed; you are in harmony with those numberless and immeasurable spheres of creation that have never moved back to chaos; you are walking and working with God. Men at different times in the Christian age have been very busy defining good works--showing what must precede good works, and marking the precise position they occupy in the Christian life. And this philosophising has not worn itself out yet. We often feel moved to say, “ Don’ t talk about good works, but do them.” “ Never mind what place they take in your creed, give them a chief place in your life.” “ Do not stay to explain them, for while thus engaged the opportunity to do some good is let slip.” But let us try to get nearer the point of our text. We are required to incite each other to love and to good works--and to consider one another in order to incite one another. This is opposed to being careless and indifferent--to being envious and malicious--to efforts at practical deterioration and detraction. Let us meditate separately on the incitement and the consideration. I. THE . 1. We need stimuli to unfold our souls and to open our hands. To see that a thing is right ought perhaps to be enough to incline us to be it, and to do it; but in many cases it is not enough. We are idle, and shrink from the exertion--self-willed, and kick at the constraint--dispirited and weakened by distrust--isolated, and we cry complainingly, “ I am left alone.” We need to be provoked. 2. And the text tacitly declares that we can incite each other. That men provoke each other to evil works and to hatred is a fact universally known--but the power to incite, and the susceptibility of being incited, are asreally capacities for good as for evil. The electric telegraph can convey truth and falsehood, evil report and good report; and human influence may awaken human sympathy, and arouse purpose and will both for right and for wrong. 3. The incitement required is both general and special. There is that which shall make others “ ready to every good work,” and that which shall provoke to some particular ministration. For the former Paul instructs Titus when, having repeated the great facts of the dispensation of mercy, he writes, “ These things affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God may be careful to maintain good works.” So that, according to Paul, contemplation of the love of God and of Christ is one means of maintaining good works. This is like connecting a minor wheel in a piece of machinery with the main movement. Our heart is to be incited by connection with God’ s heart. For the more special incitement we have the pattern of Paul when he moved Corinth to imitate Macedonia in their liberality to the poor saints in Judaea. To say to our fellow believers with respect to any good work, “ Do this--it needs doing--you can do it--you ought to do it--God will prosper your effort--I will help you--if you do it not the omission will be sin” --is to provoke to good works. And to make peace between those that are at enmity; to express faith in a good man when others utter causeless suspicion; to show hope where others are tempted to rejoice in alleged iniquity; to endure when others are irritated; to cover another’ s faults, and to set forth another’ s virtues--is to provoke to love. II. THE HERE . This is based upon observation--we must know each other, and to know we must observe. Theincitement will be regulated by what we observe and by what we discern. One needs be moved to fear through warning, another moved to hope by encouragement, and another quickened by emulation. One may be incited by going before him, and letting him see you lead; but another by following him, and making him hear the fall of your quicker step. But no one is to be left as savourless salt, and as reprobate silver, or as a broken vessel, until after we have exhausted our resources in attempts to incite him. We arrive by this text at certain facts connected with mutual Christian influence to which we shall do well to take heed. 1. There is a serious influence of which Christians are mutually capable and susceptible. No vocation or gifts raise a Christian disciple beyond it; and no station however low is beneath its reach. When by speech I undulate the atmosphere, I know not the effect of those air waves in the universe; they flow on until they reach the shore of our firmament, and then, it may be, subside to rise again in other spheres. But far exceeding this is the influence of soul upon soul. It is not confined to the spirit we immediately move, but is transmitted from spirit to spirit, and becomes an impulse in the world of mind, both infinite and eternal. How awful is the power of soul over soul! 2. Christians are within a certain limit responsible for their influence. They are accountable, not for what that influence does, but for what that influence is. We are to try to incite to kindness and to corresponding actions. This is a good and happy influence. The direction of our influence is to be a study. Those who need this incitement are not to be passed by--but their lack of love and of good works is to awaken our consideration. 3. In the Church of Christ there should be mutual and reciprocal influence of the holiest and happiest kind. All are not apostles, all are not prophets, all are not pastors and teachers; but all are taught of God to love one another, and all may provoke to love. If any member of our body were smitten with paralysis, we should try to excite the torpid nerves; if one particular branch of a tree were barren, we should neither cut it off nor overlook it until after we had pruned it; and on the same principle we are required specially to incite those who are barren and unfruitful in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor is there any position in Christian life at which this incitement is needless, or from which it is to be withheld. 1. For Christianity’ s sake let us consider one another to provoke unto love. If careless of each other, we shall misrepresent the system to which we adhere, and those who from lack of incitement are unloving and inactive will misrepresent it too. The effect of this will be that men, instead of going to our Leader and searching His oracles to know if we correctly represent Christianity, will take our embodiment of it, and finding it not less exclusive and individual than false religion, or no religion, will refuse attention to our advocacy of its claims. 2. For God’ s sake, and for Christ’ s sake, let us consider one another to provoke unto love. Christianity is the means God has devised that His banished be not expelled from Him. The correct representation of the system is one means of applying it; so that when Christianity is misrepresented, God feels not Himself to be blasphemed merely, but His master-work to be retarded. 3. For each other’ s sake, and for our own sake, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Who of us would like to be surprised as were the foolish virgins, or to be rejected as the wicked and slothful servant? Let us provoke one another to take oil in our vessels with our lamps, and put out even our one talent to usury. Hearty discipleship to the Saviour will go far to secure this result. Love Christ yourself and you will incite others to love; do good yourself and you will provoke others to good works. Nor can you then measure your influence. The perfume which Mary’ s hand freed from its prison is fragrant still the north wind has not driven it away; the odours of the east wind have not swallowed it up; the vapours of the south and west winds have not diluted it; but in every wind it has found an untiring wing, and we are refreshed by its sweetness in the present day. But we must intend to provoke; we must consider, and observe, and know, and attend to one another. There are many impediments to love and to good works which we are required to remove. There are wrong definitions of love--our making it a sentiment, not a principle--or complacency in existent good and not benevolence. There is our waiting to do some great thing, instead of doing what our hand finds to do. The liking to serve alone while yet we complain of it; the almost fear lest others should do what we do, and be what we are; the asking that God’ s kingdom may come, and yet fearing lest in coming, “ myself,” “ my Church,” “ my ism,” should be swallowed up--all this and muchmore needs removing. (S. Martin.) The nature and source of true philanthropy: We may wind off this coil best by grasping the-line at its outer extremity., and working our way inward to the heart. Or we may explore this river best by entering its mouth from the sea, and threading our way upward till we reach its source. We begin our examination of the text, then, not at the beginning, but at the end. I. “ WORKS.” Work is the condition of life in the world. The law of both kingdoms alike is, “ If any man will not work neither should he eat.” Work has been made a necessity in the constitution of nature, and declared a duty in the positive precepts of Scripture. Idleness is both sin and misery. When a sinner is saved--when a man becomes a new creature in Christ, he is not set free from this comprehensive law. The Lord has a work of righteousness on hand, and the disciple yields himself a willing instrument. His heart is more hopeful now, and his hand more skilful. More honourable work is prescribed, and better wages wait him. Christ was a worker. He went about doing. “ Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’ s business? My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Christ was a worker, and Christians are like Him. The world is a field. It must be subdued and made the garden of the Lord. Son, daughter, “ go work to-day in My vineyard.” II. “ GOOD works.” It is not any work that will please God, or be profitable to men. A bustling life will not make heaven sure. The works must be good in design and character. The motive must be pure and the effect beneficent. But does not the gospel decry good works? You make a grand mistake if, because you are warned not to trust in good works, you grow less diligent in doing them. If a skilful architect, observing you expending your summer days and your manhood’ s strength in an effort to build a house upon the sand, should benevolently warn you that the labour would be labour lost, you would poorly profit by his counsel if you should simply desist from the work, and loiter idle near the spot. The architect, your friend, did not object to the expenditure of your time and strength in building; but he saw that the higher your wall should rise on that foundation, the more certain and more destructive would be its fall. He meant that you should find the solid rock and build there--build with all your might. The gospel rejects good works, not as the fruit of faith, but as the meritorious ground of hope before God. Life does not spring from them; but they spring from life. As ciphers, added one by one in an endless row to the left hand of a unit, are of no value, but on the right hand rapidly multiply its power, so although good works are of no avail to make a man a Christian, yet a Christian’ s good works are both pleasing to God and profitable to men. III. “ Love and good works.” Verily good works constitute a refreshing stream in this world wherever they are found flowing. It is a pity that they are too often like Oriental torrents, “ waters that fail” in the time of greatest need. When we meet the stream actually flowing and refreshing the land, we trace it upward in order to discover the fountain whence it springs. Threading our way upward, guided by the river, we have found at length the placid lake from which the river runs. Behind all genuine good works and above them love will sooner or later certainly be found. It is never good works alone; uniformly in fact, and necessarily in the nature of things, we find the two constituents existing as a complex whole, “ love and good works” --the fountain and the flowing stream. The love is manifestly in this case human in all its exercise. It is love from man to man. Like the water, it flows visibly out of the ground in the fountain, and along the ground in the river’ s bed; but, like the water, it comes secretly at first all from heaven. IV. “ PROVOKE unto love and good works.” Let us attend carefully to the meaning of the term “ provoke,” bearing in mind, however, as we proceed, that whatever kind of action the word may be found to indicate, it is action on ourselves, and not on our neighbours. The term in the original signifies, For the purpose of stirring up, or sharpening, or kindling love. We need not be surprised to find that injunction here. The love that is current in the Church is defective in kind and quality. It greatly needs to be stirred up. It is like a fire smouldering, and ready to die. Oh, for a breath from heaven to quicken it! We would fain see it bursting into a blaze, and hear all our jealousies and hollow hypocrisies crackling off in the flame. Love must be kindled into a paroxysm; for that is the original term untranslated, and that term, even in our own language, truly indicates the inspired apostle’ s mind. All the really effective machinery for doing good in the world depends for propulsion on the love that glows in human breasts: with all the revival of our own favoured times, the wheels, clogged with the thick clay of a predominating selfishness, move but slowly. Up with the impelling love into greater warmth, that it may put forth greater power! V. “ ONE ANOTHER to provoke unto love and good works.” The exercise prescribed for provoking unto love conclusively determines the persons on whom the provocation was expected to take effect. It is the considerer, not the considered, who is provoked unto love. By thinking of my brother in his need I may be stirred up to pity him, but the mental process that goes on within my breast does not touch him for good or for evil. He may not know that I am considering his case; he may not know that there is such a person in the world. When we consider the heathen in India and China our meditation takes effect, not on them, but on ourselves. It stirs up, not them to love us, but us to love them. The question here, let it be remembered, concerns not the Divine cause of love, but the human agency employed in kindling it. It is the Spirit that quickeneth; but at present we look only to the lower side--the instrumentality of men. When fire is kindled by light direct from the sun, the same two must always conspire--the descent of the burning ray from heaven, and the preparation for receiving it on earth. The solar rays must be concentrated on combustible material by means of a glass with a convex surface, held in a certain attitude, and at a certain distance. Without these preparations, even the sun in the heavens cannot kindle a flame. Thus it becomes a question of deep interest, What attitude must we assume, and what preparation must we make, in order that love, by the ministry of the Spirit, may be kindled in our hearts? Here is the prescription, short and plain: “ Consider one another.” To consider ourselves may be the means of begetting in us a desire for mercy; to consider Christ may be the means of begetting in us a trust in the Saviour; but in order to kindle in our hearts a self-denying, brother-saving love to men, the true specific is to “ consider one another.” VI. “ AND consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works.” I would not play with a word; I would not extract the doctrines of grace from a copulative conjunction. But in this passage the little word “ and” is the link by which all that we have yet gotten hangs on the higher--hangs on the highest. The exhortation to consider is the last of three which are given in an exact logical series, occupying Hebrews 10:22-24. Come to the Saviour for the cleansing of your own conscience, and abide in peace under the light of His countenance: then and thence look out upon your brother: the result of the combination will be thoughts of love and acts of kindness, as certainly and as uniformly as any of the sequences in nature. He who has drawn near and is holding fast, that is, he who has himself been forgiven through the blood of the Lamb, and is living in the consciousness of being accepted in the Beloved, cannot hate and hurt his brother. The act of considering or looking upon an object is of no avail to direct aright your own course, apart from the position in which you stand when you make your observations. A red light shines aloft at the narrow entrance of a safe harbour. A ship sweeping along the coast in a storm sees the light and makes straight for it through the waves and the darkness. She strikes a rock, and goes down in deep water. Why? This is the harbour, and the light she made for marks its mouth. Ah! it is not enough that you see the light; you must see it from a particular position, and make for it then. The right position is always correctly determined and laid down on the charts. Generally it is fixed by one or more other lights which you must see in line before you head for the harbour. “ Consider one another” --that is the last and lowest of the three lights which lead to love. The course is marked for the Christian in his chart. One clause of the instruction is, Keep your eye on that light, and run in; but another clause in combination with it, equally Divine and equally necessary, intimates that ere you can go in with safety to yourself or benefit to others, you must get into line with these other two lights which stretch away upward, and lean at last on heaven. (W. Arnot.) Motives and arguments to charity: I. I desire you to remember and consider that you are men, and as such obliged to this duty, as being very agreeable to human nature; the which, not being corrupted or distempered by ill use, doth incline to it, doth call for it, doth like and approve it, doth find satisfaction and delight therein. II. Let us consider what our neighbour is: how near in blood, how like in nature, how much in all considerable respects the same with us he is. III. Equity doth plainly require charity from us, for every one is ready not only to wish and seek, but to demand and claim love from others, so as to be much offended, and grievously to complain, if he do not find it. IV. Let us consider that charity is a right noble and worthy thing; greatly perfective of our nature; much dignifying and beautifying our soul. V. The practice of charity is productive of many great benefits and advantages to us; so that to love our neighbour doth involve the truest love to ourselves; and we are not only obliged in duty, but may be encouraged by our interest thereto: beatitude is often pronounced to it, or to some particular instances of it; and well may it be so, for it indeed will constitute a man happy, producing to him manifold comforts and conveniences of life, some whereof we shall touch. VI. Charity doth free our souls of all those bad dispositions and passions which vex and disquiet them: from those gloomy passions which cloud our mind; from those keen passions which fret our heart; from those tumultuous passions which ruffle us, and discompose the frame of our soul. VII. It consequently cloth settle our mind in a serene, calm, sweet, and cheerful state; in an even temper, and good humour, and harmonious order of soul; which ever will result from the evacuation of bad passions, from the composure such as are indifferent, from the excitement of those which are good and pleasant; “ the fruits of the Spirit,” saith St. Paul, “ are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,” or benignity; love precedeth, joy and peace follow as its constant attendants, gentleness and benignity come after as its certain effects. VIII. Charity will preserve us from divers external mischiefs and inconveniences, to which our life is exposed, and which otherwise we shall incur. IX. As charity preserveth from misehiefs, so it procureth many sweet comforts and fair accommodations of life. X. Charity doth in every estate yield advantages suitable thereto; bettering it and improving it to our benefit. XI. We may consider that secluding the exercise of charity, all the goods and advantages we have (our best faculties of nature, our best endowments of soul, the gifts of Providence, and the fruits of our industry) will become vain and fruitless, or noxious and baneful to us; for what is our reason worth, what doth it signify, if it serveth only for contriving sorry designs, or transacting petty affairs about ourselves? What is wit good for, if it must be spent only in making sport, or hatching mischief? To what purpose is knowledge, if it be not applied to the instruction, direction, admonition, or consolation of others? What mattereth abundance of wealth, if it be to be uselessly hoarded up, or vainly flung away in wicked or wanton profusion; if it be not employed in affording succour to our neighbour’ s indigency and distress? What is our credit but a mere noise or a puff of air, if we do not give a solidity and substance to it, by making it an engine of doing good? What is our virtue itself, if it be buried in obscurity or choked with idleness, yielding no benefit to others by the lustre of its example, or by its real influence? What is any talent, if it be wrapped up in a napkin; any light, if it be hid under a bushel; anything private, if it be not by good use spread out and improved to public benefit? If these gifts do minister only to our own particular advantage, to our personal convenience, glory, or pleasure, how slim things are they, how inconsiderable is their worth! XII. Charity doth hugely advance and amplify a man’ s state, putting him into the possession or fruition of all good things: it will endow, enrich, ennoble, embellish us with all the world hath of precious, of glorious, of fair; by appropriation thereof to ourselves, and acquiring of a real interest therein. XIII. If therefore we love ourselves, we must love others, and do others good; charitable beneficence carrying with it so many advantages to ourselves. We by charitable complacence do partake in their welfare, reaping pleasure from all the fruits of their industry and fortune. We by charitable assistance do enable and dispose them to make grateful returns of succour in our need. We thence assuredly shall obtain their good-will, their esteem, their commendation; we shall maintain peaceable and comfortable intercourse with them, in safety, in quiet, in good humour and cheer. Besides all other benefits we shall get that of their prayers; the which of all prayers have a most favourable audience and assured efficacy. XIV. We may consider that charity is a practice especially grateful to God, and a most excellent part of our duty; not only because He hath commanded it as such with greatest earnestness; nor only because it doth constitute us in nearest resemblance of Him; but as a peculiar experience of love and goodwill toward Him; for if we love Him, we must for His sake have a kindness for His friends, we must tender His interests, we must favour His reputation, we must desire His content and pleasure, we must contribute our endeavours toward the furtherance of these His concerns. XV. Seeing God vouchsafeth to esteem whatever is done in charity to our neighbour (if done with an honest and pious mind, as to his friends) to be done unto Himself; that in feeding our indigent neighbour we refresh him; in clothing our neighbour we comfort him; we do by charitable beneficence oblige God, and become in a manner benefactors to Him; and as such assuredly shall be requited by Him: and is not this a high privilege, a great honour, a mighty advantage to us? XVI. We may consider that charity is a very feasible and very easy duty; it requireth no sore pain, no grievous trouble, no great cost; for it consisteth only in good-will, and that which naturally springeth thence. XVII. We may consider that charity is the best, the most assured, the most easy and expedite way or instrument of performing all other duties toward our neighbour: if we would despatch, love, and all is done; if we would be perfect in obedience, love, and we shall not fail in any point; for “ love is the fulfilling of the law” ; love “ is the bond of perfectness” ; would we be secure in the practice of justice, of meekness, of humility toward all men, of constant fidelity toward our friends, of gentle moderation toward our enemies, of loyalty toward our superiors, of benignity toward our inferiors; if we would be sure to purify our minds from ill-thoughts, to restrain our tongues from ill-speaking, to abstain from all bad demeanour and dealing; it is but having charity, and infallibly you will do all this; for “ love worketh no ill to its neighbour; love thinketh no evil” ; “ love behaveth not itself unseemly.” XVIII. Charity giveth worth, form, and life to all virtue, so that without it no action is valuable in itself, or acceptable to God. Sever it from courage; and what is that but the boldness or the fierceness of a beast? From meekness and what is that but the softness of a woman, or weakness of a child? From courtesy; and what is that but affectation or artifice? From justice; what is that but humour or policy? From wisdom; what is that but craft and subtilty? What meaneth faith without it but dry opinion; what hope, but blind presumption; what; alms-doing, but ambitious ostentation; what undergoing martyrdom, but stiffness or sturdiness of resolution; what is devotion, but glozing or mocking with God? What is any practice, how specious soever in appearance, or materially good, but an issue of self-conceit or self-will, of servile fear or mercenary design? XIX. So great benefits doth charity yield; yet if it did not yield any of them, it would deserve and claim our observance; without regard to its sweet fruits and beneficial consequences, it were to be embraced and cherished; for it carrieth a reward and a heaven in itself; the very same which constituteth God Himself infinitely happy, and which beatifieth every blessed spirit, in proportion to its capacity and exercise thereof. (I. Barrow, D. D.) Mutual Christian duties I. EXPLAIN AND THE DUTIES IN THE TEXT. 1. Mutual consideration. (1) In the frailties of our common nature. (2) In the oneness of our calling as saints. (3) In our common exposedness to afflictions and dangers. (4) In our reciprocal duties both to the Church and to the world. In the body every member and part has its specific function--none without their use; so in Christ’ s Church every one must be an eye, or ear, or foot, or hand, &c. (5) In the prospect of our eternal fellowship in the heavenly world. 2. Affectionate provocation. (1) To greater love to God. Who demands our supreme affections--our undivided hearts. (2) To greater love to each other. For we must love each other even as Christ loved us. (3) To greater love to a dying world. For whom the Redeemer died, and to whom the gospel tidings must be constantly proclaimed. (4) To good works. Works of piety, justice, &c., but especially works of benevolence (Matthew 5:7; James 1:27; Hebrews 13:16; Psalms 37:3). Now we must thus provoke our brethren (1) By our own example. (2) By affectionate exhortation. (3) By fervent prayer with and for each other. II. ENFORCE THE DUTIES IN THE TEXT. 1. Because of our liability to lukewarmness and indifference. 2. Because love and good works are essential to genuine godliness. 3. Because, if we abound in these, our usefulness and happiness must be greatly extended. 4. Because in proportion to these will be our reward in the heavenly state. Application: 1. We learn the true spirit which should dwell among Christ’ s disciples. 2. The necessity of mutual excitement, to the cultivation of that spirit, and the work it produces. 3. How many display the very opposite spirit, and are lamentably barren of good works. (J. Burns, D. D.) The duty of Christians to provoke one another into love and good works I. REASONS. 1. Consider the many and weighty injunctions which are to be found in the Word of God upon the subject (Romans 12:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; Hebrews 13:1; 2 Peter 1:7; John 15:17; Colossians 1 John 3:11; 1 John 4:20-21). 2. The character and conduct of Him whose disciples we profess to be. 3. The influence which our conduct will have on others. 4. Love is a grace greatly superior to either faith or hope. 5. Let ministers of Christ particularly cherish this temper and cultivate this spirit. II. MOTIVES. 1. The state of mankind in general--a state of darkness, sin, guilt, infidelity. 2. What God has done for us and requires of us. 3. Let the age in which you live, and the country in which a benign Providence has cast your lot, be considered another motive. 4. The brevity of human life, together with the precariousness of bodily health and strength, we mention as another motive to induce you to attend to the text. 5. Your responsibility. 6. The judgment to come. (S. Mummery.) The provocation of love Are we sufficiently sensible of the responsibility which we owe to each other in relation to these words of apostolic admonition? Love is a sacred fire, and the measure of its glowing brightness and fervent heat is dependent on mutual fellowship and kindly interest. We may put water or oil on the fire. Words, looks, and deeds are as so much fuel or rubbish. An unkind word, an ungracious look, a cold touch of the hand, will lower the soul’ s temperature. A kindly look, a gracious word, a friendly grasp will thrill through the veins, and circulate the warm blood of the recipient heart. One red coal will speedily go out, but put others with it and they will burn into a clear and glowing fire. Live for self, and your heart will become frost-bitten. Live for others, and your soul shall be a focus of Divine sunbeams, provoking, by the soft compulsions of love, the frozen hearts around. Sunday-school work: We have very imperfectly realised as yet the abundance of the fruit which may be gathered in the field of Christian fellowship. It is by no means an uncommon experience to meet with Christians who are unwilling to learn anything of those from whom they differ in something. The methods and forms their fathers used under other circumstances, must, in their opinion, be still’ Divinely ordained in present circumstances. They are quite incapable of seeing, what even Nature teaches, that God has many ways of fulfilling Himself; that He speaks in various voices in the world, but none of them is without signification. In those spheres of life which are lower than the religious, men are not so dull and prejudiced. A new invention is eagerly caught up with whomsoever it originated. Every man engaged in a trade or a profession is prompt to learn from the experiences of his neighbours, and even of his competitors. But unreadiness to learn of others ought to be less characteristic of Christians than of other men; indeed, it can only be characteristic of them when they are inconsistent with their own professions. Depend upon it the duty urged in this verse is a test of our sincerity. If we are always ready to see faults, and close our eyes to virtues; if we can only appreciate what makes us seem superior to others, and ignore all that raises them above us; if, when excellences are so manifest that we cannot deny them, we are animated by envy, and seek to depreciate what we ought humbly to copy--then we are untrue to our profession. For we acknowledge that we are still learners, and that we are ready to humble ourselves that Jesus Christ may be exalted. Our feeling when we consider one another is a test, then, of our humility; and it is also a test of our love. A true mother is not envious when she sees her young daughter admired; and a true father has his face lit up with gladness over his son’ s success. If, therefore, you would win from knowledge of your fellow Christians what God wishes to teach you, you must pray to be free from prejudice and pride, from envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness, and this can only be when in the deepest sense you are a “ new creature in Christ Jesus.” It is to such that the exhortation before us is addressed. There is a special form of these good works to which I wish to ask your attention--namely, that of Sunday-school enterprise. I. THE LABOUR OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL IS A GOOD WORK. 1. It concerns itself with the young in whom character is most plastic, and result is most probably to be looked for. 2. This work of teaching children is essentially good, because it affects the future. The destinies of the world lie in their hands. When we were on a plain, a little distance this side of Arizona, we were told that there, at a height of 7,300 feet, we were on the continental divide. The stream that we had just lost sight of, the river Colorado, flowed into the Gulf of California; and the one now rippling at our feet, the Rio Grande, was making its way into the Gulf of Mexico. In other words, a district not remarkable in its appearance, was the point; whence water flowed so far apart, as to fall into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. I feel sometimes as if standing at such a point as that, and you teachers in your classes may feel thus this afternoon. Here within your reach and sight are lives which may flow heavenward or hellward; and their whole future depends upon the channel into which, in a few short years or months, the stream of thought and feeling makes its way. 3. Sunday-school teaching may be called a good work, because it has an ennobling effect upon the teacher. How many of you have to thank God for a service which has been to your own soul an unspeakable blessing? Your contact with fresh, innocent, trustful childhood preserved you from becoming narrow and misanthropic, at a time mayhap when you were hardly dealt with in business. 4. Your work is good, not least on this account, that you feel yourself, while doing it, thrown back upon God, if you have seriously undertaken it. II. BUT IS THERE IN OUR METHODS WHICH COULD BE ? DO other practical workers find any helps which we should be the better for? If so, let us in that aspect “ consider one another “ in a spirit of love. I visited Sunday schools in various parts of America. And throughout the United States it appeared to me that their methods were superior to our own, whatever the results may be. 1. The expenditure of the church upon the children is far greater than with us. The class-rooms and schoolrooms are carpeted throughout, brightened by pictures and banners and flowers, presenting the appearance of comfortable parlours rather than of halls. 2. Nor could I help noticing the contrast between the teachers there and in some schools (happily not in all) here. Among us no sooner does a teacher get married, or even engaged, than the Class is forsaken; but there men and women of ripe experience grow grey in the service, and this naturally does much to retain the elder scholars, whom we generally lose. 3. Another feature of American Sunday-school work I wish to touch upon. It is that all classes are represented among the scholars who attend. No parents keep their children away because, being richer and cleverer than their neighbours, they consider it derogatory to their dignity to allow their children to go into ordinary classes. You say you teach them at home. Do you, as a matter of fact? Is not such teaching often interrupted by visitors and friends? Is there not also practical difficulty in constituting into one class the children of the home, who are of different ages, but who might have teachers adapted for each, in the grades of a Sunday school? And, further, does not a comparative stranger often speak more directly on personal religion than a parent, and is it not a curious but indubitable fact that the first confession of faith is more easily made to one who is known as the religious teacher outside the family? (A. Rowland, LL. B.) Love and good works: Every minister will sympathise with St. Paul’ s feeling, when he wished not only that he might stir up his people’ s hearts, but that they, equally, might stir up his. The obligation is mutual; but the reciprocity is not sufficient among us. “ Provocation “ is one of those many words which have gradually deteriorated, and taken a lower and severer sense than once, and more properly, belonged to it. To “ provoke” is simply to call forth; and is used by many classic authors equally in a good sense as in a bad one. Therefore the literal sentence would be--“ Consider one another to the stirring up, the inciting of love and good works.” If there be yet ought of severity in that expression, it is qualified by the word which precedes it--“ Consider one another” --which is a term of careful observation and tenderness. So that no one who “ considered “ would ever be really harsh! The whole sentence, too, assumes that those who “ provoke” have “ loved” and have “ goodworks” already--only that they need to be brought out into greater clearness and power. Now my argument is first that your “ love” falls short; that you do not love as you might, as you ought to love God and His Church. Now the first question is, How is love to be quickened or provoked in a man’ s heart? The answer is, Only by the work of Christ. Your love can never be anything but a reflection--the reflection of the love of God to you. Therefore you must feel that you are loved. And the more you “ feel that you are loved, the more you will love. For to feel loved, you must feel forgiven. Let me then “ provoke you” first, to accept your forgiveness, and to believe, without the shadow of a doubt, that God loves you. Do not wait till you are holier. Do not place sanctification before justification. “ I am forgiven. I am loved. God loves me.” Is there no echo? Will you give Him no return? Now to make this” love,” and to increase this “ love,” one way is to do good works; for good works make love, even as love makes good works; we all love those to whom we have been kind; the being kind makes us love them. So the two act and re-act therefore I say, I say it reverently but I say it literally, “ Be kind to God!” Do you say, What are the “ good works” I am to do? God will show you if you ask Him. You need not go far afield to find them. Love in the home! Shed love in your own family. Be great in love, specially where it is the hardest. There may be some one in the house who is to you continually provoking; that person is a provocation to you. Now turn the “ provocation” the other way. “ Provoke” that person first to love. Do it kindly, do it patiently, do it every day. Pray about it, persevere in it, and you will succeed. “ Love and good works” will win the day. And there is another work for Christ. A church is, or ought to be, a fountain of work; and every member of a church should be a worker in the church. Is there not one amongst them whom you could” provoke?” to whom you could tell the happiness you find in God’ s service; and so stir that one up to join you in your blessed offices of more “ love and good works! Love and good works!” never divide them. “ Love and good works.” For this you were created--for this you were redeemed. This is religion. This was Christ. This will be heaven. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Help one another A traveller who was crossing the Alps, was overtaken by a snow-storm at the top of a high mountain, The cold became intense. The air was thick with sleet, and the piercing wind seemed to penetrate his bones. Still the traveller for a time struggled on. But at last his limbs were benumbed, a heavy drowsiness began to creep over him, his feet almost refused to move, and he lay down on the snow to give way to that fatal sleep which is the last stage of extreme cold, and from which he would certainly never have waked again in this world. Just at that moment he saw another poor traveller coming along the road. The unhappy man seemed to be, if possible, even in a worse condition than himself, for he, too, could scarcely move; all his powers were frozen, and all appeared to be just on the point to die. When he saw this poor man, the traveller, who was just going to lie down to sleep, made a great effort. He roused himself up, and he crawled, for he was scarcely able to walk, to his dying fellow sufferer. He took his hands into his own and tried to warm them. He chafed his temples; he rubbed his feet; he applied friction to his body. And all the time he spoke cheering words into his ear, and tried to comfort him. As he did thus, the dying man began to revive, and he felt able to go forward. But this was not all, for his kind benefactor too was recovered by the efforts which he had made to save his friend. The exertion of rubbing made the blood circulate again in his own body. He grew warm by trying to warm the other. His drowsiness went off; he no longer wished to sleep, his limbs returned again to their proper force, and the two travellers went on their way together, happy, and congratulating one another on their escape. Soon the snow-storm passed away; the mountain was crossed, and they reached their home in safety. If you feel your heart cold towards God, and your soul almost ready to perish, try to do something which may help another soul to life, and make his heart glad; and you will often find it the best way to warm, and restore, and gladden your own. Mutual aid: Surely Zionward travellers, who know the difficulties of the way and their own insufficiency to surmount them, should not be forgetful of one another. Though every member of Christ ought to sympathise with another, known or unknown, yet why does it please the Lord to bring us unto more particular connection or acquaintance with some, than others, but that they may be more especially objects of our concern and love? Let us be helpful to each other, then, in struggling up the steep, and pray the good Lord of the upper country so to fasten the hooks attaching the helping cord of love to our bodies, that, whenever we are for ceasing to climb, their points may make us feel it necessary to hold fast, and climb on. Oh, it is cheering to hear and see the genuine effects of the grace of God, displaying themselves in the circumstances that peculiarly prove their excellence and usefulness. May we be faithful to the benefit of others, as well as the good of our own souls. (S. Martin.) Inspiring emulation: Themistocles, when a very young man, was observed, soon after the famous battle of Marathon, in which Miltiades obtained so much glory, to be often alone, very pensive, unwilling to attend the usual entertainments, and even to watch whole nights. Being asked by one of his friends what was the cause of all this, he answered, “ The trophies of Miltiades will not suffer me to sleep.” Thus fired with a love of glory, he became one of the most illustrious characters in Greece. (J. Bruce.) Love and good works: We may be as orthodox as Athanasius and as scrupulous as Jerome; we may be daily and ostentatiously building to God seven altars, and offering a bullock and a ram on every altar, and yet be as sounding brass and as a clanging cymbal, if our life shows only the leaves of profession, without the golden fruit of action. If love shows not itself by deeds of love, then let us not deceive ourselves God is not mocked--our Christianity is heathenism, and our religion a delusion and a sham. (F. W.Farrar.) Stimulating to good works The good Duchess of Gordon set her heart upon the erection of a school and chapel in a needy district of her neighbourhood. The Gordon estates at the time were so encumbered that she did not know where to find the necessary funds. In a letter to her friend, Miss Home, she describes some of her efforts and the consequences. “ I took up to London,” she says, “ a gold vase that cost about £1,200, in hopes of selling it, but could not find a purchaser, even at half-price I have still left it to be disposed of … The Duchess of Beaufort, hearing of my vase, thought of her diamond earrings, which she got me to dispose of, for a chapel in Wales, and her diamonds made me think of my jewels; and as the Duke has always been most anxious for the chapel, he agreed with me that stones were much prettier in a chapel wall than round one’ s neck, and so he allowed me to sell £600 worth, or rather what brought that, for they cost more than double. The chapel is going on nicely, and I have still enough jewels left to help to endow it, if no other way should open. I do think I may with confidence hope for a blessing on this. It is no sacrifice to me whatever, except as it is one to the Duke, who is very fond of seeing me fine, and was brought up to think it right.” The chapel cost rather more than was expected, and the Duke, following up his wife’ s example, offered of his own accord to sell some of his horses to make up the deficiency. (A. Moody Stuart.) Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling The Church beneficent: We can scarcely help reading into a passage like this ideas which belong to our time, and not to the time of the writer; that is to say, ideas which are our own rather than his. Our notion as to Christians assembling themselves together is that which has been fixed in our minds by our custom, an old custom now, of attending church on Sundays. The truth is, however--and it is a point which has not received all the consideration to which it is entitled--meetings of Christians in those early times were not exactly of the same character as ours. Not only were they not as formal as we make ours by having an official person to conduct them, and, in fact, to take up most of the time with set religious discourse--not only were they not as formal as ours are thus made, they had, it is evident, different objects from those at which we aim in ours. These people who are here charged not to forsake the assembling of themselves together, did not meet to hear a sermon, or to pray and sing hymns; they met, it is plain, as Christian workers, to discuss their work and to carry it on. “ To provoke unto love and to good works,” to consider one another, to take steps for the relief of their poor, the succour of their sick, the instruction of the young, the conversion of heathen friends, the advancement of their faith, the promotion of every scheme which an enthusiastic philanthropy suggested for making the world better and happier; this was the business which brought them together. Their meetings did not end as ours regularly and systematically do, in nothing at all; if there is anything certain with regard to them, it is that they served to combine the intelligence and the energies of the Christian brotherhood for the accomplishment of a variety of objects which were none the less Christian that they were not always what you would call religious. And yet it is not to be supposed that on this account their meetings were less devotional than ours are. Because, instead of being devotional and nothing else, they were taken up chiefly with matters of Christian business, those primitive assemblies which are here in question would not, in the nature of things, be less favourable to the spirit of supplication or the spirit of thanksgiving, than Sunday meetings are now. I cannot but declare my conviction--I have long been firmly convinced--it is because we have no business in our meetings except devotion, that our devotion is so dull a business. I must take for granted for one thing, that every intelligent man, who is not strangely destitute of religious feeling, has known at times the need, or at any rate the good, of joining with numbers in acts of worship. There is something in the voices of a congregation united in the praise of God which lifts a dull worshipper out of his dulness as nothing else can. It is to be deplored, therefore, that so many nowadays forsake churches, and, in doing so, at any rate deny themselves whatever profit there is in public worship. It is obvious, whatever is the reason of it, our present system of what we call public worship is not what it once was in point of health and vigour, and rough-and-ready methods of putting new life into it, from which much is hoped, have little outcome. So far from the attendance at church increasing over the country, it is, I believe, steadily falling off. It may well be a question, therefore, whether we should not, along with the multiplication of churches or in place of it, begin to consider whether churches ought not to be somewhat different from what they are, and perhaps made a little more like what they were once. While we are thinking only of how to enlarge our ecclesiastical machinery, or to drive it faster, the question perhaps really is, whether it ought not first to be remodelled. The thing which is to be done, the only remedy for the evil, is to make the church a more attractive institution than it is. In the first place, it is obvious we deny ourselves much of the advantage we might have from attention to what is beautiful and pleasing. Independently of the sermon altogether--for the sermon is made the most important part of public worship, utterly against the nature of things--there should be excitement in our church services sufficient at any rate to keep people from falling asleep in the middle of them. Congregations, not ministers, no doubt are to blame if this excitement is often conspicuous by its absence. Wherever the blame may be supposed to rest, it is certain this part of our worship, not the least important part, is in general made as unattractive as complete neglect can make it. They complain that long extempore prayers, such as are common among ourselves, are often sermons without a text, or Scripture in great disorder. They allege further, that as the sermon is generally made the most important part of the service, so it is generally the most tedious part. If this, then, or anything like this, is the account which is to be given of our public worship, or a great part of it, we can scarcely wonder if there are some who forsake it, and many who are not attracted by it. I hasten now to remark, that while we more or less deny ourselves the advantage of the beautiful, we altogether reject the far greater advantage of the practical and useful. To put the matter broadly: in connection with churches much good work is done, done by ministers and office-bearers, by committees, by associations of members, but as churches we do nothing. When we come together here on Sunday, after having been for hundreds of Sundays in the habit of coming, it is just to go through the old routine of prayer, praise, sermon, and go away home; the congregation, as a congregation, after the benediction, goes away home, that is to say, goes out of existence. Nothing equals the regularity with which our meeting takes place, except the regularity with which nothing comes of it. Take them as they commonly are, churches are like corn-mills carefully constructed and plentifully supplied with steam or water-power, but never put in motion, never made to grind a bushel of grain. In our congregational life it is all saying and not doing. It would involve the remodelling of our churches to an extent to which few of us, perhaps, would care to see them remodelled; but, if the practical and useful were as prominent in their arrangements as other things are, they would not have to complain so much as they have now of being forsaken. What is needed to fill churches and put life into them, is to revert to the original idea of a church, and make it a society “ to provoke unto love and to good works.” If we were, even in the loosest sort of way united as a congregation in an endeavour to further Christian objects, to relieve the poor, to comfort the sick, to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the erring, to remove temptation out of the way of the young, to promote decency, sobriety, honesty, truth, gentleness--if we were ever so loosely united as a congregation in this endeavour, it is impossible, being as many as we are, that we should not accomplish something. Now, if there were this kind of business first, and devotion followed it, or if business and devotion were somehow combined in the order of our Sunday services, we should have what gives zest to meetings for other and inferior purposes--the sense that we are dealing with what is of immediate practical utility to ourselves and to others. Before I conclude, let me advert for a moment to an objection which may be urged. Would you, some one may ask, suppose it were possible, divert the activity of churches from those purely spiritual objects, which only churches are fitted to promote, and direct it to philanthropic but still secular ends, which other institutions and other agencies are intended to further, and are possibly better fitted to further? To this, however, it is to be answered, that charity never faileth, nor the need for that organised charity which a church ought to be. When all other institutions and agencies, even the most benevolent and most useful, have done their best, much will still remain to be done, for the welfare of mankind, much which only Christian philanthropy can do, or will attempt to do, and it is the business of churches to concern themselves with that. (J. Service, D. D.) Public worship: I. THE . All on the same level, except so far as we may differ in spiritual things. 1. Assembling together is a duty. (1) God has commanded it. (2) The practice is co-equal in point of time with the existence of the Christian Church. (3) It is necessary for carrying out the Lord’ s work. (4) It is essential for the spiritual well-being of every Christian man. 2. A privilege. To neglect it is to starve the soul. II. THE OBJECT OF MEETING . 1. TO draw near to God. 2. To receive spiritual blessings. 3. To exhort one another. III. THE OF THIS MEETING AS THE DAY NAMED IN THE TEXT DRAWS NEAR. 1. The day that you may be deprived of the opportunity of meeting. (1) From sickness. (2) From loss of inclination. 2. The day of trial and affliction. 3. The day of death. 4. The day of judgment. (G. Sexton, D. D.) The importance of public worship I. THE GIVEN. 1. That to assemble together is a Christian duty. 2. Some who profess attachment to Christ’ s cause neglect this duty. Some are once-a-day worshippers; others are fine-weather worshippers; while many are merely fancy-worshippers, and go to the Lord’ s house just when it may please them. Great reason is obvious, no spiritual relish, only a name to live, &c. Only form of godliness, etc. 3. It is of the utmost importance that we do not thus forsake the assembling of ourselves together. (1) On God’ s account, who demands and infinitely deserves our service. (2) On the Church’ s account. The Church is to be visible. (3) Especially on our own account. We are deeply interested in these assemblies. We might “ forsake,” &c., if we had no mercies to acknowledge, no sins to confess, no blessings to crave, no enemies to overcome, no soul to sanctify, no hell to escape, no heaven to gain. II. A DUTY STATED. We should exhort each other 1. To watchfulness and vigilance. 2. To determination and constancy. 3. To zeal and diligence. 4. To courage and perseverance. III. A MOTIVE. 1. The day is approaching. 2. This day is truly a momentous one. 3. The believer sees the day approaching. That is, he never loses sight of that truth. Learn: 1. The place of the Christian’ s delight will be God’ s house. 2. From our present circumstances, we all stand in need of exhortation 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 3:13). 3. We cannot fail to be stimulated, both to diligence and faithfulness, if we keep the truth before us that the day is approaching. (J. Burns, D. D.) The duty of Divine worship I. THE NATURE AND REASON OF DIVINE WORSHIP IN GENERAL. Though it must be confessed to be a duty on many accounts to worship God in private, yet I think it may plainly appear that it ought to be performed publicly too. For what is it we mean by the worship of God but such acts as do immediately declare our love, fear, and reverence to Him; our obedience, gratitude and resignation towards Him? Now, if the nature of God’ s worship consists in our honouring Him, that must certainly be the most acceptable way of worshipping Him which tends most to His honour, and that is doing it in solemn and public assemblies; for by this we take away all suspicion of our being either afraid or ashamed of our duty to Him, and many seeing our devotion may be influenced thereby to glorify their Maker more abundantly. Besides this, we may consider that as there are two parts of worship, the one internal, by which we bow our souls before God, and the other external, by which we give visible signs of our inward devotion, such as uncovering our heads, kneeling, praying, and praising God with an audible voice, and the like; so the chief use of this latter part of worship is for public assemblies. Again, the reason on which Divine worship is naturally grounded declares for it being public. God is our Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor, and doth not this as evidently demand our public as our private devotions? Doth not He bestow public blessings on us, and prevent or remove public evils from us, as well as private? But, furthermore, can we imagine that man was made a sociable creature for civil concerns only? Does not the affair of religion, and the immortal comforts that depend upon the true profession of it, as much deserve our united care and endeavours as the fading, transitory things of this lower world? II. GOD’ S IT. All the directions He gave to Moses concerning the tabernacle, concerning the priests, concerning the sacrifices, concerning the Sabbath and feasts, were institutions of a public nature, and supposed His worship, to which they all related, to be a public worship. He hath nowhere declared for the cessation of public worship; but, on the contrary, hath plainly intimated His will to have it continued, and promised that His presence shall propitiously attend on our Christian assemblies lawfully met in obedience to Him, as it formerly did on the Jewish. For the promise then was (Exodus 20:24). So now it is wheresoever, i.e., whether at Jerusalem as before, or in any other place, two or three, i.e., any indefinite number, of you are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of you (Matthew 18:20). III. That public worship is the duty of all Christians may be proved likewise from THE VERY BEING AND ECONOMY OF THAT CHURCH. For, in the first place, if we consider what the Church simply is, we can have no other conception of it but of a number of people called together and chosen out Of the unbelieving world, to profess the faith of Christ and to worship God according to the instructions which Christ gave. Now, a number of people, called out of the world to worship God after the same manner, and with unity and consent touching any instructions given them for that end, must in all reason be supposed to do this by meeting and assembling together. But if we consider it under that metaphor which the scriptures gives us of it when they call it Christ’ s body, and the several Christians that compose it, the members of that body (1 Corinthians 7:27). This will still further convince us that Christians are bound to worship God in communion; for why is the Church represented as a body but to signify to us its unity? And what can that agreement be which unites Christians so as to make them one Church or spiritual body but their joining together in the performance of those offices for which they were incorporated, and therefore surely in the worship of God, which is none of the meanest of those offices. And yet this will further appear from the order and government of it. For if it had no need of public worship, why are we so solemnly admitted into it, and excluded out of it? (Joseph Watson, D. D.) The duty of regular attendance at public worship There is one fact implied in the text, you perceive, and one asserted. First, it is implied that even in the early time when this Epistle was written Christians were accustomed to meet statedly for the worship of God and to receive the word of exhortation. You do not doubt this. It is the dictate of our nature that God should be honoured and worshipped. Men are social, and constituted to act in concert. Then, moreover, Christianity is pre-eminently a social religion. There is another fact, you perceive, directly asserted in the text, that it was the manner of some to neglect this practice of statedly meeting together. It appears wonderful, indeed, that such individuals should have been among the members of any of the apostolic churches. But let us consider two or three circumstances that may mitigate our surprise. The parties spoken of had forsaken the practice of Christian assembling. They had once observed it. There was a time when they delighted to frequent the place of prayer, and to sit at the feet of those who had the rule over them, and to obey them. What had made them forsake them? For one thing, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, there was the scorn of the world, and often its wild and bloody violence. To be a Christian made a man the mark for obloquy and persecution. The attending at Christian assemblies was the most palpable avowal of having embraced Christianity. It was throwing down the gauntlet to the un-Christian world. With many, through God’ s grace, this only served to brace their minds to the conflict and endurance. With others we can hardly wonder the effect was different. The scorn and persecution were too much for them. They yielded and abjured the gospel. Some of them, perhaps, merely temporised and forsook assembling with their brethren. They gave up the Lord’ s Day and the sanctuary, vainly thinking that they might still retain their religion. For another thing, suppose that the “ some “ of whom the text speaks had been Jews. We can see how difficult it would be for them to part with their seventh day and adopt the first instead of it as their day of holy solemnities The step must have been a great shock to their established habits, and roused against them the fury of their countrymen who continued to reject the claims of Christ. For one thing more, suppose that the “ some” of whom the text speaks had been Gentiles. How difficult must it have been for them to form the habit of keeping the Lord’ s Day! Here is a heathen man who has known nothing either of Sabbath or Sunday, of a day of rest or a day of worship. He is convinced by the preaching of the gospel, believes, is baptized, and received into a Christian church. But he is in business, perhaps, and has partners. If he will keep the Lord’ s Day, they know nothing about it; and they will not have their arrangements disturbed by his new-fangled notions and scruples. In whatever position of life he is, the assembling with other Christians subjects him to manifold annoyance, not to say loss, and marks him out as having separated from the mass of his countrymen. For a time, while he is powerfully under the influence of the Christian truth that has laid hold of him, he is seen regularly in his place in the sanctuary. By and by his new impressions begin to lose their vividness and his old habits to regain somewhat of their power. His attendance becomes irregular. These considerations help us to understand the melancholy fact mentioned in the text. But they do not justify it. The case of those “ some” was adduced by the writer as a Warning to others, and it may also serve as a warning to us. Allow me, by way of application of our subject, to ask you all to receive from it the word of serious exhortation. 1. Consider the fact implied in the text concerning the existence of a stated day for Christian worship among the Hebrews is a fact palpable and acknowledged by us. Here is the sacred ordinance. It is ours. We ought to use is according to its design, and not forsake on it the assembling of ourselves together. 2. Consider none of the circumstances which I described, not to excuse but to explain the conduct of the “ some,” condemned in the text, can be pleaded by us. We were not brought up Jews, and the keeping of the first day holy does not clash in our minds with any reverence which we have been accustomed to attach to the seventh. We were not brought up Gentiles, in ignorance of God and Christ and immortality, trained to be of the earth earthy, so that the keeping of the Lord’ s Day should be to ourselves something new, and to all around us a thing outrageous and revolutionary. We are not exposed to any violence of persecution if we obey the exhortation before us. We are verily guilty, we have no excuse to allege, if we forsake the assembling of ourselves together. 3. Consider what high ends are answered by our assembling ourselves on the Lord’ s Day. Strength and beauty are in the sanctuary. 4. Consider the consequences likely to result from neglecting the ordinances of the sanctuary are disastrous. The man who neglects them declines the open profession of his faith; he cuts himself off from the highest exercises of his nature and the purest sources of virtue and happiness. His indifference and carelessness will grow on him, till backsliding becomes desertion, and desertion will become rebellion, which can only issue in his outcasting himself from the presence of God and the beatific vision of heaven; a life ruined and a soul lost,--without God, without hope: (Professor Legge.) The daily service: The first Christians set up the Church in continual prayer (Acts 2:46-47). St. Paul in his Epistles binds their example upon their successors for ever (1 Timothy 2:8; Colossians 4:3). Observe how explicitly he speaks, “ I will therefore that men pray in every place” ;--not only at Jerusalem, not only at Corinth, not only in Rome, but even in England; in our secluded villages, in our rich populous busy towns, whatever be the importance of those secular objects which absorb our thoughts and time. Or, again, take the text, and consider whether it favours the notion of a change or relaxation of the primitive custom. “ Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” The increasing troubles of the world, the fury of Satan, and the madness of the people, men’ s hearts failing them for fear, the sea and the waves roaring, all these gathering tokens of God’ s wrath are but calls upon us for greater perseverance in united prayer. Consider how this rule of “ continuing in prayer” is exemplified in St. Peter’ s history also. He had learned from his Saviour’ s pattern not to think prayer a loss of time. Christ had taken him up with Him into the holy mount, though multitudes waited to be healed and taught below. Again, before His passion, He had taken him into the garden of Gethsemane: and while He prayed Himself, He called upon him likewise to “ watch and pray lest he entered into temptation.” In consequence, St. Peter warns us in his first Epistle, as St. Paul in the text, “ The end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” Stated and continual prayer, then, and especially united prayer, is plainly the duty of Christians. And if we ask how often we are to pray, I reply, that we ought to consider prayer as a plain privilege, directly we know that it is a duty, and therefore that the question is out of place. Surely, when we know we may approach the mercy-seat, the only further question is, whether there be anything to forbid us coming often, anything implying that such frequent coming is presumptuous and irreverent. Now, Scripture contains most condescending intimations that we may come at all times. For instance, in the Lord’ s Prayer petition is made for daily bread for this day; therefore, our Saviour intended it should be used daily. Further, it is said, “ give us,” “ forgive us” ; therefore it may fairly be presumed to be given us as a social prayer. If, however, it be said that family prayer is a fulfilment of the duty, without prayer in church, I reply, that I am not at all speaking of it as a duty, but as a privilege; I do not tell meal that they must come to church, so much as declare the glad tidings that they may. This surely is enough for those who “ hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and humbly desire to see the face of God. Doubtless, even in your usual employments you can be glorifying your Saviour; you can be thinking of Him. Doubtless: only try to realise to yourself that continual prayer and praise is a privilege; only feel in good earnest, what somehow the mass of Christians, after all, do not recognise, that “ it is good to be here” --feel this, and I shall not be solicitous about your coming; you will come if you can. I account a few met together in prayer to be a type of His true Church; not actually His true Church (God forbid the presumption!) but as a token and type of it;--not as being His elect, one by one, for who can know whom He has chosen but He who chooses?--not as His complete flock, doubtless, for that were to exclude the old, and the sick, and the infirm, and little children;--not as His select and undefiled remnant, for Judas was one of the twelve--still as the earnest and promise of His saints, the birth of Christ in its rudiments, and the dwelling-place of the Spirit; and precious, even though but one out of the whole number, small though it be, belong at present to God’ s hidden ones; nay, though, as is likely to be the case, in none of them there be more than the dawn of the True Light and the goings forth of the morning. Some, too, will come at times, as accident guides them, giving promise that they may one day be settled and secured within the sacred fold. Some will come in times of grief or compunction, others in preparation for the holy communion. Nor is it a service for those only who are present; all men know the time, and many mark it, whose bodily presence is away. We have with us the hearts of many. How soothing and consolatory to the old and infirm who cannot come, to follow in their thoughts, nay, with the prayers and psalms before them, what they do not hear! Shall not those prayers and holy meditations, separated though they be in place, ascend up together to the presence of God? Who then will dare speak of loneliness and solitude, because in man’ s eyes there are few worshippers brought together in one place? or, who will urge it as a defect in our service, even if that were the case? Who, moreover, will so speak, when even the holy angels are present when we pray, stand by us as guardians, sympathise in our need, and join us in our praises? (J. H. Newman, D. D.) Why go to church? It is a rather remarkable fact that in this text we have the nearest approach that is found in the New Testament to a commandment enjoining what we now call attendance at public worship; and the reason for such attendance, which is suggested by this mild remonstrance against neglect of the practice, is rather notably different from that with which we have nowadays become familiar. We have been so long accustomed to regard going to church on Sunday in the light of a religious duty, and indeed as almost the chief religious duty of the week, that it must surprise us, I believe, to find that the duty is scarcely enjoined at all in the New Testament. The observance of the Sabbath was no part of the original motive of the early Christians for the weekly assembling of themselves together; and in the absence of any other express commandment, it is plain that some spontaneously felt need and desire led them to seek such fellowship. What that need and desire were could hardly be better expressed than in the first words of our text, “ Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.” It was consideration of one another as interested in one common cause, as devoted to one common Lord and Master, as having one great end of life in view, and as needing common counsel and encouragement in the pursuit of that end, that led them to practise the assembling of themselves together. They did not think they were serving or glorifying God in any specially sacred manner by meeting together for praise and prayer on the Lord’ s Day--Christ had given them very different ideas of how God should be served and honoured. It was because their whole life was consecrated to God and to the service of Jesus Christ, in the practise of love and of good works, that they felt the need and followed the practice of meeting together to consider one another, and comfort and encourage one another, in the difficult task of living such a life in the world. And it will be of little use, we may be sure, to admonish and exhort men to the maintenance of the ancient custom of meeting for prayer and praise on the Lord’ s Day, unless we can show in ourselves and excite in them the ancient spirit of consecration to God and devotion to Christ which first originated and inspired the custom. What we ought to aim at is not to get careless, unspiritual persons to come to church--that is putting the cart before the horse--but to get them awakened to some thoughtful interest in Christ and His salvation. It was Christ that drew men to the Church in the first place, not the Church that drew them to Christ; the ardour of faith and hope in Christ drew them together to form a Church, and the contagion of faith and example of love among those who first formed the Church was the strongest force to draw others into it. We have almost completely inverted this order of cause and effect now, and instead of awakening interest, first in Christ and then in the Church, we put the Church first, and trust almost entirely to the influence of the weekly assembly of the Church to bring men to Christ. When we do get back into the vivid conception of this primitive principle and motive of the “ assembling of ourselves together,” it will work great changes not only in the extension of the practice of going to church, but also in the way we organise and conduct the worship and teaching of the Church. Churches will not depend then so much upon good preachers and pastors as upon good people; ministers’ sermons will then be fewer, more practical and business-like, serious and urgent as an “ officer’ s address to his troops before a battle,” “ addressed by a soldier to soldiers.” More, “ perhaps, of the ministers’ time will be given to teaching the rudiments of the faith to the young, and less to reiterating first principles to the old. And Christians will meet not as “ hearers,” nor yet simply as “ worshippers,” but as ardent and hopeful co-operators in a great common cause which each is anxious to understand his own part in, and to which each daily and nightly applies all his own mind and heart and contriving skill and practical energy. (J. C. Barry, M. A.) The duty and benefit of social worship: I. THE ENDS WHICH REAL HAVE IN VIEW IN . 1. To express submission to the authority of the Lord their God. 2. To improve in spiritual knowledge. II. SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF ON FOR WORSHIP. 1. The belief of a dependence upon God, as the Author of all our blessings, is preserved and enlivened in the mind. 2. We exercise and improve the benevolent affections of the heart. 3. We are training up for the devotional exercises of the heavenly temple. III. ONE ANOTHER, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” 1. If exhortation was necessary in the days of the Apostle Paul, it may be easily admitted that it is equally so in ours. Let me exhort you to remember that weekly worshipping assemblies are not an appendage to Christianity which we may add or keep off at pleasure. 2. The text adds this awful reason for exhortation, “ and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” A regular and devout improvement of the Lord’ s Day, is an excellent preparation for meeting the Lord when He comes. The transition seems natural and easy, from a house of prayer on earth to a house of praise in heaven. (Robert Foote.) Attendance on public worship I. OUR TO FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD. 1. Public worship is sanctioned by Divine authority, and the example of the saints in every age. 2. Public worship has the special promise of the Divine presence. 3. The profit and advantage arising from public worship require also to be considered. Our own interest is concerned, as well as the glory of God Psalms 36:8; Psalms 92:13). There the ignorant are instructed, the languid are quickened, the broken-hearted are bound up, and the wounded in spirit healed. II. INQUIRE INTO THE CAUSES OF NEGLECT. 1. In some instances it arises from a spirit of scepticism and infidelity. 2. In others it arises from a spirit of profaneness, daring to resist convictions, and to trifle with obligations which cannot be denied. 3. Neglect of public worship frequently proceeds from sloth and idleness. 4. It is often the effect of self-conceit and pride. There are some who think they know enough, and have no need of instruction; they are also good enough, and need not to be made better. 5. The interference of personal prejudices too frequently prevents an attendance on the means of grace, but can never be urged in justification. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Public worship: The text does not point to secret devotion, but to open religious fellowship. There is a devotion which is to be hidden from all human knowledge, in which the soul discloses itself without reserve to the scrutiny of the Most High. To neglect such devotion is to dry up the springs which rise from the very rocks. Without it there can be no spiritual life. Yet there is something beyond it. What solitude begins sympathy completes. There is a subtle and indescribable power of sympathy in public worship. Individually we sing the more expressively because of the animating song of those who are round about us. Our idea of worship is enlarged. We get glimpses of that splendid possibility--a whole world engaged in common prayer! Public worship helps us to see deeply and clearly into the unity of human nature. On the streets we are many; in the sanctuary we are one. In taste and whim and special fancy we are an innumerable throng; but in the true hunger of the heart we are as one man. In other places we may meet as groups, but in the house of prayer we meet as a race. A wondrous, sad, glorious sight, is a great congregation of worshippers. What histories are represented! What madness of ambition, what recklessness of the best gifts, what sin done in darkness, what plots of avarice, what broken-heartedness, what wealth, poverty, loneliness, pain, what strength, fury, nobleness, truth! yet we are all one, one in sin, one in want. I pray God we may be one in the ineffable ecstatic joy of pardon through the Son of God. If I may put the matter personally, I do not hesitate to say that I must have the benefit of public worship if I would save myself from spiritual languor. Unrelieved solitude narrows a man’ s nature. We correct and complete one another. We settle each other into right proportions. We see greater breadths of the bounty and love of God when we compare our common experiences or utter our common thanksgivings. It is not uncommon to hear men talking in some such words as “ When I worship I go out into the temple of nature: I uncover my head in the aisles of the forest: I hush myself under the minster roof of the stars: I listen to the psalm of the sea.” This kind of talk sounds as if it meant something. It touches one side of life; how far it touches the other remains to be seen. As Christians we claim to have sympathy with nature. From the rash talk of certain avowed lovers of nature it would seem that Christians, by reason of their Christianity, did not know the sea when they were looking at it, and that they required to have the sun pointed out with a rod before they could distinguish it from the moon. I love nature. I have seen some of her pictures, and heard many of her voices. She is always full of suggestion. But let me tell you something farther. I will be frank that you may understand me. Nature is to me often the saddest of all sights. She is but a succession of phases. I cannot keep her at any point. The spring dies; the summer vanishes; autumn delivers her gifts and turns away; winter is a presence I would not detain; the sun is but for an appointed time, and the stars withdraw long before I have half-counted them. More than that. Nature is but an alphabet or, at most, a primer. I soon begin to find that she has no answer to my deepest wants, and that I can ask her questions which will stagger her with dismay. My heart aches, and I ask for a physician that can extract the pain. My conscience tortures me and I cry for rest. Then I find the spiritual sanctuary; I pass within the veil; I see the Cross, the Priest, the Sacrifice, and ever after, nature is but an outer court, and Grace is the presence-chamber of the Redeeming King. Application: 1. Come to worship. 2. Resist the influence of a bad example, “ as the manner of some is.” The object of public worship is twofold. 1. Edification, having in view the stimulus and encouragement of believers, and their defence from manifold temptation. 2. Conversion, having in view the salvation of those who are afar off. A special blessing is theirs who love the house of God; their own dwelling shall be watched and blessed. “ They shall prosper that love Thee.” (J. Parker, D. D.) Religious assemblies Assemblies are of many kinds; amongst the many differences of them this is one, that some are civil for matters of this life; some are religious, for matters spiritual, wherein we do converse with God and amongst ourselves. These assemblies were instituted and observed for public converse with God, and these were occasional or more solemn and observed at set and determinate times, and in times of peace and liberty in certain convenient places erected or separated for that end and use. Hence synagogues and Sabbaths amongst the Jews. The heathen also had their temples and sacred places and their solemn times, yet abused to superstition and idolatry, The light of nature doth dictate that God is to be worshipped not only in private, but in public, and that this worship, if orderly performed, requires not only certain solemn times but also convenient places; yet the times were always more considerable than the places. To enjoy these assemblies and have liberty in public to serve their God, both in convenient places and at certain and solemn times, was a great mercy of God and a great benefit to man. For in these they testified their union and agreement in the same faith and worship. And we are very brutish or very inconsiderate if we understand not the excellency of these religious public assemblies, and very unthankful if we acknowledge not the benefit of them. The persecuting enemies of the Church knew full well if they could scatter these meetings and conventions, demolish their houses of worship, and deprive them of their solemn and sacred times, they might do much to destroy Christian religion. David did love the place where God’ s honour dwelt vehemently, desired God’ s presence in that place, and sadly complained to his God when he was banished from these holy and blessed assemblies, and yet those were far inferior to these of the gospel. And doleful was that lamentation of the captives of Jerusalem when God had taken away His tabernacle, as if it were a garden, destroyed the places of assemblies, had caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and had despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest (Lamentations 2:6). (G. Lawson.) Attendance on the means of grace: Bear with me while I set before you some of the causes which prevent them from obeying the decision of their consciences, and the command of God. The mechanic has been so severely wrought during the week, that he indulges a little longer in bed on the Sabbath morning, and the hour of meeting arrives and passes by ere he can get himself prepared; or if he happens to attend, he is so wearied out with the exercises, to him tedious, that he remains at home during the rest of the day, reading the newspapers, lolling in listless apathy, or entertaining a friend. The man of business is so much immersed in his merchandise that he can find no time to go to the house of God; what with arranging his books, answering letters, and conversing on the present position and future prospects of trade, he is entirely engaged; and if perchance he may drop in occasionally, his restless and discontented aspect bespeaks that his mind is not there. One considers he fully discharges his duty when he goes once to church; more than that he esteems unnecessary and inconvenient. Such seize upon the quiet that prevails, to amuse themselves with their families, spend an afternoon with a neighbour, or take a walk in the fields. Others are only found in the house of prayer, on the fashionable diet, forenoon or afternoon as it may chance to be; they would not be obeying the rules of etiquette if they departed from this custom, and if they transgressed would certainly be included among the common people, or be counted too serious and strict; after this they could not appear at the gay tea-table, and to be excluded from any one of these is a punishment greater than they are able or willing to bear. Ought these things to be so? Oh! it is an awful and overpowering reflection, but not more alarming than it is true, that for every sermon which you have not heard, you will have to account, if you had an opportunity to hear it, but thoughtlessly or wilfully allowed it to glide past unembraced and unimproved. If ye despise the services of the Church militant, how do you expect to join those of the Church triumphant? By an immutable law of our nature, our happiness does not consist so much in the objects that surround us, as in the harmony which subsists between these and our own dispositions and tastes. Now suppose you were this instant translated to the general assembly and church of the first-born, do you think you could find any satisfaction in the fellowship of the saints above, when it is uncultivated and even avoided below? (C. F.Buchan.) Attendance on the House of God What do you mean, you who say, “ If we do not go to church, we read good books--besides our Bible; and we are not guilty like some, of traversing the fields, and setting a bad example to others” ? This will not stand examination. What would you think of a steward who, instead of assigning to each of the servants under him his work and his wages, should say, “ I do not indeed do this, but I read my master’ s letters, and carefully peruse his instructions” ? To what purpose, when you do not fulfil the design of the letter and instructions he sends? You read good authors, but to what purpose, since these very authors will be called to witness against you, that you did not attend to what they said in reference to the very first of duties--that of publicly calling upon God and hearing His Word? Oh think here again of precious opportunities neglected, past, never to be recalled! I went in by mistake, one Sabbath-day, to the house, not of the invalid I intended to visit, but of one in health. The inmates had not been in church; the mother was in the attitude of leaning half asleep upon a table, and another person, a stranger, slumbering by the fire; I asked the cause of absence from the house of God. The reply was, with sharpness of tone, “ One cannot be always hearing preaching.” No! said I, you will not always have it in your power; we had need to improve the day of visitation; now is the time accepted. A short time elapsed, when the individual who made the remark above expressed, sickened, and in a few hours expired! Various are the excuses for absence; one has not a seat he wished to have had; another wants some article of clothing; another thinks he or she got cold the last time of being in church; another says he intends coming again by and by, “ and you will be sure to see me now and then at the church,” for he at least has no idea of never coming more. Are your reasons of absenting frequently from church such as will appear satisfying to you on a death-bed? I once visited a man who had frequently defended the irregularity of his attendance at the house of God, on the ground particularly, that being somewhat skilful in treating the diseases of cattle, he was often sent for when he was on his way to church. This might have happened now and then, but as a defence of frequent absence was not tenable. I saw him when on his dying, bed, and he then, with grief, acknowledged that he urged an apology which was very insufficient, and “ Oh!” said he, “ that I had it in my power to come and hear the Word of God; I did not go when I might and ought to have gone, and now gladly would I go, but am not able. What would I give to hear another sermon!” (William Burns.) The public worship of God: There are many persons who, while they acknowledge themselves to be Christians, yet depreciate the public worship of God. The reasons assigned for this line of conduct are various. I shall mention some of those which I have actually heard urged. The labouring man says, “ It may do very well for you rich people to go to church twice, but it is needful for a poor man to have some rest on the Sabbath.” The rich man considers church-going habits as of great importance for the working classes, but he thinks such strictness unnecessary in his own station. One individual says that he can very well learn his duty in half an hour of a forenoon. Another, still supposing that to learn our duty is the only purpose of attending church, observes, “ We hear more than we practise.” A third, partly looking around him on the conduct of others, and partly judging by the state of his own mind, says that those who go to church twice a day are not better than their neighbours. A young man, possessing a highly intellectual mind, and ardent in the pursuit of knowledge, complains that at church he hears nothing new, nothing which he cannot learn as well from books, and therefore, while he goes once a day to please his parents or friends, he spends the rest of the day among his books. One who goes to church, perhaps merely from habit, without ever thinking of the principles on which habit should be based, says that his ideas of God’ s power and goodness are much better excited by a walk among the objects of nature than by sitting in the close and unwholesome atmosphere of a church. Another individual of a speculating mind, quite absorbed in the pursuit of science, when in church finds that his attention is not arrested by the preacher, that his thoughts are unconsciously roaming among his favourite studies, and under the guise of avoiding this sin, which he thinks he cannot otherwise help, he forsakes the public worship of God, and makes his occupations entirely worldly. The example of our blessed Saviour I have heard stated as a reason why medical philanthropists should neglect or but rarely attend on the public exercises of religion; and to have been visiting the sick is considered an unanswerable excuse for absence from church. Lastly, it has been gravely alleged that there is no commandment in Scripture for going to church twice a day. To notice this last argument, in the first place, I at once acknowledge that there is no commandment for going twice to church; but it must be recollected that neither is there any commandment for going once. The Bible does not contain a code of minute rules, but a series of principles which are much better fitted for our guidance, and which we ourselves are to apply to even the smallest concerns of life. The man who has the fear of God in his heart, and who is constrained by the love of Christ, will need no specific commandment as to worshipping God in public as well as in private, on the Sabbath as well as on other days. It is urged, however, that God may be worshipped in any place; and a great deal is said about the suitableness of the God of universal nature being adored amidst His works of rural scenery. This is just. Those whom the providence of God plainly excludes from the sanctuary may enjoy His presence with them in the several places of their seclusion, and will find the want of public ordinances fully compensated by that gracious presence. But it is to be doubted whether the man who purposely takes a rural walk in preference to the sere-ice of the church, who makes Sunday the day for doing all the odd pieces of work which have been left over from the week--it is much to be doubted whether he can rationally expect the blessing of God on his soul. He is a God of order; He has blessed the Sabbath, and sanctified it specially for His worship; and the wilful forsakers of His ordinance have no right to expect His blessing on their voluntary substitutes for His appointed sacrifice. Christianity is a religion of mercy, and I would not for a moment depreciate or discourage the services paid to the sick on Sunday. But we must recollect, that our Lord never neglected the public worship of the temple or synagogue, and that His cures on the Sabbath were usually performed on those who had come to attend that worship. In the commencement of my professional life, while honestly desirous of regularly attending church, I yet satisfied myself that this was beyond my power, and considered it a subject of regret that my duty called me away from the house of God. I continued in this belief for a considerable time, till meeting with the life of Mr. Hey of Leeds, a name in the first rank as a surgical authority, I found it stated that “ he rarely missed attending the morning and afternoon service of the Church.” This impressed my mind much, and I argued with myself that if he, with his extensive practice, could accomplish this, it must be still more easy for a young man with a limited practice. I resolved, at least, to attempt it; and by a better arrangement of my time, by paying many visits on Saturday, and by leaving only the necessary ones for Sabbath, I generally found myself at liberty to attend divine service both forenoon and afternoon. (Win. Brown, M. D.) Weather or no When Theodore Hook, the celebrated humorist, arrived at a friend’ s late for dinner, the host supposed “ that the weather had deterred him.” “ Oh,” replied Hook, “ I had determined to come, weather or no.” Be this the resolve of all who have no valid excuse, “ I am determined regularly and punctually to attend the sanctuary, weather or no!” (Sword and Trowel.) Christian fellowship: You and I know that it is one of the sweetest things outside of heaven to talk to one another, and to exchange notes of our experience. As nations are enriched by commerce, so are Christians enriched by communion. As we exchange commodities in trade, so do we exchange our different forms of knowledge while we speak to one another of the things of the kingdom. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Working men’ s objections to public worship A meeting of working men was convened in Camden Town, in order to learn why they as a class were “ conspicuous by their absence” from public worship. The followins were twenty of the reasons assigned. No. 1. I like to walk out on Sundays to see the works of the Creator. 2. The church is hot and close, and I like to get into the fresh air. 3. The world is God’ s house; I can worship God anywhere. 4. What’ s the use of going to listen to a man reading a discourse? I could do that as well as him. 5. I can read and pray at home quite as well as at church. 6. I work hard all the week; Sunday is the only day I can be with my family. 7. Sunday is the only day I’ ve got to attend to my garden. 8. I mend my children’ s shoes on Sundays. 9. I go to see my daughter who is in service on Sundays. 10. The sermons are dull and the ministers want talent. 11. On Sunday mornings I attend to my private business, in the afternoons and evenings I rest. 12. I want to read the newspaper on Sundays. 13. I wouldn’ t go to be a hypocrite. 14. If I go I cannot have my pipe, which I enjoy after a week’ s work. 15. My dress is not good enough to go in. 16. They preach, but very few of them practise. 17. When I’ ve got the will to go, I’ ll go. 18. Going to church won’ t carry me to heaven. 19. It’ s all done to frighten the people and to keep them down. 20. I had enough of religion and imprisonment at the Sunday school. (The Christian.) Wanted A patent umbrella, warranted to turn a Sunday rain, and protect the owner from a Sunday sun. The ordinary umbrellas are ample for all the other days of the week; but then you know that Sunday rains and Sunday sunshine are much more trying. Such an invention might swell the attendance at many of our churches on rainy and hot Sabbaths, and might bring out the very people who most need to “ renew their strength.” (Anon.) The perils of religious isolation The sun is necessary to health. Important changes take place in the constitution of the blood in consequence of the cutaneous vessels on the surface of the body not being freely exposed to its oxygenating and life generating influence. It is a well-established fact that, as the effect of isolation from the stimulus of light, the fibrine, albumen, and red blood-cells become diminished in quantity, and the serum or watery portion of the vital fluid augmented in volume, thus inducing a disease known to physicians and pathologists by the name of leukaemia, an affection in which white instead of red blood-cells are developed. This exclusion from the sun produces the sickly, flabby, pale anaemic condition of the face, or exsanguined, ghost-like forms so often seen among those not freely exposed to air and light. The absence of these essential elements of health deteriorates by materially altering the physical composition of the blood, thus seriously prostrating the vital strength, enfeebling the nervous energy, and ultimately inducing organic changes in the structure of the heart, brain, and muscular tissue. Now that which the sun is to the body, friendship is to the soul. Wherever you find a nature withdrawn from the genial influences of friendship you will observe traces of abnormal weakness and melancholy. In the shadow of solitude man loses the ruddy glow of joyousness, and a gloomy misanthropy and sometimes mental decrepitude are apt to derange all his affections. True friendship is the sun of the soul. It stimulates, strengthens, and gladdens our whole being. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) Worship no waste: Religious duties may be likened to the food and drink which are given to the reaper during his labours under the summer’ s sun; it is evident in a mathematical point of view, that he must lose a little time in eating his dinner, drinking, and taking a few moments’ rest. Yet who would call that wasted time? (Mons. Landriot.) The social genius of Christianity: Communion is strength, solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast, and lies prone upon the sward; in the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane. The sheep of Jesus flock together; the social element is the genius of Christianity. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Absence from week-night services: “ Prayer-meeting and lecture as usual on Wednesday evening in the lecture-room. Dear brethren, I urge you all to attend the weekly meetings. ‘ Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.’” Some of the “ dear brethren” deported themselves in this way: Brother A. thought it looked like rain, and concluded that his family, including himself of course, had better remain at home. On Thursday evening it was raining very hard, and the same brother hired a carriage, and took his whole family to the Academy of Music, to hear M. Agassiz lecture on the “ Intelligence of the Lobster.” Brother B. thought he was too tired to go, so he stayed at home and worked at the sledge he had promised to make for Billy. Sister C. thought the pavements were too slippery. It would be very dangerous for her to venture out. I saw her next morning, going down street to get her old bonnet” done up.” She had an old pair of stockings drawn over her shoes. Three-fourths of the members stayed at home. God was at the prayer-meeting. The pastor was there, and God blessed them. The persons who stayed at home were each represented by a vacant seat. God don’ t bless empty seats. (United Presbyterian.) Influences which ought to radiate from the sanctuary: Ruskin discovered a very ancient inscription on the church of St. Giacomo di Rialto, Venice, which reads, “ Around this temple let the merchant’ s law be just, his weights be true, and his covenants faithful” --a beautiful epitome of the influences which ought to radiate from the sanctuary, to elevate and purify the world around. He says of the discovery, it is “ the pride of my life.” Public worship--a reminder A clergyman relates the following:--“ Several little girls were in my study, seeking counsel to aid them in becoming Christians. One of them, a dear child, not much more than eleven years old, said, ‘ I have not been to two or three of the meetings lately.’ Desiring to test her, I answered, ‘ It does not make us Christians to attend meetings, Lizzie.’ ‘ I know that,’ she replied at once; ‘ but it keeps it in my mind.’” Absence from worship: One Sunday morning a lady, stepping into a hackney-coach in order to ride to a place of worship, asked the driver if he ever went to church. She received the following reply: “ No, madam; I am so occupied in taking others there, that I cannot possibly get time to go myself!” One benefit of regular churchgoing: A devoutly pious man, who lived some six miles from the house of worship, once complained to his pastor of the distance he had to go to attend public worship. “ Never mind,” said the good minister, “ remember that every Sabbath you have the privilege of preaching a sermon six miles long--you preach the gospel to all the residents and people you pass.” A blessing attends public worship: One winter day, a gentleman riding on horseback along a Kentucky road met an old coloured slave plodding on through the deep snow to the house of God, which was four miles from his home. “ Why, uncle,” cried the gentleman, “ you ought not to venture out such a distance on such a day! Why in the world don’ t you stay at home? … Ah, massa,” was the answer, “ I darn’ t do dat! ‘ Cause, you see, I dunno when de blessing twine to come. An’ ‘ spose it ‘ ud come dis snowy mornin’ , and I away? Oh, no! dat ‘ ud nebber do.” Would God’ s service ever be dis-honoured by empty houses of worship were all Christians possessed of such faith? Exhorting one another Exhorting one another: Amongst the social and friendly duties which seem to be recommended, is the duty of exhortation. Exhort one another. To what? To good works, without question; to everything that a Christian ought to do. Much of the same nature is the precept, Admonish one another, and warn one another. Exhortation ought to proceed from brotherly love, else it would be faulty in its motives, and unsuccessful in its attempts; and because it often is so, this has given rise to two splenetic observations, made by those who view human nature in the worst light. First, that every man is liberal of advice; secondly, that no man is the better for it. If a person exhort another, purely because he is a friend, and desire his welfare, the very manner will show the man; for love has an air which is not easily counterfeited; he will temper his advice with discretion and humility; he will add whatsoever is necessary to recommend it; and if a person be persuaded that he who gives him his advice would also give him anything else that he could reasonably desire, he is not a little disposed to attend to it. Exhortation comes most properly from superiors and from equals. It is part of the duty of rulers to subjects, parents to children, masters to servants, the elder to the younger, and friends to friends, since friendship always finds or makes a certain parity. It cannot be convenient or decent that every man, upon every occasion, should exhort every man; but every person has his inferiors, or his equals, and towards them he is to exercise this office upon all inviting opportunities. Besides, there is a sort of indirect exhortation, if I may so call it, to virtue and to goodness, which every Christian ought to exercise, even towards his superiors; and that is, to speak well of all those who deserve well of him; to praise good things and good persons; to which I shall not add, that he has the same call to blame those who are deficient, and who want either the capacity or the will of acting suitably to their office and rank; because censure is often as nearly related to censoriousness in reality as it is in sound, and is not a weapon rifler every hand to wield. But here, likewise, there is an indirect censure, as well as an indirect exhortation; and surely every one may assume the honest freedom to pass by in neglect and silence those who deserve reproach and disgrace. The office of exhortation is, in a more particular manner, incumbent upon us who are the ministers of the gospel; and we are expressly required to exhort, warn, admonish, incite, and reprove, with humble authority, and modest resolution, and meek integrity, and prudent zeal. There are particular seasons and occasions for particular exhortations: as when a person is advanced to any high station in the Christian republic; it is then expedient that he should be admonished to beware of himself, and to remember what God and men expect from him; and every one who deserves such a station will take it kindly to be thus reminded of his duty. (J. Jortin, D. D.) So much the more as ye see the day approaching The growing urgency of religion: I. THE OF AS THE DAY . 1. Duties become more numerous and complicated as you advance in life, and you need religion to enable you to discharge them. 2. Circumstances will become more and more trying as you advance, and you will need religion to enable you rightly to bear them. II. THE TO AS THE DAY . Sinner, each drop in the rich showers of mercy that are rained upon thee every moment has a voice, and that voice says, with imperial emphasis, “ Yield yourself to God.” III. THE TO A LIFE AS THE DAY . 1. Your insensibility increases. 2. Your indisposition increases. 3. Your incapacity increases. (Homilist.) The day approaching A note of time is struck here, and the context shows that the apostle makes use of this note as a stimulus to Christian earnestness in every department of the Christian life. The expression “ day” is a very common one in the Bible. It is used, as other words are, in various senses. It is used to signify the natural day of four-and-twenty hours; it is used to signify the artificial day, the rising and the setting of the sun, which varies at different times and seasons, because of the obliquity of the sphere; it is used to signify the civil day, which varies in the manner of counting according to the habits of the various nations of the world. But the expression “ day” is used in Scripture in a less direct manner than this, to signify an indefinite period of time. It is used to express the forty years during which the Jews were in the wilderness, called “ the day of temptation,” that is, the period of temptation. And in this larger sense we read in Scripture of a “ day” of grace, a “ day of vengeance,” a “ day of death,” a “ day of judgment.” Let us consider these. I. The apostle did not say to the Hebrews that their “ DAY” Or GRACE WAS “ ,” nor can I say so to you. Their day of grace had come, and so has yours. Your day of grace did not approach with this new year; you had it last year, you have had it all your years, you have it still--it has followed you into this new year. “ Now is the accepted time, now is the clay of salvation.” The gospel sun has risen upon you in all its light, in all its warmth, in all its privileges, in all its responsibilities. But there is a setting of the gospel sun as well as a rising. Of this the Hebrews are warned. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 10:26-27 If we sin wilfully Apostasy I. THE TO THE OF . 1. An accurate and extended acquaintance with the disclosures of the gospel. 2. A decided conviction of the truth and authority of the gospel. 3. A partial experience of the power and excellence of the gospel. 4. A distinct and open profession of the gospel. II. THE FEELING IN THE OF . It must be done wilfully. 1. From sin committed through want of due information and conviction. 2. From sin committed through hasty inconsideration. 3. From sin committed through powerful and unexpected temptation. 4. From the occasional falls of the true believer, which are subsequently followed by deep, and perhaps speedy repentance. Apostasy is not one act of sin, but a continued state of mind and conduct. It is a falling away, persevered in to the close of life, and issuing in a state of hopeless wretchedness. III. THE AWFUL FROM THE OF . 1. It occasions a necessary exclusion from the attainment of mercy. 2. It induces a terrifying apprehension of coming wrath. (Essex Remembrancer.) Left without a sin-offering: For those that abandon their Christian profession--“ sin wilfully after” that they “ have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” They could not return to the temple, and plead with God for mercy over the offerings which their fathers had presented to Him. The old covenant had passed away. Its priests had lost their consecration. Its altars had lost their sanctity. Its sacrifices had lost their power with God. There was now only one atonement for sin which God would regard; and if they turned away from that, there was nothing for them “ but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” For a Jew to be left with all his sins upon him, and no sin-offering by which to invoke the Divine pardon, was for him to be condemned to intolerable despair. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The danger of apostasy 1. The apostle is net here speaking of the common infirmities which may attend the godly, but of wilful transgressions; or, as David calls them, “ presumptuous sins,” from which he prayed to be delivered (Psalms 19:13). 2. Neither are sins of ignorance intended, but such as are against light and strong conviction. To sin against knowledge is one of the greatest aggravations, and that which leads on to perdition. 3. The text speaks not of sins in general, though knowingly or presumptuously committed, but of some sin in particular, and such as excludes from the hope of salvation. Now this appears to be no other than an absolute and entire rejection of the truth which had been professedly received. Those who cast the Son of God from His throne must expect that He will cast them into hell. They divest Him of His glory, and He will cover them with disgrace. I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST WAS A REAL AND PROPER FOR SIN. The sacrifices under the law were figurative: this was real and effectual. They were shadows: this was the substance. II. THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS THE ONLY FOR SIN. III. THOSE WHO REJECT THE OF CHRIST ARE LEFT WITHOUT HOPE. 1. If Christ became a sacrifice, this will account for the treatment He met with both from the hands of God and man. 2. If the death of Christ be the only sacrifice for sins, let us not only hold fast this doctrine, but actually build upon it as the foundation of all our hopes and comfort. 3. As the passage which we have now considered speaks terror to these who either never embraced the doctrine of Christ’ s atoning sacrifice, or who have shamefully apostatised from it, so it speaks terror to them only. Such indeed are running a dreadful risk of unpardoned guilt and Divine displeasure, and it behoves them to take warning. But let those who put their trust in Christ crucified, and who know no other hope, rejoice and be exceeding glad; for He is able to keep that which they commit unto Him until that day. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The knowledge of the truth Receiving the truth 1. By the truth is meant the true, pure and most certain doctrine of the gospel concerning Christ already come, faith and salvation. This is called truth because it is true, and most eminently and infallibly true, which is noways in anything false and erroneous, as being at first immediately revealed from God, the God of truth. It is called also the truth by way of eminency, as the most excellent truth revealed for man’ s eternal happiness. 2. Truth may be truth, and yet not known to any man or angel, and the truth was first known only unto God; yet it pleased Him, out of His great mercy, to reveal His mind to man, and in particular this truth of the gospel by Christ and His apostles, who made it known unto others, who by that means came to know it. This knowledge was not mathematical, physical, political, or metaphysical, as some use to speak, but theological and Divine, and a light above the light of nature. The word may signify not only knowledge, but acknowledgment of this truth, by a full assent upon conviction. And this might be caused, not only by outward revelation, information, and miracles, but also by the illumination o! the Spirit, and supernatural gifts” for God goes far with man, and doth much to save him: He many times penetrates his inward parts, and by His Divine light and power enters into his very heart, and all this to convert him. 3. They received this knowledge. God did not only offer it, but give it, which He might be properly said to do when they received it. They had it not by nature; for it is far above the natural man. They acquired it, but not by their own power and industry; neither did they merit it. Yet in this receiving they were not merely passive, yet passive because they could be active. God must do something without man, before he can actively receive, He must prevent him by revelation and information without, and by illumination and operation within, and this done, man may be active. For, to receive it is certainly an act not only of the understanding which assents, but of the will which approves. So that he both wittingly and willingly receives, and that with some delight, and proceeds to profession, and continues for a while to believe, approve, profess. Though this receiving of knowledge may seem only to be acknowledgment, yet it is something more. Truth is opposed to error, knowledge to ignorance, acknowledgment to dissent, approbation to rejection of this truth. (G. Lawson.) Fearful looking for of judgment Fiery judgment I. The word judgment may inform us that this justice is not legislative, but judicial; and, as judicial, not remunerative, but vindictive, which presupposeth crime and guilt in the party to be judged. This judgment is the decree of condemnation which determines the penalty: and to signify how dreadful it is, it is said, metaphorically, to be fiery indignation. The words may be translated, the heat, or boiling, or burning of fire; that is fiery heat. By these terms the Spirit informs us of God’ s high displeasure against apostasy, and the severity of His justice, whereby He is resolved most fearfully to punish that sin, which is not barely a disobedience of some particular law, but a plain revolt. II. The parties that must suffer are adversaries: adversaries are apostates, who are not merely disobedient subjects, but revolters. III. There remains a certain fearful looking for of this judgment. 1. Though they never fear it, nor think of it, yet they are obnoxious to it. 2. This will certainly be their doom; and as they are obnoxious by law, they shall certainly suffer that which they have deserved. 3. If they ever seriously reflect upon themselves, and remember what they have done; as conscience will now and then lash them, and mind them of their crime, they must needs expect it, and their fear will be very great. For as they apprehend the peril, so will their fear be; and they cannot apprehend the judgment, but as very grievous, pressing hard upon them, and unavoidable, and so it will torment them before the time of execution. (G. Lawson.) Foreboding of the judgment day: Traverse the earth--enter the gorgeous cities of idolatry, or accept the hospitality of its wandering tribes--go where will-worship is most fantastic, and superstition most gross--and you will find in man “ a fearful looking for of judgment.” The mythology of their Nemesis may vary--their Elysium and the Tartarus may be differently depicted--the Metempsychosis may be the passage of bliss and woe--still the fact is only confirmed by the diversity of the forms in which it is presented. (R. W. Hamilton.) Hebrews 10:28-29 Trodden under foot the Son of God Aggravated apostasy I. THE TREADS UNDER FOOT THE SON OF GOD. The expression is metaphorical, and presupposeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and affirmeth that He, though the Son of God, is trodden under foot. To tread a thing under foot Isaiah 1. To undervalue it, if it be of any worth. 2. To vilify it. 3. To vilify it very much. 4. To express this contempt by casting it upon the ground and trampling upon it, which is the greatest debasement, and is sometimes an expression of utter detestation. Thus Jezebel was thrown down upon the earth, and trampled upon by Jehu’ s horses. To vilify and debase things that are base is no fault; and to despise unworthy men is tolerable; but the apostate undervalues the Son of God; and the greater His dignity, the greater the indignity. He is not mere man, though man, yet as man the best of men; for He is the Son of God, and that not any kind of son, but the only begotten and beloved Son of God, the brightness of His Father’ s glory, and the express image of His person; and so the Son of God, that He is God. Thus neither the Person and Deity of Christ, nor His natures, nor the personal union of them, nor His transcendent gifts, nor His heavenly wisdom, nor His glorious works, nor His rare virtues, nor His great work of expiation, nor His glory and power; which He enjoys at the right hand of God, could anyways move him; but he debaseth Him that was higher than the heavens, as low as the dust under his feet; yet this debasement was only an act of his base mind, but could not in the least degree obscure the excellency of Christ, This is the first aggravation of apostasy. II. HE THE BLOOD OF THE , WHEREBY HE WAS , AN UNHOLY THING. 1. By the blood understand the sacrifice of Christ, so much magnified in the former chapter; for it is that blood by which Christ, entering the holy place of heaven, obtained eternal redemption; that blood which purgeth the conscience from dead works to serve the living God; that blood which confirmed the everlasting covenant, in which respect it is called the blood of the covenant. This covenant is called the covenant of grace, wherein God promiseth remission of sins, and the eternal inheritance of glory, upon condition of repentance and faith in Christ. And it is called the blood of this covenant because upon it the covenant was grounded, and by virtue of it all the promises thereof are made effectual. 2. This was the blood by which this apostate, upon his receiving the knowledge of the truth, was sanctified. For (1) This blood, as offered and accepted of God, made his sin remissible. (2) Upon the profession of his faith his sin was, at least conditionally, pardoned and purged. (3) So long as he continued in his profession, and so far as he proceeded according to certain degrees in faith and the profession of it, so far he might be said to be in a state of justification, and not only to justification, but sanctification. 3. Yet this sanctifying blood the apostate counts unholy or common. To be common blood may be understood (1) Such as hath no expiating and purging power. (2) Such as is no better than the blood of bulls and goats sacrificed. (3) Such as differs not from the blood of other men. (4) Such as is the blood of a malefactor, guilty and vicious person, and that is impure and unholy blood. So that the apostate, though he had received some kind and measure of sanctification from it, yet ascribed no more virtue and excellency to it than to common blood; denied the sanctifying power of it, nay, did account it unholy. Yet you must note, that though it be so vile in his conceit, yet it is really in itself the only sanctifying blood to all such as do sincerely believe. This is the second aggravatior,. III. THE DOTH DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE. 1. This Spirit is not the spirit of man, neither is it any angel, nor any created person of substance; but it is an uncreated Spirit, the Spirit of God, so as that it is God; therefore the perfections and operations of God are predicated of it. 2. This Spirit is said to be the Spirit of grace. Thus He may be called in opposition to the spirit of bondage and fear, which is the spirit proper to the law. For the Spirit by the law, which had no expiation for sin, no promise of power to keep it, nor of pardon if transgressed, could work nothing but fear, which was a continued slavery. The Spirit of the gospel, which is the Spirit of Christ, promised and given in the gospel, is a Spirit of comfort and confidence. 3. They do despite unto this Spirit. In this despite there are injury, reproach, contempt; and the greater the person to whom the despite is done, the more heinous it is. This here meant is not done to man, but God; because done to that Spirit which is so the Spirit of God, that He is God. This is committed (1) By resisting the sanctifying power of God. (2) By undoing all that God, by His Spirit, had done in him for his salvation. (3) By accounting the gifts, notions, motions of this Spirit, the works, delusions, and impulses of the devil; and that not only in himself, but in others sanctified by this Spirit, and endued with His gifts. This is a sin against God the Father, who loved us, and sent Christ to redeem us; against God the Son, who had shed His precious blood for the expiation of our sins; against God the Holy Ghost, who had begun the work of sanctification and consolation in us. (G. Lawson.) The folly of rejecting Christ: It is as if a Venice glass should dispute against a marble wall. It is as if a little ship should run itself against a rock; the rock would soon split the ship, but the ship could not have hurt the rock. (Ralph Robinson.) The murdered Christ I do believe that a murderer would rather see the ghost of his murdered victim standing by his side, sitting at his table, looking at him through the curtains of his bed, confronting him in every society he visits, haunting him in solitude--I believe a man would rather see the ghost of a murdered victim following him everywhere than you would like to see the murdered Christ, whom your sins pierced on the Cross. (B. K. Noel.) Hebrews 10:30 Vengeance belongeth unto Me I. TO THE LORD. By vengeance is meant vindicative justice punishing offenders, the acts whereof are condemnation and execution; and it is proper to a judge, as here it may be taken either for the power or the act and exercise of the power. The party to whom it belongs is the Lord, as He is the supreme and universal Judge; for He that is the supreme Law-giver must needs be the supreme Judge. Angels or men may have the use of it, but the propriety is in God; and that you may understand it more fully, you must know that this power of punishing is an universal, an original power, as it belongs to God and none else. It extends to all persons, to all causes, and to these in all respects; for He hath jurisdiction over angels, and the consciences and immortal souls of men, and can arrogate spiritual and eternal punishments. II. As vengeance, so BELONGS UNTO THE LORD; and it may be considered, not only as it is a power or right to recompense, but the act and exercise of vindicative justice, and may include both the sentence and the execution, which is nothing else but a returning evil for evil, the evil of punishment for the evil of sin. The apostle in this follows the Septuagint, which turn it, “ I will recompense,” which seems to imply, that as He is (1) Just to punish sin. (2) Hath a power of retribution. So (3) He will recompense and exercise this power, and that certainly. III. HE WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE. This may be understood two ways. 1. That God will judge the cause of His oppressed and persecuted people, by punishing and destroying their enemies; and this the context in Deuteronomy seems to imply. 2. That He will judge His people, and punish severely all apostates among them. Men may threaten and never condemn, they may condemn and never execute; but God will certainly do both. IV. THE LORD SAITH SO. Man might have said it, and it might have been otherwise; out of ignorance he might have been deceived, or out of pravity he might deceive others; or if any earthly judge, who knew his own mind and power, should have said so, yet he might change his mind, or want power; and so recompense might fail. But it is God who is Supreme Judge, who cannot be deceived, cannot deceive, cannot change His mind; who hath almighty power that saith so, and His word is His deed. If therefore He say, “ I will recompense, I will judge” ; recompense and judgment will certainly follow, they cannot fail. V. THEY KNEW IT WAS GOD WHO SAID SO; THAT GOD WHO COULD DO AS HE HAD SAID, If any other had said it, and they had been ignorant of it, their fear had been less, though the danger had been as great as if they had known it. Seeing, therefore, it is the Lord who said it, and they knew that it was said, and that by Him, their fear should be answerable to the danger, and so much the greater, as their knowledge was more clear and certain. They knew this, and that by Scripture, which they believed to be the Word of God. Ignorance of this truth makes men secure and presumptuous, and so doth unbelief; this seems to prove the punishment to be unavoidable. (G. Lawson.) Accurate scales In the reign of King Charles I., the goldsmiths of London had a custom of weighing several sorts of their precious metals before the Privy Council. On this occasion they made use of scales poised with such exquisite nicety that the beam would turn, the Master of the company affirmed, at the two-hundredth part of a grain. Now the famous Attorney-General, standing by, and hearing this, replied, “ I shall be loath, then, to have all my actions weighed in these scales.” (Baxendale’ s Anecdotes.) God avenges wrong: When a Chief Justice was spoken to of showing mercy to a prisoner before him, he said, “ Let me remember that there is mercy due to my country.” Have you travelled in the Alps? You will come to a magnificent and beautiful valley with flowing streams and exuberant foliage. A few miles--it may be a few steps--further, and you have a great mountain with its awful shadows, and threatening to hurl its mass over you. You cannot have the sunny valley without the frowning mountain. So there are changes in the scenery when you study the Divine working. There is the lowly valley where the flowers of redemption grow, and the waters of grace curl their eddies; and there is also the great white throne, glorious indeed, but great and terrible in its shadows, because of the intense light that shines upon it. The same engine that beneficently draws the train along will be an instrument of wrath and destruction to anything that crosses its path. God moves on the track of perfect holiness, not only bestowing blessing, but avenging wrong for the benefit of His universe. If the sinner throws himself across that track, the same law that moves Him to love will cause Him to punish the unrepenting sinner. (A. P.Pierson, D. D.) Vengeance a Divine prerogative A person happened to complain in the hearing of a pious man of some conduct which had been manifested towards him by his neighbours, and concluded by saying that he had a large portion of vengeance in store for them. “ You have stolen it, then,” was the answer, “ for I know it does not belong to you of right, because God says, ‘ Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.’” Hebrews 10:31A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Is God love? (With 1 John 4:16):--A sermon on these two texts was published by Mr. Charles Voysey, and entitled, “ A challenge to the orthodox.” The heading of the sermon puts the matter in an interrogative form: “ Is God love? OR, IS it a fearful thing to fall into His hands?” The two ideas are regarded as incompatible, and evidently it is suggested that they are startling opposites. Now it will be for us to consider whether they are really opposites, and whether there is any contradiction of moral idea in them at all. I. THIS SEEMING IS OFTEN IN HUMAN LIFE. Most of US have known the love of home, as amongst the dearest experiences of earthly life; and we shall not easily forget the dewy eyes that looked so carefully into the trunk that was being packed for us with sacrificial love. True! but yet we can remember times when it was “ a fearful thing to fall into our earthly father’ s hands” ! The fatherly spirit seemed turned into a consuming flame of righteous anger. Nay, in cases of guilty betrayal, the deeper the parental love, the more intense the indignation at the harm done to some dear child of the home. And who can measure the terrible influences of sin in God’ s fair universe? Is His voice the only voice that is to be silent? Is His hand the only one that is not to hold the sword of justice? Is He who is the author of the eternal moral law, and who is the inspirer and quickener of all moral intuition, to be assailed as wanting in love, if by the lips of one of His own inspired apostles He declares that “ it is a fearful thing to fall into His hands” ? II. THIS SEEMING WAS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST HIMSELF. All ages since the Redeemer’ s advent have at least agreed in the testimony that He was a Lord of love. And yet, while His whole life is a revelation that “ God is love,” He casts some clear light, upon the truth that “ it is a fearful thing to fall into His hands.” Wicked men trembled as He read their hearts. He saw where sin was taking the forms of hypocrisy and hardness. And would any universe be beautiful or desirable that had not a retribution for such as these hardened hypocrites? Would it not be a fearful thing, if it were not “ a fearful thing for them to fall into the hands of God” ? Were they to “ devour widows’ houses for nothing” ? Were they to be “ full of all uncleanness,” and yet meet no condemnation from the immaculate God? Where is justice in the universe, if they escape from “ the wrath to come”’ ? III. THIS SEEMING IS NOT A ONE ALONE. It is “ a fearful thing to fall into the hands” of Nature, if you disobey her laws. The tempest, will not let you play with the lightning; the precipice will not let you tempt her indulgence by plunging into the depths; the sea soon casts upturned and ghastly faces on to the shore if you tack amid the rocks, even though there be “ beauty at the prow, and pleasure at the helm” ! And what are we reminded of when Nature thus resents our negligence and ignorance? We are told that all these laws and powers could not be altered for one instant in the smallest degree without injuring man, and that to secure his welt-being and safety all these laws are established. What would be the good of saying, Now you must choose one horn of this dilemma--“ You cannot say, Nature is love, and yet it is a fearful thing to fall into her hands” ? IV. THESE SEEMING HAVE BEEN WITHIN BY ITSELF. Instincts are often truer than arguments. We feel in relation to what is Called crime that a merely reformatory system is not enough. It would be wrong to pass over their crimes, wrong to make Nemesis impossible! What? with their miserable victims of yesterday tortured, pillaged, traduced, and murdered! Would it be right to say, as does Mr. Voysey, “ Love makes no bargain, and imposes no conditions; can never so betray itself as to say, ‘ Believe and thou shalt be saved,’ but, ‘ thou shalt be saved whether thou believest or not!’” A fearful enough universe such an one would be; an altogether unmitigated misery to live in it. “ Love imposes no conditions” ! Is it so? Is there to be no “ Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow” ? I venture to affirm that the righteous instincts of human nature say emphatically, “ Amen,” as of old, to all these condemnations. (W. M.Statham, M. A.) Future punishment a fearful thing I. The text asserts that “ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and our first statement shall be, that SURELY IT IS SO; as we may certainly gather from several considerations. 1. It must be a fearful thing for impenitent sinners to fall into God’ s hand when we remember the character of God as revealed in His judgments of Deu 7:10; Isaiah 66:6). What instances does the Scripture give of what Paul calls “ the severity of God,” and how true is it that “ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” ! 2. Pursuing our heavy task, we shall not draw your solemn attention to the words of the Saviour. Our Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be the incarnation of God, and to represent our God under a most tender aspect. It is a very remarkable fact that no inspired preacher of whom we have any record ever uttered such terrible words concerning the destiny of the lost as our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. We feel that it must be a fearful thing to be punished for sin when you remember the atonement. 4. The conscience of every sinner tells him that there wilt be a wrath to come. Dying men who have lived in impenitence, have often exhibited fears that are not to be accounted for, except upon the supposition that the shadow of a terrible doom had cast itself upon their minds. II. Let me urge you NOT TO ATTEMPT TO DEPRIVE OF THE EFFECT WHICH A PROPER OF THIS WOULD HAVE UPON YOU. 1. Do not deny the fact, at any rate if you do, be consistent and deny Scripture altogether. 2. Do not have the edge of this truth taken off by those who suggest a hope that though you may be punished for a time in the next world you will ultimately be destroyed and annihilated. 3. Some suppose that instead of annihilation, restoration awaits the lost. What can there be about hell fire to change a man’ s heart? 4. Some ungodly men say, “ Well, you do not believe for a minute that there is any material fire, do you?” But if it were not so, do you think that soul punishment is a trifle? Why, man, it is the very soul of punishment. It is far more dreadful than bodily pain. III. HOW THIS TEXT IS PUT. The punishment to be endured is here described as falling into the hands of the living God. Will not that be fearful? But what could there be that would alarm the soul in falling into the hands of the living God? Let me remind you. You sinners, when you begin to think of God, feel uneasy. In a future state you will be compelled to think of God. That thought will torment you. You will have to think of God as one to whom you were ungrateful. You will feel remorse, but not repentance, as you recollect that He did honestly invite you to come to Him, that He did call and you refused. As you think of the happiness of those whose hearts were given to Him, it will make your miseries great to think of what you have lost. Well may the wicked gnash their teeth, as they note the overthrow of evil and the establishment of good! IV. IF THESE THINGS BE SO, THEN ACT . (C. H. Spurgeon.) The New Testament revelation of God Not one jot or title of the old revelation of God as a God of Righteousness is lost or cancelled. The moral teaching is stern and uncompromising as ever. God’ s love, which is Himself, is not the invertebrate amiability or weak good-naturedness to which some would reduce it. “ The New Testament,” it has been said, “ with all its glad tidings of mercy is a severe book” (Church). For the goodness and the severity of God are, as it were, the convex and the concave in His moral nature. (Aubrey L. Moore.) Future punishment: The Almighty will not appear as an injured individual avenging his wrongs, but as a righteous Judge administering the law. (J. Howard Hinton, M. A.) The ethical value of a belief in retribution David Mallet was a great free-thinker, and a very free speaker of his free thoughts; he made no scruple to disseminate his sceptical opinions whenever he could with any propriety introduce them. At his own table, indeed, the lady of the house (who was a staunch advocate for her husband’ s opinions) would often in the warmth of argument say, “ Sir, we Deists.” She once made use of this expression in a mixed company to David Hume, who refused the intended compliment by asserting that he was a very good Christian; for the truth of which he appealed to a worthy clergyman present, and this occasioned a laugh, which a little disconcerted the lady and Mr. Mallet. The lecture upon the non credenda of the free-thinkers was repeated so often, and urged with so much earnestness, that the inferior domestics became soon as able disputants as the heads of the family. The fellow who waited at table, being thoroughly convinced that for any of his misdeeds he should have no after-account to make, was resolved to profit by the doctrine, and made off with many things of value, particularly plate. Luckily he was so closely pursued that he was brought back with his prey to his master’ s house, who examined him before some select friends. At first the man was sullen, and would answer no questions put to him; but being urged to give a reason for his infamous behaviour, he resolutely said, “ Sir, I had heard you so often talk of the impossibility of a future state, and that after death there was no reward for virtue, or punishment for vice, that I was tempted to commit the robbery.” “ Well, but, you rascal,” replied Mallet, “ had you no fear of the gallows?” “ Sir,” said the fellow, looking sternly at his master, “ what is that to you, if I had a mind to venture that? You had removed my greatest terror; why should I fear the lesser?” (Thomas Davies, on David Mallet.) In the hands of the living God We are all, in one sense, in “ the hands of the living God” (Psalms 139:7-10). In conversion, too, the sinner, in some sense, “ falls into the hands” of God. The alien is restored--the rebel is welcomed back again--the prodigal returns to his Father’ s house, and sinks into his Father’ s arms. Glorious privilege!--And yet, the sacred writer testifies, “ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Jehovah is here regarded as the God of vengeance. To fall into the hands of Jehovah as the unreconciled Thunderer, is certain ruin for the guilty soul of man. In that case, the righteous Governor fulfils upon the sinner the curses of the broken covenant of works; the dark and dreadful threatenings of His word upon the workers of iniquity are carried into execution; God meets men as an enemy, and His wrath blazes out against them. Nor does the mercy with which Christianity is suffused interfere with the execution of the threatenings of heaven upon those who finally reject the “ great salvation.” The very greatness of that salvation, and the very “ meekness and gentleness of Christ,” serve to aggravate their guilt, and to augment their punishment. Oh, now let the sinner fall into His hands as the hands of God in Christ, bidding him welcome to their kind and sheltering embrace; lest, hereafter, he “ fall into His hands” as the hands of an avenging potentate--an unreconciled and desolating foe. (A. S.Patterson.) Hebrews 10:32-34 Ye endured a great fight of afflictions The believing Hebrews exhorted I. THE TO WHICH THE APOSTLE ADVERTS. “ A great fight of afflictions.” The term affliction is usually employed by us to denote bodily indisposition; but it is evident that the reference here is to persecution. The words, “ a great fight,” show that these Hebrews had a severe struggle to maintain; and it would be well for us to contrast the sufferings of the early Christians with what we have to endure. In addition to this general representation, the apostle proceeds to enumerate some of the special evils which they had to encounter. By the term “ reproaches,” we are given to understand that they were the objects of false and slanderous accusations, which has been the case with the people of God in all ages (Psalms 69:20). This is a severe trial, especially to tender and sensitive minds. But what says the Saviour? (Matthew 5:11-12). And what says the apostle? 1 Peter 4:14-16). “ With reproaches the apostle again connects the term “ afflictions,” or persecutions; and, from what is stated in the following verse, it is evident that the spoliation of their property is mainly intended. The notoriety connected with these proceedings added to their trials. “ Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock,” &c. The object of their persecutors was openly to expose them to scorn, and to excite public feeling against them. Then their own sorrows were enhanced by the warm sympathy they felt for their fellow-sufferers. “ Part]y, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.” As believers, being united to Christ, partake of the fellowship of His sufferings; so, being united to each other, they cannot but share the afflictions which are accomplished in their brethren around them. II. THE WHICH HE ADDUCES (verse 34). 1. The conduct of these persons demands our highest admiration. Simply to acquiesce without murmuring would have been no small matter; but to meet joyfully such a visitation, was strange indeed. When the harvest is suddenly blasted, the utmost we expect in the husbandman, after all his care and toil, is patient resignation; no one, under such circumstances, thinks of joy. But these persons took joyfully the spoiling of their goods--those goods including their earthly all. 2. They were influenced by the consideration of the treasure laid up for them in heaven, which the spoiler could not reach, nor aught else destroy. They knew that they had there a better and a more enduring substance than the possessions of this passing world. (1) More satisfying. (2) More enduring. III. THE DUTIES AND WHICH HE . 1. Confidence. This feeling is to be regarded as the fruit of faith, and is displayed by courage in the face of difficulties and oppositions. It includes freedom from bondage and fear, and also a prevailing persuasion of our acceptance with God. 2. Patience. This is another fruit of faith, and is not the least important of those things which are lovely and of good report. There are three things which call for the exercise of this grace. We have need of it (1) In bearing provocation. (2) In suffering affliction. (3) In waiting under delays and disappointments. In each of these senses the Hebrews had to exercise this grace, but especially in the latter. What the apostle exhorts them to cultivate is the opposite of that impatience which cannot wait; but he tells them that they would not have to wait long. “ For yet a little while,” &c. The overthrow of the Jewish state would put an end to their power to annoy them. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, think of this “ little while.” Every wave is numbered between thee and the desired haven; and then the little while of time will be swallowed up in the unending ages of eternity. 3. Perseverance. “ Now the just shall live by faith” --in the exercise of a calm and constant trust in God--“ but if any man draw back, My soul,” &c. To draw back, after putting our hands to the gospel plough, is a sin highly aggravating in its nature, and, if persisted in, one that will be most awful in its results (2 Peter 2:20-22; Hebrews 6:4-6; Hebrews 10:26-31). Some years ago there was a shipwreck in one of our channels. Among the passengers were a father and his son. They were a considerable distance from shore, but, as their lives were at stake, they resolved to make an effort to reach it by swimming. Before long, the son became very faint, and the father, perceiving it, cried out, “ Hold on! Hold on! “ Again and again did he repeat the words, Hold on! and he did not cry in vain. The youth was stimulated thereby; and at length, in spite of the roaring winds and boisterous waves, they reached the shore in safety. Now, what this shipwrecked father said to his fainting son would we say to those who have named the name of Christ, especially to the young disciple. By all the fearful consequences with which backsliding will be attended we bid you, Hold on! (Expository Sermons.) The conflict of the light: I. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS NOT ONLY AN , IT IS ALSO AN INNER LIGHT. The first aspect it presents to us is of an objective revelation. Christ’ s mission fulfilled and transcended all the hopes of the past. In His person and work we have the materials of the world’ s illumination. He is the Sun of the spiritual universe. That revelation still advances. The historic work of Christ on earth is given in the volume of Revelation, closed in the first century. The work of Christ in the heavenly world, and in the hearts of men, constitute ever fresh gospels in that unending volume which contains the progressive manifestation of God. We are surrounded, then, on all sides, with this environment of light. But that light and the objects it reveals are not discovered by us until we are inwardly illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Then we are transformed by it, and become orbs of light enlightening the darkness about us. Only when these two conditions are met, is the spiritual world a reality to us. II. THE OF THIS LIGHT BRINGS . We should expect the possession of Christ to bring gladness, peace, power; and so it does, but only as the effect of battle. The influx of light ever arouses opposition. Why is this conflict inevitable? It is because of the antagonism of the light and that which it expels. It is because there is a Divine necessity that truth and error should come into collision. It is because it is the destiny of the light to rule. It must be diffused. It exposes all that is withered, noisome, dead. The aim of the light is to fashion a different world altogether. The face of Nature is the work of light. And the light of Christ is spreading, rising, will prevail. III. THE LIGHT THAT THE GIVES US TO ENDURE AND CONQUER. All power is in the light. If we shut our eyes to any part of it, we are weakened, we are without the correlative energies that go with the light--fire, heat, electricity. IV. THE OF THE PAST OF THE LIGHT SHOULD BE FOR PRESENT HELP. “ Call to remembrance.” Is it dark with you now? Does your way lie through shadows? Remember that “ He turns the shadow of death into the morning.” The twilight of doubt shall be followed by the dawn of certainty. The night of sorrow by the morning of joy. The evening of life by the noontide of heaven. The present darkness of the world shall be succeeded by the universal shining of the light of the gospel. (J. Matthews.) Loss suffered joyfully A missionary in India says: I rode to Nallamaram and saw some people of the congregation there, together with the catechist. The clothes of one of the women were rather dirty, and I asked her about it. “ Sir,” said she, “ I am a poor woman and have only this single dress.” “ Well, have you always been so poor?” “ No, I had some money and jewels, but a year ago the Maravers (thieves) came and robbed me of all. They told me,” she said, “ if you will return to heathenism, we shall restore you everything.” “ Well, why did you not follow their advice? Now you are a poor Christian.” “ Oh, sir,” she replied, “ I would rather be a poor Christian than arichheathen.” (W. Arvine.) Unsuspected joys: It is with wealth as with a water reservoir. When the drought has dried it up, you find in the deserted bed things that were lost years ago, and curious interesting things which but for this circumstance would never have been known. So, where it is a believing contented mind, it will discover, when the flood of fortune has drained away, in the deserted channel unsuspected sources of enjoyment and lost things, feelings which long since vanished, simple pleasures and primitive emotions which abundance had overflowed. Joy in afflictions: You don’ t know, Christian friends, how much harm some of you do by looking so gloomy and unapproachable. I remember one of my congregation telling me how, when she was a girl, she was nearly driven to shun the society of godly people by hearing the unhappy utterance of a friend of her father’ s, who was reputed to be a good man, but who, more than once, groaned in the hearing of herself and other young people, “ Woe’ s me! the more grace a man has, the more he has to make him miserable.” Let the world know that there is a fountain of joy and gladness. (A. A. Bonar, D. D.) Reproaches and afflictions I. They endured a great fight of afflictions, PARTLY BY BEING A GAZING STOCK, BOTH IN AND . 1. They were reproached. Thus they might be used either by words or deeds. For so to speak or do anything that tends to our disgrace is to our reproach. Perhaps they called them sectaries, heretics, apostates, innovators, seditious persons, and also did so account them, and in this respect did hate them. These reproaches in themselves were bitter and grievous, yet they were more grievous because of afflictions, for they afflicted them by scourging, imprisoning, banishing them. 2. Yet these were made still more grievous, because they did reproach and afflict them not so much privately as publicly, in open view, to make their shame and ignominy the greater. They brought them as it were upon a stage, and as into a theatre, where multitudes, even thousands, might gaze upon them, revile them, scourge them, and make a sport of their sufferings. Every one must take notice of them as base persons, troublers of the world, the refuse and scum of mankind, and abhor them. 3. This was part of their great fight, and a great fight it was, because naturally we much desire to preserve our credit, honour, and reputation, which to some high spirits which the world terms generous is dearer than life, for men choose rather to die than live in disgrace and lose their honour. And as we desire respect in the world and abhor ignominy and contempt, so we love our liberty, ease, and peace, and are very unwilling to lose them. II. Partly they endured a great fight WHILST THEY BECAME OF SUCH AS WERE SO USED. 1. Some part of the Church doth suffer sometimes and not another. The storm which fell upon them was past, yet another falls upon their brethren, and they are reproached and afflicted sad made a gazing stock as they had been. 2. They became companions of these, for they owned them, were grieved inwardly for their sufferings, and did relieve and comfort them. By doing thus they were exposed to the derison of others: their former sufferings might be called passion, this compassion. 3. This also made a part of the great fight: for Satan’ s design in this was to strike a terror into them, and to let them know what a dangerous and restless condition they were in if they should continue to be Christians. And if he could not daunt and discourage them, yet he would at least grieve and vex them, for he knew the passion of their brethren would be their compassion, and that in their suffering they would suffer. (G. Lawson.) Ye had compassion of me in my bonds Compassion with sufferers 1. He cometh to particulars; and first, their compassion towards himself in his bonds is remembered by him. Then (1) Compassion with sufferers, especially when it is manifested to the afflicted party for his comfort, maketh the compassionate person a partaker with the sufferer. (2) Such compassion should be remembered by the sufferer thankfully, and recompensed by seeking their eternal welfare who have showed them such great kindness. 2. Another particular is, their joyful enduring the spoliation of their goods. Then (1) When trial cometh of men’ s faith in Christ, such as mind to be constant must prepare themselves to quit their goods if God please so to honour them with employment. (2) When we see we must lose our goods for Christ’ s sake, or suffer any other inconvenience, we ought to do it cheerfully, and count our gain in Christ more than our loss in the world; seeing there is no cause of grief, if our eyes were opened, and our earthly affections mortified. 3. Their encouragement and cause of joy was the sensible feeling within themselves of the comfort of eternal riches in heaven keeping for them. Then (1) It is the assurance of our heavenly inheritance which must make us ready to quit our earthly movables. (2) Whoso getteth a heart to quit anything on earth for Christ, shall have better in heaven than he can lose here. (3) God useth to give earnest of what He is to give, in sensible feeling of spiritual riches to such as believe in Him. (4) When men can esteem of things heavenly, as they are, that is enduring goods; and of things earthly as they are, that is perishing movables; then shall they readily quit the earthly in hope of the heavenly. (D. Dickson, M. A.) A better and an enduring substance Heavenly possessions I. THE APOSTLE’ S BRIEF OF THEM. 1. A “ better” substance than anything on earth, in its moral character, social enjoyments, spiritual services. 2. More “ enduring.” II. THE ’ S IN THEM. 1. Attainable. 2. Valuable. 3. Needful. 4. Will soon be realised. (Homilist.) The heavenly substance I. POSSESS AN IN . 1. The state where our possessions are placed. They are “ in heaven.” 2. The character by which our heavenly possessions are distinguished. We have property in heaven substantial and valuable--far superior to all the productions of the globe, and which is to last for ever. 3. The certainty with which the heavenly possessions are regarded--“ Knowing in yourselves.” The Divine word informs us--and here let the heart rest in joyous confidence--that the blessing is prepared for all those who are believers in the Son of God. II. THE OF THE BY IN OUGHT TO POSSESS A UPON THEM IN TIME. 1. If we know that we have “ in heaven a better and an enduring substance,” we shall not allow inordinate affection for the things of the present world. 2. If we know that we have “ in heaven a better and an enduring substance,” we shall exercise patience and fortitude under the privations and sufferings of life. 3. If we know that we have “ in heaven a better and an enduring substance,” our dispositions and thoughts will be imbued with the spirit of heaven, and testifying a growing meetness for its enjoyments. (J. Parsons, M. A.) The Christians preference of heavenly riches I. THE TRIAL THEY WERE CALLED TO ENDURE Was imprisonment and the spoliation of their property. You can all understand the misery that must attach to the violent invasion of your freedom and of your possessions. You know that such are among the heaviest sufferings of an external kind that human nature can experience; and that they require the highest degree of fortitude to sustain them with patience. But these were, in all probability, very frequent sufferings among those first disciples of Christ. II. THE TEMPER OF MIND WITH WHICH THIS TRIAL WAS . They exhibited a Christian generosity, crowned with a Divine devotion; they remembered their fellowsufferers, and forgot their own sufferings. And, what is much more remarkable, “ ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.” Simply to acquiesce unmurmuring in such a dispensation of Providence as this; not to be driven by it to dissemble; not to flinch from an honourable adherence to truth; might have been thought all that could be expected of human nature. But “ joyfully” to meet the severest of circumstantial distresses, rendered the more severe by its cruel injustice, this is an elevation to which Christian piety only can ascend! III. THE WHICH AND THIS DIVINE TEMPER: “ knowing in yourselves,” etc.; not taking this prospect upon probable testimony, but relying on it as a certain reality. 1. In how many respects this heavenly substance is “ better” than any that is of an earthly nature. (1) It is better, in as much as earthly substance is merely the instrument of enjoyment: while heaven is enjoyment itself, essential felicity. (2) Again, earthly objects have no power to satisfy the mind; they cannot tranquillise the heart: on the contrary, by an unhappy, tendency, they enlarge the desires which they gratify; they inflame the passions which they indulge, nor can they ever fill the vast vacuity which they are condemned to leave in an immortal mind. (3) Earthly treasure can only enable its possessor to surround himself with superfluous pomp, to “ walk in a vain show” ; it can only gratify the taste and imagination, or catch the applause of the multitude: it has no power to come into contact with the soul; none to calm the perturbations of conscience, heal the corrosions of remorse, or give comfort to the dying. 2. This is also an enduring substance. Temporal wealth is extremely transient. Lessons: (1) How much we are indebted to God for that kind of evidence of Christianity which arises from the sufferings of its first disciples! (2) How ought we to magnify that almighty grace which enabled them to suffer! (3) Let us apply their example for our own improvement. Piety must rise above the world in a holy superiority to its alluring pleasures. (R. Hall. M. A.) The Christian’ s inheritance and assurance I. THE ’ S FUTURE . 1. By contrast. It is designated “ substance,” as opposed to shadow. All the pleasures and enjoyments of the world are a shadow; there is nothing solid or substantial in them. Afflictions are but a shadow (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our present existence is but a shadow (James 4:14). It is like an eagle in the air, like a ship in the sea, a flower on the earth; as a tale that is told, a watch in the night, a hireling accomplishing his day: man fleeth also as a shadow. Death is a shadow; there is no substantial evil in it to the Christian. But religion is a substance; the gospel is a substantial reality. There is a most delightful promise in the book of Proverbs, where Christ is represented as speaking under the character of wisdom, “ I will cause them that love Me to inherit substance; I will fill their treasures.” Heaven is all substance: its pleasures and enjoyments, its worship and devotions. 2. By comparison. It is called “ a better substance.” It is better in comparison with the present state of our existence, because there is some good in this world. We must not despise God’ s providential mercies, nor undervalue our temporal supplies. We should thank Him for the atmosphere that vivifies, but most of all for the air of holiness and the breath of devotion. We should thank Him for the bread which perisheth, but most of all for the bread of life, the hidden manna. We should thank Him for the water that quenches the thirst, refreshes, and purifies, and revives, but most of all for the streams of salvation, the water of which if a man drink he shall never die. We should thank Him for the use of our bodily limbs, but most of all if we have been taught to walk at liberty in God’ s laws, and run in the way of His commandments. We should thank Him for the faculty of reason, but most of all if, by a spiritual perception, our senses are exercised to discern both good and evil. How much better will the enjoyments of heaven be than the highest degree of happiness realised by believers in a state of grace! 3. By continuation. It is an enduring substance. It is a city which hath foundations--a kingdom which cannot be moved--an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away--a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens--a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. When the angel of death shall spread his cloud over everything terrestrial, the celestial abodes shall shine forth with a grandeur which nothing can demolish, and which eternity itself will but increase. II. THE ’ S PRESENT . 1. Believers have a present title to this inheritance. They have the promise of it. The gospel is God in a promise; and the saints in glory are said to be inheriting the promises. They have the hope of it, which is no more nor less than the prospect of future good grounded on present evidence. They have preparation for it, being “ made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” They have a title to it, and this by virtue of their adoption. 2. They shall have the future possession. There must be the trial of faith, the exercise of patience, the sifting of your motives, the test of principles, and the examination and pondering of the heart. 3. They have inward assurance. “ Knowing in yourselves,” &c. Assurance is a pearl that most want, a crown that few wear. It may be ascertained by the testimony of the Spirit, accompanied with the witness of personal experience. (Essex Remembrancer.) A better and an enduring substance: “ Knowing that ye have yourselves as a better and an enduring possession.” I. THE TRUE . We own ourselves only on condition of being Christian men. For, under all other circumstances and forms of life, the true self is brought into slavery and dragged away from its proper bearings by storms, and swarms of lusts, and passions, and inclinations, and ambitions, and senses. A man’ s flesh is his master, or his pride is his master, or some fraction of his nature is his master, and he himself is an oppressed slave, tyrannised over by rebellious powers. The only way to get the mastery of yourselves is to go to God and say, “ Oh, Lord! I cannot rule this anarchic being of mine. Do Thou take it into Thine hands. Here are the reins; do with me what Thou wilt.” Then you will be your own masters, not till then. II. THE OF THIS . 1. It is better in its essential quality. The apprehension of union with God is the one thing that will satisfy the soul; the one thing which having, we cannot be wholly desolate, however dark may be our path; and without which we cannot be at rest, however compassed with succours and treasures and friends; nor rich, however we may have bursting coffers and all things to enjoy. 2. It is an enduring possession. These things, the calm joys, the pure delights of still fellowship with God in heart and mind and will--these things have in them no seed of decay. These cannot be separated from their possession by anything but his own unfaithfulness. There will never come the time when they shall have to be left behind. Use does not wear these out, but strengthens and increases them. The things which are destined “ to perish with the using” belong to an inferior category. III. THE QUIET TO EARTHLY LOSS AND CHANGE WHICH THE OF THIS . When you strike away the false props, the strength of the real ones become more conspicuous. If we possess this true treasure which lies at our doors, and may be had for the taking, we shall be like men in some strong fortress, with firm walls, abundant provisions, and a well in the courtyard, and we can laugh at besiegers. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A better house in heaven: Zinzendorf became of age in 1721, and in the following year purchased the estate of Berthelsdorf, near his aged relative, the Baroness of Gersdorf, writing up over his dwelling, “ The tenant of this has a better house in heaven.” Meetness for heaven: It is worth something to be in a readiness for mercy, for afflictions, for death, or for judgment, as those who are meet for heaven. The speech of Basil was noble, when Modestus, the prefect, threatened confiscation, torment, and banishment. He answered, “ He need not fear confiscation that hath nothing to lose; nor banishment, to whom heaven only is a country; nor torment, when his body would be crushed with one blow; nor death, which is the only way to set him at liberty. (C. Heywood.) Heaven the right place for the Christian: Heaven is as suitable for a saint as a lock is fitted to receive its key; and as the fashion of a lock might be inferred from the key, so may the glorious state be guessed at from the gracious man. He has, moreover, sips of sweetness, which give him no merely fanciful notion of the hill country, and he knows somewhat of what the full-blown flower must be as he gazes at the beauty of the bud; but he looks not that in the revelation of the glory the invisible should be only a reproduction of the visible; for he knows that the spiritual exceeds the natural even as the heaven is above the earth. (C. H. Spurgeon.) No home beyond the grave I have been told of a wealthy man who died recently. Death came unexpectedly to him, as it almost always does; and he sent out for his lawyer to draw his will. And he went on willing away his property; and when he came to his wife and child, he said he wanted them to have the home. But the little child did not understand what death was. She was standing near, and she said, “ Papa, have you got a home in that land you are going to?” The arrow reached that heart; but it was too late. He saw his mistake. He had got no home beyond the grave. (D. L. Moody.) The better substance 1. The happiness of the saints in heaven is substance, something of real weight and worth; all things here are but shadows. 2. It is a better substance than anything they can have or lose here. 3. It is an enduring substance; it will outlive time, and run parallel with eternity. They can never spend it; their enemies can never take it from them as they did their earthly goods. 4. This will make a rich amends for all they can lose and suffer here. In heaven they shall have a better life, a better estate, better liberty, better society, better hearts, better work, everything better. 5. Christians should know this in themselves. (Matthew Henry.) Heavenward: My horse invariably comes home in less time than he makes the journey out. He pulls the carriage with a hearty goodwill when his face is towards home. Should not I also both suffer and labour the more joyously because my way lies towards heaven, and I am on pilgrimage to my Father’ s house, my soul’ s dear home and resting-place? (C. H.Spurgeon.) Heaven--a sustaining prospect: One Palmer, of Reading, being condemned to die, in Queen Mary’ s time, was much persuaded to recant, and among other things a friend said to him, “ Take pity on thy golden years and pleasant flowers of youth, before it be too late.” His reply was as beautiful as it was conclusive: “ Sir, I long for those springing flowers which shall never fade away.” When he was in the midst of the flames he exhorted his companions to constancy, saying, “ We shall not end our lives in the fire, but make a change for a better life; yea, for coals we shall receive pearls.” Thus do we clearly see that, although “ if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” yet the prospect of a better and enduring substance enables us to meet all the trials and temptations of this present life with holy boldness and joy. (C. H.Spurgeon.) How to meet adversity: If a heathen could say, when he saw a sudden shipwreck of all his wealth, “ Well, Fortune, I see thou wouldst have me to be a philosopher,” should not we, when called to quit our movables, say, “ I see that God would have me to lay up treasure in heaven, that is subject neither to vanity nor violence” ? (John Trapp.) Hebrews 10:35 Cast not away, therefore, your confidence Spiritual confidence I. WHAT THIS IS. 1. Confidence in Christ. (1) In His inherent goodness. (2) In His power and will to save. 2. Confidence in the riches which Christ will give. II. IS TO BE FIRMLY HELD. For the better understanding of this, it is well to bear in mind the difference there is between confidence and faith. They are much the same in their exercise; still they are different. Confidence is the outcome of faith. Confidence is stronger than faith, and leads the soul onward to be bold and daring. Faith is as the root; confidence the branch springing out of the root. Confidence grows on faith, and cannot live without it; but faith may exist without confidence, though there can be no doubt that the one is affected by the other, and that as the one strengthens the other strengthens, or that as the one wanes the other also wanes. We see, therefore, that we may cast away our confidence by unbelief. Once begin to doubt the power and will of Christ to bless us, and our confidence is gone. The faith may not altogether have departed, but confidence is thrown away. In fact, it seems to be possible for one to have all the evidences of Christ’ s character and goodness set before him, so that he cannot doubt, but must believe in Christ’ s divinity and salvation; and yet to have no real confidence in Him, no confidence which leads one to trust Him fully, and to go forth in His name in all boldness and with Christian courage. If, then, you are a possessor of this confidence, hold it fast. It is a step in advance of the ordinary Christian plan. It leads to something more, something higher, bolder, and grinder, for Christ and for His cause. Hold it fast, and exercise it. The more it is cultivated and exercised, the more it will grow and the stronger it will become. III. BRINGS ITS OWN REWARD. 1. We have it here upon earth. You cannot confide in Christ one single hour without receiving some blessing. If you have this confidence, it matters but little what may befall you here. There may be war, or jealousies, or collapses in business, or bodily suffering, or temptation, or any other kind of trial as sharp as death itself, yet your mind is calm amidst it all; and, like the bird which sits on some secluded twig and sings sweetly while the thunder roars and the lightning flashes, so you are joyful in the Lord, and amidst every storm can sing to the praise of your Saviour. 2. We shall have a further reward hereafter. Self-devoting unselfishness for Christ’ s sake will be its own reward in heaven. Can any soul absolutely confide in Christ and not be made holier in heaven than he is here? He will also be rewarded with the rest of heaven--blessed, peaceful rest, after his toils and sufferings here. He will have the glories of heaven poured upon him in such a measure as he never anticipated, and of a kind of which he had not conceived. (H. F. Walker.) The Christian’ s confidence The confidence here mentioned is not merely that trust in the personal sacrifice of Christ whence springs pardon of sin. It is the filial trust of a believing heart, washed from guilt in the redeeming blood, already an heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ. And in what is this confidence placed? In self-goodness, or self-power? No; but in God, through Jesus Christ alone. The more of this confidence the Christian possesses, the more humble will he be; for it makes Christ supreme in the heart. And on what is it immediately grounded? This rejoicing confidence is not founded on dim speculations, on vague hopes, on boasted deeds, but on the clear testimony of the Divine Spirit. In this must be the basis of all the enjoyment in the blessings of the kingdom of grace here, and all for which we may look in the glory hereafter. In hours of distress it ministers consolation. In danger it brings preservation and rescue. In trouble it gives support and relief. It realises not only a deliverance from all evil, but a communication of all that is good. Who can tell how rich in delight earth may be, with this confidence in God keeping the soul; with the kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy as its government; with the sure promise that the maintenance of this confidence is constantly adding to the lustre of our heavenly crown! But its highest, its supremely great “ recompense of reward” is beyond the grave. With expanding and quickened facilities, with ever-opening objects for thought and feeling, with closer approach to the infinite, and changing into the Divine likeness, the faithful saints shall reap the eternity of their reward. The apostle here alludes to the conduct of the ancient warrior. The Lacedaemonians were celebrated for a valour which chose death before an ignominious defeat; therefore they threw their lives away rather than shrink from the foe. The mothers of their young men often gave them, as they departed for the fight, the shield of the father, and commanded them to bring it back, or be brought back upon it--that is, to return victorious or slain. So the loyal, valiant Paul bids the soldier of the cross never to give up his shield, never cast it away in foul retreat. Ours is a mighty moral conflict. If we Can cast this away, we can have no hope of succour and deliverance from Him. We must fall a prey to the devourer. Let us, then, resist the various devices to ensnare us. Cast not away your confidence in any sore temptation. Cast it not away should the prosperity and flattery of the world try to attract you from it. Perhaps this is the least dreaded, but it is the most dangerous combatant; for, like Judas, it first kisses, then betrays. (S. B. Bangs.) Hold fast your shield I. WHAT ARE THE OF THIS of which the apostle speaks? It is not very easy to explain this word in one English word. It means that freedom, that peace, that at-homeness which makes a man feel bold, free, confident. The elements of it seem to me to be these. 1. Confidence in the principles which you have espoused. There must be certain undoubted truths about which you can sing, “ O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise” --things which you perceive to be plainly taught in the Scriptures--things brought home by the power of the Holy Spirit. 2. This is the groundwork of true confidence but to make it complete there must be an open avowal of our belief in our Lord Jesus. 3. To do all this you must know your own interest in those truths man will readily let go a truth which may condemn him. Who will die for a truth in which he has no share? The man who can live and die for Christ is the man who believes that Christ has lived and died for him. 4. This means, besides, a full and firm reliance upon the faithfulness of God, so that we are free from all mistrusts and fears, and simply rest in God. 5. Where this confidence really reigns in the soul, it takes the form of full acceptance before God. 6. Upon this there follows that further confidence, of which John says, “ This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us” --confidence that when we pray we shall be heard. 7. Over and above that, how delightful to feel that even what we do not pray for, by reason of our ignorance or forgetfulness, our gracious God will bestow. 8. You may add to all this the confidence that He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him; for we have this confidence--that whether we sleep or wake we shall be together with Him. II. How THIS MAY BE CAST AWAY. 1. By changing it for self-confidence. Be empty, and Christ will be your fulness, but if you become full in yourself you have done with Christ. Cast not away your confidence by leaving your simple reliance upon Jesus Christ. 2. Some, however, cast away their confidence by giving way to sin. Old Master Brooks says, “ Assurance will make us leave off sinning, or sinning will make us leave off assurance.” You cannot grieve your Heavenly Father and yet feel the same confidence towards Him. 3. Another way of losing our confidence is by getting into worldly company and mixing up with the gay and frivolous. A child would soon lose his loving, confident feeling towards his father if his father had an enemy opposite, and he constantly went into that enemy’ s house, and heard all the language that was used there. 4. You can very easily lose your confidence by changing your aim in life. While your object is God you will be bold as a lion, but a sordid motive is the mother of cowardice. 5. Some unhappy professors have apparently cast away their confidence in utter unbelief. III. THE REASONS GIVEN FOR HOLDING FAST OUR . 1. “ Cast not away therefore you confidence.” What does this “ therefore” mean? Why, it means this--because you have already endured so much. Do not lose the victories which you have already gained. If it was wise to go so far, it will be wise to go on to the end. I recollect going over the Col D’ Obbia on the Alps, and when I got a little way down I found myself on a steep mountain side upon a mass of loose earth and slates. There seemed to me to be some miles of almost perpendicular descent and no road. My head began to swim. I set my feet fast down in the loose soil, turned my back to the scene below me, and my face to the hill-side, and stuck my hands into the earth to hold as best I could. I cried to my friend, “ I shall never go down there: I will go back.” He coolly replied, “ Just look where you have come from.” When I looked up it appeared to be much worse to try and clamber up than it could possibly be to go down, and so he remarked, “ I think you had better go on, for it is worse going back.” So we must go on, for it will be worse going back. Let us gird up the loins of our mind, and push onward with firm resolution, by the help of the Spirit of God. 2. Do not cast away your confidence, for it has great recompense of reward. There is a reward in it now: for it makes us happy. Do not cast away your confidence, since it yields you such pure delight. But it makes you strong both to bear and labour. When you are like a child in confidence before God, you can endure pain and reproach right bravely. And, moreover, it makes you victorious. And, best of all, there is a recompense of reward to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Discouragements and comforts in Christian life 1. There are many discouragements which follow false conceptions of life, and which result from the practical rectification of those conceptions. There are those who enter upon a Christian life expecting to be borne, as it were, by the Divine afflatus, straight through their course. When they find, on the other hand, that God only works in them to will and to do, and that the effect of the Divine influence upon them is to make the necessity of work in them still more emphatic, they are disappointed. There are those who have supposed a religious life to be a tide of joyful emotion. They thought religion was some Cleopatra’ s barge of ivory and gold, with purple sails, and with music and joyfulness within; and though there would be savage barbarians along either shore, that would shoot arrows at them, they meant to fire out of the barge a great deal better than was sent at them; and when they find that instead of being a Cleopatra’ s barge, it is a galley, as it were, and that they are galley-slaves, they are despondent. The dispersion of these illusions destroys all that they stood on; and yet, at that, it is far better. There is many a man who is much nearer the kingdom of God at the point of discouragement than he was at the point of hope. The point of hope was the point of misconception; this discouragement is more wholesome than was their hopefulness, because it is nearer to the truth. 2. There are those who begin a religious life upon the nourishment abundantly supplied to them in the peculiar circumstances in which they are born, but who have a slender capacity for supplying themselves with nourishment. They lack that motive force which makes religion, and that inspiration which gives them vital courage. Those who are slenderly endowed in this respect, find, as soon as they begin to live a Christian life for themselves, that it is very dull. It is for such persons that the external routine of church duties is peculiarly useful. If they could be held to some set, stated exercises allied to religion, they would find themselves, both by the regularity of these exercises and by their routine nature, to be greatly sustained and helped. For they are persons that are living upon a low plane. 3. Men suffer discouragements arising from the misconception of the relations of joy to the Christian life. They think while they are joyful that they are growing, and when they are not joyful, then they are going behind-hand. But pain is a far more growing element than joy. Sunshine is not more indispensable to harvests than rains and cloudy days. And in the Christian life the yoke and the burden are eminently profitable to men. There are many men who think that religion is an invitation to go into the house and sit before a great fire that has been built for them. Religion is an invitation to more than that. It is also an invitation to the felling, hauling, and preparing of the fuel. And is not this rational? Is not this the way to make true and wholesome natures? 4. There are discouragements arising from conflicts and rivalries between lawful secular occupations and religious emotions. Our whole life is a religious life. The experiences of inspiration may be spiritual in the closet; but the real life of every man is that into which he puts his energy, his strength, his vitality, his power. Wherever men are, there they ought to put their power of understanding, their power of sentiment, their power of feeling, their power of planning and execution. That is the thing for a Christian man to do. And the kind of power which he has, and the moral quality of it, depend upon the influence of the interior and invisible life. 5. A large element of discouragement arises in minds of fine temper, on account of the discrepancy which must always exist between ideality and practical reality. There will always be a chasm between duty and performance. The higher our conception of justice is, the harder it will be to reach it. The fact is, a person of a vivid imagination will conceive of an amount of duty and a fineness of experience which it would be impossible, except by a tutoring of years and years, to meet. Do not you suppose that Raphael’ s mind, before his hand was trained to paint, painted pictures that were infinitely more beautiful than any that his hand painted? No men are so apt to be discouraged as those who are living far up along the scale. They judge themselves by a high ideal of life. I would not have them discouraged finally; but it does not do any hurt for a man to be enough discouraged to keep down pride and vanity. Men are discouraged, frequently, from a perception of the weakness and unfruitfulness of their will-power--their power of executing what they mean to do. Men resolve, and do not accomplish. The relation between the power of the will and the thing to be executed is different in different people. I have often said that moral stamina lay in the will more than anywhere else. The will is like a rudder. Some ships are very hard to steer, and some are very easy. Some you can hardly turn from their course, and some you can set about by the least touch of the wheel. So it is with men. And they are discouraged, usually, if they find it hard to direct their course aright, because they think it is owing to some wickedness in them. Persevere, and work manfully, with weakness and temptation, in darkness and light, and you will reach your Heavenly Father soon. No father on earth was ever so lenient with the faults of his boy who wanted to do right, as God is with your faults if you want to do right, and will try to do right. In a little time you will know that this is so. Not to mention the other classes of discouragement, I remark, in closing, that behind and within all our personal labour is our God. No man will ever reach heaven that does not himself strive; but no man will ever reach heaven simply through his own striving. There are two co-ordinate lives; there is power within a power; there is God in us; and that is the secret of the power by which we are saved. It looks as though the pointers of a watch kept time; but is it the strength of the pointers that carries them round? No. Down deep below there is the coiled spring that moves the wheel, and, in obedience, the pointers move and register the time. But suppose the pointers were taken off? Then all the springs in the world, though they might set the wheels playing round, would not indicate the time. The measuring power would be gone. Both of them, the spring and the pointers, must be concurrently adjusted in order to keep time. It is God that is the mighty spring within us; and it is we that on the great dial of time are moving round in obedience to this interior force. There is, behind our own will and within our own purposes, the Divine influence; and this truth affords a ground whereon we may comfort ourselves in discouragement. (H. W. Beecher.) Carrying the sword a little further I recollect a brother minister saying to me when I was a very young man, “ I remember being sent for, and going to see a very blessed old man. I had never seen a dying Christian; and as I had read a lot of poetry about the deathbeds of the Lord’ s people, I had got the notion that they all died very quietly. As I drew near to his bedside, I said, “ Oh, sir I it is all peace now.’ It took the old man a little while to get breath enough to speak; and when be did, the sound of his voice seemed to come from beneath the bed-clothes, and chilled me. I could almost have fallen, but I waited a minute, and I then heard what he said. He said, ‘ No, it is not all peace yet. I must wear the halbert a little longer, and I must carry the sword a little further. It is a hard fight; but I shall get the white robe and the crown by-and-by. It is a hard fight; but it is worth it.’ I have never forgotten the lesson I learned at that death-bed.” (S. Coley.) Christian confidence The celebrated Philip de Morney, Prime Minister of Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest statesmen, and the most exemplary Christian of his age, being asked, a little before his death, if he still retained the same assured hope of future bliss which he had so comfortably enjoyed during his illness, he made this memorable reply: “ I am as confident of it from the incontestable evidence of the Spirit of God, as I ever was of any mathematical truth from all the demonstrations of Euclid.” Hebrews 10:36 Ye have need of patience The need of patience in an over-active age Amongst the many ominous characteristics of our age, there is hardly one which stands out so glaringly and alarmingly as the growing want of quietly enduring patience. In various forms this spirit penetrates the Christian world, and tends to bring into it a certain feverishness, haste, and restlessness. I. How IS TO BE HELD FAST. Patience is composed of confidence, hope, and belief in future perfect redemption; it prevents our becoming faint-hearted (Romans 8:25). Two other ingredients of patience are obedience and humility, which keep the spirit calm and submissive. 1. If we cast away confidence and the joyful hope of a better future, all capacity for patience is gone. Thence the answer of the text to the question, “ How can we hold fast patience?” is, by resisting the temptation to cast away confidence and joyousness. This is particularly great at the present day. (1) In private life, where vice is gaining the upper hand, many impure passions are fostered, so that the capacity for earnest labour and quiet endurance is lost. If everything does not go quite smoothly; if health and fortune are squandered; if this sad seed begins to ripen into a sad harvest, then weariness of life lays hold on the guilt-laden soul, which finds itself more and more firmly clasped in the temptation to cast away all confidence, and with it often life itself. Resist the temptation. Life is, and always will be, a great blessing; and so long as Christ and forgiveness of sins is preached, there is no cause for despair. (2) In the spiritual life and work of the time, pessimism is, to many, the fashionable philosophy of the day, i.e., the casting away our confidence in a better future. As if those promises no longer stood firm. (3) In social life: you all know how many, at the present time, have cast away confidence in a satisfactory development of our social conditions, and devise plans of annihilation; how their number increases in many lands, so that here and there a throne is trembling. What are they? What but an embodiment of that hopelessness which refuses to know anything of the blessing and support of our Christian faith in the guidance of the world by God in Christ. (4) Even in Christians there is no lack of temptation to cast away confidence; here, heavy, manifold, and long-continued sufferings, or the sudden loss of apparently indispensable props; there, the too slow march of the kingdom of God, so that zeal outruns all discretion, and here and there turns to new and questionable methods of a more rapid line of procedure for the spreading abroad of the kingdom. 2. But how, then, are confidence and joyfulness to be held fast in spite of all temptations to the contrary? If confidence is steadfastly to endure, look not unto men and unto the circumstances that lead into temptation, but cast thyself wholly upon God. The more thou growest in the knowledge of Him, the more strength wilt thou receive to persevere in cheerful confidence and patience. Then, too, look upon Christ. He is the visible form of the patience of God, the Lamb of God, who bore without a murmur so much contradiction. Is it a time to cast away confidence, now in the midst of the rapid extension of Christ’ s kingdom at home and abroad? And in order that it may become easier for us to hold fast our confidence, the text adds another weighty reason and stimulus: “ which hath great recompense of reward.” II. WHY IS IT SO TO SHOW OPENLY THAT WE POSSESS THIS ? 1. Without it we cannot do the will of God. It is the will of the God of patience that we should be patient as His children (2 Corinthians 6:4). Let us do the will of God patiently upon earth, by patient continuance in well doing seeking for eternal life (Romans 2:7). Have we patience not only with ourselves, and the slow progress of our work, but with others 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Ephesians 2:14). But specially by patience in suffering must we learn to do the will of God. Learn not to shrink from little troubles, but to bear them quietly, so that, in time, thou mayest be able to endure great ones (Romans 12:12; Hebrews 12:1). All virtue is, as it were, shorn of half its glory, if it be not crowned with patience (verse 38). 2. Patience is also indispensable for the receiving of the promise. He alone that doeth the will of God and endureth in faith and patience, can receive the whole rich contents of the Divine promises of grace for this life and for the life to come. Hence the exhortation (chap. 6:12). It is impossible for Him who loses patience, and with it hope, to have a part in the future fulfilment of hope. (T. Christlieb, D. D.) Patience One who had never thought of it before might be amazed at discovering how often the word “ patience “ occurs in the Bible; with the force almost of a revelation might the fact break upon his mind. Patience! It seems to be referred to on every page of God’ s written Word; it is the inner habit of His people. This word is found through the Bible, everywhere, excepting in one section, where notably it is absent, as I shall presently show; nor is it the voice of this life only, for behind the veil, in that place where the souls under the altar cry to God, the tone is still the Revelation 6:10). And as this human voice calls evermore for grace to bear whatever is God’ s will, so, at last, there comes also the full reward (Revelation 3:10). There is something altogether memorable in this; and think how it comes home to every soul! Let us collect some of these sayings, to give fulness to our meditations-- James 5:7-8;Hebrews 12:1-2; James 1:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:4; Hebrews 6:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Revelation 2:2; Revelation 14:12-13. What, then, is this, whereof such marvellous things are spoken? Take heed to distinguish it from all similes, all faint reflections of itself. There is a patience which is mere enduring, mere mute, uncomplaining submission. But in religion, patience is far more than that. It is “ the endurance of any evil, out of the love of God, as the will of God.” That is the full meaning of the word; that is the mark of His children; it is this which calms the storms in the soul, which refines, which makes men like Christ, and ensures to them the crown hereafter. But now, since this is a Christian virtue, involving conquest over self, and leading those who practise it, step by step, in the path which the Lord’ s saints have trodden, shall we think of it as too high for the ordinary daily life? We are always making that mistake about religion. We separate it from our common experiences; we do not apply it to little things. Be sure of this: that you cannot rise to what you ought to be in great things, unless you practise in small matters. It is eminently so, in the case of this virtue of patience. You have it not, because you do not strive after it day by day and hour by hour. You have it, and are collected and calm: it is because you have disciplined yourself in things so little that an ordinary mind would give them no second thought. But that is the way to prove our sincerity: the only way to gain and grow. From little daily matters, from petty trials, by the endurance of what you feel ashamed that you think of seriously, are you to grow to the likeness of the saints, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Patience is the endurance of any evil. How small are most evils! How rarely come the great ones! No hour in the day without its foolish little trial; but everything turns on how you bear yourself there; so only shall you be fitted to stand without flinching when the mighty battles must be fought. What, then, is the field on which you are to be taught the sublime lesson of the Master? Find it in your own house; in your own heart; where you meet with others; when you are alone with your restless thoughts. But you will ask: How shall I learn that Divine art? We answer, patience is a special gift of grace. So much is intimated by the apostle: “ the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.” What is the characteristic sign? To bear all things, not with animal courage, not with iron resolve, not with that mere pagan fortitude which is a natural virtue only, and which the world applauds, but out of the love of God. Try to feel this in a simple, practical way. Even in little trials, that love of God is proving you; it is as truly an act of religion to check yourself in angry words, to give a gentle answer when some one torments you in waywardness or malice, as to go to the church, and approach the Table of the Lord: try to act lovingly and patiently towards others, because you know that God loves them also. But you may ask whether this be possible to bear, to endure in silence, without complaint? Does not the vexed soul demand relief? Is there not a cry in the heart which must make itself heard? We know the danger of repression; it brings on outbreaks and explosions; it betides mischief, sudden and terrible, if there be no safety valve, no escape for surplus force. It is so with men; just as much so with God’ s patient servants as with machinery or mobs. What is in the troubled heart must make an utterance for itself. Patience is not inconsistent with complaint. Cry to the Almighty, yet not as murmuring against His dispensations, nor as rebelling against His will, nor as angrily criticising His providences, but cry to Him because He is our Father, because He knows all, because, when things seem perplexing to us, it is a comfort to know that to Him all is clear. I said before that this word “ patience” is woven into the whole texture of the Sacred Books, except in one section. It is scarcely to be found in the four Gospels. Why should this be? Perhaps, because he needs no exhortation to patience who studies the life of Christ. For Christ was patience itself; in Him patience had her perfect work; of all examples of the virtue none ever came up to that. But another reason may be imagined: who needed to be patient while Christ was in the world? His presence was the fulness of joy, and at His right hand was pleasure for evermore. Not while He was with them in the flesh did they need homily or counsel to be patient, who, in having Christ Himself, had all. And so He said (Matthew 9:15). And so it was; after He departed, began the watch for His return; and as that return was delayed, patience became the sign of the faithful. It has ever been so; it shall be so till the end. Nor is it among the living only; it is thus also with the dead, wheresoever they are sleeping, in the dust of the earth, or under desert sands, or beneath the blue water, their bones expect the resurrection; it is even thus behind the veil, where the souls of the departed call on God the Lord to hasten His kingdom. Think it no hardship, then, to wait and watch, but rather think of the joy that is set before you in the Second Advent of the Lord. To those whom that great vision holds firm with a controlling power each day is counted gain, because it brings them nearer to the triumph of the Redeemer in whom they trust. (Morgan Dix, D. D.) The need of patience: Certainly this is the most difficult lesson of life, patience; for we have many of us imperious desires, hasty wills, and petulant ambitions. We too often seek speedy harvests, and expect swift recompense for our strenuous toil. The age we live in feeds the fallacy that harvests must be immediate. Results rule. Men haste to be rich. Such precipitation, however, is dangerous. We are to “ run with patience.” We have need of patience; it is a spiritual exercise of great preciousness not to be lightly esteemed, in the Divine outworking of the Christian life. I. IS NEEDED FROM THE NATURE OF OUR WORK. The will of God rules all. Let us beware, therefore, of the hasty work of impetuous desire. Patience is something sublime, august, working itself out through hindrances to our aims. Patience! for the veil will one day be torn down, and the beautiful statue appear. Patience! for what testimony to the power of truth so potent as that it sustained men in their hours of grief and gloom? II. IS NEEDED FROM OUR OWN . These constitutions differ. But for the most part we find our active powers in royal ascendency. We can do, we can dare; but we have little power to wait and to endure. When the waterfloods rise to our waist and to our throat, and almost overwhelm us, our patience fails. Thus we need Divine chastening in relation to our weakest point. We need patience day by day, not only that our natures should work, but that they should work to beautiful ends, and in humble and submissive ways. I have stood by the white water-wash when the mill sent forth two boiling streams, with fleecy foam and rushing roar; and at another time I saw one cascade, at another none. What silence then! To work the mill is not enough. The stones must be patiently adjusted, with corn there to be ground, or there is noise without result. So remember that work is not enough; it must have in it patience as well as strength. We have need of patience under disappointment: we forget that to be set right in God’ s way is best. A child learning music dislikes the discipline that keeps to “ the scales.” To play pleasant tunes is so much easier and brighter; but that would only end in inefficiency and imperfection. Even philosophy has glimpsed the truth that the way of success is a way of non-haste: as the Spanish proverb has it, “ The world is his who waits.” But what in life can compare with life itself? The great soul within us, that is all in all. For that to be redeemed and saved, for that to be made meet for the inheritance of the” saints in light,” who would not endure? III. IS NEEDED BECAUSE OF THE WE SUSTAIN TO OTHERS. Life is full of varieties. Nature is. And so is human history. We are not all alike. Our opinions differ. Friendship has to learn how to live, not in the absence of differences, but in spite of them. It is a sorry thing if people must see eye to eye before they come heart to heart. We all have faults which must grieve others, but human forbearance is the very life of love. Without it we become petulant, prejudiced, and proud. How patient we ought to be with our children! And in Church life how needful it is that we be patient with each other in all diversities of taste and judgment. IV. IS NEEDED BECAUSE OF THE DELAY OF HARVEST TIME. It seems so long! Whatever field we walk in, we are tempted, like the children in Longfellow’ s tale, to dig up our plants after a few days to see if they are taking root. We are discontented if we do not see the result of our labours. We forget the patience of God. And perhaps no really good work in this world was ever done without patience. Things hastily done are generally ill done. The great painters, what toilers they were! The great speakers, what elaborate skill they used! What evils have been wrought in the Church of God by endeavours after a speedy harvest! What sensationalisms have had to be endured; what strained excitements have ended in sad relapse! We need in all real work to wait for the harvest. But then the real lasts and lives. There is principle in it; there is permanence in it; there is health in it. The forced plant soon droops and dies. V. IS NEEDED BECAUSE THE HARVEST IS IN HEAVEN. The harvest is to be eternal life. Our light afflictions are but for a moment. The revelation of immortal rest is the only one that will satisfy the heart, or, indeed, the intellect. We cannot understand the meaning of our sorrows unless we look to the great reward. (W. M. Statham, M. A.) Christian patience I. THE NATURE OF . Patience is not an insensibleness of present evils or an indifference for future good: “ No affliction for the present is joyous, but grievous.” But Christian patience is a disposition that keeps us calm and composed in our frame, and steady in the practice of our duty, under the sense of our afflictions or in the delay of our hopes. 1. Patience secures the possession of our souls in every circumstance that tends to discompose our minds. 2. Patience will prevent hasty and rash conclusions, either from present troubles or from the suspension of desired good. 3. Patience will fortify against any unlawful methods for accomplishing our deliverance or desires. 4. Patience disposes a man to go on in the way of his duty, whatever discouragement may arise from the pressure of his troubles or the deferring of his hopes. II. THE NEED AND WHICH A HAS FOR THE OF . 1. A Christian has need of patience to persist in doing the will of God, even in his ordinary course. 2. A Christian hath need of patience to persist in bearing the will of God, and in doing his duty under it, when his course is peculiarly embittered. For instance, to bear the shock of sudden and unexpected trials, which are apt to overset a man at once and to produce hasty thoughts and unadvised words, both of God and man (Psalms 31:22; Psalms 116:11). To suppress a tumult, and keep the mind in frame upon such an occasion, is a very great attainment. To bear succession of exercises, one after another, is still more. To have God’ s waves and billows to pass over us, and yet keep our heads above water, neither thinking Him unkind, nor unjust, nor unfaithful, nor losing the use of reason and grace, is a noble firmness of mind (Job 1:20-22). To bear the long continuance of exercises. Many who have behaved well upon the first attack have been tired out by the length of afflictions. To bear the hand of God when He touches us in a most tender point; not only in small trials, but in great and heavy afflictions. To bear God’ s rod when we cannot account for His reasons or ends in it. To bear sharp afflictions when natural spirits are decayed. To bear affliction patiently when an unlawful way of deliverance seems directly to offer itself and to promise relief. It is hard in such circumstances to choose suffering rather that sinning; to be content to bear our burden still rather than be eased of it upon such terms. 3. A Christian hath need of patience to persist in waiting to the end to receive the promise, especially if he has lively views of a happy state before him, and comfortable hopes of his own title to it; if his course be greatly embittered in the meanwhile by bodily infirmities, by troubles in the world, by the removal of many of his pious friends and acquaintance to heaven before him; if his service and usefulness are to appearance much over; if he hath long thought himself going, just at harbour, but finds himself driven back again to sea: every such instance is a fresh trial to him. III. THE WAY TO WHICH DIRECTS US FOR THIS NEED, OR FOR US WITH THE . 1. Whatever is a trial of our patience, we should consider it as the will of God concerning us. 2. We should strengthen our faith in the discoveries of the gospel and live in the daily exercise of it. 3. We should carefully cultivate the principle of love to God. 4. Let us often represent to our minds the present advantages of patience. It is its own reward, as impatience is its own punishment. 5. We should often contemplate the great examples of patience. 6. We should be earnest in prayer to God for this grace (James 1:4-5).For a clue (1) Let those who are destitute of the principle he sensible of their need, and solicitous that they may obtain it. (2) Let us be solicitous to have this necessary principle daily strengthened, to exercise it upon every proper occasion, and that it may “ have its perfect work.” Be solicitous to exert its most excellent acts. Not only that we may be preserved by it from sinking and murmuring and notorious misbehaviour, but that there may be the most complacential acquiescence in the will of God, that we may be in a frame for praise in the darkest day: “ Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Study to have the actings of patience easy and ready to you as there is occasion; to be able to say with Paul, “ I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus” Acts 21:13). Be careful that the exercises of it be lasting; that it be a fixed habit, and not only by starts; like Moses, who made the exercise of patience so constant a practice that we find but one instance to the contrary through his whole story. (John Evans, D. D,) Necessity, advantages, and confirmation of patience: I. THE CALL WHICH THE LIFE MAKES ON US FOR THIS GRACE OF . The need of patience results from two things--the presence of sufferings or the privation of blessings; patience is exercised either in the enduring of evils or in waiting for desired good. There are trials, besides those common to man, which are peculiar to Christians. There are spiritual trials within, from the corruptions of the heart, which none but those who have experienced them can understand. II. THE GREAT OF . 1. It lightens affliction, disarms it of half its sting. Impatience greatly adds to the momentum of affliction; but the firmness which belongs to patience prepares us to bear the pain. What, indeed, is fortitude but patience? 2. Patience gives room for those moral effects which are designed in the affliction. A tranquil state of mind gives us aa advantage for receiving the benefits of our affliction; being purified, having the unholy fires of the soul quenched, the beauties and beatitudes of the Spirit imparted. But these Divine purposes are not fulfilled in a turbulent mind. 3. Affliction endured with patience redounds to the glory of God. Nothing is a more practical proof of devotedness to God than submission; nothing more recognises God as the great Governor of the world than obedience to Him, as well in what He inflicts as in what He prescribes. III. ADAPTED TO THIS VIRTUE. 1. Affliction is sent by God; His hand is there. 2. Consider the gracious and glorious design which God has in afflicting us; it is “ for our profit” --for nothing less than this--“ that we may be partakers of His holiness! “ 3. There are some familiar comparisons, naturally suggested to a reflecting mind, which tend to support the afflicted. One is the comparing of our trials with those of many others among the people of God. What are ours to theirs? to those of David; Isaiah, supposed to have been sawn; Jeremiah, cast into a dungeon; or the martyrs of later times? 4. What are our troubles compared with our deserts? 5. What are our sufferings compared with our eternal prospects and hopes? 6. The time is hastening on when all these afflictions will be no more. (R. Hall, M. A.) The need of patience in our times: Great things are spoken in Scripture of this grace (Romans 5:4; James 1:4, &c.). “ The God of patience” is one of the Divine titles, and consolation goes with it. May it not be said that some of the worst evils of life spring out of impatience? I need not speak of its effects and workings in hearts and homes. In high places impatience may ruin a country. Impatience is, I think, one of the vices of our generation; nothing is allowed time to grow, room to develop, or opportunity to mend itself. Patience has two ingredients. The beautiful word for it in the original conveys definition in the very name. Patience is, being interpreted, “ submissive waiting.” It is often treated as if it were identical with resignation. But there is altogether another element, too, in patience, and that is expectation. Patience is willing to wait; patience does not for a moment think that the past or the present is all, and that now to look back or to bear is just the one possibility and the one duty. On the contrary, “ Onward” is its watchword; it submits, but it also waits. Subjection is one part of patience, but expectation is the other. “ Submissive waiting “ is its name and its definition. More and more as life advances do we understand why patience should be made so much of in Scripture. “ Behold, we count them happy which endure” --it is the word before us--“ them that have patience.” We can all see why the apostle should have preached patience to these Hebrew Christians, to whom the text was first addressed. (Dean Vaughan.) Patience: Patience is not one of those stupid experiences which have been sometimes in vogue. It is not the grace of indifference or of laziness. Neither is it a kind of dogged obstinacy under difficulties. It is the sequence of enterprise and of endeavour, and is an act of self-control. In the text the teacher points to a very common experience, namely, impatience because labour does not bring forth its results immediately. Divine providence is conducting a double system in this world, or rather a single system with two developments. Constantly these two elements in it are clashing, by reason of men’ s misunderstandings; but they are co-operative and harmonious in the plan of God. He is perpetually administering His government as we that are wise parents administer ours in the family. We take care of our children’ s bodies, of their food, of their dress, of their physical comfort. At the same time it is with reference to an ulterior manhood. And in every instance, if there is a choice in reference to truth-telling, purity, delicacy of mind, and generosity of love, we teach the child to sacrifice the lower for the sake of keeping the higher. We are in our households carrying on a duplex education, which is at its base physical and in its higher developments moral and social; and that which we are doing in the small God is doing in the large sphere. And the human race are being developed at the bottom physically and at the top spiritually. There is, however, one element which runs through both parts of this providence, viz., the time element. In general, the time legitimately required for the accomplishment of an end or the production of an effect measures the value of that effect; or, in other words, the things that you can do very quickly are usually of the least value. Physical qualities and physical objects are very near at band. A man clears up a forest, and lays down his farm, and sees from day to day what he is doing. We raise our harvests in the same way. The distance between the establishment of the cause and the reaping of the effect is very short in physical things; and we can see from hour to hour, from week to week, the results of our work. The lowest sphere is the place where we can quickest realise the fruits of our labour. As when you touch powder to fire there is an instantaneous explosion, so there is the greatest instantaneity between cause and effect the lower down you go toward base matter; and the higher you go above base matter, the wider is the interval between cause and effect. Next above the physical department of life is the intellectual. This is far higher. A man can learn to use his body in a day or two, or in a few weeks, and, in complex trades, in a few years; but a man does not learn how to make use of his intellectual faculties in that length of time. And we call it the education, the developing of our faculties, and the teaching them comprehensive philosophy--the knowledge of how to use themselves so that they shall control the natural globe. This is a slower work. If we regard the perception of the beautiful, the fine, and the harmonious as a higher development of the intellectual or as dependent on a yet higher class of faculties, we shall find that this test which I have employed is still true, viz., that no man can produce the beautiful (the beautiful in truth, I mean) half as fast as he can the lower elements. In other words, truth, in its higher and finer elements, is a product that requires more time for development than truth in its lower forms. But moral qualities stand higher than even the intellectual and artistic in their higher forms. Love (not that instinct which comes to all, but spiritual love, comprehensive, discriminating, fine), joy (not that giggling joy of the senses, but the inspiration of the spirit, joy in the Holy Ghost, that high and blessed enjoyment which comes with faith and with hope)--love, joy, peace, faith, gentleness, goodness, truthfulness--how few there are that possess these! How rare is it to see men who are fully armed with them! And where they are possessed, how long a discipline it was that produced them! It is a long trial that makes strong, impetuous, rude, harsh, cruel men gentle--sweetly gentle--voluntarily gentle. How long it takes to subdue power to humility! How long it takes to turn a man’ s self-esteem into a patronising magnanimity! How long it takes to transform man’ s native conception that he is born and built for his own using into the conception that he is born and built to use himself for others, “ in honour preferring others, and pleasing others to their edification” ! As you go higher, the work is more difficult. It is larger, it is finer, and the period of time between the starting and the ending is longer. The journey between a man’ s volition and his higher moral traits is a very long one, ordinarily speaking. Here, then, is a brief delineation of this spiritual law of growth and labour. I will make some applications of it. 1. In a new religious life all reformations which are physical in their nature should be speedy. Evils in this sphere are to be cured at once. Absolute and total discontinuance is the law for the flesh. A man who begins a Christian life must recollect that, so far as the body is concerned, the law is that there is but a very short space between cause and effect in the lower elements of it. 2. But the strictly religious elements go on. These are the elements of negation--those which involve leaving off and not doing. The moment you enter upon the sphere of the higher elements of religious experience, which is the sphere of change or development, the results cannot be immediate. The term between cause and effect will vary in duration with the peculiar advantages which different persons have; with the peculiar susceptibilities of different persons; with the intensity of inspiration which is brought to bear upon them, and under which they are called to act; yet growth in grace is, in the nature of things, a gradual growth. Every single step upward implies and requires the harmonisation of all the elements below in a man’ s nature and in his surroundings, and that often is comprehensive and very difficult. Not only is all growth in grace gradual which implies development of the higher nature, but you must make up your mind that you will oftentimes set in operation courses which will finally fulfil themselves and disclose beneficial effects. You will set them in operation; and then you will have to wait a great while before you come to the result. And you are not to be discouraged because in labouring for spiritual qualities you do not find them as soon as you could wish. A man cannot say to his temper what he can say to his body. A shrew, being converted, can hold her hand so as not to beat the child, and a little later she can control her tongue, so as not to scold the servant, perhaps; and by and by she can manage her temper, but that takes much longer; and at last she develops a spontaneous emotion of kindness where before there was temper, and that takes longer yet. But still there is a regular progress all the way up; and although there seems to be but little progress made, many persons actually cover a sphere so much wider, and there is so much contained in the little which they do that they really, in the sight of God, are lifted far higher than they are in their own sight, because they are always looking to see physical results--results that the eye can measure, or that the outward senses can recognise, instead of the hidden elements of moral excellence. We have need of patience, after we have done the will of God, before we reach the results. God is dealing with men by difficulties, by tasks, by bereavements, by sorrows, by trials, to prove the higher part of their nature. Give me, now, a bit of wax, and see how soon I will take it in my hand and mould it into any form that I want. Give me a bit of alabaster, and I cannot work that as I can the wax, because it is harder. Give me a bit of marble, and that must be cut more slowly. But give me a diamond, rough and rude, and tell me to cut the faces on that by which it shall reflect all the rays of light and show its hidden powers of beauty, and it is a long task. Yet though it is a long task to cut a diamond, when it is once cut it is worth all the labour that it has cost. Wax is quickly done, but it is of very little use after it is done. A diamond, on the other hand, is long in doing, but once done it lasts for ever. We are not, therefore, to suppose that God is angry with us because we have blow upon blow, and grinding upon grinding, and stroke upon stroke, day after day. He deals with us as with sons. How little we know about this! How little we know what is being done to us! There is a great part of God’ s providence that must always be mysterious to us--for that is the term by which we speak of ignorance. In labouring for others, therefore, we ought to bear in mind this principle, that perpetually we are to carry along together both the physical and the moral development of the world, and that he who lays out his work so as to see the result as he goes along must of necessity be a low worker, he that sees at the end of the day all that he has done during the day has done very little. He that is a true worker is always throwing effects over beyond himself to which he will not come for months, or for years; it may be; and he is a true worker who, after he has done the will of God, has patience till he receives the promised reward--the legitimate effect. This comes home to parents. There are parents who say: “ How much I have laboured with that child! and with what discouraging results! There are my neighbours--they have no trouble at all with their children; but my children, it seems to me, are bound to the gallows or the gaol.” Now, you take a child that is knit from single threads, take a child that has no particular force, and that is reasonably well balanced, and it is not hard to bring him up, for a little effort here and there is sufficient to torn him. A man can put his hand at the spout of a watering-pot and turn the stream here or there or anywhere; but let a man turn Niagara with his hand if he can. Here is a child that has intensity in him. The child would do very well if the mother would let it alone. Let her wait. It takes a great while to unfold a nature, if it be a large nature. Have patience. Believe and understand that the lower things can be speedily done, but that the intermediate affections require a long time for their development, and that the higher moral nature requires a still longer time. Have faith in God. Work, work, and wait! Do not remit any work; but the worry--remit that. (H. W. Beecher.) The duty and reward of the Christian I. THERE, IS A WAITING TIME. “ Ye have need of patience.” 1. The world in which we live is hostile. 2. We are in an imperfect state in body, mind, and heart; hence suffer affliction. 3. We wait for the fulfilment of the promise that Christ will come again. II. THERE IS A TIME. “ After ye have done the will of God.” 1. It is a righteous work. 2. It is a work that secures benefit for ourselves. 3. In this labour we have Divine assistance, for it is God’ s will we do. III. THERE IS AS TIME TO COME. “ Receive the promise.” 1. Rest (Hebrews 4:9). 2. An inheritance (1 Peter 1:4). 3. Companionship with Christ (John 12:26; 1 John 3:2). 4. A speedy deliverance (Hebrews 10:37). Conclusion: 1. To bear patiently our present trials is our present duty. 2. Faith, which prompts us to do the will of God, secures for us, through Christ, our salvation. (B. Knepper.) Need of patience: This passage is interesting if only as an evidence of the care with which the apostles studied the spiritual conditions of the separate churches which were committed to their care. They conceived of their office, not as a temporary lectureship, but as, in modern phrase, a “ cure of souls.” Preaching was for them only a means to an end. That end was the salvation and sanctification of human souls. Wherever anything went wrong, there the anxious eye of the apostle rested, to warn, to encourage amendment. At Thessalonica they had forgotten present duties through their absorbing interest in the second coming of +,he Lord. At Rome the strongminded members of the Church were dealing with the scruples of their weaker brethren in a spirit of scornful indifference. At Corinth party spirit had reached an unexampled height, and an incestuous union was actually tolerated in a man who remained a member of the Church of the apostles. In Galatia baptized Christians were for having themselves circumcised as if they were merely Jews. At Colosse a theosophy, which afterwards became Gnosticism, was dethroning the Divine Redeemer in many a man’ s intellect. At Philippi there was the public scandal of a quarrel between two prominent ladies--Euodias and Syntyche. And so, as the apostle, probably dictating what he had to say in general terms to St. Luke, thinks of this church of converts from Judaism, and of the dangers which encompassed them, and of the shortcomings which were peculiar to them, we read the words, “ Ye have need of patience.” I. NEEDED UNDER . Why did the Hebrew Christians need patience? These Hebrew Christians needed patience, first of all, because they had been exposed and were still exposed to persecutions involving some degree of physical suffering. They had been, on some occasion respecting which no details have reached us, “ spoiled of their goods.” This trouble, the writer says, the Hebrew Christians had borne “ cheerfully, knowing that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” They had suffered also, it would seem, as objects of popular ridicule. It is hard to be identified with a cause which is treated as ridiculous; and, when ridicule is accompanied by leagalised robbery, and by worse things than robbery looming in the distance, then the exercise of patience becomes exceedingly difficult. On the other hand, it seems clear that, as yet, in this particular Church no life had been taken. There had as yet been no martyr. “ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood.” This is interesting if only as showing that the Hebrews addressed in the Epistle cannot have been members of the Church of Jerusalem. Many years had passed in that Church since Stephen had sunk outside the city gate beneath the stones of his murderers, many since James the son of Zebedee had been slain by the sword of Herod. But the fact that there bad been no martyr is of moral as well as critical and historical interest. It shows that the persecution which called especially for the exercise of patience was a moderate persecution--moderate as persecutions went in those days; and for this reason patience may have been more difficult to practise than would have been the case had the persecution been fiercer. II. LESSER TRIALS MAY DEMAND MORE THAN GREATER. Many a man will not utter a murmur when he knows that he is lying in agony between life and death, and when those around him know that each hour may be his last; but let that same man be afflicted with a malady which entails great distress, but something less than very acute suffering--which implies no danger to life, but which nevertheless makes him a confirmed invalid--which is of a character to allow those who wait on him to reflect less frequently on the seriousness of his illness than on the trouble which it entails upon themselves, and patience becomes, in average cases, very difficult. There is here felt to be no demand for a supreme effort at self-mastery--an effort which cannot or may not be necessary for long. There is here no sense of such support as is yielded by friends kneeling around a bedside--by sympathies stimulated to the very highest point of tension. It is more difficult to be patient when the irritation is great and when the situation is commonplace. III. MENTAL DEMANDS . In their time of trouble their Jewish neighbours would have plied the recent converts with arguments for returning to the old synagogue which they had left. To begin with, it would have been urged that they would thus escape a great deal of trouble. The Jewish religion was an old, respectable religion, well known to the authorities of the empire, and, in ordinary circumstances, tolerated, if not very much liked. It was legally recognised, and by belonging to it a man escaped numberless annoyances which attached to membership of a body which, in the eyes of the pagan world, was a new sect, to which neither law nor society as yet had much to say that was not offensive or insulting. Why not, then, come back to the synagogue, the old religion which, besides having a recognised place in the world, was in possession of so much with which Christians had presumably parted company? IV. SUMMARY OF THE IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. The sum of the answer is that in possessing Jesus Christ our Lord Christians had everything that the religion of Israel could possibly give them and a great deal more. The angels ministered to Christians, too, as the heirs of salvation; but Christ was greater than the highest angel, to none of whom--no, not to the highest--had it ever been said, “ Thou art My Son; thisday have I begotten Thee.” Moses was, no doubt, a ruler in the house of God, but he ruled as God’ s viceroy. Christ ruled in it as a Son over His own house. He ruled that which He had made and which He owned. And if the glories of Aaron’ s priesthood were undisputed, Christ, too, was a priest, but in a higher sense--after the order of Melchisedek. And the Jewish sacrifices--what were they but “ shadows of the good things to come” --shadows of the realities which Christ brought with Him from heaven? That most solemn action of all--the entry into the earthly Holy of Holies--what was it but a figure of the entrance of our ascended Lord into the inmost sanctuary of the heavens, where His presence is of itself an intercession? V. THE HEBREW NEEDED WHEN DEALING WITH EACH OTHER. They could keep at times and to a certain extent, out of the way of their pagan persecutors, out of the way of Jewish controversialists. They were thrown into intimate and constant contact with other members of the Church; and it seems more than probable that the Church of Alexandria, like the Churches of Rome and Corinth, contained in those first ages very different elements, the co-existence of which was a trial to patience. At Rome we know there was a quiet but vigorous struggle between the converts from Judaism and the converts from heathenism. At Corinth, to the indignation of the apostle, Christians even went to law with Christians in the courts of the pagan empire, or, as he puts it, “ brother with brother, before the unbelievers.” At Alexandria there would have been, from the nature of the case, very different degrees of Christian attainment, very different ways of dealing with questions of the day. It is impossible that the whole Church of Alexandria can have been meant by the writer’ s vivid description of those “ dull of hearing,” who needed “ milk” when they ought to rejoice in “ strong meat,” who, considering the time that had elapsed since their conversion, ought to have been teachers, and yet needed that some one should teach them what were “ the first principles of the doctrines of Christ.” There must have been others to whom this description did not apply, but who may well have been tempted to irritation with those to whom it did. For them, perhaps, such sentences as the following were intended: … Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for the feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed” ; “ Follow peace with all men.” VI. THE SLOW GROWTH OF . In no department of life is patience more necessary than in dealing with human character. The young, the slow, the undeveloped, the timid, claim it at our hands. No character that is worth anything develops all at once--develops at a single impulse. It grows gradually, first from silence and reserve to decision and explicitness, and then to full productiveness and beauty. As our Lord has said, “ First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” And yet how often is patience wanted on the part of older people when dealing with and judging of the young. We expect the work of ten years to be crowded into ten weeks. We expect the growth of character to reveal itself to some moral microscope of ours, or to the naked eye, when we will. VII. IN THE PRESENT DAY. The great change which Jesus Christ introduced into man’ s estimate of conduct was the exaltation of the passive virtues. The old pagan world meant by a “ virtuous” man a brave, strong, just, energetic human being, who might be, but who probably would not be, humble, submissive, self-subduing. The gospel ideal of character is described under the title of “ the works of the Spirit,” and it runs thus: “ Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” For the old pagan or for his modern representative virtue is mainly active, pushing, aggressive, demonstrative. Virtue is the warrior; it is the athlete; it is the ruler of men. Anyhow, it is the proud self-assertion of conscious force. It thinks cheaply of Christendom, with its ideal of patience and submission. It has a quiet contempt for the martyr, as though he were wanting in manly dignity and self-respect. Christian patience, it says, is the slave cringing beneath the lash of his master--cringing because he is weak and ignorant. VIII. IS . If “ better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city,” then most assuredly the action of the will represented by patience is higher than the action of the will represented by physical courage; for, in the latter case, will is exerted upon something external to man; in the former it is turned in upon man himself: it is engaged in controlling the very force which animates it. It would be far easier, I apprehend, for nine men out of ten to join a storming party than to lie on a rack or to hang on a cross without repining. Yes, patience is strength, and patience is moral strength: it is wisdom. In exercising it we, the creatures of a day, make one of the nearest approaches possible for us to the life of God. IX. OF GOD. Of God, St. Augustine has finely said, “Pattens quia aeternus” (Because He lives for ever, He can afford to wait). X. THE LAW OF . IS not patience the very law of your conquests in science? Those revelations of new powers in nature which from time to time astonish the world those discoveries which make man’ s power over the conditions of his existence sensibly greater than they ever were before--have been prepared for, are being prepared for, by a group of moral and intellectual efforts under the presidency of patience--patience which neglects no facts, patience which is wearied by no disappointments, patience which inspires, which controls, which combines all the group of workers which obey her. And is not patience, I will not dare to say the law, but the hope of your art? Why does our architecture at its very best fall so far short of those great creations of days when our forefathers had neither our knowledge, nor our wealth, nor our marvellous resources? There may be more answers to that question than one, but one is that we have not the patience which is needed for these splendid efforts. We care more to see what we attempt in its completeness than to forego our personal satisfaction for the sake of the grandeur of our work, and our work is dwarfed and impoverished accordingly. Or what is the most necessary quality for any who would promote man’ s social or political welfare? Wisdom, no doubt, is necessary, and energy, and freedom from the chains of prejudice, and buoyant courage, and readiness to recognise the conditions under which success is possible; but above all these is patience. XI. OF LIFE . And as for individual life its conditions are just as they were eighteen centuries ago. Here the modern is just as the ancient world. Sin remains; death remains. When science has so revolutionised our life as not only to alleviate but to banish pain, as not only to postpone but to do away with death, then we may do away with patience. Till then patience is as necessary as it ever was. Patience is needed to enable us to meet the inevitable, and to transfigure it by joyfully accepting as a Father’ s will that which else must overtake us as if it were the iron will of a relentless fate. And in this, as in all other virtues, Jesus Christ our Lord is our highest model. (Canon Liddon.) Patience: The first and most obvious thing which occurs to our minds when we try to call up those things which will make patience needful is positive suffering and pain. Who but those who have actually felt the heavy load of severe bodily pain, protracted day by day, know the bitter and impatient thoughts and feelings which it has power to stir up in our hearts? Which of us can tell how sadly we may need patience before we come to die? But suffering, whether great or small, always tends to make us impatient; and oftentimes those little, insect cares and pains which are of daily and hourly occurrence, and which seem, perhaps, too small and insignificant to need any great exercise of patience to enable us to face them, yet suffice to spur us on to an impatience and fretfulness which are sinful and humiliating. And the very fact, to which experience testifies, that we are even more ready to grow impatient at little troubles than at great ones, because for great troubles a Christian man gathers up his endurance and seeks to receive them submissively as coming by the appointment of God, while little ones he somehow does not think of in connection with the Almighty, and meets them in his own unaided strength--I say this very fact only shows us the more strongly that a very ordinary lot, with very ordinary trials, may yet furnish a great field for the exercise of patience--patience not the heathen virtue, not the worldly prudence, but the Christian grace. A second case in which patience will be very needful to us all is when our hopes and wishes are deferred, when we have to wait and wait, day after day, week after week, year after year, for some expected good. And how many human beings have to wait away in this fashion the best years of life! How many a human being never gets the thing which he or she has waited for till the power of enjoying it is gone! But surely patience, implanted by God’ s Spirit, is mightily needed in such a case; for, if it be not given, how often it proves bad for man to linger out these days of expectancy: how often to do so sours the heart, withers up the affections, jaundices the views, turns the fresh hopeful being of youth into the gloomy, solitary, despairing misanthrope of scarcely middle age! Who does not know that in this evil world things almost invariably turn out just in that way which we least wished and hoped? That day is nine times out of ten a rainy one which we especially desired should be fair; any little accident is pretty safe to happen just at the most inconvenient time; any little illness is almost certain to come when we most wished to be well. It is just on the day when you expect an important letter that something goes wrong with the mail train; it is just when the physician is wanted in a case of life and death that of course he is twenty miles away. So we pass to the more practical question, As we need patience so much, how are we to get it? Where does it come from? Now, we reply that patience is a Christian grace, the gift of God, the operation of the Holy Spirit; and it is to be obtained as all Christian graces are, by earnestly praying for it and by patiently striving after it, and by humbly submitting to all those means which the Holy Spirit makes use of to implant it in our hearts. “ Tribulation worketh patience,” says the Apostle Paul; and how often long-continued affliction is sanctified of God to subdue the soul into a calm submission. We will grant you, indeed, that in working patience the Holy Spirit finds very different kind of material on which His gracious operations must be wrought. It is much easier in some cases than in others to produce what looks like patience. Extremely stupid people often seem remarkably patient; but here, in truth, there is no true patience at all. You would not call a stone patient, let it bear what it might; and why? Because it feels nothing. And the nearer people approach to the insensibility of the stone the less they have of real patience. It is not patience to await composedly the decision of some question which would make another tremble with eagerness if the reason of your composure be that you do not care how the matter goes. Ah, the true patience, which God’ s Spirit works, and oftentimes by the slow wear of suffering years, is not the dull torpor of a clod, but the sensitive, eager, vehement resistance of a human soul against that to resist which it is by itself utterly unequal. But let us see to it that none of us should fancy that because we find it hard to exercise patience therefore we may be excused seeking to exercise it at all. If any among us feels within himself that impatience is his most easily besetting sin, then let such an one remember that here is his battle-ground; and let us be sure of it, that “ the God of patience and consolation” --He who “ knoweth our frame,” and who has told us how sorely we “ have need of patience” --will be ready by His Spirit and His grace to “ strengthen us to all patience,” to enable us to “ possess our souls in patience,” to “ run with patience the race set before us,” “ patiently waiting for Christ” and His coming at the last. Oh! if the story be true how one who stands out in the long ages past as the purest and the best of heathens (Socrates) bore still upon his passion-scarred face the traces of storms gone by, after the discipline of years had made him the mildest and most self-subdued; if the tale be true that when one who professed to read men’ s hearts upon their brow said that the gentle philosopher must be the most irritable of men, that tranquil heathen stayed the derisive laughter of the standers by and the physiognomist’ s mistake, and exclaimed, “ He is right; I was naturally so, but Philosophy has cured me” --oh! if days of self-conflict and self-control could change the swarthy and puny being, with his satyr nature of old still written upon his satyr face, into the very best and gentlest, shall it ever be said that the mighty grace of God and the constant working of a Divine Spirit will not suffice to calm the heats and storms and acerbities of nature, and to work out a loftier than the patience of the philosopher,” even the serene, happy “ patience of the saints” ? May that patience be yours and mine! (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) Patient endurance recommended to believers I. THE NATURE OF PATIENT . Patience is one of the many valuable graces that enrich the Christian character. It cannot be too carefully cherished. From the pen of inspiration it appears that Christian patience is a certain hallowed, dignified, serene possession of the soul in the midst of the raging storm and of impending danger; it is the sitting of the noble and Heaven-taught spirit upon the munitions of rocks in, at least comparatively, undisturbed and silent majesty, smiling at the noise and fury of the tempest; it is the valiant bearing up under great perplexities and sorrows, even when surrounded by them on every side. Undismayed by the gloomiest prospects, this grace reigns and shines in leading its possessor to venture or suffer anything in obeying the commandments of God and in professing the faith of Jesus, making him well-pleased with whatever God appoints respecting him. Like every other good thing, it is the gift of God. II. TO SHOW THAT THE TRUE HAS NEED OF . 1. Where is our dwelling-place? It is on earth, which is not the place of our rest. The heavenly is the only inheritance that is undefiled either with sin or with sorrow. We are also in a strange land. What have we to look for but trials, of which all are partakers? The present is also a state of warfare. We are in an enemy’ s land. 2. What is our life? It is a scene of sorrow and trouble, of vanity and vexation of spirit. 3. What is our character? We are followers of God, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling; not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. 4. What is our peculiar situation in reference to the richer and better part of our treasure and inheritance? We are children of hope. Truly it is said, “ The greatest part of the saint’ s happiness is as yet in promise.” Now, “ Hope deferred maketh the heart sick” ; and the object of our desire as Christians not always being within grasp or at our own command, we must with patience wait for it. 5. What is the will of God with which we have a special concern, in the observance of which we are neither to tire nor to rest until all be fulfilled in reference to ourselves? The will of God is twofold--that of His purpose as shining through all the wise and mysterious arrangements of His providence respecting His people, and that of His command as connected with the whole extent of required duty. With both of these we who are called by God’ s grace must unhesitatingly comply. To the former, or what may be termed His providential will, as Christians we must without murmuring bow. The mind is to be prepared for whatever may befall us. Oh, what need of patience! To the latter, or what is often called God’ s revealed will, we must ever have respect. Self is not only to be denied and the cross taken up, but the will of God is to be done. And this is the will of God, even our sanctification; and that not in part, but wholly. As far as in us lies we must walk in all the statutes and ordinances of the Lord blameless, however great the disrelish which may sometimes be felt for duty, however fierce the opposition we may meet with. Who, then, can doubt whether Christians have need of patience? III. THE REASONS TO CALL FORTH THE OF THIS VIRTUE, 1. The first shall be drawn from the source of afflictions. The hand of the Lord is in all these things. 2. The second shall be taken from the promised reward. (Essex Remembrancer.) Patience: Observe patience in its poise and pose. It is the consummation of a thing which determines its appreciation. Nothing that is desirable looks to be such in its preliminary stages. On the contrary, whatever is exquisite in its completeness may be unsightly in its incipience. Patience alone comprehends the cases and fulfils the course. Patience sees things as they are by seeing things as they shall be; patience puts things together and makes sense of them. It is the Divine glory to see the end from the beginning; it is human wisdom to see the beginning from the end. Right triumphs in the sequel. Great truths move over the world at their own paces. Ships move when they seem only to rock, cutting their curves against the sky. Prejudices die, truth comes out by the witness of reason and the facts of history, as the kernel of grain comes out, just when the husk drops away. Any great cause seems, for a long time, to be a struggling and a sorry cause. Generations always scout what is to be the pride of coming generations. That old maxim, “ Magna est veritas et prevalebit,” is not correct in any sense of immediata consequence. Justice is the latest arrival, the last intelligence upon earth, but justice comes to stay. Justice once done is done for ever. Its final decision is distinct. No man is so sure to be righted as the man who is wronged; no heart is so sure to be remembered as the heart that was slighted; no character is so likely to be lauded as the character which has been scouted; no man is so certain to be remembered as he who had been forgotten, he who, for sake of others, could forego himself. These all hoard their claims, and put them out at interest, as the provident pinch themselves to invest their savings, that the present may lay up for the future. It is the sequel that determines any fact, as the denouement determines a fiction. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Now, look a little further, taking a wider range. The patience of faith is the self-possession of fact; the long agony of time is the long suffering of eternity. Most unbelief is petulant impatience. If there be a God, to worship is to wait; to wait is to worship; to wait upon Him is to have Him for waiting. Tread softly; speak gently amid these ranges and mazes. Look cheerfully upon these mysteries. God is busy with His own arrangements. His kingdom is coming by His own processes, in His own time and ways. (H. S. Carpenter.) Patience: Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility. Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; she bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions, consummates martyrdom. Patience produces unity in the Church, loyalty in the State, harmony in families and societies; she comforts the poor and moderates the rich; she makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, unmoved by calumny and reproach; she teaches us to forgive those who have injured us, and to be the first in asking forgiveness of those whom we have injured; she delights the faithful and invites the unbelieving; she adorns the woman and approves the man; she is beautiful in either sex and every age. Behold her appearance and her attire. Her countenance is calm and serene as the face of heaven unspotted by the shadow of a cloud, and no wrinkle of grief or anger is seen in her forehead. Her eyes are as the eyes of doves for meekness, and on her eyebrows sit cheerfulness and joy. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 10:37 Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come “ Yet a little while” : He who has a house ready furnished does not mind the dismantling of his lodging. True, it is not pleasant to have the furniture of even our lodging disturbed and broken, to have the things in it scattered and pulled to pieces; for even a lodging becomes dear when we are used to it, every corner an old acquaintance and almost an old friend: every part of it brings some thoughts, habits, and employments to remembrance. We do not leave it without pain, nor are we driven from it without some natural sorrow. But if we have a house ready when the lodging is gone, our sorrow is less, our regret slighter, for it is not our all: we are not left houseless. The Hebrews were in trouble: persecution had fallen upon them. Therefore, when the heathen were let loose upon them, and the malice that was not allowed to take their lives was allowed to spoil their goods, they “ took it joyfully,” remembering that “ they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance,” that, though men destroyed the lodging and its furniture, they could not reach or touch the home. They had thus” done the will of God,” not only by active obedience, but by patient submission. However, the promise on which their hopes were fixed, even “ the hope of eternal life,” was still at a distance. They must wait on till it should be fulfilled. To be able thus to wait they needed “ patience” ; and to exercise that patience St. Paul wrote our text: “ Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” “ A little while!” says the unbeliever, as he hears it--“ a little while! are one thousand eight hundred years a little while” ? Such are the thoughts of the sceptic. If we were to weigh time in man’ s puny scales, it would not be a little while. To us worms, creeping along the earth for a small space, for our few years, it is not a little while. But He who spoke these words, “ I come quickly,” is the same “ to whom a thousand years are but as a day,” the same that “ inhabiteth eternity.” To Him years are as seconds on the stop-watch, and centuries roll round as swiftly as the hands on the dial. The humble Christian does not understand this, but he believes it; for it is the word of Him whom he has found to be the truth of God. And those words, “ Yet a little while,” are a fruitful source of comfort to his soul. Come with me to the death-bed of a Christian missionary, and see what those words do there. Morning is just beginning to break over the eastern hills. The missionary’ s wife has been watching all night by the bedside of her fever-stricken husband. In an hour or two she will be a widow and desolate. “ Yet a little while.” He knows that he is leaving her: he knows that he shall soon cease to behold that face on which for so many years he has never looked but in love, and which has never looked but in love upon his own. Yet a few more years or months and her work also will be done; and she also shall be where he is, and the loving fellow servants shall meet never to part again in their Father’ s home. Come with me, yet not to foreign lands, but to our own, and not to a distant part, but near at hand. Come to the abode of poverty; poverty brought on by no crime--poverty which God’ s visitations have brought on. “ Yet a little while.” It will soon be over: I shall soon have done with this little room, this scanty furniture, these poor garments: I shall soon want not even the little food I now want for my mortal body. “ Yet a little while,” and He who for my sake became poor will make me eternally rich through His poverty. Yes, we might run through the whole range of Christian faith: we might look into Christians of every rank of life, from the peer that wears a coronet down to the aged widow driven at last even from her little room into the shelter of a workhouse: we might ask the princely Christian merchant at his desk, the Christian tradesman at his counter, the Christian soldier at his post, the Christian mechanic at his work, yea, the Christian pauper (for such I have met) breaking stones by the roadside of the country, or picking oakum in the town, and they would all tell us, if we asked them, to what they are looking, and what assurance cheers them in their way, and they would all say, “ Yet a little while.” But do these words bring comfort to any but the Christian? Ask the wealthy worldling with his splendid mansion, its costly furniture, its comforts and its luxuries. Oh no; it is his misery to think that all these are only for a little while--that he must leave them all so soon; and it would mar everything if on his splendid furniture, his majestic trees, his noble mansion, were written in clear, plain characters, “ a little while.” Ask the bright girl, who is only a creature of this world, full of life and spirits, bounding with joy and health, enjoying with keen relish all the enjoyments of the world, the excitement of the dance; would that bright child of fashion, that joyous and excited creature of amusement, desire to have written on her wardrobe, on her novels, and to meet her wherever she goes--“ a little while? … Happy Christian!” for thou dost believe what thy God has said. Thou does not believe that this life is all of life, nor this world all: thou dost believe that this is God’ s school, and above is God’ s home, and that thou art now under tutors, and that now afflictions are thy teachers, troubles thy discipline, temptations the searching tests of thy truth, thy purity, thy integrity, thy love to God, thy sense of sin; that this is all meant to make thee fit for thy Father’ s house, to form thy Saviour’ s likeness in thy soul; and, believing this, thou dost rejoice to think, “ that yet a little while,” and when the fires have melted thee and taken off thy dross, thou wilt not be sorry that the heat is over--when trial is done, thou wilt not be sorry to receive the crown of righteousness. (W. W. Champneys, M. A.) Faith during delay I. THE DELAY OF THE OF IS A GREAT OF FAITH AND . II. IT IS UNTO FAITH TO BE ACTED ON THE COMING OF CHRIST TO ALL THAT LOOK FOR HIS . III. THERE IS A PROMISE OF THE COMING OF CHRIST SUITED UNTO THE STATE AND OF THE CHURCH IN ALL AGES. IV. THE DELAY OF THE OF ANY OF THESE AN OF THE FAITH AND OF THE SAINTS. V. EVERY SUCH COMING OF CHRIST HATH ITS SEASON BEYOND WHICH IT SHALL NOT TARRY. VI. THIS DIVINE OF THINGS GIVES A UNTO THE OF FAITH, PRAYER, AND , ABOUT THE COMING OF CHRIST. VII. Although we may not know the especial dispensations and moments of time that are passing over us, yet ALL MAY KNOW THE STATE IN GENERAL OF THE CHURCH UNDER WHICH THEY ARE, AND WHAT COMING OF CHRIST THEY ARE TO LOOK FOR AND EXPECT. VIII. FAITH IN ANY CHURCH THE SOULS OF MEN WITH WHAT IS THE GOOD AND OF THAT STATE; A MAN DO KNOW OR IS THAT HE SHALL NOT SEE IT HIMSELF, NOR ENJOY IT. The faith of this kind is for the Church, and not for men’ s individual persons. IX. “ UNDER AS TO OR COMINGS OF CHRIST, IT IS THE DUTY OF TO FIX AND THEIR FAITH ON HIS AT THE LAST DAY. X. EVERY COMING OF CHRIST, IN A WAY SUITED UNTO THE PRESENT OF THE CHURCH, IS AN PLEDGE OF HIS COMING AT THE LAST UNTO . XI. EVERY COMING OF CHRIST IS CERTAIN, AND SHALL NOT BE DELAYED BEYOND ITS SEASON, WHEN NO SHALL BE ABLE TO STAND BEFORE IT. (John Owen, D. D.) The appointed time As the herbs and flowers which sleep all winter in their roots underground, when the time of spring approacheth presently start forth of their beds, where they had lain so long unperceived, thus will the promise in its season do. He delays who passeth the time appointed; but he only stays that waits for the appointed time and then comes. Every promise is dated, but with a mysterious character; and for want of skill in God’ s chronology we are prone to think that God forgets us, when indeed we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that He comes not just then to us. (W. Gurnall.) Hebrews 10:38 The just shall live by faith Those who are justified by faith are heirs or life: There is a slight transposition in the words of our text, which is warranted by the original Greek, and which, while it does not materially affect the meaning of the passage, appears to set it in a clearer light. We may read the text thus--“ The just by faith shall live.” The expression is descriptive of a child of God. The “ just,” or “ justified man,” is not merely a person who is equitable in all his dealings, and who maintains a character for honesty, but one who has received by faith the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been renewed in the spirit of his mind by the power of the Holy Ghost. I. THE MAN SHALL LIVE IS THIS WORLD. A man’ s outward condition forms no correct criterion by which we may ascertain the measure of his acceptance with God. The possession of riches and honours does not necessarily imply that the possessor is the favourite of heaven, or that he is peaceful and happy in his own mind. How often do we see the true Christian labouring under the pressure of poverty--struggling hard against the tide of adverse circumstances; or if, in a higher sphere of society, he engages in the pursuits of business, “ all things are against him,” and every exertion which he makes proves painfully abortive. But in the midst of all these vicissitudes he “ lives,” and his is a happy life. Again, behold the believer when he is stretched upon the bed of sickness. He may be exhausted by weakness, or racked by pain, yet “ he lives.” Though a dark cloud passes over him his soul is serene. Again, behold the Christian in the day of persecution. It is to this point the apostle makes special allusion in the context. The early disciples of the blessed Jesus derived no worldly advantage from the profession of their faith in Him. What enabled them to sustain the rage of their persecutors? It was faith in their Master--it was confidence in His promises. And in one word, what in every age has supported the people of God under the pressure of calamity, or the prospect of a dying hour? Not certainly the remembrance of the good they had done, or the glory they had achieved--not the contemplation of their own merits, or their moral and intellectual attainments, but simply the inwrought principle of a living faith--that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. II. THE MAN SHALL LIVE IS THE WORLD TO COME. Faith, indeed, is not the procuring cause of eternal life. The possession of faith gives us no absolute or inherent claim on the Almighty for the pardon. It is merely the instrument of our justification. It is the link that connects us with the Saviour, and in virtue of this connection we receive every blessing we enjoy. Eternal life is the purchase of the Saviour’ s sacrifice. (A. B. Parker.) Of living by faith: These words are used four times (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11, and here). In the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians they respect justification, Paul making use of them to prove that we are justified by faith. In Habakkuk 2:4, and the text, they respect our conversation, and hold forth what should support a righteous man in all dangers and necessities. I. WHAT IS IT TO LIVE BY FAITH? This living by faith is not a single and transient act, but something habitual and permanent. And therefore its nature, as of other habits, will best appear in its acts and objects. 1. The acts of faith. The Scripture holds them forth under the notion of dependence and recumbency. And we may thus describe it: living by faith is constant dependence on God as one without whom we cannot live. Three things concur to its constitution. (1) A sense and acknowledgment that we cannot live without God. This is presupposed. Our life depends on Him; and it is our life to depend, life in its latitude; life and all that pertains to it; life and livelihood; life of body and soul; in its being and well-being; in its being and actings, and all that maintain it in both. God is that to the soul which the soul is to the body, enlivens it and acts it; so Christ quickens and acts the soul. (2) There is a relying on God for all these, for continuance of what we have, and supply of what we want; rolling ourselves and the burden of our affairs on God. This is the formal act of faith. (3) Constancy, frequency. It is a continued thing; a life of faith, not one act of believing; a whole life of acts. Since we always stand upon the brink of sin and death, and have no security from falling but God’ s maintaining and our apprehending of Him, we should continually depend and hang upon God, never let go our hold. 2. The object of faith is God in Christ as made known in His attributes, offices, relations, promises, and providences. We may refer the objects and support of faith to these heads. (1) Divine attributes. Those are the pillows and grounds of faith, rocks of eternity, upon which faith may securely repose: “ Though the earth shall be removed,” &c. (2) The offices of Christ. These are strong supports to faith as any though less made use of: in special His (a) Priestly office (Hebrews 4:14-16). (b) Regal office (Acts 5:31). (c) Prophetical office (Deuteronomy 18:15). (3) Mutual relations betwixt God and His people. These are the sweet food of faith, which, digested, nourish it into strength, and enable it to vigorous actings; and to this end we find them frequently used by the saints Psalms 119:94; Jeremiah 14:9); and from particular relations: servant Psalms 143:12; Jeremiah 3:14); Father (Isaiah 63:15). “ Doubtless Thou art our Father” ; where there are the strongest actings of faith upon divers relations. (4) Promises. These and faith are so usually joined as though they were relatives. These are the wells of salvation out of which faith draws joy, &c. (5) Providences of God are objects and encouragements to, faith. The consideration of what He has done for others, and for themselves, has supported the saints. These are the hands of God stretched out on which faith takes hold (Psalms 119:132; 1 Samuel 17:37; 2 Timothy 4:17-18). II. How DO THEY, HOW MUST WE LIVE, BY FAITH? Here I shall give particular directions how faith may act with most advantage upon its several objects formerly propounded, and show what encouragement faith may find from them in all its actings. 1. Attributes of God. For the direction and encouragement of faith in acting upon them, observe eight particulars: (1) Study the attributes. Labour to know them distinctly, effectually. Though faith be not knowledge, yet it is not without it. Nay, the more we know the more we believe (Psalms 9:10). (2) Assure thy interest in the attributes. Let thy knowledge be applicatory. Be not satisfied that thou seest God, till thou see Him to be thine; what He is in Himself, but what He is to thee. (3) When thou art acting thy faith, so methodise the attributes of God as thou mayest thereby prove and make it evident to faith that God is both able and willing to do what thou wouldst believe. That God is willing and able are two handles on which both the hands of faith may take hold, and so act more strongly (as we do) than if it use but one. A man ready to drown, if he can lay hold upon anything with both hands to keep him from sinking, is more secure than if he can but stay himself by one. Faith is but weak when it fastens but upon one of these; the doubting of either will keep off faith from its steadfastness. (4) Let faith fix on that attribute which is most suitable to thy condition. And here faith may meet with many encouragements: first, there is no condition thou canst possibly fall into but some attributes afford support; secondly, there is enough in that attribute to uphold thee, as much as thou standest in need of, as much as thou canst desire; thirdly, there is infinitely more; though thy condition were worse than it is, worse than ever any was, yet there is more than thou needest, more than thou canst desire, more than thou canst imagine, infinitely more. Some one attribute will answer all thy necessities; some most, some many. For, first, some of God’ s attributes encourage faith in every condition. Omnipotency. When thou art surrounded with troubles and dangers there is the power of God to rely on; so Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:1-37.). Art thou afraid to fall away? Stay thyself on God’ s power: “ We are kept by the power of God through faith.” Omnisciency, Wantest thou direction, knowest not what to do, at thy wit’ s end? Eye Omniscieney (2 Chronicles 20:12). Fearest thou secret plots of Satan, crafty conveyances of wicked men, such as no eye can see or discover? Trust omnisciency. Immensity. Art thou deserted by friends, or separated from them by imprisonment, banishment, infectious diseases? Let faith eye immensity; as Christ, “ Yet I am not alone,” &c. All-sufficiency. Let faith set this against all thy wants. I want riches, but the Lord is all-sufficient; liberty, children, friends, credit, health; He is liberty, &c. I want grace, the means of grace, comfort; He is these. Dost thou fear death? The Lord is life. Dost thou fear casting off? The Lord is unchangeable. Mercy. This will hold when all fail. It is the strength of all other supports, and that in all conditions. It bears up faith when nothing else can, under the guilt of sin and sense of wrath; in misery, that is the time when faith should eye mercy. Hence you may argue strength into faith. If one attribute answer many, yea, all conditions, will not all answer one? Secondly, there is enough in any one attribute to support thee as much as thou needest or desirest, let thy corruptions be never so strong, thy wants never so many. Thirdly, there is more than enough that thou needest or canst desire; more than is necessary for thy condition, for a worse than thine, for the worst that ever was. (5) There is no condition possible but some attribute encourages faith; so there is nothing in God that discourages faith in any condition, the most formidable condition. (6) Learn to draw arguments for confirmation of faith in acting upon attributes. These we may raise: first, from ourselves, laying this ground, that whatever engages God encourages faith; for it is easier to believe that one will act for us who is engaged, than one who has no inducement thereto. Secondly, from the attributes themselves separately considered. To instance in two that faith makes most use of power and mercy. Power renders everything easy. This consideration much strengthens faith. Then for mercy this pleases Him. “ He delights to show mercy.” Now can we doubt the Lord will do that for us which He delights to do? (Jeremiah 9:24). Thirdly, from attributes associated. We may doubt of creature power because it is limited, but He is omnipotent. The creature may have strength but want wisdom, and this may disable him, and weaken our confidence; but God is omniscient. A friend may have strength and wisdom too, but may be far from us; oh, but He is omnipresent. A man may have all these but be prevented by death; but God is eternal. A man may have power, wisdom, propinquity, life, but not be willing; but God is merciful, gracious, compassionate, and joins other attributes to His mercy, the more to confirm faith. Fourthly, from God’ s design in manifesting His attributes, viz., His glory. Here is a stronghold for faith. (7) Compare the attributes with what men usually trust, and see how infinitely they transcend; how much more reason there is to rely on God’ s attributes than on riches, strength, princes. (8) Learn from the attributes to answer all objections that may discourage faith, viz., I cannot believe, have used all means, &c.; God is able to work faith. But my own impotency is moral, sinful, contracted by sin; God is merciful. But I am unworthy; He is gracious. But I have turned grace into wantonness; He is patient. But I have abused patience, and what reason to expect He should longer forbear me? His love. But I have played the harlot; He is unchangeable. 2. The offices of Christ. To direct and encourage faith herein, take the rules: (1) Acquaint thyself with the offices of Christ, what they contain and hold forth to us and for us. (a) Kingly office. 1. As He is King He is lawgiver; writes laws in our hearts. Gives not only laws to be obeyed, but hearts to obey; laws for obedience and principles of obedience. 2. To subdue our enemies (Psalms 2:6; Psalms 2:8), our lusts, the world, the powers of darkness. He will bruise them with a rod of iron. 3. To rule us. The government is on His shoulders. He sets His throne in our hearts, and takes care that we live under His government in peace, plenty, safety; peace of conscience, plenty of grace, perseverance. (b) Prophetical. To declare His Father’ s will, to make us understand it; to enlighten our minds; to send the Spirit of Truth to clear up obscurities, resolve doubts, remove scruples, satisfy cases of conscience. (c) As priest. So He suffered and intercedes. His sufferings are both satisfactory and meritorious. (2) These offices are purely relative; wholly ours, for us, in reference to us; relative both in their constitution and execution. He was made King, Priest, &c., for us, and does exercise these for us. (3) These being the offices of Christ, He is to perform them ex officio as a duty. He who was independent, and stood in no need of us, was pleased, for the encouragement of our faith, to come under the engagement of a duty. (4) Christ, as He is Mediator, is both God and man, and executes His offices as Mediator. Here then faith hath all the encouragement that both heaven and earth can afford. (5) Let faith begin first to act on the priestly circe. This is the basis of the other. Persuade thyself that He is thy Priest, and it will be easy to believe Him thy King and Prophet. If He have executed that He will execute these. (6) They are adequate to our conditions. This is necessary for the life of faith, that in every condition possible it have something to rely on. (7) Consider how affectionately Christ executed these offices on earth, and it will be a strong ground to believe He will not neglect them in heaven. (8) The Father and the Spirit are engaged for the execution of these offices. 3. Promises. How faith may act with most advantage upon promises, and get support and encouragement from them in its actings. (1) Consider the latitude of them- There are promises suitable to all estates. (2) Collect the promises, treasure them up, methodise them aright, meditate on them; many in one. (3) Accustom yourselves to a holy kind of discourse and reasoning. Faith does not abolish but improve reason. (4) Confine not God in His performances to things, degrees, times, or persons. (5) As to conditional promises, if you have the qualification in sincerity, let not the want of degrees discourage you from application. The lowest degree of grace entitles to the promise. (6) He that can lay just claim to one promise has interest in all; he that can apply any one, has property in every one. (7) The Lord’ s word is more valuable in His account than all His works; He will suffer all the works of His hands to perish rather than fail in the least degree to perform the most inconsiderable promise. (8) Persuade thyself that God had a particular respect to thee in every promise. (9) Consider, it is all one with God to do as to say, to perform as to promise; it is as easy, He is as willing, as able, to one as the other. (10) Believers have a just and unquestionable title to all things promised besides that title which the promise conveys. They have right to them, and therefore have no reason to doubt but the gracious God will bestow them, especially when He has confirmed the former title by promise. All that is promised was bequeathed to believers by the eternal will of the Father, and purchased for them by the precious blood of Christ, and they are instated therein by many endearing and interesting relations. They have as much right thereto as an heir to his inheritance, or a wife to her jointure; for they are co-heirs with Christ and married to Him (1 Corinthians 3:23). (D. Clarkson, B. D.) On faith I. The first instructions in Christian knowledge inform us of THE AND OF FAITH TO OUR ETERNAL . We are assured that the just shall live by faith; and that without it it is impossible to please God. 1. It seems absolutely essential to the nature, and necessary to the design and success of a Divine revelation, that the messenger of it should, upon producing sufficient evidence and proper attestations from Heaven, insist upon an acknowledgment of its truth, as proceeding from that Being who cannot deceive His creatures, whose admonitions would not be offered but for our advantage, and whose authority cannot be disobeyed without danger. 2. The principal reason why faith is so indispensably required and declared to be the condition of salvation is because it is the surest principle of holiness, the basis of obedience, the natural foundation of universal virtue. If, for instance, we believe in our hearts, and are persuaded of the existence of a God, supremely powerful, wise, and good, possessed of every conceivable and possible perfection, we cannot but reverence and adore a nature so infinitely superior; and every sentiment of our heart must pay homage to Him. If we apprehend Him to be the original of good, the fountain of mercy, we shall be naturally led to acknowledge His goodness in all the expressions of worship, praise, submission, and obedience. If we believe that He sent His Son into the world to purchase, on certain conditions, the pardon of our sins, and an eternity of happiness; we must think ourselves obliged to obey the precepts of His doctrine, to imitate the examples of His life, to comply with the conditions required, and be grateful for so amazing an expression of mercy. II. I SHALL NOW PROCEED TO OFFER SOME BY THE . 1. If faith be the ground of holiness we may hence learn the reason of the general prevalence of iniquity in the world; which is a want of faith, or want of attention to the objects of it. 2. If faith he subservient to holiness, and derive its value from its efficacy and influence on our manners, we may hence learn to estimate the intrinsic value of every doctrine, and to weigh the degrees of malignity and danger in particular errors. Doctrines are valuable in proportion to their moral importance, or subservience to virtue; in proportion to their influence in inclining us to preserve in our minds a constant sense of our dependence on our Maker, and of the duties we owe Him, and of our obligations to observe integrity, and justice, and equity, and charity, in all our dealings. 3. If the design of faith was to lead us to the practice of all righteousness let us not rest our hopes of salvation on a bare acknowledgment or belief of the gospel, in an ineffectual barren faith, productive of no virtue, but let our faith have its proper influence; let our manners correspond with our principles, and let us live as we believe. (G. Carr, B. A.) The vital force: I. A . 1. Doth not the text plainly teach us that faith is the continued act of the Christian? Just as long as he lives here below, if he doth live to God at all, he lives by faith. 2. Faith is a great practical virtue. The text does not say that the just man shall study the doctrine of faith in his retirement, and be able to frame a correct definition of what faith is. It is true that the just man should be meditative, studious, a man well instructed in the history of revelation and the mystery of the kingdom of God; but that is not what the text saith. It doth not say that the just man shall converse about faith, and make the object of faith the constant theme of his discourse. It will be so: what is in the heart will be sure to come out in the tongue. But that is not the truth taught here. In plain English, it is this--the righteous man will carry his faith into his ordinary life. He will live by faith. 3. Faith hath a great quickening power over all the faculties of the spiritual man. This is the Prometheus that stole the heavenly flame, and brought it down to men made of clay, and made them live the lives of the immortals. This it is that brings immortality to us through Jesus, who brought life and immortality to light. Whenever faith rules in a man it quickens all his graces. The believer is the man to love--to love his God, his neighbour, his enemy. The believer is the man to hope--to hope for deliverance out of present affliction; to hope for the eternal outgoing of the issues of all this life’ s battle and strife. If there be any patience, if there be any forgiveness, if their be any generosity, if there be any loving-kindness, if there be any zeal, if there be anything lovely and of good repute, all these are quickened and brought out into their life and force according to the life and power and energy of the faith which a man possesses. 4. Turning this doctrine over in rather a different form, but still keeping to it, let me say that the believer lives only by faith. All other kinds of living are to him spiritual death. II. A PROMISE. My faith shall ensure my life. Oh, ‘ tis joy to have faith that makes you immortal! The faith of the just shall constrain them to live. They cannot die; they must not die. God Himself shall as soon die as they shall. The just shall live by faith. This is not true of any other but those who have faith. You know the story I have told you sometimes, of the good old soul whose minister called to see her when she was dying, and amongst other things he said to her, “ My sister, you are very weak; don’ t you feel yourself sinking?” She looked at him, and gave no answer, but said, “ Did I understand you, minister? Please tell me what you said; I hope you didn’ t say what I thought I heard?” “ Why,” said he, “ my dear sister, I said to you, don’ t you feel yourself sinking?” And then she said, “ I did not think my minister would ever ask me such a question as that! Sinking? Did you ever know a sinner sink through a rock? I am believing in Jesus Christ; if I were resting anywhere else I might sink, but as I am resting upon Him, did you ever know a sinner sink through a rock?” Yes, and that is just the very point. It is so. God does in the very words of our text seem to assure us that if we believe, we have got on a rock, that if we believe, we shall live. We shall live by our faith under all circumstances and difficulties. III. A KIND OF PRECEPT. IS it not clear that as life is the main thing for us to look to, nature itself having taught us by its instincts to guard with all care our life, therefore our faith, upon which our life so evidently depends by virtue of our union to Christ, ought to be the object of our most sedulous care. Anything which comes in the way of our faith we should strive against, while the promotion of our faith should be our first endeavour. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The just man and his life I. THE JUST MAN OF THE GOSPEL. 1. The term “ just” not used in its comparative and popular sense. It is so used sometimes in the sacred Scriptures, as in Romans 5:7. There are those who are “ just before men.” Their words are true, their promises faithfully kept, their actions irreproachable. Measure them by the Divine standard, and they dwarf down to nothing; see them as God sees them, and all their righteousness is as filthy rags. 2. Not in its strictly legal sense. There was a time when there were just men on earth; that time was brief. There are just men “ made perfect,” but they are before the throne of God, and serve Him in His temple. There are none on earth now. 3. The term is used in the evangelical sense--justified. (1) Not to make just. The term is a law term, and has a proper legal meaning, which is, (2) To pronounce just (Deuteronomy 25:1; Romans 3:4; Exodus 23:7). How, then, can it apply to us? We give the satisfactory reply in the language of the apostle (Romans 3:21-24). 4. This declaration is connected with the faith of the justified person. Luther at one period suffered so much from a sense of sin, that his health rapidly gave way. An old monk entered his cell and spoke kindly. He knew little but his creed, which contained something that gave him comfort, and he said in his simplicity, “ I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” Luther repeated, “ I believe in the forgiveness of gins.” “ Ah!” said the monk, “ you must not only believe that David’ s or Peter’ s sins are forgiven--the devils believe that. The commandment of God is, that we believe our own sins forgiven. Hear what the Holy Ghost says: ‘ Thy sins are forgiven thee.’” He renounced the thought of meriting salvation, and trusted with confidence in God’ s grace in Christ Jesus. II. THE LIFE HE ENJOYS. He “ shall live by faith.” 1. Observe the import of this assurance. “ There is, then,” said Luther, after studying these words, “ for the just another life than that possessed by the rest of men, and this life is the fruit of faith.” What is that other life? The elements of life are (1) Sensation and perception. There is a world of sense for the natural man; there is an ideal world of speculation for the philosopher; there is a spiritual world for the believer. It has another sun, other produce, other inhabitants (Hebrews 12:22-23). It is life to see this spiritual world, and faith is the eye that sees it (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). (2) There are vital functions which are necessary for its support. A tree or an animal live because they can derive nourishment from the material world. “ As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” Christ says, “ I have meat to eat which the world knoweth not of,” and He promises to His disciples that He will give them the hidden manna. How different are the Bible, the sanctuary, godly discourse, sermons, means and ordinances to the believer and the unbeliever! All these exercises are conducted by faith. (3) There is activity. The missionary Luther was distinguished for his zeal. The Thessalonians from whom the Word sounded out. The heroes in Hebrews 11:1-40. all worked by faith. (4) There is enjoyment. Healthy life produces enjoyment. This is a common use of the term “ life” as distinguished from mere existence (Romans 5:1-5). Whence we see that true happiness flows from faith. 2. The truth of this assurance. (1) God has said it (Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Peter 1:5). (2) He has provided for it (Colossians 1:19; John 14:19;Galatians 2:20; John 1:16). (3) History and experience prove it. Whenever Christ has been exalted, the Church has lived. Do you not feel that as you look to Him you live? Application: 1. Sinner, are you dead? This voice bids you live by faith. 2. Let believers cleave to this doctrine. (The Evangelical Preacher.) The Christian’ s life of faith I. THE . “ The just.” 1. As found in Christ. 2. As conformed to Christ. 3. As practically just. Their faith produces good works; they are honest, upright, abhor evil, and cleave to that which is good. II. THE FACT . “ Shall live by faith.” 1. Because by faith they are united to Christ, and derive from Him all needful influence. 2. Because faith anticipates the glories of heaven, preparatory to which the Christian contest is carried on. 3. Because faith overcomes temptation. III. THE RESULT . 1. They live by faith in the darkest seasons. 2. They live a holy and pleasant life, because faith brings into exercise all other Christian graces. 3. By faith they live in constant expectation of heaven. (Homilist.) Living by faith 1. We have faith, which is a Divine practical assent unto the saving truths of the gospel, and a reliance upon the promises of God. 2. Upon faith followeth righteousness; for the just have faith, and are just and justified by faith: for by “ just” are here meant the justified by faith according to the tenour of the new covenant. For man being sinful and guilty cannot be justified by his own innocence, purity, inherent righteousness, and perfect obedience. For he that hath faith is just; he that continueth in faith, continueth just; and he that is finally believing is finally just. 3. As guilty man is just by faith, so being just he shall live by faith. By life in this place is meant a spiritual, happy, and eternal life; the life of glory, which is the great reward, which will certainly follow upon final faith; for it is faith which, by virtue of Christ’ s merit and God’ s promise, gives a right to life; and upon a final faith, the possession and full enjoyment of this blessed life doth certainly follow. The duty therefore which the apostle urgeth is final perseverance in faith; and the motive whereby he seeks to stir them up to performance is the certain fall possession of the great rewards for which he allegeth God’ s own Word and promise recorded in the prophet. And if they will hearken unto God speaking by the prophet, and take His Word and promise, there is great reason why they should persevere. (G. Lawson.) Faith: Faith consists of two parts: Belief, which accepts certain declarations as true, and trust in the person about whom those declarations are made. Neither will do without the other. On the one hand, we cannot trust a person without knowing something about him; on the other hand, your knowledge will not help you unless it leads to trust, any more than it avails the shivering wretch outside the Bank of England to know that the vaults are stored with gold. A mere intellectual faith is not enough. The holding of a creed will not save. We must pass from a belief in words to trust in the Word. By faith we know that Jesus lives, and by faith we also appropriate that life. By faith we know that Jesus made on the Cross a propitiation for sin, and by faith we lay our hand reverently on His dear head and confess our sin. Faith is the open hand receiving Christ. Faith is the golden pipe through which His fulness comes to us. Faith is the narrow channel by which the life that pulses in the Redeemer’ s heart enters our souls. Faith is the attitude we assume when we turn aside from the human to the Divine. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The life of faith: Have you ever thought of the life of a child? Why, the life of a child is a perfect life of faith. That little child--what can that little child do? Why that little child could not find its way to the street end and back again. It would be lost if you trusted it alone. That little child could not find the next meal. If you left that little child it would die of want. That little child could not furnish a shelter for its own head to-night; and yet, has that little child any fear about it? Has that little child any sort of alarm about it? Not at all! How comes it that the child’ s life is the happy life it is? Because, instinctively and beautifully, it is a life of faith. That child could not buy the next loaf, but it has a firm belief that “ father” can. That child could not provide for itself the garments for to-morrow, but it has an unbounded belief in “ father’ s” power to do it, and “ mother’ s” power to do it. That child could not do it for itself one day, but it never costs that child a moment’ s concern. Its life is a life of perfect faith in its parents. (S. Coley.) Description of faith Mr. Stewart, in his Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands, relates, that whilst on board a ship sailing from America to those Islands, he felt it his duty to instruct the sailors; and he had several proofs that his labours were not in vain. One sailor named R , had been brought to trust in Christ for salvation; and shortly after meeting with another who was anxiously inquiring the way of salvation, he thus addressed him, “ It was just so with myself once; I did not know what faith was, or how to obtain it; but I know now what it is, and I believe I possess it. But I do not know that I can tell you what it is, or how to get it. I can tell you what it is not; it is not knocking off swearing, and drinking, and such like; and it is not reading the Bible, nor praying, nor being good: it is none of these; for even if they were to answer for the time to come, there is the old score still, and how are you to get clear of that? It is not anything you have done or can do: it is only believing and trusting to what Christ has done: it is forsaking your sins, and looking for their pardon and the salvation of your soul, because He died and shed His blood for sin: and it is nothing else.” (Churchman’ s Monthly.) If any man draw back On apostasy: By the expression “ to draw back,” must certainly be understood a total and final apostasy, as is evident from Hebrews 10:39. 1. Some who once were accounted disciples of Christ have drawn back into open profanity and infidelity (2 Peter 2:20-21). Persons of this character, who have stifled conviction, and hold the truth in unrighteousness, become generally the most hardened and daring in wickedness. Common restraints are removed--the voice of conscience is silenced--the Spirit of God ceases to strive, and they are given over to a reprobate mind--to fill up the measure of their iniquities, and at last to perish in unbelief. 2. Others who apostatise from Christ fall into gross and dangerous errors 2 Timothy 2:17-18). I add 3. There is still a more secret and disguised kind of apostasy, which is not on that account the less ruinous; I mean when persons who have once had a profession of religion become careless, lose all zeal about the things of God and eternity, and discover a proportionable eagerness in worldly pursuits. This is a way of apostatising from Christ the more dangerous, because it is the least apt to be perceived. The decay is so gradual and insensible. They have changed their views, their manners, their company. Perhaps some alteration in their outward circumstances has produced these unhappy effects. Raised from a state of dependence to wealth, their minds have been intoxicated with worldly prosperity; and by a strange kind of infatuation. Or, perhaps, without any visible cause, their profession of religion has gradually declined, and their devotion to the service of their God and Saviour proved as the morning cloud and early dew, which soon pass away. After maintaining for a while an appearance of serious godliness, they have gradually sunk into sloth, possibly into bad habits, which deaden every religious feeling. In conclusion: 1. Let gratitude to the Redeemer for the blessings you have received constrain you to cleave to Him with full purpose of heart. 2. Let a regard to your best interests urge you to cleave steadfastly to Christ. Solid sense and real piety, instead of being incompatible, are closely and intimately united. 3. Let the dreadful doom of apostates deter you from the aggravated sin of drawing back from Christ. (A. Ramsay, M. A.) The danger of apostasy from the true religion I. THE NATURE OF THIS SIN. TO make a man an apostate, it is not necessary that a man should solemnly renounce his baptism and declare Christianity to be false; there are several other ways whereby a man may bring himself under this guilt; as by a silent quitting of his religion, and withdrawing himself from the communion of all that profess it; by denying an essential doctrine of Christianity; by undermining the great design of it, by teaching doctrines which directly tend to encourage men in impenitence, and a wicked course of life. II. THE SEVERAL SORTS AND DEGREES OF . The highest of all is the renouncing Christianity, or of some essential part of it, which is a virtual apostasy from it; but there are several tendencies towards this which they who are guilty of are in some degree guilty of this sin. 1. Indifferency in religion, and want of all sort of concernment for it; when a man, though he never quitted his religion, yet is so little concerned for it, that a very small occasion or temptation would make him do it. 2. Withdrawing from the public marks and testimonies of the profession of religion, by forsaking the assemblies of Christians for the worship and service of God; to withdraw ourselves from those, for fear of danger or suffering, is a kind of denial of our religion. 3. A light temper of mind, which easily receives impressions from those who lie in wait to deceive and seduce men from the truth. 4. A departure from the purity of the Christian doctrine and worship in a gross and notorious manner. III. THE OF THIS SIN. What an affront it is to God, and how great a contempt of Him! IV. THE IT EXPOSES MEN TO. This sin is placed in the highest rank of pardonable sins, and next to the sin against the Holy Ghost, which our Saviour declares to be absolutely unpardonable. And indeed the Scripture speaks very doubtfully of the pardonableness of this Hebrews 6:4-6; 2 Peter 2:20-21; 1 John 5:16). (Archbp. Tillotson.) Transgressions and infirmities: Warnings such as this would not be contained in Scripture, were there no danger of our drawing back, and thereby losing that “ life” in God’ s presence which faith secures to us. Faith is the tenure upon which this Divine life is continued to us: by faith the Christian lives, but if he draws back he dies; his faith profits him nothing; or rather, his drawing back to sin is a reversing of his faith; after which God has no pleasure in him. And yet, clearly as this is stated in Scripture, men in all ages have fancied that they might sin grievously, yet maintain their Christian hope. Now I quite grant that there are sins which faith is the means of blotting out continually, so that the “ just” still “ lives” in God’ s sight in spite of them. There is no one but sins continually so far as this, that all that he does might be more perfect, entire, blameless than it is. We are all encompassed by infirmities, weaknesses, ignorances; and all these besetting sins are certainly, as Scripture assures us, pardoned on our faith; but it is another thing to assert this of greater and more grievous sins, or what may be called transgressions. For faith keeps us from transgressions, and they who transgress, for that very reason, have not true and lively faith; and, therefore, it avails them nothing that faith, as Scripture says, is imputed to Christians for righteousness, for they have not faith. Instead of faith blotting out transgressions, transgressions blot out faith. 1. No one surely can doubt that there are sins which exclude a man, while he is under their power, from salvation (see 1 John 3:8; 1 John 3:10; Philippians 3:18-19; Galatians 5:4). (1) All habits of vice are such (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). (2) Next, it is fearful to think (fearful, because, among ourselves at this day, men are almost blind to the sin), that covetousness is mentioned Ephesians 5:5) in connection with sins of the flesh, as incurring forfeiture of grace equally with them. This accords with our Lord’ s warning, “ ye cannot serve God and mammon;” as much as to say, If you serve mammon, you forthwith quit God’ s service; you cannot serve two masters at once; you have passed into the kingdom of mammon, that is, of Satan. (3) All violent breaches of the law of charity are inconsistent with a state of grace. “ Thieves, revilers, and extortioners.” “ Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and murderers.” (4) And in like manner all profaneness, heresy, and false worship Hebrews 12:16; Galatians 1:8). (5) And further, hardness of heart, or going against light (Hebrews 4:7; Hebrews 4:11). Such are greater sins or transgressions. They are here specified, not as forming a complete list of such sins, which indeed cannot be given, but in proof of what ought not to be doubted, that there are sins which are not found in persons in a state of grace. 2. That there are sins of infirmity, or such as do not throw the soul out of a state of salvation, is evident directly it is granted that there are sins which do; for no one will pretend to say that all sins exclude from grace, else no one can be saved, for there is no one who is sinless. However, Scripture expressly recognises sins of infirmity as distinct from transgressions, as shall now be shown. For instance: St. Paul (Galatians 5:17) allows that it is possible for the power of the flesh and the grace of the Spirit to co-exist in the soul; neither the flesh quenching the Spirit, nor the Spirit all at once subduing the flesh. Here then is a sinfulness which is compatible with a state of salvation. Again, the same apostle says, that we have a High Priest who is “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” in that He had them Himself, all but their sin:--this implies that we have sinful infirmities, yet of that light nature that they can be said to be in substance partaken by One who was pure from all sin. Accordingly, in the next verse St. Paul bids us “ come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy.” Such words do not imply a return into a state of salvation, but pardon in that state, and they correspond to what he says (verses 19-22; Romans 5:2). In like manner St. John says, “ If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another: and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” It seems then that there is sin which is consistent with “ walking in the light,” and that from this sin “ the blood of Christ cleanseth us.” And St. James says, “ In many things we all offend,” that is, we all stumble. We are ever stumbling along our course while we walk; but if we actually fall in it, we fall from it. And St. Jude: “ Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” Distinct kinds of sin are evidently implied here. And lastly, our Lord Himself had already implied that there are sins which are not inconsistent with a state of grace, when He said of His apostles, “ The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 3. It remains to show that these sins of infirmity tend to those which are greater, and forfeit grace; which is not the least important point which comes under consideration. An illustration will explain what I mean, and may throw light on the whole subject. You know it continually happens that some indisposition overtakes a man, such that persons skilled in medicine, when asked if it is dangerous, answer, “ Not at present, but they do not know what will come of it; it may turn out something very serious; but there is nothing much amiss yet; at the same time if it be not checked, and, much more, if it be neglected, it will be serious.” This, I conceive, is the state of Christians day by day as regards their souls; they are always ailing, always on the point of sickness; they are sickly, easily disarranged, obliged to take great care of themselves against air, sun, and weather; they are full of tendencies to all sorts of grievous diseases, and are continually showing these tendencies, in slight symptoms; but they are not yet in a dangerous way. On the other hand, if a Christian falls into any serious sin, then he is at once cast out of grace, as a man who falls into a pestilential fever is quite in a distinct state from one who is merely in delicate health. I conclude with advising you one thing, which is obviously suggested by what I have said. Never suffer sin to remain upon you; let it not grow old in you; wipe it off while it is fresh, else it will stain; let it not get ingrained; let it not eat its way in, and rust in you. It is of a consuming nature; it is like a canker; it will eat your flesh. And then again, sin neglected not only stains and infects the soul, but it becomes habitual. It perverts and deforms the soul; it permanently enfeebles, cripples, or mutilates us. Let us then rid ourselves of it at once day by day, as of dust on our hands and faces. We wash our hands continually. Ah! is not this like the Pharisees, unless we wash our soiled souls also? (J. H. Newman, D. D.) Religious declension: I. THE CASE : 1. The person here meant is one who has made some professions of religion, and has taken some steps in it. (1) First, he must have been convinced in his conscience and judgment of the truth and excellency of religion. (2) Secondly, the person here supposed must not only have been convinced of the excellency of religion, but must have come to a resolution of choosing it for himself. (3) Thirdly, the person here supposed did actually enter on this way; he chose religion and he followed it; he gave clear and practical evidence of the purpose which he had formed, and plainly showed that he was in earnest. 2. The person of whom we are speaking, having walked for a longer or shorter time in the way described, is now drawing back. He has been deterred, perhaps, by the difficulties which seemed to stand in his way, and to oppose his progress; I say seemed, because if he had persevered he would have found that they would have yielded and have come to nothing. Or perhaps he has been overcome by the persuasion and influence of worldly friends and relations. Or perhaps the world has involved him in its cares or pleasures, in its business or dissipations; and these, like thorns, have choked the good seed which was beginning to shoot, and have rendered it unfruitful. Or, to mention only one other cause, he has not watched against his favourite sin; he has not denied and mortified it. To make this part of the case, however, more plain, I will state to you some few of the particular symptoms which distinguish it. When a person is drawing back in religion, he will discover his retrograde movement by many proofs, to those who know what religion is, and have the means of observing his conduct. It does not follow that he will return exactly into the same paths in which he was walking before he appeared to become a religious character; but he will plainly show that he is not now the same religious character which he lately was. He will insensibly become less correct in his conduct and conversation. He will not now be so careful of his company. He will gradually become less frequent and regular in his attendance on public ordinances; while the devotion and attention that used to mark his behaviour there are too visibly declining. If, in addition to these outward marks of declension, you were to follow this person home, and observe his conduct in private, you would see the Bible less frequently consulted, and religious duties less diligently performed. Communion with God is no longer his delight and enjoyment. II. THE AWFUL . “ If any man draw back.” If there should be a person in the state that has been here described, what does the Lord declare respecting him? “ My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” We are told that the Lord does “ take pleasure in His people.” --“ The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him; in those that hope in His mercy.” He regards such persons with favour and complacency. He delights over them to do them good. But He hath no pleasure in them that “ draw back.” He sees, but He cannot approve them. But further, the expression in the text has a still more alarming sense. It is a dreadful thing to be excluded from the lovingkindness of the Lord; but it is a far more dreadful thing to be shut up under His displeasure. Yet such is the case with the person of whom we are speaking. Such is the real meaning of the text. No persons are so offensive to Him, as those, who, having for a time walked in His ways, at length draw back. For such conduct is the greatest affront, and most direct indignity which can be offered to God. The man who draws back does in a manner say, that the ways of sin and of the world are preferable to the ways of religion. Can anything be more dishonourable to Jesus Christ, or show a greater contempt of His mercy and grace? Address three kinds of persons. 1. Those who have entered, as they suppose, on the paths of religion, and are now walking in them. Take heed that ye draw not back. To this end “ be watchful and sober.” Those who would walk safely, must walk humbly. The Lord will guide and keep the meek. Watch against the sin that most easily besets you. Be regular and fervent in private prayer, and in secret communion with God. This is the life and source of religion in the soul. If you would not draw back, go forwards. Press towards the mark; grow in grace, add one Christian virtue and temper to another, so wilt your progress be clear and certain: your calling and election will be made sure. 2. I would address those who in their hearts may be conscious, at least fearful, that they have drawn back. Consider from whence you are fallen. 3. I would, in conclusion, address another class-those who perhaps may be saying to themselves: “ We are free from this charge. We have never made any particular profession of religion, so that we cannot be said to have renounced it. We are at least no hypocrites. God cannot accuse us of having drawn back from His ways.” Because you are not hypocrites, and have made no pretentions to religion, shall you escape the judgment of God? Why have you not made pretentious to religion? Be assured, that so long as you are in this state, the Lord hath no pleasure in you. He abhors ungodliness and sin, and both hates and will punish all the workers of iniquity. (E. Cooper, M. A.) Moral relapse: The pansy only develops its beauty under cultivation, and when neglected soon relapses into its native condition. There are men who keep conspicuously moral so long as they are constantly cultivated by their minister, but who relapse into their former littleness if his care is withdrawn. Such men, like the pansies, give a deal of trouble. But if you want to exhibit either them or the flower, you have no option but to give them constant cultivation. Whether the result in either case is worth the trouble is another matter. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) All do not reach home who set out for it I heartily desire that ye would mind your country, and consider to what direction your soul setteth its face; for all come not home at night who suppose they have set their face heavenward. (S. Rutherford.) Hebrews 10:39 Draw back unto perdition Apostasy Apostates have martial law, they run away, but into hell-mouth, Runaways are to be received as enemies, and to be killed wherever they be found. (Jr. Trapp.) Looking back: Dr. Donne says that Lot’ s wife looked back and God never gave her leave to look forward again. God hath set our eyes in our foreheads to look forward, not backward; not to be proud of that which we have done, but diligent in that which we are to do. (E. P. Thwing.) Way to heaven: “ I know the way to heaven,” said little Minnie to little Johnny, who stood by her side, looking on a picture-book that Minnie had in her hand. “ You do?” said little John. “ Well, won’ t you tell me how to get there?” “ Oh, yes! I’ ll tell you. Just commence going up, and keep on going up all the time, and you’ ll get there. But, Johnny, you must not turn back.” (New Cyclopcedia of Illustrations.) Perdition--the state of the lost: Milton’ s “ Paradise Lost,” Dante’ s “ Inferno,” Dore’ s cartoons, the weird word-painting of the pulpit, dreadful fancy pictures of hell--all of this cannot make us understand what it is to be lost. It was not to purgatory or hell that Christ went, but it was into this world of ours that He came to seek and to save the lost. They were here. To be lost is to get away from where we belong. The lost sheep, the lost prodigal, were wanderers. They were not dead, they were not in hell; but they were lost. The soul does not belong to sin and the devil; it belongs to God. And if you want to know how lost the soul is, then learn how far it has got away from God. That is the thing to know. Heaven and hell are incidentals. If you take care to be saved from your sins, to be brought back to the image of God from which you have wandered, heaven and hell will take care of themselves. Now, if you would know how lost you are, put your life, with all its selfishness and littleness, beside the life of Jesus; your motives by His, your thoughts by His, your heart by His. Try and see how far you ]lave got away from the perfect image of the God-Man. He is the perfect specimen of man, of which the rest of us are ruins, it matters not how magnificent those ruins may be. He shows us a specimen of man who is not lost. The image of Christ will teach us more about the lost than Dore’ s cartoons could ever do. (R. S. Barrett.) Believe to the saving of the soul Saving faith I. THE NATURE OF FAITH. 1. Belief in another’ s testimony. We go to places, and attend meetings; we write letters, and maintain intercourse with others; we transact business, and conduct our affairs; we sail for foreign ports; we do ten thousand things, trivial or important, simply on the testimony of others, because we believe in them and what they say. 2. Belief in God’ s testimony. His testimony is contained in the Scriptures. In them He reveals His nature, perfections, government and laws; His relations and designs towards us; judgment to come, and future states of being; things unseen and eternal. We accept the testimony--that it is from Him, and, consequently, that what it declares and unfolds, promises and threatens, is true and real. “ If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.” 3. Belief in God’ s testimony concerning the Redeemer. He has testified that Jesus Christ is His eternal, only-begotten, well-beloved Son, one with Him in nature and operation; that “ in the fulness of the time” He was born of a woman, became partaker of flesh and blood, and was made in our likeness,” &c. We believe the testimony concerning Jesus Christ, because He who testifies cannot deceive. 4. Trust in Christ as our Saviour. Believing the testimony God has given us concerning His Son, concerning His Divine person and mediatorial office--that He came “ to seek and to save the lost.” We cast ourselvesunreservedly and wholly on Him; we confidently give up ourselves to Him; we trust in Him. II. THE ORIGIN OF FAITH. 1. It is of God. The Godhead is the fountain of all blessings, the primary cause of all gracious effects. We have neither the inclination nor the ability to believe unto salvation. The desire and strength must be granted. If we have a true apprehension of our demerit and exposure to perdition, and are disposed to flee to Christ: and if we have a full persuasion of His sufficiency to save, and are able to cast ourselves on Him, it is of Divine favour and operation. 2. God produces faith by the Holy Spirit. Convicted, illumined and made willing by the power of the Holy Ghost, we realise our sinfulness, our awful danger; we see Christ in the beauty and excellency of His Divine person, and in the suitableness and sufficiency of His atoning work; and we surrender every other ground of hope, and rest altogether and only on Him for salvation. III. THE OR MEANS BE WHICH FAITH IS AND . “ Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” IV. THE DEGREES OF FAITH. The rock on which saved sinners stand is equally stable to all, but the foothold of all is not equally firm. Faith may decline; how far it would be difficult to determine. Even the believer, in a time of desertion and darkness, may question his interest in Christ, and fear coming short of heaven. On the other hand, faith is sometimes strong. V. THE EFFECTS AND OF FAITH. 1. It imparts peace. The storm is changed into a calm. The dark night is past, and morning dawns. The fever, the agony, is over. And in proportion as faith is maintained, so is peace. If faith languish, and be temporarily interrupted, distress of soul returns; if it flourish, and be strong and vigorous, tranquillity continues. 2. It produces holiness. “ The operation of God,” its tendency is to godliness, A holy principle, it produces holy practice; good seed, it yields good fruit; a pure spring, pure streams flow from it; a latent power, it manifests itself in godly deeds. 3. It purifies the heart. A believing sight of Christ crucified, imparted by the Holy Ghost, reveals the terrible evil of sin, and fills us with repugnance of it. Faith in vigorous exercise, we cannot but loathe sin. The heart purified, sanctified, “ holiness to the Lord” shall be inscribed on all pertaining to us. 4. In producing holiness, faith works by love. Believing in Jesus Christ, we are assimilated, though very imperfectly, to His human disposition and conduct. How attractive and effective are words and deeds of love I Faith and love are beautiful graces and potent factors. 5. It overcomes the world. (Alex. McCreery.) How to own ourselves: The writer uses a somewhat uncommon word in this clause, which is not altogether adequately represented by the translation “ saving.” Its true force will be apparent by comparing one or two of the fear instances in which it occurs in the New Testament. For example, it is twice employed in the Epistles to the Thessalonians; in one case being rendered, “ God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain” (or, more correctly, to the obtaining of) “ salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” ; and in another, “ called to the obtaining of glory, through Jesus Christ.” It is employed twice besides, in two other places of Scripture, and in both of these it means “ possession.” So that, though substantially equivalent to the idea of salvation, there is a very beautiful shade of difference which is well worth noticing. The thought of the text is substantially this--those who believe win their souls; they acquire them for their possession. We talk colloquially about “ people that cannot call their souls their own.” That is a very true description of all men who are not lords of themselves through faith in Jesus Christ. “ They who believe to the gaining of their own souls” is the meaning of the writer here. I. First, then, IF WE LOSE WE WIN . All men admit in theory that a self-centred life is a blunder. Jesus Christ has all thoughtful men wholly with Him when He says, “ He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life shall find it.” There is no such way of filling a soul with blessedness and of evolving new capacities as self-oblivion for some great cause, for some great love, for some great enthusiasm. Many a woman has found herself when she held her child in her arms, and in the self-oblivion which comes from maternal affections and cares has sprung into a loftier new life. But whilst all these counterpoises to the love of self are, in their measure, great and blessed, not one of them will so break the fetters from off a prisoned soul and let it out into the large place of glad self-oblivion as the course which our text enjoins when it says: If you wish to forget yourselves, to abandon and lose yourselves, fling yourselves into Christ’ s arms, and by faith yield your whole being, will, trust, purposes, aims, everything--yield it all up to Him; and when you can say, “ We are not our own,” then first will you belong to yourselves and have won your own souls. Nothing else is comparable to the talismanic power of trust in Jesus Christ. When thus we lose ourselves in Him we find ourselves, and find Him in ourselves. I believe that a life must either spin round on its own axis, self-moved, or else it must be drawn by the mass and weight and mystical attractiveness of the great central sun, and swept clean out of its own little path to become a satellite round Him. Then only will it move in music and beauty, and flash back the lustre of an unfading light. Self or God--one or other will be the centre of every human life. It is well to be touched with lofty enthusiasms; it is well to conquer self in the eager pursuit of some great thought or large subject of study; it is well to conquer self in the sweetness of domestic love; but through all these there may run a perverting and polluting reference to myself. Affection may become but a subtle prolongation of myself, and study and thought may likewise be tainted, and even in the enthusiasm for a great cause there may mingle much of self-regard; and on the whole there is nothing that will sweep out, and keep out, the seven devils of selfishness except to yield yourselves to God, drawn by His mercies, and say, “ I am not my own; I am bought with a price.” Then, and only then, will you belong to yourselves. II. Secondly, IF WE WILL TAKE CHRIST FOR OUR LORD WE SHALL BE LORDS OF OUR OWN SOULS. I have said that self-surrender is self-possession. It is equally true that self-control is self-possession; and it is as true about this application about my text as it was about the former, that Christianity only says more emphatically what all moralists say, and supplies a more efficient means of accomplishing the end which they all recognise as good. For everybody knows that the man who is a slave to his own passions, lusts, or desire--that the man who is the sport of circumstance, and yields to every temptation that comes sweeping round him, as bamboos bend before every blast--is not his own master. He “ dare not call his soul his own.” What do we mean by being self-possessed, except this, that we can so rule our more fluctuating and sensitive parts as that, notwithstanding appeals made to them by external circumstances, they do not necessarily yield to these. He possesses himself who, in the face of antagonism, can do what is right. Trust in Jesus Christ, and let Him be your Commander-in-Chief, and you have won your souls Let Him dominate them, and you can dominate them. If you will give your wills into His hands, He will give them back to you and make you able to subdue your passions and desires. What does some little rajah, on the edge of our great Indian Empire, do when troubled with rebels that he cannot subdue? He goes and makes himself a feudatory of the great central Power at Calcutta, and then down comes a regiment or two and makes very short work of the rebellion that the little kinglet could do nothing with. If you go to Christ and say to Him, “ Dear Lord, take my crown from my head and lay it at Thy feet. Come Thou to help me to rule this anarchic realm of my own soul,” you will win yourself. III. Thirdly, IF WE HAVE FAITH IN CHRIST WE ACQUIRE A BETTER SELF. The thing that most thoughtful men and women feel after they have gone a little way into life is not so much that they want to possess themselves, as that they want to get rid of themselves--of all the failures and shame and disappointment and futility of their lives, and that desire may be accomplished. We cannot strip ourselves of ourselves by any effort. The bitter old past keeps living on, and leaves with us seeds of weakness and memories that sometimes corrupt, and always enfeeble; memories that seem to limit the possibilities of the future in a tragic fashion. Ah, we can get rid of ourselves; and, instead of continuing the poor, sin-laden, feeble creatures that we are. The old individuality will remain, but new tastes, new aspirations, aversions, hopes, and capacities to realise them, may all be ours. You can lose yourselves, in a very deep sense, if, trusting in Jesus Christ, you open the door of the heart to the influx of that new life which is His best gift. Faith wins a better self, and we may each experience, in all its blessedness, the paradox of the apostle when he said, “ I live “ now, at last, in triumphant possession of this better life: “ I live” now, I only existed before; “ yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” And with Christ in me I first find myself. IV. Lastly, IF BY FAITH WE WIN OUR SOULS HERE, WE SAVE THEM FROM . I have said that the word of my text is substantially equivalent to the more frequent and common expression, “ salvation” ; though with a shade of difference, which I have been trying to bring out. And this substantial equivalence is more obvious if you will note that the text is the second member of an antithesis, of which the first is, “ we are not of them which draw back into perdition.” So, then, the writer sets up, as exact opposites of one another, these two ideas, perdition or destruction, on the one hand; and the saving or winning of the soul on the other. Therefore, whilst we must give due weight to the considerations which I have already been suggesting, we shall not grasp the whole of the writer’ s meaning unless we admit also the thought of future. So, then, you cannot be said to have won your souls if you are only keeping them for destruction. And such destruction is clearly laid down here as the fate of those who turn away from Jesus Christ. Now it seems to me that no fair interpretation can eject from that word “ perdition,” or “ destruction,” an element of awe and terror. However you may interpret the ruin, it is ruin utter of which it speaks. Now, remember, the alternative applies to each of us. It is a case of “ either--or” in regard to us all. If we have taken Christ for our Saviour, and, as I said, put the reins into His hands and given ourselves to Him by love and submission and confidence, then we own our souls, because we have given them to Him to keep, “ and He is able to keep that which is committed to Him against that day.” But I am bound to tell you, in the plainest words I can command, that if you have not thus surrendered yourself to Jesus Christ, His sacrifice, His intercession, His quickening Spirit, then I know not where you find one foothold of hope that upon you there will not come down the overwhelming fate that is darkly portrayed in that one solemn word. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Saving faith: It is not the quantity of thy faith that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean. So a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. A child eight days old is as really a man as one of sixty years; a spark of fire is as true fire as a great flame; a sickly man is as true living as a well man. So it is not the measure of thy faith that saves thee--it is the blood that it grips to that saves thee; as the weak hand of a child that leads the spoon to the mouth, will feel as well as the strong arm of a man; for it is not the hand that feeds thee--albeit, it puts the meat into thy mouth, but it is the meat carried into the stomach that feeds thee. So if thou canst grip Christ ever so weakly, He will not let thee perish. (J. Welsh.) Gripped by the Lord A convert, at the Golden Lane Mission, in London, said: “ I’ m a corster and doin’ well, for I’ ve got nearly a score o’ barters. Many a time I’ ve had a lark at the meeting, and tried to upset ‘ era. One day the Lord spoke to my ‘ art, an’ it reeled ready to bust in me--an’ I couldn’ t sleep until I got down on my knees an’ prayed for forgiveness. Since then I’ ve had plenty o’ things tryin’ to pull me back from the Lord, but He’ s got such a firm grip that I’ m not afeerd.” What and how to believe: “ Can you tell me,” said an unhappy sceptic to a happy old saint, “ just what is the gospel you believe, and how you believe it?” She quietly replied, “ God is satisfied with the work of His Son--that is the gospel I believe; and I am satisfied with it--that is how I believe it.” (J. H. Brooks, D. D.) Hebrews 11:1-2 Now faith is the substance The use of history: Hitherto the Jewish Christians had continued to celebrate the ancient ritual, and their presence in the temple and the synagogue had been tolerated by their unbelieving countrymen; but now they were in danger of excommunication, and it is hardly possible for us to conceive their distress and dismay. Their veneration for the institutions of Moses had not been diminished by their acknowledgment of the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus; for them, as well as for the rest of their race, an awful sanctity rested on the ceremonies from which they were threatened with exclusion. Therefore, the writer of this Epistle calls up the most glorious names of Jewish history to confirm his vacillating brethren in their fidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not by offering sacrifices, nor by attending festivals, nor by the pomp and exactness with which they had celebrated any external rites and ceremonies, that the noblest of their forefathers had won their greatness, but by their firm and steadfast trust in God. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) What is faith? The word “ faith” is sometimes used for the object of faith, for the thing to be believed; as when it is said in Acts, “ A great company of priests were obedient to the faith.” But it is quite evident, from the whole series of the examples by which the definition is followed, that it is not of the thing believed, but of the act of believing, that the apostle speaks in the chapter before us. Yet when used of the act of believing, faith will be found to have different senses. Thus it is applied to what may be called historical faith--a bare assent to the truths revealed in Scripture; and this would seem to be the strict use of the term when St. James says, “ Faith, if it have not works, is dead.” Then, besides historical faith, there is what may be called temporary faith--faith which for a time seems productive of true fruits, and then comes to nothing. There is also another kind of faith mentioned in the New Testament; but it does not similarly occur amongst ourselves. This is what divines call the faith of miracles, belief in some particular promise or power, through which, whether as an instrument or as a condition, some supernatural work is wrought. Many had faith in Christ’ s power to heal their bodies who knew nothing of Him as the Physician of their souls. But, confining ourselves to the cases of historical faith and temporary faith, as being those which are but too likely to pass with us for saving faith, will either of the two answer strictly to the definition which constitutes our text? Let us look carefully at the definition. It consists of two parts; and the one is not to be considered as a mere repetition of, or a different way of putting the other. First, the apostle calls faith “ the substance of things hoped for.” Now “ things hoped for” are things which have no present subsistence; so far as our enjoyment or possession of them is concerned, they must be future. But “ faith,” the apostle says, “ is the substance of things hoped for.” It is that which gives a present being to these things. It takes them out of the shadowy region of probability, and brings them into that of actual reality. Faith is, moreover, the “ evidence of things not seen.” By “ things not seen” we understand such as are not to be ascertained to us by our senses, or even by our reason--not seen either by the eye of the body or by the far more powerful eyeof the mind. These are the truths and facts revealed to as by the Word of God, and of which, independently on that Word, we must have remained wholly ignorant. Its province is with invisible things, and of these it is “ the evidence” --the demonstration, or conviction--as the original word signifies. It serves as a glass by which we can see what we cannot see without a glass; not putting stars where there are none, but enabling us to find them where we saw none. Now will the historical faith, or the temporary faith answer to this description of faith? We may put out the case of temporary faith, for this is excluded not so much by not corresponding to the definition while it lasts, as by not lasting. We may not be able to show its defects while alive, but we can of course detect them when dead. But historical faith--the believing what is represented of Jesus Christ, in the same sense, mode, or degree as they believe what is represented of Julius Caesar--this, which passes with many men for the faith which Scripture demands--will this answer to the Scriptural definition of faith? Is, then, this historical faith “ the substance of things hoped for” ? Nay, the heart, the affections must be interested, before there can be “ things hoped for.” And, by a similar brief process, we may prove the want of correspondence between historical faith and the second clause of St. Paul’ s definition. Is such faith “ the evidence of things not seen” ? Does it make things not seen as certain to a man as things seen?--for this is the force of the definition. Does it, for example, make hell, which is not seen, as certain to the sinner as the gallows, which is seen, to the criminal given over to the executioner? None of you will maintain this. Unseen things, which, if they exist at all, must immeasurably transcend things seen, cannot be as certain to a man as things seen, if that man give them not the preference, and far more if he treat them with neglect: Now this turns the definition in our text to good account, forasmuch as it operates to the separating historical faith from saving faith, the faith of the great mass of men from that intended by the apostle when he said, “ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” If, then, we now turn to justifying faith, we shall have to give it a seat in the heart as well as the mind--and see whether this will not make it correspond with the apostle’ s definition. And when a man thus believes with the heart as well as with the mind, faith will be to him “ the substance of things hoped for.” The things on which his expectation rests will be the things promised in the Bible. These, as the chief good, will seem to him immeasurably preferable to any good already in possession. They will, therefore, be the objects of his hope. But will they be mere shadows, brilliant and beautiful, but perhaps only meteors, which may cheat him to the last, and vanish within his grasp? Not so; faith gives them a present subsistence. And this “ faith is” moreover “ the evidence of things not seen” ; it gives to the invisible the sort of power possessed by the visible. A thing may be unseen and yet have just the same power as if it were seen. Let me be only sure that a man concealed by a curtain is taking aim at me with a murderous intent, and I am moved with the same fear, and make the same spring for my life, as if the curtain were away and I were face to face with the assassin. Now faith takes away the curtain; not that faith which is only the assent of the understanding, for this may leave me indifferent as to the emotions of the mind, but that faith which, having its seat in the affections, must excite dread of danger and desire to escape. This faith takes away the curtain; not so, indeed, as to make the man visible, but so as to make me as sure of his being there, and with the purpose of bloodshed, as if he were visible. Therefore is such a faith the conviction of things not seen; and the believer, he who believes in God’ s Word with the heart as well as with the understanding, may be said, in virtue of that great principle, to draw back the veil which to every other eye hangs so darkly between the temporal and the spiritual, and therefore suited to inspire him with confidence. It is in this way, then, that faith, which is such an assent of the mind to the truth of God’ s Word as flows into the heart, and causes the soul to build upon that Word, answers thoroughly to both parts of that definition of faith which St. Paul has ]aid down in our text. But now you will say to me, Is this justifying faith? have I not rather given a description generally of faith, than of that particular faith which is represented as appropriating the blessings of the gospel? Not so. True, saving faith has for its object the whole revealed truth of God, though we call it justifying faith, as it fixes specially on the promise of remission of sins by the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be my faith in one particular declaration or doctrine which justifies me, but, nevertheless, my faith in that one particular doctrine is noways different from my faith in every other doctrine similarly announced and similarly established. The “ things hoped for” from Christ are especially the pardon of sin, the gift of righteousness, and admission to the kingdom of heaven. Of these things is faith the substance; to these it gives a sure and present subsistence, making them as though not only promised, but performed; so strong while faith is in true exercise, is the sense of acceptance, the assurance of being “ heirs of God,” yea, “ joint heirs with Christ.” And the “ things not seen” are the past work of Christ in His humiliation and the present work of Christ in His glory. But of these “ things not seen” faith is the evidence or conviction. The believer is just as sure of Christ’ s having died for him, as if he had seen Him die; just as sure of Christ’ s ever living for him, as if, with Stephen, he “ saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” There is, however, one caution which should be here introduced; for otherwise, whilst we wish to give instruction, we may but darken knowledge, and minister to anxiety. You are not to confound faith and assurance, as though no man could be saved by believing, unless he believe himself saved. “ It seems,” says Archbishop Usher, “ that justifying faith consisteth in these two things, in having a mind to know Christ and a will to rest upon Him; and whosoever sees so much excellency in Christ, that thereby he is drawn to embrace Him as the only rock of salvation, that man truly believes unto justification. Yet it is not necessary to justification to be assured that my sins are pardoned and that I am justified, for that is no act of faith as it justifieth, but an effect and fruit that followeth after justification. For no man is justified by believing that he is justified--he must be justified before he can believe it; no man is pardoned by believing that he is pardoned--he must be pardoned before he can believe it. Faith as it justifieth, is a resting upon Christ to obtain pardon. But assurance, which is not faith in Christ, but rather faith in my faith, may, or may not follow on the justifying faith. You see, then, that our text accurately defines what is justifying faith, though it does not distinguish that faith from faith generally, neither does it leave us to confound it with assurance. You are not to go away and say, “ Oh! saving faith is something altogether strange and mystical, unlike any other species of faith; it is not a kind by itself, it is peculiar only in its object. All faith which is not merely historical, is “ the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” ; and he who has this faith in the truth that God made him, has the principle of which he has but to change the direction, and he has faith in the truth that Christ redeemed him. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Faith: This is the only place in the Bible where we have what we can call a definition of faith. That faith which is the foundation of all other Christian graces--the title by which we keep our place as Christians--the inward working which has its fruit in good works--the hand by which we lay hold on God and on Christ, is here said to be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; and by substance, no doubt, is here meant firm confidence, and by evidence is meant conviction. Faith is the laying hold of the future in the midst of the present, of the unseen in the midst of the seen. It is this which marks the true disciple of Christ, that he walks by faith and not by sight. If the world were what it ought to be, there would be little trial of this faith. But though the world was made very good, and though all that cannot be touched by the influence of our sins is still very good, yet the world, as we have made it, is by no means like the handiwork of God. We see all around us a strange contradiction to what we are told, that justice, and truth, and goodness are the most precious of all things known to man. We see often wrong prevail over right; we see the highest honour constantly given to what we know not to be the highest desert; we see mere strength, whether of body or mind, receive the consideration which ought to be reserved for real goodness. How often do we see plain instances of the success of mere rude strength; sometimes of forwardness; sometimes eve,, of cunning and want of strict truth. Nor is this all. Besides this incessant evidence that good does not govern the world, we are perpetually betrayed in the same thought by a traitor within ourselves. At every moment temptation comes; and the temptation is ever close at hand; the evil consequences of yielding seem far away. However much we may be convinced that in the end obedience to duty is better than sin, we find it hard to remember our conviction at the moment that it is wanted. But in the midst of all this, in spite of what our eyes perpetually tell us, and in spite of the strange forgetfulness which our inclinations perpetually cast over Us, in spite of contradictions without and weakness within, there is a voice from the depths of our own souls that never ceases to repeat that right is really stronger than wrong, and truth is better than falsehood, and justice is surer than injustice. To believe this voice, and to obey it; to surrender to it the guidance of the life in the firm conviction that it will guide us to the true end of our being; to do this is faith. This trusting to the voices that speak within, even when they flatly contradict the voices that speak without, is obviously not peculiar to Christians. The Jew had put into his hands the Word of God as far as it was then written. He was put under a system which God had commanded to be observed. Both in one and in the other he found much that was unintelligible, much that seemed either without a purpose or with a purpose not worth pursuit. Through all that was strange and dark, and even contradictory, it was impossible not to know in his heart that the Spirit which inspired the Bible was the same Spirit as that which sometimes whispered and sometimes thundered in his own conscience, an authority which he could not awe, and could not influence, entering into the very secrets of his soul, and yet no part of himself, and that this Spirit was the voice of God. To throw himself unreservedly on the power which was thus revealed to him, both from within and from without, to accept with unconditional submission the guidance of that Word: of God which was, in fact, the fuller expansion of the message given by conscience, to trust in Him who was thus revealed, in spite of every trial and every temptation; this was the faith of the Jew. Their revelation was imperfect. There still remained one question unanswered. The enemy which is hardest for us to encounter is not after all the sight of this world’ s wrong and injustice. It is when conscience, at the very moment of demanding our obedience, proclaims also our sinfulness. We would believe, and live by our belief, in spite of all the contradictions and evil with which the world is filled: but we are so weak, so wicked, so hampered with the fetters both of nature and of habit. Will that awful voice, whose authority we dare not doubt, really lead us to peace or to our own destruction? The gospel gave the answer. We read there of One whose life, and words, and death force us to confess that He is the express image of that Father of whom our own conscience, and the prophets of old, have ever told us. We read of One who laid hold on human nature and made it His own, and consecrated it with a Divine power. We read His promises exactly corresponding to that very need which our souls feel every day more keenly. And all this is written down not merely in words but in the deeds of a history such as never man passed through beside, of a history whose every word touches some feeling of our heart, echoes some whisper of our spirit. He bids us surrender ourselves to Him, following His leading, trust in His protection, His power; He promises us by sure, though it may be by slow degrees, but with the certainty of absolute assurance, to join us to His Father and to Himself: He promises not merely to undo some day the riddle of the world, and give the good and the just a visible triumph over the evil and the wrong, but, what we need much more, He promises to give us the victory over sin within ourselves, and to prove to us that God has forgiven us by the infallible token of His having cleansed us. To throw ourselves on these promises, to purify ourselves in the full assurance that Christ’ s love can carry us through all that we shall encounter, to cling to Christ not only in spite of pain and darkness, and strange perplexity, but in spite of our own sins also, this is our substance of things hoped for, this is our evidence of things not seen, this is Christian faith. This is, St. John tells us, the victory which overcometh the world. This is the power which, both in great things and in small, both in hard trials and in easy, ever supports the disciple of Christ by bringing within his reach all the strength of his Master. (Bp. Temple.) Faith defined: I. FAITH IS THE OF UNSEEN THINGS. The word translated “ substance” occurs in Hebrews 3:14; 2 Corinthians 9:4; 2 Corinthians 11:17, and is translated “ confidence.” The word translated “ evidence” is from a verb which signifies “ to convince.” “ Faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” 1. Faith is not belief on the evidence of the senses. 2. Faith is not credulity. God is essential truth, then it is reasonable to repose in what He has said. 3. Faith is not a mere assent of the understanding. II. FAITH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL . “ By it the elders” achieved all that this chapter records. Faith was the secret of what they were and did. 1. The New Testament ascribes all Christian life to faith. “ Whosoever believeth shall not perish,” &c.; “ sanctified by faith” ; “ this is the victory that,” &c.; “ wherein believing ye rejoice,” &c.; “ kept by the power,” &c. 2. This is due to the fact that all Christian life is the result of heavenly influences, and faith lifts it into these. It raises the soul into the heavenly world; brings future things near, and makes Christ live before us. The effect of this on our spiritual nature is its development, like that of a tropical plant brought from a cold land into its native clime and proper conditions. III. FAITH IS THE MEANS OF THE DIVINE . “ Obtained a good report.” 1. This shows our personal responsibility with regard to faith. 2. This is a strong consolation to infirm and secluded believers. (C. New.) Saving faith: There were those who one time asked the Saviour, “ What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” To this He replied, “ This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” The issue, then, between God and men is narrowed down to this--“ only believe.” I. THE MEANING OF THE TERM. 1. Sometimes the word refers merely to a creed, with no notion in it of spiritual experience at all (1 Timothy 4:1; Jude 1:3). 2. When the Bible speaks of faith, it sometimes means mere belief in facts (Hebrews 11:3). This kind of faith is necessary, in a certain sense, to salvation: “ for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” The facts of the Saviour’ s life are to be received in that way. But this is not saving faith at all. 3. Again; faith sometimes means that conviction of the understanding which results from proofs laid before it, or arguments adduced. This is that which the woman wrought among her neighbours when she came back from the conversation with Jesus at Jacob’ s well. This also is the faith which Thomas had when asked to put his hand in the side of his Lord. But this is not saving faith; for our Lord immediately added, “ Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” 4. And sometimes the Bible means the faith of miracles. This was a peculiar gift, bestowed by Christ upon His immediate followers. Now, whatever was the nature of this peculiar endowment, it is evident enough that there was no grace in it to save the soul; for the Saviour Himself declared Matthew 7:22-23). 5. Then, lastly, the Bible means saving faith; the true belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, through which we are justified, and by which we live. II. THE NATURE OF THIS . The old writers used to say that faith was composed of three elements: a right apprehension, a cordial assent, and an unwavering trust. Let me seek to exhibit these in turn in a very familiar way. 1. To apprehend is really a physical act, and means to seize hold of. When applied to mental operation, it signifies to conceive clearly any given object, and hold it before the mind for examination and use. It does not always include a full comprehension. A drowning man may catch a rope that hangs near him, and be rescued by it, without knowing who threw it to him, or who will draw it in, or what vessel it trails from. He apprehends it, but he does not comprehend it. He sees it, but he does not see all with which it is connected. The two essential things for every man to apprehend, are his own need and Jesus Christ’ s fitness to supply it. There is the inward look, and then there is the outward look. I cannot help myself, and the Saviour can help me are the two thoughts that must lie buried deep in his soul. It matters little how these things are learned. 2. Then comes the second element of faith, already mentioned--namely, assent. This is a step in advance of the other. A simple illustration will make plain what is meant by it. An invalid is sometimes very unwilling to admit his danger, even when he has nothing to oppose to the reasoning of one who proves it. He feels his weakness, but he resorts to a thousand subterfuges to avoid yielding to the physician. His judgment is convinced, but his will is unbroken. He apprehends his danger, and knows the remedy; but he refuses to be helped. What he needs now is assent; and this requires humility and the renunciation of self-will. Faith includes this. It calls for a cheerful submission to God’ s requirements, the moment we apprehend them, no matter how humiliating the assertion of our ill-desert may be. 3. The third element of saving faith is trust. By this I mean reliance on the truth of what God said He would do; a quiet resting on His promises to accomplish all we need for salvation. III. THE USE TO BE MADE OF THIS comes next to view. Your experience hitherto has been something like this. You have seen your need; you have gone in prayer to Jesus confessing it. You said in your prayer, “ O Lord, I am vile, I come to Thee; I plead Thy promise that Thou wilt not cast me out; I give myself away in an everlasting surrender; I leave my soul at the very foot of the Cross!” And then you rose from your knees, murmuring, “ Oh, I am no better; I feel just the same as before!” You saw that you had made a failure. Now, where was the lack? Simply in the particular of trust. You would not take Jesus at His word. When you have given yourself to Christ, leave yourself there, and go about your work as a child in His household. When He has undertaken your salvation, rest assured He will accomplish it, without any of your anxiety, or any of your help. There remains enough for you to do, with no concern for this part of the labour. Let me illustrate this posture of mind as well as I can. A shipmaster was once out for three nights in a storm; close by the harbour, he yet dared not attempt to go in, and the sea was too rough for the pilot to come aboard. Afraid to trust the less experienced sailors, he himself stood firmly at the helm. Human endurance almost gave way before the unwonted strain. Worn with toil, beating about; worn yet more with anxiety for his crew and cargo; he was well-nigh relinquishing the wheel, and letting all go awreck, when he saw the little boat coming with the pilot. At once that hardy sailor sprang on the deck, and with scarcely a word took the hehn in his hand. The captain went immediately below, for food and for rest; and especially for comfort to the passengers, who were weary with apprehension. Plainly now his duty was in the cabin; the pilot would care for the ship. Where had his burden gone? The master’ s heart was as light as a schoolboy’ s; he felt no pressure. The pilot, too, seemed perfectly unconcerned; he had no distress. The great load of anxiety had gone for ever; fallen in some way or other between them. Now turn this figure. We are anxious to save our soul, and are beginning to feel more and more certain that we cannot save it. Then comes Jesus, and undertakes to save it for us. We see how willing He is; we know how able He is; there we leave it. We let Him do it. We rest on His promise to do it. We just put that work in His hands to do all alone; and we go about doing something else; self-improvement, comfort to others, doing good of every sort. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Faith convinced of the invisible I. No faith will carry us through the difficulties of our profession, from oppositions within and without, giving us constancy and perseverance therein unto the end, BUT THAT ONLY WHICH GIVES THE GOOD THINGS HOPED FOR A REAL IN OUR MINDS AND SOULS. But when by mixing itself with the promise which is the foundation of hope, it gives us a taste of their goodness, an experience of their power, the inhabitation of their first-fruits, and a view of their glory, it will infallibly effect this blessed end. II. The peculiar specificial nature of faith, whereby it is differenced from all other powers, acts, and graces in the mind, lies in this, THAT IT MAKES A LIFE ON THINGS . It is not only conversant about them, but mixeth itself with them, making them the spiritual nourishment of the soul (2 Corinthians 4:18). III. THE GLORY OF OUR IS, THAT IT DEPENDS ON AND IS INTO VISIBLE THINGS. They are far more excellent and glorious than anything that sense can behold or reason discover (1 Corinthians 2:9). IV. GREAT ARE APT TO LIE AGAINST THINGS, WHEN THEY ARE . Man would desirously live the life of sense, or at least believe no more than what he can have a scientifical demonstration of. But by these means we cannot have an evidence of invisible things; at best, not such as may have an influence into our Christian profession. This is done by faith alone. 1. Faith is that gracious power of the mind, whereby it firmly assents unto Divine revelations, upon the sole authority of God the revealer, as the first essential truth, and fountain of all truth. 2. It is by faith that all objections against invisible things, their being and reality, are answered and refuted. 3. Faith brings into the soul an experience of their power and efficacy, whereby it is cast into the mould of them, or made conformable unto them Romans 6:17; Ephesians 4:21-23). (John Owen, D. D.) Shadow and substance I. THE HOPE OF A PERFECT LIFE IS ONLY TO BE BY FAITH IN CHRIST. II. THE HOPE OF OUR LIFE-WORK CAN ONLY BE BY FAITH IN CHRIST. III. THE HOPE OF OUR IS ONLY TO BE BY FAITH IN CHRIST. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.) Faith; First, then, this chapter shows us the different ways and modes of the working of faith. And secondly, it speaks to all characters of persons, showing the manner in which faith will affect particular characters. New men declare faith to be unreasonable. “ Acting on trust! “ says a godless man, “ how strange a mode of acting! Surely those who do it are trusting to some vague fancy or feeling, they scarce know what, and call it faith.” I answer, Although the thing which we believe, the object of faith, is most marvellous, yet faith itself, belief in the object, is no such strange or unusual thing. Every man constantly acts on faith, and the very man who laughs at another for acting on faith acts on faith himself every day. 1. That man trusts his memory. He does not now see or feel what he did yesterday, yet he has no doubt it happened as he remembers it. 2. Again, when a man reasons he trusts his reasoning powers; he knows one thing is true, and sees clearly that another follows from that. For example, he sees long shadows on the ground; then he knows the sun or moon is shining without looking round to see. But some one raises an objection. He says, “ Very true; but in memory, reason, and daily life we trust ourselves; in religion we trust the word of another, and that is hard.” But there is no real difficulty. In this world we act on the evidence of others. What do we know without trusting others? Are there not towns and cities within fifty miles of us we never saw, yet we fully believe they are there. (E. Munro.) Faith: Out of the first clause let me observe--That a lively faith doth give such a reality and present being to things hoped for and yet to come, as if they were already actually enjoyed. And thus it is said of Abraham John 8:56). I. How DOES FAITH GIVE A OR PRESENT BEING TO THINGS HOPED FOR? How can we be said to have that happiness which we do but expect? 1. By a lively hope it doth as it were sip of the cup of blessing, and foretaste those eternal delights which God hath prepared for us, and affects the heart with the certain expectation of them, as if they were enjoyed. It appears by the effect of this hope, which is rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). 2. Faith takes possession, and gives a being to the things hoped for in the promises. There is not only the union of hope, but a clear right and title; God hath passed over all those things to us in the covenant of grace. When we take hold of the promises, we take hold of the blessing promised by the root of it, until it flows up to full satisfaction. Hence those expressions, believers are said “ to layhold of eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:12-19), by which their right is secured to them; “ And he that heareth My words, and believeth in Me, hath eternal life” (John 5:24). Christ doth not only say, He shall have eternal life, but he hath a clear right and title to it, which is as sure as sense, though not as sweet. Faith gives us heaven, because in the promise it gives us a title to heaven; we are sure to have that to which we have a title; he hath a grant, God’ s Word to assure him of it. He is said to haste an estate that hath the conveyance of it, but it is not necessary he should carry his land upon his back. 3. We have it in our Head. That is a Christian’ s tenure; he holds all in his head by Christ. Though he be not glorified in his own person, he is glorified in his Head, in Jesus Christ. Therefore as Christ’ s glorification is past, so in a sense a believer’ s glorification is past; the Head cannot rise, and ascend, and be glorified without the members (Ephesians 2:6). 4. Faith gives being in the first-fruits. The Israelites had not only a right to Canaan given them by God, but had livery of Canaan, where the spies did not only make report of the goodness of the land, but brought the clusters of grapes with them; so doth God deal with a believing soul, not only give it a right, but give it some first-fruits. A believing soul hath the beginnings of that estate which it hopes for; some clusters of Eschol by way of foretaste in the midst of present miseries and difficulties. This is the great love of God to us, that He would give us something of heaven here upon earth, that He wil make us enter upon our happiness by degrees. II. THE BENEFIT AND OF THIS ACT, AND THE USE OF FAITH IN THE LIFE. 1. It is very necessary we should have such a faith as should substantiate our hopes, to check sensuality, for we find the corrupt heart of man is all for present satisfaction. And though the pleasures of sin be short and inconsiderable, yet because they are near at hand, they take more with us than the joys of heaven, which are future and absent. 2. It gives strength and support to all the graces of the spiritual life. The great design of religion is to bring us to a neglect of present happiness, and to make the soul to look after a felicity yet to come; and the great instrument of religion, by which it promoteth this design, is faith, which is as the scaffold and ladder to the spiritual building. Use 1. To examine whether you have this kind of faith or no, which is the substance of things hoped for. To discover how little of this faith there is in the world, consider (1) Many men say they believe, but alas, what influence have their hopes upon them? Do they engage them as things present and sensible do? (2) You may discern it by your carriage in any trial and temptation. When heaven and the world come in competition, can you deny present carnal advantages upon the hopes of eternity? do you forsake all as knowing you shall have a thousand times better in another world? (3) If faith do substantiate your hopes, though you do not receive present satisfaction, you may discern it by this, you will entertain the promises with much respect and delight. Are they dear and precious to you? You would embrace the promises if you looked upon them as the root of the blessing. (4) You may discern it by this, the mind will often run upon your hopes. Where the thing is strongly expected, the end and aim of your expectation will still be present with you. Thoughts are the spies and messengers of the soul. Hope sends them out after the thing expected, and love after the thing beloved. (5) You may discern it by your weanedness from the world. They that know heaven to be their home reckon the world a strange country. (6) There will not be such a floating and instability in their expectation. You have already blessedness in the root, in the promises; and though there be not assurance, there will be an affiance, and repose of the mind upon God: if there be not rest in your souls, yet there will be a resting upon God, and a quiet expectation of the things hoped for. Faith is satisfied with the promise, and quietly hopes for the performance of it in God’ s due time Lamentations 3:26). Use 2. To exhort you to work up faith to such an effect, that it may be the substance of things hoped for. (1) Work it up in a way of meditation. Let your minds be exercised in the contemplation of your hopes (Matthew 6:21). (2) Work it up in a way of argumentation. Faith is a reasoning grace (verse 19). (3) Work it up in a way of expectation. Look for it, long for it, wait for it Titus 2:13; Jude 1:21). (4) Work it up in a way of supplication. Put in thy claim--Lord! I take hold of the grace offered in the gospel; and desire the Lord to secure thy Psalms 73:24). (5) Work it up in a way of close and solemn application. In the Lord’ s supper, there thou comest by some solemn rites to take possession of the privileges of the covenant, and by these rites and ceremonies which God hath appointed, to enter ourselves heirs to all the benefits purchased by Christ, and conveyed in the covenant, especially to the glory of heaven; there you come to take the cup of blessing as a pledge of the” new wine in your Father’ s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). God here reacheth out to us by deed, our instrument, which was by promise due to every believing sinner before. (6) Work it up in your conversations by constant spiritual diligence. Is heaven sure, so sure as if we had it already, and shall I be idle? Oh what contriving, striving, fighting, is there to get a step higher in the world! How insatiable are men in the prosecution of their lusts I and shall I do nothing for heaven, and show no diligence in pursuing my great happiness! Use 3. To press you to get this faith. There are some means and duties that have a tendency hereunto. (1) There must be a serious consideration of God’ s truth, as it is backed with His absolute power. (2) You must relieve faith by experiences: by considering what is past we may more easily believe that which is to come. (T. Manton, D. D.) Faith a substance I. FAITH IS A . I know this is not generally received, for such are the vague, carnal, infidel notions that are abroad in the world, that not a grace of the Holy Spirit is owned; and instead of faith being admitted to be a principle of grace, it is spoken of as nature’ s actings, and is sometimes said to consist merely in the credence of a revealed fact. An opposite party, however, makes faith to consist in a crouching, a cringing, and a conformity to a crafty priesthood. Now I have no such faith as either of these. The one is the faith of the infidel; the other is the faith of heathenism. And they neither of them have any substance. I want a faith that will manifest itself as having substance. I have seen it printed that faith is nothing more than the credence of a revealed fact. But we know that infidels and devils have that sort of faith; for infidels credit thousands of revealed facts, and cannot deny them as matters of fact, yet they have no faith after all. Faith is a substance; and they who are taken up with shadows and vanities do not know the value of it. They cannot value it. They cannot possess it. Faith is a substance worth more than all the miser’ s stores, than all the monarch’ s revenue, than all the wealth of India. Faith is a substance that can never be frittered away. It overcomes all the world, repels all the devils in hell, and lays hold on eternal life. But, most probably, you will better understand what I mean by this substance of faith if I lead your attention to its origin and its object. Its origin: It grows not in nature’ s garden. It is not the produce of the schools. It is not hereditary from father to son. It is far above that. Like every good gift, and every perfect gift, it cometh down from the Father of Lights. It is of the operation of the Holy Ghost, and its object will prove its substance. Its object is Christ; the Person of Christ; the official character of Christ; the perfect work of Christ; the covenant headship of Christ. And the faith of God’ s elect fastens on all these. Further, the object of faith lies greatly in the enjoyment of Christ as well as in confidence in Him. And this will perhaps bring the nature of your faith to the test better than any other principle. I must have a Christ who will bring heaven to me on earth in the enjoyment of Him here. And this will prove whether your faith is a substance or not. The soul which possesses this living, saving faith, sighs, waits, and cannot be satisfied without the sensible enjoyment of the presence of Christ. That faith which is a substance hath a saving power communicated with it. Hence it is called, sometimes properly, sometimes improperly, a saving faith. Bring your faith up to this test again. It is spiritual faith--the substance of things hoped for, that discovers all that is in Christ; the wisdom, the righteousness, the sanctification, and the redemption that are in Him: the pardon, the peace, the justification, the joy, the security, the victories, the triumphs of all the Church of God in Christ, seen wholly in His Person. II. This saving faith which so discovers and appropriates Is SURE TO GO AND PLEAD BEFORE THE THRONE IN ; “ for whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and cannot be acceptable before God; and there it pleads the merits, the name, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ for acceptance, relying upon the declaration of the precious Lord Himself, “ All things whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, believing, ye shall receive.” Now I pray you let us look closely into this substance, and raise the inquiry, Does it belong to me? “ Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Then the first part of the interrogation here would be, What are the things that I hope for? I know if I were to ask the worldling this question, he would reply that he thinks upon worldly prospects, emoluments, and personal gratifications. But not so the Christian; not so the household of faith. Well, now, if I might simplify this, and put it in the plainest possible manner, I should say that the believer hopes to know more and to enjoy more of Christ to-day than he did yesterday, or than ever he had done before. Faith is the substance of it. The believer in Jesus hopes to be more conformed to the image of Christ; “ that as he has borne the image of the earthly, he shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Faith is the substance of that. The believer in Jesus--the real Christian--hopes to attain to more intimacy with heaven and to have a measure of heaven began in the soul on earth. Let us inquire as regards experimental participation. There is such a thing as the joy of faith. There is such a thing as the triumph of faith. There is such a thing as the race of faith, and it is always a winning race. There are joys experienced in this substance which none but the possessor can know. I hasten on to mark its sanctifying operations. The apostle says concerning this, in his account of the progress of the gospel, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, that God “ put no difference” between Jews and Gentiles, “ purifying” --mark the expression--“ purifying their hearts by faith.” That faith that will not purify the heart, is not the substance. It may illumine your head till you are giddy; it may enlighten your understanding till you are as proud as Lucifer; it may inflame your pride as a professor till you are as vain as the devil can wish you to be; but if it does not purify the heart, it is not of God--“ purifying their hearts by faith.” III. I will now proceed to speak of THE WEALTH WHICH THIS FAITH . It is a substance. Now, most people are ready to travel a good many miles in order to learn how to acquire wealth. They forego much carnal ease to get riches. But, after all, they make a terrible mistake. This is not true wealth. Riches make to themselves wings, they fly away, and defy all control. But the wealth which faith realises is altogether of a different kind. It has no wings. It is not subject to thieves. It cannot be hoarded up and be useless to its possessor; for it is that good principle which works by love. And thus faith realises the inheritance both of grace and of glory, and by it the title deeds to both are clearly read and lodged in the bosom of Deity. Oh, happy man, who goes so far in the attainment of faith! The wealth which faith realises is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for all who are kept by the power of God through faith. I am not fond of relating anecdotes in the pulpit, but I cannot refrain on the present occasion from telling you one which I heard from my dear father’ s lips when I was a boy. It was of a godly man who possessed much wealth, and used it for the glory of God, but who lived to prove that he could not clip its wings. All flew away, and he was reduced to living in a furnished room, where he was supported entirely by the charity of his friends. One of his visitors who had been very kind to him, once asked him this question, “ How is it that I find you to be as happy now as when you were in possession of all your wealth?” His immediate answer was, “ When I possessed all this world’ s goods I enjoyed God in all; and now I possess none I enjoy all in God.” Now that is faith; that is substance; a fine specimen, a fine witness of it. (J. Irons.) Faith 1. Faith is the confidence--the firm persuasion--of things hoped for. In the ancient games the runner hoped to win the race, to wear the crown of pine or olive leaves around his brow, and to have his name handed down as victor to untold generations; so, in the confidence of this, he strained every nerve and sinew to reach the goal. That was natural faith. The student hopes to win the prize and find his name in the honours list, and he gives his days and nights to reading. The farmer ploughs the land and sows the field, in hope that in due season he shall put in the sickle and gather the harvest. The merchant and tradesman hope to gain a competency or to make a fortune, and put forth their efforts day by day. These are illustrations of natural faith. So it is with the faith that has to do with spiritual things. The Christian sets before him, not the crown of fading leaves, but the crown that shall never fade away, which the Lord will place upon the brow of all who endure unto the end. He seeks for the smile and approbation of the Saviour, for the treasures in heaven, for the bags which wax not old. This is spiritual faith. 2. Faith is the demonstration of things not seen. Columbus believed that there was another world in the western hemisphere; he was as fully assured of its existence as if it had been demonstrated by mathematical proof. Yet he had not seen the new world; he had never looked upon its mighty rivers, or upon the broad expanse of its prairies and savannahs. He had not ever seen in the dim distance the peak of any of its mountains, or the outline of its coast. No navigator had told him, “ I have seen the new world; I have cast anchor in its harbours; I have set foot upon it.” Yet, in the full conviction that there was another world, he toiled and waited many years, until his eye rested upon it and he landed on its shores. This was natural faith--the demonstration of things not seen. Some years ago the astronomers, Mr. Adams of Cambridge, and M. Leverries of Paris, were convinced that there must be a large planet that had never been seen through a telescope or marked down in any star-map; so they watched the midnight heavens in a certain direction until the planet came within the range of their glass. This was the way the planet Neptune was discovered. This was natural faith. It is even so with the faith that has to do with spiritual things. God is unseen; His glory is dimly reflected in His works. We see the work of His fingers in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Creation is a book in which we may read, page after page, His handwriting, His own Divine autograph; but the Almighty Writer is unseen. In the flowers of the field we see the forms of beauty which He has pencilled and coloured and enamelled; the Divine Artist we see not. We stand and gaze with wonder and admiration upon a part of this beautiful temple of creation, but we see not the Divine Architect; yet, as in St. Paul’ s Cathedral, we read of the architect, Sir Christopher Wren, “ If you seek his monument, look around,” so we see in the skill and wisdom displayed in this glorious creation the monument of the Almighty Builder. We believe that God is, and that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We believe in the great love which He has towards us, which He has revealed in Jesus Christ; that, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him; that He watches over us by day and by night, that His ear is open to our prayer, His arm stretched out for our defence. We believe that He is present with us in the house of prayer, and we can say with the confidence of Jacob, “ Surely the Lord is in this place,” &c. We believe that He has given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that we may be partakers of the Divine nature; and that, although the heaven and the earth pass away, not one of these promises will fail. We believe in an unseen Saviour, &c. (W. Bull, B. A.) Evangelical faith I. THE THINGS TOWARDS WHICH FAITH IS ARE . II. SOME OF THE THINGS ARE AT ONCE AND . III. THOSE THINGS, WHICH ARE AND , FAITH MAKES IN THE PRESENT LIFE. (Homilist.) The value and importance of faith Faith is the source of all truly religious feeling, and the ground of all acceptable service. Without it we can neither come to God nor perform any work which is acceptable to Him. 1. Faith is the condition of justification: “ Being justified by faith” ; “ He that believeth is not condemned; he that believeth not is condemned already.” 2. It is the source of spiritual life: “ The just shall live by faith.” “ He that believeth hath everlasting life; he that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” 3. It puts us in possession of every Christian privilege. (1) The gift of the Spirit: “ Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? … In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise.” (2) Adoption into the Divine family: “ To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name;” “ Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (3) Peace with God and peace of mind: “ Being justified by faith we have peace with God;” “ He that believeth shall not make haste.” Joy in God: “ In whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 4. It is the source of all Christian feeling and action. Our hearts are “ purified by faith.” Our prayers to be acceptable must be offered “ in faith.” If we would ask successfully, we must “ ask in faith, nothing wavering.” (W. Landels, D. D.) What is faith: Faith has many workings, many results, many frets--and some select one of these and call it faith itself. But the text goes to the source when it says, “ What faith is this.” The word here rendered “ substance,” means properly the act of “ standing under” so as to support something. Thus in philosophical writings it was applied to the essence which forms, as it were, the substratum of the attributes; that supposed absolute existence (of thing or person) in which all the properties and qualities, so to say, inhere, and have their consistence. In this way the word is once applied in Scripture, in the third verse of this Epistle, to the essence of God Himself, and the Divine Son is said to be “ the express image of His person” --the very “ impress,” as it might be otherwise rendered, “ of His essence.” But there was another use of the word, in which it meant the act of the mind in standing under (so as to support, and bear the weight of) some statement or communication, making, as we say, a heavy demand upon the faculty of believing. It thus passes from the idea of “ substance” into that of “ assurance” or “ confidence.” It is thus used by St. Paul in two passages of the second Epistle to the Corinthians, where he speaks of his “ confidence” in the readiness of their alms-giving, and again of the “ confidence of his glorying,” though it be in weakness, about himself. And so, once again, in the third chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews, we find the expression, “ If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” There can be no question as to the meaning of the word in the verse now before us. “ Faith is the assurance of (confidence in) things hoped for.” Faith is that principle, that exercise of mind and soul, which has for its object things not seen but hoped for, and which, instead of sinking under them as too ponderous, whether from their difficulty or from their uncertainty, stands firm under them--supports and sustains their pressure--in other words, is assured of, confides in and relies on them. It is not the Christian only who lives by faith. Faith is no dreamy, imaginative, or mystical thing, which it is fanciful if not fanatical to talk of. The schoolboy who expects a holiday, to be earned by his diligence or forfeited by his misconduct, exercises faith in that expectation the husbandman who expects the harvest is exercising that “ confidence in things hoped for” which is faith. The parent who anticipates the manhood of his child is an example of that “ walking by faith” which only madmen and fools disparage or dispense with. When Christ bids us to be men of faith, He is not contradicting nature, He is not even introducing into the world a new principle of action; He is only applying a principle as old as Nature herself, to matters beyond and above nature, which it needed a new revelation from the God of nature to disclose and to prove to us. If this proof be given us, it becomes as reasonable to anticipate and to prepare for eternity as it is reasonable to anticipate and to prepare for a holiday or a harvest, a wedding, or a profession. “ Faith is confidence in things hoped for” ; and whether the expected future be a later day of this life, or a day which shall close this life and usher in an everlasting existence, the principle which takes account of that future is one and the same--only debased or elevated, profaned or consecrated, by the length of the vision and by the character of the object. We must walk by faith if we would not be the scorn and laughingstock of our generation. The only question is, What, for us, are those “ things hoped for,” which faith makes its object? Are they the trifles of time, or are they the substances of eternity? Are they the amusements, the vanities, the luxuries, the ambitions, which make up the life of earth--or are they the grand, the satisfying, the everlasting realities which God has revealed to us in His Son Jesus Christ--such as the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, victory over evil, the communion of saints, a growing likeness to Christ, a death full of hope, and a blessed immortality in God’ s presence? (Dean Vaughan.) Faith the substance and evidence: An unseen and heavenly world is required to correspond to our faith just as much as a material world to correspond to our senses. I stand in the midst of nature on some lovely spring morning. The fragrance of flowers from every bright and waving branch, dressed in pale and crimson, floats to me. The song of matin birds falls on my ear. All this beauty, melody, and richness are the correspondence to my nature of the material world through my senses. Now there are inward perceptions and intuitions just as real as these outward ones, and requiring spiritual realities to correspond with them, just as much as the eye requires the landscape, or as the ear asks for sounds of the winds and woods and streams, for the song of birds, or the dearer accents of the human voice. To meet and answer the very nature of man, a spiritual world, more refined modes of existence, action, happiness, must be, else his nature, satisfied and fed in one direction, and that the lowest, is belied and starved in another direction, and that the highest. But, without illustrating further, in this general way, the rooting of faith in the primary ground of our being, let me show the peculiar light in which the great doctrines and practical influences of religion are brought to us, by thus considering “ faith” itself as “ the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And first the great doctrine or fact of the being of a God is one of the things that corresponds to our faith, of which faith itself, as a faculty of the soul, is the basis and evidence. We want no other reason for believing in God. Faith itself is the reason, and the best reason. “ He that believeth hath the witness in himself.” We need nothing put under our faith to support that, any more than under our direct outward perceptions, our positive knowledge, the dictates of our consciences, or the affections of our hearts, going forth to fix upon their appropriate objects. Like them, it is a radical part of our very constitution--only a part which Christ has come specially to bring out, enrich, and ennoble with the truth he utters, and the actual objects he presents. To the man in whom this principle or sentiment of faith is thus enlivened by meditation, prayer, and the whole stimulus of the gospel, the Supreme One does not appear simply as a first Cause, an original Creator, far back out of our present reach, but as the perpetual Sustainer and Renewer of all things, to whom he joins with the angelic choir of the poet in singing, “ Thy works are beautiful as on the first day.” His God is near him, nay, with him; breathes upon him in the freshness of the morning; folds him tenderly in the shades of night, and answers every entreating or confiding desire which he silently ejaculates, with peace, sanctity, assurance that can be felt; “ the benediction from these covering heavens falling upon him like dew.” As, sailing in northern latitudes, the needle dips to an unseen power, so his heart inclines to the unseen power of heaven and earth. With an ever-quickening sense of the Divine Being, comes also, through this vitally unfolded power of faith, the feeling of a share in the permanence of that Being; a persuasion, and, so far as in the flesh such a thing can be, realisation of the immortality of the soul. As we believe in the world below because we have senses, and not because somebody attempts logically to prove it to us, so we believe in the world above by the inner perceptions of faith. In fine, the same faith, while convincing us of this durableness of our real life, redeems us from the bondage of death, to which many, all their lifetime, are subject. Thus the apostle declares of Christ, that he “ abolished death.” For just in the degree that, through a religious faith, the feeling of immortality grows in the soul, the death of the body loses power to disturb or alarm it. Principles and affections are developed, on which, we know and are inwardly assured, death cannot lay that icy finger which must chill every flowing drop in the circulation of animal life. The spirit, alive to its relations to God and to all pure beings, is conscious of nothing in common with the grave, has nothing that can be put into the grave save the temporary garment that it wears; and its mounting desires, its ardent love, its swelling hopes, its holy communings, are not stuff woven into the texture of that garment, but are as separable from it as the lamp from its clay vase, as the light of heaven from the clod it for a passing moment illumines. In fact, in this state of inward life, the ideas of the spirit and death, of dust and the soul, cannot be brought together, any more than can the ideas of virtue and colour, thought and material size. (C. A. Bartol.) Faith, the substance of things hoped for: It is a certain and evident fact that every one of us is living, every moment, in two worlds: a material world and a spiritual world. All nature, all with which our bodies only have to do is one; all thought and memory and hope, and the inner workings of the mind, all that lies far away out of sight, all beyond the grave, all that concerns other worlds than this, that is the other world. The spiritual world which we cannot see is as real as the material world which is always before us. The power which makes the spiritual world a fact, by which we realise it, is “ faith.” And that power is one with which it has pleased God to endow us all for that end. And where that “ faith” is in full exercise, the unseen becomes more real than the seen--for the seen can only be when it is actually present, and must cease with our natural life, while the unseen, though invisible now, will soon be all that we shall see, and will last for ever. Hence, “ faith,” which is the sight of the mind, is a far greater thing than the sight of the eyes; for it has to do with the inner nature of a man which he carries with him everywhere, which is always going on: and it takes in, and makes real and present, God and heaven, and all that God hath said and done, or will say and will do; and all the grandnesses of the eternity. It makes “ substance” of all these things, and gives “ evidence” of our hope that these substances are ours. If I had to define “ faith” I should call it a loving trust, a loving, personal approbation, merging into a holy life. But what is the groundwork of faith? what is its warrant? what justifies you in believing all this? God’ s voice. How does God’ s voice speak to me? Partly in His word, partly in His works, partly in His whisperings to my soul. There are two things which must never be forgotten about “ faith.” The one is that though faith is a reasonable and intellectual exercise of the mind, nevertheless it lies more in the heart than in the head. It is not written without a distinct point and sufficient reason, “ The evil heart of unbelief.” How can you believe and sin? The belief comes from God only. And the second and most important consideration is that all “ faith” is a gift. However much you may read and study and think, you will never obtain faith except by prayer. It lies in the sovereignty of God. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Faith a sign of human progress: Faith is really a sign of human progress. It is the first thing that distinguishes us from the beasts of the field. Let me use an illustration: If there is grass for the ox, the ox feeds; if there be none it dies. It knows nothing of tillage or preparation of the soil for its provender. It knows no future. So, in a measure, is it with the savage. In his rudest state he is only one step above the brute. He hunts for his food, or gathers the wild fruit of the earth. Then take the stage of human life next above this--the simple, wandering, pastoral life. The shepherd or herdsman has to shift his flock from one district to another. He looks forward but a very little. Then comes the agricultural life, in which some provision has to be made for the future. The field is ploughed and sown in prospect of the next year’ s harvest. Then comes a more civilised age, that of building and teaching. The pious ecclesiastic lays the foundations of some grand cathedral, in which he has faith to believe that future generations will worship. The poet or the prophet speaks, content that men unborn shall acknowledge the truth of his message or his song. And this indicates the onward progress. According as a man is animated by some lofty purpose, so his view is wide and far-reaching. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 11:3 The worlds were framed by the word of God Spirit in matter: The whole order of the natural world and man’ s physical being may be said to be the expression of chemical combination, and of the various forces resulting therefrom. The whole is presented to us, after scientific examination, as a most elaborate and exquisite piece of mechanism. Some would also explain man’ s mental and moral life as only a higher development of this same mechanism. To prevent misunderstanding, I may state that, while I am willing to admit that these higher parts of man’ s life are affected by, and partly dependent upon, this mechanism of things, it seems to me certain that the phenomena of human life require us to believe that there is, over and above that which is mechanical, a “ free spirit.” What I seek at present is a common ground with scientists, from which to start in an inquiry; and that I find in admitting the mechanism of all physical being. This mechanical and orderly system of being is generally known as the material world. All parts of the universe are in an intimate relation with each other. This relation is commonly conceived of as government by laws. There are, for example, what are termed the laws of gravitation and magnetic attraction, and the laws of combining proportion. Now, it is necessary to keep before us the strictly scientific idea of the laws of nature; that they are in fact nothing more than the observed mode of action of the forces in nature. They have no real existence of themselves, apart, that is, from the things in which they are observed. For example, there is, so far as science teaches, no material bond between the stone and the earth which are attracted to each other; no link like a string reaching from the one to the other. The stone is not drawn by an elastic-like band which connects it with the earth; but something in the inner nature of the matter causes them to approach. The same is true of magnetic attraction, and also of chemical affinity. So far we have kept strictly to the results of science. It is now that we proceed a step further by inference from what science has taught explicitly to something which its teaching implies. We find that the stone and the earth, the magnet and the iron, and also chemical atoms, enter into those relations which result from attraction or affinity only by reason of what is in them. What, then, is in them by which they can do these things? The earth attracts the stone which has been thrown a distance from it, and the stone, instead of continuing to ascend, comes back of itself towards the earth. This attraction is because the stone is affected by the earth, by a body of matter which is in a certain direction. The effect of the earth’ s presence is sufficient to direct the stone to itself; i.e., the earth so affects the inner state of the stone that it is sensible of an attraction of a certain degree and in a particular direction. It knows it is attracted, and its movement is the result of that consciousness. And it knows in what direction it is attracted, and so takes the right path. The phenomena of gravitation and magnetism evidence therefore a degree of conscious life in matter. But the most comprehensive and fundamental kind of attraction is chemical affinity, since all material organisation is built up from it. And it is also the most wonderful, and even skilful, in operation. The atoms which combine by affinity to form water must have a sense of affinity sufficient to cause them to unite; they must be aware of the effect upon them of the other’ s presence, or they would remain unmoved. And so with all chemical combinations, both of atoms and molecules; they must have a degree of consciousness to enter into union, to remain in union, and also to allow them to be disunited chemically. The action and reaction of all parts of the physical universe, because it is from the inner states of matter, necessitates the existence of a certain measure and kind of consciousness and intelligence in all matter. We have thus crossed the boundary into a spiritual sphere; but we must advance yet further. That these inner states of atoms, which we find to be conscious states, are not separate and independent of each other, science shows most clearly. All atoms of any given element act exactly alike and are affected exactly alike. There is then one conscious mind in each kind of element. But to go another step” we observe in the chemical combinations of various elements that they have all an inner relation to each other, according to which each element is affected, and affected in one particular way, by its combinations with others. There is, in other words, a necessity in the relations of all chemical elements to each other--a necessity which is the ruling of their inner states. All these inner states and their movements and combinations are in some sort Of unity. And as it is the unity of conscious being in manifoldness, there is a large consciousness which is inclusive of all. But we must examine these atoms a little closer. What they are we have seen to some extent. Can we find out more about them? Can we discover their origin? We are informed that atoms--all atoms--are vortices of ether. Ether is something which pervades all space and permeates all things. It is, and yet is itself non-phenomenal--it has none of the properties of matter. It is therefore the invisible substans, or that which stands under all atomic being as its cause and foundation. It is a living entity, with consciousness and will, and the power to create out of itself an order of life different from itself. Here we come to the fact of spiritual Being as the basis and origin of the vast mechanism of nature; for mechanism never makes mind, but always proceeds from mind. And yet we do not say that ether is God, or that God is ether; but we say that it is essential to those functions which ether is credited with, that it shall be pervaded by that living and moving consciousness which demands the idea of God. We see, then, how science permits us, and indeed requires us, to believe that “ things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” ; and that the position to which faith leads us is borne out by the facts of science--that “ the worlds were framed by the word of God.” “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” is still, and ever will be, true for us; as also that “ He upholdeth all things by the word of His power.” His works rivet our gaze and excite our wonder; yet not they, but He is the object of our worship and our chief good. Before Him, higher than all creation, yet present in all, so that He is not far from any one of us--before Him we bow in deep adoration. (R. Vaughan, M. A.) The mystery of creation revealed to faith The word rendered “ worlds” means “ life,” then that through which life extends--“ an age,” a cycle of ages, and next the stage on which life appears--“ the world.” Of course the author of this Epistle was not thinking of the worlds which modern astronomy has discovered in the heavenly bodies, but of this world in its successive ages, and possibly of unseen worlds inhabited by spiritual intelligences. To “ frame” means to found or create, as a city may be said to be created by its founder. “ Things which do appear,” is the translation of a word which is naturalised in our own language as “ phenomena.” We might, then, read the text thus: “ Through faith we understand that the worlds were created by the word of God, so that that which is seen--the visible universe--did not originate from existing phenomena.” The present order of things--the configuration of rocks and hills, of rivers, seas, and plains--has been brought about by the altered disposition of previous land andwater; the vegetation which clothes the earth, and the living creatures which roam upon it or swarm in its waters, are all descended from former generations of vegetable and animal life--the whole of that which is now seen has sprung immediately from similar phenomena; but it has not always been so. The living “ world we see around us was originally founded by the Word of God. This is one way of reading the text. Another is, to understand it as denying the eternity of matter, and affirming the creation of the world out of nothing. “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” when there was nothing to make them with. “ He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast.” But whether we understand the phrase, “ things which do appear,” to stand for natural phenomena or for the material elements, the conclusion is the same, that the visible order of creation came into existence by the simple fiat of the Almighty. Our knowledge of such a fact may be a spiritual intuition or it may rest solely on the testimony of revelation. Either way, it is knowledge of a thing not seen and only perceived by faith. The origin of all we behold around and above us must ever be an undiscoverable secret to the researches of the astronomer, the geologist, and the chemist. For though science may some day learn to read the changeful history of our globe with tolerable accuracy, it can never extract from it the story of its birth. All it can do is to take things to pieces. But simply taking a watch to pieces will tell us nothing of the nature and origin of the metals and gems of which it is made; neither will anatomy discover the nature of life, nor chemical analysis explain the origin of the ultimate forms of matter. They are as inscrutable by such analysis as metals and gems are by the tools of the mechanic. Creation out of nothing is at once inexplicable and incomprehensible. No strictly creative act comes under our observation in any of the phenomena of nature. Philosophy, unaided by the higher teaching of faith, has always taken for granted the eternity of matter. It has uniformly declared that things which are seen were made of things which do appear. The first philosopher with whose speculations we are acquainted maintained that water was the origin of all things. The substitution of gases for water is the necessary result of modern chemistry; it does not make the speculation one whit the wiser, nor, again, the resolution of these gases into primordial atoms. The later speculation which ascribed the origin of all things to fire or heat is just as plausible and just as false. The authors of these theories, ancient or modern, were all on the wrong track. They were seeking in the paths of observation and inductive reasoning the answer to a question which is beyond their range. The only certain answer is that which faith may have guessed, and which revelation endorses. The most illiterate peasant who hears and ponders the declaration of God’ s Word, “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” is as wise in this matter as the most learned scientist the world contains. Observe, how strictly practical revelation is. That which no science could discover, which only minds finely organised and deeply imbued with spiritual feeling could guess, but which still was necessary for men to know, that they might give to God the glory due to His name, it reveals; but what human intelligence and perseverance would be sure in time to discover, it leaves untouched. The Scripture account of creation is a retrospective prophecy, turning its gaze towards an unknown past instead of towards an unknown future. I regard the Mosaic narrative as a sublime poem on God’ s creative work, as accurate in the letter of it as was consistent with its being intelligible to minds unacquainted with scientific discovery, and truer to the real moral significance of creation than any account which science has yet been able to render. But I am concerned to give this subject a more practical bearing. To doubt the opening words of Scripture, “ In the beginning,” &c., is not your temptation; but it is your temptation, for it is every man’ s, to feel and act as though the things that are seen were made of things which do appear. In one sense, indeed, they are, but in another and more important sense, they are not. In one sense, all you see has come from things like them whence you can trace their origin; and, whatever the forms of animate or inanimate objects around you, they all consist of materials which were in existence before them. Properly speaking, no new materials have been called into existence since God first weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. The original atoms of our globe still exist. They are neither more nor fewer than in the first moment of creation. Ever entering into fresh combinations, they are either held in solution in the air and form the rainbow arch, or having fallen and mingled with the soil they appear in the lowly herb and spreading tree; thence they are assimilated to nourish or protect animal life, and are cast off again to pursue the same round of endless change. But the power which gives them substance and form, the force which imparts to light, heat, and electricity their characteristic energies, the plastic power which possesses plants and animals, so that they appropriate surrounding materials and mould them after their own form and structure--in short, the vital energy which fills all nature, is a thing unseen, by which all we behold is made and sustained in existence. By the Word of God the worlds were made, and by that Word they stand fast. Things seen are not made of things that appear, in anything more than the order of their appearance. They spring from the unseen creative energy of God, operating through those familiar methods which His wisdom has adopted. (E. W. Shalders, B. A.) The work of creation: I. WHAT IS TO BE AS US THIS SUBJECT. 1. Let us set out by remarking that the object of this inspired account of the world’ s framing or formation is not scientific, but religious. The Bible is meant for the instruction of those of every age, country, and class; it is not meant to teach only a few superior minds, but to afford spiritual food for the whole human race. It is meant to be a book of duty, not a system of natural philosophy. 2. It is also to be borne in mind that the sacred narrative of the creation is chiefly and prominently to be regarded as of a moral, spiritual, and prophetical kind. Man’ s original relation to his Maker, as a responsible being, is directly taught; his restoration from moral chaos to spiritual beauty is figuratively represented; while, as a prophecy, it has an extent of meaning which will only be fully unfolded at a period yet future; perhaps that spoken of as “ the times of the restitution of all things.” II. THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD’ S WORK IN AND CALLS UPON US TO HIS . 1. Creation exhibits to us God as supreme in power. When we reflect how much labour and difficulty generally accompany the forth-putting of human power, the idea of creative power becomes peculiarly impressive. Surely reverence and adoration should be prompted, together with humility and trust. 2. The work of creation also exhibits to us God as supreme in wisdom. Everywhere we trace the working of One who is “ perfect in knowledge.” In even the smaller parts of the Creator’ s workmanship we trace the operation of a wisdom, alike in larger and in smaller objects; in the star, and in the insect; in the elephant, and in the fly; in the mightiest of forest trees, and in the smallest tuft, or even blade of grass. There is nothing lost sight of; nothing has been imperfectly done; each thing answers a defined end. This wisdom of God shown in creation is assuredly not meant to be devoid of influence upon His rational, responsible creatures; it should teach submission on the part of man, and beget pious trust in his heart. 3. The work of creation likewise exhibits to us God as supreme in goodness. Most justly is the earth said to be “ full of the goodness of the Lord” ; inasmuch as throughout the system of things we behold what must, at the least, be pronounced, on the whole, to be fitted to promote the good of both rational and animated beings. There are what may seem to be defects; but the latter arise out of the infirmity, sinfulness, and dereliction of the creature. (A. R. Bonar.) Faith revealing God as Creator I. THE THAT IT IS ONLY THROUGH FAITH WE KNOW THAT THE WORLD WAS CREATED BY GOD. 1. Reason could not discover the Creator. 2. Scripture reveals the Creator. 3. Faith knows God as Creator by her simple dependence on Scripture declaration. II. THE USES OF THIS TRUTH. 1. It teaches the nature of faith. 2. It teaches the character of God. 3. It teaches the consolation of the saints. 4. It teaches the condemnation of the impenitent. (C. New.) Faith apprehending the mystery of creation The province of faith is the unseen. The past and the future lie all out of sight, and are therefore its undisputed domain. The present is a mixed and compound thing--shared between faith and sight. The apostle takes his first example of faith from the past. Everything that we ourselves have not seen, though it be the most strongly attested of all facts is apprehended by us through faith alone. That which the senses cannot tell us can only be accepted on testimony. The facts of history come to us in books. In many cases there is a conflict of testimony, occasioning either a perpetual difference of opinion or an occasional reversal of opinion with regard to the events or the characters of a past nearer or more remote. Christian faith also rests upon testimony. In this it is like all belief in things not seen. The difference lies in the source of the testimony. History is written and received on what professes to be human testimony. Christian faith believes itself to have the word of God Himself for its evidence and its authority. To ascertain this Divine testimony is an anxious and responsible task. First of all these disclosures for which faith is demanded, is that one of which the text speaks--the creation of the universe by the fiat of Almighty God. We have here--none can dispute it--a subject lying altogether in the province of faith. Either faith, or nothing, can apprehend this fact. Not only is it a thing out of sight, as all the past is; not only is it a thing belonging to the most remote past, inasmuch as it involves that fact which is the condition of all facts: more than this--it is that one fact of which by the nature of the case there can be no human testimony; the origination of the creature itself is the very subject of the revelation, and if it be true--in other words, if it have any witness--that truth must be one of God’ s “ mysteries,” that witness must be God alone. We will look for a moment into the particulars of the statement. “ By faith.” It is by an exercise of that principle which has been called above the assurance of things unseen. “ By faith we understand,” we apprehend, or grasp with the mind, that fact which follows. Here mind is set in motion by faith. And that as to a fact--a fact of the pre-Adamite past--a fact which may lie long millenniums before human existence--but a fact, of which the results and consequences still are and are mighty. What is this fact? “ That the worlds have been framed,” settled, or fitted in order and coherence, “ by a word of God.” The word here used for “ the worlds” is very peculiar. It is that word which, properly meaning “ ages” or “ periods,” is applied to the material universe as an existence not in space only but in time--having a vast succession of ages and periods inside eternity, as well as a vast expansion of parts and substances inside immensity. The same word occurs in the first chapter--“ By whom also He made the worlds.” Now the point of the statement lies in this--not that faith apprehends the existence of matter, or the order, the beauty, the variety, the adaptation of matter, or even the fact, taken by itself, of the non-eternity of matter: these things are not in the special province of faith; some of them are matters of sight, others are matters of theory; the action of faith is this--she grasps the revealed fact, that the material universe, seen to exist, surveyed by the senses in its manifoldness and its harmony, was originally framed “ by a word of God.” Once more, the end and result of this “ framing by a word.” “ So that things which are seen” --or, according to the true reading, “ the thing which is seen” --speaking of the whole sum of created being, the vast mass and aggregate of the material universe--“ the thing which is seen hath not come into being out of things which appear.” The original of the universe was itself created. God Himself is the alone eternal, as He is the alone self-existent. The subject before us is deeply important, specially seasonable, and directly practical. 1. First of all, it is essential to the right posture of the creature towards the Creator. 2. Not only the posture of the soul, but the whole management of the life, depends upon this primary principle. A thousand motives of self-interest and of gratitude conspire to teach the duty of obedience. We disparage none of these--we want them all. But there is one groundwork of duty which lies at the root of all--and that is, the living vital apprehension of the relationship which cannot be modified of the creature to the Creator. 3. Finally, it is this faith in creation which furnishes the strongest presumption of the truth of redemption itself. He who thought it worth while, having a clear foresight of everything, to call into existence, out of nothing, a world that should be the theatre, and a creature that should be the agent, of sin, may be believed when He says (though we durst not have said it for Him) that He counts us worth redeeming--that He intends to restore to holiness and happiness lives and souls made originally in His image--nay, by a process most wonderful to beings nearest His throne, to introduce “ a dispensation of the fulness of times,” in which to gather together all the scattered elements in Jesus Christ, and “ in the ages to come to show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us” in the Son of His love. It is thus that faith in an unseen past allies itself with faith in an invisible future, and breathes forth in one petition the whole of its confidence and the whole of its hope--“ I am Thine: oh save me!” (Dean Vaughan.) Understanding God’ s works: This chapter teaches much by what it omits as well as by what it includes. There is no mention of Adam, or of Lot, or of faith during the forty years in the wilderness (see the gap between Hebrews 11:29-30). There are several most suggestive associations. Faith is associated with hope (Hebrews 11:1), with righteousness (Hebrews 11:4), with holiness (Hebrews 11:5), with diligence (Hebrews 11:7), with trial (Hebrews 11:17), and with conflict (Hebrews 11:32-37). The element of assured confidence runs right through the chapter. Abel “ obtained witness” ; Enoch received a “ testimony” ; Abraham “ looked for a city,” and many of the patriarchs were “ persuaded” (Greek, πειθω--the same word in Romans 8:38) that there was reality in God’ s promises, and that they would be fulfilled. “ The evidence” “ of things not seen.” Those who believe in God’ s Word are not in doubt as to the existence of the things He has promised. His Word is proof positive of their reality, and if we believe that Word they become realities to us. We are just as sure of their existence as we should be if we could see them. I. FAITH WELL . The Hebrews knew of but one ground of faith. It was their habit to ask, “ What saith the Scriptures?” (John 7:42). The writer of this Epistle would know this, and when he spoke of faith he meant faith in the declarations of the Old Testament. This chapter from beginning to end takes us back to this Divine standard, and, without discussing the question, assumes, what every Jew would readily grant, that its statements are absolutely true. The faith of this chapter is therefore belief in the testimony of God. II. FAITH THE MIND. “ Through faith we understand” (Greek, νόεω). Atheism is folly (Psalms 14:1). To be without faith in God’ s Word is to be “ void of understanding” respecting His works. The history of human philosophy consists largely of a series of records of the vain efforts of men to account for the universe apart from the true cause of its origin. The variety of opinions expressed by sceptics upon the subject of the origin of the world casts discredit upon the whole of these opinions, just as half a dozen discordant testimonies in defence of a prisoner would cast discredit upon the whole case for the defence. By the light of philosophy we guess, we speculate; but “ by faith we understand.” Well, might the Psalmist say, “ The entrance” (or opening)” “ of Thy Word giveth Psalms 119:130). Faith sees a beginning of the universe (John 1:1). It sees “ in the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1). It sees God as a Creator (“ God created” Genesis 1:1). It sees Him as the author of order (“ the worlds were framed” ; Greek, καταρτίζω, to make thoroughly right or fit). It sees His continuous working (“ the world” ; Greek, αἰὼν--age. The birth of worlds was the birth of time, and therefore the history of worlds is fitly called that of the ages). III. FAITH WITH REASON. The understanding approves what faith makes clear, just as the eye takes in the minute objects revealed by the microscope. It could not have seen those objects without the aid of the microscope, but, having seen them, it can admire them, and the mind, instructed by the eye, can realise and rejoice in the beauty and fitness of what is so revealed. There is much in what faith reveals that reason demands and requires. Reason tells us, for instance, that there can be no effect without a cause, and that no cause can give to an effect what it has not in itself. If we see personality in an effect, reason says there must have been personality in the cause. We see personality in man, and therefore we infer that the author of his being must have been a person. Faith satisfies this demand of reason by the revelation of a personal God. Reason connects order with the operations of mind. Type set up for the printing of a book must, it cannot but infer, have been set up by a person possessed of an amount of intelligence equal to the task. A thousand infidels could not convince a rational being that the setting up of the type was the result of chance, or that it could have been brought about in any way without the direction of a mind. Reason sees in nature the most absolute order, and it infers that if a mind is required to produce order in the setting up of the type, it is much more required in this vaster display of order which is apparent everywhere in the material universe. Faith endorses the wisdom of this inference as it gazes at nature in the light of revelation, and says with Milton: “ These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty! Thine this universal frame.” Faith speaks of God ordering things “ according to the good pleasure of His Ephesians 1:5), and reason hears and is satisfied. IV. FAITH ABOVE REASON. Reason has no opportunity of observing the process by which something is made out of nothing, and so it has made the rule, “ Ex nihilo, nihilfit” --out of nothing nothing comes, Now in opposition to this axiom faith recognises God as a Creator. Faith sees more than reason does, as a man looking at the stars through a good telescope sees more than another who looks with his unaided sight. One sees farther than the other, but the view spread out before the one is not necessarily in conflict with that seen by the other. V. FAITH THE UNSEEN. He who believes in God as the framer of the universe believes in what he has not seen. He was not present at the time of the creation. (Note the question in Job 38:4.) He has not seen, and yet he believes. This is, however, what men are doing every day. A man takes a ticket on a steamer bound for New Zealand. He has never seen New Zealand, but he so thoroughly believes in its existence that he spends his money and enters upon a long voyage that he may get there. Sight doesn’ t always secure certainty, and there may be the most absolute certainty without it. (H. Thorne.) Faith’ s attitude towards the creation: I. IT IS A FOR THE OF GOD TO TURN THEIR MINDS TO THE . 1. It discovereth much of God. (1) His essence. (2) His attributes, goodness, power, wisdom. 2. It is a wonderful advantage to faith to give us hope and consolation in the greatest distresses. 3. It puts us in mind of our duty. (1) Reverence. (2) Humility. (3) Kindness. II. WE THE TRUTH AND WONDERS OF THE BY FAITH, AND NOT BY REASON. 1. There are three sorts of lights which God hath bestowed upon men: the light of nature, the light of grace, and the light of glory. There is the daylight of glory, which is the sun when it arises in its strength and brightness; and there is the light of faith, which is like the moon, a light which shines in a dark place; then there is the weak and feeble ray of reason, which is like the light of the lesser stars. By the first light, we see God as He is in Himself; by the second, God as He hath discovered Himself in the Word: by the third, God as He is seen in the creature. 2. In this world reason had been enough, if man had continued in his innocency. His mind then was his only bible, and his heart his only law; but he tasted of the tree of knowledge and hereby he and we got nothing but ignorance. It is true, there are some relics of reason left for human uses, and to leave us without excuse (John 1:9). But now in matters of religion, we had need of external and foreign helps. Man left to himself would only grope after God. 3. The only remedy and cure for this is faith, and external revelation from God. The blindness of reason is cured by the Word; the pride of reason is cured by the grace of faith. Revelation supplies the defect of it; and faith takes down the pride of it, and captivates the thoughts into the obedience of the truths represented in the Word; so that reason now cannot be a judge; at best it is but a handmaid to faith. 4. The doctrine of the creation is a ,nixed principle; much of it is liable to reason, but most of it can only be discovered by faith. If by faith only we can understand the truth and wonders of the creation, then (1) It informs us, that reason is not the judge of controversies in religion, and the doubts that do arise about the matters of God are not to be determined by the dictates of nature. If then we leave the written Word and follow the guidance of our own reason, we shall but puzzle ourselves with impertinent scruples, and leave ourselves under a dissatisfaction. (2) It informs us that the heathens had never light enough for salvation. Certainly they are blind in the work of redemption, since they are so blind in the work of creation. (3) It shows us the great advantage that we have by faith, and by the written Word. (4) It informs us that religion is not illiterate. Grace doth not make men simple, but rather perfects human learning. None discern truths with more comfort and satisfaction than a believer; it solves all doubts and riddles of reason. (5) We learn hence the properties of faith to have knowledge, assent, and obedience in it; therefore it is not a blind reliance, but a clear, distinct persuasion of such truths, concerning which human discourse can give us no satisfaction. (6) It is the nature of faith to subscribe to a revelation in the Word, though reason give little assistance and aid. It serves to stir you up to act faith. What is the use of faith upon the creation? To answer all the objections of reason, and settle the truth in the soul, and to improve it for spiritual uses and advantages, and to facilitate the belief of other truths upon this ground; did He make the world out of nothing? Many truths are less wonderful than this. (T. Manton, D. D.) Of the work of creation I. WHAT WE ARE TO BY , or what it is to create. 1. It is not to be taken here in a large sense, as sometimes it is used in Scripture, for any production of things wherein second causes have their instrumentality, as Psalms 104:30. 2. We are to take it strictly for the production of things out of nothing, or the giving a being to things which had none before. (1) There is an immediate creation, as when things are brought forth out of pure nothing, where there was no pre-existent matter to work upon. (2) There is a secondary and mediate creation, which is the making things of pre-existing matter, but of such as is naturally unfit and altogether indisposed for such productions, and which could never by any power of second causes be brought into such a form. Thus all beasts, cattle, and creeping things, and the body of man, were at first made of the earth and the dust of the ground; and the body of the first woman was made of a rib taken out of the man. II. THAT THE WORLD WAS MADE, THAT IT HAD A AND WAS NOT ETERNAL. This the Scripture plainly testifies (Genesis 1:1). And this reason itself teacheth: for whatsoever is eternal, the being of it is necessary, and it is subject to no alterations. But we see this is not the case with the world; for it is daily undergoing alterations. III. WHO MADE THE WORD AND GAVE IT A ? That was God, and He only. 1. The world could not make itself; for this would imply a contradiction, namely, that the world was before it was: for the cause must always be before its effect. 2. The production of the world could not be by chance. 3. God created all things, the world, and all the creatures that belong to it. He attributes this work to Himself, as one of the peculiar glories of His Deity, exclusive of all the creatures (Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 45:12; Isaiah 40:12-13). None could make the word but God, because creation is a work of infinite power, and could not be produced by any finite cause: for the distance between being and not being is truly infinite, which could not be removed by any finite agent, or the activity of all finite agents united. IV. WHAT GOD MADE. All things whatsoever, besides God, were created Revelation 4:11). The evil of sin is no positive being, it being but a defect or want, and therefore is not reckoned among the things which God made, but owed its existence to the will of fallen angels and men. Devils being angels, are God’ s creatures; but God did not make them evil, or devils, but they made themselves so. V. OF WHAT ALL THINGS WERE MADE. Of nothing; which does not denote any matter of which they were formed, but the term from which God brought them; when they had no being He gave them one (Col Romans 11:36). VI. How ALL THINGS WERE MADE OF NOTHING. By the word of God’ s power. It was the infinite power of God that gave them a being; which power was exerted in His Word, not a word properly spoken, but an act of His will commanding them to be (Genesis 1:3; Psalms 33:6; Psalms 33:9). VII. IN WHAT SPACE OF TIME THE WORLD WAS CREATED. VIII. FOR WHAT END GOD MADE ALL THINGS. It was for His own glory Proverbs 16:4; Romans 11:36). And there are these three attributes of God that especially shine forth in this work of creation, namely, His wisdom, power, and goodness. IX. IN WHAT STATE WERE ALL THINGS MADE? I answer, They were all “ very good” (Genesis 1:31). The goodness of the creature consists in its fitness for the use for which it was made. In this respect everything answered exactly the end of its creation. Again, the goodness of things is their perfection; and so everything was made agreeable to the idea thereof that was formed in the Divine mind. There was not the least defect in the work; but everything was beautiful, as it was the effect of infinite wisdom as well as almighty power. Inferences: 1. God is a most glorious being, infinitely lovely and desirable, possessed of every perfection and excellency. Whatever excellency and beauty is in the creatures is all from Him, and sure it must be most excellent in the fountain. 2. God’ s glory should be our chief end. And seeing whatever we have is from Him, it should be used and employed for Him: For “ all things were created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). 3. God is our Sovereign Lord Proprietor, and may do in us, on us, anal by us, what He will (Romans 9:20-21). 4. We should use all the creatures we make use of with an eye to God, and due thankfulness to Him, the Giver; employing them in our service, soberly and wisely, considering they stand related to God as their Creator, and are the workmanship of His own hands. 5. There is no case so desperate, but faith may get sure footing with respect to it in the power and Word of God. Let the people of God be ever so low, they can never be lower than when they were not at all (Isaiah 65:18). 6. Give away yourselves to God through Jesus Christ, making a cheerful and entire dedication of your souls and bodies, and all that ye are and have, to Him as your God and Father, resolving to serve Him all the days of your life: that as He made you for His glory, you may in some measure answer the end of your creation, which is to show forth His praise. (T. Boston, D. D.) The fact of creation an object of faith Our object is to inquire what is implied in our really believing the fact of the creation. There is the widest difference between your believing certain truths as the results of reasoning or discovery, and your believing them on the mere assertion of a credible witness, whom you see and hear, especially if the witness be the very individual to whom the truths relate. The truths themselves may be identically the same. But how essentially different is the state of the mind, and how different the impression made on it! I. WE MAY THE BY A SIMPLE AND EXAMPLE. Paley makes admirable use of an imaginary case respecting a watch. He supposes you to be previously unacquainted with such a work of art. You hold it in your hand; you begin to examine its structure, to raise questions in your own mind, and to form conjectures. How did it come there, and how were its parts so curiously put together? You at once conclude that it did not grow there, and that it could not be fashioned by chance. You feel assured that the watch had a maker. You gather much of his character from the obvious character of his handiwork. You search in that handiwork for traces of his mind, his heart. You speculate concerning his plans and purposes. But now, suppose that while you are thus engaged, with the watch in your hand, a living person suddenly appears before you, and announces himself, and says, It was I who made this watch--it was I who put it there. Is not your position instantly changed? Your position, in fact, is now precisely reversed. Instead of questioning the watch concerning its maker, you now question the maker concerning his watch. You hear not what the mechanism has to say of the mechanic, but what the mechanic has to say of the mechanism. You receive, perhaps, the same truths as before, but with a freshness and a force unknown before. They come to you, not circuitously and at second hand, they come straight from the very being most deeply concerned in them. II. NOW, LET US APPLY THESE REMARKS TO THE MATTER IN HAND. YOU are all of you familiar with this idea, that, in contemplating the works of creation, you should ascend from nature to nature’ s God. It is most pleasing and useful to cultivate such a habit as this. Much of natural religion depends upon it, and holy Scripture fully recognises its propriety. “ The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament showeth his handicraft.” “ All Thy works praise Thee, Lord God Almighty.” “ Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, Who hath created these things.” “ O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.” It is apparent, however, even in these and similar passages, that created things are mentioned, not as arguments, but rather as illustrations; not as suggesting the idea of God, the Creator, but as unfolding and expanding the idea, otherwise obtained. And this is still more manifest in that passage of the Epistle to the Romans which particularly appeals to the fact of creation, as evidence of the Creator’ s glory evidence sufficient to condemn the ungodly (Romans 1:20-21). So that the Scriptural method on this subject is exactly the reverse of what is called the natural. It is not to ascend from nature up to nature’ s God, but to descend from God to God’ s nature; not to hear the creation speaking of the Creator, but to hear the Creator speaking of the creation. We have not in the Bible an examination and enumeration of the wonders to be observed among the works of nature, and an argument founded upon these that there must be a God, and that He must be of a certain character and must have had certain views in making what He has made. God Himself appears and tells us authoritatively what He has done, and why He did it. Thus “ through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” We understand and believe this, not as a deduction of reasoning, but as a matter of fact, declared and revealed to us. For this is that act of the mind which, in a religious sense, is called faith. III. But it may be said, ARE WE, THEN, NOT TO USE OUR REASON ON THIS SUBJECT AT ALL? That cannot be, for the apostle himself enjoins you, however in respect of meekness you are to be like children, still in understanding to be men. Certainly you do well to search out all those features in creation which reflect the glory of the Creator. Nay, you may begin in this way to know God. It is true, indeed, that God has never in fact left Himself to be thus discovered. He has always, as He did at first, revealed Himself, not circuitously by His works, but summarily and directly by His Word. We may suppose, however, that you are suffered to grope your way through creation to the Creator. In that case you proceed to reason out from the manifold proofs of design in nature’ s works the idea of an intelligent Author, and to draw inferences from what you see respecting His character, purposes, and plans. Still, even in this method of discovering God, if your faith is to be of an influential kind at all, you must proceed, when you have made the discovery, just to reverse the process by which you made it; and having arrived at the conception of a Creator, you must now go back again to the creation, taking Him along with you, as one with whom you have personally become acquainted, and hearing what He has to say concerning His own works. He may say no more than what you had previously discovered. Still, what He does say, you now receive not as discovered by you, but as said by Him. You leave the post of discovery, the chair of reasoning, and take the lowly stool of the disciple; and then, and not before, even on the principles of natural religion, do you fully understand what is the real import, and the momentous bearing of the fact, that a Being, infinitely wise and powerful, and having evidently a certain character as just and good, that such a Being made you, and is Himself telling you that He made you, and all the things that are around you; “ that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” IV. THUS, IN A VIEW, AND FOR , THE TRUTH GOD AS THE CREATOR MUST BE , NOT AS A OF YOUR OWN REASON, A TRAIN OF THOUGHT, BUT AS A DIRECT FROM A REAL PERSON, EVEN FROM THE LIVING AND PRESENT GOD. This is not a merely artificial distinction. It is practically most important. Consider the subject of creation in the light simply of an argument of natural philosophy, and all is vague and dim abstraction. But consider the momentous fact in the light of a direct message from the Creator Himself to you. Are you not differently impressed and affected? 1. More particularly--see, first of all, what weight this single idea, once truly and vividly realised, must add to all the other communications which He makes on other subjects to you. Does He speak to you concerning other matters, intimately touching your present and future weal? Does He tell you of your condition in respect of Him, and of His purposes in respect of you? Does He enforce the majesty of His law? Does He press the overtures of His gospel? Oh! how in every such case is His appeal, in its solemnity, and its power, enhanced with tenfold intensity, if you regard Him as, in the very same breath, expressly telling you, I who now speak to you, so earnestly and so affectionately, I created all things--I created you. 2. Again, on the other hand, observe what weight this idea, if fully realised, must have, if you regard the Lord Himself as saying to you, in special reference to each of the things which He has made: I created it, and I am now testifying to you that I created it. What sacredness will this thought stamp on every object in nature, if only you are personally acquainted with the living God; and especially if you know Him as the Lawgiver, the Saviour, the Judge. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) That the world was framed in an accurate, orderly, and perfect manner I. To THIS BY SOME OUT OF . 1. The perfection and order of the world is compared to the body of a man (1 Corinthians 12:12). 2. It is compared to an host or army (Genesis 2:1). 3. It is compared to a curious house (Job 38:4-6). II. WHEREIN THIS ORDER AND BEAUTY OF THE WORLD DOTH CONSIST. 1. In the wonderful multitude and variety of creatures, distributed into so many several excellent natures and forms, they all do proclaim the beauty and order of the whole world. 2. The beauty and artificial composition of all things. 3. The disposition and apt placing of all things. 4. The wonderful consent of all the parts, and the proportion they bear one to another. 5. The mutual ministry and help of the creatures one to another. 6. The wise government and conservation of all things according to the rules and laws of creation. III. IF GOD MADE THE WORLD IN SUCH HARMONY AND ORDER, WHENCE CAME ALL THOSE THAT ARE IN THE WORLD? We see some creatures are ravenous; other creatures are poisonous; all are frail, and still decaying and hasting to their own ruin. Whence come murrains, sicknesses, and diseases? Whence come such dislocations, and unjointings of nature by tempests and earthquakes? All these confusions and disorders of nature are the effects of sin. Our sins are as a secret fire that hath melted and burnt asunder the secret ties and confederations of nature. 1. It discovers the glory of God. The whole world is but God’ s shop, where are the masterpieces of His wisdom and majesty; these are seen very much in the order of causes, and admirable contrivance of the world. (1) The wisdom of God and His counsel is mightily seen. The world is not a work of chance, but of counsel and rare contrivance. (2) The majesty and greatness of God. 2. It showeth us the excellency of order; how pleasing order and method is to God: God hath always delighted in it. All order is from God; but all discord and confusion is from the devil. Order is pleasing to Him in the state and civil administrations in the Church, and in the course of your private conversations. 3. It discovers the odiousness of sin that disjointed the frame of nature. (T. Manton, D. D.) Faith realising the invisible Creator: In that beautiful part of Germany which borders on the Rhine there is a noble castle which lifts its old grey towers above the ancient forest, where dwelt a nobleman who had a good and devoted son, his comfort and his pride. Once when the son was away from home, a Frenchman called, and, in course of conversation, spoke in such unbecoming terms of the great Father in heaven as to chill the old man’ s blood. “ Are you not afraid of offending God?” said the baron, “ by speaking in this way.” The foreigner answered with cool indifference, that he knew nothing about God, for he had never seen Him. No notice was takes of this observation at the time; but the next morning the baron pointed out to the visitor a beautiful picture which hung on the wall, and said, “ My son drew that!” “ He must be a clever youth,” returned the Frenchman, blandly. Later in the day as the two gentlemen were walking in the garden, the baron showed his guests many rare plants and flowers, and, on being asked who had the management of the garden, the father said, with proud satisfaction, “ My son; and he knows every plant almost, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall!” “ Indeed!” observed the other. “ I shall soon have a very exalted opinion of him.” The baron then took his visitor to the village and showed him a neat building which his son had fitted up for a school, where the children of the poor were daily instructed free of expense. “ What a happy man you must be,” said the Frenchman, “ to have such a son!” “ How do you know I have a son? “ asked the baron, with a grave face. “ Why, because I have seen his works; I am sure he must be both clever and good, or he would not have done all you have shown me.” “ But you have never seen him!” returned the baron. “ No, but I already know him very well, because I can form a just estimate of him from his works.” “ I am not surprised,” said the baron, in a quiet tone; “ and now oblige me by coming to this window and tell me what you see from thence.” “ Why, I see the sun travelling through the skies and shedding its glories over one of the greatest countries in the world; and I behold a mighty river at my feet, and a vast range of woods, and pastures, and orchards, and vineyards, and cattle and sheep feeding in rich fields.” “ Do you see anything to be admired in all this?” asked the baron. “ Can you fancy I am blind?” retorted the Frenchman, “ Well, then, if you are able to judge of my son’ s good character by seeing his various works, how does it happen you can form no estimate of God’ s goodness by witnessing such proofs of His handiwork?” Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered External worship rendered by two kinds of men I. CARNAL MEN MAY JOIN WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN DUTIES OF WORSHIP. 1. Natural conscience will put men upon worship. 2. Custom will direct to the worship then in use and fashion. 3. Carnal impulses will add force and vigour to the performances. (1) Vainglory. (2) Secular aims and advantages. Use 1. It serves to inform us that the bare performance of the duties of religion is no gracious evidence. Cain may sacrifice as well as Abel. A Christian is rather tried by his graces than by his duties; and yet this is the usual fallacy that we put upon our own consciences. Use 2. If it be so, that carnal men may join with the people of God in duties of worship, here is direction: in all your duties put your hearts to this question, Wherein do I excel a hypocrite? So far a natural man may go. As Christ said (Matthew 5:47). II. THAT THERE IS A BETWEEN THE GODLY AND THE WICKED IN THEIR SEVERAL DUTIES AND . 1. Why is it so? (1) They have another nature than wicked men. Water can rise no higher than its fountain; acts are according to their causes; nature can but produce a natural act. The children of God have the Spirit of grace bestowed upon Zechariah 12:10). (2) They have other assistance. The children of God have a mighty Spirit to help them (Jude 1:20). 2. Wherein lies the difference between the worship of the godly and the worship of carnal men that live in the Church. I answer, In three things mainly--in the principle, in the manner, and in the end. (1) In the principle. Natural men do nothing out of the constraints of love, but out of the enforcement of conscience; duty is not their delight, but burden. (2) There is a difference in the manner how these duties are to be performed; this is to be regarded as well as the matter. A man may sin in doing good, but he can never sin in doing well. A man may sin though the matter be lawful, for the manner is all (Luke 8:18). (3) There is a difference in regard of the end. Now there is a general and a particular end of worship. (a) A general end, and that is twofold; to glorify God and to enjoy God; the one is the work of duty, and the other is the reward of duty. Now carnal men are content with the duty instead of God and satisfy themselves with the work wrought, though there be no intercourse between God and their souls. Therefore a godly man looks at this, what of God he hath found. You must not be content with the duty instead of God. (b) There is a peculiar aim, and that is always suited to the particular part of worship, and that is a right intention. III. THIS BETWEEN THE DUTIES OF THE GODLY AND THE WICKED IS BY THE AND OF FAITH. Here I shall state (1) What this faith of Abel was; (2) I shall handle the general ease. What this faith of Abel was. 1. There was a faith of his being accepted with God when his service was suited to the institution. Such a promise was intimated to them, as appears by God’ s expostulation with Cain (Genesis 4:7). 2. It was a faith in the general rewards and recompenses of religion. Abel looked to the good things to come, and so his hopes had an influence upon his practice: Cain’ s heart was altogether chained to earthly things, therefore he looks upon that as lost which was spent in sacrifice. 3. It was a faith in the Messiah to come. For the reasons of the point, Why faith makes this difference between worship and worship, that it makes the duties and worship of believers to be so different from that of carnal men? 1. I answer, because it discerneth by a clearer light and apprehension. Faith is the eye of the soul. A beast liveth by sense, a man by reason, and a Christian by faith. 2. Faith receives a mighty aid and supply from the Spirit of God. Faith plants the soul into Christ, and so receives influence from Him; it is the great band of union between us and Christ, and the hand whereby we receive all the supplies of Jesus Christ. Christ lives in us by His Spirit, and we live in Him by faith. 3. As it receives a mighty aid, so it works by a forcible principle, and that is by love; for “ Faith works by love” (Galatians 5:6). We live by faith, and we work by love. Where faith is, there is love; and where love is, there is work. Affection follows persuasion, and operation follows affection. 4. It discourseth and pleads with the soul with strong reasons and enforcements. Faith is a notable orator to plead for God; it pleads partly from the mercies, and partly from the promises of God. (T. Manton, D. D.) Abel’ s offering I. THE NATURE OF ABEL’ S . II. THE BY WHICH HE WAS IN IT. III. THE TOKEN OF THE OF ABEL’ S . Learn: 1. The value of religious observances. 2. In order to be accepted, our observances must proceed from right views. 3. It is not on the footing of innocence we are accepted, but of expiation. 4. Your services are not less acceptable because there may be others who engage in the same acts of worship whose character is such as God cannot approve. 5. However holy your character may be, it is hereafter, not here, that you are to look for your reward. (R. Brodie, M. A.) Abel; or, man’ s religion I. THE OF MAN HAS TO DO WITH . II. THE OF MAN IS ONLY AS IT IS BASED ON FAITH. III. THE OF MAN HAS EVER BEEN OF IMMENSE WORTH. Paul speaks of faith as doing three things. 1. Giving Divine acceptableness to existence. 2. Giving moral righteousness to existence. 3. Giving an honourable and lasting significance to existence. (Homilist.) The voice of Abel I. ABEL’ S FAITH SPEAKS. “ Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Homage to the all-wise Creator, gratitude to the all-bountiful Benefactor, submission to the all-powerful Ruler, sacrifice to the all-loving Father, are not enough. The first and indispensable element in all acceptable service is faith in the Redeemer, and implicit confidence in “ Him who justifies the ungodly.” II. ABEL’ S : “ Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). It was an embodiment of the truths which were afterwards more fully developed in the sacrificial system of the Mosaic economy, and which are now revealed in the gospel in all their clearness, simplicity, and fulness. Not that Abel understood them in all the height and depth, length and breadth of their spiritual significance. Abel looked upon the bud: we behold the flower. Christ having come, and having offered up Himself as a sacrifice for human sin, “ a lamb without spot and blemish,” a light is reflected back upon all the sacrificial offerings of ancient days, which enables us to see that one grand truth was prefigured by them all, and that one solemn voice was uttered by them all. “‘ Without shedding,” &c. III. ABEL’ S HAS A VOICE: “ To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto righteousness” (Romans 4:5). The important point is, that God gave him evidence of his acceptance in response to his faith. And what was this but another version of the great gospel doctrine that “ a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” yet not by a faith which is unaccompanied by works, but by a faith which reveals itself through works? Abel believed God’ s promise, and complied with God’ s prescription as to offering a bleeding sacrifice; and Abel’ s faith was counted unto him for righteousness: that is, God, in justifying Abel, had regard to faith. IV. ABEL’ S DEATH CRIES: “ They who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). The account of Abel’ s untimely end is simply given (Genesis 4:8). It was an early and a bitter fruit of sin, a ghastly revelation, and a woeful foretaste of the promised enmity between the serpent’ s seed and the woman’ s. A decisive indication that these two seeds were to be found in two different sections of the human family. That fratricide was the first blow in the world-wide and time-long conflict that had already been predicted. The culmination of the battle was when Christ despoiled the principalities and powers of evil by His cross. Yet the enmity is not ended. In consequence of Christ’ s death the victory of the seed of the woman is secure; but till the final triumph comes, they must suffer persecution. Just because they are the woman’ s seed and Christ’ s seed, the thing is inevitable. V. ABEL’ S GRAVE SHOUTS: “ The Lord will avenge the blood of His servants” (Deuteronomy 32:43). God regards the saints as His peculiar possession, as the work of His hands. Christ esteems His people, not simply as His servants, disciples, followers, friends, but as members of His body, linked to His heart by the most tender ties of sympathy. Hence He watches over them with jealous care, protects them when in danger, feels for them and with them when they suffer, and avenges them when they are wronged. Sometimes in His wise but mysterious Providence He may suffer their liberties to be destroyed and their lives to be spilt; but “ Vengeance is mine; I will repay!” saith the Lord. Witness Cain, Pharaoh, Ahab, Jezebel, Haman, Belshazzar, Herod, Nero, and others. VI. ABEL’ S MEMORY ECHOES: “ The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance” (Psalms 112:6). For sixty centuries at least the name of Abel has been enshrined in affectionate remembrance, not for great deeds done, but for simple faith cherished, and for bitter suffering endured. Worth observing that being and suffering are sometimes as sure passports to renown as doing. Not the great actors on time’ s stage alone have their names transmitted to posterity, but the great sufferers as well. Not those alone who have lived brilliantly, but those also who have walked humbly. And this perhaps is right, for after all it may be questioned if to believe strongly, to live humbly, and to suffer patiently are not greater achievements than to act largely and to speak loudly. (Thomas Whitelaw, M. A.) Accepted of God I. EVERY IN SHALL ADD TO THE GLORY OF THE ; and those who suffer here for Christ without witness, as many have done to death in prisons and dungeons, have yet an all-seeing witness to give them testimony in due season. “ The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance” ; and nothing that is done or suffered for God shall be lost for ever. II. WE ARE TO SERVE GOD WITH THE BEST THAT WE HAVE, the best that is in our power, with the best of our spiritual abilities; which God afterwards fully confirmed. III. God gives no consequential approbation of any duties of believers, BUT WHERE THE OF A LIVING FAITH GOES IN THEIR . IV. OUR PERSONS MUST BE FIRST , BEFORE OUR WORKS OF CAN BE WITH GOD; for by that acceptance He testifies that we are righteous. V. THAT THOSE WHOM GOD MUST EXPECT THAT THE WORLD WILL THEM, and ruin them if it can. VI. Where there is a difference within, in the hearts of men, on the account of faith and the want of it, THERE WILL FOR THE MOST PART BE ABOUT OUTWARD WORSHIP. SO there hath been always between the true Church and false worshippers. VII. GOD’ S IS AN FOR THE LOSS OF OUR LIVES. VIII. THERE IS A VOICE IN ALL BLOOD SHED BY . Abel’ s offering I. ABEL’ S HAD TO A DIVINE COMMAND AND PROMISE. Abel acknowledged his sin, and believed what God had said in reference to pardon, hence his sacrifice was one of faith. II. THE WORTH OF ABEL’ S . By faith he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. The meaning is that it was a fuller sacrifice, it embraced more, it meant more than that presented by Cain. “ Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.” The latter phrase evidently indicates that the life was taken before the sacrifice was offered. Hereby was admitted 1. The deadly nature of sin. Sin leads to destruction. The fact of atonement being necessary proves the enormity of sin. 2. The hope of pardon. To Abel it became apparent that there was a way by which man could rise, a plan by which he could become reconciled to God. III. THE OF ABEL . “ He obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.” This assurance would probably be twofold, the outward and the visible, and the inward and spiritual. The witness from without would be given by fire descending and consuming the sacrifice. But there was also the inward testimony Abel receives. He obtained witness that he was righteous. His sins were blotted out, he was at peace with God, and the Spirit of God was his witness that he was accepted. He was made a partaker of the righteousness, which is by faith. IV. ABEL, BECAUSE OF HIS FAITH AND SERVICE, IS YET SPOKEN OF. “ He being dead, yet speaketh.” (Richard Nicholls.) Abel’ s sacrifice I. WHAT WAS THE SPECIAL OF THIS ? That may be gathered out of the phrase used (Genesis 4:3). God taught Adam by revelation, and he his son by instruction, that men should at the year’ s end, in a solemn manner, sacrifice with thanks to God, when they had gathered in the fruits of the earth. This tradition was afterwards made a written law Exodus 22:29). These solemn sacrifices at the end of days had a double use. 1. To be a figure of the expiation promised to Adam in Christ. 2. To be a solemn acknowledgment of their homage and thankfulness to God. 1. The general use of these sacrifices was to remember the seed of the woman, or Messiah to come, as the solemn propitiatory sacrifice of the Church. And indeed there was a notable resemblance between those offerings and Jesus Christ: Abel offered a lamb; and Christ is the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). And because of these early sacrifices, therefore is that expression used (Revelation 13:8). And He also is the first-fruits (Psalms 89:27). Though God had other children by creation besides Christ, yet He is the first-born. What shall we gather from hence? That in all our addresses to God we must solemnly remember and honour Christ. We must do duties to God, so as we may honour Christ in them. It may be you will ask, How do we honour Christ in doing of duties? (1) When you look for your acceptance in Christ, as Abel comes with a lamb in faith. (2) This is to honour Christ in duties, when you look for your assistance from the Spirit of Christ. (3) When the aim of the worship is to set up and advance the mediator. 2. The special use of this worship was to profess their homage and their thankfulness to God. They were to come as God’ s tenants, and pay Him their rent. Therefore God puts words into the Israelites’ mouths Deuteronomy 26:10). The note from hence is--That in the times of our increase and plenty we must solemnly acknowledge God. The best way to secure the farm, and keep it in our possession, is to acknowledge the great Landlord of the whole world--Lord, I have been a poor creature, and Thou hast blest me wonderfully. There is a rent of praise and a thank-offering due to God. II. The second question is, WHAT WAS THE WARRANT OF THIS WORSHIP? Was it devised according to their own will, or was it commanded by God? The reason of the inquiry is because some say that before the law the patriarchs did, without any command, out of their private good intention, offer sacrifice to God; and they prove it, because the Gentiles that were not acquainted with the institutions of the Church used the same way of worship. But this opinion seemeth little probable 1. Because this is above the light of corrupt nature to prescribe an acceptable worship to God. 2. It was by some appointment; for no worship is acceptable to Him but that which is of His appointment. 3. There could have been else no faith nor obedience in it, if the institution had been wholly human; there is no faith without some promise of Divine grace, no obedience without some command. 4. The wonderful agreement that is between this first act of solemn worship and the solemn constitutions of the Jewish Church doth wonderfully evince that there was some rule and Divine institution according to which this worship was to be regulated, which, probably, God revealed to Adam, and He taught it, as He did other parts of religion, to His children: therefore it was done by virtue of an institution. Abel looked to the command of God, and promise of God, that so he might do it in faith and obedience. The note from this--That whatever is done in worship must be done out of conscience, and with respect to the institution. But you will say, What is it to do a thing by virtue of an institution? For answer 1. I shall show you what an institution is. Every word of institution consists of two parts--the word of command, and the word of promise. 2. What is it to do a duty in respect to the institution? I answer, it is to do it in faith and obedience: faith respects the word of promise, obedience the word of command. But now how shall I know when I do duty in faith and obedience? I answer 1. You come in obedience when the command is the main motive and reason upon your spirit to put you upon the duty. It is enough to a Christian to say, “ This is the will of God” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). 2. Would you know when you come in faith? when you look to the word of promise? You may know that by the earnest expectation and considerateness of the soul. III. The third question is, WHEREIN LIES THE BETWEEN THE TWO ? 1. In the faith of Abel. Abel’ s principle was faith, Cain’ s distrust. 2. In the willing mind of Abel. Cain looked upon his sacrifice as a task rather than a duty; his fruits were brought to God as a fine rather than an offering, as if an act of worship had been an act of penance, and religion was his punishment. 3. In the matter offered. It is said of Cain’ s offering (Genesis 4:3), “ That he brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” The Holy Ghost purposely omits the description of the offering. Being hastily taken, and unthankfully brought, it is mentioned without any additional expression to set off the worth of them; it should have been the first and the fairest. But for Abel, see how distinct the Spirit of God is in setting forth his offering (verse 4); not only the firstlings, that the rest might be sanctified, but he brought the best, the chiefest, the fattest. All these were afterwards appropriated to God (Leviticus 3:16-17). Now observe from hence--That when we serve God, we must serve Him faithfully, with our best. 1. God must have the best of our time. Consider, we can afford many sacrilegious hours to our lusts, and can scarce afford God a little time without grudging. Is not there too much of Cain’ s spirit in this? 2. With your best parts. You come to worship God not only with your bodies, but your souls, with the refined strength of your reason and thoughts (Psalms 108:1). (T. Manton, D. D.) Abel: The text carries us back to the world’ s youngest days, and it introduces us to the world’ s earliest brothers, the children of the first man. But how different the after history of the brothers who were thus named! Cain, the fondly imagined destroyer of the serpent, growing up into his slave; Abel, the first to experience death, and the first to triumph over it by a power that was mightier than his own. Cain, the first rebel--Abel, the first pardoned sinner; the one Divinely branded as “ that wicked one who slew his brother,” the other bearing his appropriate and lasting surname of “ righteous Abel.” I. FIRST, HE IS BROUGHT BEFORE US AS AN . Perhaps the main difference will be found in the fact that Cain’ s was a eucharistic, Abel’ s an expiatory sacrifice. In the one there was a recognition, in the other there was a refusal of the ordinance of God, that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. Moreover, the apostle declares that the sacrifice of Abel was offered in faith. Now, faith must have respect to some revelation that has been previously given, as well as to some other blessing which the future will reveal. Some have wondered sometimes why, if sacrifice were of Divine origin, there should be no express enactment on record. But even if there be no record of it, it would be rash to conclude that there was therefore no revelation. There lurks in this supposition the fallacy of believing that the book of Genesis bore to the Jewish the same relation which the book of Leviticus bore to the Mosaic dispensation--that it was written not by the historian but by the law-giver. But we cannot imagine that the patriarchs knew no more of truth than is recorded in the historian’ s narrative. Indeed, we know they did; for Abrabam had revelations of a future state, and Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, as we learn from the New Testament, concerning the coming of the Lord in judgment. Neither of these things is recorded in the book of Genesis. Whatever this promise is, it is a promise of spiritual blessing. You look into it further, and you discover that there is in it a promise of a Redeemer--a promise of a Redeemer of superior nature to the destroyer, and yet to be of the seed of the woman. You look further into the promise, and find that He is to be bruised. If His essential power is greater than the power of His adversary, then any suffering that comes upon Him must be endured by His own consent. If it be voluntary, then this leads you to another step in the argument--it must be vicarious; it must be undertaken for some one else; undertaken as a substitute for some one whom He has voluntarily pledged Himself to redeem. Then here comes the great idea of satisfaction--suffering endured by a Saviour in the room and in the stead of another. But if vicarious, you go further still. In such a Being--in a Being of such acknowledged power, it must be available; it must be efficacious for the destruction of the evils that were introduced by the adversary. Now, if you will just think of this argument, I fancy you will find that it will hold, and that it is not improbable that, in the absence of direct revelation our first parents discovered in the earliest promise the Divine nature of the Redeemer, the mystery of His incarnate life, and outlines of that grand and wonderful scheme of redemption by which He offered Himself, the Just, or the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Here, then, is the foundation of the rite of sacrifice; and you cannot wonder that the faith of Abel, resting upon the scheme of mediation, should find visible expression, analogous to the way in which the offering was to be wrought out, by the offering of the firstling upon the altar, nor that God attesting that sacrifice, and honouring the spirit which prompted it, should have accepted it in the consuming fire. II. We find, in the second place, THE RESULTS OF THIS FAITH--THAT GOD GAVE HIM A . He received a Divine testimony: “ by it he obtained witness that he was righteous--God testifying of his gifts.” God is said to have testified to the acceptance of his offering, and to have witnessed to his own personal acceptance as well. The manner of this testimony is not distinctly stated, but the analogy would be that it was given by fire. God testified to his gifts and to his faith. God testified to his gifts; and those gifts were the gifts of blood. He was the first saved sinner, and he stands typal and exemplary of all the rest. God set His seal thus early upon the one method of reconciliation that all the ages might learn the lesson. Human nature, if it would be accepted in heaven, must not come and stand in its erectness, as if it had never sinned; it must be contrite in its trust; it must be firm in its reliance upon the sacrifice which has purged its sin away. Here is salvation costlier than human price can buy; here is salvation fuller than imagination can conceive; here is salvation lasting through all the ages of eternity; and it is offered--offered upon understood and easy terms. Here is a Redeemer gifted with every qualification, and infinite in His willinghood of love. And this Redeemer wills to save you; He has paid the price; He does not want any paltry price of yours. III. Abel is presented in the text as AN UNDYING . “ By it he being dead yet speaketh.” He is brought before us as an historical exemplification of the power of faith. He has gained by it an undying memory; he is thrown by it among the moral heroes of the olden times. There issues from him, because of it, an influence which spreads and grows for ages. He teaches to after generations many great lessons; he teaches the lesson of contrition, and of gratitude, and of humble hope, and of far-sighted reliance which fastens its gaze upon the Cross, and stays its spirit there! (W. M. Putxshort.) Abel: The great lesson we learn is this: there is one appointed way of approaching God, and only one; no other way devised by human cunning or human invention can or will bring us to God; and faith is the principle by which we do thus approach God. There are two classes which this speaks to 1. Those who are convinced of the right way to heaven, and willing to walk in it. 2. Those who are wholly mistaken as to the way of salvation. Of the latter first. There is an inclination in man to strike out a way of his own, and that, usually, exactly contrary to God’ s appointed way to final happiness. Thus here is God the Creator appointing a way for man to walk in, and man refusing to walk therein is therefore lost. The common occasion on which men will choose their own way is in the means of salvation being by Christ, in the necessity of the aid of the Spirit, in the necessity of showing forth that work of the Spirit by holy living; very often such men begin their whole scheme of contradiction by denying the doctrine of original sin. By this means men try to make their way to heaven, What in these particulars is God’ s appointed way? 1. Man says he is not a sinner by birth and practice, root and branch a sinner, but he is only very weak, very various, some better than others, and so forth. God says, “ There is none that doeth good; no, not one.” 2. Or again, some say, Your amiability and morality are so great you need not think of any means of salvation; you may deserve heaven by the beauty of your own character or the force of your own works. 3. Again, some men talk of their own unaided strength helping them to perform good works. 4. And again; some men tell us there is no need of good works at all, but that a man may live in the constant habit of sin, and yet please God, and consider himself a servant of God; what says the Word of God? “ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” “ We are His workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Thus, then, man’ s way in the world greatly differs from God’ s way of salvation. But again, the example of Abel speaks to Christians too. Do I speak to some such now--men who will not accept the means which God has appointed to bring them near to Himself? who wish to belong to Him, and try to be reconciled, and believe Christ only can do it, and yet will not go to the means ordered by God, but strike out ways of their own, and then wonder why they do not gain their end? 1. There are some such who will not receive the sacrament of the Lord’ s Supper, choosing to expect a fitness which the Bible does not speak of: and thus, though Christ has appointed this way of approaching Him, they persist in refusing to walk in it. How is it you dare thus to trifle with God? How can you hope to be better or happier while, like Cain, you will come to God in your own devised manner, however well arranged, and not in His revealed, appointed method of approach? 2. Or again; some men will not pray; they think hearing is enough, or knowing is enough, or feeling is enough, or thinking is enough. They will not pray, while prayer is the very life of the soul. 3. Or again; some men will not read the Bible; the call of business or domestic life is the excuse they plead against ever reading the Word of God; and yet we are told to “ search the Scriptures.” 4. Again; some men will not come to church, thinking they can serve God as well at home, not seeing how it can matter, if they pray at home, whether they pray there or at church; not seeing that the whole consists in one being God’ s appointed means, the other not. Thus do men, good on the whole, sin as Cain, by choosing their own ways, in certain particulars, to approach God, and despising and neglecting others. Remember, it is by faith you will follow Abel. Use God’ s appointed means--faith. (E. Monro.) Abel I. ABEL AT THE ALTAR. 1. The principle of the offerer--“ Faith.” 2. The material of the offering--“ A more excellent sacrifice.” (1) Select. (2) Suitable. (3) Surprising. “ More excellent than Cain.” (a) The privileges of both were the same. (b) The mother esteemed Cain, but ignored Abel. (c) Revelation was very meagre. (d) The bad example of a constant associate. Wickedness is contagious. The religion of Abel was sin-proof. The Divine in him was mightier than the satanic in his brother. II. ABEL THE OF A DIVINE . Previously we saw Abel giving to God; here we see him receiving from God. Those who give also get (John 1:12). 1. The testimonial. “ Righteous” --justified--absolved from all wrong--accepted as one right in all his relationships--with conscience, the world, death, judgment, God. 2. The testifier, “ God.” The authority is the highest and the truest. The keys of destiny hang at His girdle. His smile is heaven. III. ABEL THE OF DIVINE TRUTH. “ Being dead, yet speaketh.” Most men speak before death; many speak when dying; but Abel speaks after death. There is a peculiarity in the influence of Abel. He teaches 1. That fallen man may again approach God. 2. That worship must be through the medium of sacrifice. 3. That acceptance with God is the highest favour. 4. That a godly life is immortal in its influence. (B. D. Johns.) Faith the secret of accepted worship: Faith is spiritual sight. It is the apprehension of the unseen. It is the realisation of the Invisible. “ By faith,” by an exercise of that soul’ s sight which faith is, “ Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” The Searcher of hearts saw in Abel, saw not in Cain, that sight of the Invisible which is the condition of worship. The difference lay not in the form of the offering, but in the spirit of the offerer. In vain we obtrude our poor human assistance for the discrimination of the two sacrifices. God required no outward sign, no visible or tangible material, to inform or to guide His judgment. His eye could pierce, at once and by intuition, to the discerning of soul and spirit. And here we read what He judged by--not the substance of the sacrifice, but the heart’ s heart of the worshipper. “ By faith” --by that soul’ s sight of which the Omniscient alone can take knowledge--“ Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” “ By which” sacrifice--or, “ by which “ faith--for the relative is ambiguous in the Greek--“ he obtained witness that he was righteous” --“ he was attested as righteous” --the testimony of God, in Holy Scripture, was borne to him as being righteous--“ God testifying of his gifts.” It was not the sacrifice which made him “ righteous” --it was the “ righteousness” which offered, and which consecrated the offering. “ He was attested as righteous, God testifying of His gifts.” We know not how, by what visible or invisible token, the acceptance, the “ respect,” was evidenced to the one offerer, and its absence indicated to the other. The reference of the text is to the record in Scripture. “ And by it he being dead yet speaketh.” The same ambiguity rests upon “ by it” as upon “ by which” above. “ By the sacrifice” ? or, “ by the faith” ? By the sacrifice offered in faith? or, by the faith in which the sacrifice was offered? It is a distinction without a difference as regards the doctrine. We have three lessons to learn. 1. “ By faith Abel offered.” Faith has a province in the present. The past belongs wholly to her--the future belongs wholly to her--the present belongs to her in part. There are things present of which sight and sense can take notice. But the spiritual, the heavenly, the Divine, is ever present--and of this the senses tell nothing. There are two kinds of worship, asthere are two characters and classes of worshippers. There are those who come to worship with “ earthly, sensual, diabolical “ minds. There are those who bring something in their hands--it may be a few herbs or flowers, it may be a sheaf of corn or a bag of money, it may be the bread and wine of a Sacrament, it may be the bended knee or the uttered liturgy of a Church calling itself Reformed, calling itself Evangelical--and who yet never “ stir up themselves to lay hold of” the Invisible and the Eternal--come together with earthward eyes and earth-bound souls--do not speak one word to God Himself as Spirit and Life and Love--do not breathe really into His ear one syllable of deep heartfelt confession, praise, or prayer--go as they came, self-satisfied or else murmuring, earth-filled or else empty, giddy and trifling or else disconsolate--at all events, without that faith which is the realisation of God Himself--and therefore to them and to their offering He has not, cannot have, respect. 2. “ God testifying of His gifts.” There is a worship to which God “ has respect.” That worship varies in shape and form. Once it was embodied in ritual. A service of rule and ceremony, of incense and vestment, of gift and sacrifice. Now it is a service of greater simplicity--of words read from a book, of Psalms recited or chanted, of hymns sung and accompanied, of instruction and exhortation spoken and listened to. Yet the idea of worship is one and the same. Six thousand years ago Abel worshipped: we worship to-day. The idea, as the object, of worship, is unchanged. If it is effectual, if it is successful, God “ testifies” of it still. Generally, in His Word--assuring us of its acceptance if it be this and this. Personally, in the soul--giving an answer of peace--calming, satisfying, strengthening, comforting, according to the need of each one. 3. Finally, “ he being dead yet speaketh.” The immortality of faith is a voice also. Abel speaks still. He, you will say, has a place in the Bible--and the text is of course exceptionally true of Scripture saints. Those to whom God hath borne witness in that Book which hath immortality, of course share the immortality of the Book and of its Author. It is true even of the wicked--even of the bad immortality which a place in the Bible gives if it givenot the good. It is true of the Cains as well as the Abels--of the Ahabs as of the Elijahs--of the Gallios and the Demases as much as of St. Luke and of St. Paul. But we speak now of the undying voices of the faithful. Is it not true of them that they almost gain in audibility by distance? When did Paul himself ever speak as he spoke in the great Reformation, fifteen hundred years after he fell on sleep, quickening Luther and Calvin, quickening Germany and England, with that life which has carried mind and might with it across two hemispheres? Nor is it only of inspired men, or of Bible characters, that the words of the text are true. “ Being dead he yet speaketh” has an application, not to heroes of faith alone, but to very common inmates of very obscure homes. This will be in exact proportion as they have been enabled to live and to die in the light of a Divine revelation which is no respecter of persons. It is not only where biographies have kept alive the memory, and made the example of some Brainerd or Swarz, some Martyn or Patteson, vocal for ever to Christian homes and Christian Churches. (Dean Vaughan.) The sacrifices of Cain and Abel: Both these sacrifices were in themselves acceptable to God, for under the Levitical institutions, wheat and barley were offered by the Divine command, as well as lambs, and bullocks, and goats. But the” faith” of Abel made his sacrifice” more excellent” than that of Cain; and “ by his faith,” not by his sacrifice, “ he obtained witness that he was righteous God” in some way, “ bearing testimony” to him when he was presenting” his gifts.” (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Abel’ s faith God is not taken with the cabinet, but with the jewel; He first respected Abel’ s faith and sincerity, and then his sacrifice; He disrespected Cain’ s infidelity and hypocrisy, and then his offering. (S. Charnock.) He being dead, yet speaketh Posthumous influence 1. It is a natural desire of the human heart to prolong its relations to the world after death. All expect to die, but no one desires to be forgotten. We want to get the better of death. 2. This is, in one sense, a strange desire. Can we not trust our fellows without stretching out one dead hand from the grave to guide? Would it not be better to be forgotten? Still, we do not love to think of sundering wholly our relations with this world. 3. The desire for posthumous influence is an instinct implanted by God, a sign of the grandeur of the human soul, and suggestive of its destiny. 4. This desire of posthumous influence can be realised in three ways. (1) First, by our speech. It is not by the mastery of words alone that influence is perpetuated--by poet, scholar, or philosopher. You may lead a humble life, but your deliberate or casual speech will do a blessed or a baneful work ages hence. (2) By what we do. While one may with his wealth found a hospital, endow a college, equip a library, or build a fountain in the central square of some city, it is possible that an inconspicuous life may become a perpetual fountain for good after that life on earth has closed. (3) By what we are. Character is of all the most potent. Invisible as the wind and inaudible as the light, it is a real and enduring force. It is here that man exerts the greatest power for good or evil. It is here that a soul propagates influence on and through the ages for ever. 5. The influence that lives after us is not always what we intended it should be. In a moment of forgetfulness or passion we may speak that which will be remembered when all the good words we have uttered are forgotten. Lessons: 1. We infer from these solemn facts the immense extension of responsibility. “ Plant a tree, Jamie,” said Sir Walter Scott, “ it will be growing while you are sleeping.” So with our acts. 2. Those who have left us are still with us by their posthumous influence. 3. Remember that this continued activity of the dead is not the whole of the idea of a future life. We have a grander goal. There is another shore beyond the blue horizon, which the ship will surely reach; another nest to which we fly, where our ears again shall be gladdened by songs from those we have known, and by those whom, not having known, we influence. Those whom God has taken, who were, still are. (E. B. Coe, D. D.) The teaching of the dead I. THAT ALL THOSE AND , THOSE AND , WHICH HAVE NOT A TO OUR ETERNAL STATE, ARE VAIN, FOOLISH, AND . Ambitious men! some of these dead cry to you,--I have been surrounded by that glory which dazzles you; I have possessed those dignities for which you are struggling; I have been eulogised and applauded by men: but whither have all my honours conducted me? To the tomb! Whither will yours conduct you? To the tomb!” Covetous men! listen to what some of these dead cry to you: “ I have accumulated riches; I have acquired revenues almost exhaustless. But of them all, what have I carried with me to the grave? A coffin and a shroud! What will you carry with you of the riches that you are amassing? A coffin and a shroud!” Sensualists! listen to what some of these dead cry to you: “ I have indulged myself in every pleasure; I have refused nothing to my senses; I have rioted in sensual joys. But where did these joys terminate? In the tomb, in remorse, in perdition! What you are, I have been; what I am, you will shortly be.” II. THAT LIFE IS BOTH SHORT AND , Visit the repositories of the dead, and learn that “ man that is born of a woman, is of few days: that he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not.” Do you not there hear those who were most advanced in age saying to you: “ My associates spoke of the length of my life, of the number of my years, but now that I compare this life with the eternity which for me has swallowed up all time, how does it appear? Less than an atom, compared to the immensity of the universe; less than a drop of water, compared to the extended ocean.” (H. Kollock, D. D.) Influence after death Those who spend their days on earth usefully and well, live after death by their example. A father’ s worth, and a mother’ s care, and a neighbour’ s kindness, will be remembered long, and, in many cases, be imitated by those who come after. The upright live after death by their precepts. They may have been wholly disregarded by those to whom they were first addressed; but the good seed will take root, and, sooner or later, yield fruits of increase. On the other hand, we are told that “ the name of the wicked shall rot” (Proverbs 10:7). Their influence may have been exceedingly great, but it shall become less and less, until it wholly dies away. If any one desires, then, that his name shall be remembered after death with feelings of gratitude and satisfaction, let him strive to be good. I. A MOTHER’ S influence after death. “ When I was a little child,” says one, “ my mother used to bid me kneel beside her, and place her hand upon my head while she prayed. Before I was old enough to know her worth, she died, and I was left too much to my own guidance. In the midst of temptations, whether at home or abroad, I have felt myself, again and again, irresistibly drawn back by the pressure of that same soft hand. A voice in my heart seemed to say: ‘ Oh, do not this wickedness, my child, nor sin against God! ‘ I did not dare to disregard the call.” Who has not heard of reprobate sons, after years of vice, stopped short in their course by remembrances of scenes of innocence and peace, in which a mother’ s anxious concern, a mother’ s reproving look, and a mother’ s gentle voice, speaking from the dead, exerted an influence more powerful than she could possibly have possessed while sitting under her own roof, and by her own fireside? Let Christian parents use this influence well, and the effect of their instructions shall never die. II. TEACHER’ S influence after death. The instructor’ s office is seldom estimated aright. How many difficulties to be overcome! How much discretion to be used! The tear of fond regret will glisten in the eye as the scholars, grown to adult age, make mention of their old teacher--the teacher in his grave. “ He, being dead, yet speaketh.” Have not instructors a high incentive to prove themselves faithful? III. The ’ S influence after death. Kind and compassionate ones, go on in your useful ways. You are purchasing for yourselves immortality. IV. An AUTHOR’ S influence after death. “ Books,” says Addison, “ are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind.” The author dies. Not so his works. He still speaks through many lands by many tongues. Though already entered into his rest, he is, in reality, vigorously at work. He is moulding the minds, and influencing the hearts of untold thousands. V. The ’ S influence after death. His life may have passed noiselessly away. His spirit--the fragrant memory of his life--lingers with his flock, and “ He, being dead, yet speaketh.” VI. The influence of every GOOD PERSON after death. (J. N. Norton, D. D.) The moral influence we exert after death: Every man that plays a part in the great drama of human life, leaves, at his departure, an impress and an influence, more or less extensive and lasting. No fact is more self-evident, or more universally admitted, than the text; and no fact withal is more generally disregarded by the living. And, just in proportion to the width of the sphere in which the departed moved, and the strength of intellectual and moral character they possessed and developed, will be the duration and the plastic power of that influence they have left behind them. This is the fair side of the portrait; and were the influence left behind by the dead universally of this holy character, then would men be throughout their biography like visitant angels of mercy passing athwart our miserable world, distilling balm and scattering light among men’ s sons; or as transient gales from the spicy lands of the East, or glorious meteors arising in rapid succession amidst the moral darkness of the earth, imparting light and fearlessness to its many pilgrims, and this would be bettered by every successive generation, till it arose and expanded to its millenial blessedness and peace. But alas! if many of the dead yet speak for God, and for the eternal welfare of humanity, many, many also speak for Satan, and ply after, as before their death, the awful work of sealing souls in their slumber, and smoothing and adorning the paths that lead to eternal death. Thus the departed sinner, as well as the departed saint, “ being dead yet speaketh.” Thus our sins as well as our virtues survive. Thus we exert a posthumous influence which adds either an impulse upon the advancing chariot of salvation, or throws stumblingblocks and obstacles in its way. If any earth-born joys are admitted as visitants amid the celestial choirs, the joy that springs from having written saving and sanctifying works, is the sweetest that reaches the hearts of the saved. And I can fancy a Baxter, a Newton, a Scott, a Rutherford, rejoice with exceeding joy when the angels that minister to them that are to be heirs of salvation, bring word that, in consequence of the “ Awakening Call to the Unconverted,” or “ The Force of Truth,” or the “ Letters from the Prison of Aberdeen,” some sinner has been aroused from his lethargy, and made a partaker of grace, and mercy, and peace. And if, as we believe, any poignant recollections from this side “ the bourne whence no traveller returns,” roach the memories of the lost, not the least bitter will be the remembrance of having written volumes which are circulated by every library, and sold by every vender, in which the foundations of morality are sapped, and the youth of our world poisoned throughout the whole range of their moral economy. Oh, it will be the sorest sting of that worm which never dies, that their name, and their creed, and their principles after them, gather converts on earth, and carry fell desolation to homes that had otherwise been happy, and corruption to hearts that had else beat high with philanthropy and piety. (J. Cumming, D. D.) A voice from the grave I. THE “ BEING DEAD, YET ” IN HIS . II. A “ BEING DEAD, YET ” BY THE MOUTH OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN UNDER HIS . III. THE OF CHRIST “ BEING DEAD, YET ” THROUGH HIS EXAMPLE. It IS said of the virtuous and amiable Fenelon, that his life was even more eloquent than his discourses. IV. A “ BEING DEAD, YET ,” THROUGH THE MEMORY AND OF THEM THAT HEARD HIM. (M. Leishman.) The speech of the dead St. Paul seems to make it part of the recompense of Abel that he speaketh, though dead. The speaking after death appears given as a privilege or reward; and it will be both interesting and instructive to survey it under such point of view. I. Let us, therefore, examine, in the first place, THE FACT HERE OF ABEL, and then consider it as constituting a portion of his recompense--a recompense which, if awarded to one of the righteous, may lawfullybe desired by all. We conclude that Adam was not left to invent a religion for himself when he carried with him from Paradise a prophetic notice of the seed of the woman. In the words which precede our text, the apostle states that “ by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” It would be hard to define wherein the faith was exhibited, if not in the nature of the offering. Cain, as well as Abel, displayed faith in the existence of God, and owned in Him the Creator and Preserver. But Abel alone displayed faith in an appointed expiation, conforming himself, on a principle of faith, to what had been made a fundamental article in the theology of the guilty. So that, by and through his sacrifice and its consequences, was Abel the energetic preacher of the great scheme of redemption, the witness to our race, in the very infancy of its being, of a Mediator to be provided and a Mediator to be rejected. And not only then. He sealed his testimony with his blood, but he was not silenced by death. We still go to his sepulchre when we seek an eloquent and thrilling assertion of the peril of swerving from the revealed will of God. He rises up from the earth, which drank in the blood of his offering and then of himself, and warns the self-sufficient that their own guidance can lead them to nothing but destruction. I hear the utterances of this slaughtered worthy. They are utterances, loud and deep, against any one amongst us who is too philosophical for the gospel or too independent for a Redeemer. They denounce the rationalist who would make his theology from creation, the self-righteous who would plead his own merit, and the flatterer who would think that there may be a path to heaven which is not a path of tribulation. II. And now let us consider the fact alleged in our text under THE LIGHT OF A TO ABEL. The manner in which the fact is introduced indicates that it was part of the reward procured to Abel by his faith, that he should be a preacher to every generation. But that with which a righteous man is rewarded must be a real good, and, as such, may justly be sought by those who copy his righteousness. This opens before us an interesting field of inquiry. If Abel were recompensed by the being appointed, as it were, a preacher to posterity, it seems to follow that it may fitly be an object of Christian desire to do good to after-generations, and that it is not necessarily a proud and unhallowed wish to survive dissolution and be remembered when dead. It cannot indeed become us as Christians to make our own fame or reputation our end; but it is another question whether Christianity afford no scope for the passion for distinction which beats so high and prompts to so much. Let it be, for example, a man’ s ruling desire that he may be instrumental in spreading through the world the knowledge of Christ, and we may say of him that he is actuated by a motive which actuates the Almighty Himself, and that there is something in his ambition which deserves to be called god-like. It is not possible that a grander aim should be proposed, nor a purer impulse obeyed, by any of our race. And where this ambition is entertained--and it is an ambition in which every true Christian must share--can there lawfully be no consciousness of the worth, no desire for the possession of the recompense awarded to Abel? We believe of this worthy that, having his own faith fixed on a propitiation for sin, he must have longed to bring others to a similar confidence. Would it then have been no recompense to him had he been assured that the memory of his sacrifice was never to perish? Could it have been a recompense only on the supposition that he craved human distinction and longed, like candidates for earthly renown, to transmit his name with honour to posterity? Not so. It has been for the good of the Church that Abel has preached, and still preaches, to the nations. Many, in every age, have been strengthened by his example, many animated by his piety, many warned by his death. Thus the result of his surviving his dissolution has been the furtherance of the objects which we may suppose most desired by Abel. And the like may be declared of others. I take the case of some great champion of the faith, some bold confessor, who zealously published the truth and then sealed it with his blood. The place where this man preached, and that where he died, are hallowed spots; and the tomb in which his ashes sleep is an altar on which successive generations consecrate themselves to God. The martyr survives the stake or the scaffold, and leads on in after-ages the armies of the Lord. The, tyrant who crushed him made him imperishable, and he died that he might be life to the faith of posterity. And is it not reward to the worthies of an earlier time that they are thus instrumental in upholding the doctrines which they contended for as truth; that they still publish the tenets in whose support they lifted up their voices till the world rang with the message; and that districts or countries are so haunted by their memories, that the righteous seem to have them for companions and to be cheered by their counsels? And who further will doubt that a reputation such as this, thus precious and profitable, might be lawfully desired by the most devoted of Christ’ s followers. There is something grand and ennobling about such ambition. It seems to me that the man who entertains and accomplishes the desire of witnessing for truth after death, triumphs over death in the highest possible sense. I could almost dare to say of such a man that he never dies. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Speech from the speechless: These are strange words, are they not?--a dead man speaking. Yet they are true, although Abel has been dead a long time. But we must attend to what Abel is saying just now to us, for he being dead is yet speaking. 1. He says, “ Take care how you worship God.” Do not be misled by bad examples. When you come to worship, come as Abel did, to worship before the Lord, and to hear what He says, and try to do it. 2. But Abel speaks this also--“ Beware,” he says, “ of envy.” The Bible tells us that Cain hated Abel, because Abel’ s works were good, while his were evil. Bad people always hate good people, just because they are good, and so different from themselves. They begin with envy, then envy becomes prejudice, and prejudice grows into spite, and then spite becomes hatred. 3. Abel’ s tone gets graver still when he says, “ There are some things that can never be mended.” No, never I When once Cain had struck that blow at his brother, could he bring Abel back to life again? When you are ten years old, can you go back and become just nine? When a man is thirty years old, can he ever again become ten? No; you see there are some things that can never be undone. Now the Lord says, they that seek Him early shall find Him. 4. But Abel also says, There is not such a thing as a secret. Cain thought, maybe, he could easily hide his crime. But no! God saw it. (J. R. Howatt.) Earthly immortality: Very little is known of Abel, of whom this is spoken, except that he represented before God the spiritual element, while his brother represented the carnal and the secular. He must have been a man whose moral nature was impressive, mild, gentle. Yet he produced an effect, not only upon his own time, but upon after times. This living after a man is gone, may almost be said to be a universal aspiration. Almost all men, when they rise out of the savage state, begin to come under the influence of this ambition. We are not content, either, with our individual sphere. We desire to be known and felt outside of ourselves, outside of our household, outside of our neighbourhood. And our satisfaction grows if we find that our life affects the life of larger communities, and goes out through the nation and through the world. To a highly poetic nature, it seems as though it were a kind of earthly immortality. There is, however, a great difference in men’ s ambitions for such prolonged life. There is a great difference in the moral values of this longing for extended being and influence. If it be the ambition of vanity; if men desire, while alive, to be felt in order that they may be praised; if their thought of other persons is simply how to draw from them revenue for themselves, or how they can make themselves idols, and make men believe that they are gods--if it be this, then it is a base and perverted form of that which is a very good thing in its nobler and higher form. And such men are very poor indeed, and contemptible, after death. Selfishness, by its own law, not only moves in simple circles, but is short-lived. What men do for themselves is soon expended, and is soon forgotten. Only that part of a man’ s life which includes other men’ s good, and especially the public good, is likely to be felt long after he himself is dead. The physical industries of this world have two relations in them--one to the actor and one to the public. Honest business is more really a contribution to the public than it is to the manager of the business himself. Who built that old mill which has ground the bread of two generations? Men do not know. His name may be on some mouldering stone in the graveyard. But it is the man who built it that is working in it still. It was his skill and engineering industry that put it up. The builders of stores, and warehouses, and shops, and dwellings, are not building them for wages merely. They build them upon contract, to be sure; but their interest in them does not expire with the fulfilment of that contract. It is not how much these things have done for them that limits their interest in them, but how much they were able, through these things, to make the brain work in the future, and so to incorporate their usefulness into the lower ranges and economies of human life. So not alone are those men benefactors who are warriors, and statesmen, and scholars, and poets. These other men, too, in a humbler way, but really, ought to have a share of our thought and credit. They who promote industry, and make it more prolific of profit, are benefactors. Oh! that men might know how much benefit there is in mechanical operations and in benevolent art! Oh! that men might take comfort in knowing that when they are dead they shall yet speak. Experience shows that these advances in physical things are more beneficently felt by the poor than by others. They are felt by the rich; but everything that contributes to the convenience and prosperity of the community, and so raises it in the scale, is, first or last, a greater benefit to the poor than to any others. It is not the selfish or personal element that prolongs one’ s life. A man that is dead is not to be remembered simply because he invented something. He is to be remembered because that which he invented goes on working benefit after he is dead. And so long as it is doing good to men, so long he is to be remembered. It is that which we do for the public good that makes our physical industries virtuous and beneficent. Next, men who organise their money into public uses, live as long as the benefaction itself serves the public. There is many a man who, having money, says to his right hand, to which the Lord denied the sculptor’ s art, “ Thou shalt carve a statue” ; and he takes some poor unfriended artist from the village, and endows him, and sends him to Rome, and brings him back, and puts him into life. Powers and Jacksons carve beauteous figures to last for generations; and it is the rich man who patronised them who is working through the men that he fashioned and formed. There is many a man who says, “ Oh, tongue I thou art dumb; but thou shalt have tongues that shall speak.” And he searches out from among the poor those that are ambitious to learn, and that are likely to become scholars, and puts them forward, and sees that they are educated. And thereafter this worthy minister, this true statesman, that wise and upright lawyer, and this unimpeachable judge, become, as it were, an extension of its own self. A man has the gift of wealth-amassing; and he says to himself, “ Selfish gains will die with me, and be buried with me so far as I am concerned.” And he thinks of the village where as a boy he played, and remembers its barrenness from want of taste and from poverty, and says, “ I will go back there, and that village shall be made beautiful.” And not only does he build there, within moderation, and with taste and beauty, a dwelling, but his house becomes the measure and the mark of all the houses in the neigbourhood. It is his fence that set all the people in the village putting their fences right. And more generous ideas in regard to houses and grounds are instilled into the minds of the young. And the young men and maidens, when they get married and settle down in life, exercise better taste in fitting up their homes. Their houses, though small and plain, are more tastefully planned, and there are more trees about their grounds, and more flowers in their gardens. There springs up on every side an imitation of that rich man’ s example. And in the course of twenty or twenty-five years, he will have generated the taste of the community. Or he goes beyond that. He inspires in all the neighbourhood a disposition for beauty by planting trees along the highway. And when he shall have been dead a hundred years, he will be remembered as the man who made that long walk of beauty. Not only may wealth be organised into institutions of secular pleasure and comfort and beauty, but it may be organised still more potently into institutions of mercy--into houses of refuge; into retreats for the unfortunate; into hospitals for the sick; into orphan asylums; into houses of industry and of employment. You will die in a score of years, perhaps; but not a score of centuries need slay the institution which you have reared. Oh I what a benefaction for any man that has money, and has faith to see how it can work after he has gone, and a heart to set it to work. Being dead, he speaks, and speaks chorally. But even more important are those institutions which go before society, march ahead, as it were, and by distributing intelligence and promoting virtue, prevent suffering. Take, for instance, that single foundation, the Bampton Lectures. A New England man, dying, left a fund the income of which every year was to be devoted to paying for a course of lectures which were to vindicate the authenticity of the Scriptures and the divinity of our Lord, and the evangelical religion. From that fund there has sprung a line of lectures that constitutes one of the most noble monuments of learning and piety that has been known in any language on the globe. Could money be made to work such important results in any other way? These endowments have in them immortality on earth. This is the reason why I say that men ought not to be poor if they can be rich. We may rise to a higher grade and to a more familiar ground, therefore, since it is more frequently inculcated in the pulpit. As virtue and spirituality are higher than physical qualities; as the wealth of society lies more in the goodness of Christian institutions and Christian men than in ease, or abundance, or pleasure, so he most wisely prolongs his life to after-days who so lives as to give form and perpetuity to spiritual influences. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 11:5 Enoch was translated.Enoch: I. A CAREER FOR ITS . “ Walked with God.” His life was an embodiment of the Divine. 1. Devoted to God. (1) Intimately acquainted with God. (2) In constant fellowship with God. (3) Full of confidence in God. (4) Engaged in active service for God. 2. Satisfactory to God. 3. Commended by God. II. A CAREER IN ITS . “ Translated.” 1. Exempted from the great trial of life. He was too full of the living God to die. (1) A special honour for his extraordinary holiness. (2) An intimation how all might have been taken out of the world, had there been no sin. (3) A prophecy of victory over death for all the good at the resurrection. 2. Removed from the world in a unique manner. (1) Pleasant. (2) Mysterious. (3) Final. (4) Suggestive. Proving (a) That there is a future state. (b) That the body and soul exist hereafter. (c) That the departed good dwell with God for ever. (B. D. Johns.) Enoch, one of the world’ s great teachers 1. It is strange that so little is said about Enoch. 2. The comparative shortness of his stay upon earth. 3. The manifest singularity of the life he lived. I. HE TAUGHT THE WORLD BY HIS LIFE. 1. He walked with God. This implies (1) An abiding consciousness of the Divine presence. (2) Cordial fellowship. (3) Spiritual progress. 2. He pleased God. As the loadstar seems to beam more brilliantly in the firmament the darker grow the clouds that float about it, so Enoch’ s life must have been a luminous power in his age of black depravity. II. HE TAUGHT THE WORLD BY HIS 1. That death is not a necessity of human nature. 2. That there is a sphere of human existence beyond this. 3. That there is a God in the universe who approves of goodness. 4. That the mastering of sin is the way to a grand destiny. III. HE TAUGHT THE WORLD BY HIS . 1. The advent of the Judge. 2. The gathering of the saints. 3. The conviction of sinners. (Homilist.) Faith the secret of holy life and triumphant death I. THE FAITH BY WHICH THIS HOLY LIFE WAS . 1. It was a belief in the nature of God. Enoch believed Him to be real, with a belief which reverenced, obeyed, trusted, loved Him. 2. It was also a belief in God’ s gifts to all who seek them. II. THE HOLY LIFE WHICH FROM THIS FAITH. 1. Faith led him to please God. 2. This pleasing God was accompanied with the testimony that he pleased Him. 3. This testimony enabled him to walk with God. III. THE DEATH WHICH FROM THIS HOLY LIFE. 1. This death is promised to faith. 2. It is the natural consequence of a holy life. 3. It is assured by the Divine love to those who please God. (C. New.) God’ s testimony to the faith of Enoch: I. By WHAT AGENCY THIS STATE OF IS SECURED. It must always be regarded as of the first consequence to ascertain the sources of human characters and human habits, and to what supports they are indebted for their permanence. For many purposes it is important to ascertain and to acquire information with respect to what we may call the secondary virtues of man--that is, those virtues which do not affect his relation towards God; but infinitely more important respecting those dispositions of mind which tend towards futurity. It is, then, above all things important to know how men are led to please God. 1. And here, it must be observed, that men never attain to the state of existence which is now to be described, whilst they are left to the ordinary operation of their own faculties, and governed by the ordinary impulses of their own passions and desires. While men remain in their original condition, under the government of the primitive tendencies of their nature, they are in fact the uniform and positive objects of Divine disapprobation. 2. This fact having been established, we are prepared to advert to a corresponding fact, which may also be scripturally established, namely, that men are brought into a state of existence that is pleasing to God, they are placed in it, and continued in it, solely and entirely by the exertion of the power of the Spirit of God Himself. II. BY WHAT THIS STATE OF IS . 1. It comprehends faith in the Divine testimony. Faith has a peculiar connection with the approbation of God, in consequence of its being the ordained means of imputing to man the merit of a justifying righteousness, that in itself is sufficient to secure his final acceptance as the Judge of the universe. 2. This state of existence also comprehends obedience to the Divine commandments. It cannot be justly questioned by any one that the pleasure of God in man is connected with the conformity of man in heart and in life to the laws of God. The Being who, by the necessity of His moral nature, abhors iniquity, by the same necessity of His moral nature must delight in holiness. But one thing must be remarked by the way of caution. God is not pleased with men’ s holiness because there is anything of original or independent merit in it; He is pleased with it because He contemplates in it His own work; just as He was pleased when, after the Creation, He is said to have looked on it, and pronounced that it was all “ very good” : He is pleased with it, because it sheds His own lustre, and reflects back the beauty of His own perfections: He is pleased with it, because it advances the revenue of His glory, because it secures the happiness of those in whom it dwells. 3. This state of existence comprehends gratitude for the Divine goodness. The offering of praise by believing men to God cannot but be pleasing in His sight; it is so with the gratitude which is offered in heaven, and At cannot but be so with the gratitude offered on earth. III. BY WHAT THIS STATE OF IS . 1. Those who exist in a state that is pleasing to God are privileged with near and intimate communion with God. 2. Those who exist in this state possess also the consolations and supports of God in all times of difficulty and of danger. 3. Those who exist in the state which is now described have the security of eternal and perfect happiness in heaven. Pleasing God has an especial connection with the joy of God. (J. Parsons.) Enoch’ s translation I. THAT THE END AND THE GREAT OF FAITH IS TO BE “ OUT OF THE WORLD INTO THE OF THE ETERNAL STATE. 1. I shall prove the point by Scripture: “ Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:9). Heaven is there proposed as the chief reward of faith; all that we do, all that we suffer, all that we believe, it is with an aim at the hope of the salvation of our souls. The last article of our creed is everlasting life. 2. I shall by a few reasons prove the interest of believers in eternal life, and why faith gives a title to glory. (1) Because by faith we are made sons; all our right and title is by adoption. Children may expect a child’ s portion. (2) These are the terms of the eternal covenant between God and Christ, that believers should have a right to heaven by Christ’ s death; therefore, whenever the Father’ s love and Christ’ s purchase are mentioned, faith is the solemn condition. (3) Because faith is the mother of obedience, which is the way to eternal life; faith gives a title, and works give an evidence. (4) By faith that life is begun which shall only be consummated and perfected in glory. The life of glory and the life of grace are the same in substance, but not in degree. Here faith takes Christ, and then life is begun, though in glory it is perfected (1 John 5:12). Use 1. To press you to get faith upon this ground and motive, it will give you an interest in heaven. Use 2. It serves to direct you how to exercise and act faith in order to the everlasting state. Five duties believers must perform. (1) The first work and foundation of all is to accept of Christ in the offers of the gospel; there is the foundation of a glorious estate. (2) It directs you to exercise your faith to believe the promise of heaven which God hath made. (3) Get your own title confirmed; lay claim to your inheritance. (4) Let us often renew our hopes by serious and distinct thoughts. This is the way to anticipate heaven, by musing upon it (Hebrews 11:1). (5) Another work of faith is earnestly to desire and long after the full accomplishment of glory. Faith bewrayeth itself by desires as well as thoughts. All things hasten to their centre. Use 3. To exalt the mercy of God to believers; once sinners, and by grace made believers. Observe the wonderful love and grace of God in three steps (1) That He hath provided such an estate for believers. What a miracle of mercy is this that God should think of taking poor despicable dust and ashes, and planting them in the upper paradise, that they should be carried into heaven and made companions of the angels. (2) That this state is provided freely, and upon such gracious terms. (3) That God should send up and down the world to offer this salvation to men. Use 4. Comfort to God’ s children against wants, and against troubles and persecutions, and against death itself. II. THOSE THAT WOULD LIVE WITH GOD MUST LEARN TO PLEASE GOD ERE THEY DEPART HENCE. 1. What it is to please God. It implies both coming to God, and walking with God. 2. The necessity of pleasing God. (1) Because this is the means and condition without which we shall never come to enjoy God; it is the way to fit the sons of God for glory, though not the cause of glory (Hebrews 12:14). (2) There is a necessity of it by way of sign, and as a pledge of our living with God hereafter--“ Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” (3) It is necessary by way of preparation. Those that walk with God are meet to live with God; they change their place, but not their company; here they walk with God, and there they live with Him for ever. 3. The necessity of pleasing God in the present life--“ For before his translation,” it is said, “ he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” There is a time for all things, and the time of pleasing God is in the present life. (1) Because this is the time of grace. Here we are invited to walk with God: now we have the means, then we have the recompenses; here Christ Matthew 11:28). (2) This is the time of our exercise and trial. 4. The sooner we begin the better. (1) Because you make a necessary work sure, and put it out of doubt and hazard. The time of this life is uncertain (James 4:14). (2) In point of obedience, God presseth to “ now.” God doth not only command us to please Him, but to do it presently (Hebrews 3:7-8). It were just with God, if you refuse Him, never to call you more. (3) In point of ingenuity. We receive a plenteous recompense for a small service. When a man thinketh what God hath provided for them that love Him and serve Him, he should be ashamed that he should receive so much and do so little; and therefore he should redeem all the time that he can, that he may answer his expectations from God. (4) It is our advantage to begin betimes, both here and hereafter. (a) Here. The sooner you begin to please God, the sooner you have an evidence of your interest in His favour, more experience of His love, more hopes of being with Him in heaven; and these are not slight things. (b) The sooner you begin with God, the greater will your glory be hereafter; for the more we improve our talents here, the greater will be our reward in heaven (Luke 19:16-19). Use 1. If there be such a necessity of pleasing God, and giving up ourselves to the severities of religion, then it serves for reproof of divers sorts of persons; as (1) Those that, though they live as they list, as if they were sent into the world for no other purpose but to gratify their carnal desires, yet lay as bold a claim and title to heaven as the best; they doubt not but glory belongs to them, though they cannot make good their title. (2) It reproves them that think that every slight profession of the name of God will serve the turn; no, you must walk with God and please God. (3) It reproves those that would please God, but with a limitation and reservation so far as they may not displease men or displease the flesh. (4) It reproves those that adjourn and put off the work of religion from time to time, till they have lost all time; that use to put off God to the troubles of sickness or the aches of old age. Use 2. If there be no hope of living with God without pleasing God, oh, then make it the aim and scope of your lives to please the Lord! (1) Look to the commandments as your rule (Micah 6:8). (2) Let the promises of God be your encouragement. (3) You should make the glory of God your chiefest end, or you will be very irregular, and cannot keep pace with God in a constant course of duty. Look, as a man that hath a nail in his foot may walk in soft ground, but when he comes to hard ground he is soon turned out of the way, so when a man hath a perverse aim, he will soon be discouraged with the inconveniences that will trouble him in religion. The spiritual life is called “ a living to God” (Galatians 2:19). The end must be right, otherwise the conversation will be but a vain pretence, that will please men but not God Proverbs 16:2). (T. Manton, D. D.) Faith exceptionally rewarded I. BE THE OUTWARD EVENTS OF FAITH IN IN THIS WORLD, THEY ARE ALL ALIKE WITH GOD, approved by Him, and shall all equally enjoy the eternal inheritance. II. GOD CAN AND DOTH PUT A GREAT AS UNTO OUTWARD THINGS, BETWEEN SUCH AS ARE EQUALLY BEFORE HIM. Abel shall die, and Enoch shall be taken alive into heaven. III. THERE IS NO SUCH SERVICE UNTO GOD, NONE THAT HE HATH SET SUCH SIGNAL PLEDGES OF HIS FAVOUR UPON, AS TO CONTEND AGAINST THE WORLD IN GIVING WITNESS TO HIS WAYS, HIS WORSHIP, AND HIS KINGDOM, OR THE RULE OF CHRIST OVER ALL. IV. IT IS A PART OF OUR TO DECLARE AND WITNESS THAT IS FOR UNGODLY and all sorts of impenitent sinners, however they are and may be provoked thereby. V. The principal part of this testimony IN OUR OWN , OR VISIBLE WALKING WITH GOD IN HOLY , according to the tenor of the covenant (2 Peter 3:11; 2 Peter 3:14). VI. As it is an effect of the wisdom of God to dispose the works of His providence, and the accomplishment of His promises, according to an ordinary established rule declared in His Word, which is the only guide of faith; so IT PLEASES HIM TO GIVE IN EACH KIND, BOTH IN A WAY OF AND IN A WAY OF GRACE AND FAVOUR. Of the latter sort was the taking of Enoch into heaven; and of the former was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven. Such extraordinary acts, either the wicked security of the world, or the edification of the Church, do sometimes make necessary. VII. FAITH IN GOD THROUGH CHRIST HATH AN IN THE OF SUCH GRACE, MERCY, AND FAVOUR IN , AS IT HATH NO GROUND IN TO BELIEVE. Enoch was translated by faith; yet did not Enoch believe he should be translated, until he had a particular revelation of it. So there are many particular mercies which faith hath no word of promise to mix itself withal, as unto their actual communication unto us; but yet keeping itself within its bounds of reliance on God, and acting by patience and prayer, it may be, and is, instrumental in the procurement of them. VIII. THEY MUST WALK WITH GOD HERE WHO DESIGN TO LIVE WITH HIM ; or they must please God in this world who would be blessed with Him in another. IX. THAT FAITH WHICH CAN A MAN OUT OF THIS WOULD, CARRY HIM THROUGH THE WHICH HE MAY MEET WITHAL, IN THE OR FAITH AND IN THIS WORLD. Herein lies the apostle’ s argument. And this latter the Lord Jesus Christ hath determined to be the lot and portion of His disciples. So He testifies (John 17:15). (John Owen, D. D.) The translation of Enoch: After the testimony borne to the life of Enoch, his translation scarcely surprises us. We almost look for some such apotheosis of his exalted virtues. Already he has more of the celestial than the earthly in his character; and is more fit to be the companion of angels than to associate with an apostate race. Even the outer nature has experienced the transforming influence of a long course of faith and devotion. Refined and purified beyond the ordinary state of a mortal body, we can conceive of it as fitly entering on immortality without undergoing the purification which death effects. Through a less trying ordeal it may soar to its place among the sons of God; and our moral sense is not shocked when such a superhuman reward is granted to one possessed of such superhuman excellence. Heaven must attract towards itself that which so much resembles itself. And what if the attraction be so strong, that the process of dying and the long waiting for the resurrection be dispensed with, and Heaven at once takes to itself that which is so manifestly its own? Although permitted to enter heaven by a path different from that which ordinary mortals tread, his body would no doubt undergo the change necessary to fit it for the kingdom into which flesh and blood cannot enter--a change in all probability similar to that which takes place in the bodiesof the saints who are alive at the coming of the Lord. We have no account of how or where Enoch’ s translation took place. Perhaps it was promised before as the reward of his holiness, and that his faith in the promise might sustain him under his trials. In that case it would be a long-expected, much desired event. Or, perhaps, it was unexpected, and he was ignorant of what was taking place until the glories of heaven burst upon his view. But the conjecture most pleasing to us is that it was while he was entranced in devotion. When his soul left the world for awhile and soared upward to hold intercourse with God, when loth to disturb the vision and return to battle with the cares, and to be pained with the wickedness of the world, his body rises too, caught up by an invisible power, changing as it ascends, until it becomes pure as the home to which it hastens. Whether it came thus, or otherwise, is of small consequence. Come when and how it might, the transition must have been unspeakably glorious. His translation must have been designed to serve some important purposes. To him it was at once a dispensation of mercy and a mark of honour. A dispensation of mercy, because it severed him from the scenes of wickedness, which had vexed his righteous soul. God took him: properly, took him away. Away from the society of ungodly men, from their taunts and persecutions. Away from the wickedness over which he mourned. Away from the privations of this wilderness state. Away from the many ills to which flesh is heir, and the peculiar troubles which afflict the just. God had tested the fidelity of His servant. He took him away to be with Himself, and the weary one had rest. A mark of honour--for had not God sought to honour him, He might have removed him from all occasions of suffering in the ordinary way. To his neighbours his translation was a testimony to the truth of his prophecy. That prophecy (Jude 1:14-15) was addressed, without doubt, to the ungodly men of his own generation, and predicted the punishment which awaited them because of their ungodliness. And when even this terrible prediction failed to check them in their downward career, how fitted was his translation to make them pause and consider. From the apostle’ s words “ he was not found,” we suppose that the event was known, as if he had been missed by the men of his neigh-bourhood from his accustomed haunts. Doubtless there were eye-witnesses of the event, by whom the manner of his removal would be made public. And thus his absence would be a standing testimony to the truth of his prediction. Most forcibly would it say--Death is not the end of man; for Enoch, though not dead, has departed. As regards ourselves it is fitted most powerfully to commend to us the principle which produced in him such remarkable results. His character was a noble testimony to the power of faith; but his translation shows more impressively what wonders faith can achieve. See in this mighty work the evidence and illustration of the truth that all things are possible to him that believeth. And remember that a faith like Enoch’ s can only be acquired through fellowship with God. While there must be faith in order to fellowship, fellowship fosters and strengthens faith. (W. Landels, D. D.) The translation of Enoch Did you ever witness the transit of a planet across the disc of the sun? Ah! but the transit of a soul from truth to truth, by what glass shall we notice that? By what glass shall we tell how the mind marches in its orb--how the spirit advances in its sphere? By what chronology shall we estimate the translation of the soul? But here we have that wonderful fact in the history of man--the history of a soul’ s translation. On this world God will never allow His children to be found longer than they can be useful, either for His glory or their own growth. Even on earth, amidst all the blunders of our most imperfect sociology, what the man is after his translation, is, in more sensible circles, to be inferred from what he was before. There is a young man in my chapel who, to-morrow, will vacate an old inferior seat, held for many years at his desk, and mount to that envied and coveted place--first in the office; second only to that confidential post in the second room. Yesterday, in the office of the principal of the firm, his vigilance, his conscientiousness, his disposition, were all subjects of praise; and before this translation he has had this testimony--that he has pleased his employer. Among the long dun wolds of Kent there was great and unusual merry-making, on the farm of Henry Gibbons, this Christmas; for, although he was leaving his farm of one hundred and fifty acres, he was going to one of five hundred acres. To him, six months since, said his landlord, “ Henry, you know at Christmas the farm of Beechy Hollow will be vacant, and I love that farm. I was born and brought up there, and I must have somebody there I can trust. Now, that farm you shall have, for I can trust you.” Thus in all the translations that are exemplary on earth, and which are removed from the influences of corruption and error, in every state of the advance the progressive spirit has this testimony--that he has pleased before his translation. What right have we to expect a higher rank before we have filled our present duty? You covet more. You have, I assure you, as much honour as you can bear. You have as many duties as you can fulfil. Believe me, there is an exact relation between your power of profitable possession and your power of expenditure. “ He had this testimony, that he pleased God.” It was the testimony of faith. “ By faith Enoch was translated.” In the scale of greatness, by which we rise to please God, the first place is assigned to faith, because it interprets the life; amidst abounding iniquity and hardness of heart, he yielded himself to God, to God’ s pleasure and will. “ He pleased God.” He walked with God. By this sublime phrase, I believe something more is intended than we can understand. Amidst the sublime scenes of those primeval woods and vales, what secret communings he held! There were then few illustrious progenitors: kings, statesmen, seers, and poets--he could not walk with those; he could only walk with God, With him now, the simple, poor man, to whom the Bible unfolds its treasures and prayer its armoury, and meditation its sacred refectory, and paradise its distant gleaming palace--with him may this man compare. Like Enoch, he walks alone with God in his simplicity and holy dignity. “ He pleased God” --he was a preacher of righteousness, and part of his sermon has come down even to our own age. Very dreadful are the words of a man who comes from intimate fellowship with Divine holiness, to pour his pathos and his pity and his indignation over a lost world. Like Jonathan Edwards, a soul--a pity--a heart of holiness--a hermit existence--and a speech of fire. And then God took him--after three hundred and sixty-five years had been given to him, God took him; to show to the ungodly world that he was not limited to the ordinary operations of the laws of Nature, and to proclaim to the race of giants, the children of Cain, His authentication of His servant’ s life--He translated him. (E. P. Hood.) Walking up to our ascension There may be a little difficulty in seeing how the “ translation,” or “ ascension” of Enoch, was the result of Enoch’ s “ faith.” Did he believe in an “ ascension” ? and was it given to his trust and expectation of that very thing? Where did he learn it? Yet, “ by faith Enoch was translated.” We must enlarge the question. It is not always necessary, in order to secure a blessing, that we have “ a faith” in that particular gift. No doubt a special “ faith,” in a special thing, is often given and sometimes required. But “ faith” goes to a certain level, while God goes far beyond the level of the “ faith.” And it is a comfort to know that a general trust in God commands and secures individual mercies. You east yourself universally upon God’ s faithfulness: and, beyond a doubt, God will fill in the details, which you never thought of, and which details He sees that you want. And death is a solemn thing. Death may be bitter, even to a child of God! Else, it would not have been said, as a part of the mercy, to Enoch, that he was ,, translated that he should not see death.” Nor would it be made the running over of the cup of Jesus’ s sorrow, that “ He tasted death for every man.” Nevertheless, if it please my heavenly Father to order otherwise, and that I should pass through my grave and gate of death to my body, it will be all well! There is no danger! there is nothing to fear! no real solitude! but only just enough to draw out my Saviour’ s love! It very little matters whence I ascend, or how: I only care for the whither. But “ who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” Pray for the gift of the “ faith” in your ascension. See the degrees of “ faith” as they are laid out in the opening of this chapter of “ faith’ s” triumphs. The understanding “ faith” in the Omnipotence of creation (Hebrews 11:3). Then the justifying “ faith” in sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4). And then, in the third degree, translating “ faith” --the faith of glory (Hebrews 11:5). “ Walk” the walk of faith higher and higher--above the things that are seen. “ Walk,” as Enoch walked--“ walk,” as Elijah walked--“ walk,” as Jesus walked--“ walk” up to your ascension! (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Enoch opposing the current opinions of the day: The mare and grand distraction between the child of God and the servant of sin is, that the one lives by faith and the other by sight. 1. A man is sometimes dishonest because the object which he sees engrosses his attention beyond the fear of punishment, which is a matter of faith; and he defrauds or steals. Again, in their judgments men of sin act by sight, not by faith, though men who do these things are compelled sometimes to declare them wrong, and to pronounce a judgment against their actions. They settle those things to be sins which appear to do the most immediate harm, and those to be less sins, or none at all, which do not cause so much immediate perceptible harm. Again, in their religion men of sin act on sight, and men of God on faith. See the worldly man in his religion, as he calls it. It is all the sight parts of religion, none of the faith parts. (1) They come to church, that is something to be felt. There is the doing something that worse people do not do; therefore they hope by the irksomeness of the act to clear away some sins; they can realise the religion of that. (2) They read the Bible sometimes; there is a little trouble in that, and it is something they can lay hold of. (3) They give money in aims; this is something seen and felt; they are doing something more than others. (4) They speak respectfully of the Church of the land and the ministers of the Church, because there is something easy in it, and by doing so they throw a garb of devotion over themselves, which they see many others have not got. So much is their religion, and here it ends. Men of sin act on sight, not on faith; they are only religious when they see and feel the good of it. Now turn to the religious man influenced by faith. 1. He judges sin by the law of God; he knows coveting is as bad as stealing, because it leads to it; and he knows God condemns the evil thought as well as the evil action. 2. In his duties he acts on faith. He foregoes the indulgence of angry passion, remembering the greater happiness and peace of a loving spirit and the favour of the Saviour who has declared the peacemaker blessed. 3. Above all, in his religion behold the man of faith. What he does is not to be seen of men, but of his Father in heaven, who shall reward him openly. I. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is, as it were, a bright roll, unfolding to us the men who, in days gone by, have lived by faith and not by sight; they shine like fixed stars in the dark expanse of human life. Let us contemplate the character of Enoch, as showing forth a character influenced by faith, and behold in him another fruit of faith. 1. It seems to mean he knew God, had a just knowledge of God. 2. But it seems to mean, too, that he was intimate and familiar with God. 3. And again, “ he pleased God.” His religion was not only feeling, taken up to-day, put down to-morrow; his religion influenced his practice, altered his conduct, helped him to stand forth the bold supporter of truth in the midst of a wicked generation. Such was his character. Now how was this the result of faith? This character, through a coming Saviour, procured for him translation to glory. He lived above the present world, and apart from the present people, by faith; that is, the tastes, the conversation, the occupation of all around would naturally have made his mind the same with theirs, had it not been for the exercise of the principle of faith. This was Enoch’ s character, and this is the way it was affected by faith. Now let us apply this to ourselves. The fruit or working of faith, which Enoch’ s character shows, consists in living separate from the opinions and practices of the day we live in, and protesting against the errors of that day by word or example; and this by faith. But, in matters of practice, there are false opinions about in the world, which are against God’ s revealed Word, and which consequently are to be rebuked and opposed by the man of faith. 1. Men tell us all devotion is enthusiasm. If a man spend much time in prayer; if a man give up the world’ s society; if he be cheerful under affliction; if he have his happiness fixed in another world, not this, the world calls him an enthusiast pursuing a phantom, a dreamer, wholly mistaken as to what religion is, not a soberminded man. Now what does the man of faith answer? what does Enoch answer to the false report of an undiscriminating world? Behold the man of faith. He reads such passages as these, “ He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” 2. But again, it is a prevailing error of the day that men need not give up the world; that the doing so is gloomy, melancholy and unnecessary. The man who is directed by faith, whose eye is looking for the unseen hereafter, who is not dazzled by the lamps of present pleasure and excitement, answers the erroneous opinion of the world by an appeal to the Bible. (1) He may demand, What is the world, and what does the Bible mean by the world, if the utmost excess of gaiety--gaiety dissipating devotion, gaiety and pleasure inviting the support of infamous characters, gaiety ruining the health and wasting the time, company where God is never mentioned, where religion is never introduced, and where its introduction would be misplaced--if this is not the world, what is? (2) He may show that the Bible plainly declares that “ the friendship of the world is enmity with God” ; “ Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (3) He may show that while such pleasure and such society is given up, we need not be gloomy; far, very far from it. Thus the man influenced by faith may answer and refute, like Enoch, the current opinions of the day, that the world need not be given up, and that those who withdraw from it are morose and gloomy. (E. Monro.) The man that is missed when he is gone: The suggestion is very beautiful as to the way in which he was wanted and missed when he was gone. It seems to point to some scene, veiled in one of God’ s august silences, when Methuselah and the other sons and daughters found the tent or the chamber empty, sought the saintly father everywhere and found him not--found not even the body--could but infer, till God inspired and wrote it down, that which had happened--namely, that the life was so full of God, the walk with God so close and so intimate, the sight of God by faith so constant and so intuitive, that it had pleased the Divine Companion to “ make a new thing in the earth,” to “ send down a hand from above” and deliver His servant “ out of the waters” of time, from the surrounding of the “ strange children” of an “ untoward generation,” and to carry him by a short and direct passage to the land of an everlasting rest and peace. We who know what one righteous man may be, in a house or in a city--how dear to his own, how necessary to a wider circle, whose counsellor, whose oracle, probity and wisdom and piety have made him--can faintly picture that sorrowful morning, when “ Enoch was not found, because God had translated him; “ when the life of that household, that neighbourhood, that country, must henceforth be lived without him--without his help, without his example, without his sympathy, without his prayers. I know not that we ought to desire to be missed when we are gone; but I know that, whether desiring this or no, we ought all so to live as that we shall be wanted when we are “ not found.” There is no replacing, on earth, of the really missed one. That house, that town, that Church must learn to do without him. If the loss really leads any one to inquire into the secret of it--to ask why he was so much to others and to his own--to discover the royal road, which honest prayer is, into the sanctuary which he frequented, and into the companionship which was his strength; then the life, and the “ translation,” will together have explained the mystery of the Divine purpose in ordaining both. (Dean Vaughan.) Enoch: He changed his place, but not his company, for he still walked with God, as in earth, so in heaven. (J. Trapp.) Enoch’ s translation: Referring to the translation of Enoch, Rev. J. Chalmers, M.A., spoke of the two ways by which men have been taken from this world: the one, “ the golden bridge “ of translation, which only a few have been privileged to cross: the other, the” dark tunnel” of death, by which way the majority have had to go. But whether by the one way or the other, all who walked with God reach their glorious end--are with God. (King’ s Highway.) He pleased God He pleased God I. THE FOR GOD. There is a God to please--a living God, who takes a continual interest in all human things; who thinks, feels, loves, and is grieved; and whose great endeavour, by all this complicated world-work that He carries on, is to educate human spirits, that they may, like Him, hate the wrong and love the right, and do it. There is a God who is pleased always when the least cause for pleasure is presented to Him. Just as we are glad when a child succeeds in a lesson; when a boy takes a prize; when a young man does some difficult work in a noble way; when a girl is like her mother in goodness; so God is glad when His children do well. All this shows, surely, that there is a necessity for pleasing God; that no man can be right, safe, happy, who does not aim to do this; and, in a measure, succeed in doing it. If God is not pleased with us, we cannot be right. Some say that the attempt to please God is an inferior aim, and that the real end we ought to keep in view is, to be right in everything. Let a man try to be right without any regard to God, and how far will he go? How do we know fully and clearly what is right without God’ s gracious information? A little we know by our native moral sense, but for the perfect ideal of goodness we are indebted solely to Him. Therefore we must try to please Him. God, being God, is an infinite, absolute, all-perfect Being; holding in Himself all principles, all relations, all truth, order, and beauty; to please Him must, in the very nature of the case, be to do right. II. NOW, as to THE METHOD of this; of course I do not pretend to give a full description of the method. That would be to describe the whole Christian life; for all duty, service, and suffering are with a good man parts of the one grand endeavour to please God. But I will say this, that it is not difficult to please God if only we take the right way of it. He is not a hard master. I believe we have no idea how simple, how natural, how human-like in the best sense is the joy of God in the obedience of His children. We have only to attain a simple, purified sincerity as to the motive, and then put a glow into the action, when God, beholding, will say, “ It is well.” “ I am pleased; pleased with the action--with the worker--above all, because I can now give the reward.” But we shall suppose the case of one who has not yet pleased God at all. How must he begin to do Son 7:1-13 I should say that to him the first feeling, if he is now wishing to do the will of God, would be a feeling of regret that he has not done it, a feeling of unfeigned sorrow; in other words, repentance. Then faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as representing the will of the Father, as communicating the Father’ s grace, as crucified for our offences, and raised again for our justification. He is the propitiation for our sins, and the rectifier of our lives, and the guide of our steps, Redeemer from sin, and death, and hell. Then, after repentance and faith, there comes the whole process of practical obedience, filial and loving. When the yoke is taken in this spirit, it is easy; when the burden is lifted so, it is light. And life then is simple. It is but to “ walk with God” and “ please” Him so. It is but to see Him where He is; to hear Him when He speaks; but to serve and enjoy Him with a loving heart. That God will be pleased with such a course is just as certain as that a good father or mother will approve a loving obedience in a child. Just as certain as it is that God loves order and beauty, and goodness and truth. III. THE RESULTS of doing this will be manifold, and very good. 1. We shall in this way please ourselves as we never can do in any other. It is well when a man brings himself up to the bar of his better self. There is something of God in a good man; the enlightened conscience is the echo of the Divine authority and will. A noble ideal is surely to be cherished, a generous purpose is to be held fast, and the soul is to be encouraged in doing this in every possible way. Now there is no way so direct and sufficient as the way of pleasing God; by a loving obedience to Him we reach and please and satisfy our better self. 2. Then, further, if we please God, we shall ourselves have pleasure in life and the world. He can make our enemies to be at peace with us, and He will, if we please Him. In the world we are to have tribulation, and yet we may be of good cheer, for we are victors. 3. Finally, come what may in this life, that always is sure. “ He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” He is the great rewarder even in this life. Do but a little service heartily to Him, and He will come to you with His rewarding love. You cry in wonder of so much munificence, “ My cup runneth over.” All this will God give into your bosom and pour about your life, even here and now. Then what will He do hereafter to those who love and please Him? Earth does not hold the secret. It is “ reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The duty of pleasing God I. If we ask WHOM WE ARE TO PLEASE, reason, uninstructed by revelation or experience, would immediately say ourselves, or if reason did not say so, feeling would. We accordingly find that man, as soon as he begins to act, acts solely with a view to his own gratification. It would never enter his mind to act otherwise were he left alone. But then none of us are left alone. We are mixed up with our fellow-men, and are trained from our earliest infancy more or less to please them. And these two things, pleasing ourselves and pleasing our fellow-men, we contrive to carry on together. We please the world, and in doing so, we please ourselves, for we gain something that we desire from the world by pleasing it--if nothing more, its good opinion. But God comes in and disturbs all this. “ Please me,” says self. “ Please me,” says the world; and while we are striving to obey both, there is a voice from heaven which says,” Neither must be obeyed: you must approve yourselves to Me.” There appears before us a third competitor for our powers of pleasing; one of whom we never thought, and to whom not a feeling or principle of our nature inclines us to listen. So perverse are we that we cannot do it. “ They that are in the flesh,” says the Scripture, “ cannot please God.” You see then that we have no merely moral, half-heathen duty before us; it is a Christian duty. II. How WE ARE TO PLEASE GOD. 1. We must begin with accepting the offers of His grace. We know that in order to please a fellow-creature we must fall in with his disposition and character. If he is a man of a kind disposition, we must on no account repulse his kindness, but yield ourselves up to it, and let him do us all the good he will. Now the great God of heaven is a God of infinite kindness towards us. “ Here is pardon for you,” He says; “ here is peace; here is My love for you, My presence, My likeness, My joy, My kingdom. Look through My universe--there is everything for you that is worth your having.” Now to please Him is to accept these offers. It is to let Him see that we value His kindness and care for His blessings. 2. To please God, we must conform ourselves to His mind and will. And this will show itself by our ceasing to be angry and discontented with His dealings with us; and still more clearly by our efforts to do His will. He pleases God the most who places himself entirely in God’ s hands, and who strives the most after the holiness which God loves. 3. To please God we must aim to please Him supremely, far above all. Our first, supreme desire must be to approve ourselves in God’ s sight. III. WHY WE SHOULD THUS SEEK TO PLEASE GOD RATHER THAN ANY ONE ELSE. 1. It is easier to please Him. Only let us once accept the offers of love He has made us in His Son, and we can please Him; anything that we offer will be acceptable in His sight; the mere desire to please will give Him pleasure. Is it difficult for a child to put pleasure into a father’ s heart? Does a mother require much from her infant to afford her delight? But what is a father’ s or a mother’ s love to the love of the great God for us? As a shadow to a substance. His mighty love for us then makes it easy for us to please Him. But turn to the world. It is hard work to please that. What a multitude there is in it to gratify! every one wanting to be gratified in his own way, regarding you as nothing but the mere instrument of his pleasure. We may sacrifice ourselves on the world’ s altar, but, alas! we shall gain nothing; the greater part of the world will be angry because the sacrifice has not been made for them only or as they would have it made. And then what a weathercock is the mind of man! How light and mutable! What pleases him today, he is tired of to-morrow, and offended with the day after. He who seeks to please God, has only one to please instead of multitudes; and He One who is considerate and merciful, and never requires us to hurt ourselves in order to please Him, and is always of one mind. That which pleases Him once will please Him for ever. 2. It is better to please God than any one else, more for our advantage. Think how little man can do for us, even if he is disposed and continues so, to do his best. Our greatest sorrows he can do little indeed to lighten, and our heaviest wants he car do nothing at all to supply. We cling to him as though he were all in all to us; an hour will come when we shall feet him to be a shadow. But think what God is. He is that God who made heaven and earth, and who could in a moment unmake them, bring them all into nothing again. He governs all things. He can give us whatsoever He will, and withheld from us whatsoever He will. 3. It is more ennobling to please God than to please any one else. The effort to please Him elevates the soul; seeking to please others debases it. We become like God by seeking to please Him. By keeping Him constantly before us we are changed into His image. This is not theory. I may appeal to every-day facts. Take the poor cottager whose heart God has touched, and taught to seek His favour. Apparently with everything around him to depress him, there is often an elevation in that man’ s mind which constrains us to wonder at him. He has risen to a loftiness of thought and feeling which we can scarcely understand. And it is his piety alone which has raised him, his simple and earnest desire to please his Lord. And then look at some of the world’ s great men, men who live on the world’ s favour and applause. How low do we frequently see them sink! We marvel at the littleness they betray. 4. Hence we may observe that a supreme desire to please God conforms us more than anything else to Christ our Lord. He “ pleased not Himself,” the Scripture says. As we read His history we never suspect Him of having done so. It was not His own gratification that brought Him out of His Father’ s world and kept Him in our world amid pollution and sorrow. He sought not His own honour here, He did not His own works, He would not speak even His own words. And a careful reader of His history will never suspect Him of having been a pleaser of men. He points upwards to His Father, and says, “ I do always those things that please Him.” Now there is a blessed resemblance between Christ and His people. They have the same spirit that He had, and it is their joy and delight to have it. We say that it forms their character, they feel that it is a main part of their happiness. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Pleasing God I. HE WHO WOULD BE HAPPY MUST PLEASE GOD. 1. God is a pleasable Being. 2. God is pleasable by man. II. HE WHO WOULD PLEASE GOD MUST COME TO HIM. Christ is the way into the loving presence of the Great Father. Man pleases Him by trusting in His Son, cherishing His Spirit, and following His example. III. HE WHO WOULD COME TO HIM MUST BELIEVE ON HIM. 1. In the fact of His existence. 2. In the fact of His retributive ministry. (Homilist.) Pleasing God I. THE PRE- TO THAT STATE IN WHICH WE SHALL PLEASE GOD. 1. A principle of faith in the revealed testimony of God. 2. A distinct faith in Jesus Christ, as Mediator, Advocate, and Redeemer. 3. The Divinely-formed elements of a new character within us. II. THE COURSE OF THOSE PERSONS WHO PLEASE GOD. 1. Righteousness predominating. 2. Devotion accompanying. 3. Zeal inflaming and animating. III. THE GIVEN OF THIS FACT. 1. The inspired declarations of Holy Writ. 2. Conscience divinely aided and corroborated. 3. The outward events of life, as proved from the ordinary history, and from the experience and lives of God’ s people. (J. Leifchild.) What makes men please God? There are four things which must concur to please God--all which are accomplished by faith, and by nothing else. 1. The person of him that pleaseth God must be accepted of God (Titus 1:15). God had respect unto Abel (Genesis 4:4). 2. The matter that pleaseth God must be agreeable to His will (chap. 13:21; Romans 12:2). 3. The manner of doing that which pleaseth God must be with due respect to God, and that is in these and other like particulars (1) In obedience to God: because He has demanded it. In this case we must say as Peter did, “ At Thy word I will do it” (Luke 5:5). (2) In humility, denying of ourselves, as he that said, “ Not I, but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). (3) In sincerity, as having to do with Him that searcheth the heart. Thus did Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:3). (4) With sedulity: like the two faithful servants with whom the Lord was well pleased; but not like the slothful servant (Matthew 25:20, &c.). (5) With alacrity and cheerfulness: for God loveth a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). (6) Within compass of our Calling (1 Corinthians 7:17). (7) With constancy. If any draw back, God’ s soul will have no pleasure in Hebrews 10:38). (8) In assurance that God, who accepteth the person, accepteth also the work that is done. Hereby did Manoah’ s wife infer that God was pleased with that which they did (Judges 13:23). 4. The end, which is God’ s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). The foresaid four general points are those four causes whereby everything is made perfect. Faith is the means whereby all of them may be effected and accomplished. (1) By faith in Christ the person is accepted of God (Ephesians 1:6). (2) Faith makes men subject themselves to God’ s will. (3) Faith makes men have respect, even to the manner of what they do to Godward; that it be done in obedience, in humility, in sincerity, with sedulity, with alacrity, orderly, constantly, and with assurance of God’ s acceptance. All these may be exemplified in Enoch. (4) Faith, of all graces, most aimeth at God’ s glory. (W. Gouge.) Enoch’ s religion: His religion was not a speculation or a theory, which he took up to-day and laid down to-morrow. It was not the vain dream of enthusiasm, which is founded on no steady and tried principles of reason, by which he was actuated. It was not the momentary impulse which induced him to take God’ s side to-day and which left him at liberty to desert it to-morrow. It was rather a religion of reason and deliberation; a religion of faith in the Divine character and promises; a religion which influenced, and guided, and sustained him, at one moment as at another. It was the allegiance of the heart, flowing from the decisions of the understanding. It was the obedience and homage of the soul. It was the tribute of dependence, gratitude, and love. It was the sacrifice of the whole man, a reasonable and acceptable service. Probity, and truth, and righteousness were its bright results. Hence Enoch pleased God--God graciously owned his allegiance and accepted his intercourse. His aim was to please God, and it was accepted as such. He was the child of mercy, the disciple of truth and charity. Whatever might be the judgment which men formed of his character, God was ready to avow, “ Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.” (G. T. Noel, M.A,) Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please Him The nature and importance of faith I. THIS NATURE OF FAITH IN GENERAL. NOW the term, faith, “ expresses a confidence or persuasion of the truth of anything not self-evident, received upon the testimony of another.” To have faith in the subjects of human testimony, requires a certain comprehension of the nature of the subjects, and a confidence in the credibility of the testimony under which those subjects are presented to our knowledge. Precisely the same circumstances appear to take place in reference to Divine testimony. We are satisfied as to the credibility of the testimony--that it comes from God. But the objects presented to us upon that testimony will become the actual objects of our faith, exactly to the extent and no further in which we understand them. Our comprehension of the object will always be the limit of our faith; and this faith will diminish or augment in the very degree in which our perception is clear or confused. But it is needful here to remark that the Divine testimony, though depending upon precisely the same process of mind as to its existence, and growth, and contraction, is far more difficult of acquirement and of retention than faith in human testimony. Is it inquired wherefore? The answer is that sin has crippled our power of judgment--that sin has deadened the spiritual sensibility which is absolutely essential to the perception of Divine truth. Supposing, therefore, the powers of understanding and of imagination to be equal in any two persons, he will comprehend the Christian revelation the most clearly who has the purest affections, who is in the highest degree detached from human objects, and who is the most conversant with the objects of the heavenly world. The purity of God; the evil of sin; the love of Christ; the manifestation of that Jove to the human soul; the hidden and holy intercourse of the heart with God; the necessity for atonement; the freeness of Divine grace; the renovation of the heart by the power and compassion of the great Comforter; the value of prayer; the fervour of gratitude; the desire to be with Christ; the secret calm of confidence in His eternal love--these, and many other subjects embodied in the testimonies of God, aresubjects with which an unholy, earthly heart cannot come into full contact. There may be a distant perception, indeed, even of these; but the affections that are low and sensual cannot perceive them so as to taste their value. And such is essential to their perception. The value which the Scriptures attach to faith, is hence no ground of surprise to him who has felt Christianity to be dear and healing to his heart. It has been by a Divine influence that he has come into contact with the spiritual meaning of Christianity; and his faith in that spiritual meaning has been the medium through which he came into such contact. He is therefore aware that no language can do justice to the worth of faith. It will thus appear that to faith belong all the essential blessings of Christianity. We come into intercourse with God; we rest under the shelter of the atonement; we are renewed in our tastes and inclinations; we acquire a home, a refuge; we regard the future as serene and bright; these blessings we acquire by faith, and by faith only. Nor is there any other conceivable way of embracing all the great and consoling realities of the gospel. Faith is, hence, the confidence of the penitent, and devout, and affectionate heart, as it reposes its weary sensations amidst the gracious assurances of God! It is farther evident from these statements, that faith will be often progressive, and often retrograde. Let the true Christian become unduly eager about earthly emoluments; let him diminish voluntarily the time he passes in secret converse with God; let him call away his thoughts from the character and friendship of his Saviour; let him thwart the precious influences of the Holy Spirit--and his faith will necessarily contract its operations; the finer and more ethereal parts of Christianity will begin to grow indistinct; his affections will be disordered; he will believe less, in reference to God and eternity, than he did before; his faith will shrink, or will vacillate as to real good and evil. On the other hand, let him grow more familiar with the lofty thoughts and aspirations of the gospel; let him discover more of the glory of Christ; let him derive from Him larger accessions of holy peace and joy; let the earth remove farther from his interior fellowship--and heaven, with all its bright anticipations, come into closer union with his understanding and his affections; and he will necessarily believe more of Christianity than he did before--he will know more of its hidden worth, as the increased purity of his affections is throwing down more of the barrier which sin had interposed between his soul and God; or, which is the same thing, between him and the richer parts of Christianity. II. THE MORE LIMITED SENSE OF THE TERM FAITH, in the passage of Scripture before us. Faith in this chapter has special reference to those tenets of Christianity which unveil the future world--the triumph and the” rest” of the righteous; and in the text it seems to refer more specially to the confidence of the soul as to God’ s intentions to render it eternally happy. The man who thus confides believes that God is, not simply that He exists, but that He exists as a kind, compassionate, generous God, to the soul that seeks Him. III. THE OF THIS FAITH UPON OUR GOD. NO one can read the Scriptures with attention without being struck by the intense anxiety of God to produce and perpetuate confidence in His mercy and grace. The whole of God’ s intercourse with man is to excite his gratitude and attachment; to prove to him that God’ s thoughts, in reference to generosity and Compassion, are far higher than the thoughts of men; and to rectify the fatal mistake that happiness lies in external objects, and in the emoluments of earth. Christianity is the exhibition of the Divine character. Its chief feature is holy mercy. Hence faith is essential to our intercourse with God. He who doubts God’ s goodness, he who voluntarily severs himself from God’ s care, and casts himself as an orphan upon his own resources, thus forces back the hand which is lifted up in his defence, and rejects the succours of omnipotence. “ Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Is it then presumption to believe God’ s assurances, and to rest the full burden of our hopes upon His promises? Shall we still cling to the deceptive assurances of the world, and rest upon the poor broken reeds of earth? Earthly blessings, moderately enjoyed and gratefully received, may embellish and smooth in part the rugged journey of life; but they cannot build up a final dwelling-place; they cannot occupy the place of God in the heart; they cannot fill up the deep void which sin has left in the human soul. They can have no fellowship with all its inner necessities. They can carry no balm to the wounds of conscience; they can draw out no sting from death; they can achieve no victory over the grave. This is the work of God; this is the victory of Jesus Christ! Thrice happy those whom God has made willing to confide in His power. “ Their defence is the munition of rocks.” The outward walls may crumble to decay; but nought can touch “ their citadel of peace in Jesus’ s blood.” (G. T. Noel, M. A.) Of the nature of faith in general I. WE WILL THE CAUSE OF FAITH, OR THE WHEREBY IT IS WROUGHT. 1. Sense; hence it is commonly said that “ seeing is believing,” that is, one of the best arguments to persuade us of anything. That faith may be wrought by this argument appears both from the nature of the thing, nothing being more apt to persuade us of anything than our senses, and from several expressions in Scripture. I will instance in one for all (John 20:8). 2. Experience, which, though it may be sensible, and then it is the same argument with sense, yet sometimes it is not, and then it is an argument distinct from it. As for example, a man may by experience be persuaded or induced to believe this proposition--that his will is free, that he can do this, or not do it; which is a better argument than a demonstration to the contrary, if there could be one. 3. Reasons drawn from the thing; which may either be necessary and concluding, or else only probable and plausible. 4. The authority and testimony of some credible person. Now two things give authority and credit to the relation, or testimony, or assertion of a person concerning anything; ability and integrity. II. The second thing to be considered is THE DEGREES OF FAITH, AND THE OF THEM. NOW the capacity or incapacity of persons are infinitely various, and not to be reduced to theory; but supposing a competent capacity in the person, then the degrees of faith or persuasion take their difference from the arguments, or motives, or inducements which are used to persuade. Where sense is the argument, there is the firmest degree of faith, or persuasion. Next to that is experience, which is beyond any argument or reason from the thing. The faith or persuasion which is wrought in us by reasons from the thing, the degrees of it are as the reasons are: if they be necessary and concluding, it is firm and certain in its kind; if only probable, according to the degrees of probability, it hath more or less of doubting mixed with it. Lastly, the faith which is wrought in us by testimony or authority of a person takes its degrees from the credit of a person, that is, his ability and integrity. Now because “ all men are liars,” that is, either may deceive, or be deceived, their testimony partakes of their infirmity, and so doth the degree of persuasion wrought by it; but God being both infallible and true His testimony begets the firmest persuasion, and the highest degree of faith in its kind. But then it is to be considered, that there not being a revelation of a revelation in infinitum, that this is a Divine testimony and revelation we can only have rational assurance; and the degree of the faith or persuasion which is wrought by a Divine testimony will be according to the strength of the arguments which we have to persuade us that such a testimony is Divine. III. For the efficacy or operation of faith we are to consider, THAT THE THINGS WE MAY BELIEVE OR BE OF ARE OF TWO SORTS. Either, 1. They are such as do not concern me; and then the mind rests in a simple belief of them, and a faith or persuasion of such things has no effect upon me; but is apt to have, if ever it happen that the matter do concern me: or else, 2. The thing I believe or am persuaded of doth concern me; and then it hath several effects according to the nature of the thing I am persuaded of, or the degree of the persuasion, or the capacity of the person that believes or is persuaded. If the thing believed be of great moment the effect of the faith is proportionable, and so according to the degree of the persuasion; but if the person be indisposed to the proper effects of such a persuasion by the power of contrary habits, as it often happens, the effect will be obtained with more difficulty, and may possibly be totally defeated by casting off the persuasion; for while it remains it will operate, and endeavour and strive to work its proper effect. IV. FOR THE KINDS OF FAITH, THEY ARE SEVERAL, TO THE VARIETY OF OBJECTS OF THINGS . I shall reduce them all under these two general heads. 1. Faith is either civil or human, under which I comprehend the persuasion of things moral, and natural, and political, and the like; or, 2. Divine and religious; that is, a persuasion of things that concern religion. I know not whether these terms be proper, nor am I very solicitous, because I know none fitter, and tell you what I mean by them. (Abp. Tillotson.) Of a religious and divine faith: I. A OF THE OF NATURAL , such as the light of nature could discover; such are the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and a future state. 1. Whether it may truly and properly be called faith or not? If the general notion of faith which I have fixed before, viz., that it is a persuasion of the mind concerning anything, be a true notion of faith, then there is no doubt but this may as properly be called faith, as anything can be; because a man may be persuaded in his mind concerning these things that there is a God, that our souls are immortal, that there is another state after this life. But besides this, if the Scripture speaks properly, as we have reason to believe it does, especially when it treats professedly of anything as the apostle here does, then this question is fully decided; for it is evident to any one that will but read this verse that the apostle doth here in this place speak of this kind of faith; that is, a belief or persuasion of the principles of natural religion. 2. What are the arguments whereby this faith, or the persuasion of these principles of natural religion, is wrought? They are such reasons as may be drawn from things themselves to persuade us hereof; as either from the notion and idea which we have of a God, that He is a being that hath all perfections, whereof necessary existence is one, and consequently that He must be; or else from the universal consent of all nations, and the generality of persons agreeing in this apprehension, which cannot be attributed reasonably to any other cause than to impressions stamped upon our understandings by God Himself; or (which is most plain of all) from this visible frame of the world, which we cannot, without great violence to our understandings, impute to any other cause than a Being endowed with infinite goodness, and power, and wisdom, which is that we call God. As for the other two principles of natural religion, the immortality of the soul, and a future state, after we believe a God we may be persuaded of these from Divine revelation; and that doth give us the highest and firmest assurance of them in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. 3. Whether this faith or persuasion of the principles of natural religion admit degrees or not? And what differences are observable in them? That it does admit degrees, that is that a man may be more or less persuaded of the truth of those principles, is evident from the heathens, some of whom did yield a more firm and unshaken assent to them; others entertained them with a more faint persuasion of them, especially of the immortality of the soul and a future state, about which most of them had many qualms and doubts. Of all the heathens Socrates seems to have had the truest and firmest persuasion of these things; which he did not only testify in words, but by the constancy, and calmness, and sedate courage which he manifested at his death. So that this faith and persuasion admits of degrees the difference whereof is to be resolved partly into the capacity of the persons who believe, and partly into the strength, or at least appearance of strength, in the arguments whereby it is wrought. 4. What are the proper and genuine effects of this faith or persuasion? Now that, in a word, is natural religion which consists in apprehensions of God suitable to His nature, and affections towards Him suitable to these apprehensions, and actions suitable to both. 5. In what sense this faith or persuasion of the principles of natural religion may be said to be Divine? In these two respects: (1) In respect of the object of it, or matters to be believed, which are Divine, and do immediately concern religion, in opposition to that which I call a civil and human faith, which is of such things as do not immediately concern God and religion. (2) In respect of the Divine effect of it, which are to make men religious, and like God. II. The second sort of faith, which I call A OF THINGS , OF THINGS WHICH ARE NOT KNOWN BY NATURAL LIGHT, BUT BY SOME MORE AND FROM GOD. Thus we find our Saviour (Matthew 16:15-17), opposeth Divine revelation to the discovery of natural reason and light. 1. Whether this may truly and properly be called faith? And that it may is evident, because the general definition of faith agrees to it; for a man may be persuaded in his mind concerning things supernaturally revealed; and the Scripture everywhere calls a persuasion of these matters by the name of faith. Bat besides this, it seems this is the adequate and only notion of faith as it hath been fixed by the schools, and is become a term of art. For the definition that the schools give of faith is this, that it is an assent to a thing credible, as credible. Now, say they, that is credible which relies upon the testimony of a credible person; and consequently a human faith is that which relies upon human testimony; and a Divine faith that which relies upon the testimony or authority of God. 2. What is the argument whereby this faith or persuasion of things supernaturally revealed is wrought in us? And this, by the general consent of all, is the testimony or authority of God some way or other revealing these things to us; whose infallible and unerring knowledge, together with His goodness and authority, gives us the highest assurance that He neither can be deceived Himself, nor will deceive us in anything that He reveals to us. 3. As to the degrees of this faith. Supposing men sufficiently satisfied that the Scriptures are the Word of God, that is, a Divine revelation; then all those who are sufficiently satisfied of this do equally believe the things contained in the Scriptures. Supposing any man be unsatisfied, and do make any doubt whether these books called Holy Scriptures, or any of them, be the Word of God, that is a Divine revelation; proportionably to the degree of his doubting concerning the Divine authority of the Scriptures, there will be an abatement of his faith as to the things contained in them. And upon this account I think it is that the Scripture speaks of degrees of faith; of growing and increasing in faith; of a strong faith; and of a weak faith, that is such a faith as had a great mixture of doubting; by which we are not to understand that they doubted of the truth of anything of which they were satisfied by a Divine revelation; but that they doubted whether such things were Divine revelations or not. 4. What are the proper and genuine effects of this faith? The proper and genuine effects of the belief of the Scriptures in general is the conformity of our hearts and lives to what we believe; that is, to be such persons and to live such lives as it becomes those who do heartily believe, and are really persuaded of the truth of the Scriptures. And if this be a constant and abiding persuasion it will produce this effect; but with more or less difficulty according to the disposition of the subject, and the weakness or strength of contrary habits and inclinations. More particularly the effects of this faith are according to the nature of the matter believed. If it be a history or relation of things past, or prophecy of things to come, it hath an effect upon men so far as the history or prophecy doth concern them. If it be a doctrine, it hath the effect which the particular nature and tendency of such a doctrine requires. 5. In what sense this faith of things supernaturally revealed may be said to be a Divine faith? blot only in respect of the matter and object of it, which are Divine things, such as concern God and religion and in respect of the Divine effects it hath upon those who believe these things (for in these two respects a persuasion of the principles of natural religion may be said to be a Divine faith); but likewise in respect of the argument whereby it is wrought, which is a Divine testimony. (Abp. Tillotson.) Of the faith or persuasion of a Divine revelation I. WHAT WE ARE TO BY A DIVINE . A supernatural discovery or manifestation of things to us. I say supernatural because it may either be immediately by God, or by the mediation of angels; as most if not all the revelations of the Old Testament were; a supernatural discovery or manifestation, either immediately to our minds and inward faculties, or else mediately to our understandings, by the mediation of our outward senses; as by an external appearance to our bodily eyes, or by a voice and sound to the sense of hearing. II. WHETHER A OF A DIVINE MAY RE CALLED FAITH? To this I answer, that according to the narrow notion of faith which the schools have fixed, which is an assent to anything grounded upon the testimony and authority of God revealing it, a persuasion of a Divine revelation cannot properly be called faith, because it is irrational to expect that a man should have another Divine revelation to assure him that this is a Divine revelation; for then, for the same reason, I must expect another Divine revelation to assure me of that, and so without end. But according to the true and general notion of faith, which is a persuasion of the mind concerning anything, a persuasion of the mind concerning a Divine revelation may as properly be called faith as anything else, if men will but grant that a man may be so satisfied concerning a Divine revelation, as verily to believe and be persuaded that it is so. III. How WE MAY COME TO BE OF A DIVINE THAT IT IS SUCH; or by what arguments this persuasion is wrought in us? 1. As to those persons to whom the revelation is immediately made, the question is by what arguments or means they may come to be assured that any revelation which they have is really and truly such, and not a delusion or imposture. (1) God can work in the mind of man a firm persuasion of a thing by giving him a clear and vigorous perception of it; and if so, then God can accompany His own revelations with such a clear and overpowering light as shall discover to us the divinity of them, and satisfy us thereof beyond all doubt and scruple. (2) God never persuades a man of anything that contradicts the natural and essential notions of his mind and understanding. For this would be to destroy His own workmanship, and to impose that upon the understanding of a man which, whilst it retains its own nature and remains what it is, it cannot possibly admit. (3) Supposing the thing revealed do not contradict the essential notions of our minds, no good and holy man hath reason to doubt of anything, whether it be revelation from God or not, of which he hath a clear and vigorous perception, and full satisfaction in his own mind that it is such. (4) A good and holy man reflecting upon this assurance and persuasion that he hath may be able to give himself a reasonable account of it, and satisfy himself that it is not a stubborn belief and an obstinate conceit of things without any ground or reason. 2. What assurance can other persons, who have not the revelation immediately made to them, have of a Divine revelation? To this I shall answer by these propositions: (1) That there are some means whereby a man may be assured of another’ s revelation that it is Divine. (a) Otherwise it would signify nothing, but only to the person that immediately had it; which would make void the chief end of most revelations, which are seldom made to particular persons for their own sakes only, but, for the most part, on purpose that they may be made known to others, which could not effectually be done unless there be some means whereby men may be assured of revelations made to another. (b) None could be guilty of unbelief but those who had immediate revelation made to them. For no man is guilty of unbelief that is not obliged to believe; but no man can be under any obligation to believe anything, who hath not sufficient means whereby he may be assured that such a thing is true. (2) The private assurance and satisfaction of another concerning a revelation made to him can signify nothing at all to me, to assure me of it. For what satisfaction is it to me that another may say he hath a revelation, unless I have some means to be assured that what he saith is true? For if I must believe every spirit, that is every man that says he is inspired, I lie open to all possible impostures and delusions, and must believe every one that either foolishly conceits or falsely pretends that he hath a revelation. (3) That miracles wrought for the confirmation of any Divine testimony or revelation made to another are a sufficient means whereby those who have not the Divine revelation immediately made to them may be assured that it is Divine; I say these are sufficient means of assurance in this case. But here we must distinguish between doubtful and unquestionable miracles. IV. WHETHER THIS FAITH A DIVINE MADE TO OTHERS NO ADMIT OF DEGREES? That it doth is evident from these expressions which the Scripture useth, of “ increasing faith,” of “ growing in it,” of “ a weak and strong faith,” all which plainly supposeth degrees. And here it will be proper to inquire what is the highest degree of assurance which we can have concerning a Divine revelation made to another, that it is such; whether it be an infallible assurance, or only an undoubted certainty. 1. That infallibility is not essential to Divine faith, and necessarily included in the notion of it; which I prove thus. Divine faith admits of degrees, as I have showed before; but there can be no degree of infallibility. Infallibility is an impossibility of being deceived; but there are no degrees of impossibility, one thing is not more impossible than another; but all things that are impossible are equally so. 2. That the assurance which we have of the miracles wrought for the confirmation of the gospel is not an infallible assurance. 3. That an undoubted assurance of a Divine revelation that it is such, is as much as in reason can be expected. No man pretends to a Divine revelation that there is a God; but only to have rational satisfaction of it, such as leaves no just or reasonable cause to doubt of it. And why then should any desire greater assurance of a Divine revelation than he hath of a God? 4. An undoubted assurance is sufficient to constitute a Divine faith. Do not men venture their estates in traffic to places they never saw, because they have it from credible persons that there are such places, and they have no reason to doubt their testimony; and why should not the same assurance serve in greater matters if an undoubted assurance of a lesser benefit and advantage will make men venture as much? Why should any man desire greater assurance of anything than to have no just reason to doubt it; why more than so much as the thing is capable of? I shall only add this: that nothing hath been more pernicious to Christian religion than the vain pretences of men to greater assurance concerning things relating to it than they can make good; the mischief of which is this--that when discerning and inquisitive men find that men pretend to greater matters than they can prove, this makes them doubt of all they say, and to call in question Christianity itself. Whereas if men would be contented to speak justly of things, and pretend to no greater assurance than they can bring evidence for, considerate men would be apt to believe them. V. WHAT IS THE PROPER AND GENUINE EFFECT OF THIS FAITH OF A DIVINE ? I answer, a compliance with the design and intention of it. VI. IN WHAT RESPECT THIS MAY BE CALLED A DIVINE FAITH. TO this I answer, not only in respect of the object of it, and the argument whereby it is wrought, and the effect of it; but, likewise, in respect of the author and efficient of it, which is the Divine Spirit. (Abp. Tillotson.) Of the testimony of the Spirit to the truth of the gospel I. IN RESPECT OF THE OUTWARD WHICH THE SPIRIT OF GOD GIVES US TO US TO BELIEVE. And if this be not that which divines mean by the testimony of the Spirit in this matter, yet I think it is that which may most properly be so called. Now the Spirit of God did outwardly testify concerning Jesus, that He was the Messias, and came from God; and that the doctrine which He taught was Divine. 1. In the voice from heaven, which accompanied the descending of the Spirit upon Him (Matthew 3:17). 2. In those miracles which Christ Himself wrought by the Spirit of God, which were so eminent a testimony of the Spirit of God, that the resisting of the evidence of those miracles, and the attributing of them to the devil, is by our Saviour called a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 3. In the great miracle of His resurrection from the dead. 4. In the effusion of the Spirit upon the apostles, who were to preach Christ and His doctrine to the world; and that it might carry its evidence along with it. II. FAITH IS IN A MANNER TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD, IN RESPECT OF THE INWARD AND OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT UPON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THOSE WHO AND BELIEVE AND THE GOSPEL. 1. By strengthening the faculty, that is, raising and enabling our understanding to yield assent to the gospel. God is said, in Scripture, to “ enlighten the eyes of our understandings,” which we may, if we please, understand in this sense; although that may be done by propounding such truths to us as we were ignorant of before, and could not have discovered, unless they had been revealed. 2. By enlightening and discovering the object, or thing to be believed. In the case we are speaking of, the object or thing to be believed is the gospel: now we may imagine the Spirit of God may work a faith or persuasion of this in us, by revealing or discovering to us this proposition, that the gospel is true. 3. By propounding and offering to us such arguments and evidence as are apt to persuade us of the truth of the gospel. And this, the Spirit of God, which inspired the writers of the Scripture, doth mediately by the Scriptures, and those characters of Divinity which are in the doctrines contained in them; and by those miracles which are there credibly related to be wrought by the Spirit of God, for the confirmation of that doctrine. And besides this, the Spirit of God may, when He pleaseth, and probably often doth, immediately suggest those arguments to our minds, and bring them to our remembrance. 4. By holding our minds intent upon this evidence, till it hath wrought its effect upon us. 5. By removing the impediments which hinder our effectual assent to the gospel. And in this and the last particular I conceive the work of the Spirit of God, in the producing of faith, principally to consist. 6. By furthering and helping forward the efficacy of this persuasion upon our hearts and lives, in the first work of conversion and regeneration, and in the progressive work of sanctification afterward, both which the Scripture doth everywhere attribute to the Spirit of God, as the author and efficient cause. Lessons: 1. We may learn from hence to attribute all the good that is in us, or that we do in any kind, to God. III. THOUGH “ FAITH” BE “ THE GIFT OF GOD,” YET THOSE THAT BELIEVE NOT ARE FAULTY UPON THIS ACCOUNT, THAT THEY QUENCH AND RESIST THE BLESSED MOTIONS OF GOD’ S SPIRIT, and the influence and operation of the Spirit of God, which accompany the truth of the gospel to the minds of men, and produce their effect wherever they are not opposed and rejected by the prejudice and perverseness of men. IV. Let us depend upon God for every good gift, and BEG THE AND OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT, WHICH IS SO TO US TO BEGET FAITH IN US, AND TO AND MAKE IT UPON OUR HEARTS AND LIVES. Bread is not more necessary to the support of our natural life, than the Holy Spirit of God to our spiritual life. For our encouragement to ask this gift of God’ s Holy Spirit, our Saviour hath told us that God is very ready to bestow it upon us (Luke 11:11-13). (Abp. Tillotson.) The efficacy, usefulness, and reasonableness, of Divine faith I. WITHOUT FAITH THERE CAN BE NO . And this will appear by inquiring into the nature of all human actions, whether civil or religious; and this is common to both of them, that they suppose some kind of faith or persuasion. For example, husbandry, or merchandise; no man will apply himself to these, but upon some belief or persuasion of the possibility and necessity, or at least usefulness and convenience, of these to the ends of life. So it is in Divine and religious things; nothing is done without faith. No man will worship God unless he believe there is a God; unless he be persuaded there is such a being, which, by reason of his excellency and perfection, may challenge our veneration; and unless he believe the goodness of this God, that “ He will reward those that diligently serve Him.” So likewise no man can entertain Christ as the Messias and Saviour of the world, and yield obedience to His laws, unless he believes that He was sent of God, and ordained by Him to be a Prince and a Saviour. So that you see the necessity of faith to religion. II. THE THAT A DIVINE FAITH HATH UPON MEN TO MAKE THEM . 1. A true Divine faith supposeth a man satisfied and persuaded of the reasonableness of religion. He that verily believes there is a God, believes there is a being that hath all excellency and perfection, that is infinitely good, and wise, and just, and powerful, that made and preserves all things. Now he that believes such a Being as this, cannot but think it reasonable that He should be esteemed and adored by all those creatures that are sensible and apprehensive of these excellences; not only by constant praise of Him, but by a universal obedience to His will, and a cheerful submission to His pleasure. For what more reasonable than gratitude? And seeing He is truth itself, and hath been pleased to reveal His will to us, what can be more reasonable than to believe all those discoveries and revelations which “ God, who cannot lie,” hath made to us, and to comply with the intention of them? And seeing He is the original pattern of all excellency and perfection, what can be more reasonable than to imitate the perfections of the Divine nature, and to endeavour to be as like God as we can? And these are the sum of all religion. 2. A true Divine faith supposeth a man satisfied and persuaded of the necessity of religion; that is, that it is necessary to every man’ s interest to be religious; that it will be highly for our advantage to be so, and eminently to our prejudice to be otherwise; that if we be so we shall be happy, if we be not we shall be miserable and undone for ever. (1) From the nature and reason of the thing. Every man that believes a God, must believe Him to be the supreme good; and the greatest happiness to consist in the enjoyment of Him; and a separation from Him to be the greatest misery. Now God is not to be enjoyed but in a way of religion. Holiness makes us like to God, and likeness will make us love Him; and love will make us happy in the enjoyment of Him; and without this it is impossible to be happy. (2) Every man who believes the revelations which God hath made, cannot but be satisfied how much religion is his interest from the promises and threatenings of God’ s Word. : 1. This shows why there is so little of true religion in the world; it is for want of faith, without which it is impossible for men to be religious. If men were verily persuaded that the great, and holy, and just God looks continually upon them, and that it is impossible to hide from Him anything that we do, they would not dare to commit any sin in His sight, and under the eye of Him who is their Father and Master, their Sovereign and their Judge, their Friend and Benefactor; who is invested with all these titles, and stands to us in all these relations, which may challenge reverence and respect. Did men believe that they shall live for ever, and that after this short life is ended they must enter upon eternity; did men believe this, would they not with all possible care and diligence endeavour to attain the one and avoid the other? Did men believe the Scripture to be the Word of God, and to contain matters of the highest importance to our everlasting happiness, would they neglect it and lay it aside, and study it no more than a man would do an almanac out of date. 2. If faith have so great an influence upon religion, then the next use shall be to persuade men to believe. No man can be religious that doth not believe these two things: (1) The principles of natural religion--that there is a God; that His soul is immortal; and that there are future rewards. (2) That the Scriptures are the Word of God; or, which comes all to one, that the doctrine contained in them is a Divine revelation. Therefore whoever would persuade men to be religious, he must begin here; and whoever would improve men in religion and holiness, he must labour to strengthen this principle of faith. (Abp. Tillotson.) Faith The old Assembly’ s Catechism asks, “ What is the chief end of man?” and its answer is, “ To glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.” The answer is exceedingly correct; but it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. The chief end of man is “ to please God” ; for in so doing he will please himself. He that pleases God is, through Divine grace, journeying onward to the ultimate reward of all those that love and fear God; but he who is ill-pleasing to God must, for Scripture has declared it, be banished from the presence of God, and consequently from the enjoyment of happiness. If then, we be right in saying that to please God is to be happy, the one important question is, how can I please God? And there is something very solemn in the utterance of our text: “ Without faith it is impossible to please God.” That is to say, do what you may, strive as earnestly as you can, live as excellently as you please, make what sacrifices you choose, be as eminent as you can for everything that is lovely and of good repute, yet none of these things can be pleasing to God unless they be mixed with faith. I. First, for the . What is faith? 1. The first thing in faith is knowledge. “ Search the Scriptures,” then, “ for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Christ” ; and by reading cometh knowledge, and by knowledge cometh faith, and through faith cometh salvation. 2. But a man may know a thing, and yet not have faith. I may know a thing, and yet not believe it. Therefore assent must go with faith; that is to say, what we know we must all agree unto, as being most certainly the verity of God. 3. But a man may have all this, and yet not possess true faith; for the chief part of faith lies in the last head, namely, in an affiance to the truth; not the believing it merely, but the taking hold of it as being ours, and in the resting on it for salvation. Recumbency on the truth was the word which the old preachers used. You will understand that word. Leaning on it; saying, “ This is truth, I trust my salvation on it.” Now, true faith, in its very essence rests in this--a leaning upon Christ. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust Him to be my Saviour. II. And now we come to the --why, without faith, we cannot be saved. 1. “ Without faith it is impossible to please God.” And I gather it from the fact that there never has been the case of a man recorded in Scripture who did please God without faith. 2. But the next argument is, faith is the stooping grace, and nothing can make man stoop without faith. Now, unless man does stoop, his sacrifice cannot he accepted. The angels know this. When they praise God, they do it veiling their faces with their wings. The redeemed know it. When they praise God, they cast their crowns before His feet. 3. Faith is necessary to salvation, because we are told in Scripture that works cannot save. To tell a very familiar story, and even the poorest may not misunderstand what I say: a minister was one day going to preach. He climbed a hill on his road. Beneath him lay the villages, sleeping in their beauty, with the cornfields motionless in the sunshine; but he did not look at them, for his attention was arrested by a woman standing at her door, and who, upon seeing him, came up to him with the greatest anxiety, and said, “ Oh, sir, have you any keys about you? I have broken the key of my drawers, and there are some things that I must get directly.” Said he, “ I have no keys.” She was disappointed, expecting that every one would have some keys. “ But suppose,” he said, “ I had some keys, they might not fit your lock, and therefore you could not get the articles you want. But do not distress yourself, wait till some one else comes up. But,” said he, wishing to improve the occasion, “ have you ever heard of the key of heaven?” “ Ah! yes,” she said, “ I have lived long enough, and I have gone to church long enough, to know that if we work hard and get our bread by the sweat of our brow, and act well towards our neighbours, and behave, as the catechism says, lowly and reverently to all our betters, and if we do our duty in that station of life in which it has pleased God to place us, and say our prayers regularly, we shall be saved.” “ Ah!” said he, “ my good woman, that is a broken key, for you have broken the commandments, you have not fulfilled all your duties. It is a good key, but you have broken it.” “ Pray, sir,” said she, believing that he understood the matter, and looking frightened, “ What have I left out? … Why,” said he, “ the all-important thing, the blood of Jesus Christ. Don’ t you know it is said, the key of heaven is at His girdle; He openeth, and no man shutteth; He shutteth, and no man openeth” ? And explaining it more fully to her, he said, “ It is Christ, and Christ alone, that can open heaven to you, and not your good works.” “ What, minister,” said she, “ are our good works useless, then?” “No,” said he, “ not after faith. If you believe first, you may have as many good works as you please; but if you believe, you will never trust in them, for if you trust in them you have spoilt them, and they are not good works any longer. Have as many good works as you please, still put your trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ, for if you do not, your key will never unlock heaven’ s gate.” 4. Again: without faith it is impossible to be saved, and to please God, because without faith there is no union to Christ. Now, union to Christ is indispensable to our salvation. If I come before God’ s throne with my prayers, I shall never get them answered, unless I bring Christ with me. 5. “ Without faith it is impossible to please God,” because it is impossible to persevere in holiness without faith. III. And now in conclusion, THE , the vital question. Have you faith? 1. He that has faith has renounced his own righteousness. 2. True faith begets a great esteem for the person of Christ. 3. He that has true faith will have true obedience. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith essential to pleasing God I. THE APOSTLE ASSERTS THAT FAITH IS TO THE OF GOD. 1. For, first, without faith there is no capacity for communion with God at all. The things of God are spiritual and invisible; without faith we cannot recognise such things, but must be dead to them. 2. Without faith the man himself is not pleasing to God. Faith in Christ makes a total change in our position towards God--we who were enemies are reconciled; and from this comes towards God a distinct change in the nature of all our actions: imperfect though they be, they spring from a loyal heart, and they are pleasing to God. 3. Remember that, in human associations, want of confidence would prevent a man’ s being well-pleasing to another. When the creature dares to doubt his Creator, how can the Creator be pleased? 4. Unbelief takes away the common ground upon which God and man can meet. According to the well-worn fable, two persons who are totally different in their pursuits cannot well live together: the fuller and the charcoal-burner were obliged to part; for whatever the fuller had made white, the collier blackened with his finger. If differing pursuits divide, much more will differing feelings upon a vital point. It is Jesus whom Jehovah delights to honour; and if you will not even trust Jesus with your soul’ s salvation, you grieve the heart of God, and He can have no pleasure in you. 5. Want of faith destroys all prospect of love. 6. Want of faith will create positive variance on many points. 7. By what means can we hope to please God, apart from faith in Him? By keeping all the commandments? Alas! you have not done so. If you do not believe in Him you are not obedient to Him. We are bound to obey with the mind by believing, as well as with the hand by acting. Remember the impossibility of pleasing the Lord without faith, and do not dash your ship upon this iron-bound coast. II. THE APOSTLE TWO POINTS OF FAITH. He begins by saying, “ He that cometh to God must believe that He is.” Note the key-word “ must” : it is an immovable, insatiable necessity. Before we can walk with God, it is clear that we must “ come to God.” Naturally, we are at a distance from Him, and we must end that distance by coming to Him, or else we cannot walk with Him, nor be pleasing to Him. Believe that God is as truly as you are; and let Him be real to you. Believe that He is to be approached, to be realised, to be, in fact, the great practical factor of your life. Hold this as the primary truth, that God is most influential upon you; and then believe that it is your business to come to Him. But there is only one way of coming to Him, and you must have faith to use that way. Yet all this would be nothing without the second point of belief. We must believe that “ He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” We seek Him, first, when we begin by prayer, by trusting to Jesus, and by.calling upon the sacred name, to seek salvation. Afterwards we seek God by aiming at His glory, by making Him the great object for which we live. III. WE WILL NOW GATHER A FEW LESSONS FROM WHAT THE APOSTLE HAS TAUGHT US. 1. First, then, the apostle teaches us here by implication that God is pleased with those who have faith The negative is often the plainest way of suggesting the positive. 2. Learn, next, that those who have faith make it the great object of their life to please God. 3. Next, note, the apostle teaches us here that they who have faith in God are always coming to God; for He speaks of the believer as “ He that cometh to God.” You not only come to Him, and go away from Him, as in acts of prayer and praise; but you are always coming; your life is a march towards Him. 4. God will see that those who practise faith in Him shall have a reward. God Himself is enough for the believer. 5. Those who have no faith are in a fearful case. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Trust gratifies The “ Cottager and Artisan” gives the following anecdote of the late Lord Shaftesbury:--“ I was one day,” he said, “ about to cross the street in one of the great thoroughfares of London. It was very crowded, and a little girl all alone was much puzzled as to how she was to get over. I watched her walking up and down, and scanning the faces of those who passed to see if there were any whom she could trust, but for a long time she seemed to scan in vain. At last she came to me, and looking timidly up in my face, whispered, ‘ Please, sir, will you lift me over?’ And,” Lord Shaftesbury adds, “ that little child’ s trust was the greatest compliment I ever had in my life.” Value of faith A New-Year’ s wish of Romaine for his people and for himself was: “ God grant that this may be a year famous for believing.” That is a wish that the most advanced century will never outgrow. Such a year will be famous indeed. Mighty works and mighty men are found where there is famous faith. The measure of the possibility of a year great in believing is the measure of the Infinite God Himself. (Sword and Trowel.) He that cometh to God Access to God: It is a wonderful idea, the idea of the infinite, almighty, eternal Being, as to be approached and communicated with by man. If we might allow ourselves in such an imagination, as that the selected portion of all humanity, the very best and wisest persons on earth, were combined into a permanent assembly, and invested with a sovereign authority--the highest wisdom, virtue, science, and power thus united--would not a perfectly free access for the humblest, poorest, most distressed, and otherwise friendless, to such an assemblage, with a certainty of their most kind and sedulous attention being given--of their constant will to render aid--of their wisdom and power being promptly exercised--would not this be deemed an inestimable privilege to all within the compass of such an empire? But take a higher position, and suppose that there were such an economy that the most illustrious of the departed saints held the office of being practically, though unseen, patrons, protectors, assistants, guides, to men on earth; that the spirits of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, could be drawn, by those who desired it, to a direct personal attention, and to an exercise of their benignity and interference--would not this appear a resource of incalculable value? But there is another far loftier ascension. We are informed of a glorious order of intelligences that have never dwelt in flesh; many of whom may have enjoyed their existence from a remoteness of time surpassing what we can conceive of eternity; with an immense expansion of being and powers; with a perpetual augmentation of the goodness inspired by their Creator; and exercising their virtues and unknown powers in appointed offices of beneficence throughout the system of unnumbered worlds. Would it not seem a pre-eminent privilege, if the children of the dust might obtain a direct communication with them; might invoke them, accost them, draw them to a fixed attention, and with a sensible evidence of their indulgent patience and celestial benignity? Would not this seem an exaltation of felicity, throwing into shade everything that could be imagined to be derived to us from the benevolence and power of mortal or glorified humanity? Now, here we are at the summit of created existence; and up to this sublime elevation we have none of these supposed privileges. What, then, to do next? Next, our spirits have to raise their thoughts to an awful elevation above all subordinate existence in earth and heaven, in order to approach a presence where they may implore a beneficent attention, and enter into a communication with Him who is uncreated and infinite; a transition compared to which the distance from the inferior to the nobler, and then to the noblest of created beings, is reduced to nothing; as one lofty eminence on an elevated mountain--and a higher--and the highest--but thence to the starry heavens! But think, who is it that is thus to “ come to God?” Man! little, feeble, mortal, fallen, sinful man! He is, if we may speak in such language, to venture an act expressly to arrest the attention of that stupendous Being. The purpose is to speak to Him in a personal manner; to detain Him in communication. The approaching petitioner is to utter thoughts, for God to admit them into His thoughts! He seeks to cause his words to be listened to by Him whose own words may be, at the very time, commanding new creations into existence. But reflect, also, that it is an act to call the special attention of Him whose purity has a perfect perception of all that is evil in the creature that approaches Him; of Him whom the applicant is conscious he has not, to the utmost of his faculties, adored or loved: alas! the very contrary! What an amazing view is thus presented of the situation the unworthy mortal is placed in, the position which he presumes to take, in “ coming to God.” A sinful being immediately under the burning rays of Omnipotent Holiness! The idea is so fearful, that one might think it should be the most earnest desire of the human soul that there should be some intervention to save it from the fatal predicament. No wonder, then, that the most devout men of every age of the Christian dispensation have welcomed with gratitude the doctrine of a Mediator, manifested in the person of the Son of God, by whom the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man are, as it were, kept asunder; and a happy communication can take place through the medium of One who stands before the Divine Majesty of Justice, in man’ s behalf, with a propitiation and a perfect righteousness. Thus far, and too long, we have dwelt on the wonderfulness of the fact and the greatness of the privilege of “ coming to God.” We have to consider, a little, with what faith this is to be done. “ Must believe that He is.” Must have a most absolute conviction that there is one Being infinitely unlike and superior to all others; the sole Self-existent, All-comprehending, and All-powerful; a reality in such a sense that all other things are but precarious modes of being, subsisting simply in virtue of His will;--must pass through and beyond the sphere of sense, to have a spiritual sight of “ Him that is invisible” ; and, more than merely a principle held in the understanding, must verify the solemn reality in a vitally pervading sentiment of the soul. And what a glory of intellect and faith thus to possess a truth which is the sun in our mental sphere, and whence radiate all the illuminations and felicities that can bless the rational creation! And what a spectacle of debasement and desolation is presented to us, when we behold the frightful phenomenon of a rational creature disbelieving a God! But how easily it may be said, “ We have that faith; we never denied or doubted that there is such a Being.” Well; but reflect, and ascertain in what degree the general tenor of your feelings, and your habits of life, have been different from what they might have been if you had disbelieved or doubted. The effectual faith in the Divine existence always looks to consequences. In acknowledging each glorious attribute, it regards the aspect which it bears on the worshipper, inferring what will therefore be because that is. It is not a valid faith in the Divinity, as regarded in any of His attributes, till it excite the solicitous thought, “ And what then?” He is, as supreme in goodness; and what then? Then, how precious is every assurance from Himself that He is accessible to us. Then, is it not the truest insanity in the creation to be careless of His favour? Then, happy they who obtain that favour, by devoting themselves to seek it. Then, let us instantly and ardently proceed to act on the conviction that He is the “ rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” This faith is required in consideration of the intention (might we presume to say, reverently, the sincerity of the heavenly Father in calling men to come to Him. “ I have not said, Seek ye Me in vain.” To what purpose are they thus required to make His favour the object of their eternal aspiration; to forego all things rather than this. Why thus summoned, and trained, and exercised, to a lofty ambition far above the world? Not to frustrate all this labour, not to disappoint them of the felicity to which they continually aspire! They “ must believe that He is a rewarder” ; that He is not thus calling them up a long, laborious ascent, only that they may behold His glorious throne, come near to His blissful paradise, do Him homage at its gate, and then be shut out. Consider again: it is because there is a Mediator, that sinful men are authorised to approach to God, seeking that--no more than that--which the mysterious appointment was made, in Divine justice and mercy, for the purpose of conferring on them. Then they must believe that this glorious office cannot but be availing to their success. What has been appointed, in the last resort, in substitution and in remedy of an antecedent economy, because that has failed, must be, by eminence, of a nature not itself to fail. They that “ come to God” in confidence on this new Divine constitution, will find that He, in justice to His appointment of a Mediator, will grant what is promised and sought in virtue of it; in other words, will be a “ rewarder “ for Christ’ s sake. And what is that in which it will be verified to them “ that He is a rewarder” ? For what will they have to adore and bless Him as such? For the grandest benefits which even He can impart in doing full justice to the infinite merits of the appointed Redeemer. But the important admonition, to be repeated here in concluding, is, that all this is for them “ that diligently seek” ; so habitually, importunately, perseveringly, that it shall in good faith be made the primary concern of our life; so that, while wishes and impulses to obtain are incessantly springing from the busy soul in divers directions, there shall still be one predominant impulse directed towards heaven. And, if such representations as we have been looking at be true, think what might be obtained by all of us, who have them at this hour soliciting our attention, on the supposition that we all should henceforward be earnest applicants to the Sovereign Rewarder. Think of the mighty amount of good, in time and eternity, as our collective wealth; and of the value of every individual share. (John Foster.) Postulates of prayer “ He that cometh to God” --this is a special characterisation of prayer. It seems to localise the omnipresent God. To come to Him is to be vividly conscious of Him, and to realise His goodness and grace; to touch Him, and speak to Him. I. The first postulate of prayer is BELIEF IN THE OF GOD. If I think of God as a universal ether, as a highly-sublimated steam which pervades and works the machine of the universe, I can no more pray to Him than I could pray to the steam of the locomotive to put me down at such and such a station. If I think of God as an unconscious something, idea, or what else, which is necessarily and unconsciously developing itself into the universe, I can no more pray to that than I can to the principle of evolution. If God be not a person, if He be a mere force, as pray to that I might as well say to gravitation, which has broken my head, “ Heal me,” or to time, which has left me behind, “ Wait for me.” II. We must not only believe that God is, but also that He is the rewarder of them that seek after Him, which involves as a second postulate of prayer that GOD HAS POWER TO HEAR AND ANSWER PRAYER. Prayer, it is said, has a great reflex action. It certainly has. Going over and giving thanks for God’ s mercies excites my gratitude, even though there be no God to receive my thanks. But I would not so befool myself as to give thanks, if I did not believe God is to reward my thanks by receiving them. A celebrated scientific lecturer, while insisting on the operation of law, once said: “ The united voice Of this assembly could not persuade me that I have not at this moment the power to lift my arm if I wished to do so.” And if, in spite of gravitation, man has this power, surely we cannot deny a corresponding power to God. In answer to my child’ s prayer I can lift my arm, though gravitation operates to keep it down. And in answer to my prayer, God my Father, being no less personal than I, can do what is analogous to my lifting my arm. He can subordinate, combine His laws according to His mighty power and wisdom, so that, without dishonouring, but rather honouring them in using them, He brings about the result, which is the reward of my prayer. III. But to reward, there must be something more than the power; there must be the grace. We note, then, as the third postulate of prayer, GOD’ S TO REWARD. Some, learning that this earth is but a small part of the solar system, and the solar system but a mote in the sunbeam of the universe, say, with more than the psalmist’ s meaning: Well, what is man that God should be mindful of him, or the son of man that God should visit him? Why should God answer the prayers of one so insignificant? The question would have force if man were nothing more than matter. But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of God hath given him understanding; we are His offspring. A solar system, therefore, might expire, but it would touch God less than the cry of one of His children. Insignificant man is materially, but not spiritually. He has a quality transcending all matter; he has a life which shall flourish with immortal energy when the fires of the sun are sunk into cold ashes. God will hear His child, though the child be small. Ah, but we are sinful, and He is holy; will He suffer us to come near Him? Verily, God is willing that the sinful, being penitent, should draw near to Him. Why, has He not drawn near to them in every inviting word and gracious deed of prophet and saint? Has He not drawn near to them in Christ Jesus? Yea, does He not draw near to us sinful now? What is that loathing of sin which sometimes comes upon the sinner? What is that sense of shame and feeling of disgust which sometimes fills him? What is that longing for good, that wistful looking back to the days when the heart was pure? What are these but God coming to the sinner? What are our hungerings for righteousness, our longings for truth, our aspirations for goodness, but God in us, working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure? To meet, then, such operations is to fulfil His own desires; to reward such feelings is to satisfy Himself. If God has come thus to us, how can we doubt that He will reward us coming to Him? How can He deny our prayer, when to fulfil it is to fulfil His own will? (A. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 11:7 Noah Faith moving to obedience I. IT IS A HIGH TO FAITH, TO RELIEVE THINGS ON THE WORD OF GOD, THAT IN AND ALL SECOND CAUSES ARE , AND SEEM (Romans 4:17-21). II. No CAN STAND IN THE WAY OF FAITH WHEN IT FIXETH ITSELF ON THE POWER OF GOD AND HIS Romans 11:23; Titus 1:2). III. IT IS A GREAT AND UNTO FAITH WHEN THE THINGS WHICH IT AS OR , ARE UNTO THE OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HIS , , , AND THE LIKE; SUCH AS IT GOD TO DO. Such was the destruction of the world when it was filled with wickedness and violence. IV. WE HAVE HERE A PLEDGE OF THE CERTAIN OF ALL DIVINE AGAINST UNGODLY SINNERS AND ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH, THOUGH THE TIME OF IT MAY BE YET FAR DISTANT, AND THE MEANS OF IT MAY NOT RE EVIDENT. Unto this end is this example made use 2 Peter 2:5). V. A FEAR OF GOD, AS UNTO SINNERS, IS A FRUIT OF SAVING FAITH, AND UNTO GOD. VI. IT IS ONE THING TO FEAR GOD AS WITH A HOLY ; ANOTHER TO BE AFRAID OF THE EVIL , MERELY AS IT IS PENAL AND , WHICH THE WORST OF MEN CANNOT AVOID. VII. FAITH VARIOUS EFFECTS IN THE MINDS OF TO THE VARIETY OF OBJECTS IT IS FIXED ON; JOY AND , FEAR AND . VIII. THEN IS FEAR A FRUIT OF FAITH WHEN IT US UNTO IN OUR DUTY, AS IT DID HERE IN NOAH: “ BEING MOVED BY FEAR, HE AN ARK.” IX. THAT ALL THESE THINGS TEND TO THE OF THE FAITH OF NOAH. Neither the difficulty nor length of the work itself, nor his want of success in preaching, nor the scorn which was cast upon him by the whole world, did discourage him in the least from going on with the work whereunto he was divinely called. A great example it was to all that may be called to bear testimony for God in times of difficulty. X. WE HAVE HERE AN EMINENT FIGURE OF THE STATE OF SINNERS, AND OF GOD’ S DEALING WITH THEM IN ALL AGES. 1. When their sins are coming to the height, He gives them a peculiar space for repentance, with sufficient evidence that it is a season granted for that end. 2. Dining this space, the long-suffering of God waits for their conversion, and He makes it known that it doth so. 3. He allows them the outward means of conversion,, as He did to the old world in the preaching of Noah. 4. He warns them in particular of the judgments that are approaching them, which they cannot escape, as He did by the building of the ark. And such are the dealings of God with impenitent sinners in some measure in all ages. They, on the other side, in such a season (1) Continue disobedient under the most effectual means of conversion. (2) They are secure as unto any fear or expectation of judgments, and shall be so until they are overwhelmed in them (Revelation 18:7-8). (3) There are always amongst them scoffers, that deride all that are moved with fear at the threatenings of God, and behave themselves accordingly, which is an exact portraiture of the present condition of the world. XI. THE VISIBLE CHURCH SHALL NEVER FALL INTO SUCH AN , NOR BE SO TOTALLY , BUT THAT GOD WILL A REMNANT FOR A SEED TO FUTURE (Isaiah 6:11-13; Romans 9:27; Revelation 18:4). XII. LET THOSE THAT ARE IN THE OF GOD’ S AND TAKE HEED UNTO TO ANSWER THE WILL OF HIM BY WHOM THEY ARE , WHOSE WORK IT IS WHEREIN THEY ARE ENGAGED. XIII. IT OUGHT TO BE A MOTIVE UNTO IN THAT THEREIN WE BEAR FOR GOD AGAINST THE WORLD WHICH HE WILL JUDGE AND PUNISH. (John Owen, D. D.) The wicked warbled of judgment: When we look around us on the world, there seems to be in it a great deal of disorder; and yet it is all under the direction of Him who does everything with the most perfect wisdom. Study, for instance, the science of botany, and you will perceive how correctly He has classified the boundless variety of plants and flowers and trees that spring out of the earth. Read over the pages of natural history, and you will observe the same order existing amongst the equally astonishing diversity of birds and beasts and creeping things. And as it is in the natural so it is also in the moral world. To a mere superficial observer there seems to be a great deal of confusion--a promiscuous mingling of truth and error, of virtue and vice, of pious and wicked people; and yet they are all classified by God. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His,” and the Lord knoweth them that are not His; for “ His eyes go to and fro in the earth, beholding the evil and the good” ; and all the attributes and perfections of His nature have been employed from generation to generation, in rewarding the righteous and in punishing the wicked. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary judgments of this kind which ever was inflicted upon the earth, was that universal deluge by which it was once visited. I. THE THAT WAS MADE OF THIS . “ Noah” was “ warned of God” ; whether by a dream or by a vision, or by an audible voice, is not stated. He was “ warned of God of things not seen as yet” --quite different from anything which had previously transpired in the world. Prior to his receiving this intimation, rain had descended in genial showers, fructifying the earth and causing it to bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; and every stream and every rill and every river had flowed back again to the great ocean from whence they had proceeded, and yet it kept within the limits assigned it, when God said, “ Hitherto shall thou go, but no farther.” But, at length, this regularity was to suffer interruption. The cause was this: … The sons of God had intermarried with the daughters of men” --the professors of the true religion had united themselves with those who made no pretension to religion; the consequence was a speedy and universal degeneracy of morals--and hence God determined that He would sweep them away with therod of extermination. What is this intended to typify to us? There seems to be something of a similarity between our circumstances and those in which Noah was placed. We also have been “ warned of God of things not seen as yet.” Since we have known the world, it has continued much the same as it was at the beginning of our existence. That sun has regularly risen in the morning and set in the evening, and risen in the eastern and set in the western sky; these heavens have continued to present much the same serene or cloudy aspect, according to the state of the weather; and every hill and mountain and valley present the same appearance to-day as when we first saw them. It is true that other things have been more fragile; that tree has been withered and stripped of its luxuriant foliage; death, too, has made a vast change in our family circles, and amongst our friends and acquaintances. This, however, is only as it has been always. No interruption has been given by all this to the general course of the world; that still goes on as if nothing of the kind had occurred. But a period is coming when you will see, in those heavens and upon this earth, an entirely different spectacle--when you will see these mountains and hills and valleys becoming victims of fire. Now, when Noah was “ warned of God of things not seen as yet,” he believed; he gave credence to it immediately; and so ought we, when we look for these still more solemn events which are shortly to come to pass. And yet, alas! how many are there over whom these truths have no practical influence whatever? If an astronomer tells them, as the result of his calculations, that a comet will appear, they mount their observatories, and get ready their telescopic instruments, and they anxiously wait for the extraordinary luminary; and yet, when we tell them of “ signs in heaven and signs on earth,” the sign of the Son of Man coming to judge the world in righteousness, they regard it as “ a cunningly-devised fable.” Noah’ s faith influenced his passions--he was “ moved with fear,” his mind was solemnly impressed with awe while contemplating the approaching judgments of the Almighty. And yet there are many in our days who are neither moved by fear nor charmed by love. Noah’ s faith influenced his actions; he “ prepared an ark,” God having given him directions how it was to be made. Now, this would require considerable expense and considerable labour; and it would expose him to the ridicule of his surrounding neighbours; but he commenced, and he carried on until it was completed. We are not required, it is true, to build an ark; but we are required to repair to one--to “ fly for refuge, and lay hold on the hope set before us.” And in order to this, we must cherish a lively apprehension of our danger. We observe, further, that Noah, by his conduct, “ condemned the world.” How did he do this? He was a preacher of righteousness; and he gave them line upon line, precept upon precept, and expostulation upon expostulation. He condemned them, too, by preparing the ark; for every time they saw it rise from one stage to another, and every time they heard the sound of his implements they were warned. Precisely in the same way is the world condemned now. Thank God! there are preachers of righteousness still; and there is no blessing which you ought more highly to appreciate. And then there are righteous people still; and whenever you come into contact with a believer in Jesus Christ, you hear a warning addressed to you; and if you continue in a state of impenitence, this will be one ground of your condemnation--that you saw people living in the same world, living in the same neighbourhood, living to God and getting ready for heaven, when you were walking on in your trespasses. Oh, there is something irresistibly convincing in an holy life! II. THE WHICH FROM NOAH’ S GOD. Upwards of a century--nearly a hundred and twenty years--had elapsed, and no interruption whatever had been given to their sensual delights, and they ate and they drank, and they married wives and they were given in marriage. But though the deluge came slowly, it came surely; AND at length the hour arrived when God said to Noah, “ Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark; and the Lord shut him in” --He who openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. And then the ancient landmarks of the sea were taken away, and then the windows of heaven were opened and the rain came down, not in gentle and genial showers, but in appalling torrents. Oh, what a scene was this! Parents weeping for their children, and children weeping for their parents; husbands lamenting for their wives, and wives lamenting for their husbands; and the sound of music, and the voice of social converse, and all the delights of companionship subsiding in a moment into the dismal howlings of death! And still the waters continue to prevail, until the summits of the everlasting hills were overtopped; but the ark arose majestically above. Still the beautiful vessel floated on the surface of the great deep, till at length it had landed all its inhabitants in safety upon Mount Ararat. And thus you see, by believing God, Noah and his house were preserved safe from the deluge, and he became heir of righteousness which is by faith--entitled to all the blessedness and privileges of a true believer. Thank God there is no difference in religion now! Noah was saved by faith then, and we are saved by faith now. What, then, are we to learn from this? You have heard that a day of judgment is to come. There is no appearance of it at present. The destruction of the old world by water, was a specimen or emblem of the destruction that now is, by fire. There are not; only reservoirs of water beneath the earth, but there are also magazines of flame. What mean those subterraneous fires that issue from Mounts Etna and Vesuvius? They bear testimony to this fact. And then there are fires in these heavens as well as water. What mean those vivid flashes of lightning which you sometimes see gleaming through the vast expanse, and menacing you with ruin? They bear testimony to this fact. And hence the apostle Peter very properly argues “ The heavens and the earth that are now, by the same word” that announced the destruction of the antediluvian world, “ are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Oh, what a day will that be to the wicked! Parents will again be seen weeping for their children, and children weeping for their parents. Oh, what a day it will be to the righteous! You will see them in the ark completely safe! (John Watson.) Noah’ s faith and ours The creed of these Old Testament saints was a very short one, and very different from ours. Their faith was the very same. And that is a principle well worth getting into our minds, that the scope of the creed has nothing to do with the essence of the faith. I. Look FIRST AT NOAH’ S FAITH IN REGARD TO ITS OBJECT. His faith grasped the invisible things to come, only because it grasped the Invisible Person, who was, is, and is to come, and who lifted for him the curtain and showed him the things that should be. So is it with our faith, whether it lays hold upon a past sacrifice on Calvary, or upon a present Christ dwelling in our hearts, or whether it becomes telescopic, and stretches forward into the future, and brings the distant near, all its various aspects are but aspects of one thing, and that is personal trust in the personal Christ that speaks to us. What he says is a matter of secondary importance in this respect. The contents of God’ s revelations vary; the act by which man accepts them is always the same. So the great question for us all is--do we trust God? Do we believe Him, and therefore accept His words, not only with the assent of the understanding, which of all idle things is the idlest, but do we believe Him, revealing, commanding, promising, threatening, with the affiance of our whole hearts? Then, and then only, can we look with quiet certainty into the dim future, which else is all full of rolling clouds, that sometimes shape themselves to our imaginations into the likeness of stable things, but alas! change and melt while we gaze. Only then can we front the solemn future, and say: “ I do not expect only, I know what is there.” II. Still further, notice NOAH’ S FAITH IN ITS EFFECTS. If faith has any reality in us at all, it works. If real and strong, it will first effect emotion. By “ fear” here we are not merely to understand, though possibly it is not to be excluded, a dread of personal consequences, but much rather the sweet and lofty emotion which is described in another part of this same book by the same word: “ Let us serve Him with reverence and with godly fear.” Such holy and blessed emotion, which has no torment, is the sure result of real faith. Unless a man’ s faith is warm enough to melt his heart, it is worth very little. A faith unaccompanied by emotion is, I was going to say worse, at any rate it is quite as bad, as a faith which is all wasted in emotion. It is not a good thing when all the steam roars out through an escape pipe; it is perhaps a worse thing when there is no steam in the boiler to escape. I am very sure that there is no road between a man’ s faith and his practice except through his heart, and that, as the apostle has it in a somewhat different form of speech, meaning, however, the same thing that I am now insisting upon, “ faith worketh by love.” Love is the path through which creed travels outward to conduct. So we come to the second and more remote effect of faith. Emotion will lead to action. “ Moved with fear, he prepared and ark.” If emotion be the child of faith, conduct is the child of emotion. III. AND SO, LASTLY, LET ME POINT TO NOAH’ S FAITH, IN REGARD TO ITS . “ He condemned the world.” And so the faith of the poor, ignorant, old woman that up in her garret lives to serve Jesus Christ, and to win an eternal crown, will get its vindication some day, and it will be found out then which was the “ practical” man and the wise man. And all the witty speeches and smart sayings will seem very foolish even to their authors, when the light of that future shines on them. And the old word will come true once more, that the man who lives for the present, and for anything bounded by Time, will have to “ leave it in the midst of his days,” and “ at his latter end shall be a fool.” Whilst the “ foolish “ man that lived for the future; when the future has come to be the present, and the present has dwindled away into the past, and sunk beneath the horizon, shall be proved to be the wise, and shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever. (A Maclaren, D. D.) Noah’ s faith, fear, obedience, and salvation I. First, notice that in Noah’ s case FAITH WAS THE FIRST . The text begins, “ By faith Noah.” We shall have to speak about his being “ moved by fear” ; we shall also remember his obedience, for he “ prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” But you must take distinct note that at the back of everything was his faith in God. His faith begat his fear: his faith and his fear produced his obedience. Nothing in Noah is held up before us as an example, but that which grew out of his faith. To begin with, we must look well to our faith. 1. Notice, first, that Noah believed in God in his ordinary life. Before the great test came, before he heard the oracle from the secret place, Noah believed in God. We know that he did, for we read that he walked with God, and in his common conduct he is described as being “ a just man, and perfect in his generations.” To be just in the sight of God is never possible apart from faith; for “ the just shall live by faith.” It is a great thing to have faith in the presence of a terrible trial; but the first essential is to have faith for ordinary every-day consumption. 2. Note, next, that Noah had faith in the warning and threatening of God. Faith is to be exercised about the commandments; for David says, “ I have believed Thy commandments.” Faith is to be exercised upon the promises; for there its sweetest business lies. But, believe me, you cannot have faith in the promise unless you are prepared to have faith in the threatening also. If you truly believe a man, you believe all that he says. 3. Furthermore, Noah believed what seemed highly improbable, if not absolutely impossible. There was no sea where Noah laid the keel of his ark: I do not even know that there was a river there. He was to prepare a sea-going vessel, and construct it on dry land. How could water be brought there to float it? That faith which believes in the probable is anybody’ s faith: publicans and sinners can so believe. The faith which believes that which is barely possible is in better form; but that faith which cares nothing for probability or possibility, but rests alone in the word of the Lord, is the faith of God’ s elect. God deserves such faith, “ for with God all things are possible.” 4. Noah believed alone, and preached on, though none followed him. 5. Noah believed through a hundred and twenty solitary years. 6. Noah believed even to separation from the world. II. FEAR WAS THE MOVING FORCE. 1. A loyal reverence of God. 2. A holy fear of judgment. 3. A very humble distrust of himself. III. WAS THE FRUIT. Faith and fear together led Noah to do as God commanded him. When fear is grafted upon faith, it brings forth good fruit, as in this case. 1. Noah obeyed the Lord exactly. 2. Noah obeyed the Lord very carefully. 3. Noah obeyed at all costs. 4. Noah went on obeying under daily scorn. 5. Noah’ s obedience followed the command as he learned it. IV. RESULTS DID NOT FAIL TO COME. 1. He was saved and his house. 2. He condemned the world. His preaching condemned them: they knew the way, and wickedly refused to run in it. His warning condemned them: they would not regard it and escape. His life condemned them, for he walked with the God whom they despised. Most of all, the ark condemned them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Noah: activity in providing for the real interests of oneself and family This description of the faith of Noah involves several distinct parts 1. The warning of God. 2. The motive of Noah--fear. 3. The preparing the ark--the result of fear. 4. The consequence of this--the saving of his house. 5. The work this did for others around--condemned them. I. THE WARNING OF GOD. The men whom God had made had all rebelled against Him; the world was turned against its Maker. As men grew older and more experienced they increased in arts and sciences, but they decreased in religion and the fear of God. These men lived by sight, not by faith. God determined to punish the godless world, and looking around, He saw only one man worth saving. Only one family worth saving! I doubt not many then would have said it was uncharitable to say there are few who would be saved; uncharitable to say that among many professors there were few who from the heart feared God. But “ God seeth not as man seeth.” Such, then, was the warning of God. Now is not this account like that of our day? “ As it was in the days of Noah,” so is it now. Is not the advance of trade, and science, and agriculture, and knowledge, thought of before the advance of religion? Now see the part of Noah. He obeyed the warning, and prepared the ark, and saved his family. God ordered an ark to save Noah, and Noah made it; he did not trust to the invention of his own brain as to what would be the best thing in all probability to save him from the water, but he made the ark. God had ordered an ark, and the ark of gopher wood, and Noah made it; the ark--only the ark, could save Noah from death. Why? Not because it was the most scientific mode of salvation, not because it was the most learned way of safety, not because it was the most likely means of salvation; no, it was not on this account that Noah made the ark; he made it because it was the appointed means of safety, because God had ordered it. 2. Noah was active in his work, and while he worked he preached. Why was Noah active? Because he feared God and loved his family. Now some men invent one way of escaping the last deluge of fire, and some another. 1. Some say God’ s mercy shall be our ark, which we will hope for without seeking. 2. Some say, our own works shall be our ark, an ark we will provide by our own labour, but not after the fashion God has ordered, an ark not made of gopher wood. 3. Some say, we will make an ark with our works like what God orders, but we will mot begin it yet, we will wait till the clouds begin to darken for the storm, that will be soon enough; we will repent on a death-bed. 4. Some say, we will make something like an ark, but we will not take much trouble about it; we will make it after the material God orders, but we will be satisfied with a mere framework, we will trust to our general religious character to bear us safely through the dreadful fire; we will not concern ourselves about individual acts. 5. Some say, we will have none; no flood will come. Such are all the schemes we have to provide against the last flood. But what shall happen to them? (1) Those who make no ark will find no ark. Those who trust to God’ s mercy without seeking God’ s mercy, shall find no mercy. (2) Those who make their own ark shall enter it, but it will dash to pieces against the first obstacle, and sink its terrified crew against the rocks of everlasting despair. Those who trust to their own works will find they stand them in no stead. (3) Those who put off making the ark till the clouds darken the sky shall have scarce struck a nail in it before they shall be arrested by the flood. (4) Those who are satisfied with the outward framework, will find the fire pierce through every open crevice of the ark, and they shall be burnt up in the ark which they have made. (5) Those who made no ark at all shall be swallowed up quickly. (6) And then, who shall be saved? Only he who shelters in the true ark, that only rides upon the waters safe and secure; the ark made according to God’ s direction. II. But again, THE MOTIVE which induced Noah to build the ark--fear, produced by faith, and love, inducing fear. “ By faith in things not seen as yet, Noah moved with fear, prepared an ark, wherein eight souls were saved.” He believed God’ s word. Faith, then, was the spring of all. If he had not believed, he would have been idle, as the idle world. His faith produced works. And again, it awakened him as to the real interest of his family; he was not concerned about their present pleasure, but about their future safety. (E. Monro.) Noah: things not seen as yet I. The things not seen as yet are THE THINGS IN HUMAN HISTORY. 1. The greatness of human nature. 2. The solemnity of human life. II. Some of the things not seen as yet are TO MAN AS OF FAITH. 1. The universal triumph of the gospel in the world. 2. The termination of that mediatorial system of things under which the human race has been living ever since the fall. 3. The separation of the righteous from the wicked. III. Man’ s faith in the things not seen as yet is CAPABLE OF A MIGHTY UPON HIS LIFE. 1. Noah’ s faith in the unseen impelled him to the most trying work. It was trying to his (1) patience; (2) social nature; (3) reason. 2. His faith impelled him to the most serviceable work. In carrying out God’ s idea, he saved the world. 3. Sin-condemning work. 4. Self-rectifying work. (Homilist.) Noah: I. A GOOD MAN IS THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF THE DIVINE FAVOUR. “ Being warned,” &c. 1. Information of the approach of coming evil. 2. Instructions to prepare for the coming evil. (1) Man cannot do without Divine guidance. (2) Man will not do without human effort. Work tests and develops character. 3. Assurance of safety from the coming evil. God condescended to bind Himself by an agreement that was comprehensive and everlasting. (1) It contains reward for excellence of character, and is the basis of all honours to come. (2) It is eternal. II. A GOOD MAN IS AN SERVANT TO THE DIVINE WILL. “ Moved with fear,” &c. 1. He was actuated by the sublimest motive. Profound regard for the truthfulness of the Divine admonitions, and implicit trust in the power of God to carry out His threatenings. He was extraordinarily subservient to the Divine plan. (1) He did precisely according to the Divine plan. (2) He did precisely at the Divine time. (3) He did precisely according to the Divine expectation. In spite of cost, labour, care, ridicule, long delay, other engagements, his faith triumphed over all. There was no arguing, no murmuring, no relapsing, no desponding, but daily work, and daily progress, and daily trusting, until at last the huge ship was ready for its cargo, voyage, and destination. III. A GOOD MAN IS THE MEDIUM OF THE DIVINE PURPOSE. By faith and works Noah influenced the whole of the world. He fixed universal destiny. 1. He was the efficient medium in preserving his family. 2. He was the efficient medium in punishing his contemporaries. 3. He was the efficient medium promoting himself. (B. D. Johns.) Faith the power for right-doing I. LOOK AT THE AND OF NOAH’ S FAITH. 1. The Divine word predicted what seemed unlikely to happen. 2. The fulfilment of this prediction was long delayed. 3. The belief of the prediction was opposed by the ungodly atmosphere in which he lived. II. NOTICE THE WHICH NOAH’ S FAITH ENABLED HIM TO FULFIL. 1. The discharge of arduous duties. Building, peopling, stocking the Ark. 2. The endurance of severe trials. Scorn and mockery from his contemporaries. 3. The rebuke of a wicked world. “ Preacher of righteousness.” III. THAT THE RIGHT-DOING BY FAITH IN NOAH’ S CASE REVEALS THE POWER FOR ALL RIGHT-DOING. Have you hard things to do? You need faith. 1. Faith in the grace of God. That is, in your acceptance by Him through Christ. The love in that is the sufficient motive for right-doing. 2. Faith in the character of God. God is good, wise, faithful, loving. He cannot, therefore, call us to any duty or experience which is not in harmony with what He is. 3. Faith in the word of God. That what He has promised (of help, &c.) He will certainly perform. That is encouragement and support in right-doing. Conclusion. Where did Noah get this victorious faith? Faith comes from knowing God; the more we know Him the better we trust Him; we know Him the more the more we are with Him. (C. New.) Noah’ s faith I. THE WITH WHICH NOAH WAS . 1. It is characterised as a warning. 2. It was a warning from God. 3. It was a warning from God which concerned “ things not seen as yet.” II. THE MANNER IN WHICH NOAH THE WITH WHICH HE WAS . 1. He believed it. 2. He was “ moved with fear.” In the affairs of this life a prudential, stimulating fear is not only permitted, but applauded. Hence the child who so fears his parents as always to obey, is beloved; the scholar who so fears his master as always to excel, is admired; the merchant who, through fear, lingers in the port because he knows that a powerful pirate scours the neighbouring seas, is commended; the tradesman who, through fear, refuses to trust his property in doubtful hands, is accounted wise; and the traveller who, through fear, takes a circuitous route because he knows that the nearest road is infested with robbers, is deemed prudent. Since this is the case in the affairs of this life, how comes it to pass that the fear of the Lord is so generally despised? And why are those who live under its influence so generally regarded as men of mean and melancholy minds? Is it because the rod of a mortal is more to be dreaded than the wrath of God? Is it because the loss of earthly property is a greater evil than the loss of the soul? 3. He prepared the ark. (1) The building of such a vessel must have consumed a great deal of time. Let those who neglect the whole round of religious duty, pleading as their excuse that they have no time to perform it, consider this trait in Noah’ s piety, and stand reproved. What! no time to serve God, and save your souls? The rebel might just as well say to his insulted sovereign, “ Sire, I had no time to be loyal.” (2) It must have occasioned him great expense. It is a striking peculiarity in the economy of God to His people, that before He gives them all that He has, He requires them to consecrate to Him everything which they possess. He acted thus towards Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the apostles. And before He gave Noah his life, and the lives of his household for a prey, He set him upon constructing a vessel, which, considering its magnitude, must have abridged his portion, not only of the superfluities, but even of the necessaries, of life. Judging from the Divine conduct in other cases, we think it not at all extravagant to suppose that the last nail was driven as the last item of his estate was gone. But Noah believed God; and therefore the greatness of the cost was no obstruction to the completion of the work. By the light of faith he discerned that riches and worldly goods are means of honour and of happiness only so far as they are consecrated to God, and employed for Him. (3) It must have subjected him to much reproach. It is exceedingly probable that the king and the peasant, the philosopher and the fool, the rich and the poor, the hoary headed father and the lisping boy, would all unite in making him and his ark a proverb of reproach and scorn. They would blame him for rendering religion offensive to rational and intelligent men; and they would charge him with cruelty to his family, in spending his substance upon such an extravagant undertaking. III. THE EFFECTS WHICH FROM NOAH’ S OF THE TO HIM BY GOD. 1. He saved his house. Let all heads of families aim at the same thing. See that your domestic arrangements and private conduct be such as shall entail the blessing, and not the curse, of God upon your offspring. 2. “ He condemned the world.” (1) In the same sense as a witness may be said to condemn a criminal, when he furnishes incontestable evidence of his guilt. His faith, in this sense, condemned their unbelief; for it demonstrated the sufficiency of the revelation given, and was, moreover, a pattern for their imitation, and a motive stimulating them to action. (2) Inasmuch as he deprived them of all ground of excuse. He was a “ preacher of righteousness” ; and, as such, he no doubt instructed them in the nature of righteousness; its necessity and advantages; together with the means of acquiring it. 3. He “ became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” The righteousness of which Noah is said to have become “ heir,” or possessor, is in other places called “ the righteousness of God” ; “ the righteousness which is of God by faith” ; “ the gift of righteousness which is by Christ” ; and sometimes simply, “ the righteousness of faith” ; by all which expressions is meant, that free justification from all past guilt which we obtain when we believe on Him that justifieth the ungodly. That Noah not only believed all that was revealed concerning the flood; but also all that was made known respecting the perfections of God, the fall of man, and the scheme of redemption by Jesus Christ, is evident from the sacrifice which he offered on quitting the ark, and the gracious acceptance which it obtained from God. (P. McOwan.) How to receive God’ s warnings: What entertainment did Noah give to this warning? Did he contemn it or set light by it in his heart? No verily; he reverenced it. We must reverence the judgments of God. When Daniel pondered in himself the fearful fall of Nebuchadnezzar, that such a fair arid beautiful tree which reached to heaven should be cut down, he held his peace by the space of one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. When the angels were to blow their trumpets, there was silence in heaven, they were stricken with a kind of astonishment, and could not speak. When the book of the law was read before Isaiah, his heart melted at it, he reverenced the judgment denounced in it. When this proclamation was made in Nineveh, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed, they all reverenced it, from the king to the beggar, &c., they put on sackcloth, fasted, and prayed to God. Noah hearing of a flood to come, fears it after a godly manner, and provides against the coming of it. But some there be that are no more moved with them than the stones in the church wall (Jeremiah 36:24). Let the preacher thunder out God’ s judgments against abominable swearing, lying, flattering, and dissembling, and other sins that reign among the people. Some laugh at it in their sleeves; tell them of the day of judgment, when as all nations shall appear before the Son of Man; they set not a straw by it, they are worse than Felix: he trembled when St. Paul discoursed of righteousness and the judgment to come. They are worse than the devils, for they believe that there is a God, and tremble at it. There is great difference between trembling and reverencing. (W. Jones, D. D.) Judgment preceded by warbling: God never brought a judgment upon any nation without previous, distinct, and intelligible warnings. This is a principle of the Divine government, illustrated by the whole history of the Church and the world. Lot warned Sodom; the Israelites, Egypt; their prophets, the Israelites; Jonah, Nineveh; Jesus and His apostles, Jerusalem and Judaea. And thus Noah, both by his actual declaration of the “ word of the Lord “ and his building in the view of the people the vessel of safety, testified the Divine intentions, and warned the world of the “ coming wrath.” (T. Binney.) Faith accepts all God says: Faith, in the simple and practical view we are attempting to take, consists in a regard to the whole of the Divine testimony, to whatever that testimony relates. If, for example, the truth specifically contemplated be a simple intellectual announcement, faith is the acquiescence of the understanding in its absolute certainty. If it be a promise of good, faith is confidence in its fulfilment. If it be a threatening of evil, combined as all threatenings are with the merciful provision of a method of escape, faith is apprehension concurring with flight to the appointed refuge. It was thus that it first operated in the mind of Noah. (T. Binney.) Warning despised: Not far from the place of St. Paul’ s shipwreck in the Mediterranean, a noble frigate once set sail. A gallant admiral, Sir Cloudesley Shovel, was her commander, and thought himself fully competent to guide her course. But there was an experienced seaman on board who knew better than he the dangers which surrounded them. However, on his venturing to say so, he was immediately hanged at the yard-arm for his impertinence. Not long did the cruel commodore survive him. In the darkness of the night the ship struck on the fatal rock concerning which the seaman had uttered his warning voice, and soon became a total wreck. A few escaped a watery grave, but the greater part, with the headstrong Sir Cloudesley himself, were drowned. (J. Lange.) Moved with fear Fear as a motive in religion: Here is an instance of a man, in his relations to God, acting under the impulse of fear, and good came of it. Of course this is not one and the same thing as saying that in the moral sphere fear is the highest motive. A thing may be good, without being the best. Men start from different levels, and they live upon different levels. Some “ there are who never know what it is to turn unto God from the low plane of immorality. Others, again, take their first step heavenward from the very mouth of the pit. And this varied inception of the Christian life is proof enough that fear cannot be held up as the general or even the best motive. There may be those who never felt it, who have never needed to feel it. There may be those who run in the paths of obedience and righteousness, urged only by a higher and nobler impulse. Neither is it necessary to hold here, when looking upon an example of its beneficent operation, that fear must remain a permanent moral motive even in such a case. An apostle speaks of a “ love” which “ casteth out fear.” So the one who commences in fear may rise unto this love. The one ascending from the earth in a balloon, gradually but surely rises above the smoke and mist which lie in low clouds over the earth’ s surface. Soon he moves, he sails in the clear abyss of the heavens. So with the human life, as it rises unto truth and virtue and God. It may rise above the murky atmosphere of its first motives and earlier days. But let us turn to the direct consideration of the subject in the text. I. Let me say, first of all, THAT THERE IS LAID IN THE HUMAN FOR THE OF THE MOTIVE WHICH WE ARE . Fear is a universal attribute of human nature. It is as natural for a man to fear as to hope, or trust, or love. And this susceptibility, like all other natural capacities of human life, must have been conferred upon man for beneficent ends. She holds as good a title to her place as does hope; both are patents issued by the hand of the Creator; and not only are they of equally high origin, they are also co-ordinate in dignity, mutually dependent and helpful. If it were not for hope, man would hold back from attainable good. If fear were wanting, he would rush headlong upon invincible danger. Hope cries unto man: “ Dare it, dare it!” But some risks are foolhardy, and fear points these out. Man is saved by hope, being swept forward; he is saved by fear, being held back. And now, from the survey of this great law upon the lower levels, I ask: Why scout at fear in the moral realm? Why attempt to scourge her from the temple of religion? Has God bestowed upon your soul a useless or misleading sense, a susceptibility to be devoted unto inactivity and death? Why, He has not done such a thing in the body; and surely the Creator has shown as much wisdom in the adaptation of your spirit to its surroundings as in the adaptation of your body to the material world. Why not, then, grant unto these intimations in these two different spheres equally solemn audience? When in this world Fear cries out: “ There is the danger of poverty ahead; there is the possibility of suffering ahead; there is the loss of reputation ahead” --you are not unmindful of her warnings. But again this same Fear, through the voice of Concience, cries out: “ Wrath is coming; judgment lies ahead, and the great eternity.” In this case also, why not listen to her signal notes? Unmanly to fear! You say so, with the great cyclones of the awful forces of the universe, boiling, sweeping around you! Unmanly to fear! Then God made you an unmanly man. Irrational to be influenced by fear! Then are you showing yourself a fool every day. II. THE OF DEITY TO MAN THE MOTIVE OF FEAR. TWO revelations of God have been given--one in the moral constitution of man, and one in the Bible. These two revelations agree in this, that they present God in the act and attitude of one warning men of possible danger. First, the Bible does this. “ Flee to this voice; give it your fullest confidence.’” But shall men love the God who loves, trust the God who promises, and not fear the same God when He warns? III. THE PUBLIC AND LIFE OF JESUS OF BEARS IN THE MOST MANNER UPON THIS SUBJECT. We notice two things. First, Jesus was no fanatic. On the contrary, never was character so well balanced as His. From such a character would you expect an exaggerated statement of an uncertain dogma, of an unessential partialism? Then, again, consider His great sympathy with men, His measureless benevolence. Yet concerning future punishment and suffering He spake some of the most awful words which this world has ever heard. “ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’” And the revelation of Nature does the same. It shows physical law relentlessly pursuing the transgressor. If lifts up the picture of human suffering before the eye. It stirs the conscience of the individual and the race with the apprehension of possible evil and suffering beyond the present world. And now, what will you do? Mind, I do not ask you to ignore any other attribute of Deity which has been revealed to man. There is love shining forth in most beautiful characters. Answer this, as you ought, by hope and trust and gratitude. There are words of sweetest invitation written upon the pages of the Bible. Sweetly let your heart respond. IV. IN A SUBJECT SO AS THIS, IS, OF COURSE, . It seems to me, however, that the suggestions which have been made are so many grave intimations to every thoughtful mind. But comes there up in reply from any human life the voice: “ I cannot fear, I see the flashing danger-signal--I mark its lurid light. I hear those awful words as they drop from the lips of Jesus. I see it all, I hear it all; and yet no apprehension of danger is awakened within me” ? In reply let me say, perhaps you do not need to fear. The Divine Father has many ways of drawing men unto Himself. Possibly in your case love is doing its work. If this be so, all is well. But the spectacle of a human life unto which the mandatory word of God has come in vain, which is consciously moving forward in disobedience, consciously out of harmony with itself and moral law--for any such life as this to lift up the words, “ I cannot fear” --this is a very different matter, and this, it seems to me, is passing strange. What shall I say to you? Exhort you to fear? Stand up here and cry: “ Be afraid, be afraid” ? This were absurd. Emotions cannot” be manufactured to order in the laboratory of the will. This let me say: Perhaps your fear is artificially, unnaturally repressed. Perhaps it is, by the hand of a moral thoughtlessness, or a moral bravado, battened down in the hatchways of your being. The ship had crashed into an iceberg, and immediate death seemed inevitable to every one on board. A gentleman from out that scene said to me: “ Very few were calm in that hour; there were very few who did not fear then.” But, possibly, had these same terror-stricken ones spoken on the subject an hour before the collision, many of them would have said: “ As a moral being I am incapable of fear.” Nevertheless fear was in them. So it may be with you. Again, let me say that inability to fear may be due to moral hurt. The hand may become so callous that a living coal of fire can beheld within the palm, and no pain felt. Through paralysis the arm may die, so that the heaviest blow gives no sensation. So the Bible declares that the moral nature may be so seared as to be past feeling. Perhaps this is the case with some who say they cannot fear. Perhaps a false and unworthy life has smitten you with moral paralysis. In either case, whether it is due to unnatural repression or moral paralysis, this inability to fear is not something to be satisfied with, much less to boast of. The paralytic does not run about with his dangling arm, crying out: “ Pinch it; I do not feel! Hit it; your blow hurts me not! Ha, ha, I cannot feel!” Neither should the moral paralytic so boast. Rather let him betake himself to the electric battery of moral law, and see if he cannot quicken the insensate nerves, irrigate with new life the callous tissues of his moral being. Closely connected with this subject is an insinuating delusion which is exercising the most pernicious influence upon thousands. Human voices cry out: “ The spirit of the age is against this whole matter of fear, indeed forbids it.” I cannot appreciate the force of this retort, or see what the spirit of the day has to do with the great matter of a man’ s relation to his Creator and Judge. The age of Louis XIV. had its spirit; so had the age of Charles II. and of Frederick the Great.What were these spirits? Thin, vaporous films, blown from the mouths of men, curling for a brief moment around the everlasting mountain of Bible truth. And the spirit of our day, if it is contradictory of the living Word, shall prove as evanescent. The spirit of the age is the atmosphere through which walks the creature of a day. It extends upward from earth--say, as high as a man’ s heart; say, as high as his head; while all above this, all around this, are the awful depths of the moral ether, unchanged since the days of Noah--ay, unchangeable, as is the God whose breath they are. The spirit of the age to be called in to modify the eternal conditions of the moral universe! The six-foot atmosphere of this our little world to beat over, to pour itself through, to reprortion the shoreless, soundless ocean of the eternal nature of things! The very thought is enough to awaken laughter throughout the universe of God! The spirit of the age, forsooth! A few hours’ cholera, a few days’ fever, a falling brick, a runaway horse, a passing locomotive may sweep away a human life out of it, and for ever. Let us not make fools of ourselves. We are not too big to be warned of God, and we shall not belittle ourselves by giving thoughtful heed to His warning. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.) Use of fear The Houourable Robert Boyle, distinguished alike as a philosopher and as a Christian, acknowledged that his fear, during a tremendous thunderstorm in the night, while he resided in Geneva, “ was the occasion of his resolution of amendment” --a resolution to which he faithfully adhered through life. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Fear in religion The testimony of one of the most genial and successful of preachers is that “ of all the persons to whom his ministry had been efficacious only one had received the first effectual impressions from the gentle and attractive aspect of religion; all the rest from the awful and alarming ones--the appeal to fear.” Take again the testimony of one of the wisest and most successful of our schoolmasters. “ I can’ t rule my boys,” he says, “ by the law of love. If they were angels or professors I might; but as they are only boys, I find it necessary to make them fear me first, and then take my chance of their love afterwards. By this plan I find that I generally get both; by reversing the process I should in most cases get neither.” And God does not deal with us now as He will do when perfect love has cast out its preparative fear. (Marcus Dods, D. D.) Fear The tragic event that led to Peter Waldo’ s conversion reminds us of the similar circumstance that awakened in Luther’ s mind the conviction of sin. On a certain day he was sitting at a banquet of distinguished citizens when one of the guests at his side suddenly became a corpse. The solemn emotion that seized all present became a life-long force in the heart of Peter Waldo. He gazed forward in fear to the account he must himself give at the bar of God. His sins rose in remembrance before him. How shall I appease an awakened conscience? was the question that filled his soul. The Romish Church had its answer ready: “ By almsgiving” ; and Waldo from that day devoted part of his wealth to the relief of poverty. Every quarter of the town felt his beneficence: but his heart was not at peace: his alms-deeds could not assure him of the forgiveness of sins. (C. A. Davis.) Salutary influence of fear: That Luther was not an angel in his youth we may know, for he tells of himself that he was whipped fifteen times in one day in his first school. But all this did not beat grace into his heart, though it may have beaten letters into his head. He made brilliant progress in study, and at twenty years of age received his degree at the university as a Bachelor of Arts. Up to this time his heart was in the world. His father designed him for the law, and his own ambition no doubt aspired to the honours within easy reach in that line of life. God designed otherwise. Just at that critical time, when the very next step would be the first in a life-long profession, one of his fellow-students, dear to him as a brother beloved, one Alexis, was assassinated. The report of this tragic affair coming to Luther’ s ear, he hurried to the spot and found it even so. Often before, conscience, and the Spirit in his heart, had urged him to a religious life, in preparation for death and the judgment. And now, as he stood gazing upon the bloody corpse of his dear friend Alexis, and thought how in a moment, prepared or unprepared, he had been summoned from earth, he asked himself the question, “ What would become of me if I were thus suddenly called away?” This was in A.D. 1505, in summer. Taking advantage of the summer’ s vacation, Luther, now in his twenty-first year, paid a visit to Mansfeldt, the home of his infancy. Even then the purpose of a life of devotion was forming in his heart, but not yet ripened into full and final decision. On his way back to the university, however, he was overtaken by a terrific storm. “ The thunder roared,” says D’ Aubigne; “ a thunderbolt sank into the ground by his side; Luther threw himself on his knees; his hour is perhaps come. Death, judgment, eternity, are before him in all their terrors, and speak with a voice which he can no longer resist. ‘ Encompassed with the anguish and terror of death,’ as he says of himself ‘ he makes a vow, if God will deliver him from this danger, to forsake the world, and devote himself to His service.’ Risen from the earth, having still before his eyes that death must one day overtake him, he examines himself seriously, and inquires what he must do. The thoughts that formerly troubled him return with redoubled power. He has endeavoured, it is true, to fulfil all his duties. But what is the state of his soul? Can he, with a polluted soul, appear before the tribunal of so terrible a God? He must become holy” --for this he will go into the cloister, he will enter a convent, he will become a monk and a priest in the Augustinean order. He will there become holy and be saved. (W. E. Boardman, D. D.) Conversion and fear: One dear old man, who at the ripe age of seventy-eight, became a humble childlike Christian, and who twice in the week used to walk eight miles to hear me, had one favourite version of the words which caused his conversion, to which he adhered with frightful fixity and retailed to every one he met. “ There were three of us old men a-settin’ together, and you turned and you shook your little finger at us, and you said, ‘ You old men there, you are going to hell as fast as your old legs can carry you!’ I never felt so afeared in my life, and I have been a changed man ever since.” (Ellice Hopkins.) Fear and faith: Fear and faith do not at first sound very likely companions. It is just because we think this, because we fancy ourselves a little wiser than God’ s Word, that our fear and our faith fail to act as they ought. Let us try to learn a better lesson now; and it will help us to do this if we set about studying what Noah did a little more closely than perhaps we have done before. We will take his fear first, for I suppose it would come first. He heard the tremendous words of wrath from the God whom he walked with, and he knew He would not speak without acting. He said to himself “ Is not God’ s word gone forth, ‘ I will destroy all flesh’ ? I cannot rest easy; what shall I do? what can I do?” I think Noah must have had a longer or a shorter time when fear was overwhelming--but it was not allowed to go long uncorrected. Almost in the same breath with the threat, we hear the voice which called out the faith. Imagine him told to make an ark. He may have said to himself, It is strange--it is what man never did before--but I know that my God would not tell it me and mean me to be a mere laughing-stock to the world. The triumph shall be on my side in the end. So we see his fear made ready for his faith, and his faith told his fear how far it was to go and what it was to do. They showed him his own helpless state--they took him to God for help. And now see what his action was. It was simply doing his little part in God’ s great plan. And what was the result? A specimen of that great Divine plan--God’ s strength and our weakness hand in hand; the saving of his house; the keeping at bay of all the terrific onsets of those torrents of rain and buffetings of waves. That is how faith and fear do work together. In the first place the sense of fear is a most necessary thing, and a thing we are not often left to go without. Does it come home to us--the truth of an offended Father who will by no means clear the guilty, and whom it is absurd to think we can satisfy. Faith then comes in and applies this very helplessness, this very sinfulness, this very fear. Faith bids us look within and see the things which are unseen--put present likings, strong temptations, selfish instincts, stifling voices aside, and see that there are joys to come, and there is a wrath to come--that there has been a marvellous work done, which eye never saw the like of, and which mind cannot take in--a work of love whereby God came down from heaven and took upon Him man’ s lowly likeness and suffered for sin, in order to help the helpless, in order to provide an ark which shall float over the very waves of God’ s justice and be lifted up by them out of harm’ s reach. But what will be the working of the fear and the faith? Noah built the ark and entered into it. We have but to do a very little thing, but that we must do--not even to build an ark at God’ s bidding--but in the first place simplyto enter in and be on the safe side of the door which God will close upon us. That entering in is not quite nothing; it means feeling very helpless: but only seek you to be taught your own unsatisfactory self, and can you find it so hard to win safety by casting off all refuges but the only safe one. Now I think we see how faith and fear go together. Fear is not dismay--and faith is not self-security. Safe within the ark of Christ’ s Church--safe in the love of Christ Himself, you yet “ work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” That very fear ought to strengthen our faith, to drive us out of any holdfast but the one only one, and make us unite ourselves with Him under whose leadership we are the surer to conquer, the surer we are of our weakness. (John Kempthorne, M. A.) Hebrews 11:8-10 Abraham The faith of Abraham I. THE FAITH BY ABRAHAM IN HIS TO THE DIVINE CALL. It was neither poverty, nor restless discontent with the monotony of daily toil, that sent him out of Ur of the Chaldees. Nor does Scripture drop any hint of persecution. The simple urgent reason was a Divine command, “ Get thee out,” &c. Mighty consequences hung upon his obedience. It was the first link in a long chain of acts of faith by which the knowledge of the true God was to be preserved in the earth, and the redemption of mankind accomplished. The greatest and happiest consequences have flowed from single acts of righteousness and faith. Men simply did their present duty; they took counsel with none but their own conscience; one step before them on life’ s path stood clearly revealed, and they ventured, notwithstanding all being dark beyond. By faith they acted thus, believing that if a man can only see his way a yard before him in the path of duty, he may step it as boldly as though the whole road were clear right up to the gate of heaven. When Wicliff, the pioneer of the English mind in that unknown land of promise which lay hid in the Bible, first led the way by translating it into his mother-tongue, he went forth in faith, not knowing whither. When John Hampden resisted the unrighteous impost of ship-money, he-committed himself in faith to a struggle the issue of which no sagacity could predict. Little did he think that he was making himself a name as chief among the founders of his country’ s liberties; it was the duty of the hour, and that was enough for him. When the crew of the Mayflower left our shores to seek a home in the New World, they went out not knowing whither; in their grandest dreams they could never have imagined what a stronghold of civil and religious liberty would arise out of the foundation they were laying in obedience to conscience and by their faith in God. II. ABRAHAM’ S SOJOURN IN CANAAN, AS IN A LAND NOT HIS OWN, THOUGH IT WAS THE LAND OF PROMISE. Similar trials of faith have fallen to the lot of other men who, obeying God and conscience, have gone out not knowing whither, Not always have they found the promised land. Many have died without witnessing the accomplishment of their hopes, sometimes without catching a glimpse of the splendid results to which their faith and courage ultimately led. Exemption from such trials must not be expected. Brave lives are sacrificed in the forefront of battle that the soldiers in the rear may pass on to victory; so in every battle of principle the faith and courage of many a good soldier appear to be spent without result. Without result indeed they would be, if the conflict ended with their lives and their example perished. But since, in every contest for truth and right, the victory has first to be won inwardly, in the hearts of many earnest men, before it can be made palpable to eye and ear, so those who help the spiritual preparation contribute as much to the victory as they who actually accomplish it. (E. W. Shalders, B. A.) The obedience of faith: Obedience--what a blessing it would be if we were all trained to it by the Holy Spirit! How fully should we be restored if we were perfect in it! Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There is no truth in the supposition. We preach the obedience of faith. Faith is the fountain, the foundation, and the fosterer of obedience. Obedience, such as God can accept, never cometh out of a heart which thinks God a liar, but is wrought in us by the Spirit of the Lord, through our believing in the truth and love and grace of our God in Christ Jesus. There is a free-grace road to obedience, and that is receiving by faith the Lord Jesus, who is the gift of God, and is made of God unto us sanctification. We accept the Lord Jesus by faith, and He “ Leaches us obedience, and creates it in us. The more of faith in Him you have, the more of obedience to Him will you manifest. I. THE KIND OF FAITH WHICH . 1. It is, manifestly, faith in God as having the right to command our obedience. He has a greater claim upon our ardent service than He has upon the services of angels; for while they were created as we have been, yet they have never been redeemed by precious blood. 2. Next, we must have faith in the rightness of all that God says or does. We hear people talk about “ minor points,” and so on; but we must not consider any word of our God as a minor thing if by that expression is implied that it is of small importance. We must accept every single word of precept or prohibition or instruction as being what it ought to be, and neither to be diminished nor increased. We should not reason about the command of God as though it might be set aside or amended. He bids: we obey. 3. Furthermore, we must have faith in the Lord’ s call upon us to obey. We, who are His chosen, redeemed from among men, called out from the rest of mankind, ought to feel that if no other ears hear the Divine call, our ears must hear it; and if no other heart obeys, our soul rejoices to do so. 4. Obedience arises out of a faith which is to us the paramount principle of action. The kind of faith which produces obedience is lord of the understanding, a royal faith. The true believer believes in God beyond all his belief in anything else and everything else. II. THE KIND OF WHICH FAITH . 1. Genuine faith in God creates a prompt obedience. “ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed.” There was an immediate response to the command. Delayed obedience is disobedience. 2. Next, obedience should be exact. “ Abraham, when he was called to go out … went out.” That which the Lord commands we should do--just that, and not another thing of our own devising. Mind your jots and tittles with the Lord’ s precepts. Attention to little things is a fine feature in obedience: it lies much more as to its essence in the little things than in the great ones. 3. And next, mark well that Abraham rendered practical obedience. The religion of mere brain and jaw does not amount to much. We want the religion of hands and feet. I remember a place in Yorkshire, years ago, where a good man said to me, “ We have a real good minister.” I said, “ I am glad to hear it.” “ Yes,” he said; “ he is a fellow that preaches with his feet.” Well, now, that is a capital thing if a preacher preaches with his feet by walking with God, and with his hands by working for God. He does well who glorifies God by where he goes and by what he does; he will excel fifty others who only preach religion with their tongues. 4. Next, faith produces a far-seeing obedience. Note this. “ Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance.” How great a company would obey God if they were paid for it on the spot! Those who practise the obedience of faith look for the reward hereafter, and set the greatest store by it. To their faith alone the profit is exceeding great. To take up the cross will be to carry a burden, but it will also be to find rest. 5. Yet, remember that the obedience which comes of true faith is often bound to be altogether unreckoning and implicit; for it is written, “ He went out, not knowing whither he went.” Even bad men will obey God when they think fit; but good men will obey when they know not what to think of it. It is not ours to judge the Lord’ s command, but to follow it. 6. The obedience which faith produces must be continuous. Having commenced the separated life, Abraham continued to dwell in tents and sojourn in the land which was far from the place of his birth. His whole life may be thus summed up: “ By faith Abraham obeyed.” He believed, and therefore walked before the Lord in a perfect way. Do not cultivate doubt, or you will soon cultivate disobedience. Set this up as your standard, and henceforth be this the epitome of your life--“ By faith he obeyed.” III. THE SORT OF LIFE WHICH WILL COME OF THIS FAITH AND . 1. It will be, in the first place, life without that great risk which else holds us in peril. A man runs a great risk when he steers himself. Rocks or no rocks, the peril lies in the helmsman. The believer is no longer the helmsman of his own vessel; he has taken a pilot on board. To believe in God, and to do His bidding, is a great escape from the hazards of personal weakness and folly. Providence is God’ s business, obedience is ours. What harvest will come of our sowing we must leave with the Lord of the harvest; but we ourselves must look to the basket and the seed, and scatter our handfuls in the furrows without fail. 2. In the next place, we shall enjoy a life free from its heaviest cares. If we were in the midst of the wood, with Stanley, in the centre of Africa, our pressing care would be to find our way out; but when we have nothing to do but to obey, our road is mapped out for us. Jesus says, “ Follow Me” ; and this makes our way plain, and lifts from our shoulders a load of cares. 3. The way of obedience is a life of the highest honour. By faith we yield our intelligence to the highest intelligence: we are led, guided, directed; and we follow where our Lord has gone. Among His children, they are best who best know their Father’ s mind, and yield to it the gladdest obedience. Should we have any other ambition, within the walls of our:Father’ s house, than to be perfectly obedient children before Him and implicitly trustful towards Him? 4. But this is a kind of life which will bring communion with God. Obedient faith is the way to eternal life; nay, it is eternal life revealing itself. 5. The obedience of faith creates a form of life-which may be safely copied. As parents, we wish so to live that our children may copy us to their lasting profit. Children usually exaggerate their models; but there will be no fear of their going too far in faith or in obedience to the Lord. 6. Lastly, faith working obedience is a kind of life which needs great grace. Every careless professor will not live in this fashion. It will need watchfulness and prayer, and nearness to God, to maintain the faith which obeys in everything. “ He giveth more grace.” The Lord will enable us to add to our faith all the virtues. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Abraham forsaking the world I. THE RESULT OF ABRAHAM’ S FAITH, which we are now called upon to consider. There are three distinct points before us: 1. The first part of what is mentioned as the work of Abraham’ s faith, showing the Christian what he should give up. 2. What he should bear. 3. What he should live for. What had Abraham to give up?” Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’ s house.” What a command! Consider what he had to forsake. And in the eyes of his family how absurd and fanciful must his scheme have been! But Abraham was supported by a certain hope. “ He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Thus, then 1. Abraham gave up the world and endured hardships. 2. Lived on the hope of a future blessing, which he did receive. 3. And all this he did by faith. II. AND NOW LET US APPLY ABRAHAM’ S CASE AND CONDUCT TO OUR OWN. First, then, what is the world you have to give up? It is the world, the objects to which we are drawn, the objects around us, which draw forth our sinful inclinations, which we are now to consider. 1. It depends upon different dispositions what becomes our world. To one man nature is his world: he has a mind to enjoy extremely the beauties and the works of nature. The feelings produced by a rich sunset or a beautiful view are his very religion; he gazes at the beauty of a flower till he thinks he worships the God who made it; he forgets the Creator in the creature, and mistakes the one for the other. Poetry is his religion, or sentiment, or some such natural feeling. Now suppose such a man called by duty, i.e. by God, to live in a place where he is cut off from all such objects of admiration, to live quietly and without excitement amid what are to him the dull realities of life, obliged to give up all his taste and refinement, and put up with quiet, dull, sober, everyday work--at least what is so to him naturally; and suppose this man refuses to do it, or lingers in doing it: he thinks if he gives up nature and his admiration that all his religion will go too. All his religion depended on a place, and nature is that man’ s world. It is what Abraham’ s family and home were to him, and if he refuse to desert it at the call of duty, he is not living above the world. 2. Again: in another man applause and praise is his world; he lives for this, and has lived for it all his life; every act of his life is governed by what men think of it. Now suppose such a man withdrawn from the sphere in which he had been admired, courted and flattered; suppose him called by duty to work in a sphere where his brightest acts would be unknown, and there would be none to admire even his most creditable denials; and suppose he hesitated to do this--then that man’ s world would be human applause. 3. Or again; to some men mere worldly success is their world, what they call getting on in life; they live for this; their whole views of right and wrong are almost bounded by their chance of success in their profession, their trade, their farm, their place. 4. But to some, like Abraham himself, their family is their world. If your family interfere with any single duty to God, that family is your world. 5. To others--in the common use of the word--pleasure is their world; society, whose only object it; is to gratify the sense or entertain the imagination. Good-natured society; dissipated society; intellectual society; idle society, whose object it is to pass away the dull hours of life by the empty reading of novels, or by lounging in listless carelessness through the precious fleeting hours of time. Ambitious society, whose great object it is to surpass each other in display of wealth. 6. To some, activity is a kind of world. 7. To some a particular set of circumstances connected with religion is their world, a particular minister, whom they almost worship, particular religious friends, whose word, with them, would almost surmount the authority of Scripture. This, then, is what he must do and give up for Christ’ s sake and the gospel’ s. The believer must show forth his faith, like Abraham, by forsaking and coming out from the world. III. AND UNDER THIS WHAT IS THE ’ S HOPE? IV. BUT ALL THIS IS THE RESULT OF FAITH. By faith Abraham gave up the world and rested on future promises. And by faith you must give up the world and rest on future promises. For example 1. If your world is the admiration of nature, of trees and hills, and the objects of the earth around you; then, if called by duty to cease to spend days in contemplating these, to work in a line which to you is dull and uninteresting, faith helps you by opening your eyes to see a world where are objects like those you yield, which you shall enjoy freely hereafter; where are hills without their toil, suns without their burning, trees without their dying, flowers without their fading, nature unstained by sin, unvisited by death, in the very presence of death for ever. 2. If your world is the praise of man, you are called to give it up; faith offers you the praise of God instead, the approval of your Saviour. 3. If your world is success m your earthly calling, and you are called by conscience to resign hopes of high success here, faith points through the veil of humiliation to the everlasting hills, where you shall reign as kings and priests for ever. 4. If your world is your family, whose affections God calls you willingly and cheerfully to resign, faith points to a re-union in heaven. 5. If your world is society, with its vain, empty, delusive, dissipating pleasure, faith points you to a society whose whole object is God, whose whole religion is praise, and whose whole will is obedience; a society of angels and saints, gathered from the earliest ages, and purified by the influence of the Spirit. 6. If your world is activity, and passive suffering to the call of God, faith offers a field of active service before God for ever. 7. If your world is a particular sphere of religious circumstances, faith points you to God, and bids you trust in Him, not in man. (E. Monro.) Self-renunciation at the call of God I. It becomes the infinite greatness, and all-satisfactory goodness of God, at the very first revelation of Himself unto any of His creatures, TO REQUIRE OF THEM OF ALL OTHER THINGS, AND OF THEIR IN THEM, IN WITH HIS . II. THE POWER OF GRACE, IN CALLING MEN TO GOD, AND THE MIGHTY OF FAITH . III. IT IS THE CALL OF GOD ALONE THAT MAKES A AMONGST MANKIND, AS UNTO FAITH AND , WITH ALL THE EFFECTS OF THEM. Abraham thus believed and obeyed God, because he was called. And he was called, not because he was better, or wiser than others, but because it pleased God to call him and not others (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). IV. THE CHURCH OF OF THOSE THAT ARE CALLED OUT OF THE WORLD. The call of Abraham is a pattern of the call of the Church Psalms 45:10; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18). V. SELF-DENIAL IN FACT OR , IS THE OF ALL SINCERE . Abraham began his profession in the practice of this, and proceeded unto the height of it in the greatest instances imaginable. And the instruction that our Saviour gives herein (Matthew 10:37-38; Matthew 16:24-25), amounts but unto this--If you intend to have the faith of Abraham, with the fruits and blessings attending it, you must lay the foundation of it in the relinquishment of all things, if called thereunto, as he did. VI. THERE IS NO RIGHT, TITLE, OR , THAT CAN AGAINST THE OF GOD; IN THE OF ALL HERE BELOW AT HIS . VII. GOD’ S GRANT OF THINGS UNTO ANY, IS THE BEST OF TITLES, AND MOST SURE AGAINST ALL OR (Judges 11:24). VIII. BELONGS UNTO AN ENJOYED. This God gave unto Abraham in his posterity, with a mighty hand, and stretched out arm; and He divided it unto them by lot. IX. AN MAY BE GIVEN ONLY FOR A LIMITED SEASON. The title unto it may be continued unto a prefixed period. So was it with this inheritance; for although it is called an everlasting inheritance, yet it was so only on two accounts. 1. That it was typical of that heavenly inheritance which is eternal. 2. Because, as unto right and title, it was to be continued unto the end of that limited perpetuity which God granted unto the church-state in that land; that is, unto the coming of the promised Seed, in whom all nations should be blessed; which the call and faith of Abraham did principally regard. X. THAT IT IS FAITH ALONE THAT GIVES THE SOUL IN FUTURE REWARDS, IN THE MIDST OF PRESENT AND . So it did to Abraham, who, in the whole course of his pilgrimage, attained nothing of this promised inheritance. XI. THE GIVEN US BY DIVINE IS TO US TO ADVANCE IN THE MOST COURSE OF . (John Owen, D. D.) I. THE HARD TASK TO WHICH ABRAHAM WAS CALLED. Faith the power for severing old ties 1. It involved painful separation from the past. 2. It involved the risk of being misunderstood in the present. 3. It involved great uncertainty for the future. II. THE SIMPLE FAITH BY WHICH THIS HARD TASK WAS . 1. This faith was based on a Divine call. 2. Sustained by abundant promises. 3. Expressed by absolute surrender. III. THE TO WHICH THIS SIMPLE FAITH LED. What came of this act of obedience? All the blessedness the world has ever had. (C. New.) Abraham’ s prompt obedience to the call of God I. WHAT WAS ABRAHAM’ S SPECIAL WHICH LED TO HIS SO A SAINT? 1. He had a call. 2. He obeyed it. 3. He obeyed it because he believed God. II. WHAT WAS THERE IN ABRAHAM’ S CONDUCT? 1. That he was willing to be separated from his kindred. 2. That he was ready for all the losses and risks that might be involved in obedience to the call of God. 3. That he waived the present for the future. 4. That he committed himself to God by faith. 5. What he did was done at once. III. THE RESULT OF ABRAHAM’ S ACTION. Did it pay? That is the inquiry of most people, and within proper bounds it is not a wrong question. Our reply is, it did so gloriously. True, it brought him into a world of trouble, and no wonder: such a noble course as his was not likely to be an easy one. What grand life ever was easy? Who wants to be a child and do easy things? Yet we read in Abraham’ s life, after a whole host of troubles, “ And Abraham was old and well stricken in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.” That is a splendid conclusion--God had blessed Abraham in all things. Whatever happened, he had always been under the Divine smile, and all things had worked for his good. He was parted from his friends, but then he had the sweet society of his God, and was treated as the friend of the Most High, and allowed to intercede for others, and clothed with power on their behalf. What honour, also, the patriarch had among his contemporaries; he was a great man, and held in high esteem. How splendidly he bore himself; no king ever behaved more royally. His image passes across the page of history rather like that of a spirit from the supernal realms than that of a mere mad; he is so thorough, so childlike, and therefore so heroic. He lived in God, and on God, and with God. Such a sublime life recompensed a thousandfold all the sacrifice he was led to make. Was not his life a happy one? One might wisely say, “ Let my life be like that of Abraham.” As to temporal things the Lord enriched him, and in spirituals he was richer still. He was wealthier in heart than in substance, though great even in that respect. This very day, through his matchless seed, to whom be glory for ever and ever, even Jesus Christ of the seed of Abraham, all tribes of men are blessed. His life was, both for time and for eternity, a great success; both for temporals and for spirituals the path of faith was the best that he could have followed. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Adventuring for God: We can hardly read those words without at once thinking how all this common life around us would be both simplified and made noble if men generally, in laying out their plans and carrying on their ordinary work, were moved and guided in the same Divine way!--i.e., if they inquired first, at every important decision, every new start and every new turn in the road, where their Lord called them to go; and then, leaving all other questions aside, were to go straight on, no matter what comfort, like the familiar country that the patriarch was leaving, they might be obliged to give up, and no matter how untried or bleak the regions before. I suppose one chief hindrance to its having this effect on most of us will be the difficulty of our realising that, with respect to each one of us, in our personal insignificance, God just as truly has a plan and a particular place, both of work and of communion, as He had for Abraham or Moses, for Enoch or Samuel, for St. John or St. Paul, for any hero or any saint. But He has. Ours may not be so high a place or so much honoured with usefulness as theirs. We have no concern with that; but the whole tenor of our Christian religion tells us our place is there; that when He created us God designed each one, in every station of society, of either sex, in all kinds of employment, for a particular service in His Church, in His family on earth, and in His heaven for ever. You may forfeit it by not believing in it, and by trying to live and die for yourself; God may hereafter fill up the vacancy and finish the full harmony of His heavenly multitude by the river of life without you. But in the millions of wayward lives entangled with each other He will never for one instant lose sight of the thread of yours. He formed you with a loving intention, and all His affection and mercy to the rest have not diminished a particle His affection and mercy for you. Next observe the large meaning of one small word--the word “out.” This faithful man was “ called to go out,” and he “went out.” We are to draw from that a new inference, viz., that in his journeying one place did not look to him just like another, equally attractive and desirable. On the contrary, between the past and the future there was a contrast. What he must leave behind is familiar; what he must turn toward is strange. What he must leave behind is known, tried and safe and agreeable; what he must encounter is hazardous. Going out implies a giving up of something like a home, with the warm, bright, sheltering, endearing attributes always associated with that beloved name. Within are security and comfort; without are exposure, peril, sacrifice. Here, then, is a new rule for the Christian life. Where that life is regenerate, what a Christian life ought to be, fulfilling the gospel idea, it does not merely run on from one scene to another on the same level, nor does it consist in merely moving about through the routine of aa easy experience without progress, without trying new difficulties, gaining greater heights, or by fresh sacrifices coming into a closer and more spiritual sympathy with Christ. Every step needs faith in God, faith in the better country to come, faith in the end to be reached, or else he would look back and perhaps sink down in the road. Take in, then, with this another strong element in the doctrine of the text--the superiority, in this going forward of the disciple after his Lord, of faith over knowledge. We knew the low country we left by eyesight, by the senses, or the intellect; but what lay before was always unknown, invisible, a land of promise, only believed in. In all our approaches to God, in making up our minds to come out on Christ’ s side in an open confession, in baptism in maturer years, in coming to be confirmed, in every victory over the evils of the world, we cannot depend merely on the understanding. “ He went out, not knowing whither he went.” That was the crown and the glory of his obedience. He did know who tailed him, and in whom he believed, and that was enough. It might seem, at first sight, in reading this passage, as if the principal stress were laid on the obedience. And then some of you who are more advanced in the higher privileges of the gospel, and accustomed to> discriminate in spiritual matters, might say: No; obedience is a low and elementary stage; obedience is of the law; we are not under the law, but under grace; we are not Jews; Christ has come, and it is the faith and love which go out to Him for what He is in the beauty of His holiness, and what He has done for us in the atonement of the Cross, that constitute the special advantage of our position in the Christian Church. Nothing can be more true than this. The whole object of this chapter is to celebrate, not the bare keeping of commandments, but faith in the invisible, and the glory of acting freely with reference to the absolute God rather than present profits, or any outward reward. Hence it runs all through the passage that there are two kinds of obedience, not distinguished from each other by the outward appearance of the obedient action--for this may be precisely the same in the two cases--but by the motive which prompts the obedience, or the feeling that impels us to act as we do. Two different kinds of character are produced by these two sorts of obedience. One is the obedience of calculation; the other is the obedience of faith. (Bp. F. D. Huntington.) Abraham’ s faith: What did God mean to teach Abraham, by calling him out of his country, and telling him, “ I will make of thee a great nation” ? I think He meant to show him, for one thing, that that Babel plan of society was utterly absurd and accursed, certain to come to nought, and so to lead him on to hope for a city which had foundations, and to see that its builder and maker must be, not the selfishness or the ambition of men, but the will, and the wisdom, and providence of God. Let us see how God led Abraham on to understand this--to look for a city which had foundations; in short, to understand what a state and a nation means and ought to be. First, God taught him that he was not to cling, coward-like, to the place where he was born, but to go out boldly to colonise and subdue the earth, for the great God of heaven would protect and guide him. Again: God taught him what a nation was: “ I will make of thee a great nation.” As much as to say, “ Never fancy, as those fools at Babel did, that a nation only means a great crowd of people--never fancy that men can make themselves into a nation just by feeding altogether, and breeding altogether, and fighting altogether, as the herds of wild cattle and sheep do, while there is no real union between them.” For what brought those Bable men together? Just what keeps a herd of cattle together--selfishness and fear. Each man thought he would be safer forsooth in company. Each man thought that if he was in company he could use his neighbour’ s wits as well as his own, and have the benefit of his neighbour’ s strength as well as his own. And that is all true enough; but that does not make a nation. Selfishness can join nothing; it may join a set of men for a time, each for his own ends, just as a joint-stock company is made up; but it will soon split them up again. Each man, in a merely selfish community, will begin, after a time, to play on his own account, as well as work on his own account--to oppress and over-reach for his own ends, as well as to be honest and benevolent for his own ends, for he will find ill-doing far easier and more natural, in one senses and a plan that brings in quicker profits, than well-doing; and so this godless, loveless, every-man-for-himself nation, or sham nation, rather, this joint-stock company, in which fools expect that universal selfishness will do the work of universal benevolence, will quarrel and break up, crumble to dust again, as Babel did. “ But,” says God to Abraham, “ I will make of thee a great nation. I make nations, and not they themselves.” So it is: this is the lesson which God taught Abraham, the lesson which we English must learn nowadays over again, or smart for it bitterly--that God makes nations. The Psalms set forth the Son of God as the King of all nations. In Him all the nations of the earth are truly blessed. He the Saviour of a few individual souls only? God forbid! To Him all power is given in heaven and earth; by Him were all things created, whether in heaven or earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all national life, all forms of government, whether hero-despotisms, republics, or monarchies, aristocracies of birth, or of wealth, or of talent--all were created by Him, and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist and hold together. Believe me, it takes long years, too, and much training from God and from Christ, the King of kings, to make a nation. Everything which is most precious great is also most slow in growing, and so is a nation. But again: God said to Abraham, when He had led him into this far country, “ Unto thy seed will I give this land.” This was a great and a new lesson for Abraham, that the earth belonged to that same great invisible God who had promised to guide and protect him, and make him into a nation--that this same God gave the earth to whomsoever He would, and allotted to each people their proper portion of it. How this must have taught Abraham that the rights of property were sacred things--things appointed by God; that it was an awful and heinous sin to make wanton war on other people, to drive them out and take possession of their land; that it was not mere force or mere fancy which gave men a right to a country, but the providence of Almighty God! Now, Abraham needed this warning, for the men of Babel seem from the first to have gone on the plan of driving out and conquering the tribes around them. Now, in Genesis 14:1-24. there is an account of Abraham’ s being called on to put in practice what he had learnt, and, by doing so, learning a fresh lesson. We read of four kings making war against five kings, against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam or Persia, who had been following the nays of Nimrod and the men of Babel, and conquering these foreign kings and making them serve him. We read of Chedorlaomer and four other kings coming down and wantonly destroying other countries, besides the five kings who had rebelled against them, and at last carrying off captive the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot, Abraham’ s nephew. We read then how Abraham armed his trained servants, both in his own house, three hundred and eighteen men, and pursued after these tyrants and plunderers, and with his small force completely overthrew that great army. Now, that was a sign and a lesson to Abraham, as much as to say, “ See the fruits of having the great God of heaven and earth for your protector and your guide; see the fruits of having men round you, not hirelings, keeping in your company just to see what they can get by it, but born in your own house, who love and trust you, whom you can love and trust; see how the favour of God, and reverence for those family ties and duties which He has appointed, make you and your little band of faithful men superior to those great mobs of selfish, godless, unjust robbers; see how hundreds of these slaves ran away before one man, who feels that he is a member of a family, and has a just cause for fighting, and that God and his brethren are with him.” Now, as sure as God made Abraham a great nation, so if we English are a great nation, God has made us so; as sure as God gave Abraham the land of Canaan for his possession, so did He give us this land of England, when He brought our Saxon forefathers out of the wild barren north, and drove out before them nations greater and mightier than they, and gave them great and goodly cities which they builded not, and wells digged which they digged not, farms and gardens which they planted not, that we too might fear the Lord our God, and serve Him, and swear by His name; as sure as He commanded Abraham to respect the property of his neighbours, so has He commanded us; as sure as God taught Abraham that the nation which was to grow from him owed a duty to God, and could be only strong by faith in God, so it is with us: we English people owe a duty to God, and are to deal among ourselves, and with foreign countries, by faith in God, and in the fear of God, “ seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” sure that then all other things--victory, health, commerce, art, and science--will be added to us. (C. Kingsley, M. A.) The spiritual production and practical development of true religion I. THE OF TRUE . 1. Divine sovereignty. 2. Special revelation. 3. Earnest faith. II. THE OF REAL . 1. Renunciation of old mode of life. 2. Adoption of new. (1) Implicit trust in God. (2) Conscious strangeness on earth. (3) Glorious prospect. (Homilist.) Faith making light of present privations I. GOD’ S PEOPLE ARE OFTEN CALLED TO STRANGE . 1. One hard feature of these privations was that they had come in the way of obedience to God. 2. Moreover, they seemed to involve unfulfilled promise on God’ s part. II. THESE ARE, HOWEVER, WITH BRIGHT . 1. The present and visible does not limit our history. 2. The future will be as good as even God can make it.” 3. In that future the delayed promises will be fulfilled, and the fruit of present obedience and discipline enjoyed. III. FAITH ON THIS CAN ENDURE THE . 1. Assuring us of this future, faith gives songs in present trouble. With the joy of hope we can sing as we suffer. 2. Lifting us unto this future, faith dwarfs present need. “ The sufferings of the present time are not worthy,” &c. 3. Showing us the possibilities of this future; faith endures present discipline. Discipline is to make the future greater. “ These light afflictions work for us a far more,” &c. “ While we look,” &c. Conclusion: Feed and exercise this faith that it may grow. By it often climb the mount and see the land that is very far off. (C. New.) Abraham’ s faith and pilgrimage I. THE OBJECT OF ABRAHAM’ S DESIRE: “ A city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.” This was the view under which the future state was presented to him; and it suggests 1. The immortality of its inhabitants. The city “ hath foundations,” and shall evermore endure. 2. The changelessness of its enjoyments. This is also intimated by the term “ foundations.” Its happiness is permanent. 3. The glory of the state. “ Whose Builder is God,” that is, in a special sense. It displays, in a peculiar degree, His power, wisdom, and goodness. 4. Common participation. There is society. This multiplies happiness to angels and saints. 5. Perfect moral order. “ Whose Maker is God.” II. WHICH THIS , BUT , CONDUCT OF ABRAHAM . He chose the pilgrim’ s life, and dwelt in tents rather than inhabit a city on earth. 1. We are taught by this conduct of Abraham the true ground of the eminent piety of God’ s ancient saints. 2. We are taught to regulate our choice in life by our superior regard to the interests of the soul. 3. We are taught a noble indifference to the accommodation of our pilgrimage. 4. We are taught to be willing to make sacrifices for the religious good of others. (R. Watson.) Abraham’ s faith I. Where faith enables men to live unto God, as unto their eternal concerns, IT WILL ENABLE THEM TO TRUST UNTO HIM IN ALL THE , dangers, and hazards of this life. To pretend a trust in God as unto our souls and invisible things, and not resign our temporal concerns with patience and quietness unto His disposal, is a vain pretence. II. If we design to have an interest in the blessing of Abraham, WE MUST WALK IN THE STEPS OF THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. Firm affiance in the promises for grace, mercy, and eternal salvation, trust in His providence for preservation and protection in this world, with a cheerful resignation of all our temporal and eternal concerns unto His disposal, according to the tenor of the covenant, are required hereunto. III. WHERE FAITH IS ONCE DULY FIXED ON THE , IT WILL WAIT UNDER TRIALS, , AND , FOR THEIR FULL ; as did that of Abraham, which is here celebrated. IV. FAITH ARIGHT THE GLORY OF , WILL MAKE THE SOUL OF A AND WELL WITH THE PORTION OF EARTHLY , &C. (John Owen, D. D.) On travelling There is a time when a man may leave his own country and travel into strange countries, yet great circumspection is to be had in it. 1. A man must be called to it: we must do nothing without a calling. Not as if every one should expect such a calling as Abraham had by God’ s immediate voice. We have our callings, but mediate. If a man be employed in an ambassadage to a foreign prince, he hath a calling to leave his country for a time. If a man cannot live in his own country, and can more conveniently maintain himself and his charge in another, he may go to it, so as he make not shipwreck of religion. If a man abound in wealth, and be desirous of tongues, arts, and sciences in another country, he hath a calling to it. 2. We must take heed that our families in the mean season be not neglected. He that careth not for them of his house is worse than an infidel. A man under pretext of travelling may not run away from his wife and children. 3. We must have no sinister respect in it. We must not make travelling a cloak to cover theft, murder, adultery, and other gross and notorious vices. God can find us out in all places; for whither shall we fly from His presence? 4. We must not imagine our travelling to be meritorious, as pilgrimages were in former times. 5. Let us take heed in travelling that we travel not away faith and good conscience; wheresoever we become, let us keep ourselves undefiled of the superstitions and corruptions that be in other countries. Let us keep our religion safe and sound, that the least crack be not found in it. Travelling is a dangerous thing. Let us not take it on us unless we be some way or other called to it, as Abraham was. (W. Jones, D. D.) The illusiveness of life I. GOD’ S NEVER ARE IN THE SENSE IN WHICH THEY SEEM TO HIVE BEEN GIVEN. Life is a deception; its anticipations, which are God’ s promises to the imagination, are never realised; they who know life best, and have trusted God most to fill it with blessings, are ever the first to say that life is a series of disappointments. And in the spirit of this text we have to say that it is a wise and merciful arrangement which ordains it thus. Abraham had a few feet of earth, obtained by purchase--beyond that nothing; he died a stranger and a pilgrim in the land. Isaac had a little. So small was Jacob’ s hold upon his country that the last years of his life were spent in Egypt, and he died a foreigner in a strange land. His descendants came into the land of Canaan, expecting to find it a land flowing with milk and honey; they found hard work to do--war and unrest, instead of rest and peace. During one brief period in the history of Israel the promise may seem to have been fulfilled. It was during the later years of David and the earlier years of Solomon; but we have the warrant of Scripture itself for affirming that even then the promise was not fulfilled. In the Book of Psalms David speaks of a hope of entering into a future rest. They who believe that the Jews will be restored to their native land, expect it on the express ground that Canaan has never been actually and permanently theirs. A certain tract of country--three hundred miles in length, by two hundred in breadth--must be given, or else they think the promise has been broken. To quote the expression of one of the most eloquent of their writers, “ If there be nothing yet future for Israel, then the magnificence of the promise has been lost in the poverty of its accomplishment.” I do not quote this to prove the correctness of the interpretation of the prophecy, but as an acknowledgment which may be taken so far as a proof, that the promise made to Abraham has never been accomplished. And such is life’ s disappointment. Its promise is, you shall have a Canaan; it turns out to be a baseless, airy dream--toil and warfare--nothing that we can call our own; not the land of rest, by any means. But we will examine this in particulars. 1. Our senses deceive us; we begin life with delusion. Our senses deceive us with respect to distance, shape, and colour. That which afar off seems oval turns out to be circular, modified by the perspective of distance; that which appears a speck, upon nearer approach becomes a vast body. All experience is a correction of life’ s delusions--a modification, a reversal of the judgment of the senses: and all life is a lesson on the falsehood of appearances. 2. Our natural anticipations deceive us--I say natural in contradistinction to extravagant expectations. Every human life is a fresh one, bright with hopes that will never be realised. There may be differences of character in these hopes; finer spirits may look on life as the arena of successful deeds, the more selfish as a place of personal enjoyment. With man the turning-point of life may be a profession--with woman, marriage; the one gilding the future with the triumphs of intellect, the other with the dreams of affection; but in every case life is not what any of them expects, but something else. It would almost seem a satire on existence to compare the youth in the outset of his career, flushed and sanguine, with the aspect of the same being when it is nearly done--worn, sobered, covered with the dust of life, and confessing that its days have been few and evil. Where is the land flowing with milk and honey? With our affections it is still worse, because they promise more. Man’ s affections are but the tabernacles of Canaan--the tents of a night; not permanent habitations even for this life. Where are the charms of character, the perfection, and the purity, and the truthfulness, which seemed so resplendent in our friend? They were only the shape of our own conceptions--our creative shaping intellect projected its own fantasies on him: and hence we outgrow our early friendships; outgrow the intensity of all: we dwell in tents; we never find a home, even in the land of promise. Life is an unenjoyable Canaan, with nothing real or substantial in it. 3. Our expectations, resting on revelation, deceive us. The world’ s history has turned round two points of hope; one, the first, the other, the second coming of the Messiah. The magnificent imagery of Hebrew prophecy had described the advent of the Conqueror; He came--“ a root out of a dry ground, with no form or comeliness; and when they saw Him there was no beauty in Him that they should desire Him.” The victory, predicted in such glowing terms, turned out to be the victory of submission--the law of our humanity, which wins by gentleness and love. The promise in the letter was unfulfilled. For ages the world’ s hope has been the Second Advent. The early Church expected it in their own day. “ We, which are alive, and remain until the coming of our Lord.” The Saviour Himself had said, “ This generation shall not pass till all things be fulfilled.” Yet the Son of Man has never come; or rather, He has been ever coming. Unnumbered times the judgment eagles have gathered together over corruption ripe for condemnation. Times innumerable the separation has been made between good and bad. The promise has not been fulfilled, or it has been fulfilled, but in either case anticipation has been foiled and disappointed. There are two ways of considering this aspect of life. One is the way of sentiment; the other is the way of faith. The sentimental way is trite enough. Saint, sage, sophist, moralist, and preacher, have repeated in every possible image, till there is nothing new to say, that life is a bubble, a dream, a delusion, a phantasm. The other is the way of faith: the ancient saints felt as keenly as any moralist could feel the brokenness of its promises; they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here; they said that they had here no continuing city; but they did not mournfully moralise on this; they said it cheerfully, and rejoiced that it was so. They felt that all was right; they knew that the promise itself had a deeper meaning; they looked undauntedly for “ a city which hath foundations.” II. THE MEANING OF THIS . 1. It serves to allure us on. Could a man see his route before him--a fiat, straight road, unbroken by bush, or tree, or eminence, with the sun’ s heat burning down upon it, stretched out in dreary monotony--he could scarcely find energy to begin his task; but the uncertainty of what may be seen beyond the next turn keeps expectation alive. The view that may be seen from yonder summit--the glimpse that may be caught, perhaps, as the road winds round yonder knoll--hopes like these, not far distant, beguile the traveller on from mile to mile, and from league to league. In fact, life is an education. The object for which you educate your son is to give him strength of purpose, self-command, discipline of mental energies; but you do not reveal to your son this aim of his education; you tell him of his place in his class, of the prizes at the end of the year, of the honours to be given at college. These are not the true incentives to knowledge; such incentives are not the highest--they are even mean, and partially injurious; yet these mean incentives stimulate and lead on, from day to day and from year to year, by a process the principle of which the boy himself is not aware of. So does God lead on, through life’ s unsatisfying and false reward, ever educating: Canaan first; then the hope of a Redeemer; then the millennial glory. 2. This non-fulfilment of promise fulfils it in a deeper way. The account we have given already, were it to end there, would be insufficient to excuse the failure of life’ s promise; by saying that it allures us would be really to charge God with deception. Now, life is not deception, but illusion. We distinguish between illusion and delusion. We may paint wood so as to be taken for stone, iron, or marble; this is delusion: but you may paint a picture, in which rocks, trees, and sky are never mistaken for what they seem, yet produce all the emotion which real rocks, trees, and sky would produce. This is illusion, and this is the painter’ s art: never for one moment to deceive by attempted imitation, but to produce a mental state in which the feelings are suggested which the natural objects themselves would create. Let us take an instance drawn from life. To a child a rainbow is a real thing--substantial and palpable; its limb rests on the side of yonder hill; he believes that he can appropriate it to himself; and when, instead of gems and gold hid in its radiant bow, he finds nothing but damp mist--cold, dreary drops of disappointment--that disappointment tells that his belief has been delusion. To the educated man that bow is a blessed illusion, yet it never once deceives; he does not take it for what it is not, he does not expect to make it his own; he feels its beauty as much as the child could feel it, nay, infinitely more--more even from the fact that he knows that it will be transient; but besides and beyond this, to him it presents a deeper loveliness; he knows the laws of light, and the laws of the human soul which gave it being. He has linked it with the laws of the universe, and with the invisible mind of God; and it brings to him a thrill of awe, and the sense of a mysterious, nameless beauty, of which the child did not conceive. It is illusion still; but it has fulfilled the promise. In the realm of spirit, in the temple of the soul, it is the same. All is illusion; “ but we look for a city which hath foundations” ; and in this the promise is fulfilled. And such was Canaan to the Israelites. To some doubtless it was delusion. They expected to find their reward in a land of milk and honey. They were bitterly disappointed, and expressed their disappointment loudly enough in their murmurs against Moses, and their rebellion against his successors. But to others, as to Abraham, Canaan was the bright illusion which never deceived, but for ever shone before as the type of something more real. And even taking the promise literally, though they built in tents, and could not call a foot of land their own, was not its beauty theirs? Were not its trellised vines, and glorious pastures, and rich olive-fields, ministers to the enjoyment of those who had all in God, though its milk, and oil, and honey, could not be enjoyed with exclusiveness of appropriation? Yet over and above and beyond this, there was a more blessed fulfilment of the promise; there was “ a city which had foundations” --built and made by God--toward which the anticipation of this Canaan was leading them. The kingdom of God was forming in their souls, for ever disappointing them by the unreal, and teaching them that what is spiritual and belongs to mind and character alone can be eternal. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Mysteriousness of life It is not unusual for captains to receive their commands from their country to set sail, especially in times of war and danger, knowing not their destination. They cannot open their commission, perhaps, until they have reached a solitary, silent part of the great ocean. And we “ sail under sealed orders” ; we all go out “ not knowing whither we go.” (E. P. Hood.) Reason may hinder faith I suppose you will all say that if a man were able to go a journey of two or three hundred miles a-foot, he were a very good footman; yet if you will tie him to carry a child of four or five years old with him, you will say it would be a great luggage to him; and the man would say, “ Pray, let this child be left alone; for though he may run along in my hand half a mile, or go a mile with me, yet notwithstanding I must carry him the rest of the way; and when I come at any great water, or have to go over any hill, I must take him upon my back, and that will be a great burden to me.” Thus it is between faith and reason. Reason at the best is but a child to faith. Faith can foot it over mountains and difficulties, and wade through afflictions, though they be very wide; but when reason comes to any affliction, to wade through that and to go over some great difficulties, then it cries out, and says, “ Oh Faith, good Faith, go back again; good Faith, go back again.” “ No,” says Faith, “ but I will take thee upon my back, Reason.” And so Faith is fain to do, indeed, to take Reason upon its back. But oh, what a luggage is Reason to Faith! Faith never works better than when it works most alone. The mere rational considering of the means, and the deadness thereof, is a great and special enemy to the work of believing. (William Bridge.) Faith stimulating endeavour See the spider casting out her film to the gale; she feels persuaded that somewhere or other it will adhere and form the commencement of her web. She commits the slender filament to the breeze, believing that there is a place provided for it to fix itself. In this fashion should we believingly cast forth our endeavours in this life, confident that God will find a place for us. He who bids us pray and work will aid our efforts and guide us in His providence in a right way. Sit not still in despair, O son of toil, but again cast out the floating thread of hopeful endeavour, and the wind of love will bear it to its resting-place. The tent life: The tent life will always be the natural one for those who feel that their mother country is beyond the stars. We should be like the wandering Swiss, who hear in a strange land the rude old melody that used to echo among the Alpine pastures. The sweet sad tones kindle home sickness that will not let them rest: no matter where they are, or what they are doing, no matter what honour they have carved out for themselves with their swords, they throw off the livery of the alien king which they have worn, and turning their backs upon pomp and courts, seek the free air of the mountains, and find home better than a place by a foreign throne. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A city which hath foundations The way to the city: There are some men who are like the patriarch Abraham in this--they have no fixed dwelling-place in the earth. They go from one city to another at the different seasons of the year, arranging to come to each just at the season of its highest bloom. This is thought to be a pleasant, but it is a very poor way of spending life. Men who are always seeking pleasure are never happy. They soon wear all freshness out of their hearts. Better far be at the hardest work all the year round than be such a man. In the intervals of work, however, it is a good thing to see, as one can, the famous cities of the world. It is a relief to leave the well-known streets and the scenes of accustomed occupation for a time; and some expansion of the mind is attained amid the new and varied scenes which come into view. Now, suppose a man on pilgrimage going through a number of such cities, and coming at last of purpose to the best. May we not suppose such a man pausing and saying, “ Is this all? Have I seen the strongest that man can build, the fairest that he can paint? Is there no other city which I have not seen, no fairer lands than those which I have traversed? I have been refreshed, I am thankful; but alas for my immortality if this be all! ‘ Could you not suppose such a man, at such a time, rejoicing in the privilege of taking his place beside Abraham, and “ looking for a city which hath foundations” ? I. THE CITY. How far we are to carry forward the ideas which we have about a city on earth, and fix them on that celestial place which God has prepared for the dwelling of His people through all eternity, it is difficult to say. It is with this as it is with the natural and spiritual body: there is a resemblance and yet a difference. To transfer our ideas just as they are, without purification or expansion, would be to vulgarise and degrade heaven. But to rise by their means to higher ideas like them, is just what the teaching of Scripture enables us to do. “ A city.” Let us thank God for that word--or these: “ a country,” “ a better country, that is, an heavenly.” How do these familiar terms fill up for us the dim and vast obscure I They make a home for our wandering thoughts. They give an answer to our wondering inquiries. 1. This city is very ancient. Not the plan of it merely in Divine thought, nor parts of it merely in course of construction, but the whole city was built and finished, and Abraham journeyed to it through the quietness of the patriarchal days, just as a man now might journey to Paris or Rome. 2. This city is very strong and stable. “ It hath foundations.” It is designedly put in contrast with those frail and movable structures in which Abraham dwelt during his pilgrimage. And what a contrast with the strongest cities and securest abodes of men! Nature and time wear down all man’ s works. As soon as a house is finished, it begins to vanish away. As soon as a tower is erected, it begins to decay. Man is still weaker than his house. His outward man is perishing far more rapidly than walls and towns, and rooms and pictures. It is to a being mortal in himself, and dwelling thus amid things, that this grand vision is revealed of “ a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” 3. This city is all built by God. He is Architect and Artificer. He designs and builds. How grand is this conception of heaven as the masterpiece of Divine skill! a meet dwellingplace for those who have been cleansed and perfected by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. II. THE WAY to the city. The way to the city is to “ look for it,” to “ expect it.” It is the way of faith. Without faith, showing itself by a life-long looking, we have no interest in the place. If we do not look, we reject the whole. This is the way in which heaven is lost to innumerable multitudes. The heart, the soul is in the look, and where a man looks his soul will go. A whole city for a look! Only it must be the look of the whole soul, continued through the whole life, until the city appears. There are those who would be willing enough to think themselves into a celestial city, to speculate concerning a future life, its probable scenes and characteristics, and then to have it as their fancy had feigned. That is not the way to the city. There are those who would be very willing to buy themselves into it. They would give a great many religious services, much money, and some suffering to get there. Neither is that the way to the city. “ It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.” They cannot discern it by knowledge. They may measure and weigh the heavenly bodies with the lines and balances of their thought; they may analyse those beams of light which are shot down on us, and describe the chemistry of the stars; but after they have said all, and told all they know, there is still no sign of the city. They cannot win it by strength. Men do not ascend the snowy summits of the mountains, and then go up to a nobler world. Alas! they all go downwards--down, down to the grave. They cannot win it by merit. Do men so live in this world that they would be justified in saying, “ We do not need to look beyond this life. There must be another world prepared for us, and we can well afford to wait for the day of entrance” ? Benjamin Franklin said, “ As this world was all prepared for me before I came here, so the world to which I am going will be ready when I go there.” But there is a fallacy in this reasoning; it is to place a man who has lived responsibly, who has, of his own will, chosen good or evil for threescore years, in the same category as an infant who has never lived at all. God has said that this is the way to the city, the way of the faith-look; and if we are to be wise, we must walk in this way, on and on, until the city comes in sight. This “ looking” is the whole soul acting in faith, rising in desire, answering to the word and assurance of God in reference to the life to come. No test of a man’ s state could be deeper or truer than this, and therefore it is good and worthy Of God to make faith the condition of salvation, and to give a city of eternal glory for a life-long look. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The hope of Abraham: It is an interesting fact, that though Abraham was selected by Providence to be the head of a great nation, and though he had in those days of his much cattle and a great company of dependents, yet he had no special or particular home in the land he traversed. His habitation was a tent, like that of the traveller of the desert; and this he pitched in the “ land of promise,” as a pilgrim “ in a strange country.” The reason given by the apostle for this conduct is expressed in the words, “ He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.” Here we have the object of the patriarch’ s faith; and in considering it briefly, let us notice a few of its peculiar features, as well as the nature of his faith itself. I. OBSERVE IT IS A CITY OF DIVINE ORIGIN. 1. Abraham may not have had any mysterious vision of this city as St. John had of the heavenly Jerusalem, described in the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation. But it is possible that he might have thought of that which is distinguished by the peculiar advantages of a city; such as a central spot of splendour, of security, of unity, in which the tribes of earth could meet together in social harmony and friendship; and, lastly, as the seat of government. It is not impossible but what one of the most beautiful cities of the Canaanites might have suggested the idea to his mind. But be that as it may, he readily drew a distinction between an earthly and a heavenly city. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 11:11-12 Sara Faith triumphing over physical incapacity I. THE OF FAITH IN THIS CASE: The desired good was contrary to 1. Nature. 2. Experience. 3. Personal worthiness. II. THE BASIS OF THIS FAITH. Grounded entirely on God’ s will. The removal of the difficulty may be 1. The subject of distinct promise. 2. Necessary for obedience to certain commands. 3. The secret purpose of God, which faith leaves Him to fulfil, if so He pleases. III. THE RESULT OF THIS FAITH. 1. Itself a source of victorious power. 2. Rewarded by God with victorious power. (C. New.) Sarah’ s faith I. THE PERSON . A woman, weak in sex, may be strong in faith. 1. Many times the word doth not work presently: Sarah laugheth at first, but afterwards believeth. Some that belong to the purposes of grace may stand out for a while against the ways of God, till they are fully convinced; as Sarah laughed till she knew it to be a word not spoken in jest, but a promise made in earnest. 2. Usually before the settling of faith there is a conflict. “ Shall I have a child who am old, my lord being old also?” Reason opposeth against the promise. So it is usual when we come to settle the heart in the belief of any promise. Look, as when the fire beginneth to be kindled we see smoke first before flame, so it is here before our comforts be established, we are full of doubts; so that doubtings are a hopeful prognostic--it is a sign men mind their condition. 3. With great indulgence, God hideth the defects of His children and taketh notice of their graces. II. THE OF HER FAITH. From the influence of her faith. 1. “ She received strength to conceive seed.” Learn hence (1) That though bringing forth of children be according to the course of nature, yet God hath a great hand in it. (2) Let us improve it spiritually. (3) Faith hath a great stroke in making way for blessings. “ By faith she received strength to conceive seed.” Means can do nothing without God, and God will do nothing without faith (Matthew 13:58). 2. From the effect of this influence--“ And was delivered of a child” --I observe hence (1) Every promise received by faith will surely be seconded with performance. (2) Faith is the best midwife. By faith Sarah was delivered of a child. 3. From the application of her faith. “ When she was past age.” There were two difficulties--she was naturally barren (Genesis 11:30) and she was now ninety years of age, and it ceased to be with her “ after the manner of woman” ; and therefore here lay the excellency of her faith, that she could believe that she should be the mother of a mighty nation. Barren I say she was by natural constitution, and now no better than dead, having so long outlived the natural time of bearing children. Learn hence--That no difficulty or hindrance should cause a disbelief of the promise. The reasons, are two--partly from God, that maketh the promise; partly from faith, that receiveth the promise. (1) From God’ s nature. God is not tied to the order of second causes, much less to the road of common probabilities; He will turn nature upside down rather than not be as good as His word. (2) From the nature of faith, which is to guide the soul when reason and sense faileth. III. THE GROUND OF HER FAITH. Because she judged Him faithful that had promised. Hence observe 1. Wherever we put forth faith we must have a promise, otherwise it is but fancy, not faith. It is not a ground of expectation barely what God is able to do, but what God will do. As the two pillars of Solomon’ s house were called Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings 7:21)--the one signifies “ Strength,” and the other “ He will establish it.” 2. In closing with the promise, we should chiefly give God the honour of His faithfulness. (1) Because God valueth this most, He standeth much of His truth. Heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of His word shall pass Matthew 5:18). The monuments of His power shall be defaced to make good His truth (Psalms 138:2). “ Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name.” All other attributes give way to this. (2) Because this giveth support and relief to the soul in waiting Hebrews 10:23). “ Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.” God hath promised no more than He is able to perform; His word never exceeded His power. (T. Manton, D. D.) Faith triumphing over difficulties I. FAITH MAY BE SORELY SHAKEN AND TOSSED AT THE FIRST OF LYING IN THE WAY OF THE PROMISE, WHICH YET AT LAST IT SHALL . And there be many degrees of its weakness and failure herein. As 1. A mere recoiling, with some disorder in the understanding, unable to apprehend the way and manner of the accomplishment of the promise. 2. It ariseth to a distrust of the event of the promises or their accomplishment, because of the difficulties that lie in the way. 3. When there is for a season an actual prevalency of unbelief. So it was with the apostle Peter, when he denied his Master, who yet was quickly recovered. It is therefore our duty (1) To watch that our faith be not surprised or shaken by the appearance of difficulties and oppositions. (2) Not to despond utterly on any degree of its failure, for it is in its nature, by the use of means, to recover its vigour and efficacy. II. GOD WORKETH BY HIS ON THE COURSE OF NATURE, YET HE IS NOT OBLIGED . Yet III. IT IS NO DEFECT IN FAITH, NOT TO EXPECT EVENTS AND ABOVE THE USE OF MEANS UNLESS WE HAVE A WARRANT FOR IT; as Sarah had in this case. IV. THE DUTY AND USE OF FAITH ABOUT MERCIES ARE TO BE BY THE GENERAL RULES OF THE WORD, WHERE NO DOTH MAKE OF A PROMISE. V. The mercy here spoken of, concerning a son unto Abraham by Sarah his wife, WAS DECREED, AND ; YET GOD FAITH IN THEM FOR THE OF THAT DECREE, and the accomplishment of that promise. VI. THE FORMAL OBJECT OF FAITH IN THE DIVINE IS NOT THE THINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE, BUT GOD HIMSELF IN HIS OF TRUTH, OR AND POWER. VII. EVERY PROMISE OF GOD HATH THIS TACITLY ANNEXED TO IT, “ IS anything too hard for the Lord?” There is no Divine promise, but when it comes unto the trial, as unto our closing with it, no promise of the new covenant, but we apprehend as great a difficulty and improbability of its accomplishment unto us, as Sarah did of this. VIII. Although the truth, veracity, or faithfulness of God be in a peculiar manner the immediate object of our faith, yet IT TAXES IN THE OF ALL OTHER DIVINE FOR ITS AND . (John Owen, D. D.) Faith counting all things possible: That which is elsewhere made characteristic of Abraham is in this one place ascribed to Sarah. It may have been in the mind of the apostle to suggest to his readers, at this point of his appeal, the thought that “ in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.” Woman, no less than man, needs, and is capable of, the grace of faith. The soul’ s life of woman, redeemed and glorified by the gospel, is a life of faith, in every submission, and in every effort, and in every heroism, of the soul’ s life of man. “ Through faith Sarah also herself” --Sarah in her proper sphere, as Abraham in his--became the inheritor of that privilege of blessing, from which sprang a vast nation, to be the trustee of God’ s oracles, and the country, on earth, of Christ Himself. This is that example of faith--and it is instructive to remember it--to which the explicit testimony is attached, “ He believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” It was not that first exercise of faith, which triumphed over the attractions of home, and reconciled the patriarch Abraham to a life of exile and wandering. It was not that third exercise of faith, which triumphed over the love of offspring, and enabled the father to give back by his own act the precious life of his child into the hand of Him whose very promise that obedience seemed to be defeating. Neither of these self-devotions is connected in the sacred records with the faith that “ justifies.” It is the mental act--it is the looking up into that clear night-sky, and responding, in heart, to the Voice which says, “ Count those stars--so shall thy seed be” --it is this, the most elementary and the most entirely secret “ taking God at His word” --it is that particular state of the mind, which has no action at all in it--which is altogether, and from first to last, mental--just the standing instead of sinking under God’ s disclosure and God’ s promise--it is this which God looks at. All else is consequence, natural consequence: the obedience which leaves the home--the obedience which sacrifices the son--all this is but the expression in action of the mind’ s mind and the soul’ s soul. 1. What Abraham believed was a physical impossibility. Over that difficulty his faith triumphed. The impossibility presented to our faith is not physical but spiritual. We have to believe, not in the suspension of what we call “ laws of nature” --in other words, of God’ s ordinary methods of procedure in regard to suns and stars, to water and earth, to disease and infection, to life and death--but in certain other things, which, to eyes spiritually enlightened, are at least as difficult. We have to believe in the actual forgiveness of things actually done. We have to believe that that black hateful thing done or said yesterday--even though it had fever in its breath and corruption in its influence--can be, shall be, obliterated in the blood of Jesus Christ, God’ s own Son, shed, outpoured, for that very purpose. We have to believe in the power of sanctification through the Eternal Spirit. We have to believe that that bad habit, formed in boyhood, weakly yielded to in manhood, still predominant, can by the grace of God--shall by the grace of God--be vanquished in us, burnt out of us, sothat we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. These are the improbabilities, the impossibilities- not physical perhaps, but worse than physical--worse, because invisible, worse, because entering into a nature more intricate, more sensitive, more suffering, than any most thrilling fibre, most throbbing nerve, of this body--which we Christians, not by guess-work, but by proof--not by wishing or willing, but by receiving and embracing on the authority of God the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Sanctifier--have to apprehend, to realise, and to live by. This, this is faith. 2. There is one peculiarity in the instance before us, and that is the connection which it indicates between spiritual faith and physical consequence. Other Scriptures tell of the rewards and recompenses of faith in a world out of sight. But this passage says, Because of a faith in Him who had promised, “ therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.” You may say, The promise was of a supernatural birth. The promise was physical. It looked not beyond earth, and the consequences were “ in the like material.” God makes not these sharp distinctions between the life that is and the life that shall be. “ Godliness,” St. Paul tells us, “ hath promise” of both. And though we would not so read that text as though it offered riches and pleasures and honours to the righteous, whose very faith counts all these gifts not only precarious but perilous; still it certainly says that God’ s gifts to His own are not all future: there is a reward for His people here; there is a supernatural offspring, there is a birth, not of accident, not of circumstance, not of the self-will, but all of grace, which turns the thing that is into a foretaste and promise of the thing that shall be: there is a love, and there is a happiness, and there is a home, which derives all its lustre from the ideal and antitype of these out of sight: by faith man and woman, born again of water and of the Spirit, receive back, the second time, out of God’ s fulness, that which before had been grasped eagerly out of the hand of Nature and of the Fall--and, so receiving, find in each thing a grace and a beauty unseen, unfelt before--find in Faith itself, not the opposite, but the complement, of sight, and enjoy twice over the thing that God created, and the thing that God redeemed and that God sanctifies. (Dean Vaughan.) Faith, sense, and reason: It is the nature of faith to believe God upon His bare word, and that against sense in things invisible, and against reason in things incredible. Sense corrects imagination, reason corrects sense, but faith corrects both. (J. Trapp.) Therefore sprang there even of one The increase of the Church I. WHEN GOD IS PLEASED TO HIS CHURCH IN NUMBER, IT IS ON VARIOUS A MATTER OF UNTO ALL , and a subject of their daily prayers, as that which is frequently promised in the word of truth. This blessing of a numerous posterity is variously set forth, illustrated, and heightened. 1. From the root of it. It was one, one man, that is, Abraham. Unto him alone was the great promise of the blessing Seed now confined. And he, though but one, was heir of all the promises. 2. From the consideration of the state and outward condition of that one, when he became the spring of this numerous posterity: “ of him as good as dead.” His body naturally was as useless unto the end of the procreation of such a posterity as if it had been dead. II. GOD BY NATURE WORKS THINGS ABOVE THE POWER OF NATURE IN ITS AND . So by weak and dead means He often produceth mighty effects. (John Owen, D. D.) Hebrews 11:13-14 These all died in faith The attachments and detachments of faith I. How FAITH FILLS EYE AND HEART WITH THE FUTURE. AS some traveller topping the water-shed may see far off the white porch of his home, and wave a greeting to it, though it be distant, while his heart goes out over all the intervening, weary leagues; or as some homeward-bound crew catch, away yonder on the horizon, the tremulous low line that is home, and welcome it with a shout of joy, though many a billow dash and break between them and it, these men looked across the weary waste, and saw far away; and as they saw their hearts went out towards the things that were promised, because they “ judged Him faithful that had promised.” And that is the attitude and the act which all true faith in God ought to operate in us. So, then, here are two things to think about. One, faith’ s vision; the other, faith’ s greeting. People say, “ Seeing is believing.” I should be disposed to turn the aphorism right round, and to say, “ Believing is seeing.” The sight that faith gives is solid, clear, certain. If I might so say, the true exercise of faith is to stereoscope the dim ghost-like realities of the future, and to make them stand out solid in relief there before us. Well, then, still further, there is suggested that this vision of faith, with all its blessed clearness and certitude, is not a direct perception of the things promised, but only a sight of them in the promise. And does that make it less blessed? Does the astronomer, that sits in his chamber and when he would most carefully observe the heavens looks downwards on to the mirror of the reflecting telescope that he uses, feel that he sees the starry lights less really than when he gazes up into the abyss itself and sees them there? Is not the reflection a better and a more accurate source of knowledge for him than even the observation direct of the sky would be? And so, if we look down into the promise, we shall see, glittering there, the starry points which are the true images adapted to our present sense of reception of the great invisible lights above. And then, still further, let me remind you that this vision of faith varies in the measure of our faith. It is not always the same. Refraction brings up sometimes, above the surface of the sea, a spectral likeness of the opposite shore, and men stand now and then upon our southern coasts, and for an hour or two, in some conditions of the atmosphere, they see the low sand-hills of the French or the Belgian coast, as if they were in arm’ s length. So faith, refracting the rays of light that strike from the throne of God, brings up the image, and when it is strong the image is clear, and when it flags the image “ fades away into the light of common day” ; and where there glowed the fair outlines of the far-off land, there is nothing but a weary wash of waters and a solitary stretch of sea. My brother! do you see to it that this vision of faith be cultivated by you. Do you choose whether you shall, like John Bunyan’ s man with the muckrake, have your eyes fixed upon the straws and filth at your feet, or whether you will look upwards and see the crown that is glittering there just above your head, and ready to drop upon it. “ These all in faith saw the promises.” Yes! And when they saw them they greeted them. Their hands and their hearts went out, and a glad shout came to their lips as they beheld the fair vision of all the wonder that should be. And so faith has in it, in proportion to its depth and reality, this going out of the soul towards the things discerned. They draw us when we see them. IX. How FAITH A SENSE OF FROM THE PRESENT. “ They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” A “ stranger “ is a man who, in a given constitution of things--in some country with a settled government, owes allegiance to another king, and belongs to another polity. A “ pilgrim” or a “ sojourner is a man who is only in the place where he now is for a little while. So the one of the two words expresses the idea of belonging to another state of things, and the other expresses the idea of transiency in the present condition. But the true Christian consciousness of being “ a stranger and a sojourner” comes, not from any thought that life is fleeting, but from the better and more blessed operation of the faith which reveals the things promised, and knits me so closely to them that I cannot but feel separated from the things that are round about me. Men that live in mountainous countries, when they come down into the plains, be it Switzerland, or the Highlands, or anywhere else, pine and fade away, sometimes with the intensity of the “ Heinweh,” the homesickness which seizes them. And we, if we are Christians, and belong to the other order of things, shall feel that this is not the native soft, nor here the home in which we would dwell. III. HOW THIS SAME FAITH IN THE ARTICLE OF DEATH. “ These all died in faith.” That is a very grand thought as applied to those old patriarchs, that just because all their lives long God had done nothing for them of what He had promised, therefore they died believing He was going to do it. So for us the end of life may have a faith nurtured by disappointments, made more sure of everything because it has nothing; certain that he calls into existence another world to redress the balance of the old, because here there has been so much of bitterness and woe. And our end like theirs may be an end beatified by a clear vision of the things that “ no man hath seen, nor can see” ; and into the darkness there may come for us, as there came of old to another, an open heaven and a beam of God’ s glory smiting us on the face and changing it into the face of an angel. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) An inscription for the mausoleum of the saints: “ These all died in faith.” Believers constitute a class by themselves--“ These.” They are the people that dwell alone, and shall not be numbered among the nations. Believers are a class by themselves, even when they die. It is idle to think that we can mark out a spot in the cemetery where none but saints shall sleep; but yet there is a truth at the bottom of that folly. There is a separation even in death between the righteous and the wicked. As for those who died without faith, they died indeed; but as for His people, a glorious resurrection awaits them. I. DYING IS FAITH. What does it mean? 1. Does it not mean that when they came to die, they had not faith to seek, but having had faith in life, they had faith in death? I will pronounce no opinion upon death-bed repentance. I would not like to lie upon a sick-bed, much less upon a dyingbed, and have a Saviour to seek there. The pains and dying strife are usually enough to occupy a man’ s thoughts. 2. They did die, however, although they had faith, for faith is not given to us that we should escape death, but that we may die in faith. 3. These all persevered to the end. 4. Does it not mean, also, that they never got beyond faith? 5. But then, while they did not get beyond faith, the mercy is that they never got below it. II. WHAT WAS THE FAITH THAT THEY DIED WITH? 1. They had received a great deal, but they had not received the fulness of the promises. 2. Yet they saw them. Faith touched their eyes with eye-salve. 3. They were persuaded of them. 4. They embraced them. The Greek word signifies “ salutes,” as when we see a friend at a distance, In the clear atmosphere of Mentone, I have sometimes stood on quite a lofty mountain, and seen a friend down in the valley, and I have spoken his name; and at first it was greatly to my astonishment when he replied, “ Where are you?” I held a conversation with him readily. I could not have actually reached him for a long time, but I saluted him from afar. At times we can see God’ s promises afar off, and we salute them. We are within hail of the glory-land, and we send up rockets in the dark; or, if it be daylight, we signal to the shore. III. THE FAITH TO LIVE WITH--the life of faith. 1. We are strangers by nature. Born from above, our life differs from those about us. “ The world knoweth us not.” We are in it, but not of it. 2. We are strangers as to citizenship. Here we are aliens and foreigners, whose privileges are connected with another city, and not with earth. 3. We are strangers as to pursuits. We are wayfaring men hurrying through this Vanity Fair. The men of the fair cry, “ Buy! buy I “ but they have no wares that we care to purchase. We buy the truth, and they do not trade in that commodity. 4. We are pilgrims in object. We have not come hither for a pleasure excursion; we are journeying to the temple to behold the face of our Lord. Our cry is, “ Onward! Hinder me not. I must away to the glory-land, where my home is, where my God is!” 5. We are pilgrims as to continuance. We do not expect to be here long. Do not wonder if you are found to be strangers as to usage, for the world uses foreigners roughly; and they that are really of Christ must expect to be misunderstood and misrepresented. IV. And what is THE FAITH BY WHICH WE ARE ABLE TO ENDURE SUCH A LIFE AS THIS? Why, it is this faith: “ They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.” Our faith is one which we dare to avow. We declare plainly that we seek a country. We are not ashamed to say that this is not our rest, that we do not expect to find pleasure here. We are speeding over this stormy sea to the Fair Havens, where we shall cast anchor for ever. We are not ashamed to say this, however others may ridicule our hope. And we say it because we believe it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Dying in faith I. It is the glory of true faith, that it will not leave them in whom it is, THAT IT WILL NOT CEASE ITS ACTINGS FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND COMFORT IN THEIR DYING; when the hope of the hypocrite doth perish. II. THE LIFE OF FAITH DOTH ITSELF IN DEATH, WHEN ALL OTHER RELIEFS AND DO FAIL. III. THAT IS THE ACT OF FAITH, THE GREAT TRIAL OF ITS VIGOUR AND WISDOM, NAMELY, IN WHAT IT BOTH IN OUR DYING. IV. HENCE IT IS THAT MANY OF THE SAINTS, BOTH OF OLD AND OF LATE, HAVE THE MOST ACTINGS OF FAITH IN THE OF DEATH. V. The due understanding of the whole Old Testament, with the nature of the faith and obedience of all the saints under it, depends on this one truth, THAT THEY THINGS THAT WERE NOT YET NOR ENJOYED. This is the line of life and truth that runs through all their profession and duties; the whole exercise of their faith and love, without which it was but a dead carcase. It was Christ in the promise, even before His coming, that was the life of the Church in all ages. VI. GOD WOULD HAVE THE CHURCH FROM THE OF THE WORLD TO LIVE ON NOT . For although we do enjoy the accomplishment of the great promise of the incarnation of the Son of God, yet the Church continues still to live on promises which, in this world, cannot be perfectly fulfilled. VII. WE MAY RECEIVE THE AS TO THE COMFORT AND BENEFIT OF THEM, WHEN WE DO NOT RECEIVE THE THINGS (Hebrews 11:1). VIII. As OUR IN THE OF THE ARE ABOVE THEIRS UNDER THE OLD , SO OUR FAITH, , AND , OUGHT TO EXCEL THEIRS ALSO. IX. No OF TIME OR PLACE CAN WEAKEN FAITH AS UNTO THE OF DIVINE . There are promises still left unto us upon record that are, it may be, afar off; such as those which concern the destruction of antichrist, and the glory of the kingdom of Christ in the latter days. The rule of faith concerning them is given us (Habakkuk 2:3-4). X. QUIET WAITING FOR THE OF AT A GREAT , and which most probably will not be in our days, IS AN EMINENT FRUIT OF FAITH. He that believeth will not make haste. XI. This firm persuasion of the truth of God in the accomplishment of His promises unto us, upon a discovery of their worth and excellency, is the SECOND ACT OF FAITH, WHEREIN THE LIFE OF IT DOTH CONSIST. (John Owen, D. D.) Faith triumphant: This chapter is a little book of martyrs. It discovers the life and death of the holy patriarchs, and by what means God’ s children are brought into possession of that that they have an interest and right unto upon earth. It is by faith. There is one faith from the beginning of the world. As there is one Christ, one salvation, so there is one uniform faith for the saving of our souls. We hope to be saved by Jesus Christ as they were. Then again, here is implied a continuance and perseverance in faith. Faith first makes a Christian, and then after, he lives by faith. It quickens the life of grace, and then he leads his life by that faith. He continues in it till he come to death, which is the period of all, and then he dies by that faith. “ They died in faith.” In the faith of the Messiah, in faith of Canaan, in faith of heaven. When death closed up the eyes of their bodies, then with the eye of faith they looked upon Christ, upon God in Christ reconciled to them. I. THE GRACE OF FAITH, IT IS SUCH A GRACE THAT IT CARRIES A THROUGH ALL THE OF THIS LIFE. It enableth him to hold out to the end, to suffer those things that he is to suffer, and in the end by it he dies. And when all things else leave him in death, when riches, friends, honour, and great places leave him, when his life and senses leave him, yet faith will never leave him till it have put him in full possession of heaven, and then it ceaseth when it hath done the work it hath to do, which is to bring us to heaven. What is it to die in faith? To die in faith is to die in the Lord by faith; and it looks to the time past, present, to come. 1. To the time past. To die in faith is to die in assurance of the forgiveness of sins, when by faith and repentance we have pulled out the sting of sins past. For faith looks upon Christ, and Christ hath taken the sting of death in His own, and death ever since hath been stingless and harmless to His members. 2. For the present. In the present instant of death, to die in faith is to see God reconciled to us in Christ, and with the eye of Stephen, to see Christ ready to receive our souls (Acts 7:59). This is to die in faith; to see ourselves there with our Head, where we shall be ere long. Therefore our flesh rests in hope till the resurrection; because God did not suffer His Holy One to see corruption. This is to die in faith. 3. And for the time to come. To die in faith is by faith to overcome all the horror of death. Faith seeth the faithfulness of God, that God in Christ hath taken these bodies of ours in trust. “ I know whom I have believed, and He is able to keep that I have committed to Him” (2 Timothy 1:12). And then for the pangs of death, which nature trembles at, faith considers of them as the pangs of child-birth. Now, what is death but the birth to immortality, the birth of glory? It is a little dark passage to an eternal glorious light. Then for the parting of two friends, soul and body, faith sees that it is but for a while, and then that that parting is a bringing in a better joining; for it brings the soul immediately to her beloved, our Saviour Christ Jesus. And then for friends. Faith sees, indeed, that we shall part with many sweet friends; but faith saith we shall have better friends. We go to God, we go to the souls of perfect men, we go to [an] innumerable company of angels (Hebrews 12:22), we go to a better company a great deal. And for all the employments we have here, that we have below, faith sees that there will be exercise in heaven. We shall praise God with angels and all the blessed and glorious company of heaven. So consider what you will that is bitter and terrible in death, faith conquers it. It sees an end of it, and opposeth to it better things; because, notwithstanding death cuts off many comforts, yet it brings better. And it is the beginning of happiness that shall never end. So, indeed, faith sees that the day of death is better than the day of birth. When we come into misery, it is not so good as when we go out of misery, and enter into happiness. This is to die in faith. This should stir us up, if this be so, to get this grace of faith; above all graces, to get assurance that we are in Christ Jesus, that so we may live with comfort, and end our days with comfort and live for ever happy in the Lord. It is only faith that will master this king of fears--this giant that subdues all the kings of the earth to him. Oh, let us labour, therefore, to get it while we live, and to exercise it while we live, that we may live every day by faith. It is not any faith that we can die by. It must be a faith that we have exercised and tried before. It is a tried, a proved faith, that we must end our days by. For, alas! when death comes, if we have not learned to live by faith before, how can we end our days in faith? Let us all labour for this faith; for though it cannot be said of us that we die rich, or that we die great in the world, perhaps we may die a violent death, as there be divers diseases that lead the body into distempers. It is no matter how we die distempered, and in any estate, so it may be said of us we die in a blessed faith. It is said here, they “ all died in faith.” He saith not they all died in feeling. A man may die in faith, and yet not die in feeling; and sometimes the strongest faith is with the least feeling of God’ s love. “ These all died in faith, not having received the promises.” For God promised them Canaan, and they died many hundred years before. Their posterity came into Canaan. He promised them Christ, and they died long before Christ came. He promised them heaven, and they entered not into heaven till death. So they received not the promises, that is, they received not the things promised; for else they received the promise, but not that that was promised. They received not the type, Canaan, nor the things typified--Christ and heaven. This is added as a commendation of their faith, that though they received not the things that they looked for, yet notwithstanding they had such a strong faith, that they continued to live by faith and died in faith. The promises here are taken for the blessed things promised. This should teach us this lesson, that God’ s promises are not empty shells; they are real things. And then, whatsoever God promiseth it is not barely propounded to the soul, but in a promise. It is wrapped up in a promise. He gives us not empty promises nor naked things; but He gives us promises of things which we must exercise our faith in, in depending upon Him for the performance of them till we be put in possession. “ They received not the promises.” He speaks in the plural number, though he mean but one main promise, that is, the Messiah, for all other were types of Him. Believers are called “ children of the promise” (Galatians 4:28). Here they are called promises, for the repeating of them. The promise of the same thing it was made oft: there was no new promise. The promise of the same thing it was seven times repeated and renewed to Abraham presently one after another. So they are called promises, to show that the promise can never be too much thought on, though it be the same promise of life everlasting; the same promise of grace and of comfort; the same promise of the resurrection, etc. All the promises of good things to come we cannot think of too oft, nor receive the sacrament, the seal of the promise, too oft. “ They received not the promises.” They were comforted notwithstanding, that their posterity should receive them. Canaan was a type of Christ and of heaven. I observe this by the way that God doth not reveal all things at all times. God doth leave diverse things to be revealed in diverse ages of the Church. God doth not reveal everything in every time, to comfort all ages of the Church. We see not everything in our times; we must be content. “ They saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them,” etc. This is the order of God’ s Spirit; first to open the eye to see, and by sight to persuade, and upon persuasion to stir up the heart and affections to embrace; for good things are brought into the soul through the understanding, by the spiritual sight of the understanding, and from that into the will and affections by embracing the things we know. This is God’ s course daily. Therefore he saith they first saw them, and then were persuaded of them, and then embraced them. “ They saw them afar off.” By what eye? By the eye of faith. Faith makes things present, though in themselves they be far off. It is the nature of faith to make things that are absent to be present to the believing soul; and it affects the soul somewhat as if it were present. It sees things far off in place. Faith sees things in heaven; it sees Christ there; it sees our place provided for us there; it sees God reconciled there; by it we see ourselves there, because we shall be there ere long. Faith sees all this; it breaks through and looks through all; it hath most piercing beams, the eye of faith. And it works in an instant; it goes to heaven in a moment and sees Christ. And for distance of time, the eye of faith it sees things past and things to come. It sees things past. It sees the creation of the world; it sees the redemption of us by Jesus Christ; it sees our sins there punished in Christ our surety; it sees us crucified with Christ Jesus; it sees all discharged by Him. When we believe Christ was crucified for us and died for us, faith makes it present. And so for the time to come, faith hath an eye that looks afar off. It sees the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Faith sees the general judgment. If sees eternal happiness in heaven; it sees things afar off. It is the evidence of things not seen. What is the reason of it? It makes things not otherwise seen to be seen, and presently seen; it gives a being to things. It is a strange power that faith hath. The Spirit works an eye of faith in the soul, and then it discovers to it the things of God. “ They saw them afar off.” God created a new eye in the soul, a new sight which they had not by nature; for even as the natural eye cannot see things that are invisible, so the natural man cannot see the things of God, which are seen not by a natural but by a supernatural eye (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). The eye therefore that must see things afar off, it must be a supernatural eye; and the light that must discover them must be the light of God’ s truth. For reason cannot see the resurrection of the body, and the life to come, and such glorious things as the Word of God reveals to us. If you ask why this sight of faith is so necessary, this supernatural sight, I answer, nothing can be done in religion without the supernatural eye of the soul; for a man may see heavenly things with a natural eye and be never a whit the better. A man may see the joys of heaven, and think, Oh, these are good things; but yet notwithstanding he doth not see these things with a supernatural eye; he doth not see these things to be holy and gracious, and to be fit for him; he wisheth them with conditions, but not with the altering of his disposition. Our duty, then, is to labour to have our faith clear, to have this eye of faith, to have a strong faith, a strong sight. When is the sight of faith strong? When it is as the faith of these patriarchs was. There are three things that make a strong sight, that make us conceive that the sight of faith is a strong sight. (1) When the things are far off that we see, then if the eyes see them, it is a strong sight. A weak eye cannot see afar off. (2) When there are clouds between, though the things be near. Yet when there are clouds between, to break and pierce through them there must be a strong sight. (3) When there is but a little light. When there are many obstacles in the midst, and to break through all by a little light to see things remote, here is a strong eye; and this was the sight of these blessed men. They had a strong eye. Now to help our sight to heaven, this sight of faith, that we may every day ascend with the eye of our souls with this blessed sight 1. Let us take heed of the god of this world, Satan, that he do not with the dust of the world dim our sight. 2. And withal desire God to open our eyes every day, to take the scales from the eye of our souls, that we may see the promises, that we may see Christ, that we may see God shining on us in Christ; that He would take away the veil from the things by exposition, that He would open the truth to us by His ministers. 3. Then, again, to help our sight of Christ and happiness, let us get a fresh sight of our corruption and sin every day; let us every day look on the terrifying object of our corruption of nature, hang it in the eye of our souls as an odious object, to humble us. “ They were persuaded of them.” It was such a sight of the things as was with convincing, with persuasion. And indeed this follows well upon sight, for sight of all other senses persuades best. All the men in the world cannot persuade the weakest man in the world when it is day or night, when the sun shines or it is dark, that it is not so. When he sees it, he will believe his own eyes more than all the world besides. And as it is in sensible things we believe our own eyes, so much more in spiritual things we believe our eyes. When there is a spiritual light of revelation in the word discovering such things, and also to spiritual light a spiritual eye, when the Spirit puts an eye into the soul to see supernatural things that reason cannot attain to, then there is persuasion. Persuasion comes divers ways. There be divers degrees tending to persuasion. 1. The poorest degree of the apprehension of things is conjecture, a guessing that such a thing may be so or otherwise, but I guess it rather to be so. 2. Beyond conjecture there is opinion, when a man thinks it is so, upon more reasons swaying him one way; and yet in opinion there is fear on the contrary, that it may be otherwise. 3. And the third degree beyond opinion is certain knowledge. That is science and knowledge when the mind is persuaded by arguments. But that is not so much here meant, the persuasion by argument. 4. There is another degree then of knowledge, which is by the authority of the speaker, a persuasion from thence. When I know not the thing by the light of the thing so much, because I see the reason of the thing, but because I know such a one saith it, that is the persuasion of faith; when one is persuaded of a thing not so much out of his own knowledge, out of the principles of the thing, setting out the causes of the thing, as out of the credit of the person that speaks. Now, this persuasion riseth out of faith in the authority of the person. We conceive that he is wise, and holy, and able withal; one that we trust. If together with this knowledge and persuasion from the authority, and truth, and goodness, and wisdom of the speaker, there be joined sense and experience, we see it proved; and when there is experience, there is reason why we should believe that he saith, because we have found the thing to be so. Now, both are here meant in some degrees, “ they saw the things afar off,” both by the authority of the promise, as likewise by their own sight, and some taste they had. For God reserves not all for heaven. God gives His children some taste and feeling, some little joy and comfort, the “ first-fruits of the Spirit “ here (Romans 8:23). So they were persuaded from the authority of the speaker, and some sense and feeling of the thing in some measure. “ And embraced them.” They embraced the promises, the good things promised: Christ’ s coming in the flesh, and Canaan, the type of heaven, and heaven itself. Though they had not these things, yet they embraced what they had, they embraced the promises. That is the nature of faith. If it have not that it looks for, as it hath not till it come to heaven, yet it makes much of that it hath; it embraceth the promises, and in the promises the thing itself promised. Now these things follow one another in a most natural order; for sight brings persuasion, sight and conviction bring strong persuasion, and persuasion breeds embracing. For we embrace that in our affections that we are persuaded of to be good. According to the strength of conviction and persuasion is the strength of the affections. Let us try the truth of our estate by our affections, by our embracing of good things, by opening our hearts to the best things, by our joy and delight in them. Is there a holy wonderment at them? “ O how I love Thy law!” (Psalms 119:97); and “ One day in Thy courts is better than ten thousand elsewhere” (Psalms 84:10); and “ O the depth of His mercies!” (Romans 11:33); and “ One thing have I desired of the Lord; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psalms 27:4). When the soul stands in admiration of God and good things, when it is ready to welcome Christ and heavenly things and the state of religion: now away all former vanities! away all lusts of youth! away all confidence in beauty, and strength, and riches! The soul had seen better things. There is a discovery of better things; and now the respect of all other things falls down in the soul when there is a discovery of better things. Let us therefore labour more and more to have our affections wrought upon. As we are in our affections, we are in religion. It is impossible that a Christian should be spiritually convinced that there are such excellent things belonging to religion, and that he hath his part and portion in them, and not be transformed to a spiritual state and frame of soul, to love and delight in holy things, and to despise that which is contrary. What be the affections whereby the soul embraceth these good things it is persuaded of? The soul embraceth these things in the affections of faith and hope in the first place; for faith is an empty grace in itself; it is carried to somewhat out of itself that it embraceth and layeth hold on; and hope is with faith alway. Together with the work of faith and hope there is a sanctified affection of the embracing soul; there is a love of the things promised, which is embracing, and a love of the means, and likewise joy and delight in them expressed by thankfulness. How shall this be wrought upon the soul? This embracing we see it follows upon persuasion, and persuasion follows seeing: “ They saw them far off, and were persuaded of them, and thereupon they embraced them.” Therefore let us labour for a clear understanding of Divine things. That which the eye sees, the heart grieves for in ill, and that that the eye sees the heart embraceth in good. And in what measure our eyesight of heavenly things is clearer, and our persuasion stronger, in that measure our embracing is lovely and full of joy and delight. Therefore let us labour to grow in knowledge, that our persuasion may be stronger every day, that our affections will grow, and will be carried to the things discovered. And there is nothing more effectual to commend knowledge to us than this, that it is a means to work a holy and heavenly disposition and temper in us, especially if it be spiritual. And let us meditate upon what we seem to know and are persuaded of. “ They confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on earth.” These words contain what they were in regard of earthly things; their disposition and carriage to all things besides the promises, to the things below. They were strangers and pilgrims in regard of their condition below. It sets down how they apprehend themselves to be, and how they discovered themselves to the world to be. They were in regard of heaven indeed, heirs of happiness, heirs of a kingdom; in regard of the world and earthly things they were “ strangers and pilgrims.” And as they were, so they made themselves to be no better than they were. They confessed it. They apprehended themselves to be as they were, and they carried themselves answerable. Their life and course spake as much as their tongues. They confessed both in word and in deed that they were “ strangers and pilgrims.” II. IT IS THE OF HIM THAT HATH TRULY IN BETTER THINGS TO BE A AND A PILGRIM IN REGARD OF ALL THINGS HERE BELOW. If a man were on the top of a great mountain, he would see the things below to be very little, and the things above would appear greater to him; so when the soul is raised up to see great things, though they be afar off, as these did with the eye of faith, at the same time, his soul looking to things below must needs apprehend them to be little in quantity, as indeed they are. If a man were in body lifted up to heaven, and should look upon the earth, what were the earth but a poor silly point, the whole earth itself, much more a man’ s own possession; so when the soul is lifted up to heaven by faith--which sets a man in heaven before his time--when it looks from thence to the earth and earthly things, it must of necessity consider them, as they are, to be poor mean things. Therefore this follows, that being persuaded of the promises, that is, of the good things promised in religion in the Word of God, to earthly things they were “ strangers and pilgrims.” 1. First of all, a stranger is travelling to another country--to join both in one; for the one follows the other. He that is a stranger, that apprehends what he is, and apprehends that he hath a country to go to, he travels towards it. 2. A stranger that is travelling homeward, he is content with his present condition, for he knows he shall have better at home. 3. So he will be patient if he meet with unkind usage: he will not stand quarrelling by the way, and so hinder himself in his journey; he will be patient in the injuries and wrongs in this life. If a prince be misused in another country, he is contented, and thinks with himself, I have a country where I shall be more respected; and therefore he bears it the more willingly. So a Christian is a king, he is an heir; and being a stranger, he shall meet with dogs in this world; as, who do dogs bark at but at strangers? 4. Likewise the knowledge of this that we are strangers and pilgrims, it will make a man not only content and patient, but thankful for any kindness he finds in this world; that God sweetens his pilgrimage on earth somewhat: what a mercy is this! He is thankful for any contentment; he is thankful to the world, to those that do anything for him, that afford him any courtesy here that may help him in his pilgrimage, and make it less troublesome. 5. He that is a stranger, he is glad of any good company. Oh, if he meet with a man of his own country, he is a man alone for him; so it is with a Christian that walks in the way to heaven with him, he is comforted much in it. 6. A stranger, he hath his prime intention home to his country, and what he doth in the way, it is in virtue of his prime intention, though he doth not, in every particular action that he doth, think of it. A traveller when he rides on the way he doth not think of home in every step. Ay, but he doth that that he doth in virtue of his prime intention when he first set out, and calls to remembrance ofttimes as he goes home; he thinks of his journeys. 7. And hence it is that there is another property of a stranger that is going to a place, perhaps he may step out of the way, yet notwithstanding, by virtue of his first intention, he gathers himself homeward again. If he take other matters in hand, he gathers home still, though he go out of his way, in he comes; he considers, this is not my way. So a child of God, sometimes he diverts and turns aside, yet notwithstanding he considers, doth this way lead to Godward, to heavenward? Be these actions Christian actions? Are they the way to heaven? If he see they be not, though he have stepped awry, he comes in again, and is gathering homeward. 8. A- traveller and stranger provides beforehand for all encumbrances. He knows though he meet not with troubles, yet he may, therefore he will be sure to go with weapons, and he will go with that that may sustain him by the way. Religion teacheth a man to gather out of the Word of God comforts beforehand, and munition beforehand, to carry with him. When we travel, and are going on in our journey towards heaven, it is good to consider higher things, it is a good meditation. Therefore to go on a little further. 9. A traveller and stranger is inquisitive of the way, whether he be in the way or out of the way. He asks not at random. That doth not content him, whether he go west, or north, or south, or east: it doth not content him to ask where lies my country, eastward? &c. No; but he will ask the particular towns, and particular turnings, how he may avoid going out of his way, and which is the right way, and he will ask upon every occasion, because he knows if he go but a little out of his way it will be a long time ere he shall recover it, and he will be ashamed to come back again; and the more he goes out of the way, the more trouble it is to come back again. So it is with a Christian, he doth not only desire to know in general, but he desires to have daily direction, what shall I do in such a case of conscience, and in such a case? How shall I overcome such a temptation if I meet with it? And so he is willing to have daily direction how to walk with God day by day, that he go not out of his way in anything. 10. And even as a traveller considers of things by the way as they make to his end, to further his journey or hinder his journey, he looks to heaven as his country that he hopes for, and therefore he doth not tangle himself with any more than may help him home. If they hinder him once, away they go; if they may help him, he takes them. If I find that things, though they be indifferent in themselves, if they trouble me in my way to heaven (it may be they are not so to another, but they are to me), though another can do it, yet I must consider whether I can do it, and find myself enlarged to heaven as at other times. If not, away with it. It is not indifferent to me, because it hinders my journey to heaven. 11. Again, he that accounts himself a stranger here, he doth not value himself by outward things. Faith teacheth a man, when he is an heir of heaven, not to value himself by earthly things. He thinks himself a stranger in his own house, as David did, though he were a king, as I said. Every Christian is a stranger at home. He values not himself by his honours, nor dignity, nor by the things that he hath here; nor he doth not disvalue himself by poverty or disgrace. He knows he is a stranger; he is going home; therefore he values himself by that he hath at home. 12. A traveller in his way must of necessity have refreshings by the way, or else he will fail; therefore sometimes he sings, and sometimes useth other refreshings. Now, what said David? “ Thy statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage” (Psalms 119:54); that is, when I want other comforts, they are my song, my joy, my delight. A traveller must needs have comforts that may revive him in his fainting; he must have some pleasant walks for meditation. Let us therefore, when we grow weary, refresh ourselves in walking, in holy meditation. (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Faith eying the promises in life and death I. WHAT IS IT TO DIE IN FAITH? It is a great question, a man’ s all depends upon it. To die mistaken in this is to die mistaken for ever. 1. It is not to die barely in a profession of faith. To die owning Christ and His cause, bearing witness to the truth, exhorting our Christian friends “ that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord “ ,. this is sweet dying. It is not what a man believes of Christ that saves, but his believing in Him, yielding up himself only and wholly to Him. To die in an outward barren profession of faith, is not to die in faith. 2. Nor is it necessary always that there be a transporting joy arising from a sense of interest in Christ in order to a believer’ s dying in faith. A man may die in faith when he doth not die in feeling. There may be no assuring sense of God’ s love, and yet a strong and firm dependence on His promise. The strength of faith is most where there is least of sight; every believer finds the path of life (Psalms 16:11), but every one does not see it as he walks through Jordan. 3. To “ die in faith,” is to die trusting Christ, and commending our souls to him by faith. All faith includes trust, though it is not necessarily connected with joy. II. WHAT IS THE GREAT SUPPORT OF A , HIM EITHER AS LIVING OR DYING? The text says, the promises are so, though the blessings contained in them are not received. Two things faith sees in the promises which support and comfort the soul though the promised blessings are not received. 1. Faith sees God’ s Christ and salvation in the promise, therefore in the absence of promised good it supports the soul. 2. Faith sees God’ s heart in the promise. What is a promise but an expression of the love of God’ s heart in word (2 Samuel 7:21). That is the secret in all God’ s promises, and none but a believer can spell it out. III. HOW, IN , FAITH ACTS TOWARDS THE IN A ’ S SUPPORT, LIVING OR DYING? 1. Faith sees the promises afar off. It does not require the presence of the thing, but only the promise of it. Christ was not manifest in the flesh till many hundred years after; but faith beheld these things as present in God’ s counsel, His covenant, His word of promise, and fixed and centred in them. Is anything too hard for God? Did His promise ever fall to the ground? Is He not truth itself? Are not all His paths judgment? This is the reasoning of faith. 2. It is persuaded of these things. They are realities, though invisible to every one but the man who has the eyes of his understanding enlightened. (1) This persuasion relates to the things themselves. Gospel-principles, gospel-doctrines, privileges, duties, they are inlaid in the soul as well as gospel-promises. (2) This persuasion refers to the sense which a believer may have of his interest in them: This is not common to saints as such; it is but at special times and seasons, given and taken away by God, for wise and gracious ends. 3. “ It embraces them” ; the word signifies “ to salute,” a metaphor taken from the manner of parting between two intimate friends. Two things are implied in it. (1) Intimate acquaintance. The saints of old were very chary of God’ s promises, they were searching into them to know “ what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify” (1 Peter 1:11). (2) But principally is meant endearing affection. The will chooses them, cleaves to them, and if any delight a believer has it is in them. Use 1. Did all these “ die in faith” ? Have you this faith? It is sad to have faith to seek when you need it to use. If thou art a stranger to Christ, thou art a stranger to faith. Hath thou given up thy soul to Him now? Then thou mayest trust Him with body and soul both another day. Use 2. How little just ground is there for a believer in Christ to fear death? The love of God, the covenant of grace, the care of Christ, the being and stability of the promise, the life and faith, all last till death. Use 3. What a slight character do most of this world leave behind them; though thou diest rich, honourable, esteemed, easy, what is this to dying in faith! Use 4. What need have believers of the help of the blessed Spirit in life and at death? The spiritual eye is His gift, and all spiritual persuasion is His work: Scripture arguments will be of no avail if the Spirit of God does not make the application. Use 5. Think more of home, and live more above life: if you profess to be heirs of God’ s promise, live above the crosses and comforts of life too. (John Hill.) Of dying in faith 1. In the profession of the faith. They held fast the truths of God to the death. They denied not, they made not shipwreck of faith; they suffered not Satan or his instruments to cheat them of it; exchanged it not for fancies, delusions; made not their opinions subservient to carnal interests; did not tack about, not carried about with every wind. Judgments firmly anchored in truth could ride out foul weather, bear up against storms. 2. In the state of faith. As they lived, so they died, believers. Having begun in the Spirit, they did not end in the flesh. They lost not the habit of faith, but bore on towards perfection; that when their outward man decayed, faith increased, and was strongest in the greatest weakness, in death. 3. In the expression of faith. 4. In the exercise faith. As they acted faith in their life, so in their death. Their life was the life of faith, as Paul (Galatians 2:20). Faith had an influence into every act of their life. Abel sacririced by faith (Hebrews 11:4); ordinary acts: Abraham’ s travel (Hebrews 11:8); extraordinary: Noah’ s building an ark (Hebrews 11:7). What they did, they did by faith, i.e., depending upon Christ for strength, believing the promise for assistance and success. Thus they lived, and thus they died in faith, with confidence that God would perform what He had promised, even after their death, to them or theirs. Directions: 1. What you may live and die in the faith of Christ, take this golden rule: “ Receive the truth in the love of it” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). If you would continue in the truth, and have the Lord establish you in it, love the truth for itself, and love it above all inferior respects whatsoever. 2. That you may live and die in the state of faith, get into that happy state. Get faith rooted and grounded in your hearts, and then you are sure: “ Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” 3. That Son may live and die in the expression of faith; i.e., that you may not deal unfaithfully in the covenant; consider how horribly wretched such unfaithfulness is. Whose that use to deal unfaithfully with men, lie, or forswear, to get some advantage, there may be some temptation to this; but he that deals unfaithfully with God deals unfaithfully with God to ruin himself. 4. That ye may die in the exercise of faith, (1) Learn to live in the exercise of it. The more faith is acted, the easier it will be to exercise. (2) Treasure up the promises in your memories. No such treasure as this. You will find riches a vain thing in that hour, they cannot deliver from death; but faith acted on the promises both support in it, and deliver from it. (3) Clear up your evidences for heaven. While your title is dark, faith will be weak. How can ye be confident of the eternal blessings of the covenant, while ye have no assurance that you are in covenant? How can ye with confidence go out to meet the bridegroom when ye know not whether ye have oil in your lamps? When you have cleared this evidence, endeavour to keep it clear. Sin blots it, guilt is a blur in the evidence. If you avoid not these in your lives, you will scarce read your evidence at death, and then faith may be nonplussed and to seek, when most needed. Endeavour to keep a good conscience always, in all things, towards God and man, that so you may have the testimony of God and of your conscience on your deathbeds (2 Corinthians 1:12). (4) Lay up experiences. The remembrance of experiments of God’ s mercy and faithfulness in your lives will be a sweet support to faith in death. God’ s people have made good use of experiences to this purpose (2 Timothy 4:18). (D. Clarkson, B. D.) Faith constraining to a pilgrim life I. THE DISTANT OF . II. THE OF FAITH WITH REGARD TO THIS. 1. Faith assured them that the city was their fatherland. 2. Faith recognises the promised blessings in the city. 3. Faith reaches forth with eager desire towards these promised blessings. III. THE REARING OF THIS FAITH ON OUR PRESENT LIFE. It makes “ strangers and pilgrims” of us. A pilgrim life includes 1. A pressing on through the present to the future. The great concern of the pilgrim is concerning the home to which he is going. The road and the present accommodation are something, but not chief. 2. An endurance of privation by the prospect of the coming satisfaction. The discomforts of the way are a small matter when we are going home. A lively faith goes far to break the power from time-sorrows. 3. A growing happiness in the consciously advancing journey. Men do not naturally like to get old. That, in the Christian’ s case, must arise from limiting the view of life by what is seen. Let faith go beyond the seen, and make real to our hearts the glory there, and we shall pass on with joy and hope and quickened step. (C. New.) The power of the future upon the present I. GOD’ S TO MAN UNFOLDS. A FUTURE. This meets both (1) A tendency and (2) A necessity of our nature. II. SOME OF THE EVENTS OF THE FUTURE WHICH GOD’ S , MAY NOT COME TO PASS UNTIL WE HAVE SLEPT FOR AGES IN OUR GRAVES. 1. God’ s plans are independent of our efforts. 2. Success is not the rule of duty. III. HOWEVER. DISTANT IN THE FUTURE THOSE EVENTS MAY BE, FAITH IN THEM WILL HAVE A POWER OVER OUR PRESENT LIVES. Observe 1. The description of their faith in these promises. 2. The influence of this faith. (Homilist.) The feelings of the ancient saints I. THEIR GODWARD. They believed in Him, and that with a strong faith, whereby they gave glory to His name. Their faith and patience were severely tried; but they knew that it was “ a good thing both, to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” II. THEIR . “ And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” 1. Their affections were not set on earthly things. 2. Their happiness was not derived from earthly objects. 3. They were not conformed to earthly habits. III. THEIR . “ For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country,” &c. Their knowledge of a future state is here clearly involved. But to know that there is a state of blessedness beyond the grave is one thing, and for that knowledge practically to influence the whole of our present course and conduct is another thing. These worthies declared in the most unmistakable manner that their great concern was to reach it. It is said of Cicero and Demosthenes, that when the one was banished from Rome and the other from Athens, they wept whenever they thought of their own country. Alas! that the spirit of patriotism should be so much stronger in them than the spirit of the gospel is in us. (Expository Sermons.) Living and dying in faith I. GOD’ S SEEM, AT FIRST, TO ASSURE EARTHLY GOOD. I would not discourage you from seeking the cheer of such promises, for “ godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” But I may say this, Let the years pass on, and you will surely find that God is dealing with you so as to purify all your hopes. Your Canaan will come to be a “ better country, that is a heavenly.” Your Jerusalem will be the “ holy city, new Jerusalem, which comes down from God out of heaven,” into which “ there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.” II. LIFE BUT SELDOM FULFILS THE JUST AS WE SHAPE THEM. 1. Life seldom is, even in its outward circumstances, what we picture to ourselves that it will be. F.W. Robertson, with some intensity of expression says, “ Herein lies a principle, which, rightly expounded, can help us to interpret this life of ours. God’ s promises never are fulfilled in the sense in which they seem to have been given. Life is a deception; its anticipations, which are God’ s promises to the imagination, are never realised; they who know life best, and have trusted God most to fill it with blessings, are ever the first to say that life is a series of disappointments.” 2. Life seldom permits any great work to be accomplished right through by the man who begins it. Moses must climb Nebo to die before his lifework was completed in the possession of Canaan. Joshua died before the whole country was cleared of the idolatrous inhabitants. David died before the Temple could be built. There is even a sense in which our Lord’ s life was “ cut off,” and He left an unfinished work to be completed by His apostles. Indeed, to do any entire work from beginning to end seems to be too great an honour, too high a trust, for any one man. III. GOD, BY THE SEEMING FAILURE, LIFTS US UP TO THE HIGHER VIEW OF THE . How failure can open men’ s eyes! How disappointment with life as we find it, tends to lift our eyes away from earth, and make us feel that this is not our rest! As one thing after another disappoints, we begin to see that the time and place for God’ s fulfilment of His promises is--yonder and there; not here and now. We begin to repeat after the storm-tossed Psalmist and say, “ I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.” We even begin to find out that the, seeming, earthly look of the promises in reality only veiled the heavenly meaning for us; veiled it until we had grown strong enough to bear the light. Is not this just the sanctifying work that advancing life does for us all under God. (The Weekly Pulpit.) Dying gladly: Behold here the secret of dying! “ These all died in faith.” Bad men die reluctantly; life is extorted from them as if by main force. The believer dies willingly; his will is sweetly submitted to his Father’ s will; he makes it a religious act to die. Just as Jesus Himself commended His human soul to His Father, saying, “ Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46): so His believing disciple commends his soul to Jesus, and through Him to the Father. Here, I repeat, is the secret how to die happily. To those who know not that secret, it is a fearful thing to die. It is a serious matter for any. But to the worldly-minded and ungodly, if not past feeling, to die must be, as one of the heathen philosophers (Aristotle) confessed it, “ of all formidable things the most formidable.” Only mention a neighbour’ s death in a gay circle; lo, you have thrown a gloom over the whole assembly--all are evidently sorry that the topic was introduced. The ancient Romans would not mention death in plain words, if they could avoid it, but only by circumlocution and implication. Even serious Christians are often in bondage through fear of death. It is such a venture; a mistake may be so fatal; to go before God is so awful; judgment will bring to light such secrets, that many think, How can I die? Yet you all must. Be persuaded, give your soul to Jesus now; do it again from day to day: and then, when your dying day is come, again approach the Saviour, and say, “ Lord, I hear Thee calling for my spirit; I see the waggons sent to fetch me home to Thee; in the hand of death I recognise Thy hand of love; Thou askest for my soul; take it, for it is Thine. Do with it what Thou wilt, I have given it to Thee to be washed in Thy blood, and sanctified by Thy Spirit; I am sure Thou wilt do it no harm!” (J. Hambleton.) Dying in faith: The friends of Archbishop Whately said, with unbecoming praise, when they visited him as he lay on his death-bed: “ You are dying as you lived--great to the last.” He replied, “ I am dying as I lived--in the faith of Jesus.” At another time it was said: “ The great fortitude of your character supports you.” “ No,” was his reply, “ it is not my fortitude that supports me, but my faith in Christ.” The soul committed to Christ in death: The emigrant who sees the blue hills of his native land sink beneath the wave, and goes away to the land of gold, has seen and handled the gold dug from the mines or washed from the waters of that distant land. He has seen those who have been there; he has seen them go out poor and come back rich; he has seen them go out empty and come back full. These have taught him to believe in a land beyond the waters; but I believe in a land, not beyond the seas, but beyond the grave, to which I have seen hundreds go, but none come back to unveil its secrets. I believe in a Saviour I never saw, and never saw the man that saw; and commit to His keeping, not my money, but what is more precious than all the gold of the Bank of England--I commit to Him my precious soul. (T. Guthrie.) The forecasting of faith The discovery of the New World, as the continent of America and its islands are called, was not, like many discoveries, an accident; it was the reward of faith--the reward of Christopher Columbus’ s faith. He found fruits on the shores of Western Europe, cast up by the Atlantic waves, and brought there, as we now know, by the Gulf Stream, perfectly diverse from any that the temperate, fiery, or frozen zones of the Old World produced. So one day, let me say, strolling by the sea-shore, he saw a nut. He takes it in his hand and looks at it; he takes it into his capacious mind, and out of that little seed springs his faith in another world beyond that watery horizon, where, as he believed, and events proved, the sea had pearls, and the veins of the earth were filled with silver, and the rivers that flowed through spicy groves ran over sands of gold. (T. Guthrie.) Dying in faith "My father’ s death,” says the son and biographer of Caesar Malan, “ will remain for those who witnessed it the most astonishing of all his actions. The doctor, on quitting him, said to me one day: ‘ I have just seen what I had heard spoken of, but what I had not seen before. Now I have seen it, as I see this stick which I hold in my hand.” ‘ And what, then, have you seen?’ I asked him. ‘ I have seen faith. I say the faith, not of the theologian, but of the Christian. I have seen it with my eyes,’ he replied.” (Tinling’ s Illustrations.) Faith sees eternal life: As he that is to pass over some broad and deep river must not look downward to the current of the stream, but must set his foot sure, and keep his eye on the bank, on the farther shore; so he that draws near death must look over the waves of death, and fix his eye of faith on eternal life. (Cawdray.) Faith in death A monk near his end was heard to exclaim, “ I care little for earthly things now; soon I shall travel among the stars.” (H. O.Mackey.) Dying in faith It has often been my privilege to test the power of religion when I have been sitting by the bedside of the dying. There is a young girl in heaven now, once a member of this our church. I went with one of my beloved deacons to see her when she was very near her departure. She was in the last stage of consumption. Fair and sweetly beautiful she looked; and I think I never heard such syllables as those which fell from that girl’ s lips. She had had disappointments and trials; but all these she had not a word to say about, except that she blessed God for them: they had brought her nearer to the Saviour. And when we asked her whether she was not afraid of dying, “ No,” she said, “ the only thing I fear is this, I am afraid of living, lest my patience should wear out. I have not said an impatient word yet, sir: I hope I shall not. It is sad to be so very weak; but I think, if I had my choice, I would rather be here than be in health, for it is very precious to me. I know that my Redeemer liveth; and I am waiting for the moment when He shall send His chariot of fire to take me up to Him.” I put the question, “ Have you not any doubts?” “ No, none, sir; why should I? I clasp my arms around the neck of Christ.” “ And have you not any fear about your sins? “ No, sir,” they are all forgiven; I trust the Saviour’ s precious blood.” “ And do you think that you will be as brave as this when you come actually to die?” “ Not if He leaves me, sir; but He will never leave me, for He has said, ‘ I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims Faith’ s pilgrimages: You have here, in few words, the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” from the wilderness of this world to an everlasting “ city of habitation.” You learn what it is which induces him to commence the journey; in what manner he complies with that inducement; what sustains his hope as he proceeds; and in what state of mind he finishes his course. True faith includes five things: I. A SIGHT OF DISTANT, . Not that the believer is left destitute of comforts and privileges connected with the present life. Nevertheless, his greatest prize is yet to come: he “ sees” it indeed, but he has not yet received it--it is “ afar off.” II. A OF THEIR REALITY. God is able to keep His word; and therefore, after all the mockery of an ungodly world, I come to the deliberate conviction that “ Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth.” III. AN ACTUAL OF THEM. “ Oh yes! “ says the worldly man, “ to be sure I believe the Bible--I have no doubt that good people will go to heaven!” And perhaps you might not find it easy to convince him that he disbelieves these things: but you have no difficulty in discovering that he takes no interest in them. Here, then, is a faith “ persuaded” of the truth, but not “ embracing” the truth! Do you ask, then, “ How shall I embrace the salvation thus offered?” The answer is plain--“ By coming to Christ for it, in the way prescribed--repenting, converting, trusting in Him.” IV. A VISIBLE ON THE HEART, THE , AND THE LIFE. Let a man gaze upon the sun till he can without pain examine its splendours; he will find, on recalling his eyes to this lower world, that their power is gone for a season. And such is the effect where faith is in full exercise: one upward glance at “ the glory that shall be revealed” is enough to eclipse the most glittering earthly bauble. V. A ON THEM EVEN IN DEATH. After “ seeing,” “ being persuaded,” “ embracing,” and walking as “ pilgrims and strangers,” the black river of death still remains to be crossed, before we “ receive the promise.” But “ the righteous hath hope,” even then; and they that “ walk by faith” will assuredly “ die in faith.” (J. Jowett, M. A.) Strangers and pilgrims on the earth: I. AN OF HUMAN . The fact which it asserts, it is a very easy thing to acknowledge in words; but nothing can be harder than to realise it particularly. The truth is admitted indeed, just because the denial of it would be utterly beyond hope. Every funeral procession, every tolling bell, furnishes a memorial of what awaits each one of us in our turn. Infirmities, to which our flesh is heir, and ailments, are nothing else but God’ s messengers to accomplish God’ s sentence of universal mortality. And there is evidence in the restless and the far-reaching character of human wishes, that the whole sphere of our being cannot possibly lie within the horizon which now circumscribes our dwelling-place. Man looks to the future; he draws on the expectation of other days for the enjoyment of the present. What we have to labour for, is not the admission of the truth, but the imparting to it an operative influence. The brevity of human -life is a matter which belongs to observation and not to experience; we see it in others, but as yet we know nothing of it in ourselves. But it is very hard to bring home to our bosoms the certainty that the hearts which are now full of hopes and fears and wishes shall soon cease to beat. No man believes himself to be immortal; and yet there is no truth so difficult to get embodied as one’ s own mortality. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 11:15-16 If they had been mindful of that country The past and the future I. THE OF A SAINT IN TO THE PAST. “ And truly if they be mindful of that country, from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.” That is to say, the believing man has not forgotten the past; the past has not become a blank to him--his home, his country, his kindred, his honours, his comforts--all these are remembered. Moses remembered Egypt, Abraham remembered Chaldea; but though remembered, these things were not regretted--they were no longer coveted. It is not with us as with Lot’ s wife, casting a longing look behind. There is no looking back for the purpose of return; our face is steadfastly set to go up to Jerusalem. We are often tempted to -think of returning, and to repent our departure, but we yield not for a moment. We rejoice in the separation, we would not have it otherwise. II. THE OF A SAINT IN TO THE FUTURE. “ Now they desire a better kingdom, that is, an heavenly” (Hebrews 11:16). The believing man desires a better country; he says, 1 must have something better, higher, heavenlier, than anything which I have hitherto possessed. Nothing else can content me, or fill this soul of mine. His faith has taken hold of the premises--it is to him the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And with his faith his heart has gone up, to fix itself upon the things above; he cannot stay below. It is not that there is a continued compulsion forcing upon him the consideration of things to come; it is the necessity of his new nature which thus brings him irresistibly into connection with the things of God. III. THE OF FAITH. “ Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” God might “ well have been ashamed of them, for what was there in them that deserved His notice, far less such a recompense as this? Little indeed, yet that little He delights in. The special thing, because of which He is not ashamed, is their walk of faith, for the connection of this statement with the previous verse manifestly is intended “ to bring out this. They trusted His bare promise just as Abraham did when he forsook Chaldea for an unknown inheritance. And this trusting the bare promise, without a sign or token given, so honours God that because of it He rejoices to be called their God. Such is the reward of faith that throws itself entirely upon God, and takes His promise as its all. And now let us learn these three things in reference to what faith does. 1. It turns our back upon the world, and draws us out of Egypt, nor does it allow us to think of returning. Remember what that world is that you profess to have left, and remember that in leaving it you severed links between you and it never to be replaced. 2. Faith keeps our face towards the kingdom. Our desires go upward to the better, even the heavenly, country. 3. Faith realises the kind of recompense and lives upon it. It not merely receives the truth that there is a recompense, but it realises that recompense, and sees that it is just such a recompense as meets our case, and makes up for the very things that we were called upon to relinquish when we left Egypt. We are strangers here, dwelling in tents; faith realises a city, as our abode hereafter, and such a city as earth has not seen--the New Jerusalem, a city provided for us by God. (H. Bonar, D. D.) They desire a better country Longing for heaven I. THE OF THE IN THIS WORLD IS GOOD. Implied in the word “ better.” 1. His sufferings are good. (1) They make us resemble Christ. (2) They teach us to depend upon God. (3) They serve to develop character. The unweeded garden--no flowers. The unpruned tree--little fruit. 2. His privileges are good. (1) A good God. (2) A good book. (3) A good house. (4) Good companionship. (5) Good work. II. THE OF THE IN THE NEXT WORLD WILL BE TO THIS. 1. The Christian is to live in the future. (1) His nature is compound--body and spirit. Death is only a change in the mode of being. (2) Life here is incomplete. (3) The affections imply a future state. Love is of God, and God is eternal. (4) The resurrection of Jesus Christ. “ The First-Begotten from the dead.” The life of the Christian in the future will be glorious. (1) No sorrows. (2) Better privileges. (a) Fellowship with Christ without an intervening medium. (b) Uninterrupted companionship with the perfect good. (c) Engagement in perfect service. More strength. A pure soul in a perfect body. Boundless sphere of activity. III. THE OF THE FUTURE TO THE PRESENT CREATES IN THE A WISH TO ENTER UPON IT. 1. The nature of the desire. A wish for something not in possession. This feeling is quite consistent with consecration to work here, and yet so much stronger as ever to be rising above it and triumphing over it. No ordinary attainment. 2. The influence of the desire. (1) In relation to the world. (a) There should be no needless accumulation of temporal things. (b) There should be no complaint if we do not possess much of them. (c) Our chief enjoyment should not be found in using them. (d) We should be prepared to leave them. (2) In relation to afflictions. Christians expect trials--prepares for them--hopes for better times. (3) In relation to bereavement and death. Only a change. On Albert Durer’ s tombstone is engraved--“ Emigrated: To be with Christ.” When Christmas Evans was dying, he saw the chariot of God come to take him home, and cried out, “ Drive on!” (B. D. Johns.) The better country I. THE STATE OF SOUL HERE . “ They desire. That word denotes an ardent longing for the possession of something which we have not now, but which we may come ultimately to call our own, and when used as here to designate the attitude of a believing soul toward heaven, it is to be noted that it is a positive thing. It is not to be confounded With that dislike of the evils of the present life which is frequently mistaken for it. It is something altogether different from the mere absence of the desire to live, which many foolishly take to be a virtue. One may be repelled from earth without being attracted to heaven, and, indeed, the feelings of many more than himself were described by Voltaire when he said: “ I hate life, but I dread death” ; yet in neither of these emotions have we anything of that element of positive longing in which desire consists. Similarly we must not suppose that we can use that term to designate that submission to the inevitable which makes a man say, that if he must leave this world, though he would greatly prefer to stay in it, he would rather go to heaven than hell. Even true Christian resignation is not desire. We may bow to the will of God out of reverence to Him, and in the faith that it will somehow be ultimately for the best, and yet there may be no desire that, irrespective of its issue, the thing submitted to should come upon us. Unlike Paul (Philippians 1:23), we have a desire to remain with our friends and our work, but if God so wills we are resigned to depart. Here, there is submission without desire, here, feeling quite compatible with great enjoyment, and activity in the present life, and yet so much stronger than these as to be evermore rising above them and triumphing over them. II. THE OBJECT TOWARDS WHICH” THIS STATE OF HEART IS . “ The better land, that is, the heavenly.” I waive altogether such curious questions as those which relate to the locality of heaven. The language of the apostle does not imply that this world is not a goodly land. True, it is sometimes likened to a wilderness, but then it is a wilderness in which God has made streams to flow for us from the rock, and manna to fall for us from the heavens, and through which He is guiding us by the pillar-cloud of His providence and His Spirit. The Christian is happy in this world. What then, to him, are the best things in this world? ‘ They are those in which he has the most of Christ, and they may be summed up under these three classes: Christian ordinances, Christian fellowship, and Christian work. In heaven we shall have all these in a higher degree than we have them here, and without the alloy with which they are here mingled, or the drawbacks to which they are here subjected. III. THE OF THIS DESIRE ON THOSE WHO CHERISH IT. “ They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” That confession has a threefold influence. 1. It keeps those who make it from regarding the things of this life as supreme. They do not build themselves into the world, or bound all their aims by the horizon of time. 2. It sustains the Christian under present afflictions. He is willing to put up with privation now, because he knows there is something better in store for him. 3. It gives consolation in bereavement, and joy in death. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The desire for a better country: It may be said that all men have this desire for a better country. How is it, then, that it is the peculiar desire of those who are described to be heroic of faith? We shall find our answer by considering the nature of the true desire. 1. The true Christian’ s desire is for that which is sovereign in the better country, and that is character. This is the motto over the gate of that heavenly city: Within enters nothing “ that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.” It is the pure desire for a better country that should be the supreme motive in the Christian’ s heart. It is a desire to be like our God. The Buddhist has a desire for the extinction of his personal consciousness so that he may be for ever at rest in Nirvana. The Mahammedan desires to reach his ideal paradise. The business man desires success in his business enterprises. But the Christian’ s desire is for character; and he who desires that desires truly the better country. 2. Then this must be a strong desire, not a mean, lazy, languid wish. The intensity of our desire is measured by an earnest striving, by vigorous working. The Christian shows the true desire to be like God by a living faith in His Son, and by thorough consecration to His service; by fervent prayer to God and by confidence in Christian friends. By these means we are to fit ourselves for the better country. Do you desire to cross the ocean? You enter the steamship and commit yourself to the care of the captain. Do men desire wealth? How they work for it, giving the best years of their life to its accumulation! Or fame? How they strive to attain it! Now, are you willing to work to enter that better country where character is the supreme good? Have you a great and strong desire, a steady and energetic reaching forward of the soul for a character that is ever true and pure? 3. Again, this must ‘ be an unselfish desire; a desire which seeks to benefit others as well as self. If a man simply wishes to go himself to this better country, he has not the true desire. He must seek to help others there. Right here is the origin of all missionary work. It is in a desire that the world may enter the heavenly country and have a right to the tree of life. This is the desire for a better country that God approves. This is the desire that Christ had, who tried to lift men to the highest and best life. A desire for this true character will always be accompanied by a desire that all others may rejoice in the same noble character. This is the desire that discriminates character. It is first pure, then mighty, then unselfish. This is like the character of God, seeking to enrich and ennoble man. With this desire comes fortitude, whereby the Christian can stand strong against all foes. Nothing can trouble him then. Fear of death itself is swallowed up; for what is death to one who has this better country in view I It is this desire that builds up character. Show men lad with a strong purpose ever before him, and I will show you a life that will be crowned with success. It is here that the world has its strongest power over us for evil, in holding us back from the supreme desire for holiness. Out of this desire springs that earnest entreaty that will not let the Spirit go except it bless us. God chooses many ways to keep this motive supreme in our hearts. How often the disappointments and trials of life are used to lead us up to this desire! So the world itself, with all its sadness, its heartbreakings, its open graves, may lead us upward toward the sky. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.) On the hope of heaven I. The desire of this better country TENDS TO ANIMATE US TO A STRICT AND TO , that we may not be misled or ensnared by any of the temptations which surround us. II. The real desire of the better country in heaven TENDS TO INSPIRE US WITH LOVE AND MERCY TO THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE, and to dispose us to the habitual exercise of these good affections. III. The desire of future happiness TENDS TO COMPOSE OUR MINDS TO A TOWARDS ALL THE AND OF THE PRESENT STATE. It disposes us to regard them in no higher a view than as the means of lightening the heaviness of our journey through this world. IV. The earnest desire of heaven WILL DISPOSE OUR MINDS TO A READY WITH THE WILL OF DIVINE , and to a becoming resignation under all the calamities of the present state. V. The hope of future happiness TENDS MOST TO ARM OUR MINDS AGAINST THE OF DEATH, and to extinguish all its terrors. (John Drysdale, D. D.) The better country I. THE IN THE OF LIVELY FAITH REGARDS HEAVEN AS A REALITY. AS faith in man’ s testimony can make us act as if there was such a place as London, so faith in God’ s testimony can make us think, and feel, and act, as if there was such a place as heaven. The mind can bring itself under the same conviction that there is a God as that there are such beings as men; the same conviction that God has testified of the invisible realities of another world, as we have that men tell us of things we have never seen; and the same conviction that what God says is reality as we have that what men say is real. When we give up the mind to God’ s testimony, as we give it up to man’ s testimony, then we have faith in God--the faith that gives reality to what He testifies. Faith, then, brings heaven to view, opens its gates, and looks in upon its glories. It sees the order, the harmony, the purity, and the joys of blessed spirits made perfect; it sees the Redeemer of men in exaltation there, and God in that fulness of His glory which imparts to heaven its raptures. Earth with heaven thus realised to the mind retires into the background of contemplation, and sinks away into comparative obscurity. II. FAITH LEADS THE TO REGARD HEAVEN AS A PORTION. The man of the world looks not beyond this life for happiness. Exclusively devoted to schemes, s of earthly enjoyment, his cares and desires and efforts centre in their accomplishment. Not so with the Christian. By faith he is led to see by contrast with heaven how vain this world is, and to abandon it as his portion. True, he does not refuse--he gratefully receives--the blessings which Divine goodness provides for him. But then he does not regard them as essential to his happiness. He habitually looks beyond these, and regards his treasure as laid up in another world. The same principle leads him to form a just estimate of the trials of life. Shocks severe to nature may be received; and though not without emotion, yet not with despair, not with repining. He does not feel under the sorest bereavement that all is lost. His sufferings are but the chastisement of a paternal hand, and anything that promotes his fitness for the world of his hopes can be welcomed as a blessing. He seeks a better country. There will be no disappointment. Heaven will afford all the happiness his soul desires. “ Already he kens its hills of salvation, where reigns eternal day, and where everlasting spring abides.” Gird thyself, then, O my soul! and hold on thy course. Heaven will make ample amends for all the toils and sufferings of the way to it. III. FAITH LEADS TO ARDENT DESIRES AND OF . Amid all the hopes of heavenly happiness cherished in this world, there is but little just conception of the nature of that happiness. All hope to go to heaven when they die, and to be happy there. But few inquire what heaven is, in what its happiness consists, and what qualifies for its enjoyment. Their hope is a vague, undefined hope of deliverance from dreaded evil. It has no warrant but their own wishes--wishes fixed, to say the least, with equal strength on continuance in sin as on exemption from its punishment. Not so with the Christian. Between his taste and the nature of heavenly happiness there is a holy correspondence. Heaven is just such a heaven as he desires and loves to think of. His soul in its affections and tastes accords with the pure and holy joys of that world, and his meditations of them are sweet. The Christian desires heaven as a place of perfect freedom from sin and of perfection in holiness. He looks to it as the place where the rays of the Deity will be softened to his inspection, where, surrounded with His glory, every desire will expire in the bosom of his God, and where, in the triumphs of perfect holiness, God’ s own blessedness will become the portion of his soul. Inseparable from all this are the desires of the Christian for the society and the employments of heaven with its more particular sources of happiness. The society of that world will be made up of an innumerable company of angels, and of redeemed men from “ all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.” Of this bright host of happy spirits he hopes to be one. There, too, he expects to meet all the pious, redeemed from among men--those with whom he has prayed, and suffered, and taken sweet counsel in this vale of tears. There he hopes to be re-united to those pious friends, if such he had--a husband, wife, parent, child--who have gone before or shall comeafter him; all those who, as labourers together with God, are accomplishing His designs of mercy in this guilty world--all these he hopes to meet as friends and companions for ever. Not less delightful to him is the anticipation of the employments of heaven. These consist in active beneficence and in the pure and perfect worship of God. Remarks” 1. What support under the trials of life has the Christian in the exercise of lively faith? What if the world deceives and disappoints his hopes, heaven is a reality. What if poverty with its evils afflicts and depresses, a rich and a heavenly inheritance is his portion. What if the world afflicts in any shape, how light must appear all its trials with the prospect of eternal glory ever dawning on the soul! 2. We may see why Christians derive so little present consolation from the prospect of future happiness which the Bible reveals. It is not that the reality of such a world is not sufficiently evinced to their understandings--it is not that there is not enough in it as an anticipated possession to gladden every step of their earthly pilgrimage. It is that their affections are still so strongly fixed on the world that their conceptions of happiness are in such a degree confined to the enjoyments which earth can give. With such a state of mind it is impossible that they should see heaven in that aspect of reality, and of course with those desires and expectations which elevate the soul above this world. 3. The Christian desires heaven as the world in which God’ s glory--His capacity to bless His moral creation--will be fully displayed. There all that is comprehensive in the wisdom of God shall be revealed, without a cloud to obscure it, in the view of the happy beings assembled to behold it. There the glory of His power is seen in removing every evil--in creating every good--in enlarging the capacity of creatures for purer and higher joys--in lavishing to bless, the wonders of Omnipotence upon them. There the glories of His justice shall shine as the pledge and security of the everlasting perfection of the holy. There the holiness of God in all its lustre will beam forth to illuminate every mind and transform it into His own image from glory to glory. There will be seen the glory of His goodness, telling all in the ecstasies of heaven that “ God is love.” In a word, there all the attributes of the Deity are fully expressed; the glory scattered throughout the universe will be collected as in a sun, making that world the scene of His glories. And there, with an emphasis which the reality only can give to the inspired thought, it will be seen and felt by all in heaven that “ God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Heaven a better country I. THE COUNTRY TO. “ A better country, that is an heavenly.” Sometimes heaven is described as a city--a kingdom--a temple--an inheritance. In the text it is called a country, doubtless in allusion to the country of Canaan, which was a striking type of the heavenly rest. 1. It is a more exalted country. The most glorious part of the Creation. 2. It is a more holy country. No sin within its happy territories. 3. It is a more healthful country. No bodily, no mental, no spiritual afflictions there. 4. It is a more happy country. Sources of disquietude, grief, and pain, unfeared and unknown. 5. A more abiding country. Not to be pilgrims, but residents. 6. It is a better country, as it is the region of perfection and of consummate glory. Perfect capacities--perfect enjoyments-perfect security--perfect employments. Bliss unchanging and unchangeable. II. DESIRE THIS BETTER COUNTRY. 1. They have secured a title to it. By faith in Christ Jesus they are accepted of God, are His children, and if children, then heirs, &c. 2. They are labouring for a meetness to enjoy it. 3. They labour and pray for it. 4. They converse of it, and live in the hope of its eternal enjoyment. Application: 1. Encourage believers to go forward, diligently, with cheerfulness, until an abundant entrance is administered unto them through the gates into the city. 2. Endeavour to persuade the thoughtless children of this vain world to become interested in matters relative to their immortal welfare, and to seek this better country. (J. Burns,D. D.) The better country I. ITS NAME (Revelation 2:7). II. ITS (Psalms 140:13). III. ITS CLIMATE (Isaiah 33:24). IV. ITS (Revelation 22:2). V. ITS EXTENT (Luke 14:27). VI. ITS (Deuteronomy 33:28). (Homilist.) Heaven the country of the Christian’ s desire I. THE HEAVEN. 1. A heavenly place. Habitation of God. 2. A state. II. IN WHAT IS IT A BETTER COUNTRY THAN THIS? 1. It is a sinless country. 2. It is a healthful country. 3. It is a country inhabited by perfect beings. 4. It is a country of better enjoyments. III. THE DESIRE WHICH ALL TRUE HAVE FOR ITS . Others may wish, but the true Christian really desires it. This desire 1. Is formed in regeneration, Born for and from above. New nature tends upwards. 2. Is cultivated by sanctifying grace. Growing in grace is growing in meetness, &c. 3. Is heightened by spiritual visits to it. He ascends in prayer, in faith, in hope. 4. Is exhibited in holy diligence to obtain it. He labours to enter; he gives all diligence. Application: 1. This better country is offered to all who will set out on the heavenly pilgrimage. 2. How truly blest are all the children of the heavenly Zion. 3. There is a worse country, the world of woe, of darkness, of despair, of endless death. Flee from it now. (J. Burns, D. D.) The better country: I. A LAND OF LIFE. The glorious company of the redeemed who inhabit that country shall never be broken up. The fear of death shall never cast a shade upon their happiness to all eternity. The life that is the portion of all who dwell there is pure, perfect, unmingled with a single taint of evil. II. A LAND OF REST. What your fireside is to you after a long and busy day, when every bone is aching; what home is to a soldier, soiled, and worn out after a long campaign; or to a sailor, after a long, a perilous voyage--all this, and infinitely more, is “ the rest that remaineth “ to the child of God at the close of his pilgrimage. The better country, where this rest will be enjoyed, is not, however, a land of idleness. It will be, I believe, a land of manifold and ceaseless activity. Every power will find full scope and constant employment, but, without any hindrance, opposition, or drawback from within or without, without any weakness or imperfection, will find rest in activity. III. A LAND OF PLENTY. How much of our time and strength here is consumed in procuring the means to buy food and raiment! Most men need the stimulus of want to make them work; and this stimulus it is which swells the ceaseless tide of emigrants from our own to distant climes. Is it not a blessed thought, that in the better country we shall be freed from these earthly cares? IV. THE LAND OF . (John Kelly.) Heavenly-mindedness: 1. I shall first desire you to consider the nature and the magnitude of that bliss which is reserved for good men in that better country towards which they are tending. It is to consist in seeing and knowing God, in being made better acquainted with His ways and works and the wonders of the Creation in the highest intellectual and moral improvements--in better opportunities of being extensively useful--in living and reigning with Christ, and sharing in that glory to which He is raised as our Redeemer. But what most deserves our attention with respect to this happiness is, that it will be eternal in its duration. This makes the value of it properly infinite. Through boundless ages we are to be improving and rising under the eye and care of the Almighty. I must add that we have reason to depend on this happiness as certain to be enjoyed. God, who cannot lie, has promised it to us, and His Sen came into the world to acquire the power of recovering us from death and of introducing us to it. Think now what a happiness this is. Need I ask you whether if does not invite or demand your warmest ambition and wishes? 2. In order to render ourselves more sensible of this, let us compare with it the happiness we enjoy in this world, and the circumstances of imperfection that attend the present state. It is an infant and probationary state. Our faculties being net yet fully opened, and our situation not admitting of our looking far into the Creation, we understand nothing fully. Difficulties obstruct us in our inquiries, and distressing doubts often perplex us. The present state is also a state in which we are subject to much trouble; and dangers surround us in it, against which we are obliged to be perpetually on our guard. But what is worst of all is, that the present world is a wicked world. It exhibits to us a sad scene of guilt and degeneracy. Again, this life is of short duration. Were our happiness in it ever so great, the time for enjoying it is short. Such is the present state. What then is it when viewed in competition with that which I have before described? Can we prefer darkness to light, tumult to quietness, and slavery to liberty? 3. I am lad from hence to observe that an earthly-minded temper is low and sordid, but that the contrary temper confirms the highest dignity and honour. Not to aim at the perfection we are made for--to suffer ourselves to creep on the earth, though capable of aspiring to heaven--what can be more base? Heaven is your home, there let your affections be. Heaven is your country, there let your desires tend. Be not so cruel to yourselves as to suffer any temptation to turn off your attention from your best and highest good. Be not so ungrateful to God, as, notwithstanding His goodness in designing you for a glorious immortality, to declare by your actions that you care not for it. 4. I would point out to you the advantages, with respect to our present interest, which will attend such a temper as I am recommending. The worst that can happen to us here will appear trifling to one who considers with a lively faith that our present afflictions, which are for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Heavenly-mindedness, therefore, will give the best support under afflictions. Amidst the storms of this world it places us in the situation of a person elevated to the upper regions of the air, who there sees the clouds spread at his feet, and hears the thunder roar below him. 5. In the next place it should be considered that heavenly-mindedness will be one of the best proofs of our fitness for heaven and title to it. If you would know where your treasure is, you must inquire where your hearts are. 6. Lastly, let me set before you the particular obligations we are under, as Christ’ s disciples, to cultivate heavenly-mindedness. The design of the gospel is to draw off our affections from things temporal. It teaches us that we are strangers and pilgrims, and therefore commands us to abstain from fleshly lusts. (R. Price, D. D.) The better country I. HEAVEN IS A PLACE OF FREEDOM FROM ALL EVIL. NO sin, and therefore no suffering. What a “ better” world this would be if both were at an end, and God’ s will done as it is done in heaven. Wars would cease; national and individual animosities; tyranny and anarchy; intemperance and every form of vice; heathenism and superstition, with their manifold horrors--all would disappear, and Divine love and peace would rule in every heart. II. HEAVEN IS THE ’ S HOME AND . III. HEAVEN IS THE ’ S . God’ s people have an heritage (Psalms 61:5); they enjoy an earnest of it here, but wait for full possession till they enter on their majority. 1. Its nature, “ Incorruptible.” 2. Its splendour. It is a “ mansion” --which indicates its stability as well as its grandeur. 3. Its extent may be inferred from many passages of Scripture. IV. HEAVEN WILL BE THE: OF MAN’ S DESIRE FOR LIFE AND . (John Doggins.) Heaven desirable No one cries when children, long absent from their parents, go home. Vacation morning is a jubilee. But death is the Christian’ s vacation morning. School is out. It is time to go home. It is surprising that one should wish life here, who may have life in heaven. (H. W.Beecher.) Ready for death: The Christian, at his death, should not be like the child, who is forced by the rod to quit his play, but like one who is wearied of it, and willing to go to bed. Neither ought he to be like the mariner, whose vessel is drifted by the violence of the tempest from the shore, tossed to and fro upon the ocean, and at last suffers wreck and destruction; but like one who is ready for the voyage, and, the moment the wind is favourable, cheerfully weighs anchor, and, full of hope and joy, launches forth into the deep. (Gotthold.) Detaching--attaching: Are you not very conscious of the detaching power of sorrow? Ah! but it is attaching too--only the attaching to things not seen. (F. R. Havergal.) Desiring heaven: It is said of Tully, when he was banished from Italy, and of Demosthenes, when he was banished from Athens, that they wept every time they looked towards their own country; and is it strange that a poor deserted believer should mourn every time he looks heavenward? The hope of heaven What has been the great, and what is now one of the strongest and most influential powers or motives in the human heart? A desire to find some better place, some lovelier spot, than we now have. For what does the tradesman toil? For what does the physician practise? For what does man hope at the decline and the close of life? Some sheltered nook, some quiet spot, where, if he cannot have a rest that will never be moved, he may have, at least, a foretaste and foreshadow of it. What was it that carried Columbus across the western wave, amid insubordination within his ship, and the unexpectedly wild waves that roared and curled around and without? What sustained him on the unsound sea, amid the untraversed waste of waters? The hope of a better country. What was it that sustained the hearts of the Pilgrim Fathers, when, driven forth from this land by stern ecclesiastical persecution, they went to the far distance, and across the western wave, and feared not the ironbound coast or the rugged and unknown territory on which they set foot? It was the hope and prospect of a better, even a free and peaceful country. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Heaven better than earth: There is light without darkness, joy without grief, desire without punishment, love without sadness, satiety without loathing, safety without fear, health without disease, and life without death. (J. Quarles.) Scripture better understood in heaven: Heaven is the more desirable, because there I shall better understand the Scriptures than here I can ever hope to do. To leave my Bible, and go to the God and heaven which the Bible reveals, will be no otherwise my loss than to leave the picture for the presence of my friend. (R. Baxter.) The joy of the better country: He (Rev. W. Marsh, D.D.) told us of Mr. Simeon’ s mode of describing a Christian’ s death. “ Who are you?” (looking back). “ Sorrow.” “ And who are you?” “ Sighing.” Then stretching his hands upward--“ And who are you? Joy.” “ And who are you? Gladness.” “ Then, farewell, Sorrow, farewell, Sighing; Joy and Gladness, I will go with you!” (Miss Marsh.) What is heaven? Four elements enter into the Christian conception of the blessed life. 1. That of rest from the anxiety and care, the strife and pain of our present existence; but, as Baxter says, not “ the rest of a stone,” or as a later theologian, Dr. Strong, writes, “ A rest consistent with service, an activity without weariness, a service which is perfect freedom.” This is one of the earliest and is also one of the most current modes of representing heaven. 2. Next comes the idea of fellowship with and conformity to Christ, and all that is Christly; the actualising of the ideal of life and character, involving a progress in knowledge, in goodness, in gentleness, in purity, and in love. Paul and Bernard, Luther and Wesley were gladdened and sustained in heroic and self-sacrificing service by the anticipation of such an eternal life. 3. Emerson tells the story of a woman coming from a midland town to the sea, and exclaiming, “ Thank God, at last I have seen something of which there is enough.” A similar gratitude seems to have been inspired by the visions of the endless life given to men. At its best our earthly life is partial, fragmentary, broken and splintered; but that is a perfect whole, a complete unity, a joy-giving harmony. The apostles John and Paul, and the Puritan, John Howe, represent hosts of yearning spirits that have felt the spell of the complete life of the heavenly world. 4. But no statement of Christian opinion concerning heaven would be true that left out the expectation of service, “ His servants do Him service.” Pascal did not hesitate to assert that the want of occupation for our moral energies in the future would turn heaven into hell. Maurice, on being told his lifework was ended, said, “ If I may not preach here I may preach in other worlds.” On Mr. Dobney’ s tombstone is the affirmation, “ He hath obtained a better ministry.” One phase of that manifold service is illustrated in the history of the doctrine of Christ’ s descent into Hades. Christian interpreters of the second and nineteenth centuries have clung to the idea that the activities of Christians in the eternal state will be directed to the revelation of Christ to those who have passed out of this life without enjoying the privilege of attaining to that highest knowledge. Peter, Irenaeus, Martensen, Delitzsch, Luckock, and many others might be cited in support of this position. I only mention this as one item in the evidence, showing that the dominant conception of eternity amongst enlightened Christians is not that of “ idleness and uselessness.” (J. Clifford, D. D.) A bright change: An aged Christian, living in the poorhouse, while conversing with a minister, showed signs of much joy. As a reason for it, she said, “ Oh, sir! I was just thinking what a change it will be from the poorhouse to heaven!” (New Cyclopaedia of Illustrations.) New senses may be developed in heaven It does not seem unphilosophical to anticipate that with the new mode of existence, new organs of sense will be developed, in nature and numbers beyond conjecture, opening to our knowledge glorious phases and phenomena of the material universe, which we, now endowed with only five senses, are at present unable to perceive. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Enlarged abilities in heaven Sir William Hamilton makes the following quotation from one of Voltaire’ s Philosophical Romances: “ Tell me, says Micromegas, an inhabitant of one of the planets of the Dog Star, to the secretary of the Academy of Sciences, in the planet Saturn, at which he had recently arrived in a journey through the heavens, “ Tell me how many senses have the men on your globe? … We have seventy-two senses,” answered the academician, “ and we are every day complaining of the smallness of the number. Our imagination goes far beyond our wants. What are seventy-two senses? And how pitiful a boundary, even for beings of such limited perceptions, to be cooped up within our ring and our five moons. In spite of our curiosity, and in spite of as many passions as can result from six dozen senses, we find our hours hang very heavily on our hands, and can always find time enough for yawning.” “ I can very well believe it,” says Micromegas, “ for in our globe we have very near one thousand senses; and yet, with all these, we feel continually a sort of listless inquietude and vague desire, which are for ever telling us that we are nothing, and that there are beings infinitely nearer perfection.” (Lectures on Metaphysics.) Heaven to be desired In the reign of Queen Mary a man named Palmer was condemned to die. He was earnestly persuaded to recant, and among other things, a friend said to him, “ Take pity on thy golden years and pleasant flowers of youth before it is too late.” His beautiful reply was, “ Sir, I long for those springing flowers which shall never fade away.” Not ashamed to be called their God The law of righteousness in God governs His will: We perceive here a reference to these two ideas. First, that there belongs to God the perfection of moral character--the character which we denote when we say that He loves righteousness and hates wickedness. And secondly, that He exhibits this character, by acting in a public capacity, in the view of the moral universe, who will be constituted, if I may so speak, the judges of His acts. As thus lying open to the knowledge and the judgment of all moral beings, He is not ashamed to be called the Rewarder of the men of faith and of righteousness. I. THERE IS IN GOD THE BASIS OF A TRULY . There belongs to Him the reality of righteousness in its highest perfection. In order to mean anything by this language, we must understand it to assert that He possesses in the highest measure the character which we denote by the word righteousness, when we apply it to men. There is in God the same rule of moral judgment which we find in ourselves. The law of righteousness in God is no more the creation of His will than the law of righteousness in man is the creation of man’ s will. The law of righteousness in God as much governs the acts of His will as the law of righteousness in man is required to govern the acts of man’ s will. We thus make the foundations of moral truth the great law of righteousness, independent of any will whatever. We lodge them in the eternal Divine nature; in the necessary being and perfection of God; that perfection which belongs to Him as the Possessor, independently of His will, of all moral ideas. This is the only way in which we can think of God with a becoming reverence. Thus alone can we give significance to the question of Abraham: “ Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” II. LET US NEXT GOD AS ACTING IN A PUBLIC , IN THE VIEW OF HIS , AND TO THEM HIS MORAL . In this way He constitutes His creatures, in some sort, the judges of His acts. Of course, I cannot mean that He renders Himself amenable to any partial and prejudiced judgments of His creatures, or that He encourages in any way a presumptuous and self-confident spirit on the part of men. But I mean, that in proportion as we and other mortal beings will judge broadly and wisely, according to the best light we can get, and the best opportunities which our growing experience and observation may supply, both we and they shall see the ever-accumulating proofs of His perfect moral character. We have, then, in the text a two-fold argument to show that God, in His public capacity as moral Governor and Judge, will deal righteously with all His creatures. The argument is drawn conjointly from the law of righteousness in God, and from the relation in which He has placed Himself to the moral universe. As a moral Governor, He stands pledged to all other moral beings to administer His government over each and all of them according to the rules of perfect wisdom and righteousness. In the word righteousness we include also every consistent manifestation of goodness. We will illustrate this double security for the perfection of the Divine administration, by referring to some of t, he ways in which God acts publicly, in the view of His creatures, and thus gives them an opportunity of judging His acts. Everything in His treatment of moral agents belongs here. But we will now confine ourselves to the view of Him, first, as rewarding the righteous, and secondly, as punishing the wicked; for we shall thus embrace somewhat of His previous conduct towards both classes. God, we are told, will render to every man according to His deeds. There is included in the idea of rewards and of punishments a reference to the particular character and conduct of each one, and a like reference to the means and opportunities enjoyed by each for ascertaining his duty and forming his character aright. Now, in relation to those whom He will accept as His children, and admit to His fellowship and favour, the language and spirit of our text justify us in saying that He will make an open exhibition of His perfect righteousness, mingled suitably with His goodness and mercy. We may be confident that He will reward nothing but virtue, and we can further tell in what the reward will consist. It will be no mere arbitrary exaltation, nothing which is not in due proportion and correspondence to the righteous character itself. All this we may conclude from the fact that the righteous Rewarder of men will make a public illustration of His own character in assigning the rewards. He will do nothing in the way of favouritism; everything will be determined by the rules of moral fitness. So also with the retributions which may overtake the wicked. All these will be determined by the rules of moral fitness. There will be nothing in their nature and severity, and nothing in their duration, which the Scriptures speak of as eternal, to which the enlightened conscience of the moral universe will not respond. (D. D. Sheldon, D. D.) God not ashamed to be called His people’ s God: Doctrine I. THAT HOWEVER MEAN AND LOW THOSE RE WHO HAVE THIS WORLD FOR GOD, LOOKING FOR A BETTER, GOD IS NOT ASHAMED OF THEM, OR ON THEIR PART, TO BE CALLED THEIR GOD. 1. To explain the import of this their privilege. It imports (1) That He is their God, how mean soever their lot be. Whatever they want they have Him for their God (Hebrews 8:10). But what can persons make of this in the want of earthly enjoyments? We answer, They may make all of it that is necessary to full contentment of heart Habakkuk 3:17-18). Full protection, full provision, for time and eternity, there is nothing more can be needed (Psalms 142:5). (2) That He takes such a pleasure in them, and puts such an honour on them, that though the world should cast out their name as evil, He surnames Himself by them, and brings their name into His (Matthew 17:32). (3) That He allows them to call Him their own God(John 20:28). (4) That He allows them to depend on Him as their God, and to improve their relation to Him for all which they need; whoever casts them off, or refuses to help them, God will never put off His people with names, without the things signified by these names. If He is called their God, He will own His name in effect and reality; and indeed be a God to them, to all the intents and purposes of the covenant (Genesis 17:7). (5) That He will own Himself to be their God before the world, whoever disown them. (6) That He reckons it His honour to be their God, even though men should be ashamed to rub shoulders with them (Isaiah 46:13; 2 Corinthians 8:23). 2. To give the reasons of the point. Among other reasons, there are the following: (1) Because they have embraced Him in the covenant, for their all, in opposition to the world, and all that is therein; which shows a nobleness of spirit in them, the certain product of His own Spirit. (2) Because they quit the world’ s certainty for Divine hope, and trust Him for an unseen portion to themselves, as preferable to all that the world can afford, believing He will glorify His all-sufficiency and His faithfulness in the promise, laying all their weight upon them (Romans 4:20-21). (3) Because they can take up with nothing less than a God for their portion, by which they discover a peculiar elevation of spirit, the effect of Divine grace (Philippians 3:8). (4) Because, in their way and walk, they are of a character distinguished from the men of the world (Philippians 3:18-21). They dare not take the way of the world, their souls hate it, as being opposite to the manners of the country to which they are going. 3. Improve this point. Hence, see (1) That carnal worldlings are none of those whose God the Lord is Matthew 6:24). (2) That such as having weighed all things, have forsaken the world for God, and fixed their desires on Him and the better world, intent to be there whatever their lot in this world be; and to enjoy God in Christ as their God and portion, however small their portion be of this world’ s good things; they may be sure God is their God, and He will own it, though, by reason of the weakness of their faith, they have much ado to plead it. (3) That God is worthy to be chosen for our God in covenant; and therefore I exhort you to make choice of Him for your all, and give up with the world henceforth, that ye may be pilgrims and strangers in it. Doctrine II. THAT HIS PEOPLE MAY SUFFER FOR HIS SAKE, HE IS NOT ASHAMED ON HIS PART TO BE CALLED THEIR GOD, HAVING FOR THEM THE CITY, WHICH WILL MAKE UP ALL LOSSES. 1. To show in what respects the heavenly city is prepared for the pilgrims who have forsaken this world for God, looking for a better. (1) In respect of eternal destination in the decree of election before the world was made (Matthew 25:34). (2) In respect of purchase, by the sufferings and death of Christ. It is therefore called the purchased possession (Ephesians 1:13). (3) In respect of possession taken of it already in their name, by our Lord Jesus entering into it, as a public person, at His ascension (Hebrews 6:20). (4) In respect of readiness to receive them in their own persons. 2. To give the reasons of the point (I) Because the happiness of the city, if they were once come there, will more than balance all the hardships in their pilgrimage that they had to undergo for His sake. Why should He be ashamed to be called their God, be their lot in the world as bad as it can be? The glory of the city will more than balance all the contempt, reproach, &c. (2) Because they are not far from the city. They will soon be there Psalms 90:10). (3) Because in the meantime there is a communication betwixt them and this city, so that the whole of what they need may come from it. (4) Because the very faith and hope, which they entertain as to this city, is sufficient to support them under all their hardships (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). 3. To improve this point. It serves (1) To pour shame on the wisdom and way of the world. And this (a) In that they reckon it wisdom not to quit a seen advantage for an unseen one, certainty (as they call it) for hope (Psalms 4:6). (b) In that they are ready to be ashamed of God’ s people, because of the hardships they are laid under in their pilgrimage through the world. This their way is their folly; for whatever their lot be God is not their God and portion. (2) Serves to instruct in several duties, those who profess to be pilgrims in the world, and to have taken God for their God, looking for a better world. Such as (a) Be not ashamed of Him, to be called His people (Mark 8:38). (b) Be not ye a shame and dishonour to Him, by your cleaving to the world, and the way of the world (Romans 2:24). (c) Do not decline the hardest piece of the doing-work of religion for Him. Engage in the whole without exception. Have respect to all His commandments (Psalms 119:6). (d) Shift not the Cross of Christ, but be ready to suffer for Him as He may call you (2 Timothy 2:12). (e) Walk like the expectants of heaven, citizens of the city above prepared for you by your God. This city will far more than compensate for your sufferings, for all the difficult and hard steps ye may have in your way thither. (f) Spend the time of your sojourning in making ready, and preparing for that city which the Lord has prepared for His people. (T. Boston, D. D.) Man’ s true nobility: This stretching forth of the soul’ s hand after a heavenly country is man’ s patent of nobility. God might be ashamed of the poor grovelling thing which, having intellect, having reason, having a heart and a soul, can rest in things seen. God might be ashamed of the creature that is satisfied with the created, and finds in human honour and human love the fulfilment of capacities capable of the everlasting. But God is not, cannot be, ashamed of the creature that feels itself on earth an exile and a sojourner; feels that it hath here neither citizenship nor yet abiding-place; feels that nothing can satisfy but the Spring and Source of Being; feels that “ with Him is the fountain of life, and that in His light alone it can ever see light.” He is “ not ashamed” of these, “ to be surnamed” --to add to His other titles of glory and Deity, the appellation, self-chosen, “ God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob.” “ Not ashamed,” and He proved it--“ for He prepared for them” --there is no “ hath” in the Greek--“ prepared” for them, that is, in the eternity that is behind--prepared for them when the “ foundations” of the everlasting “ city” were laid before the world was--“ He prepared for them” in that invisible past a “ city.” Not a “ country “ alone, which they might recognise as their natal and ante-natal home; but a state and a polity too, which is more than a place, more than a dwelling--having laws also, and institutions, and citizens--even that “ kingdom” of God Himself, which is the revelation of Christ in the gospel. (Dean Vaughan.) He hath prepared for them a city Heaven prepared for the righteous I. GOD HAS FOR HIS PEOPLE A FUTURE AND . 1. Divine revelation brings immortality to light. 2. That the God of our salvation has prepared a city of habitation for the saints beyond the grave, appears evidently from the design of our Saviour’ s sufferings, and the infinite merit of His atoning sacrifice. His blood was the price paid for their heavenly inheritance, and by dying He obtained their eternal redemption. 3. As our Lord Jesus Christ, by the shedding of His own blood, has purchased the heavenly inheritance for His people, so His resurrection from the dead is a sure pledge of their eternal triumphs over death and the grave. 4. That there remains a city of habitation prepared for the righteous in Christ, may be proved from many plain promises of Scripture, given by Him who cannot lie, and yielding strong consolation to those who have fled to the Saviour. II. THAT FUTURE ABODE OF THE SAINTS AS A BETTER AND AN CITY. 1. This comparison of heaven to a city prepared for the righteous, includes rest from all the fatigues of their journey. 2. A city also implies society and fellowship, and leads forward our contemplations to the happy intercourse of the glorified above. 3. This comparison of heaven to a city implies safety and privilege. 4. Finally, heaven is styled a city, to distinguish it from the tents in which travellers lodge for a night, and to denote the perpetuity of future happiness. III. How important it is for all those who expect heaven, TO LIVE EVERY DAY UNDER THE LIVELY AND OF THE FUTURE AND BETTER WORLD. 1. The first advantage is increasing sanctification. They are excited to holiness by the powerful consideration, that without it no man can see the Lord. 2. The expectation of heaven promotes the Christian’ s patience and tranquillity of spirit. 3. The believing expectation of heaven promotes the Christian’ s triumph and joy, amidst the depressing events of life. (A. Bonar.) The city of God, the true object of faith always and everywhere The first outline of that future city of God was suggested to Abraham’ s mind by the words of promise: “ I will bless thee,… and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The hope held out to him was a hope, in which not he only, nor his descendants only, but all the families of the earth, were interested. The prospect was vague, but large. Its largeness was its glory. Its power to elevate grew out of this. The city of God, you will readily see, is another name for the kingdom of God; or, more exactly, both are names for the same eternal reality. Only the two names present the same thing to us under two somewhat different aspects. The phrase, “ The Kingdom of God,” suggests at once the thought of the king and his royal rule, its righteousness, its wholesome severity, its abounding all-embracing love. The phrase, “ The city of God,” suggests not so much this, as the thought of organisation, that which is described in the twelfth chapter of the Epistle, as the “ General assembly and Church of the first-born enrolled in heaven” ; each citizen, and each group of citizens, having an appointed place in the vast organism, a work to do, a function to discharge. It is not difficult to see with what ennobling power this thought must have come to the soul of Abraham: I, then--even I--insignificant atom of humanity that I am; I, and my descendants have a place in this great city, whose Constructor is the great God Himself. We are links in the vast chain, which reaches from the hoar past to the boundless future. It is for us to receive and transmit the Divine blessing. But if I have estimated Abraham’ s vision of the city of God with any correctness whatever, we can hardly fail to confess how lamentably imperfect our own vision of that eternal city too often is: especially in that we think of our own relation to that city, as possible citizens of it, in the future after death; but do not think of it, as that to which we belong now, as truly as we shall belong to it hereafter; and as that, in which all men have the liveliest interest along with ourselves. Thus we are ever in danger of losing out of our field of view the very elements of life and power, which wrought so mightily for good upon the soul of Abraham. And, in so far as this is the case, we miss the regenerating influences which came to him through his faith in that city. It will be a blessed thing for our religion, when we learn to substitute for our own vague natural notions about heaven and about going to heaven when we die, the true Scriptural conceptions of the city and the kingdom of God. It is no easy matter to do this. The magnitude and grandeur of the Scriptural ideas overpower and awe us. We shrink from them into something slighter, nearer, more trivial and commonplace. But the Bible will never have justice done to it--will never exercise its full native power upon us to elevate and heal; until, instead of reading our own notions into it, as we are so apt to do, we learn to receive by steady, docile contemplation the thoughts which it was designed to impress upon us. Meanwhile, we can at least be sensible of our ignorance, and open our hearts humbly to further light. There is no reason why, from this moment forwards, we should not recognise and bow before the vastness and the mystery of that kingdom and city and heavenly country, to which by our spirits we even now belong, and in which we may, even now and here, become loyal and obedient citizens. Then will that city of God begin to exercise its natural attraction upon us. It will draw us upwards out of our selfish, sinful nature; just as it drew Abraham, and Jacob, and Joseph, and the long line of saints, and heroes, commemorated in this muster-roll of the great and good. It will be true of us, as of them: “ God is not ashamed to be called their God.” (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.) Heaven purchased: Like as if a man were assured that there were made for him a great purchase in Spain or Turkey, so that, if he would but come thither, he might enjoy it, he would adventure the dangers of the sea, and of enemies also, if need were, that he might come to his own; even so, seeing that Christ Jesus hath made a purchase for us in heaven, and there is nothing required of us but that we will come and enjoy it, we ought to refuse no pains or fear in the way, but carefully strive to get it. (Cawdray.) Heaven, what it is A scoffing infidel of considerable talents, being once in the company of a person of slender intellect, but of genuine piety, and supposing, no doubt, that he should obtain an easy triumph in the display of his ungodly wit, put the following question to him: “ I understand, sir, that you expect to go to heaven when you die; can you tell me what sort of a place heaven is?” “ Yes, sir,” replied the Christian; “ heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people; and if your soul is not prepared for it, with all your boasted wisdom, you will never enter there.” (Baxendale’ s Anecdotes.) For whom heaven is prepared A man dreamed that he stood beside the guarded gate of heaven, when the spirit of a rich man came and sought admittance on the ground of his wealth and local fame. He was reminded that those things belong to time only, and turned away in despair. Another sought entrance on the ground of his integrity, but was repulsed by the angel, saying, “ By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.” A third pleaded his denominational zeal, fervent prayers, and deep feeling, but was refused with the remark, “ There is no name given under heaven, or among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus.” At length, a spirit was seen winging its way through the air, all the while crying, “ The blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin.” To it the gates of heaven flew wide open; and the angel said, “ An abundant entrance is ministered to you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (New Cyclopaedia of Illustrations.) The Christian’ s right to heaven: The late Rev. Robert Thomas, of Hanover, was once asked if he felt sure of going to heaven when he died. We heard him reply, “ Where else can I go?” (J. Idrisyn Jones.) The city of the saints A city is a place of genial associations. In a lonely hamlet one has little company. In a city, especially where all the inhabitants shall be united in one glorious brotherhood, the true communism of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity may be realised in the purest sense and highest possible degree. In a city such as this there are plentiful occasions for intercourse, where mutual interests shall enhance mutual joy. “ He hath prepared a city.” It is a city too possessing immunities, and conferring dignity upon its residents. To be a burgess of the city of London is thought to be a great honour, and upon princes is it sometimes conferred; but, we shall have the highest honour that can be given, when we shall be citizens of the city which God has prepared. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 11:17-19 Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac Abraham offering Isaac I. ABRAHAM WHEN HE WAS TRIED. Some lives abound in tests, others are marvellously free from trial. Some are let off with few lessons, others destined for exalted service have hard tasks to master and difficult problems to solve. Observe how Abraham had been tried all along. When at the outset he left his country, and during his subsequent journeyings, the Divine command became more and more explicit. Meanwhile, as a providential antithesis, Abraham was gradually stripped of his earlier associates. His father died at Haran. Then came to him the repetition of the old command, with the significant addition to leave his “ father’ s house.” This involved his leaving his brother Nahor and family. Later on even Lot separated from him under conditions which must have made the separation doubly painful. When, therefore, the command came to offer up Isaac the trial reached its greatest depth and intensity. There are crucial tests in every true life, for which every preceding trial has prepared the way. Such was this supreme test in Abraham’ s life. The greatness of the test appears in the exceptional character of the demand. It appeared as a direct contradiction of God’ s promise. The detail was painful in the extreme. II. THE OF ABRAHAM WAS 1. Prompt. The command came in the night. Early in the morning Abraham “ rose up,” &c. Nothing was said to Sarah, to Isaac, or to the young men, that would have made Abraham’ s obedience to that command more difficult. The obedience was as spontaneous as the command startling. 2. Persistent. Abraham had the sustaining force which enabled him to maintain his purpose unwaveringly during the trying period of suspense between the command and the full obedience to it. 3. Perfect. When Abraham lifted up the knife the sacrifice was complete. Isaac had already been sacrificed upon the altar of a father’ s heart. Only the tragedy, and not the real sacrifice, was prevented. III. Further, GOD ABRAHAM’ S , AND THE FOR THE OF HIS OWN , BY TO THE RAM IN THE THICKET. The great principle had already been enunciated by Abraham, “ God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” The question of Isaac which called forth this answer--“ Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” --is the representative question of the world. Man in all ages has been seeking a lamb for a burnt offering. Abraham’ s answer is the reply of God in Jesus Christ. The history of sacrifices outside the Christian religion is the history of man offering sacrifices to God; the story of the Christian religion is that of God offering a perfect sacrifice for man. (D. Davies.) Abraham’ s faith I. THE WHICH ABRAHAM’ S FAITH DERIVED FROM PAST . 1. Consider the call and the promises given to him in Genesis 12:1-7. These were satisfactory and convincing, when we consider them in detail, and likewise who made them. 2. Consider the circumstances of the promises made to him, and the covenant entered into with him (Genesis 15:1-21.). 3. Abraham had the experience of a third call of gracious promises made to him, and a covenant-seal appended to both (Genesis 17:1-8). The seal of circumcision is appended in verse 10. Here is not only promising and entering into covenant, but giving proof and sensible experience. What could be more encouraging than the intercourse with God in these transactions? 4. What could be more experimentally satisfactory than the communion which Abraham had with the three angels? 5. Then follows the scene referred to in our text, and the trial of Abraham’ s faith, so much celebrated in Scripture. II. Considering all the foregoing circumstances, we may perceive THE WARRANT WHICH ABRAHAM HAD TO TRUST IN HIS GOD IN ALL TIME TO COME, 1. He could not otherwise have been convinced of the benevolence of Him who condescended to eat and drink with him “ under the tree.” Such condescension and humility must have convinced him of the goodness of that God who had showed him such favour and friendship. 2. He must have been convinced of the tender regard of that God who had heard his prayer in behalf of Ishmael--had changed his wife’ s name from Sarai to Sarah--promised that she should have a son--and mentioned his name (Genesis 17:15-21). 3. He must have been convinced of the compassion of God to men, from the six different answers to his prayer for the inhabitants of Sodom. 4. He must have been convinced of the power and goodness of that Lord, who had, contrary to all human appearance, both made and fulfilled the promise of granting him Isaac. 5. Abraham was fully convinced “ that God was able to raise Isaac up even from the dead” ; and that, as He had given him, He had full right to take him away, as He might think best. Improvement: 1. Such as would imitate the faith of Abraham, should take notice of God’ s dealings with them in the course of His providence. 2. Such as notice not the dealings of God with them are in the dark as to the length which they have proceeded in the Divine life; and, if they continue in this state, must die in darkness at last. (James Kidd, D. D.) The excellency of Abraham’ s faith and obedience I. THE AND OF HIS FAITH will appear, if we consider what objections there were in the case, enough to shake a very strong faith. There were three great objections against this command, and such as might in reason make a wise and good man doubtful whether this command were from God. 1. The horrid nature of the thing commanded. 2. The grievous scandal that might seem almost unavoidably to follow upon it. 3. And the horrible consequence of it, which seemed to make the former promise of God to Abraham void. II. We will consider THE OF HIS TO OBEY GOD, notwithstanding the harshness and difficulty of the thing. He was to offer up his son but once; but he sacrificed himself and his own will every moment for three days together. It must be a strong faith, and a mighty resolution, that could make him to hold out three days against the violent assaults of his own nature, and the” charming presence of his son, enough to melt his heart as often as he cast his eyes upon him; and yet nothing of all this made him to stagger in his duty, but “ being strong in faith, he gave glory to God,” by one of the most miraculous acts of obedience that ever was exacted from any of the sons of men. III. I come to consider THE OF HIS FAITH, in that he was able to give satisfaction to himself in so intricate and perplexed a case. The constancy of Abraham’ s faith was not an obstinate persuasion but the result of the soberest consideration. As for the objections I have mentioned. 1. The horrid appearance of the thing, that a father should slay his innocent son. Why should Abraham scruple the doing this at the command of God, who, being the author of life, hath power over it, and may resume what He hath given, and take away the life of any of His creatures when He will, and make whom He pleaseth instruments in the execution of His command? 2. As to the scandal of it, that could be no great objection in those times, when the absolute power of parents over their children was in its full force, and they might put them to death without being accountable for it. 3. As to the objection from the horrible consequence of the thing commanded, that the slaying of Isaac seemed to overthrow the promise which God had made before to Abraham, that in Isaac his seed should be called; this seems to him to be the great difficulty, and here he makes use of reason to reconcile the seeming contradiction of this command of God to His former promise. So the text tells us that “ he offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; reasoning that God was able to raise him up from the dead.” IV. SOME AND . 1. Human nature is capable of clear and full satisfaction concerning a Divine revelation. For if Abraham had not been fully and past all doubt assured that this was a command from God he would certainly have spared his son. (1) God can work in the mind of a man a firm persuasion of the truth of what He reveals, and that such a revelation is from Him. (2) God never offers anything to any man’ s belief, that plainly contradicts the natural and essential notions of his mind; because this would be for God to destroy His own workmanship, and to impose that upon the understanding of man which, whilst it remains what it is, it cannot possibly admit. 2. The great and necessary use of reason in matters of faith. For we see here that Abraham’ s reason was a mighty help to his faith. Here were two revelations made to Abraham, which seemed to clash with one another; and if Abraham’ s reason could not have reconciled the repugnancy of them, he could not possibly have believed them both to be from God; because this natural notion that “ God cannot contradict Himself,” every man does first and more firmly believe than any revelation whatsoever. I know there hath a very rude clamour been raised by some persons against the use of reason in matters of faith; but how very unreasonable this is will appear to any one that will but have patience to consider these following particulars: (1) The nature of Divine revelation; that it doth not endow men with new faculties, but propoundeth new objects to the faculties, which they had before. Reason is the faculty whereby revelation is to be discerned; for when God reveals anything to us, He reveals it to our understanding, and by that we are to judge of it. (2) This will farther appear if we consider the nature of faith. Faith is an assent of the mind to something as revealed by God; now all assent must be grounded upon evidence; that is, no man can believe anything unless he have or thinks he hath some reason to do so. (3) This will yet be more evident, if we consider the method that must of necessity be used to convince any man of the truth of religion. Suppose we had to deal with one that is a stranger and enemy to Christianity, what means are proper to be used to gain him over to it? The better way would be to satisfy this man’ s reason by proper arguments that the Scriptures are a Divine revelation, and that no other book in the world can with equal reason pretend to be so; and if this be a good way, then we do and must call in the assistance of reason for the proof of our religion. (4) Let it be considered farther that the highest commendations that are given in Scripture to any one’ s faith, are given upon account of the reasonableness of it. Abraham’ s faith is famous, and made a pattern to all generations, because he reasoned himself into it notwithstanding the objections to the contrary, and he did not blindly break through these objections, and wink hard at them; but he looked them in the face, and gave himself reasonable satisfaction concerning them. (5) None are reproved in Scripture for their unbelief, but where sufficient reason and evidence was offered to them. (6) To show this yet more plainly, let us consider the great absurdity of declining the use of reason in matters of religion. There can be no greater prejudice to religion than to decline this trial. To say we have no reason for our religion is to say it is unreasonable. 3. God obligeth no man to believe plain and evident contradictions as matters of faith. Abraham could not reasonably have believed this second revelation to have been from God, if he had not found someway to reconcile it with the first. 4. The great cause of the defect of men’ s obedience is the weakness of their faith. Did we believe the commands of God in the gospel, and His promises and threatenings, as firmly as Abraham believed God in this case; what should we not be ready to do, or suffer, in obedience to Him? 5. We have great reason to submit to the ordinary strokes of God’ s providence upon ourselves, or near relations, or anything that is dear to us. Most of these are easy compared with Abraham’ s case; it requires a prodigious strength of faith to perform so miraculous an act of obedience. 6. We are utterly inexcusable if we disobey the easy precepts of the gospel. (Abp. TiIlotson.) The supreme test of faith I. THAT GOD ALONE KNOWS HOW TO ASCRIBE WORK AND DUTY UNTO THE OF GRACE . He knew that Abraham’ s faith would carry him through this trial, and thereon He spared him not. As He will enjoin nothing absolutely above our strength, so He is not obliged to spare us in any duty, be it never so grievous, or of what difficult exercise soever it be, which He will give us strength to undergo; as He did here to Abraham. II. THAT GOD GREAT TRIALS FOR WELL- FAITH. So this trial betel Abraham, when his faith had been victorious in sundry other instances. So He hath called many to lay down their lives by fire, blood, and torments, in their old age. III. THAT FAITH MUST BE TRIED; AND THAT OF ALL GRACES IT IS SUITED SUITED UNTO TRIAL. IV. THAT GOD TRIALS FOR THE MOST PART UNTO THE OF FAITH. V. YEA, GREAT TRIALS IN ARE AN OF GREAT FAITH IN THEM, THOUGH NOT EITHER BY OR OTHERS BEFORE SUCH TRIALS. VI. TRIALS ARE THE ONLY OF FAITH, WITHOUT WHICH MEN MUST WANT THE BEST OF ITS AND , AND THE BEST WAY OF IT UNTO OTHERS. VII. WE OUGHT NOT TO BE AFRAID OF TRIALS BECAUSE OF THE OF FAITH IN AND BY THEM (see James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7). VIII. LET THEM BE JEALOUS OVER WHO HAVE HAD NO OF THE TRIAL OF THEIR FAITH. IX. TRUE FAITH, BEING TRIED, WILL IN THE ISSUE BE . X. DIVINE DID’ GIVE SUCH AN OF THEIR BEING FROM GOD TO THOSE WHO RECEIVE THEM, THAT THOUGH IN ALL THINGS THEY THEIR REASON AND , YET THEY THEM WITHOUT ANY . XI. The great glory and commendation of the faith of Abraham consisted in this, THAT WITHOUT ALL DISPUTE, , OR OF TO THE , BY A PURE ACT OF HIS WILL HE WITH THE OF GOD, which in some sense may be called blind obedience wherein the soul resigns the whole conduct of itself to another. XII. IT IS A AND TO HAVE AN OF PRICK TO OFFER TO GOD, IF HE CALL FOR IT. And such are our lives, our names, our reputations, our relations, estates, liberties, as Abraham had his Isaac. It is so, I say, if we have hearts to make use of it. XIII. BEGUN IN FAITH, WITHOUT ANY , BUT WITH A SINCERE TO FULFIL THE WHOLE WORK OF IT, IS . WITH GOD AS IF IT WERE . SO the confessors of old, delivered--by Divine providence from death, when the sentence of it was denounced against them, were always reckoned in the next degree to martyrs. XIV. THE POWER OF FAITH IN ITS WITH, AND OVER NATURAL , WHEN THEIR BENT AND ARE TO THE WILL OF GOD, WHEREBY THEY ARE EXPOSED TO RECEIVE FROM , IS AN EMINENT PART OF ITS GLORY, AND A BLESSED OF ITS . (John Owen, D. D.) The sacrifice of Isaac: I. WE OFTEN TALK OF TRIALS. It may be questioned whether there ever was a trial of the kind at all equal to this. All ages, says Bishop Hall, have stood amazed at it; and still the mystery of the Divine mandate is not greater than the strength of Abraham’ s faith. 1. This command has reference to a son, an only son; and what is more, the son of Abraham’ s old age; and what is still more, for aught that appears, a dutiful, obedient son: one who must have been beloved for his unobtrusive excellences. 2. In addition to this you are to bear in mind that this son was the embodiment of a promise and covenant that Abraham held dearer than all earthly good, dearer than his own life. When you consider that that covenant had in it the germ of the covenant of grace, it is clear that he looked upon Isaac as, in some sort, an incarnate representation of salvation. His loss was enough to shake the very foundations of the father’ s faith. 3. We may remark that Abraham was commanded to perform this act with his own hand. It must not be entrusted to another. He must be the priest to immolate this innocent victim. 4. You are to observe further that it was a protracted trial. A three days’ journey, with all its painful exercises of mind, must be interposed to try Abraham’ s faith and obedience. 5. You must notice the cruel nature of the sacrifice itself. There must be first the knife, and afterwards the fire. A father’ s hand carried them both. 6. Analyse the command itself, and you will see that it amplifies every circumstance calculated to harrow up the father’ s feelings. The very terms in which God makes known His will are expressly chosen to touch every fibre of his heart, and set his subsequent obedience in the strongest light. 7. Look at the scandal it would involve; scandal upon God, upon religion, and upon himself. Did none of these painful consequences suggest themselves to the patriarch’ s mind, and stagger his resolution? He may have thought of them, but they did not move him. He knows and believes that the Judge of all the earth will do right, and that it is his province only to obey. II. Let us turn to glance at THE CONDUCT OF ABRAHAM UNDER THIS FEARFUL . 1. We read of no remonstrances, no expostulations, no questionings, no doubts, no evasions, no appeal by prayers. 2. Observe his promptitude and diligence in the duty. He rose up early in the morning to begin the most doleful journey he ever performed. Who would not have thought that to be a little leisurely would have been a pardonable delay? What a strange haste is this on such a terrible errand! 3. Observe farther how steadfastly he keeps out of his way everything that might obstruct him in his purpose. We do not find that he informed Sarah whither he was going, or with what object. He would not expose his resolution to her natural tears and importunities. A little further on he is careful to dismiss even the young men that attended them, that he may be spared their entreaties, and perhaps reproaches, at least till it shall be too late to alter his resolution. What man but Abraham would have cleared his way so carefully of all lawful excuses and impediments. Who does not see his determination to seek no deliverance, but that which comes distinctly and directly from God. 4. Again, notice the terms in which he dismisses these attendants: “ Abide ye here; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again unto you.” Take this in connection with what the apostle tells us, and you will see the secret of his fortitude; it was his faith. He accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. Still he trusts in the covenant. 5. Let us proceed a little further; there is one yet more piercing trial for the heart of the patriarch. Unsuspecting Isaac, bearing his heavy burden, like our blessed Redeemer carrying His own Cross, as yet little dreaming that he must soon meet a disclosure enough to scorch the father’ s lips to utter, as the son’ s ears to hear; Isaac, I say, pondering upon the intended sacrifice, begins to wonder where the victim is to be found, “ We have the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb?” Oh, cutting stroke! Can Abraham bear this and yet dissemble? Does not suppressed nature assert itself yet, in a burst of uncontrollable emotion? Did neither eye, nor cheek, nor manner, betray the horrid secret? No; calm, collected, determined, he still conceals, and where he meant evasion, prophesies, “ My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” 6. How that disclosure was made at last, I know not; but it must have been made. How Abraham prevailed on his son to submit, I know not. No doubt, “ Isaac helped to build the altar whereon he must be consumed.” No doubt he considered that “ the author was God; the actor, Abraham; the work, a sacrifice” ; and “ approved himself a son of Abraham” by a voluntary submission. Just when the stroke was about to descend, the voice was heard from heaven, “ Abraham, Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the lad” &c. So easily, so quickly can the Lord turn sorrow into joy! “ He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” III. Let us now proceed to consider THE DESIGN OF THIS , AND THE IT CONVEYS. 1. In the first place we may inquire whether it is not reasonable to suppose that God intended to give, by the sacrifice of Isaac, a shadow of the great redemption? To this question we reply by appealing, first, to the fulness of its signification considered in this view; secondly, to the general consent of Jewish expositors themselves; thirdly, and chiefly, to the strange and revolting nature of the command given to Abraham, which is hard to be vindicated, or even understood, on any other supposition. On these grounds we plead for a mystical interpretation of the subject. We invite you to contemplate in this shadow the sacrifice which God the Father made when He gave up His only beloved Son to death for your sakes; and the voluntary subjection of Christ, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, that He might take away your sins. You may even behold in Isaac an image of your Saviour bearing His own Cross; and see him preparing to suffer almost upon that very hill which afterwards became the altar whence the greater victim sent up to heaven the virtue of His atonement, to plead for ever on behalf of a guilty world. 2. In this transaction a great example of faith and obedience is proposed for our consideration. Abraham exhibits a confidence in the Divine promises, which could not be shaken either by his reason or by his afflictions. There are such times of trial in the experience of every believer; and then it is seen who are the seed of Abraham. When God is trusted still amidst the wrecks of human hope; when His covenant is held fast, though Providence be wrapt in impenetrable mystery, and every earthly interest sacrificed on the altar of His service; I see revived the spirit of the patriarch, and recognise that filial resemblance which hinds up in his family the whole Church of God, in both dispensations, from his own age to the end of time. 3. We may observe that this narrative exemplifies the essential connection between faith and works. 4. “ When reason fighteth against faith, is wisdom to quit that reason which would make us quit the promises.” Reason is limited and fallible; and, therefore, it is bound to pay homage to Divine authority. May not this darling idol be the very Isaac which you are called upon to sacrifice? If you withhold it, when God commands, you cannot be blessed with faithful Abraham. 5. And finally, let all Christians remember, in times of tribulation, that God often reserves delivering mercy till their greatest extremity. Wait, believe, obey; in these three words lies the whole scope of piety. May they be realised in our experience and practice, for Christ’ s sake. (D. Katterns.) Character tested: The surest way to know our gold is to look upon it and examine it in God’ s furnace, where He tries it for that end that we may see what it is. If we have a mind to know whether a building stands strong or no, we must look upon it when the wind blows. If we would know whether that which appears in the form of wheat has the real substance of wheat, or be only chaff, we must observe it when it is winnowed. If we would know whether a staff be strong, or a rotten, broken reed, we must see it when it is leaned on, and weight is borne upon it. If we would weigh ourselves justly, we must weigh ourselves in God’ s scales, that He makes use of to weigh us. (Jonathan Edwards.) Abraham’ s faith: He founded his faith upon God’ s fidelity and omnipotency. These are the Joachin and the Boaz, the two main pillars whereupon faith resteth. (J. Trapp.) Hebrews 11:20 Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau Character and faith of Isaac: Isaac was a devout man. Mention is made in his history of positive acts of worship by which devotion is expressed; and in his walking out to meditate at eventide, we have a beautiful picture of an act by which devotion is sustained. The good man left his tents, and forsook his associates, and walked out, thoughtful and alone, to admire the affluence of Providence, and to look upon the works and the wonders of nature. His faith was sometimes overcome by the force of temptation, but it speedily acquired its wonted ascendancy; it was, at others, darkened by defects in his character; but upon the whole, the life of Isaac was marked by comparative simplicity and innocence; that at last he slept with his fathers in a good old age; that he died with confidence in the promise, amid the tears and the benedictions of his household. In the text the apostle specifies one particular act in which the faith of Jacob was shown, “ He blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” 1. The first thing to be noticed is the faith displayed by Isaac in his readiness and desire to bless his children at all, to bless them in the name, and according to the previous communications of Jehovah. This was a pious determination, resulting from continued confidence in God--from the practical persuasion of his truth--from reliance upon the consistency of His moral character; or, in one word, from faith, properly so called--that sentiment of the heart which leads a man to feel the absolute certainty of whatever he knows to be the sayings of God. In this, therefore, Isaac’ s faith was right though his feeling was wrong. He intended the chief blessing for the elder son, and he pronounced it with the thought that he was thus actually conveying it. But the time was now come for him to be corrected upon the point which he had either not known, or had neglected to keep sufficiently in view. 2. The second circumstance, therefore, which it becomes us to observe, is the obedience of faith which he manifested in respect to this point, when the Divine will was clearly and fully revealed in relation to it. In blessing Jacob, though he might be prompted to the act simply by the devout determination of principle, he felt himself, while performing the act, to be under the direction of a Divine impulse. When Esau afterwards approached and informed him of the actual state of the case, the whole truth seemed to flash at once upon his mind. What he had been led to do, though unconscious of it at the moment, revealed to him the purposes of God, and the direction of the promises with respect to his sons. “ I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed” ; as if he had said, “ I have been the unconscious instrument of imparting to myself a knowledge of the will of Him whom I serve; to that will I bow with ready and voluntary obedience. ‘ I have blessed him,’ and I cannot bless another to the same extent; I have been the medium through which the God of our fathers has now repeated and enlarged His promises, and these, I believe, will assuredly be fulfilled. He has declared the line in which they are to pass, and that line He had a right to select; I approve of what He has done, and I confide in what He has said, as I have often approved and confided before. The things which my lips have uttered are as certain and immutable as are all the intentions and purposes of God; I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed! “ Let us now make a remark upon the last clause of the text; Jacob and Esau were blessed respecting “ things to come.” They were both blessed, for both of them, as men, were objects of pre-determined benediction in the Divine mind; though previous to their birth, that the purpose of God according to election might stand--it was declared that the younger should be the greater Of the two. The expression “ things to come,” is intended to signify things which were so emphatically future that they related not so much to the individuals themselves as to the posterity to descend from them. Both were to be the founders of nations; these nations were to be remarkably distinguished from each other; and in them were to be realised the circumstances--the prosperity, and the vicissitudes--which had been so clearly and so copiously described in the language of Isaac. Looking at the two prophecies pronounced over Jacob and Esau respectively, they appear to include the following things. 1. In the first place, they may be said either to presuppose, or to predict, the separate existence of the posterity of the two brothers as nations. Jacob is as a field which the Lord hath blessed; in him were to be fulfilled the promises given to Abraham. Esau is represented as living by his sword. The one expression describes a people organised and religious: the other a people of habits and manners rude and predatory; and such, in fact, was the case--the Jews descending from Jacob, and the Edomites from Esau. 2. The second circumstance is, that both nations were to possess very nearly the same local and physical advantages, which was at first also the fact. 3. The third thing is, the reduction, by the other branch, of the posterity of Esau to submission and servitude. This, after frequent advances towards it, was fully accomplished by David. 4. But the fourth and last particular to be observed is, that at length this yoke should be broken off from the neck of the degraded race, when they should obtain dominion, that is, when they should steadily range themselves under a leader, as a strong and united people. This, too, actually occurred; it took place in the reign of Jehoram. After making these observations explanatory of the text, we propose in the second place to deduce from them a few others of a practical character. 1. In looking at the comparatively calm and unruffled history of Isaac you may learn that the life most favoured of Providence is still required to be a life of faith. In prosperity, faith will render us grateful, moderate, and cautious, as under other circumstances it will inspire fortitude and prompt acquiescence: it will take the form of filial confidence in the continuance of good, so long as that good shall be seen to be consistent with higher purposes. Above all, since the most distinguished lot can never adequately meet the demands and capacities of our spiritual nature, faith in a future world must be ever felt by the devout man to be the only means by which he can endure, so to speak, even the highest happiness of this. 2. You learn from the history of Isaac the propriety of seasons of retirement for collected and serious thought. 3. From the history of Isaac you may learn the pernicious consequences of parents pursuing a system of favouritism with respect to their children. 4. By the nature and the circumstances of the fact to which the text refers--the blessing pronounced by Isaac upon Jacob and Esau--we arereminded of the variety of the proofs that may be adduced in support of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. There are two connected with the present subject. (1) The first is, the obvious and honest impartiality of the historian in describing the faults and vices of the most distinguished men whose lives he records. (2) The second, the fulfilment of prophecy. 5. In the last place, from a comparison of the portions of the two brothers let us learn to aspire after the best blessings which God can confer. It will be of no lasting advantage to us to have the portion of Esau, unless we have the portion of Jacob along with it. (T. Binney.) The faith of Isaac I suppose it was natural and right that Isaac should take his place next to Abraham in this record of men of faith; he stands next in the historical line of patriarchs who handed on the promise from one to another. And yet we cannot help feeling that in passing from Abraham to Isaac we are descending to a lower level. He seems to have possessed a timid, yielding disposition--a nature calculated to obey rather than to command--to follow rather than to lead. Wherever he comes before us in history we see a character just the opposite to that of Abraham--quiet, meditative, shrinking from everything like individual action, andtimorously yielding to every pressure put upon him. Here was poor material, one might think, for faith to work with; such a man seems ill-calculated to sustain the tradition of faith so gloriously begun in Abraham, and to play a worthy part in handing on the covenant of Divine promise. And yet he is unhesitatingly placed in this glorious line of believers--he also was a man of faith, in his own measure loyal to God and to His covenant. The stream of faith flowed on through him to his successors unchecked and unpolluted. Just as a stream, when flowing through a mountainous and rocky country, is broken into swift-flowing rapids and dashing cataracts, harmonising in their picturesque grandeur with the surrounding features, but on reaching the plain below flows quietly along through green pastures where flocks are peacefully grazing, so the faith, which in Abraham’ s rugged character comes out in striking and impressive scenes, in the quiet life of Isaac assumes the form of an unobtrusive principle, giving an air of calm assurance and peace to his whole life. Faith now, as then, has to work through a variety of temperaments. The trees, the flowers, the corn, the grass, all are different manifestations of the same life; it assumes various forms, according to the nature of the organism through which it works; so the life of God takes hold of the constitution of a man, and develops results in harmony with the nature God has given him. Some of the most beautiful effects of faith have often been wrought out in retiring characters like Isaac’ s. There are some delicate forms of spiritual beauty that require a reposeful spirit to blossom in, just as there are flowers growing in sheltered retreats that would perish on the rough mountain-top. We should learn to admire the grace of God in all its manifestations. To return to Isaac. We have no record in his case of any great feats of faith accomplished, any striking deeds done, as in the case of some of the other patriarchs. His faith never rose to that white heat of enthusiasm which leads a man to do immortal deeds. There was an even tenor about his life which was never broken by any special crisis of any stirring event. It is significant of the character of the man that he is celebrated in this chapter by an act of blessing. The most that could be said of him was that he held fast by the faith of his father, that he cherished the heavenly covenant as a precious heirloom which he had faithfully to preserve, and when his failing strength warned him that he would soon have to pass away, his chief thought was to transmit the promise to his posterity. And in many lives to-day faith manifests itself in the same fashion. The most that some men do is to cherish their faith as a source of strength and joy in their own hearts and their own homes, and seek to pass it on as a spiritual legacy to their children. There are many who have neither the opportunity nor the gifts to do great and bold things for God in the world; their efforts must be confined within a narrow circle; if their faith is to be useful at all, it must be in the influence it exerts in the home. And this is not the least fruitful kind of religious life. Some of the most blessed work that has ever been done for God and humanity has been done in the home circle, by those who have never made any great stir in the world or done any great thing in the Church. Quiet, unobtrusive lives have often been blessedly useful in fostering that choicest fruit of faith--family religion. Let every Christian man set this before him as a sacred ambition--to leaven his family with his own faith and leave it as a legacy to those who shall come after him. The blessing which Isaac pronounced upon his sons was something more than the ordinary form of blessing--something more than a pious wish or prayer that prosperity and peace and the favour of heaven might attend them. It was a blessing in which prophetic insight was blended with holy desire and intercession; the illumination of the Spirit enabled him to pronounce an effectual benediction which remained as a permanent good upon the head of him who received it. And every human life ought to end like Isaac’ s--with a blessing. Some lives end with a curse; they leave behind them a baneful influence which goes on blighting the lives of those that come after. A man’ s real legacy to posterity is the influence of his character. The bit of parchment which disposes of his material accumulations is not half so important as the distribution of that influence which has been silently accumulating through all the years of his life. In how many hearts there is a memory more cherished than the richest earthly possession--the memory of one who still lives to bless and influence them, to restrain from evil and incite to good I This is the kind of legacy we should strive to leave behind. And if we would do this we must begin to lay up the sacred treasure now. Such wealth is not accumulated in a day. It is the work of years; it is the product of “ patient continuance in well doing.” (J. T. Hamly.) Faith supporting the saint in the frailties of ages I. FAITH BY YEARS. 1. The worth of a man’ s creed fully tested at the close of life. 2. The blessedness of that, our confidence in which increases with increased experience. 3. The continuance of spiritual energy when the physical powers fail. God’ s people die “ full of life.” II. FAITH HANDING ON THE TO THOSE THAT COME AFTER. 1. The Divine word qualifies all God’ s people to be prophets of blessing. 2. It is only by faith in God that we can impart a blessing to others. 3. Thus we can leave blessings on those we love when we are dying. Faith’ s legacies are surer than any. III. FAITH OVER LIFE’ S HOPES. 1. Promises so far unfulfilled. 2. The strongest possible assurance, even in death, of the things hoped for. 3. Thus faith enables the saint to enter with eager anticipation into the unseen world. 4. As we look back on the subsequent history of the descendants of the patriarchs we see how abundantly their faith was justified. We judge of God’ s faithfulness too soon. Time will prove Him true. (C. New.) Hebrews 11:21 Jacob, when he was a dying The death-bed of Jacob: In this chapter St. Paul sets himself to the collecting, from the history of patriarchs and others, examples of the power of faith. Inspired as be was, we may not doubt that the instances which he selects are at least as strong as any which the histories present. Yet they do not always seem so. In many cases, had the selection been left with ourselves, we should not have fixed on the same example as St. Paul; so that we have cases in which what men would account best is not so accounted by Him who readeth the heart. In regard, for instance, to our text: the life of the patriarch Jacob was a singularly eventful one; many and great were the occasions which it furnished for the exercise of faith. Would this, we ask, have been the fact on which an uninspired writer would have fastened when choosing out of the history of Jacob what might best illustrate the faith which the patriarch had in God? Hardly, I think; more especially as Jacob blessed his own sons as well as those of Joseph; so that, even if we fix on the dying scene as most demonstrative of faith, we should probably not have taken the benediction on Ephraim and Manasseh in preference to that on some one of the twelve tribes. Indeed, when you remember that in blessing his son Judah Jacob delivered the illustrious prediction, “ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come,” and thus displayed faith in the promised Messiah, it may not be easy to understand how his faith could be more conspicuous in blessing Joseph’ s sons, seeing that he seems to have predicted their temporal increase and greatness. This, however, it is which we must now endeavour to do. We may not, indeed, be able to prove to you that the selected instance is the strongest which the history furnishes, but we may at all events ascertain that it thoroughly establishes the power of the principle which it is quoted to illustrate. Now there is one very marked point on which we may fasten, to draw from it an illustration of the patriarch’ s faith; and this is, the adoption of Joseph’ s children for his own--an adoption, you observe, on which the dying man dwells with all possible earnestness; for, not content with having already said, “ Thy two sons are mine,” he makes it part of his final benediction, as though the “ redeeming Angel” could do nothing more glorious for the lads: “ Let my name be named on them, and the name of my father’ s Abraham and Isaac.” And what shall we say of this eagerness of Jacob to engraft into his own family Manasseh and Ephraim? He seems to make it his object, and to represent it as a privilege, that he should take the lads out of the family of Joseph, though that family was then among the noblest in Egypt, and transplant them into his own, though it had no outward distinction but what it derived from its connection with the other. It seems to me, as I stand by the bedside of Jacob, as though two wholly different processions must have passed before his mind--the one a procession of human power and pomp, the other of poverty and shame, though with the favour of God and employment in His service. In the first procession, the procession of splendour and even sovereignty, the sons of Joseph seem born to take part. They had only to remain incorporated among the Egyptians, and theirs, in all human probability, would be the wealth and the majesty which passed with so stately a step before the dying man’ s vision. In the second procession, the procession of tribulation and hardship, the leading figures are those of Jacob’ s own children; the failing father discerns Judah and Simeon and Dan amongst the victims of oppression and the wrestlers for liberty. And it is for Jacob to determine whether he shall frame his parting blessing so as to leave Manasseh and Ephraim in the first procession, or so as to transfer them to the second. And was there no temptation to prefer the present to the future--the dignities of earth to the less palpable advantages of being numbered with a people set apart by God? There was but one principle which could have nerved the patriarch for doing as he did; nay, but one which could have justified him therein. Had he not been thoroughly confident in the Word of the Lord; had he not possessed an un-doubting assurance that no amount of temporal advantages could compensate the want of spiritual blessing--that poverty and contempt endured in the service of God were incalculably preferable to opulence and glory enjoyed in the service of sin--he could hardly have been bold enough, and we could hardly have applauded him, in the desire that his own name and the name of his father Isaac might be named upon the lads. But whilst we admit this we equally admit the greatness of the exhibited faith when the expiring patriarch decided for the procession made up of the suffering people of God, and not for that which was composed of the great ones of the earth. You have but to contemplate Jacob as executing a deed by which Manasseh and Ephraim were transferred from a position of almost regal eminence to one of dependence and poverty, and you must all acknowledge that it was by faith--aye, and by faith so conspicuous and illustrious, as that it deserved to be singled out when an apostle was searching through past ages for examples--that it was “ by faith” that “ Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph.” We should further observe the peculiarity of the language which he employs with regard to his Preserver, and his decided preference of the younger brother to the elder, notwithstanding the remonstrance of Joseph. There was illustrious faith in both. He speaks of the “ Angel which had delivered him from all evil” ; and desires that this Angel might bless his grandsons. And whom did Jacob mean by this “ Angel” ? Certainly no finite, no created being. He speaks of this Angel as God; as having “ redeemed him from all evil.” There is music, there is gospel in this word “ redeemed.” It were hard to persuade me that it had no reference to the finished work of Christ. Redemption from all evil--this redemption attributed to an Angel or Messenger, whose appearance had been that of a man, but in whom the patriarch recognised God--what is this but the New Testament on the page of the Old? But whilst thankful for our own superior advantages, we ought greatly to admire that faith which could apprehend something of the mystery of redemption when there were but yet few and feeble notices of God’ s wondrous design; which could trace the movements of a Divine Being in the rare appearance of the Angel of the covenant; which could detect in strange and solemn actions parables of the world’ s deliverance from the consequence of the Fall. And thus was Jacob’ s faith displayed in his parting benediction. Though, as we have said, it was not only in the words that he uttered that Jacob showed faith. There was faith in the disposition of the hands, in the guiding them wittingly, so that the left was on the elder’ s head, the right on the younger. Not, we believe, without a typical design was it so often ordered of God that the younger son should be preferred to the elder. Such a preference was almost characteristic of the earlier dispensations. It occurred so frequently that we can hardly doubt that God designed to fix attention upon it as illustrating in some way His purposes towards the world. And if the preference of the younger to the elder were a type under the earlier dispensations of that great revolution which should follow the introduction of the gospel, does it not add vastly to the exhibition of faith in the patriarch Jacob, that when speaking of the redeeming Angel he should have “ guided his hands wittingly,” and have refused, though entreated, to follow the order of nature, and bless Manasseh and Ephraim according to the birthright? Coupling the words with the action--the mention of a Divine Being, which redeemed him from all evil, with the resolute preference of the younger to the elder--I could almost say that we have the gospel preached, and the effect of the preaching accurately predicted. And I take it as a proof of the faith of Jacob that he persisted in setting Ephraim before Manasseh. His own father, Isaac, had acted differently; for though aware that Jacob, the younger, was to be preferred before Esau, the elder, he still sought to gratify parental partiality, and would have given, had not his purpose been defeated, the blessing to the firstborn; but Jacob betrayed no wavering on this occasion, though it could not have been other than painful to him to thwart the wishes of Joseph, and thus to make his last act on earth one of disappointment to the son whom he so tenderly loved. It was faith which upheld the dying man, and caused his parting word and deed to be so significant. Stand by the dying patriarch. What speaks he of? “ The Angel which redeemed me from all evil.” Nay, whom is he addressing if not the Lord Jesus Christ, though it required indeed a strong vision to “ see Christ’ s day,” then so remote? How guides he his hands, though Joseph would change the direction? He is transferring the birthright, preferring the younger to the elder, and thus predicting not merely what must pain Joseph, as showing Ephraim greater than Manasseh, but what must pain himself, as showing the Jews, his own descendants, giving place to the Gentiles. Ah! see and hear all this, and you will see, I think, that St. Paul, commemorating what was most illustrious in the faith of early days, should have given as one example--“ By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph.” But the apostle adds one more passage, which we have not taken into the account: whilst endeavouring to make you aware of the faith displayed by Jacob, he speaks of the patriarch as “ worshipping, leaning upon the top of his staff.” The fact, first of all, of Jacob’ s worshipping may be taken as proving his faith. For what has the dying man to do with worshipping unless he be a believer in another state of being; unless he believe that death is not annihilation, but that he is about to appear before God in judgment? In the act of dissolution a man can have nothing to ask of God if he suppose himself about to perish with the brute. Whilst living he would have to worship God, though he were not or might not know himself immortal; but when dying he must at least think it possible that the soul will survive the body, else there is no place whatsoever, no subject for prayer. But it is commemorated of Jacob, not only that he worshipped, but that he worshipped “ leaning upon the top of his staff.” This leaning upon the staff is given as an additional evidence of Jacob’ s faith. But what made it such? Indeed, this is not easy to answer; but we may conjecture where we can make no pretention to certainty. Jacob had known much of poverty and trouble; as an exile from his home, he had wandered in strange lands, with only his staff for his companion; and he may have always preserved this staff as a memento of eventful pilgrimage. When appealing earnestly to God before his meeting with Esau, he says, “ With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.” He contrasts, you see, his former with his present condition. He had then nothing but his staff, whereas now his numerous family and flocks make up “ two bands.” The staff is appealed to as the emblem of his poverty. May it not, then, have been always such to Jacob? May it not have been kept in the days of his prosperity as a memento of the days of his adversity? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Jacob’ s deathbed I. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, LEANING UPON THE TOP OF HIS STAFF. What a picture of human frailty! What an illustration of the touching words of the ninetieth psalm, that the very “ strength “ of old men “ is labour and sorrow!” “ The glory of young men is their strength” ; but they have need to consider that in extreme age “ the keepers of the house tremble,” and even “ the grasshopper is a burden.” But we have more here than the patriarch’ s bodily frailty. He was worshipping; and he had studiously put his body, though in his feebleness it required no small effort to do so--into the best posture for that solemn work. In worship bodily attitude profiteth little. But it is not, therefore, a matter of absolute indifference. God is to be glorified in our bodies as well as in our spirits. The seraphim are represented as covering their faces and their feet with their wings when they adore in His presence. II. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, . Men generally die as they live; and Jacob’ s death-bed exercise was in fine keeping with his life. He had his infirmities; but he was a man who, with all his infirmities, had ted a devout life, a life of worship. He raised his altar to God wherever he went; he breathed much of the atmosphere of that “ better country,” the ceaseless employ of which is worship; and now that he was on the verge of it, we behold him worshipping. 1. It doubtless included confession--humble self-denying, self-abasing confession. Some persons talk much of looking back from a death-bed on a well-spent life. The good man, in so far as he has differed from others, knows who made him to differ. But in the review of the past, Oh, how little he sees that he can contemplate with satisfaction; and how much to lay him in the dust, and to strip him of all confidence in the flesh! 2. It doubtless included thanksgiving. What grateful emotions must have fired his bosom, as he thought of all the way in which the Lord had led him, so signally fulfilling the promises made to him. 3. It doubtless included prayer, properly so called, that is, petition, supplication. He had yet to take the solemn step into eternity. And we may be sure that, in view of it, he implored dying grace, with all the importunity of “ a prince with God.” III. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, THE SONS OF JOSEPH. What is that to us? Much in many ways: in particular, it reads to u q one great lesson. It says to us, Be ye useful to the last. Be ambitious to do good, be ambitious to bless, not only living, but dying. And what opportunities of good-doing does a death-bed like Jacob’ s furnish? If it shall be our lot to be laid on such a death-bed; if we shall have the possession of our reason; if we shall have freedom from agonising pain; if we shall have the requisite strength of body; if we shall be surrounded by dear friends eager to catch every syllable that shall fall from our lips:--Oh, will it not be well that our words be words of blessing? Will it not be well that they hear them rising to the throne for a blessing on them; and directing, entreating, and charging them to walk in the way in which the blessing runs? Parting words, words uttered in death’ s parting, how peculiarly impressive and memorable they are, and what a blessing has often been in them! IV. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, THE POWER OF FAITH. In all that we have now been looking at, we have been witnessing the working, the solace, the joy, the victory, of faith. And a great sight it is, to see faith not only enduring to the end, but supporting and cheering the heart when “ the earthly house of this tabernacle” is falling, and triumphing in the last and solemn hour. (W. Marshall, D. D.) Dying in faith I. IT IS AN EMINENT MERCY WHEN FAITH NOT ONLY HOLDS OUT TO THE END, BUT WAXETH STRONG TOWARDS THE LAST WITH DEATH, as it was with Jacob. II. It is so also to be able by faith, in the close of our pilgrimage, TO ALL THE OF OUR LIVES, IN MERCIES, TRIALS, , SO AS TO GIVE GLORY TO GOD WITH RESPECT TO THEM ALL, as Jacob did in this place. III. THAT WHICH AND FAITH AS TO ALL OTHER THINGS IS A RESPECT TO THE ANGEL, THE BY WHOM ALL GRACE AND MERCY IS TO US. IV. IT IS OUR DUTY SO TO LIVE IN THE OF FAITH, AS THAT WE MAY RE READY AND STRONG IN IT WHEN WE ARE DYING. V. Though we should die daily, yet THERE IS A DYING SEASON, WHEN DEATH IS IN ITS NEAR , WHICH ACTINGS OF FAITH. VI. In all acts of Divine worship, whether solemn or occasional, it is our duty TO DISPOSE OUR BODIES INTO SUCH A POSTURE OF AS MAY THE INWARD FRAME OF OUR MINDS. SO did Jacob here, and it is reckoned as an act of duty and faith. VII. THERE IS AN FOR THE OF AGE AND , IN OUR OUTWARD IN DIVINE WORSHIP, SO THAT THERE BE AN TO SLOTH OR CUSTOM, BUT THAT AN OF A DUE OF GOD AND HOLY THINGS BE . These postures which are commended in Jacob would not, it may be, become others in their health and strength. (John Owen, D. D.) Jacob worshipping on his staff “ When he was a dying.” Death is a thorough test of faith. Beneath the touch of the skeleton finger shams dissolve into thin air, and only truth remains; unless indeed a strong delusion has been given, and then the spectacle of a presumptuous sinner passing away in his iniquities is one which might make angels weep. The text tells us that the patriarch’ s faith was firm while he was a-dying, so that he poured forth no murmurs, but plentiful benedictions, as he blessed both the sons of Joseph. May your faith and mine also be such that whenever we shall be a-dying our faith will perform some illustrious exploit that the grace of God may be admired in us. I. His . 1. His blessing the sons of Joseph was an act of faith, because only by faith could he really give a blessing to any one. He believed God. He believed that God spoke by him; and he believed that God would justify every word that he was uttering. Faith is the backbone of the Christian’ s power to do good: we are weak as water till we enter into union with God by faith, and then we are omnipotent. We can do nothing for our fellow-men by way of promoting their spiritual interests if we walk according to the sight of our eyes; but when we get into the power of God, and grasp His promise by a daring confidence, then it is that we obtain the power to bless. 2. Not only the power to bless came to him by faith, but the blessings which he allotted to his grandsons were his upon the same tenure. His legacies were all blessings which he possessed by faith only. He had, as a matter of fact, neither house nor ground in Palestine, and yet he counts it all his own, since a faithful God had promised it to his fathers. Faith is wanted to enable us to point men to the invisible and eternal, and if we cannot do this how can we bless them. We must believe for those we love, and have hope for them; thus shall we have power with God for them, and shall bless them. Our legacies to our sons are the blessings of grace, and our dowries to our daughters are the promises of the Lord. 3. Jacob in his benediction particularly mentioned the covenant. His faith, like the faith of most of God’ s people, made the covenant its pavilion of delightful abode, its tower of defence, and its armoury for war. If you have no faith you cannot plead the covenant, and certainly if you cannot plead it for yourselves you cannot urge it with God for a blessing upon your sons and your grandsons. It was by faith in the covenant that the venerable Jacob blest the two sons of Joseph, and without it we can bless no one, for we are not blessed ourselves. Faith is the priest which proclaims the blessing without fear. 4. Jacob showed his faith by blessing Joseph’ s sons in God’ s order. Faith prefers grace to talent, and piety to cleverness; she lays her right hand where God lays it, and not where beauty of person or quickness of intellect would suggest. Our best child is that which God calls best; faith corrects reason and accepts the Divine verdict. 5. Notice that he manifested his faith by his distinct reference to redemption. He alone who has faith will pray for the redemption of his children, especially when they exhibit no signs of being in bondage, but are hopeful and amiable. 6. Jacob showed his faith by his assurance that God would be present with his seed. How cheering is the old man’ s dying expression, made not only to his boys, but concerning all his family. He said, “ Now I die, but God will be with you.” It is very different from the complaints of certain good old ministers when they are dying. They seem to say, “ When I die the light of Israel will be quenched. I shall die, and the people will desert the truth. When I am gone the standard-bearer will have fallen, and the watchman on the walls will be dead.” Many in dying are afraid for the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof; and, sometimes, we who are in good health talk very much in the same fashion as though we were wonderfully essential to the progress of God’ s cause. II. HE BY FAITH. 1. First, while he was dying he offered the worship of gratitude. How pleasing is the incident recorded in the tenth and eleventh verses. Ah, yes, we shall often have to say, “ O Lord, I had not thought that Thou wouldst do as much as this, but Thou hast gone far beyond what I asked or even thought.” 2. He offered the worship of testimony when he acknowledged God’ s goodness to him all his life. 3. Notice, too, how reverently he worships the covenant messenger with the adoration of reverend love. We owe all things to the redeeming Angel of the covenant. The evils which He has warded off from us are terrible beyond conception, and the blessings He has brought us are rich beyond imagination. We must adore Him, and, though we see Him not, we must in life and in death by faith worship Him with lowly love. 4. If you read on through the dying scene of Jacob you will notice once more how he worshipped with the adoration of earnest longing, for just after he had pronounced a blessing on the tribe of Dan the old man seemed thoroughly exhausted, but instead of fainting, instead of uttering a cry of pain and weakness, he solemnly exclaims, “ I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.” III. His . He worshipped on the top of his staff--leaning on it, supporting himself upon it. In Genesis you read that he “ bowed himself upon the bed’ s head.” It is very easy to realise a position in which both descriptions would be equally true. He could sit upon the bed, and lean on the top of his staff at the same time. But why did he lean on his staff? I think besides the natural need which he had of it, because of his being old, he did it emblematically. That staff was his life companion, the witness with himself of the goodness of the Lord, even as some of us may have an old Bible, or a knife, or a chair which are connected with memorable events of our lives. But what did that staff indicate? Let us hear what Jacob said at another time. When he stood before Pharaoh he exclaimed, “ Few and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage.” What made him use that word “ pilgrimage” ? Why, because upon his mind there was always the idea of his being a pilgrim. He had been literally so during the early part of his life, wandering hither and thither; and now, though he has been seventeen years in Goshen, he keeps the old staff, and he leans on it to show that he had always been a pilgrim and a sojourner like his fathers, and that he was so still. While he leans on that staff he talks to Joseph, and he says, “ Do not let my bones lie here. I have come hither in the providence, of God, but I do not belong here. I am in Egypt, but I am not of it. Take my bones away. Do not let them lie here, for if they do, my sons and daughters will mingle with the Egyptians, and that must not be, for we are a distinct nation. God has chosen us for Himself, and we must keep separate. To make my children see this, lo, here I die with my pilgrim staff in my band.” The longer you live the more let this thought grow upon you: “ Give me my staff. I must begone. Poor world, thou art no rest for me; I am not of thy children, I am an alien and a stranger. My citizenship is in heaven.” Singular enough is it that each descendant of Jacob came to worship on the top of his staff at last, for on the paschal supper night, when the blood was sprinkled on the lintel and the side posts, they each one ate the lamb with their loins girt and with a staff in his hand. The supper was a festival of worship, and they ate it each one leaning on his staff, as those that were in haste to leave home for a pilgrimage through the wilderness. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Jacob worshipping I. THE TIME HAD COME WHEN LIFE NEEDED A STAFF. How strange it seems, when we can walk, leap, run, when the agile limbs can obey the swift behest of the will, to think that the time will come when these limbs will refuse their easy and familiar work. A staff! how much it suggests to us! Leaning. In many senses a staff seems to hurt our pride, and it is very natural not to like to take to spectacles, or to a staff’ till we are quite obliged. Yet leaning is beautiful in many senses, as on the staff of Christian friendship, or the staff of God’ s precious promises. Yes I “ Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Say what we will, the Bible keeps its old place in this respect. You will lean on it, rest on it, and the staff will be all-sufficient for you as it has been for multitudes before you. II. THE SPIRIT KNOWS NO SEASON OF DECLINE. It is most vigorous in age. Well has Montgomery said, “ We enter heaven with prayer.” Worship is the highest occupation of which our natures are capable. How it chastens the mind, cools the passions, awakens the memories of mercies past and inspires confidence for the time to come. When other occupations lose not only their interest, but are impossible to us--when we can no more journey, study, toil; in the truest sense, we can worship still. I see the grey-headed old man making an end of commanding his sons, about to yield up the ghost, not to perish, but to yield up the spirit. There is one thing he still can do: no longer can he put the lamb or the bullock on the altar--no longer can he offer the burnt-offering, but he can lift up his heart to God; the incense of prayer can go up to the open gate of the heaven he is so soon about to enter. And “ Jacob worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.” III. THE WHICH IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN HIS WORSHIP. “ By faith!” Yes! the faith which is older than the law shone forth in him. He takes his place in the list of God’ s heroes. By faith! And this is the essence of worship. Worship is not mysterious fear before an unknown Power. Worship is not a matter of form, it is a matter of faith. Places may help us by their solitude or silence. Associations may help us by ridding us of worldly influences, but they can do no more. Prayer is a matter of personal faith, and in this as in all else, without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith brings before us a God who is, and who is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Faith rests in the revelation of God’ s Fatherhood, and draws near to Him, through the way of His appointment--in Jacob’ s day by the foreshadowing sacrifice, and in these last days byHim who once in the end of the world has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. But faith feels worship to be real, intensely real, IV. THE PERSONS HE IS SAID TO HAVE BLESSED. Not Joseph; but “ both the sons of Joseph.” It is exceedingly wonderful to see how tenderly grandchildren are treated. On a summer visit I felt very much touched by seeing hour after hour a grandfather leading a little blind grandchild about the garden lawn and through the fields. It seemed as though there was a wonderful confidence of love between the child and the old man. There is something marvellously wise in the ordination of family life. We cannot live in mere masses or organisations, we must take the God-way! It is a good thing for children to have incentives to courage, manliness, and success in this life as earnest citizens; but how much better it is to feel that they may be soldiers of the Cross, that the posts we have so poorly occupied they may fill, and that the blessing which has followed us all our days will be with them, making them rich indeed, and adding no sorrow. On our escutcheons men may read no connection with the Plantagenets, but they may read thereon: “ Happy is the family that is in such a case. Yea, happy is that family whose God is the Lord.” V. THE LIFE HE WAS LEAVING BEHIND HIM. It is all very well, I hear some say, to give us this touching close to Jacob’ s life; but what about the phases of his history, weak, wicked, and contemptible. Think, men say; do not gloss over this history! True all you say is true. But this is also true, that blessings won by sin are miseries even here, so exquisitely is the world governed by moral law. And then because these were the sins of his youth, are we to deny him the honour of a noble fatherhood, or a beautiful old age? God forbid! where should we be if the critics were as severe on us? We too have erred, we have turned every one to his own way, and as the altars of Jacob prophesied of the Great Redemption, so now in the end of days Christ has borne the iniquities of us all. VI. Some SUGGEST . 1. What is worship to us? Is it duty or delight? If earthly fellowship has in it some of the highest joys of which our nature is capable, shall not the heavenly fellowship immeasurably transcend these? 2. What hinders worship? Not want of time. No! Love never pleads this. Love is as swift to seize its opportunities as it is apt in making them. 3. What fosters worship? Ah! Trials foster a spirit of prayer. Would it not be well if we cultivated more of the spirit of worship in life’ s day-time? (W. M.Statham, M. A.) Hebrews 11:22 Joseph … gave commandment concerning his bones The faith of Joseph on his death-bed It is a noble scene which is brought before us by the simple record of the historian; and I call upon you to behold it, that you may learn what faith can do against the promptings of nature, the suggestions of suspicion, and the dictates of pride. I know what would be likely to be the uppermost feelings in that expiring man, who, amid all the insignia of authority and wealth, is bidding farewell to brethren and children. I know what he might be expected to do and to say. His wasted features might be lit up with a smile of exultation, as he surveyed the tokens of almost regal state; and he might say to those around, “ Behold the glory to which I have raised you, and which I bequeath to you and your posterity. It will be your own fault if this glory decay: the best of all Egypt is yours, if you do not, through indolence or love of change, suffer that it be wrested from your hold.” But nothing of this kind proceeds from the dying man’ s lips. Interpret his last words, and they are as though he had said, “ Children and brethren, he not deceived by your present prosperity; this is not your home; it is not here, notwithstanding the appearances, that God wills to separate you to Himself. Ye are the descendants of Abraham; and Egypt, with its idols, is no resting-place for such. Ye must be ever on the alert, expecting the signal of departure from a land, whose treasures are but likely to detain you from the high calling designed for you by God. Settle not then yourselves, but be ye always as strangers; strangers where you seem firmly established, and where, by a marvellous concurrence of events, you have risen to dominion.” Such, we say, are virtually the utterances of the expiring patriarch. And when you think that, by these utterances, he was taking the most effectual way of destroying the structure so surprisingly reared, and on which it were incredible that he did not himself gaze with amazement and delight; that he was detaching those whom he loved from all which, on human calculation, was most fitted to uphold them in glory and power, I assent, in all its breadth, to the statement of St. Paul, that it was “ by faith” that “ Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel.” But we have not yet spoken of Joseph’ s giving “ commandment concerning his bones” ; and this is far too memorable a circumstance to be passed over without special comment. Why, think ye, did Joseph wish to lie unburied in the midst of his people, except that his bones might perpetually preach to them, that Egypt was not to be their home, but must be abandoned for Canaan? The lesson, that they were to be expecting to depart from the country which had received them, he longed to enforce after death, knowing that his brethren would be likely to forget it. But how shall he accomplish this? Let his bones lie unburied because they wait the being carried up to Canaan, and will there not be an abiding memento to the Israelites, that, sooner or later, the Lord will transplant them to the land which He promised to their fathers? It is in this way that we interpret the commandment of Joseph. You have heard of the preaching of a spectre: the spirit that passed before the face of Eliphaz, and caused the hair of his flesh to stand up, came from the invisible world to give emphasis, as well as utterance, to the question, “ Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more just than his Maker?” And here you have, not the preaching of a spectre, but the preaching of a skeleton: the bones of Joseph are converted into an orator, and make “ mention of the departing of the children of Israel.” The patriarch could no longer warn and command his descendants with the voice of a living man: his tongue was mute in death: but there was eloquence in his sepulchred limbs. Wherefore had he not been gathered to his fathers? It was a dead thing, which nevertheless appeared reluctant to die: it seemed to haunt the earth in its lifelessness, as though it had not finished the office for which it had been born. And since it could not fail to be known for what purpose the body of one, so honoured, lay unburied year after year, did not Joseph’ s bones perpetually repeat his dying utterances? and could anything better have been devised to keep up the remembrance of what his last words had taught, than this his subsistence as a skeleton, when he had long ceased to be numbered with the living? But we ought not to fail to observe, before we quit the death-bed of Joseph, that, forasmuch as unquestionably the Spirit of God actuated the expiring patriarch, and perhaps dictated his words, the commandment as to his bones may have been designed to imitate, or illustrate, the truth of a resurrection. I cannot but infer, from this anxiety of Joseph in regard to his grave, that he did not consider the body as a thing to be thrown aside so soon as the vital principle were extinct. He who shows anxiety as to the treatment of his remains shows something of a belief, whether he confess it or not, that these remains are reserved for other purposes and scenes. I can hardly think that Joseph believed that his body would never live again: he would scarcely have provided it a sepulchre in Canaan, if persuaded that, in dying, it would be finally destroyed. His bones might as well have rested in Egypt, had he not imagined them appointed, to the being brought up from the dust and again sinewed with life. But on the supposition of a belief, or even the faintest conjecture, of a resurrection, we seem to understand why the dying patriarch longed to sleep in the promised land. “ I will not leave,” he seems to say, “ this body to be disregarded, and trampled on, as though it were merely that of an animal whose existence wholly terminates at death. That which God takes care of, reserving it for another life, it becomes not man to despise, as though undeserving a thought. And though the eye of the Almighty would be on my dust in Egypt, as in Canaan, yet would I rather rest with the righteous than with the wicked in the grave, with my fathers and my kinsmen, than with the foreigner and the enemy. If I am to start from long and dark slumbers, let those who wake with me be those whom I have loved, and who are to share with me the unknown existence.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) The patriarch Joseph as a builder of the city of God Why does our author fix upon the request of the dying patriarch concerning the removal of his bones to the land of promise, as constituting his special claim to rank amongst the chief builders of the City of Faith? Not certainly because of the lack of other and appropriate material. For Joseph, like Barnabas, was a good man, full of faith, and of the spirit of holiness, and his life from boyhood to old age displayed a conspicuous strength of confidence in the living God as the Redeemer and Ruler of his life. Surely with a biography, every page of which recounts the power and blessedness of trust in the Lord, he must have had deep and strong reason for restricting his choice to the last page of the volume. Did he shrink from including in his list of world-builders any one on whom death had not set its seal of finality--in obedience to the maxim of Solon, “ Call no man happy till he is dead” ? That cannot be, for this list of world-builders is certainly no mere gathering of the “ last sayings” of dying men. It throbs with the passion, and is luminous with the achievements of full and strong life. In the judgment of the compiler of this list, the patriarch Joseph reveals the unsubduable strength of a valorous soul; when approaching his end, he speaks of the exodus of Israel, and gives commandment concerning his bones. But it is not improbable that the memorable words of Joseph came into his mind as he recalled the vision of the dying patriarch Jacob, imparting his blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh, and adoring God for the manifold mercies of his long life. Making all allowance for the influence of this law of association, yet I feel sure a deeper reason governed his choice of this specific moment in Joseph’ s career as signally illustrative of Joseph’ s faith. He saw in these words the characteristic quality of the man’ s faith--the essential soul of him and of it--living as well as dying, guiding not less than crowning his life; a faith in God essentially patriotic, identifying him with the fortunes of his father’ s house and the future of his people, and constituting him one of the founders of the commonwealth of Israel, and thereby one of the builders of the eternal city of God. That such reasoning is valid will appear if we briefly examine the contents and characteristics of Joseph’ s faith. His end is nigh; but the soul of the deputy-king is absorbed in thoughts and hopes concerning the future of his brethren, and breathes out its deep yearnings in a solemn adjuration to them to pledge him in an unbroken faith in the living God, the God of Israel. No anxiety for self darkens his last moments; no consideration for his greatness and fame disturbs the serenity of his soul. The request of Joseph concerning his bones, wears, I daresay, to some of us, an aspect of concern for himself, but really it is only an additional witness to the patriotic quality of his faith, and the quenchlessness of his hope. The ruling passion, “ love of his brethren,” is strong in death. As the faith of Moses incarnated itself in uncomplaining endurance for forty years of the severest spiritual discipline, and that of Abraham in a splendid venture into a trackless desert at the bidding of the God who had chosen him, so the faith of the patriarch Joseph clad itself in the self-suppressing, pure, and far-seeing patriotism of his farewell appeals and aspirations. Thus, “ by faith,” Joseph built the city of God in a day of impending trial and prolonged and acute suffering. But his speech makes clear that his “ faith “ rested on the solid basis that human life is a Divine order; that his own life had been moulded by God, the Watcher and Ruler of mankind, who had given him his education, and his place in the administration of the affairs of Egypt and the world. Joseph saw that truth early, and rarely, if ever, lost sight of it. It shines like a brilliant star in the darkest night of his life. It is the thread of gold woven into the web of his character. But this “ order” and that “ faith “ have for their goal, their “ objective,” the future of Israel; the deliverance, guardianship, development, and service of the people of God’ s special choice. “ By faith,” Joseph makes mention not of his “ bones” first, but of the “ departure “ of the children of Israel from Egypt on their way to the new home and fatherland in Palestine. Real faith in God embraces a good future. Joseph had said of his life at each stage, “ God did it” --God, first and last--God, and not men, and so his farewell word is a gospel of God and of the future, “ God will surely visit you.” For faith in God carries faith in man’ s advance, in, his sure if slow, spiritual growth, in the perfection of society and the ascendency of righteousness, peace, and joy. And is not the same device, “ God did it,” traceable on the extended walls of our British history? Through all the chaos and disorder, recklessness and revolution of our ancestors, there is a Divine purpose and a Divine energy working out for us a future rich in promise for all the sons of men. The making of the nations is in the hands of its true and trusty souls who expel selfishness by the love of God, self-will by obedience to the Divine order, and despair by a living hope in the redeeming God. It is Joseph who is “ crowned amongst his brethren” :--Joseph, not Reuben. The firstborn is deposed. Instability cannot rule, for it cannot guide. Reuben must give way to the stronger soul of the boy he loves. Cruelty pulls down and destroys. “ Weapons of violence” may keep off a foe, but they do not guarantee primacy of political power. “ By faith” Joseph gains his place, and “ by faith” he holds it after his death, advancing his formative and inspiring influence in the life of the people, through that commandment concerning his bones. Patriotism is fed from three perennial fountains--God, the Home, and History. God is the supreme politician; He is the Maker of nations and peoples. He does not leave us solitary, but setteth us in families, cities, nations, and empires. No part of our life is strange to Him; He filleth all in all, and faith in His Divine administration helps each citizen to find his place in the plan of God, to see his duty, to cast out evil, and to build for righteousness and peace. “ Christians are the soul of the world,” said the writer of the Epistle to Diognetus. What our politics need is soul; therefore Christians ought to be the best patriots and the most devoted politicians. Fed by faith in God, nourished in homes radiant with His presence, and guided by the Divine flame that burns in the bush of history, it is theirs to make and mould the purest, gladdest, strongest civic life of the world. See to it, therefore, that you choose your legislators for their strong faith in the living God and in the future of humanity. Put your conscience into your choice. Be not deceived by brilliant gifts. Never surrender your power to the greed of place and pelf. But remember, too, that the safety and progress of states and the widening welfare of mankind depend upon the heroic service of individual citizens, on men and women who, through faith in God, are masters of themselves, patient with suffering and failure, but impatient at wrong, iniquity, and dishonour, and who give to the world the distinctive influence of a pure Christian character and the consecrated service of a noble Christian life. “ Ye are the light of the world.” “ Ye are the salt of the earth.” (J. Clifford, D. D.) The wonderful story of Joseph’ s bones 1. It is not possible to read the life of Joseph without beholding here the portrait of a great man, not merely as commanding and guiding intelligence, but that which is higher yet, a strong and noble, personal character. 2. He was what we should call a self-made man; he was as much so as any man can be a self-made man; his life was one long contest with difficulties, but he overcame them all. He was made by God. 3. The greatness of Joseph was what we call moral greatness. He was not a warrior; he had insight and foresight; and he had that which really makes life easy and character strong. He had principles: faith ruled and controlled his character. And thus he ascended to the place of power in the great land of the Nile. So in the country of the Pyramids he ruled and he died. Can you see him in death?--surrounded by the dusky magnificence of that strong and ancient monarchy, the barbaric pearl and gold there, the Pharoah of that day waiting there and endeavouring to detain awhile the wisdom of that mighty and far-seeing mind. But where is he? Where is Joseph? True to the law of our being, by which to die is to recollect the past existence--as Shakespeare makes even that wicked old Falstaff when dying to revisit innocent scenes and babbling of green fields; and some of you will probably remember the story De Quineey tells of his mother, in his “ Confessions of an English Opium Eater,” how, in one memorable moment and instant of her life, when very near to death, her whole life started before her, all its moments successive and yet instantaneous; which leads De Quincey himself to remark, that there is no such thing as “ ultimate forgetting” --true to the Divine law, his memory is away in the fields of his youth, fields, perhaps, not seen since the day when he left his father’ s house to be a prisoner and an exile. He is among the fields of Hebron, he is a boy again. He sees the tender face of Rachel, his mother, his venerable father, long since gathered to the earlier patriarchs, Shechem, the Ishmaelites, the well--these all rise before his eyes, soon to be dismissed. But other associations will not go; more mysterious presences are about him; unseen fingers are drawing aside the curtains of the future history of his nation and his posterity; the enrapturing visions of death are thronging before him; he sees the persecution and the tyranny of the centuries as they rave and roll round his dust; he sees the march of the multitudes through the wilderness, the dividing sea, the tabernacle, the cloud, the pillar, Canaan, the temple; he sees the hurrying people, the rising thrones, the little mountain monarchy destined to throw a spell of power over the world when obscurity should fold the fame of Egypt and Assyria. Then there came a thought of his own dust. Shall I lie here alone amidst Egyptian sands, while they are there? My bones amidst idolatrous crowds while the people of the covenant have crossed the river to their inheritance? No! I. See here THE OF JOSEPH. His heart turns to Canaan. You see, here is an illustration, in the wearied statesman, of that which the apostle assigns to these patriarchs of faith. He, too, by this act, confessed himself a stranger and pilgrim. He who could give this commandment concerning his bones, “ declared plainly that he sought a country” ; that he, in fact, “ was mindful of the country whence he came out, that he desired opportunity to return thither” ; nay, that he descried “ a better country, a heavenly.” II. But underlying this there was a far deeper feeling, a far higher and a far mightier without which it would have been the mere boast of race distinction--it was THE LESSON OF FAITH. He believed, “ he counted Him faithful who had promised.” Joseph was one of the children of the promise. His affections for his people, for his family, were founded in his affection for God, his father’ s God. “ I die, but God shall surely visit you.” It was clear to the mind of the patriarch--the affliction, the tyranny, the departure. The world would seek to enslave the Church, and then God would say, “ Loose her, and let her go,” and then the Church would arise and depart. He knew the promise made to Abraham by “ two immutable things” ; he knew the people that were to be “ as the stars of the sky in multitude, as the sands on the sea-shore innumerable.” It was Faith--“ God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry my bones up from hence” ; “ he made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.” III. He died! Shall we then say here, How men speak when they are dead? May we not say, Read here, in this history, a lesson of THE POWER THERE IS IN THE OF GREAT AND GOOD MEN. HOW long it seemed, the dreary night--long seemed the covenant lost; it was buried, not lost; those bones were a kind of witness, those dying words were a testimony to the faithfulness of God. Thus often truth is buried, or a noble character seems lost; but fear not for anything on which God has set His seal. At last the moment comes; they hurry out of the land, but they do not in their haste forget those bones, they are borne along with them on their mysterious march. In the long progress through the wilderness old men dropped and died, children were born, children became men and women--still there was the wonderful chest, the bones the same as when they came up from Egypt. In their progress through the desert, by those Sinaitic rocks, the awful dead seemed to add to their criminality, when they doubted; to their hopes, as they moved upon their way, like an enchantment and a terror to such a people. The spell of his words was upon them in which “ he gave commandment concerning his bones.” No; great good men do not pass away, as some suppose. We have a very legible illustration in the guardian care exercised over the relics; Joseph lived in the thoughts and affections and hopes of his descendants. The dust of the holy dead is precious, the words of the holy dead are watchwords “ Thy dead men shall live together, with My dead body shall they arise.” IV. I cannot but think that there was here A HINT, A HOPE, AN “ THE .” I cannot but think that the glorious dreamer anticipated, not only the departure of the tribes, but the final unsealing of all those tombs, and longed rather to be near the old cemetery of Machpelah than amidst the cold, dark, stony, stately rooms of Egyptian pyramids and their coffins. Yes, as in that hour when the tribes in their flight could not leave behind them those bones, but bore them to their appointed resting-place in the promised land, so shall it be in the resurrection of the dead. At the risk of seeming to say what, to fastidious ears, may seem the mere refining of spiritualism, I will say, God will suffer no dust to remain in Egypt that belongs to Canaan; nothing that belongs to Grace shall remain beneath the dominion of Nature; there is an eye that watches; there is a law by which it will resume its own empire. There is a “ commandment concerning our bones.” (E. Paxton Hood.) Sanctity of the body: Not their historic deeds, but their faith was the point of selection for all the heroes of this great chapter; their forelooking and their belief of things not yet happened, so as to influence their daily life and conduct. Their faith; that is, the power of the sanctified imagination acting upon spiritual and temporal things. Yet, not what they did--their various achievement, but what they were internally, in regard to this one point, determined who should be admitted and who should not. Even the poor harlot of Jericho had a place in this national gallery, because she acted upon a sagacious foresight of faith, and did good to the spies that Israel had sent forth. And what more significant than the same account of Joseph! Egypt was the world’ s capital, advanced higher in civilisation than any or all others. Glory, on every side, had its symbols. Now, he-requests of all this regnant glory nothing. In his dying hour it was to him as a fable; as a thing like a summer’ s brook run dry. He asks for no history to be chiselled on obelisk or temple facade, or writing upon papyrus. “ Swear to me that you will carry my bones to the sepulchre of my fathers, to the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob rest. Let me slumber among them.” He had never forgotten his country. Egypt could not make him an Egyptian; exile could not make him a foreigner; all the gorgeous civilisation could not make him forget his shepherd-home. Palaces, sculptured temples, magnificent ceremonies of sepulture. He longed to leave the Nile and to sleep where the Jordan rolled, or near it. The faith of his youth and the love of his childhood and fidelity to his nation and his kindred remained uncorrupted by the whole prosperity of his imperial life, and is that nothing? Is this fidelity to brotherhood, native land, and ancestry to be counted as unworthy of a record? Ten thousands of men dwell among us and are cheered by a prosperity such as never came to their earlier years, yet old age will babble still of the circumscription of youth, and the dying fire will kindle a flame of love to the old home, and he were no worthy citizen of this empire who could in his prosperity forget the home of his childhood and the tongue of his people; for among the things that are sacred, none are more so than the remembrances of the paternal roof of childhood. “ What!” says the hard Materialist, of this fancy. “ Why should he want to take his bones from the sands of Egypt? What matter where the body sleeps? This concern for the perishable body is not scientific; it is a mirage of sentiment.” Nevertheless, sentiment is more fruitful of joy and as fruitful of elevation as science itself. And as the solid earth on which we build is important, and the sky, with its rolling clouds and its translucent atmosphere, not less important, so in human life, while we do not disdain the facts, neither should we disdain the fancies. There is a shock given to a superior sentiment when the body is discarded and thrown out as something worn-out and worthless. All that is noblest in human consciousness, revolts at any indifference of this kind. How well has the body served us; our senses, as if they were so many ministers of God, bringing in treasures hour by hour, year after year, in their round--through the eye. Or who can count what the ear has done for us?-the highway along which have trooped such thoughts, such feelings have been enunciated, such loves have whispered, such sweet sounds ministered to us. Who can tell what that golden gate, the ear, is, through which God’ s messages of kindness to men have moved in multitude? What joy have we had in the voice! How well has this strangely delicate, yet wonderfully enduring body served us, with its various implements and organs, secret or open and visible--what a service has it rendered to every one in life! Even by the law of association one should come to honour it. So we do. The poor, helpless, withered, almost speechless old woman that sits in the corner is the mother of our mother. We do not see her palsied and dried like an untimely apple overkept--what we see is her service, her life-love--the atmosphere that springs from affection and fidelity--that is whatwe see as it hovers around about her--the exhalation of the heart, not the despoiling of the body. To this law of association it seems to me the whole world is indebted, I had almost said more than to knowledge itself. Is it no matter, after life is over, what becomes of the body--the fair form of your wife? She taught you the deepest lessons of love, and of the life of love. Could you bear to see her cast out, or to know that she lay on some barren field, or that the wild beasts had devoured her. Everything in a man revolts at that idea of the very form that has been to us as a temple of God, and is sacred to us. Is it nothing to you where your baby sleeps? Could you carry your child on a blustering March day, as I carried mine, amidst the snows, and not shiver yourself, as you laid the dear child into the ground? It is not a phantasy, but an intensely natural feeling that has led the mother to wrap her dead child in flannel that it might be warm in the winter’ s grave. And are these associations of the human body of no sanctity and of no value whatsoever? Regard for one’ s body should be and often is a moral influence, as certainly it is a refining influence when it is regard for duties owing. Self-respect is one of God’ s ministers of education in life. Respect for one’ s self is the consciousness that you are a king. If none others think so of you, think so of yourself in all that pertains to real royalty, and not alone in the realm of thought, or of association, or of affection, but in respect to the body. Hold it in honour in life, and for an honourable sepulture in death. He will be likely to respect another man’ s person who has a scrupulchre respect for his own. (H. W. Beecher.) Joseph’ s bones: It may seem surprising that the charge of Joseph concerning his body should be mentioned as a notable act of faith, and not the similar charge delivered by Jacob; for did not Jacob also give commandment concerning his bones (Genesis 49:29-31)? Why was not that a case of faith in Jacob as much as in Joseph? We cannot always speak positively of these things, but we think that there is a very decided difference between the two. Jacob’ s wish to lie in Machpelah was by himself described as resting mainly on the grounds of natural affection. When his soul should be gathered to his people he would have his body lie side by side with his own relatives. This wish was probably as much an outgoing of nature as an expression of grace. Of course, natural affection would have led Joseph to desire the same thing, but he does not put it on that score. Moreover, you notice that Jacob commands his sons to do with his bones what they could readily do; they were to take him to Machpelah and bury him at once. He knew his son Joseph to be in power in Egypt; and therefore anything that was wanted for his funeral would be provided. Jacob therefore commanded nothing to be done but what could be done; there was no very remarkable exhibition of faith in commanding an immediate funeral which the filial love of Joseph would readily secure. Joseph not only wished to be buried in Machpelah, which was nature, but he would not be buried there till the land was taken possession of, which was an exhibition of the grace of faith. He wished his unburied body to share with the people of God in their captivity and their return. It was faith in Jacob, but it was remarkable faith in Joseph; and God who looks not simply at the act, but at the motive of the act, has been pleased not to put down Jacob as an instance of dying faith in this particular matter of his bones, but to award praise to Joseph as exhibiting in death a memorable degree of confidence in the promise. Probably Jacob’ s dying faith, when exercised upon other matters, outshone his faith in connection with his burial, while in his favourite son that matter was his leading proof of faith. I. THE POWER OF FAITH; the endurance of true faith under three remarkable modes of test. 1. First, the power of faith over worldly prosperity. It is hard to carry a full cup with a steady hand, some spilling will usually occur; but where grace makes rich men, and men in high position and authority to act becomingly, then grace is greatly glorified. You who are rich should see your danger; but let the case of Joseph be your encouragement. There is no need that you should be worldly, there is no need that you should sink the Israelite in the Egyptian. 2. Secondly, you see here the power of his faith exhibited in its triumph over death. He speaks of dying as though it were only a part of living, and comparatively a small matter to him. He gives no evidence of trepidation; but he bears his last witness concerning the faithfulness of God and the infallibility of his promise. Moreover, if I am to gather from the text that the Holy Spirit has singled out the brightest instance of faith in Joseph’ s whole life, it is beautiful to remark that the grand old man becomes most illustrious in his last hour. Death did not dim, but rather brightened the gold in his character. On his death-bed, beyond all the rest of his life, his faith, like the setting sun, gilds all around with glory; now that heart and flesh fail him, God becomes more than ever the strength of his life, as He was soon to be his portion for ever. 3. Once more, here is a proof of the power of faith in laughing at impossibilities. It seemed a very unlikely thing that the Israelites should go up out of Egypt. Why should they wish to go? II. THE OF FAITH. 1. The first fruit of faith in Joseph was this--he would not be an Egyptian. No doubt he would have had a sumptuous tomb enough in Egypt; but no, he will not be buried there, for he is not an Egyptian. In Sakhara, hard by the great pyramid of Pharaoh Apophis, stands at this day the tomb of a prince, whose name and titles are in hieroglyphic writing. The name is “ Eitsuph,” and from among his many titles we choose two--“ Director of the king’ s granaries,” and the other an Egyptian title, “ Abrech.” Now this last word is found in the Scriptures, and is that which is translated, “ Bow the knee.” It is more than probable that this monument was prepared for Joseph, but he declined the honour. Though his resting-place would have been side by side with the pyramid of one of Mizraim’ s greatest monarchs, yet he would not accept the dignity, he would not be aa Egyptian. This is one of the sure workings of faith in a man of wealth and rank; when God places him in circumstances where he might be a worldling of the first order, if his faith be genuine, he says, “ No; I will not even at this rate be numbered with the world.” 2. Notice, next, that his faith constrained him to have fellowship with the people of God. Not only does he refuse to be a worldling, but he avows himself an Israelite. 3. His faith led to an open avowal of his confidence in God’ s promise. On his death-bed he said, “ I die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land.” He also said, “ He will bring you to the land which He promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Faith cannot be dumb. I have known her tongue to be silent through diffidence, but at last it has been obliged to speak; and why should not your faith oftener speak, for her voice is sweet and her countenance is comely? 4. Moreover, notice, that having faith himself, he would encourage the faith of others. Every time an Israelite thought of the bones of Joseph, he thought, “ We are to go out of this country one day.” True faith seeks to propagate herself in the hearts of others. It is a good proof of your own faith when you lay yourself out to promote the faith of others. 5. Joseph’ s faith made him have an eye to the spiritualities of the covenant. Joseph had nothing earthly to gain in having his bones buried in Canaan rather than in Egypt; that can make small difference to a dying man. None of us would voluntarily desire to have his bones kept for some hundreds of years out of the ground in order that they might ultimately come into the family sepulchre. I believe he had no eye to the mere secularities of the covenant, but was looking to the spiritual blessings which are revealed in Jesus, the great seed of Abraham. 6. Joseph’ s faith in connection with his unburied bones showed itself in his willingness to wait God’ s time for the promised blessing. III. AN EXAMPLE FOR OUR FAITH TO ACT UPON WHEN WE ALSO COME TO THE TIME OF DEATH. What shall I derive any comfort from when I come to die? Come, let me prepare my last dying speech. Now think it over. 1. First, I would imitate Joseph, by deriving my comfort from the covenant. Jesus, who is Himself the covenant, soothes most blessedly the dying beds of His saints. A negro was asked when he had been sitting up to nurse his minister one night, “ How is your master?” Said he, “ He is dying full of life.” It is a grand thing when one has the covenant to think on. You can then die full of life, you can pass away out of this lower life, being filled with the life eternal before the life temporal has quite gone out, so that you are never emptied out of life, but the life of grace melts into the life of glory, as the river into the ocean. 2. Joseph may be an example to us, in that he drew his consolation from the future of his people. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 11:23 Moses … was hid.., of his parents The faith of Moses’ parents I. WHAT IS . “ Faith.” Natural affections sanctified are subservient and useful to faith; grace cloth not abolish nature, but perfect it. We are to obey God against our natural affections; as by faith Abraham offered his son Isaac; nature was against it. And we are to obey God with natural affection: by faith Moses was hid of his parents; there nature was for it. Many times God’ s interests and ours are twisted together, and then nature is allowed to work, but grace must bear sway; sometimes they are severed, and then we must leave nature to keep company with God. Use 1. It informeth us, that to strengthen faith we may and must take in the help of nature; it is God’ s allowance, that we may be carried out more cheerfully in the work of God (Philemon 1:16). 2. That their wickedness is very great that sin against nature. 3. In all these mixed actions look to your principles, what beareth sway and worketh most--faith or natural affection. But wherein lay the faith of this action? Chiefly in overcoming fear, in trusting God’ s protection for the preservation of the child; and possibly there might be something of a public regard and consideration, in believing the future deliverance of the Church and people of God out of Egypt. II. WHO ARE . “ His parents.” Husband and wife should go hand in hand to the throne of grace, and join together in every good thing; they should agree together in the worship of God, and promoting the good of their children. When the will of the wife and the will of the husband fall in, like the tenon and the mortise, the building goes on; but when one draws one way, and another the other way, like untamed heifers in the yoke, all cometh to ruin. III. THE ITSELF. 1. The action, where (1) The time--“ When he was born.” (2) The action itself--“ He was hid.” (3) The duration--“ Three months.” 2. I come now to the considerations on which it was done. (1) The external impulsive cause--“ Because they saw he was a proper child,” ἀστεῖον, comely, and fair (Acts 7:20). Beauty is not always a sure sign of excellency--there is no trust to the brow; but they saw special lineaments of majesty, and of a heroical disposition in his countenance, which, being accompanied with some secret instinct, moved them to think that God had designed him to some eminent work, probably to the deliverance of his people. (2) The internal moving cause--“ And they not afraid of the king’ s commandment,” that bloody law of destroying their children. Here are three points (a) Princes must not be obeyed in things contrary to the Word of God. (b) The commands of kings and princes have been a usual trial of God’ s children, as Nebuchadnezzar’ s command was to fall down and worship the golden image. Use: This should draw us off from men. To this end consider 1. We are bound to God more than to men. 2. None can reward us as God can. 3. None can punish our disobedience as God can (Matthew 10:28). 4. We live longer with God than we do with men; therefore if a man would study to please, he should rather please God than men. God is eternal, man is but mortal (Isaiah 51:12). 5. God can make others our friends (Proverbs 16:7). 6. They that please men shall have enough of it (Hosea 5:12). (c) In such cases carnal fear doth betray us, and faith carries us through Isaiah 8:12-13). (T. Manton, D. D.) The childhood of Moses I. WHERE THERE IS AN BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IN FAITH AND FEAR OF THE LORD, IT MAKES WAY UNTO A BLESSED SUCCESS IN ALL THEIR DUTIES: when it is otherwise, nothing succeeds unto their comfort. II. WHEN DUTIES BEFAL PERSONS IN THAT , IT IS THEIR WISDOM EACH TO APPLY UNTO THAT PART AND SHARE OF IT WHICH THEY ARE BEST SUITED FOR. So was it in this case; Amram, no doubt, was the principal in the advice and contrivance, as his wife was in its actual execution. III. THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF , WHEN PRIVATE HOUSES ARE BY BLOODY , TO EXECUTE LAWS--when the last and utmost retreat of innocence, for that protection which is due unto it by the law of God and nature, with the common rules of human society, cannot be a shelter against wicked rage and fury. No doubt but during this season their diligence was accompanied with fervent cries unto God, and the exercise of trust in Him. The occasion was great on all hands, and they were not wanting unto any part of their duty. The outward act of hiding the child was but an indication of the internal working of their faith. IV. IT IS WELL WHEN OF IN OUR DOTH SO ENGAGE OUR UNTO THEM, AS TO MAKE THEM USEFUL AND UNTO IN OF THEM UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD. Otherwise a fondness in parents, arising from the natural endowments of children, is usually hurtful, and oftentimes ruinous unto the one and other. V. THE RAGE OF MEN AND THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH SHALL WORK OUT THE OF GOD’ S AND , UNTO HIS GLORY, FROM UNDER ALL AND THAT MAY ARISE IN UNTO IT. So they did in this instance in an eminent manner. (J. Owen, D. D.) Faith the ground of parental courage: I. A BELOVED CHILD IN GREAT DANGER. Children are always in danger. 1. There are the perils connected with physical well-being. 2. Those which come from the hardening influence of resistance of Divine grace. What if the child should steadfastly persist in evil habits which already show themselves! 3. Those which come through the malice of Satan. Satan is on the track of the children. II. THE PARENTS’ FAITH. “ Parents.” The strength of the faith may have been due to that; it was the joint faith of two. This faith showed itself 1. In a quiet confidence that God would protect their child. 2. In the adoption of all possible means to the right end. III. THIS FAITH RESTING ON GROUNDS. What are they? 1. The intrinsic worth of a child. Who can tell what any child may become? 2. The fact that the child is fair to God. (See margin of Act 7:20). 3. The distinct promises of God’ s Word. (C. New.) The hiding of Moses by faith: I. IT IS A GREAT WHEN IN A FAMILY BOTH THE PARENTS HAVE FAITH. “ By faith he was hid three months of his parents.” Moses himself (Exodus 2:1-25.) ascribes this to his mother--“ When she saw that he was a goodly child she hid him three months.” Stephen (Acts 7:1-60.). says, “ In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’ s house three months” : thus mentioning rather his father than his mother. No doubt the apostle combined the two other inspired utterances. Do you wonder that Moses chiefly mentions his mother, Joehebed? I do not. What man is there among us but always delights to mention his godly mother, and though we would have no partialities about our parents, yet without controversy great is the mystery of a mother’ s love, and there are some points about it in which it makes a deeper impression upon the memory than a father’ s care. Prize fathers as you may, and should, yet there is a tender touch that comes home to every man’ s heart when he thinks of his mother. It seems natural that Moses should, when he wrote the account, mention most of all his mother; and indeed a mother has more to do with a babe than a father can have: in its tender infancy she is naturally its chief guardian. Perhaps, too, though we cannot be sure, Jochebed may have been the stronger believer of the two, and may have been the main instigator of the child’ s preservation. II. TRUE AND EVEN FAITH MAY ACT IN A VERY WAY. What do we read? By faith they “ subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,” and so on. Why these are great things, worthy of mention. Yes, but this also is great in its ways--“ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents.” It has no trumpet ring about it like stopping lions’ mouths and quenching fires, and subduing kingdoms, but in God’ s point of view, the hiding of a little baby three months, may be as great an instance of acceptable faith as any of them: even turning to flight the armies of the alien may not be greater than defeating the malice of a king by saving a little child. But you say, “ Was it not natural enough that a mother should try to preserve her child’ s life? Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?” Yes, I know all that; but still the Lord is not praising the natural affections but the supernatural faith. We should say, “ Nature led them to conceal the babe,” but God says, “ Faith led them to do it,” and, in their degree, both are true. Nature prompted, but faith constrained, and enabled them to do what else their timidity would not have ventured upon. III. FAITH WILL ACT WITH A VERY SLENDER . “ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child.” Stephen says in his speech that the child was “ exceeding fair” ; and if you look at Stephen’ s speech you will see that the translators have put in the margin, “ fair to God.” So it may run, “ when they saw that the child was fair to God.” Now, I gather from that expression that the child was beautiful beyond the common run of children; that there was a charm about its features, and something superhuman, probably, since it was fair to God. In the babe’ s face there were prophecies of the man of God. Surely among them that have been born of woman there has not been born a greater than Moses; and about him as a child there was a something so marvellously beautiful, that his parents were fascinated by him. IV. FAITH HAS GREAT POWER IN FEAR. There was, no doubt, appended to Pharaoh’ s statute a punishment for anybody who should not obey the law. Perhaps four lives were in danger for the sake of that one little life--her husband, herself, Aaron, and Miriam, her daughter. Yet through faith she will run all risks, and so will all her family, that this promising child whom they believe God has sent to them for a noble purpose may still live. Now, if you have faith in Christ manifest it by overcoming all fear of the consequences of doing right. It is right to obey God rather than man. V. FAITH IS OFTEN DRIVEN TO GREAT SHIFTS. The mother was put to great shifts to hide her child, and she used all her wits and common-sense. She did not put her child in the front room, or carry it into the street or sit at the open door and nurse it, but she was prudent, and acted as if all depended upon her concealing the babe. Some people suppose that if you have faith you may act like a fool. But faith makes a person wise. It is one of the notable points about faith that it is sanctified common-sense. It is not fanaticism, it is not absurdity; it is making God the grandest asset in our account, and then reckoning according to the soundest logic. VI. FAITH’ S SIMPLE ACTS OFTEN LEAD ON TO THE RESULTS. Great wheels turn on little axles. There is a tiny part to each machine of unutterable importance. You never know the infinity of the influence of a word. To the wise man nothing is little; to the fool nothing is truly great. Make all things great by doing them by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Potentialities in the life of a child Who can say how vast are the potentialities involved in the life of a young child? More than nineteen hundred years ago, in the civil wars of Rome, the life of a beautiful child was again and again saved from the extremest peril. That child grew up to be a heavy curse to himself, a heavy curse to others; he grew up to be one of the worst men who ever lived; the Emperor Tiberius, in whose reign Christ was crucified. Again, some hundred and fifty years ago, a house in an English village was found to be in flames. The clergyman and his family--for it was the vicarage--were roused, and when they had escaped, itwas found that one little boy was still in the burning house. A ladder was placed to the window, he was rescued, and handed unhurt into his father’ s arms. What would the world have lost had that little boy perished? For his name was John Wesley, and by his piety and zeal he fanned into flame once more the dead white embers of Christian faith. Now, who can tell what a little child may be! He may grow up, as has been said, like Beethoven, to lift the soul by the magic of Divine melody into the seventh heaven of ineffable vision and incommensurable hope; or like Newton, to weigh the far-off stars in the balance, and measure the heavings of the eternal flow; or like Luther, to scorch up what is cruel and false by a word, as by a flame; or like Milton and Burke, to awake men’ s hearts with the note of an organ trumpet; or like the great saints of the Churches and the great sages of the Schools, to add to those acquisitions of spiritual beauty and intellectual mastery which have, one by one, and little by little, raised men from being no higher than the brute to be only a little lower than the angels. You never know but what the child, in rags and pitiful squalor, that meets you in the streets, may have in him the germ of gilts that might add new treasure to the storehouse of beautiful things or noble acts. In that great storm of terror which swept over France in 1793, a certain man who was every hour expecting to be led off to the guillotine uttered this memorable sentiment: “ Even at this incomprehensible moment,” he said, “ when morality, enlightenment, love of country, all of them only make death at the prison door or on the scaffold more certain--yes, on the fatal tumbril itself, with nothing free but my voice, I could still cry ‘ Take care’ to a child that should come too near the wheel. Perhaps I may save his life; perhaps he may one day save his country.” (Archdeacon Farrar.) Hebrews 11:24-26 Moses The power of a good life At Rome there is a colossal statue of Moses by Michael Angelo--one of the greatest statues in the world. He is represented with long hair streaming over his robe, and as you gaze on the awful statue you are smitten with awe; love and admiration are lost in dread. There is nothing attractive in mere human greatness; it is beyond our reach; but when greatness is but the attribute of goodness it instantly becomes refreshing. For goodness is in the power of every one of us, and is greater than any greatness. We are in some sense bidden to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, and every human character who has been great in goodness helps us to live and strive after this ideal. To make the rivers flow swiftly across the plain they must have their springs high up amid the immaculate snows of the everlasting hills, and to make a man his faith and hope must be among the heights of heaven. Now this is the very force which moved those good men who inspire us with fresh faith in God, humanity, and ourselves. The race must be worth working for which produces such specimens. And then it comes home as a revelation to us that we, too, can be great as they were in goodness, and if we be great in goodness it matters supremely little to God or man how small we are in all things else. Every servant in a house, every workman in a factory, every member of an ordinary profession in his counting house, may, and is, called upon almost every day of his life, in a high or a low measure, to make the very same choice which has influenced the greatest lives. You will see, then, why I think it may be profitable for us to look at one scene in the life of Moses. Now, what was it which at the ripe age of forty altered his career? If we look at the paintings on Egyptian tombs we may see what he saw. One of our great painters years ago drew a picture, in which thousands of Jews are dragging along images of an Egyptian king; they are tugging at the ropes under the burning sun, and youths and men in the prime of life are punting, sweating, straining every nerve while their wretched slave women are beating cymbals, and over their backs falls the torturing scourge of their taskmasters. Such sights Moses saw. He saw them, too, labouring in the brickfields as in a burning fiery furnace, or treading at the water-mills on the banks of the Nile as Fellaheen of Egypt do now, with their monotonous chant, “ They starve us, they starve us, they beat us, they beat us; but there is One above.” A sight of oppression, a sight of misery, a sight of manhood humiliated out of its natural dignity, and defrauded out of its indefeasible rights. And what was worse, this nation of slaves was contented in its misery. Moses pitied them all the more because they had, for the time being, sunk too low to pity themselves. The glory of the faith of Moses was that he still saw them to be men. The great sculptor looks upon the rough, shapeless block of marble and sees in it the angel whom he will hew out of it; the man of faith sees in the debased man the potentialities of a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people which should be to the glory of God, who had called them out of darkness to His marvellous light. That was the sight which Moses saw without. What did he see at home? He belonged to these slaves no longer; he was an Egyptian prince; his life was ranked among the lords of these labouring myriads. What should hinder him from enjoying pomp and pleasure, and becoming himself, perhaps, a conquering Pharaoh, and in due time having some vast, godlike statue reared to him, with some pompous inscription such as this: “ My name is king of kings; look on my works, ye mighty, and despair” ? Moses might have done this, and if he had he would have lived for a few years like other Pharaohs and passed away; and history, reclining half asleep upon a pyramid, might have muttered some name, and we should not have known what it was. Happily for Israel, happily for mankind, Moses chose differently. He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Moses became the first founder of that religion which was the cradle of Christianity. What was it but pity for human misery that made John Howard leave a comfortable home to breathe the sickening atmosphere of prisons? What was it but pity for human misery that sent David Livingstone straight from the splendours and triumphs of a London season to face the scorching wastes of Africa, and to die homeless, wifeless, childless, in a negro hut? It is the same spirit of self-sacrifice, which is the most potent engine for good in all the world; it is this spirit alone which is adequate to uplift our lives from their vulgarity and sensualism, and to place us, each in our humble degree, by the side of those who preferred, “ to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Whence came this spirit? Came it not from Christ? Did He not make for us men the most infinite sacrifice? Ah! let us follow His footsteps, bearing His cross as Moses did, and as all of His servants have ever done, trying to escape averages, trying to rise from the vulgar herd and the false, worldly, sensual pleasure into the high service of the saints of God. Remember that this choice did not come only to Moses, or to some great man now and then. It comes to all of us, it comes practically whenever we are called upon to choose between the paltry action from which we gain, and the right action from which we lose; whenever we are called upon to yield something to our neighbour and disappoint him not, though it were to our own hurt; whenever we seek for strength, even at the cost of bitter tears. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Moses the uncrowned king I. WHAT DID THAT CHOICE INVOLVE? HOW MUCH OF AND OF SELF-? 1. Rank and royalty he thereby renounced the highest honour and the greatest power that earth can give--the very prizes for which men toil most zealously and pay most largely. 2. This decision also involved the renunciation of temporal riches. Let any man measure, if he can, the influence which the desire for a competency of worldly good has upon himself, and he may better judge how strong was the power of Egypt’ s incalculable wealth, which failed to swerve Moses from his holy purpose. 3. And there, too, were the pleasures of a life amid courtly splendours, which he voluntarily renounced. Within his reach were all the sensual enjoyments that the mind could devise or the heart desire. He could have lived in an atmosphere of earthly pleasure, breathing the perfume of sweetest flowers of delight, feasting the eye with all forms of beauty, regaling the senses with every carnal joy. All honour to Moses, then, for his signal victory over this fair-visaged and subtle foe, who has taken captive so many of earth’ s fairest sons, and led them by the silken bonds of a willing captivity to the bitter wages of death! And all honour and certain reward to every youth who, like Moses, will spurn the sinful pleasure, and choose the higher though hidden good! But in that choice was involved more than the renunciation of all these forms of worldly good. 4. With him, to reject them was to accept their opposites; and not less lustre is shed upon that decision by what he accepted than by what he renounced. Think of that race of bondmen whom henceforth he was to call his brethren: taking his place by their side, and sharing the reproach which belonged to them. There, too, were the envy and ill-will of this very people he sought to benefit. They would not understand him. They were sure to misinterpret his good intentions. All this he must have foreseen. And not only was there the dishonour of becoming the companion of these degraded Hebrews; he accepted also the “ reproach’ which attached to the worship of their God and faith in their promised Messiah. His former associates among the lords and princes, the priests and the philosophers of Egypt would look upon him with contempt for adopting a religion so despised in their eyes. Think of this, O youth of this Christian land, where the true God is honoured and worshipped by the learned and the great, and the religion Christ is admitted to be the one hope of humanity 1 And yet, you, perchance, hesitate to adopt this revered faith, to choose this infinite good, through cowardly fear of a few godless associates. Look on this princely reared son of fortune, turning away from rank and wealth, from honour and pleasure, from friends and genial pursuits, to humiliation and poverty, to dishonour and reproach, to uncongenial associates and the curses of those He would bless; and summon your fainting heart to a like worthy choice. Moses places on the scales of decision, on the one side the world’ s best, on the other religion’ s worst, and with deliberate judgment chooses the latter; “ affliction with the people of God,” “ the reproach of Christ,” outweighing a throne with its dazzling honours, the wealth of a proud monarchy, and the pleasures of a royal palace. II. Turn we now to consider UPON WHAT AND BY WHAT MOTIVE SUCH A CHOICE WAS MADE. And here we are left in no doubt. The apostle solves the problem for us: “ By faith,” etc. Standing on that summit of observation he looked not alone with the eye of sense upon the inviting scene before him, but with the clear and penetrating eye of faith he surveyed the whole prospect. And when you look upon earth’ s most entrancing scenes with the eye of a clear-visioned faith, their beauty fades, their glory pales, their wealth vanishes, their pleasure dies. He saw thus that all this fair-promising good was more seeming than real--a tinseled glory that would not withstand the corroding atmosphere of adversity and death--pleasing to the” sense but not satisfying to the heart. He saw by faith, also, that all this glitter and glamour of earthly treasures were but “ for a season” --a flower of earth that blooms to-day and fades to-morrow; a summer’ s day that wanes and darkens into deepest night; a song of tremulous joy that ends in a wail of despair; a transitory pleasure that while it might make life agreeable would make a death-bed terrible. Moses’ faith in God also gave him the assurance that the promises concerning His people Israel should be fulfilled; that however degraded they were then, they should be exalted, and a Delivering Hand should wrest them from the oppressor’ s grasp. Faith brought to his view far more than the natural eye could compass. It was to him “ the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Go forth, and look with naked eye over the limited field presented to your view, bounded by the sensible horizon, and the seemingly not-distant arch of heaven shutting down upon it. Now place the telescope to your eye, and lo! the field of vision is enlarged, and distant worlds appear. Faith is such a telescope, and through this Moses looked. And what did he see? Fields more fair and fruitful than the fertile valley of the Nile; the river of life surpassing far the sacred stream of Egypt; riches infinitely transcending Egypt’ s garnered treasures; a crown more effulgent than that of the Pharaohs; a palace whose splendour outdazzled that of the magnificent City of the Sun. There is but one way to conquer this world--and it must be conquered, or it will conquer you--and that way is to look from this, through the telescope of faith, to the other world. “ This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith.” If you would be a winner in the life-race, you must do as Moses did--take in the whole and not a part of life, sacrifice the present for the future, pleasure for principle, gold for godliness, wealth for worth, reputation for character, the blossoms of immediate promise for the golden fruits of the eternal years. III. THE REWARD OF HIS CHOICE. He was rewarded by being called to a mission of most distinguished service and resplendent honour. He became the leader and deliverer of God’ s chosen people--a lawgiver in comparison with whom the names of Solon and Lycurgus lose their brightness; an author of the most illustrious books the world has ever read; a prophet with a shining record of glory; a hero whose fame has filled the earth. The honour that he renounced was but “ for season” ; the honour that he gained is lasting as the years of God. (C. H. Payne, D. D.) The choice of Moses: This chapter is a kind of gazette extraordinary of the holy war, a muster roll of the heroes of faith. Among these worthies stands conspicuously, Moses. I. THE CHOICE. Egypt’ s gold had lost its power to charm, and the treasures of Rameses and Succoth were esteemed as trash. Not that there is any necessary opposition between the present and the future. Man is a being formed for both worlds; what we want is, as it were, to strike the balance between the claims of each. I do not ask you when trouble comes; but when fortune is with you, when friends smile upon you, when you feel the flutterings of dear life within you, can you then give all up for Christ? II. THE MOTIVE. “ The recompense of the reward.” The reward of grace is certain, complete, and eternal. Irrespective of the illumination of God’ s Word, the voice of conscience, the inequalities of providence, and the sanctions of law and human governments, all point to a state of future rewards and punishments; every promise breathes in balmier sweetness, and every warning rolls in deeper thunder by this thought, that you and I must give an account. Oh, it is a solemn thought! You and I have life upon our hands, and we cannot get rid of it. (W. M. Punshon, D. D.) Moses’ decision I. THE DECIDED ACTION OF MOSES. 1. Who he was that did this. (1) A man of education. (2) A person of high rank. (3) A man of great ability. 2. What sort of society he felt compelled to leave. Jesus left the angels of heaven for your sake; can you not leave the best of company for His sake? 3. But I marvel most at Moses when I consider not only who he was and the company he had to forego, but the persons with whom he must associate, for in truth the followers of the true God were not, in their own persons, a loveable people at that time. 4. Consider now what Moses left by siding with Israel. 5. Consider yet once more what Moses espoused when he left the court. He espoused abounding trial, “ choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.” II. Now what WAS THE SOURCE OF MOSES’ ? Scripture says it was faith, otherwise some would insist that it was the force of blood. “ He was by birth an Israelite, and therefore,” say they, “ the instincts of nature prevailed.” Our text assigns a very different reason. We know right well that the sons of godly parents are not led to adore the true God by reason of their birth. Grace does not run in the blood; sin may, but righteousness does not. Neither was it eccentricity which led him to espouse the side which was oppressed. We have sometimes found a man of pedigree who has associated with persons of quite another rank and condition, simply because he never could act like anybody else, and must live after his own odd fashion. It was not so with Moses. All his life through you cannot discover a trace of eccentricity in him: he was sober, steady, law-abiding; what if I say he was a concentric man, for his centre was in the right place, and he moved according to the dictates of prudence. Neither was he hurried on by some sudden excitement when there burned within his soul fierce patriotic fires which made him more fervent than prudent. No, there may have been some haste in his slaying the Egyptian on the first occasion, but then he had forty more years to think it over, and yet he never repented his choice, but held on to the oppressed people of God, and still refused to think of himself as the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter. It was faith alone, that enabled the prophet of Sinai to arrive at his decision, and to carry it out. What faith had he? 1. He had faith in Jehovah. He knew in his own heart that there was one God, one only God, and he would have nothing to do with Amun, Pthah, or Maut. 2. The faith of Moses also rested in Christ. “ Christ had not come,” says one. He cast his eyes through the ages that were to intervene, and he saw before him the Shiloh of whom dying Jacob sang. 3. But then, in addition to this, Moses had faith in reference to God’ s people. He knew that the Israelites were God’ s chosen, that despite all their faults, God would not break His covenant with His own people, and he knew, therefore, that their cause was God’ s cause, and that it was the cause of right and truth. 4. Once again, Moses had faith in the “ recompense of the reward.” He said thus within himself, “ I must renounce much, and reckon to lose rank, position, and treasure; but I expect to be a gainer notwithstanding, for there will be a day when God shall judge the sons of men; and I expect that those who serve God faithfully shall then turn out to have been the wise men, while those who truckled to gain a present ease, shall find that they missed eternity while they were snatching after time, and that they bartered heaven for a paltry mess of pottage.” III. Thirdly, we are going to run over in our minds some of THE WHICH MOSES in his decided course of following God. 1. The first argument would be, he saw clearly that God was God and therefore must keep His word, must bring His people up out of Egypt and give them a heritage. 2. Then, we have it in the text that he perceived the pleasures of sin to be but for a season. Oh that men would measure everything in the scales of eternity! 3. And, then, again, he thought within himself that even the pleasures, which did last for a season, while they lasted were not equal to the pleasure of being reproached for Christ’ s sake. This ought also to strengthen us, that the worst of Christ is better than the best of the world, that even now we have more joy as Christians, if we are sincere, than we could possibly derive from the sins of the wicked. I have only this to say 1. We ought all of us to be ready to part with everything for Christ, and if we are not we are not His disciples. 2. We ought to abhor the very thought of obtaining honour in this world by concealing our sentiments or by making compromises. 3. We ought to take our place with those who truly follow God and the Scriptures, even if they are not altogether what we should like them to be. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The highest form of faith As no two men are alike, so it may be said no two lives are alike, though the lives of all men have many things in common. That life is the most interesting which embraces the largest amount of experience, and by the varieties and extraordinariness of its experiences differs most from other lives. But in estimating the interest of any individual life, we must ever bear in mind the fact that each life is double--it has its external and internal form. A life of mental struggle and soul triumphs like that of Plato, may have no external incidents of any importance, and set be interesting in the highest degree. Other lives may consist almost exclusively of external ups and downs. The most interesting life of all is one which embraces these two kinds of motion, and assumes a variety of phases in each department. Estimated according to this rule, few lives are so interesting as that of Moses. His external life was one of special variety. His internal life was one of hopes and fears; struggles, failures, and triumphs; passion and peace; discovery and perplexity; adversity and success; lamentations and songs; and work and leisure. He was a great and a good man in combination. I. THE GOOD WHICH MOSES . Paul gives us a summary of the sacrifices which Moses was led to make at the shrine of principle in the words, “ He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter.” This is mentioned as a real good which he abandoned. 1. This sacrifice involved the abandonment of wealth. It is a matter of importance to estimate aright the value of wealth. A man who has but little sense and less religion may desire to possess wealth for its own sake: but a man whose nature is refined and good finds no pleasure in gold or acres in themselves. He desires them simply as means--as instruments. To him they are of no value except as they help him to some higher good. Viewed in this light, wealth is a blessing, and like every other blessing it brings with it its own responsibilities, for in all things man is but a steward over God’ s property. Wealth is the real property of God who gives it, and not of the man who has it in his possession. The offer made to Moses involved wealth--“ all the treasures of Egypt.” In it itself he could care nothing for it, butas means to ends--as an additional talent to be used for man’ s good and God’ s glory--it was a blessing to be eagerly grasped. And then there was this further consideration, that if he refused the offer, it would be made to another and accepted, and this other might actually employ the wealth of Egypt to promote evil and clog the wheels of progress. Moses might say, “ If this wealth becomes mine, I shall make good use of it. Money is a blessing though the love of it is a curse. If I reject it, another may take it arid use it to do evil.” Here lay the force of the temptation. 2. This sacrifice on the part of Moses involved the abandonment of influence. A man who has lost the good opinion of his fellows can never hope to do them good, for our words have power as men have confidence in our wisdom and integrity. By rejecting the honour which the Egyptians proposed to confer upon Moses, he would lose their good opinion because they could not comprehend principles so lofty as those which led him thus to act. Then the influence which arose from his position as king of Egypt was immense. As king he could have purified the morals of courtiers by setting them a good example. He might introduce regulations, with the consent of the people, which would have crippled the power, in after ages, of tyrannical kings. He might even abolish slavery, and thus restore the Jews to their former splendour. His influence might go far toward the abolition of idolatry and the instruction of the people in the knowledge of the true God. Then, as the king of the mightiest nation then existing, his influence would be great in foreign states; and by means of the power which he derived from inexhaustible riches, and the influence which arose from his official position, and the place which he held in public esteem, the good which he might have effected would have extended to all nations and for ever. It required no small resolution to reject those means and opportunities of doing good. II. THE EVILS WHICH MOSES . 1. The mental anxiety which was inseparable from his position as the leader into liberty of a nation of slaves. 2. The many privations which must have been connected with the journey across Arabia. 3. The precarious prospects of his own family. What became of his children is not known, but their secular position proved very different from what it would have been had he accepted the crown of Egypt. III. THE REASON OF THIS CHOICE. The sinful pleasures referred to in the text are not allied to those which are so called now. The pleasures of sin, according to modern notions, are pleasures of a gross or animal nature, such pleasures as could have had no attraction for a man of Moses’ refined culture and pure habits. Paul refers, it seems to me, to the things which Moses rejected. These were the pleasures of sin--wealth, honour, and influence, or what was involved in being called “ the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter.” But, it may be asked, is wealth, or honour, or influence a pleasure of sin? Is it sinful for a man to be rich, respected, and obeyed? Is it wrong for a man to occupy the throne of a powerful and civilised country? In certain cases it is sinful; in others, it is not. If riches are gotten by being screwed out of the flesh and blood of the poor, then are riches the pleasures of sin. If the applause of others is obtained by sacrificing truth, honour, and goodness, as they were sacrificed by Herod, Pilate, and Felix, then is replication a pleasure of sin. If a man climbs to a throne of state, as many have done, by trampling on the rights of others, by crushing men’ s lives and liberties, then does regal power become a pleasure of sin. Did any such obstacles stand in the way of Moses? Was he not offered the crown by those who had a right to bestow it? True; still must Moses have sinned had he become the monarch of Egypt. The kings of Egypt were both kings and priests. If the king did not belong to the sacerdotal class, he was adopted into that class at the time of his appointment, and instructed in the mysteries of the national religion. The king had to appear in the temple to offer sacrifices to the gods. He represented the national religion, premised to be faithful to the gods of his country, as well as administer justice to his subjects. It is evident, thus, that Moses in accepting the crown of Egypt, must have pretended that he was an idol worshipper. He was thus required to act, if not to utter, at least one falsehood. He was required to subscribe to what he did not believe--to promise to do, what, as a good man, he never could intend to perform. IV. THE OF A GOOD . Moses acted nobly because he acted conscientiously. But the question suggests itself to us, What enabled Moses to act thus conscientiously when a sacrifice so great was required of him? What gave to his conscience such unconquerable power? 1. Moses seems to have had the most satisfactory view of heaven--“ the recompense of the reward.” The blessedness of the future will not only be a reward, but also a recompense. All present evils and sufferings will be recompensed. The joy of the future will be in proportion to the sorrow of the present. 2. Moses, moreover, realised the presence of the invisible world, for the Greek means no more than this, or rather, it means all this--“ as seeing the invisible.” It is a general form of speech which embraces not only the Divine presence, but the actual presence of all invisible things. Moses had other means of vision than the mere eye of the body, and that was the reason of his triumph over the trials of this life. (E. Lewis, B. A.) The faith of Moses I. The faith of Moses appears in “ TO BE CALLED THE SON OF PHARAOH’ S .” 1. “ Pharaoh’ s daughter” is your mother. No; my mother is of. “ the people of God.” 2. “ Pharaoh’ s daughter” saved your life. Yes; but my mother brought me into life. 3. “ Pharaoh’ s daughter” gave you education. Yes; but my mother taught me the “ things of God.” 4. “ Pharaoh’ s daughter” made you a prince. Yes; but my mother taught me to become “ a child of God.” 5. “ Pharaoh’ s daughter” brought you to court. Yes; but my mother brought me to “ the Church of God.” II. The faith of Moses was TRIED BY . YOU will be afflicted with poverty, with labour, with taxes, and with contempt and persecution as a Hebrew; but you shall be looked up to and respected as “ the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter.” Be it so; I prefer the favour of God to the approbation of men. III. The faith of Moses appears in “ THE OF CHRIST GREATER RICHES THAN THE OF EGYPT.” 1. In Egypt you shall have a splendid palace--that in which Pharaoh lives, in all its beauty and grandeur. My parents taught me that the Lord would give me “ a mansion” in glory; I prefer it. 2. In Egypt you shall wear a very costly and beautiful crown, all sparkling with diamonds. My parents taught me that the Lord will give me “ a crown of righteousness” in glory; I prefer it. 3. In Egypt you shall sit on a throne of the most magnificent and costly splendour, with all your courtiers about you. My parents taught me that the Lord “ will grant to me to sit with Him in His throne” ; I prefer that. 4. In Egypt you shall reign over the most extended and wealthy kingdom on the earth. My parents taught me that the Lord will give me “ a kingdom, prepared for me from the foundation of the world” ; I prefer it. 5. In Egypt you shall have all the enjoyment which this world can afford. My parents taught me that the Lord will give me an “ exceeding and eternal weight of glory” ; I prefer that. IV. The faith of Moses appears IN HIS FLIGHT FROM EGYPT. V. IN “ HIS KEEPING THE AND THE OF BLOOD.” (James Kidd, D. D.) The faith of Moses and the faith of Christ: As the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter Moses would have at his command all that is called pleasure; pleasures of intellect and taste, besides all the pleasures of sense, the pleasures of the man of the world, and of the man of fashion. There never was a great man whose temptations were not as great as his gifts. I do not mean to say that his pleasures, those open to him in the position he held, were sins. By no means. In themselves and apart from duties with which they might chance to be incompatible, these things were pleasures, and yet not in the smallest degree sins. It was what made them sins to Moses which shows us what sort of man he was, what nobleness of character there was in him by faith. There is an exquisite simplicity in the story in Exodus concerning the change in Moses from youth to man, from Egyptian to Israelite, from courtier to patriot. The deed which he did was unpremeditated, the work of a moment. It was done not without alarm; but it marked the critical moment when his life passed into a higher and nobler phase. He went forth an Egyptian courtier; he came back a Hebrew patriot. After this, whatever they might be to others, the pleasures of Pharaoh’ s court, were to him the pleasures of sin; the best and most refined and most innocent of these pleasures were sinful. To go on enjoying his old pleasures after this wakening up of his manhood, this recognition of the fact that there was an oppressed people in existence, and that that people was his people, was a crime of which he could not be guilty. There was in him that nobleness of nature which, besides tending to sympathy with the oppressed, revolts from all that is selfish and cruel; and this nobleness was stirred up in him, by seeing the state of his kindred, and comparing it with his own. This was his faith. Faith saved him from being content to be idle and useless, and gave him zeal and courage to play the part of a man and of a hero in the liberation of his people. Faith made him refuse idleness and luxury as sin, when he saw that there was work to be done and suffering to be endured in a good cause. Faith made him despise the honours of a court when, by identifying himself with the shame and sorrow of a race of slaves, he could help them out of bondage worse than death. In a word, faith, in the case of Moses, was another name fur manliness or heroism. Every man who fights for his country, not from fear or by compulsion, but freely and bravely; every man who sacrifices time, or comfort, or health, or ease, for the good of his fellow-men; every man who makes a stand for truth, fair play, honesty, against lies and meanness and treachery and wrong; every man who thinks himself despicable if he is idle and useless, and respectable if he has duty to do and does it; every such man has in him something of the faith of Moses. It was a marvellous faith which Moses exhibited in his long and eventful life. With one or two mysterious lapses he played his heroic part in the most heroic fashion. It was not what he risked, or what he suffered in the execution of his great task at the hands of the Egyptians or other enemies of his race; it was what he had to endure from his countrymen; it was their murmurings and backslidings, their servile spirit, the bondage to sense which they carried with them out of the house of bondage--it was this which tried what manner of man he was, and of what stuff was his faith. As with all the greatest, as with Christ Himself, his conflict was not so much with force as with stupidity and baseness--those ancient and indomitable foes which never fail to rise up against the man whose purpose is to elevate his fellows. To make a nation, a chosen nation, a peculiar people, a commonwealth of righteousness, out of a horde of slaves, was a noble task. But it was a task in which he who undertook it had to suffer as much affliction, and refuse as much of what is called pleasure, as could well be suffered or refused. Herein Moses, as the language of this passage suggests, connects himself with Christ. His faith was the faith of Christ. The choice which the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter made in his time was the same choice which was made again when He who was rich for our sakes became poor. It is striking to notice the conjunction here of these two names, the greatest in the history of mankind. A superficial account can be and often is given of it, from which we get no lesson worth learning:--it is that, by a marvellous second-sight, Moses anticipated Christ’ s day, and by faith in Christ as the Saviour of the world was enabled to make his choice. There is a sense, no doubt, in which it is true that Moses, like Abraham, saw Christ’ s day and was glad. But it was not certainly in the way in which we see it, now that it has been or, rather, is. To fancy that the Old Testament worthies had substantially all the light we have concerning Christ is to fancy what, in the first place, is very incredible, and what, in the second, distorts and confuses the whole teaching of the Bible. Christ’ s life is the perfect life. As far as any one in times before He came approached to that life, he was a Christian--he saw Christ’ s day; he believed in Christ; he esteemed the reproach of Christ the greatest of treasures. Moses was not only a Christian before Christ; he came as near almost as a man can come to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus, inasmuch as, like Christ Himself, he had to be good and do good, he had to be a man, and live a man’ s true life, at the expense of having to count life-long afflictions great gain, and to turn away as from sin from all that common men call pleasure. It is a great thing to remember how old Christianity is--to remember that it is as old as Moses, nay, as old as man. Every true and noble life that was ever lived in this world, no matter where, or when, or how, was Christian. Above all, every hour of suffering that was ever endured in the way of duty to God and man was Christian. Nor does this make Christianity less or Christ less--it makes them greater. It is only an expression of the fact that Christianity is eternal truth gad eternal life. There are two remarks which I think ought to be made in conclusion. (1) As to the relation of Judaism, of which Moses was the founder, and Christianity, which began with Christ. Moses, whose faith was that of Christ, did not found a system which was destined to put ages of no faith, or different faith, between himself and Christ. There is but one faith--that which Moses had, and which Judaism, in its own way, inculcated--that faith which is another name for love to God and man. (2) Lastly, remark this as to the enjoyment of the world and what are called its pleasures. Many Christian people are much perplexed in their minds on this point. Where to draw the line between lawful and unlawful pleasure is a difficulty which they find great or insuperable. But there is one rule as to the enjoyment and the renunciation of what are called pleasures, which is good for practice, and it is that which is suggested to us here: we may safely enjoy pleasures, as long as they do not interfere with our duty as Christians--to be good and to do good; and if there are pleasures, as there are many, which help us to do this duty, we ought to enjoy them. Give up your pleasures and call them sins when they hinder you from doing Christian work. Till then enjoy them with a good conscience, giving God thanks for them. (J. Service, D. D.) The great refusal It is not meant that he was base and unthankful as not acknowledging her tender compassion towards him when he was ready to perish, or her singular love to him, and special care of him, manifested in his education and advancement. No doubt he did account her as his best friend under heaven, and his greatest benefactrix under God, and he did give her all respect and honour due unto her as his mother. His own natural mother might have been willing, but was no ways able, to do so much for him. This refusal therefore was no unworthy incivility, disrespect, or base ingratitude, but a free and noble act of his sanctified soul, whereby he being illuminated from heaven did see the baseness, uncertainty, and danger of that great estate of honour, wealth, power, and rare contents of the world; and did judge the enjoyment of it, if not consistent with, yet prejudicial to his spiritual and eternal happiness. And upon this account he was willing to part with them for a better end, and a great good. Whilst we are seeking the eternal bliss of heaven’ s kingdom, we must be willing to part with and forsake all things, even the most delicious and glorious, though we affect them much. Man devoid of grace and heavenly wisdom is strongly inclined to the glory, honour, wealth, and delights of this world; they seem so glorious, and taste so sweet, that they much take the soul; they promise some rare content and perfect happiness. Therefore men seek and pursue them eagerly, hoping and expecting much from them; and if they once are possessed of them, and enjoy them, oh, how unwilling are they to part with them! They prefer them before heaven and the eternal felicity thereof. Hence it doth appear how highly elevated, and how excellently qualified, the soul of Moses was, who could so fully and freely refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter. This perhaps was not done without some great conflict, the issue whereof was a clear and glorious victory. (G. Lawson.) The choice of Moses I. IT EVINCED GREAT SELF-DENIAL, He despised the pleasures of a court for the still greater luxury of doing good; he relinquished the enjoyments of a fine mind, a cultivated taste, and a splendid imagination, cradled in affluence, for the still loftier rewards of morality and religion; he turned a deaf ear to the voice of ambition which promised him the crown. Nor can it be said of Moses, what has been sneeringly declared of Solomon by the disciples of Kant and the shallow imitators of Voltaire, that he renounced the pleasures of this world only when his infirmities unfitted him for enjoying them. He was now in the vigour of his youth, and in all the prime of his manhood. Have you the moral courage and the self-denial to do what Moses did? You cannot refuse, like him, to be called the son of a princess. But have you the self-denial and the moral fortitude of character to be perfectly satisfied with the humble station in which Providence has placed you? Is it your aim to use this world as not abusing it, and to devote to His glory those talents with which you are intrusted? II. THE CHOICE OF MOSES . III. THE CHOICE OF MOSES CALM AND COOL ON THE MOST PAINFUL OF SUCH A CHOICE. He insulted the princess, he outraged the royal favour, and he poured contempt upon the whole courtiers of the land. And the wrath which would now run high against him would bear some proportion to the love which adopted him as a son. These were consequences which Moses could not overlook in coming to such a resolution, and they were every way calculated to excite the deepest regret. Instead of his conduct being imputed to the true motives, he knew that it would be traced to principles to which he was an utter stranger. Nor could he vindicate himself; he was gone, and vile ingratitude was stamped upon his character. Nor were these the only difficulties which would present themselves to his generous mind. He was offering his services to men who scarcely knew the sacrifices which he was making--who could not appreciate his exertions on their behalf. These were the immediate consequences of his choice; they were far too palpable for such a man as Moses was, not to perceive; and they were far too important for him not to consider. Yet, notwithstanding all this, he deliberately “ chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Such should be the principles by which you are actuated in making a profession of religion now. If your profession of religion is not founded on real principle, if it is not guided by solid information, and if it is not animated by love to the truth, then there is no stability in your character. IV. THE CHOICE OF MOSES EARLY TO . The apostle here tells us that, when Moses came to years, he made this choice, which fully warrants us in concluding that he had given very early attention to this matter. He considered the subject in all its bearings, and he traced out its consequences in time and eternity. And the result of this investigation was the choice which is here recorded. We enjoy far greater privileges than ever Moses knew. We are taught to look back to the incarnation, the life, and the sacrificial death of Christ, as a part of recorded history, instead of a part of those prophecies which were darkly unfolded, or of those ceremonies which were imperfectly understood. In conclusion 1. Notice the great folly of those men who prefer the pleasures of sin to the enjoyments of religion. 2. Those men are wise who make the same choice that Moses did. (A. Gilmour.) Moses’ choice I. THE CHOICE OF MOSES. II. THE WHICH THIS CHOICE. That principle was faith; a firm and cordial, not a cold and cursory, faith in the revelations of that truth which constituted the patriarchal religion. 1. He concluded that to be associated with the people of God, though in affliction, was better than to enjoy the pleasures of sin; and he judged right. But what are the advantages of union with the people, the Church, of God? (1) Instruction. The Church is the depositary of truth; and God perpetuates a people to confess it. He raises up ministers also to teach it. (2) Worship. The people of God worship Him in religious assemblies, in the use of pure forms, and in spirit and in truth. The advantages of such a service are unspeakable. A holy and cheering influence from God is vouchsafed to those who thus draw near to Him. (3) An interest in God’ s covenant. The people with whom Moses chose to suffer affliction were the people of God. He had been merciful to their unrighteousness, cancelled their guilt, renewed their nature, and received them as a peculiar treasure to himself. (4) The communion of saints. In Egypt Moses might have had communion with her princes, her philosophers, her artists; but they were “ of the world” ; and intercourse with them would have been very different in its effects from intercourse with the devout worshippers of God. One would have tended to produce hardness of heart, and a worldly spirit; the other, to elevate and purify the mind, and prepare it for God and heaven. 2. Faith enabled him to take a right estimate of the pleasures of sin. They “ are but for a season.” But what are sinful pleasures? (1):Every pleasure which arises from what God has forbidden. (2) Every pleasure which, if not expressly forbidden, cannot be reconciled to the general principles of the Word of God. (3) All such pleasures as weaken the tone of our piety, and dissipate our thoughts, so that we lose our taste and relish for Divine things. Such are the pleasures of gaiety, of unhallowed reading, and often those of imagination; and they are tacitly contrasted with those which spring from God, and which lead the mind to Him. They are but for a season, short-lived. They are so denominated because they are only occasional. Man must labour and suffer, and can only occasionally enjoy his pleasures. Besides, the appetite for them palls. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 11:26 Respect unto the recompense The recompense of the reward I. DUTY, BARELY AS DUTY, DOES NOT CARRY IN IT A MOTIVE TO ENGAGE THE WILL OF MAN IN THE OF IT. 1. If in the soul of man its averseness to duty be much stronger than its inclination to it, then duty, considered barely in itself, is not sufficient to determine the will of man to the constant performance of it; which, in my judgment, is an argument so clear, that one of greater force cannot well be desired. No; sooner may the fire be attracted by the centre of the earth, or the vine clasp about the bramble, than any faculty of the soul have its inclinations drawn forth by a contrary and distasteful object. And then for the ground of this argument, to wit, that the soul has originally such an averseness to duty; this, I suppose, is but too evident to need any further probation. 2. The second reason, for the proof of the same truth, is this, that those affections and appetites of the soul, which have the strongest influence upon it, to incline and bias it in all its choices, to wit, the appetites belonging properly to the sensitive part of man’ s nature, are not at all moved or gratified by anything in duty, considered barely as duty, and therefore, as so considered, it is not a sufficient motive to induce men to the practice of it. Now this reason also, I conceive carries its own evidence with it. For the soul of man, as the present state of nature is, generally moves as those forementioned appetites and affections shall incline it; and therefore, if that which thus inclines it be not some way or other first made sure of, all persuasions addressed immediately to the will itself, are like to find but a very cold reception. 3. The third and last reason that I shall allege is this: that if duty, considered barely in itself, ought to be the sole motive to duty, without any respect to a subsequent reward, then those two grand affections of hope and fear ought to have no influence upon men, so as to move or engage them to the acts of duty at all. The consequence is most clear; because the proper objects upon which these affections are to be employed are future rewards and future punishments; and therefore, if no regard ought to be had of these in matters of duty, it will follow, that neither must those affections, which are wholly conversant about rewards, have anything to do about duty, wherein no considerations of a reward ought, upon this principle, to take place. This, I say, would be the genuine, unavoidable consequence of this doctrine. But now, should any one venture to own such an odd and absurd paradox, in any of those sober, rational parts of Christendom, which have not depraved their judging and discerning faculties! For all the world acknowledges, that hope and fear are the two great handles by which the will of man is to be taken hold of, when we would either draw it to duty, or draw it off from sin. They are the strongest means to bring such things home to the will as are principally apt to move and work upon it. And the most renowned actions that were ever achieved upon the face of the earth, have first moved upon the spring of a projecting hope, carrying the mind above all present discouragements, by the prospect of some glorious and future good. II. THE OF A REWARD ON GOD’ S PART, AND A RESPECT HAD TO IT ON MAN’ S ARE TO ENGAGE MEN IN A COURSE OF DUTY AND . 1. And first for the necessity of them. (1) A thing may be said to be necessary when by the very essence or nature of it, it is such, that it implies in it a contradiction, and consequently an impossibility, even by the power of God Himself, that (the said nature continuing) it should be otherwise. And thus, I shall never presume to affirm (though some I know do) that God cannot induce a man (being a free agent) to a course of duty and obedience, without proposing a competent reward to such obedience. (2) A thing may be said to be necessary, not absolutely, but with respect to that particular state and condition in which it is. And thus, because God has actually so cast the present condition of man as to make his inclination to good but imperfect, and during this life to continue it so, and withal to place him among such objects as are mightily apt to draw him off from what is morally good, it was necessary (upon the supposal of such a condition) that, if God would have men effectually choose good and avoid evil, He should suggest to them some further motives to good, and arguments against evil, than what the bare consideration of the things themselves prohibited or commanded by Him can afford. For otherwise, that which was morally good, meeting with so feeble an inclination in the will towards it, will never be able to make any prevailing impression upon that leading faculty. From all which you see, in what sense we affirm it necessary for God to propose rewards to men, thereby to engage them to their duty; namely, because of that imperfect estate which God has been pleased to leave men under in this world. 2. And now, in the next place, for the proof of this necessity. (1) And first for Scripture. It has been more than sufficiently proved from thence already, how deplorably unable the heart of man is, not only to conquer, but even to contend with the difficulties of a spiritual course, without a steady view of such promises as may supply new life, spirit, and vigour to its obedience. To all which, let it suffice at present to add that full and notable declaration of St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:19. (2) The other proof of the same assertion shall be taken from the practice of all the noted lawgivers of the world; who have still found it necessary to back and fortify their laws with rewards and punishments; these being the very strength and sinew of the law, as the law itself is of government. No wise ruler ever yet ventured the peace of society upon the goodness of men’ s nature, or the virtuous inclination of their temper. Nor was anything truly great and extraordinary ever almost achieved, but in the strength of some reward every whit as great and extraordinary as the action which it carried a man out to. Thus it was in the virtue of Saul’ s high promises that David encountered Goliath. If we look further into the politics of the Greeks and the Romans, and other nations of remark in history, we shall find, that whensoever the laws enjoined anything harsh, and to the doing of which men were naturally averse, they always thought it requisite to add allurement to obligation, by declaring a noble recompense (possibly some large pension, or gainful office, or title of honour to the meritorious doers of whatsoever should be commanded them. For in vain do we think to find any man virtuous enough to be a law to himself, or any law strong enough to enforce and drive home its own obligation; or lastly, the prerogative of any lawgiver high enough to assure to him the subject’ s obedience. For men generally affect to be caressed and encouraged, and, as it were, bought to their duty (as well as from it too sometimes). For which and the like causes, when God, by Moses, had set before His own people a large number of the most excellent, and, as one would think, self-recommending precepts on the one hand, and a black roll of the very worst and vilest of sins on the other, sins that seemed to carry their punishment in their very commission; yet nevertheless in the issue God found it needful to bring up the rear of all with those decretory words in Deuteronomy 30:19. (R. South, D. D.) The faith of Moses I. THAT ONWARD LOOK, WHICH TURNS UPSIDE DOWN THE WORLD’ S OF GOOD AND EVIL. Christian faith should dwell in the future. True! that onward look is secondary, and not primary. We look forward simply because God has told us what that future is to be, and we are to trust Him. Our conceptions of the future must always be limited by, as well as founded exclusively on, the revelation which God has made. And that is the distinction between the wholesome and ennobling anticipation of the future which is proper to Christianity, and should be familiar to all professing Christians, and every other forecast of possibilities or probabilities to come beyond the grave. The one is mist, the other is solid earth. The one is a torturing, though it sometimes be an attractive peradventure; the other loots itself upon a “ Verily! verily! I say unto thee.” Then, further, note here how this onward look should reverse the world’ s estimate of good and evil. As long as the theatre is only lit by artificial light, the tawdry Dutch metal upon the cotton velvet robes, and the glass jewels upon the paltry crowns of the strutting pretenders to royalty and wealth look genuine, solid, and rich. Let the daylight in, and how shabby and seamy and poor they all look. If we want to know what the world’ s wealth is, let us only lift our eyes unto, and keep them fixed upon, that realm of light to which Christ invites us, and then these have no glory at all “ by reason of the glory that excelleth.” As a candle against the sun, so is the “ abundance” that a man “ possesses” as contrasted with the durable riches and righteousness to which the Christian soul hastens. Nothing that can be stripped from us is truly ours. Only that which is incorporated with the very substance of the soul belongs to me; and the only true wealth is the wealth of a Christ-love in my heart, and a Christ-truth in my understanding, and a Christ-spirit in my life, and a Christ the law of my will. He that hath these is rich, and he that looks for the perfecting of these things in the perfect world beyond has a charm which turns all the fairy-gold by which men are deceived in the dark into the bundle of rotting leaves which, according to the old legend, it truly is. And then there is the other side of the world’ s fascinations, which equally are stripped of their masquerading pomp by the eye that looks onwards to the recompense of reward. “ The pleasures for a season” come to be known for the poor paltry things that they are when they are set by the side of the calm “ pleasures for evermore “ which await us if we will. We never realise the true transiency of the transient until we measure it against the eternity of the eternal. “ For a season” ; “ for evermore.” Who will compare these two? Then, further, let me remind you how the analysis of our text shows us that this estimate made by faith, and reversing the world’ s judgment, ought to lead to a deliberate surrender. There are miserable multitudes of Christian men and women, good enough kind of people in their way, and with some reality of Christian faith towards that great Lord, who have no doubt whatever, if you come to put the question to them, that this world’ s goods are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And yet there is a fatal schism between judgment and choice; and a paralysis, as it were, of the powers that would carry the estimate into action. How comes this to be? You and I are not called to surrender in the fashion of the heroic renunciation of our text, but we are called upon to use the lower in subordination to the higher. And unless our faith has in it an onward look that truly estimates the relative worth of the things seen and temporal and the things eternal, and that impels by that estimate to a deliberate choice which we carry out in action, we have little right to say that we are soldiers in this great army, the heroes of which are marshalled in the roll-call of this chapter. II. THE UPWARD LOOK, WHICH FROM FEAR, AND NERVES FOR SERVICE. I am prepared to maintain that the knowledge which a believing heart has of God is as valid, and more so, than the evidence of sense; and that the sight of faith is better, truer, deeper, more to be relied upon as giving us verities than the sight of these senses that may be befooled and diseased and deceive us. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” and he that hath trusted hath seen God revealed in Christ. But, then, mark how this vision of the invisible, which is the bliss of the Christian life, and without which no faith worth calling by the name is possible, should have in it a power of steadying us for persistent endurance of difficulty and continuance in duty. When soldiers pass the saluting-point where the commander-in-chief sits, they dress up their ranks and pull themselves together. If we realised that we were ever in the presence of that great Lord, that lie was ever there before us, how the world would change its aspect, and life and its difficulties would become easy! The great white throne dims everything else. And then, further, this upward look should bring glad courage. Soldiers tell us that the bravest man has a spasm of terror when he goes into the battle; and courage is but the rebound of the heart from fear. “ What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” “ I will trust and not be afraid.” Whoso has the recompense of reward, and Him that is invisible who is the “ exceeding great reward,” clear before him, is delivered from all other fear, and through fear is driven to God, whose presence drives it out. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The reward of Moses I. WHAT WAS IMPLIED IN THAT REWARD TO WHICH MOSES HAD RESPECT. 1. The glory of God was implied in it. In bringing about this event, God would necessarily display His power, His sovereignty, His justice, His mercy, and His faithfulness. 2. The good of His nation was another thing implied in the reward to which Moses had respect. 3. He had reason to expect a distinguished mansion in heaven, to which he had a proper respect. His own future and eternal happiness was a truly important and desirable object. II. MOSES WAS TRULY IN SEEKING THE REWARD SET BEFORE HIM. 1. He does not appear to have been selfish by his conduct. This was such as plainly manifested pure, disinterested love to God and man. 2. If Moses had been selfish in having respect to the recompense of reward, his conduct would not have been virtuous and pleasing to God. 3. If Moses had not sought a recompense of reward from pure and holy motives, he would not have been admitted to heaven. 4. Holy love, or true benevolence, would naturally lead Moses to have respect to such a reward as God set before him. He must desire, in the exercise of pure, disinterested, and universal benevolence, that God should be glorified; that his nation should be happy; and that he himself should be blessed in the everlasting enjoyment of God. These were the things contained in the reward set before him; and these were the things which were set before all other sincere servants of God. Improvement: 1. If Moses was really disinterested in having respect to the recompense of reward, then real saints may be as disinterested in seeking their own good, as in seeking the good of others. 2. If Moses had respect, in the exercise of disinterested benevolence, to a future and eternal reward, then saints may and do regard their own eternal good more than sinners. 3. If those who act from disinterested benevolence deserve to be rewarded, then those who act from selfish and mercenary motives deserve to be punished. 4. If Moses acted virtuously and acceptably to God in the view of a future and eternal reward, then it is no just objection against the gospel that it proposes future rewards and punishments to men, to induce them to shun the broad road to destruction, and walk in the strait and narrow way to eternal life. 5. If Moses, in the exercise of disinterested love, obtained the recompense of reward to which he had respect, then all real saints have great encouragement to persevere in their religious course. 6. If Moses and other good men were governed by disinterested love in seeking and obtaining a future and eternal reward, then none have any reason to expect to obtain a crown of righteousness, without exercising true disinterested love. 7. This subject now asks of all, whether they are walking in the straight and narrow way to heaven. Have you that respect to recompense that Moses had? His life, his death, and his present state are recorded. He has arrived at heaven safe. Look at his character and conduct, and compare your own with his. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The future retribution I. THE THAT A FUTURE DOES EXIST. In referring to the testimony which we possess upon this momentous subject, we may be allowed to notice some sources of evidence which are frequently considered as existing apart from Divine revelation. We may notice, for instance, the general and simultaneous opinion of all mankind, that there, is a period of future retribution. We may notice also the operations of the human conscience in the decisions it pronounces upon the principles and the actions of man, and in the feelings which it always inspires in the human bosom as the consequence of those decisions. We may also notice the uniform structure of all human governments, whose laws are supported by the promises of reward, or the penalties of punishment, from which it is fair to conclude the existence of an Almighty Lawgiver, and the denial of which is equal to atheism. But the prime source of our assurance upon this momentous subject, and without which every other would be found to be inconclusive, will be found to exist in the records of Divine truth--the revelation which the Almighty has been pleased to make to the children of men respecting Himself, and respecting the highest interests of their being. It may be observed, that in the early portions of Divine truth there is a considerable obscurity resting upon the announcements of a future state, arising not from the weakness, but from the arrangements, of the Divine wisdom in the administration of the affairs of the world. Every promise--every doctrine--every precept is hallowed and enforced by this one inscription, that there is a recompense of reward. II. THE BY WHICH IT IS . 1. The good and evil which constitute this future recompense are in their nature incessant and perfect. 2. The good and the evil which constitute this future recompense are in their duration changeless and eternal. III. THE ON WHICH THIS FUTURE IS . 1. The recompense of good is bestowed upon a principle of grace. The notion which is contrary to this, namely, that the recompense of happiness in heaven arises from man’ s merit, and that it is granted to him by the justice of God in consequence of that merit, is one that must be exposed, as being at variance with all the conclusions of right reason, and all the declared arrangements of the Word of God. With regard to the former we are to speak of its absurdity. What greater absurdity is there than to speak of everlasting happiness being purchased by a temporary obedience--that obedience, as it is universally acknowledged, being, at the very best, but imperfect and partial? 2. The recompense of future evil is inflicted upon a principle of justice. Not more false, and not more pernicious, is the sentiment which ascribes the damnation of man to the sovereignty of God, than is the notion which ascribes the redemption of man to the justice of God. The lost spirits of the human race are only in the regions of despair because they do wilfully and voluntarily sin against the authority of the Almighty, and that the essential and eternal justice of the Almighty compelled and necessitated the punishment of these violations of His law. Grace is inscribed over the gates of heaven; justice is written over the portals of hell. IV. THE WHICH THE OF THIS FUTURE SHOULD EXCITE. 1. From the knowledge of this future state of recompense, we ought to be frequent in our contemplations of it. As you go amongst the material works of man, or the material works of God, consider this, which gives you a grandeur superior to them all. Yonder monuments and statues--yonder cathedrals and temples--yonder mansions and edifices shall crumble; yonder green fields and yonder verdant trees--yonder fruitful vales, and yonder lovely mountains shall perish; yonder rivers will soon no longer flow; yonder deep and dreary ocean will no longer heave its mighty rolling billows; yonder stars that adorn the firmament of heaven will soon cease to shine; yonder moon will be turned into blood; yonder sun is but a spark of fire--a transient meteor in the sky; while I, who stand upon this little spot of earth, am destined to outlive the universal wreck, and shall survive them all! I wear upon my brow the stamp of immortality! I am the heir of a recompense of reward! 2. The knowledge of this state of future recompense should make us constantly anxious to obtain the recompense of good, and to avoid the recompense of evil. You have heard of the atonement of Christ--you have heard of the justifying merit of His righteousness--you have heard that those who believe in Him shall not be condemned, but shall be saved with an everlasting salvation. He is the refuge, flee to Him--He is the foundation, build upon Him--and a voice from the judgment-seat will pronounce its own tidings of acceptation, “ Enter into the joy of your Lord!” (J. Parsons.) The remunerating power of God: There is no attempt at denying, in the account here given of Moses, that there was much to be endured and much to be given up, in order to the serving the Lord. And Moses is not represented as at all blind to the facts of the case; he rested his choice of future good on its immeasurable superiority to the present. And in so doing he left us an example, not merely of right decision, but of right decision reached by right steps. It will not do, constituted as men are, to enlarge to them abstractedly on the duty of holiness, and on the satisfaction derived from a conscience at rest. They are not to be persuaded that virtue is in any such sense its own reward, that it would be better for them to be self-denying than self-indulgent, even if nothing be brought into the account but the amount of actual enjoyment. They demand, with some show of justice, that we rigidly prove to them that they shall be gainers by doing that which we urge. I. And here, let us first remind you, THAT MAN IS SO , THAT HE MUST HAVE AN OBJECT, A TO DESIRE, A TO PURSUE. The object which at some particular season fixes his attention may be trivial; but it is not by any demonstration of its worthlessness that you may look to turn him from it. You must show him a worthier, one which shall more commend itself to his esteem, and then will the stronger cast out the strong, and the “ treasures in Egypt” be dispossessed by yet brighter wealth. We summon the man of pleasure to come with us. We will tell him of joys which distance imagination, of happiness without alloy and without end; and we will show him how he may have a share in a blessedness which he cannot exhaust, and of which he cannot grow weary. We say to the man whose passion is for wealth, Come with us; we have to place before you treasures not to be computed, whose lustre makes the brightest gold dim, and of which nothing can deprive you. We say to the man of ambition, Behold the loftiest of honours, crowns and thrones and sceptres--a place amid the nobles of creation. Ay, if you would all indeed but fix your gaze on the inheritance revealed by the gospel of Christ, you would all, as a necessary consequence, cease from unduly pursuing what is earthly. You will not be left without an object; that were unnatural, that were impossible. It is not a process of extinction, but simply a process of exchange, which you are to attempt. This, however, only touches the case of the comparison of one good with another; whereas the case commonly submitted in urging men to religion, is that of a present evil and a prospective advantage. This was the case with Moses; and our business is to see whether the principles which regulated his decision cannot still be applied in the urging men to a similar. Take the case of the young, who, with life just opening before them, and the attractions of the world soliciting their pursuit, are urged to the duty of remembering their Creator, and setting their affections on things that are above. We say to them, It is true you must renounce cherished gratifications; and we do not suppose you can go along with us in decrying those gratifications. You seek your wealth in earthly treasures, and your honours in earthly fame, and you are not prepared to disregard the treasures and to despise the fame. But at whose call, and at whose command, are you summoned to the sacrifice? Is it for the service of one who has nothing to bestow that we ask you to exchange the sonship of Pharaoh? Is it to make friendship with a being who has nothing good and nothing great at his disposal? On the contrary, we address you in the name of the living God, “ whose is the earth, and the fulness thereof.” We invite you to be reconciled to your Creator, who can supply your every want out of His riches in Christ. We offer you the favour of a Being who can impart a “ peace which passeth all understanding,” a “ hope full of immortality,” and a joy with which no stranger intermeddles. We propose to you the placing yourself under the guardianship of Him who hath spread out the heavens. And are we, then, to hear of the extent of the sacrifice, and to hear nothing of the wealth and the happiness secured by the surrender? Oh! it is to your zeal for your own welfare, to your love for your own selves, to your wish for riches, to your appetite for honours, to your longing for pleasures, that we make our appeal. If we ask the surrender of the corruptible, we offer the incorruptible; of the transitory, we offer the enduring; of the visionary, we offer the substantial. And now we go on to observe, that it is the apparent conflict between interest and duty which causes us in a variety of cases to disobey God, and withstand the pleadings of conscience. We speak of apparent conflict, because we deny altogether that interest and duty can ever be really opposed. It is but vindicating the righteousness of the moral government of God, to maintain, that whatever He has made it our duty, He has made it also our interest to do. Indeed, the world would cease to be a scene of probation, and there would no longer be any trial of obedience, were it always manifestly for our advantage to follow the course which God’ s law prescribes. It is only by carrying onward our calculation, bringing the future, as well as the present, into the account, that we reach the conclusion, that what is duty, is in the long run also interest. There is, therefore, no passage of Scripture more deserving than is our text, to be carried by all of you into the scenes of ordinary occupations; for there is nothing which you have more need to keep in mind, than what we have called the remunerating power of God, seeing that the life of a Christian must, in a great measure, be a life of surrender and of sacrifice. We need scarcely add, that our text should be a preservative, not only to those who may be tempted to the so engrossing themselves with business as to leave no time for religion, but to others who may be solicited to turn aside, be it ever so little, from rectitude and integrity. We would have you animate yourselves for the moral warfare, by considering what “ recompense of reward” is promised to the faithful. Is the gold seducing you? are the precious stones dazzling you? Then think of that city whose streets are pure gold, and whose every gate is a costly pearl. Is earthly honour, the being Pharaoh’ s son, alluring you? Then think of that throne which the righteous are to ascend; of their being “ heirs of God, yea, joint-heirs with Christ.” Are “ the pleasures of sin” themselves tempting you? Then think of pleasures so deep and overflowing, that they are spoken of as a “ river of gladness,” so unmeasured, that he who partakes thereof will be abundantly satisfied. It is now the appointment of God, as in early days, that through much tribulation you must enter into rest. Egypt is still to be forsaken, and the wilderness to be traversed, and the reproach to be endured. Oh! for the faith which ruled in the bosom of Moses! (H. Melvill, B. D.) A treasure worth great sacrifices: There is an interesting anecdote told of a French botanist, who many years ago was sent out to tropical regions to arrange for introducing the coffee-plant into the island of Mauritius. This, it was considered, would do much for the prosperity of the island. But the voyage was very long; contrary winds prevailed; almost all the plants he brought with him died; water was so scarce that the passengers were only allowed one glassful per day--one coffee-plant only was left! But to preserve this one plant alive, the self-denying botanist gave half of his small daily allowance of water, patiently enduring the torments of thirst. It just sufficed to keep the plant from dying, and the happy result in later years was the naturalisation of the coffee crop in the island. Such were the fruits of self-denial. Shall not we be prepared to sacrifice many earthly inducements, and the “ pleasures of sin,” to win the lasting and precious “ treasure” of true religion in this life, and to secure the heavenly inheritance beyond, which, by God’ s mercy, has been placed within our reach? (J. W.Hardman, LL. D.) Heaven only a little further on: Columbus, when his men were weary, and resolved to come back, besought them to go on but three days longer. They did so, and discovered America. Heaven is but a little before us. Hold out, faith and patience. (J. Trapp.) The recompense of reward: True, all our lives long we shall be bound to refrain oar soul and keep it low; but what then? For the books we now forbear to read, we shall one day be endued with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we will not listen to, we shall join in the song of the redeemed. For the pictures from which we turn, we shall gaze unabashed on the beatific vision. For the companionship we shun, we shall be welcomed into angelic society and the communion of triumphant saints. For the pleasures we miss, we shall abide, and evermore abide, in the rapture of heaven. It cannot be much of a hardship to dress modestly, and at small cost, rather than richly and fashionably, if, with a vivid conviction, we are awaiting the “ white robes of the redeemed.” And, indeed, this anticipation of pure and simple white robes for eternal wear may fairly shake belief in the genuine beauty of elaborate showiness, even for such clothes as befitted in the present distress. (Christina G. Rossetti.) Heaven worthy of effort: Julius Caesar, coming towards Rome with his army, and hearing that the senate and people had tied from it, said, “ They that will not fight for this city, what city will they fight for?” If we will not take pains for the kingdom of heaven, what kingdom will we take pains for? Hebrews 11:27 He forsook Egypt Moses forsaking Egypt I. HE FORSOOK EGYPT. Two several times. 1. When he fled into the land of Midian, where he was a stranger and a shepherd for many years. 2. When he brought Israel out of Egypt, Whether of these is here intended? Some think the former; some the latter; some both. Yet, whether it be one or both, it is certain both that he did leave Egypt and that he did leave it in this manner. In the former departure he fled to avoid danger: in the latter he marched out like a prince and general with a mighty host. II. THE REASON OF THIS WAS HIS FAITH, WHEREBY HE ENDURED AS SEEING HIM WHO IS , WHICH IS THE SECOND . 1. He that was invisible was God, who is said to be the eternal, immortal, invisible God (1 Timothy 1:17), whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Timothy 6:16), and the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). 2. The act of his faith was that whereby he, as it were, and in some manner, saw this invisible God, he saw Him, not by his senses, nor by the natural light of reason, but by a diviner and more excellent visive faculty, to which He did represent Himself in His wisdom, almighty power, promise, and fidelity, with all which He was engaged in this act. This sight of Him made Pharaoh, though a king of mighty power, as contemptible in his eyes. So glorious did He appear that all the power and princes of the world were nothing to him. 3. The immediate effect was that he so seeing Him as though He were present, marching in the van, bringing up the rear, and guarding Israel on every side, did endure, not only with a patient but a constant and undaunted mind, the wrath of the king, whom he feared. He strengthened and hardened himself, and resolved to carry Israel out of Egypt, and rescue them from the Egyptian bondage and tyranny. This was an act of faith, of strong faith; and this instance doth teach to fortify and embolden our hearts by faith in God against all fears of the greatest, most cruel, and enraged enemies. (G. Lawson.) An heroic frame of mind I. In all duties, especially such as are attended with great difficulties and dangers, it is the wisdom of believers to take care, not only that the works of them be good in themselves, BUT THAT THEY HAVE A JUST AND DUE CALL TO THEIR . When they have so, and are satisfied therein, there is nothing that faith will not conflict withal and conquer. But if they are weak in this foundation of duty, they will find that faith will not be engaged to their assistance. II. EVEN THE WRATH OF THE KINGS IS TO BE IF IT LIE AGAINST OUR DUTY TOWARDS GOD (Daniel 3:13-18). III. THERE IS AN HEROIC FRAME OF MIND AND TO THE DUE OF OUR IN TIMES OF DANGER, WHICH FAITH IN WILL PRODUCE (1 Corinthians 16:13). IV. THERE IS NOTHING TO FAITH WHILE IT CAN KEEP A CLEAR VIEW OF THE POWER OF GOD AND HIS IN HIS . And unless we are constant in this exercise of faith we shall fail in great trials and difficult duties. From hence we may fetch revivings, renewals of strength, and consolations on all occasions, as the Scripture everywhere testifieth (Psalms 73:25-26; Isaiah 40:28-30). (John Owen, D. D.) Forsaking Egypt I remember, when visiting the national museum at Naples, and standing in the corridor of marble sculptures, surrounded on every side by colossal forms of Zeno and Socrates, and Plato, and Sophocles, and Homer, and hundreds of the wise and great of other days, it seemed as though I were transported back to an earlier age; and I never read this eleventh chapter of the Hebrews without feeling as though I stood in a gallery of statuary, and were gazing on the sculptured figures of a distinguished group, long since passed into the heavens, of whom the world was not worthy. The first form that arrests my eye is that of a young man standing by a kind of rude altar, with an innocent lamb by his side, and I say, “ That is Abel.” Then a little to the right I notice a man with dignified and heavenly mien, apparently holding close communion with his Maker, and I say, “ That is Enoch.” A few steps further, and I see, carved in elaborate sculpture, a shipbuilder of no common ambition, his plans and his tools beside him, and timber for such a vessel as had never floated on the sea. “ Noah! “ I at once exclaim, and the whole story of the Deluge instantly flashes before my mind. And so I walk round the gallery, and quickly recognise such eminent figures as Abraham, and Jacob, and Gideon, and David, and Samuel, and many others; but, amongst them all, there is not one, perhaps, to compare in grandeur of character with him of whom my text tells us. I. You MUST FORSAKE EGYPT. There we have all been born. Just as Canaan represents the state of rest and liberty which we enter and enjoy when we become the people of God, so Egypt stands, in Scriptural symbolism, for carnality and spiritual bondage. This is the two-fold thought which “ Egypt” expresses. 1. First, a mere fleshly or animal existence. Living for the gratification of our lower nature. Asking, “ What shall we eat?” and “ What shall we drink?” and “ What clothes shall we wear?” and “ What worldly delights shall we enjoy? “ The food of Egypt was not only plentiful, but it was gross and stimulating. It pampered the body. It inflamed the passions. To young men, Egypt, in this sense, often presents special charms. The power of sin lies in its pleasure. But then, remember, the pleasures of the sensualist are the preludes of a misery that words cannot paint. There was a young medical student who went out to prosecute his studies in Paris. He caught the moral infection of its licentiousness and infidelity. There was an inward struggle between the conscience and the flesh. “ Shall I forsake Egypt?” was the question. The flesh prevailed, and he said “ No.” Here are his very words: “ I know that I can enjoy life in my own way about so many years. I shall parcel out my money to last so long a time, and no longer. When my time is up my revolver shall end all.” His prediction was but too true; and when, within but a few years, his pale and breathless form was one day found lying in his own blood, one could almost have believed that a voice was whispering, “ The way of transgressors is hard.” The great thing which a young man needs in a crisis of temptation is instant decision for the right. If you tamper and hesitate the game is half lost. Leave no time for temptation to accumulate. “ Forsake Egypt.” You must surely have noticed that, in relation to all sins of this character--sins of the flesh--St. Paul’ s counsel is, “ Flee!” It may seem like cowardice, but it is true heroism. “ Flee youthful lusts.” Like Joseph, hasten instantly out of the way of the tempter; saying, as Moses did to Pharaoh, “ Thou shalt see my face no more!” 2. But, secondly, it is also a state of bondage. It is slavery of the worst kind. There are fetters of the soul, moral chains, forged of such material, and riveted with such strength, that he who wears them, though his comrades call him a free lance, and a dashing blade, is unspeakably more a bondman than the convict in his cell. There is no greater slavery than that of the man over whom his own passions and vile habits domineer. Can he be called his own master who is always at the bidding of some imperious lust, or ungovernable appetite? Do you call that man free, for example, who lately came to my door, and in desperation asked me what was to be done, because no power on earth could keep him back from drink? It is idle to talk of liberty whilst you are the servants of the devil. If you spare sin it will not spare you. II. You MUST DEFY THE PRINCE OF . There are thousands of young persons who are more than half-inclined to become Christians, but are kept back from a full decision by certain fears that stand in their way. How many, for example, are in mortal dread of being laughed at, ridiculed by their ungodly associates? Old John Trapp has a quaint remark somewhere, to the effect that if we can bear taunts and jeers for Christ’ s sake, it argues we mean to stick to Him; just as among the Jews, by Moses’ law, the servant that was content to be “ bored in the ear with an awl,” signified that nothing would tempt him away from his master. Whenever you are chaffed or ridiculed for your religion, then, just think that if you can endure such “ boring,” it speaks well for your attachment to Christ. Then some are deterred from a decided Christian life by the dread of the inward conflict they will have, as they think, to undergo; the bitterness of true repentance; by the thought of the sinful pleasures they must forego, the giddy company they must abandon, and the responsibilities they must assume. Not a few are frightened away from personal religion by the idea that if they become Christians they must give up all kinds of social enjoyment. Others have frankly told me that the reason they keep aloof is that it is now impossible for them to shake themselves loose from certain habits that would be inconsistent with a life of piety. “ I forsake Egypt! I become a devout believer, and live a holy life! The thing is impossible. My habits are too confirmed, my feelings too blunted; the enemy has got too strong a hold upon me for that.” These are a few of the bugbears with which the devil seeks to frighten you! Oh, my friend! come away out of Egypt at once, and do not “ fear the wrath of the king.” Ninety-nine reasons out of every hundred that frighten people against religion are utterly false and baseless. Christ’ s is not a hard hand, nor a sour and gloomy face. To become a believer is to come into the land of gladsome sunshine and of glorious liberty. If you have served the devil for twenty years, don’ t serve him a day longer. God’ s grace is all-sufficient. III. You MUST FIX YOUR EYE ON THE UNSEEN GOD. YOU must “ endure as seeing Him who is invisible.” Your minds are entirely occupied with the visible and the concrete; with matters of the shop, the office, or the household; with your stock-in-trade; with buying and selling, lending and borrowing, bargaining and investing; with pounds, shillings, and pence; with bonds, and shares, and debentures; with pound weights and pint measures; with webs of cloth, and reams of paper, and hags of rice, and boxes of tea, and casks of sugar, and waggons of coal; with accounts and invoices; from day to day, from week to week, looking only to what is “ seen and temporal,” devoting the powers of an immortal soul to the interests of a dying world, with the almost certainty of continuing so to do till fever or paralysis throw you on your back, and you wake up, too late, to discover that your soul has never pierced through the veil of flesh, and gazed on “ Him who is invisible” ! Ah! you will never “ endure” with a life like that! “ Can thine heart endure, saith the Lord, or can thine hands be strong, in the day that I shall deal with thee?” Thank God, some of you have had your eyes opened to a new world altogether. Even the simplest mind is raised and expanded, by converse with eternity, and fellowship with God. But your contemplation of the invisible must not be a mere abstract dreamy devotion, a waiting afar off on Heaven’ s eternal glorious King. There must be a personal surrender of yourselves to God, founded upon a living and intelligent faith. A man whose business affairs are all in a muddle will never be a successful man; and it is just as true, that if the interests of your soul are all in a muddle, there is little hope of your wearing the eternal crown. Oh, clear up the whole matter now; come and get salvation on God’ s terms. Turn your back on Egypt, and your face toward Canaan; and keep your eye fixed on Him who is invisible. So shall you endure to the end, and, enduring to the end, shall be saved. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) Fearlessness in fear through the vision of the invisible: The contradiction between these two passages is sufficiently apparent. No sooner do we bring them together than we detect it, and ask ourselves, How could the same man at the same moment, in the same act, both fear and not fear the anger of the incensed king? Must we, then, reject the one passage or the other as obviously inaccurate? Must we even pare down and modify the one till we can force it into some kind of agreement with the other? By no means. These apparent contradictions, which abound in Scripture, as they do in all books which treat the highest themes wisely, are of the utmost value. They strike and rouse the mind; they quicken thought and stimulate inquiry: they even confirm the truth of the Divine Record. For no two men give precisely the same account of any fact or transaction they have witnessed. If they are honest, if they use their own eyes and look on each from his own point of view, they are sure to disagree in detail, even when they agree in substance. It is only false witnesses, witnesses who have preconcerted, and perhaps rehearsed, their evidence, that are found to be in unbroken accord. There is no difficulty whatever in reconciling the apparently contradictory reports of the two passages before us, when once we remember the different points of view from which the men who wrote them regarded the flight of Moses, and the different objects which animated them as they wrote. Moses did fear the wrath of the king, or he would not have fled from it; but, as he fled, he was saved from all fear by a faith which taught him that the wrath of Pharaoh was impotent against, the protecting shield of God. The Jewish historian, dealing only with overt facts and their historic causes, narrates the flight and the fear which prompted it; the Christian evangelist, concerning himself mainly about spiritual experience and the inward processes of thought and emotion, speaks of that vision of the invisible which was vouchsafed to Moses as he fled, and shows us faith evolving fearlessness out of fear. There is no real contradiction between them, but only such a discord as, first, makes us listen, and, then, while we listen, passes into a harmony all the more profound for the very discord which introduced it. And surely we cannot wonder to find some discrepancy in the record of a fact so suggestive of the strangest paradoxes. Most of us, I suppose, see but little heroism in running away; and yet it is precisely the flight of Moses which is selected as one of the most heroic events in his eventful career: and when, in addition, we read of a fearless fear, and learn that this fearless fear was caused by a vision of the invisible, we must confess, I think, that here are paradoxes enough to demand some pains of thought before we can hope to comprehend them. (S. Cox, D. D.) A godly fearlessness: Mr. Samuel Wesley, the father of the celebrated Mr. John Wesley, being strongly importuned by the friends of James II., to support the measures of the court in favour of popery, with promises of preferment, absolutely refused even to read the king’ s declaration; and though surrounded with courtiers, soldiers, and informers, he preached a bold and pointed discourse against it from these words: “ If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (K. Arvine.) Prince of Conde and Charles IX.: The prince of Conde being taken prisoner by Charles IX., king of France, and put to his choice whether he would go to mass or be put to death, or suffer perpetual imprisonment, his noble answer was, that by God’ s help he would never do the first; and for either the second or the last, he left it to the king’ s pleasure and God’ s providence. (K. Arvine.) A noble fearlessness: You have often heard of Martin Luther’ s speech when they warned him not to go to Worms, that he would go there if all the tiles on the roofs of the houses were devils. Yes, but he said a better thing than that, which is not often quoted, because people are not so much afraid of devils, especially in that quantity; they seem to be too many to be up to much. But they said, “ You must not go, Martin Luther; for if you do Duke George will arrest you on the road.” There are many persons who are much more afraid of Duke George than they are of the devil; but said Luther, “ I tell you if it were to rain Duke Georges for nine days as hard as it could, I would, and I will go, in God’ s name.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fearlessness respected: Men reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness. (Dr. Johnson.) Endured as seeing Him who is invisible Moses: He endured: I like those words in which Scripture sums up all the life of Moses. They offer a striking contrast to all that we see nowadays. This century surprises us by its recantations; discouragement is one of the dominant notes which is breathed from contemporaneous souls, and never were so many suicides seen than since man was taught that the present life embraced all his destiny. Well, feeble children of an enervated period, here is before us the example of a man of God who endured, of a man to whom it has been given, as if to show in his works the dominant trait of his character, to found here below the most resisting and most tenacious thing which the world has ever seen--I mean the Jewish people. Think of it! History offers nothing similar. Nothing has been able to weaken this prodigious vitality. Babylon and Nineveh, Alexandria and Athens, Rome and Constantinople have fallen. It has survived all the ruins of the past, as it will survive all those of the present. Always the same in its distinctive features, it bequeaths to each of its children an indelible type. Now, if we ask Moses what was the secret of his strength, he will tell us that with him it was not a fruit of nature, nor even a conquest of the will. Timid, and little formed for such an enterprise, he recoiled before his task and accepted it only with trembling. His strength did not come to him “ from flesh and blood,” it came to him from Divine grace, and he found it by faith. “ He endured,” the Scripture says, “ as seeing Him who is invisible.” Oh, you who have received from God the mission of directing men, leaders of people, magistrates, chiefs of industry, or pastors of souls, have you understood what such an example ought to teach you? What is the situation, however humble it be, where one does not feel weighing on himself the burden of some soul which must be guided, some life which must be saved? Fathers and mothers of families, teachers on whom rests the noble task of educating the young, you all who know what it costs to exercise with devotedness this thankless mission but so great, learn from Moses to endure, seeing Him who is invisible. Oh! how great the duty appears, and how dignified the most humble ministers, when, instead of seeing an entirely human obligation, a Divine investiture is recognised, a priesthood which comes from above. In this spirit we must strive here below, serving those to whom God sends us, but seeking from higher than they the approbation which upholds us and the rule for our conscience. Let us thoroughly understand our mission. We must prove to this positive century that it is the invisible alone which can save the world. This century boasts of believing only what it can see and touch. Proud of its progress and of its conquests, intoxicated with the triumphs of science, it sees reality only there; for it, all the rest is a chimerical and vain dreaming. To know the visible, that is its wisdom; to act on the visible, that is its work; to enjoy the visible, that is its happiness. Beyond that everything disappears from its eyes. Hear with what proud and mocking accents it speaks of supernatural doctrines which, according to it, have for a long time led humanity astray and paralysed its progress. If it supports religion it is entirely for a utilitarian end, with an eye to weak minds and disinherited classes who may find some consolation therein, and, moreover, it wishes to accept the practical side only; willingly would it reduce the Church to no more than a vast association of philanthropy. All that goes beyond that plane is, in its eyes, only reverie and sterile additions. It seems that, relieved of this heavy burden, humanity henceforth would walk more proudly to the conquest of the future. Well, we must say boldly, we must unfalteringly repeat, that if some eternal principle, some consolation, some strong hope is preserved on our poor earth, we owe it to those who, like Moses, have walked by faith and not by sight. (E. Bersier, D. D.) The sense of the presence of God I. CAN THE FINITE THE ? Can the arm of man embrace the image of Divinity. Nay. But we know that if the arm of man cannot embrace the image of God, it can at least put its hand into His palm. We know that if the heart of God is larger and kinder than the heart of man, that the throbs of human emotion are, at least, suggestions of the great love which beats for man, as the crimson flushing of the dawn is a token of the meridian glory. “ Where is the air?” might sing the bird to his mate. “ Where is the water?” might ask the fish in his school. Where is God? “ In Him we live and move and have our being.” 1. This sense of the presence of God is made known to us in nature, 2. So, too, in the deep experiences of human life do we become conscious of the presence of God. II. How EASY IT IS TO DISTURB AND TO DESTROY THIS SENSE OF THE NEAR OF GOD. The sense of the Divine presence as it is reflected in the soul of man, may by a single gust of passion, by a habit of self-indulgence, by a thought of impurity moving lightly over its surface, be either distorted into cruel ugliness or shivered into a useless ruin. III. We now pass to consider more definitely THE RESULTS OF THE HAVING OF THIS SENSE OF GOD. 1. This sense of God elevates life. The man having it lives a life higher and nobler. He gains a wider prospect. He rises nearer heaven. He breathes a purer and more bracing atmosphere. The Waldenses had as their watchword “ In His name.” It was their greeting and their farewell. They spoke it at the wedding altar, at the bier, and at the baptismal font. They thought it as they ploughed the fields and plucked the purple clusters in their vineyards. It ennobled and gave dignity to their life; it strengthened them to endure persecution for the truths which they loved, and to lay down their lives on the “ Alpine mountains cold.” Thus the sense of the near presence of God transforms and ennobles life. It hushes life’ s jarring, clashing notes into music. It puts the cipher of our individual existence on the right side of the figure of life and gives to life a tenfold value. 2. This sense of God is a shield from sin. It repels evil. Dannecker, the German sculptor, who died a generation ago, left statues of Ariadne and Sappho and a colossal figure of Christ. His early fame he won for works connected with Greek and Roman mythology. When he had laboured two years upon his statue of Christ, the marble was apparently finished. He called a little girl into his studio. Pointing to the form of the Christ he asked, “ Who is that?” “ A great man,” was her reply. He was for a time hopeless. He had failed. Only a great man. Again he commenced labour. For six years he cut and carved the marble. Again he called a child and put her before the finished piece. “ Who is that?” he asked. Her reply was, “ Suffer little children to come unto Me.” It was the belief of the sculptor that for the execution of his task he had seen a special vision of Christ. At one time he attracted the eye of Napoleon. “ Come to Paris,” said the Frenchman, “ make me a statue of Venus for the Louvre.” “ No,” he replied, “ a man who has seen Christ would commit sacrilege if he should employ his art in the carving of a pagan goddess. My art is henceforth a consecrated thing.” So for the man who feels the near presence of God to commit sin would be more than a sacrilege. He cannot commit sin. It is an armour which no arrow of temptation can pierce. 3. This sense of God is a spur to grand moral and spiritual endeavour. It is an inspiration to work for God and for man. Would that various movements for the reformation of humanity were more worthy of confidence. Free religious associations and ethical societies cherish a noble purpose. They write upon their flag, “ Man.” They fasten their colours to the staff of their conscience. But the canvas is so heavy their arms cannot raise it; their feet cannot bear it forward; their hands cannot unfurl it to the breeze. Only as God strengthens man for his work for man can man lift up and carry forward the symbols of that work. There is an old legend that “ when the Empress Helena went to the Holy Land in search of the true cross, excavations and great researches were made, and at last three crosses were discovered; but how were they to decide which was the true cross? They approached a dead body and laid one cross after another on it, and when the cross of Jesus touched the cold, lifeless form, it at once sprang up in new life and vigour.” Upon the dead body of modern society you may lay the cross of moral reform and it does not lift a finger; upon it lay the cross of human purity, and not an eyelash quivereth; upon it lay the cross of Christ, and it springeth to its feet, vigorous and strong. Thus fill man with the sense of the near presence of God, let him see Him who is invisible, and he becomes a crusader of the nineteenth century. So let any one of us, who holds a command of God for the deliverance of any soul from the pursuers of fiery and maddened passions, from its own blind and blinding sin, to the gateway of a perfect life, let each one of us so command, and each is so commissioned, possess a sense of God’ s presence as did he who saw Him who was invisible: thus we may lead that soul to the gateway of a perfect life. (C. F. Thwing.) Seeing the invisible God I. THE OF GOD. This is one of the attributes of the Divine Being; it is usually called, and properly, one of the negative attributes of God. The averment is that He is not something. Unchaage-ableness, unsearchableness, irresistibleness, invisibility, are all negative attributes of God. God is invisible. We have not many Scriptures which teach this expressly and formally, but those which teach it are so clear and strong, and there are so many others which imply and involve it, that there cannot be the doubt of a moment what the doctrine of Scripture is (Job 23:8,Deuteronomy 4:12; Deuteronomy 4:15; 1 Timothy 6:16; John 1:18), The same truth is implied when our Saviour teaches that “ God is a Spirit.” He could not be a Spirit in the sense meant if He had dwelt from eternity in any material form, or if there were any material form necessary to His existence; and if God were not a Spirit, invisible, He would not be perfect. He is a portion so--He would not be a portion else! What I can see can never be a portion to my immortal soul; a spiritual substance requires a spiritual portion; the child-spirits need the Father of spirits. It is the grand discovery of the Scriptures, and the good message of salvation, that God only is enough for man, Spirit for spirit--Creator for creature--the Invisible for the invisible. We have never seen our own souls, we shall never see their portion. We feel, although we do not see ourselves, and in our best moments rejoice with great joy in our own existence! We feel in our spiritual sense--although we do not see--our God, and in our best moments we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, that He is our all-sufficient, unchanging, everlasting portion. II. THE SEEING OR THE GOD. When it is said of Moses that “ he endured as seeing,” the meaning is, not that he acted as if he could see Him, well knowing all the while that he could not, for that would be a mental fiction. The meaning is that he really did see God by soul sight, or, as we say, by faith. He believed in His actual presence in the world, in human life, in human affairs. In particular, he believed that He would be with him, according to His express promise, to cheer his heart, to guide his way, and to confirm his work to the end. The meaning is not only that he believed in God’ s presence with him, but that he relied on His strength. God’ s presence was to him an actual power on which he could lean. Thus he endured to the end. By just such seeing of the invisible God are we to endure through our life, and to triumph at last. 1. We shall endure when all that is visible threatens, None of us, perhaps, is so important as to have to hope for the smiles, or “ fear the wrath “ of a king; but wrath may be out against us for all that, and it may take many forms. It may take the form of strong injustice, or of petty annoyance; of irritating persecution, or of ungenerous rivalry; of bitterness and evil-speaking, or it may spring from honest misjudgments. When life thus assumes a threatening aspect, it is well to be able to flee to the shadow of this great rock. 2. We shall endure when all that is visible allures. Moses defied the wrath of the king, but I do not know if that was his greatest trial and his greatest triumph. Egypt had its allurements as well as its terrors. Honour! Wealth! Pleasure! Those were the three chief sirens who wished to sing the man away from his best convictions; away from the high, although hard, path of duty. They sang, and he listened--and went away while he listened--from Egypt where they were singing, to the wilderness where he was safe, and where they could be heard no more. Those old sirens are singing still! Like Jezebel they paint their faces so as to seem young. They look out of the windows of palaces, and shops, and pleasure-houses, and sing to the guests, and travellers, and passers-by! Are you listening to the song? Are you running into the net? You will unless you can “ endure us seeing Him who is invisible.” That will change all! That will reveal something of the haggard misery which lies underneath the paint and glitter of the siren faces! That will make the lust of the flesh--pleasure, the lust of the eyes--wealth, and the pride of life--honour, seem as poor as they are. Thenthe allurement of evil things is strong sometimes just in proportion to the smallness of the evil that is in them. If the evil were more, the allurement would be less. As of old, the border line between different countries was the scene of frequent strife; the battle raging now here, now there, but never far from the border; so the border line between the right and wrong of actual life is the place where consciences are tested, where wills are put to the strain, where hearts long, and sigh, and tremble; where the battle of the good and evil powers is hottest, and where victory easily sways from side to side! But victory never passes from the soldier who endures and fights as seeing Him who is invisible; and, on the other hand, never sits on the plume of any one who does not see Him. 3. We shall endure when everything visible decays, changes, passes away. With Him if we live, with Him we shall die, and to Him in His fuller presence ascend; for “ when flesh and heart fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The sight of the invisible the true inspiration of human life 1. It furnishes the necessary antidote and correction of sense. Ten to one the beggar who was at your door last winter begging for bread will be there again this winter. And yet, between these two winters, there have been many possibilities within the reach of the humblest. These possibilities came with the spring, with the May-flowers in these shapes: first, of reduced necessities; secondly, of opportunity for working. Why, then, will the beggar of last winter be the beggar of this winter? What causes this continuity of incapableness? The answer is, “ These poor creatures live without forethought.” Through the long summer months they lie in the sun as though there never was to be another winter. But we need not stay in this low region of illustration. Up above the truth is still the same. Nothing differentiates men so much as this power to see the invisible. Call it what you will, genius, long-headedness, foresight, there is such a quality in human nature; and there is its opposite, shortsightedness, and inability to pierce the future by a single shaft of thought or purpose. And men lose through this latter, and they win by the former. And as it is in the material, so is it in the moral realm. Here, also, the absorbing power of sense, the inability or the failure to take hold on the future, is man’ s greatest danger. Thousands all around us are living altogether forgetful, just as though there was no such thing as death or judgment or heaven or hell; and for no other reason than because these things are in the future. And this, which is the ruin of so many, is the danger of us all. The tendency of each one of us is to forget the great future in the little present, to live for this world alone. Hence it happens that we so often succumb to temptation. Such being our danger, from whence shall come our safety? With this dangerous tendency, whither shall we look for a corrective as strong and as constant as is our perilous inertia? The text says, To the Invisible. The record of those who have conquered says, To the Invisible. Reason says, To the Invisible. We must come to take hold of unseen reality. We must come to walk by faith, to steer our lives by the polestar of God’ s infinite throne. And this will save us. Thinking of coming death, we shall prepare to meet it. Living as before God, we shall live unto God. In a word, seeing Him who is invisible, we shall endure as Moses endured, and conquer as Moses conquered. But we need more than remembrance, more than forethought here. 2. We need besides knowledge, motive; besides light, we must have incentive. And this, again, comes from seeing the Invisible. The same paradox here is the law. I suppose the strongest of all cases. Proffered success as brilliant as may be, abundant wealth, the ambition of your manhood, honour so great that the sight of it dazzles, pleasure so sweet that it sets the blood on fire. And all this yours, if only you are willing to lay aside your integrity. What is your safety in such a crisis? It is a glance upward to the invisible God. It is to hear Him as He says unto you, “ What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” This will save you. It will make you strong to endure. But the human life needs more than knowledge, more than motive even. 3. It also needs encouragement, that encouragement which brings peace and makes duty a joy. This also comes from seeing Him who is invisible. In the hour of its danger the human heart needs to hear a voice saying unto it, “ Be of good cheer: victory waits for you, and the crown is ready.” I know that men perish for lack of understanding. I remember that human lives perish for lack of motive. But even more perish for lack of sympathy in the hours which make up the crisis of their immortality. Over many a one who has thus gone down in this world might be written this epitaph, “ I looked around me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” But if, at such a time, the endangered ones could only have looked upon the Invisible. If they could have looked into a realm of purity. If they could have seen the invisible God, and by His side the Son who overcame through the Cross. This sight would have saved them. Sympathetic chords would have reached from the Eternal Throne to their failing faith and weakening hope, and along these would have flashed these words of encouragement and strength, “ To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne.” 4. I must also add, that this sight of the invisible One must be the true inspiration, because of the immortality of human life. It isn’ t here that we reap any more than the first-fruits of our harvest. No! Ours is the endowment of an endless life, and the stake with us is not time, but eternity. It must be, therefore, that we need, that we cannot do without, the inspiration which comes from the unseen realm--from the invisible God. We, who are going unto God, cannot safely guide our lives save by the sight of God. Inferential truths. (1) A warning to the life of sense. While God lives and rules no creature life can afford to ignore Him. While human life continues to be assaulted by the world, the flesh, and the devil, it is not possible to endure, save by a sight of Him who is invisible. While shoals and rocks threaten, no man can steer safely over the sea of life, unless he daily takes his observation in the light which falls from the throne of the invisible God. (2) How reasonable is that life of which faith is the dominant principle! Is it not true that death is to confer upon us citizenship in the invisible world? What, then, more reasonable than that we should anticipate and prepare for this our sublime majority? Is there not a living and reigning God upon the infinite throne? And shall we not look upward? (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.) The power of the invisible presence: What is the moral value of a biography? There is nothing more likely to make the narrative impressive to us than to close the book and spend some time in meditating on the means by which the subject of the life became great. Here, we say, is a man who has attained; how did he attain? what was the mental method by which he became strong and successful? what were the steps by which he reached that elevated seat of power? I am not going to review the life of Moses, but to point to the great principle of his actions, in the life, passed in the loving presence of the unseen God. I. And first, the word “ .” Consider the power of invisible facts. Why should it be thought “ a thing incredible” to any mind that the Invisible should exercise imperial dominion over us? The sceptic, who refuses his credence to the great realities of faith, is a most unreasonable man. Why, the Invisible rules us all. You cannot but have noticed how small a portion of the universe the eye of the senses sees. If we only believed in the world of the Materialist, how little we should behold! But there is a power by which I am able to live in or with the absent, the distant, and the dead; and even in the unknown. If the sceptic replies to me, that all this is the mere vividness of the cultured and informed fancy, I should stilt ask him again, what is fancy itself but the lowest form of moral sympathy, of which imagination and affection are the highest regions and noblest moods? But it is so in all things. The Invisible is our life. As Turgot said of Columbus,” He was not so great because he discovered America, as because he set sail in the faith that there was such a continent to discover.” His faith made him great: “ he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Light, which makes all things clear, is to us invisible. And whether colour is a quality in bodies, or merely an appearance imparted to bodies, is, and must remain to me a matter of doubt. We breathe air; it is to us a life-giving existence; but who ever saw it? II. Thus, from the consideration of that which is invisible, we come to “ HIM who is invisible” ; and I remark now that this is the great foundation of moral character, and that God is the sustainer of all great minds; that all great minds are powerful to perform as they are absorbed by the idea of God. I say the idea of God; but I do not mean by that the mere cold abstraction of the metaphysical law, but that vast thought which is embodied in the text as a real apprehension of an infinite personality--“ the enduring as seeing Him who is invisible.” There is a world of invisible beings around me; the presence of such invisible beings has been recognised by illustrious and open souls in all ages, as a grand motive to action and to emulation. The invisible dead salute us and inspire us in all our selectest hours; they walk by us in the twilight, in solitude; they come to us in moods of that holy sorrow which calms and chastens, when the grief ceases to be a passion, and becomes a quiet power; they animate--they sustain. Invisible beings tempt us. It is awful when we are brought into their centre. But, ah! how the thought rises and intensifies when it is no longer merely the image of the invisible dead, but the invisible God! Ah! what a state of heart and mind is that in which God is beheld everywhere “ stilling the noise of the waves, and the tumults of the people” ; making “ the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice” ; when the pomp and the majesty of the rolling clouds and the swell and deep organ-tone of the winds are Something more than the mere phantasmal gleams and tones playing round some central law; when they all are beheld as what in truth they are--ideas of the infinite but invisible God; and when the spirit passes through them all, as through the curtain spread round His pavilion, it bows before the innermost glory of the Shekinah, not content to realise merely “ the clouds which are the dust of His feet,” without the burst of praise to our common Father--“ the Lord, the Lord of Hosts is His name.” III. Now I will ask you if yon think it possible that this state of existence, in the presence of the Eternal Reality of the universe, can be WITHOUT TO THE WHOLE AND BEARING OF THE AN AND DIGNITY UNKNOWN TO THOSE TO WHOM SUCH POWER IS NOT PRESENT. Man is only great as he stands humbly but most believingly in the presence of God; and then he becomes great indeed. Oh I what grandeur invests human action--what royalty impels and crowns human passion--what sublimity wings the human conception--what a Divine fire burns through the human world, where, in everything, the acting, speaking man beholds “ Him who is invisible” standing in his path! And oh, how mean, too, is everything divorced from God! “ There is nothing great,” said the greatest preacher of France, “ there is nothing great but God!” True; but relationship to Him imparts something of His greatness to the relationship, and hallows it with the grandeur and benignant beauty of His own character. And God, who knows so well the necessities of our human nature, and that even faith itself needs some help from sight to intensify and foca-lise its vision, has condescended to make Christ the voice and the shape of that which must have been, but for Him, an eternal silence. Hence, since Christ came to the world, there has been given a dignity, a freedom, an elasticity and spring to the attemptings and efforts of the human mind unknown before. It is my belief that all things languish as they are removed from the sensible presence of “ Him who is invisible.” This is greatness--residence beneath the conscious love and smile of the Invisible. This makes prayer a reality and a power. This it is that sheds a sanctity and a charm over the homeliness and commonplace of daily life. I walk with “ Him who is invisible.” He is with me in Cheapside and on the Exchange; He is with me in the field, and in the chamber; He is with me in the library and the garden. “ Thou God seest me.” “ How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” IV. “ HE ENDURED as seeing Him who is invisible!” That which I have set before you as the true crown of character--that life in the presence of an invisible God and Saviour--has been the life, and power, and lustre of the Church in all ages, and of all the men of the Church. Wonderful in all ages has been the missionary’ s intrepidity and zeal, the martyr’ s abandonment, and the hero’ s energy. But they “ endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” “ He endured as seeing Him who is invisible! Here is greatness I here is heroism! And yet this is the idea so ridiculed. “ What do you believe?” a celebrated writer makes one of his heroes inquire; and the reply was, “ I believe in that,” stamping his foot on the solid earth. Oh, it is a sorry world if man can only believe in that, only in that which is beneath him; for then all must be dead--the whole world may go in mourning; no chivalry, no honour, no trust between man and man; and none between man and God. Nay, you will have no fact and no science if you attempt to blot the Invisible from life. Oh, take care of the Invisible! oh, cleave to the Invisible! it sits at either extreme of our character; both holy and unholy passions are far removed from the calm world of prudence. (E. P Hood.) As seeing God: Take notice particularly that it is said, “ He endured,” not because he saw, but “ as seeing Him who is invisible.” No one sees God, no one ever has seen Him, in this life. God, to everybody, is but an idea--an idea which, with our ignorant minds, we fashion and project into some external form. The mode of forming this idea is that which makes the difference between savage and semi-civilised or civilised men. The stage of one’ s development is shown by the form of the idea which he works out. Some do it by one method, and some by another. Some do it with base materials, representing the passions of men, and some with higher materials, representing men’ s higher faculties--representing the true Christian notion of God and His magisterial and paternal character. Paternity is the highest conception that the human mind is capable of forming. Under the elements of Divine paternity, justice and power and wisdom rank themselves subordinate, love being the highest quality, and of that quality paternal love being the highest form. This idea is composite and constructive. In connection with it we have a sense of personality. If we are to have a God who is of use to us, He must be a person; for though there may be some imaginative men who can conceive of a pantheistic God, yet personality is indispensable to any practical use of that conception. The usefulness to us of the Divine attributes will depend upon what we have been accustomed to ascribe to the highest good. First, we form a notion of a person. Then we gather around that person certain attributes. We then give to these a function, or a scope of government. Then we add to all a disposition. And though these are based upon wise instruction, yet in the process of using them each man will colour and shape by his own nature and experience what that Being is who is made up of attributes, who has functions, and who bears a disposition. It was in the presence of such thoughts of God as these--thoughts of His vastness, of His power, of His endurance from age to age, of the smallness of the world, of its people, and of their forces in His sight, and of His tenderness, His love, and His sacrifice for them; it was in the presence of such thoughts as these that Moses dwelt; and the effect was, that by his daily companionship with such a Being, and by the legitimate influence of a constant contemplation of His character he was clothed with a power such as has been seldom vouchsafed to man, and never probably in administrative realms; and the effect upon his mind, doubtless, would be to create a wholesome fear of God as the supereminent Magistrate, so that he would maintain in himself caution as to the use of the power which was put into his hands. So, too, a strong trust was begotten in him. The sense of God present in His own world; the faith that things are not in the hands of chance, but are under an intelligent Providence that controls them, are essential elements of support in the affairs of kingdoms and of nations; and Moses, who had a people that would have vexed his nature to death if he had not had some such support, looked up to the Providence in which inheres the Divine nature; and day by day he felt that God was his counsel, his strength, his companion, his trust. Then there was a companionship of love, and of worship as well; but that which I wish more especially developed of the influences that made Moses what he was, is the measurement which was furnished to him by the nature, the government, the existence of God. Men look around and say, “ If I were such a one it would not be difficult for me to be a saint; if I were relieved from the million grinding necessities of poverty, it would not be difficult for me to live in a spirit of benevolence; if I could put down my rivals, and triumph over my enemies, I would not be envious” ; but a multitude of fortuitous elements come in and determine what men are, and what right they have to happiness; and there ought to be for every man such a standard that the world shall not have power over him, and that he can say, “ Years, and days, and hours; the seasons--winter, spring, summer, and autumn--they are my servants. I extract that of good which they bring to me, and I reject the imperiousness by which they attempt to govern me.” This is what every man should say in himself--“ I am a son of God; I live as seeing Him who is invisible; and I take God as the standard by which to measure myself, my success, and my surroundings. Whatever life has for me of joy or sorrow, that I measure by this standard, and say, “ I am adequate to every emergency. I am never surprised. I am not taken captive. I am cast down, but not destroyed.” We live here for what there is in the other life. We are perpetually meeting the events in this life as though they were the only events that are to befall us, whereas they are merely auxiliary to the real purpose for which every man lives. We do not live here to rear families; we do not live here to enjoy riches simply, though we take these on the way to the realm beyond. We come to our home in heaven through the passage of death, every one of us; and we live for that which is invisible. In the other sphere, our manhood is being taken. We sit here, but the colours which make the portrait dispose themselves beyond--in the other land. There the true likeness and lineaments of every man’ s soul are projected. Who are the great men? They have as often sat on dungeon floors as upon the throne of dominion. Who are the persons of prosperity? They have as often been found in the homes of poverty as in the mansions of the rich. Who are the happy men? Not they who succeed in the things which men seek, but those who by unsuccesses succeed--those who by disappointment in outward things are forced upon that God, that manhood, and that sense of immortality in which all true manly success lies. Who are they that are blest? They that mourn. Who are they that have power? They who are empty, that the excellency of their power may be of God and not of men. Who are they that are instructed of God? Those that are weak--weak of the flesh; weak in the mere secular elements of power, but strong in the invisible elements of hope, and of faith, and of God-likeness. (H. W.Beecher.) Enduring as seeing the invisible One I. WHAT IS THIS VIRTUAL SEEING OF HIM WHO IS ? Jesus says of him that loveth Him, “ I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him.” How? asks Thomas. “ If a man love Me, he will keep My words,” is the reply. So, while the world sees Me no more, ye see Me; the Holy Ghost teaching you all things, and bringing all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you; all My sayings which you lovingly keep. May not this conversation throw some light upon the inquiry--What is this seeing? Moses seeing, as it were, or feeling as if he saw, Him who is invisible? One thing, at all events, is very clear. The object of it is a real and living person. And it is a person who has entered into personal dealing with Moses: a person whom Moses personally knows; whose personal acquaintance Moses has made. Of course, it is but few of those who walk with God who have been thus favoured. They were necessarily few from the first. The general body of the Lord’ s people must be content to take what He says at second hand, from the reports of patriarchs and prophets; or by hereditary tradition; by psalms and songs; or ultimately by the surer method of transmission in written documents and printed books. If that is my position, how am I to be as one seeing Him who is invisible? Nay, there is really no practical difference here. It is the same exercise of faith in both cases. In both cases alike and equally there is an “ as if,” or “ as it were” ; not literal seeing, but “ as” seeing. But the “ as if,” or “ as it were,” is not pure fiction or fancy in either case. A real fact underlies and upholds it. The actual, present personality apprehended and identified through speech, is not ideal, but real. It is altogether matter of faith to both of us. It is faith coming by hearing, and growing into a sort of sight. The incarnation, issuing in the resurrection and ascension, facilitates this exercise of faith. It must have done so in the case of those who saw the Lord in the body. They might well feel, and live ever after, as if still seeing Him who had become invisible. But Paul had no such advantage, any more than Moses had. He saw the risen Lord; but only according to the ancient fashion, in the blaze of the Shechinah glory, and in visions by night. Even that amount of actual seeing you have not. There are, however, considerations which may counterbalance this disadvantage; such as these three 1. Was ever man portrayed so graphically as Jesus is in those wonderful biographies of the four Gospels; the joint productions of the Holy Ghost and the evangelists; Divinely inspired, and yet so intensely and livingly human? His frame and features, what He was like as to His outer man, His gait and carriage, you have no means of guessing. But otherwise you have Him all before you. 2. You have the full benefit of sharing with them in that better seeing of their Master which they obtained when His own promise was fulfilled, and on His departure the other Comforter came. They themselves impart to you all that they were then taught as to the high and deep meanings, and the manifold bearings on the character and government of God, of that human history, that human experience, which, while they were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of it, was in many particulars so incomprehensible. 3. For it is not to be overlooked that the same Spirit who taught and moved them to realise the Lord’ s presence as if they still both heard and saw Him, is dwelling and working in you. To you, as to them, He testifies of Christ, taking of what is His and showing it to you. You gaze on His face, you lean on His bosom, you whisper in His ear, as John the beloved did at the supper. You rest and rejoice, as seeing Him who is invisible. II. This JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR . Not only at the communion table do you rest, but in the field of toil or of battle you endure, as seeing Him who is invisible. So Christ Himself, the man Christ Jesus, endured. The secret of His endurance was, that with the eye of faith He always saw the Father. And now He says to you, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” and is therefore in the very same position in which I was when I endured as seeing the unseen Father Far when the Holy Spirit opens the eye of your faith, it is not I alone who will manifest Myself to you, but the Father also. What a source of strength! There is a triple rope to hold you fast and firm! The Holy Ghost shows you Christ; Christ shows you the Father! The Holy Ghost strengthens you to endure as seeing the unseen Saviour, even as He strengthened Him to endure as seeing the unseen Father! It is in the felt and realised presence of a Divine person, unseen in one sense, but in another virtually and vividly seen, that your strength to endure lies. And He is to be seen by you, not merely as an object of contemplation in a leisure hour, but as, in the time of danger, standing beside you; at your right hand; holding you up; speaking to you; conversing with you; calling you by name, and bidding you be strong and of a good courage. The Lord would have you to endure, as seeing Him thus by faith, faith coming to be all but sight, in every aspect of His relation to you. As your Surety, to answer for you, He would have you to see Him, though invisible, at your right hand. Thus only you can endure, when you have to stand either before God or before man. You have to stand before God. A sense of sin unnerves you. But endure as seeing Him who is invisible. See him near you, sprinkling you with His own blood; clothing you with His own righteousness; strengthening you by His own Spirit; and assuring you that He is here to answer for you in the judgment. Standing again before your fellow-men, to testify and plead; to defend yourself, to commend Christ, to persuade them; you are disconcerted. How weak are you, and how vacillating! How slow of speech and full of misgivings! If they knew all, how might they turn upon you with the taunt, “ Physician, heal thyself!” You feel as if you could not confront or face them. But still endure, as seeing beside you Him who is invisible. He knows all. And knowing all, He will not be ashamed of you before the angels, if you are not ashamed of Him before men. As your Lord and Master, your Guide and Example, He would have you to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. To endure--what? Whatever He may appoint; whatever trial of your faith or patience or love; whatever sacrifice of self for God or for man. To endure--how? As seeing Him who is invisible; for He tells you how He, in your circumstances, would have endured; and how He can and will make you endure, as He would have endured, in the like case, Himself. (R. S.Candlish, D. D.) Faith the secret of endurance I. THE GRACE OF . 1. Endurance is strength. 2. Endurance contains the element of continuance. 3. Endurance implies the idea of passivity. II. THROUGH SEEING HIM WHO IS . Naturally Moses was timid; there are Scripture hints of that. What made the change? A realisation of God. When God is real to us we shall endure. 1. Loneliness is endurable by a sight of God’ s sympathy. 2. Opposition is endurable by a sight of God’ s presence. 3. Temptation is endurable by a sight of God’ s majesty. 4. Hardship is endurable by the sight of God’ s love. III. HE WHO IS SEEN BY FAITH. 1. Reverent contemplation of God creates faith. 2. Personal intercourse with God feeds faith. 3. A good conscience toward God keeps faith unveiled. (C. New.) Seeing the Invisible: In speaking of the missionaries’ reception by one of the African tribes, Dr. Livingstone once reported to this effect: “ They listen with some attention to our discourse, but when we kneel down to pray, to what appears to them to be nothing, our posture and our praying appear to them to be so ridiculous that they burst out into laughter.” The face of God: Faber asks, with mingled beauty and force, “ What is it that will make us real?” and answers, “ The face of God will do it.” (J. Clifford, D. D.) General Gordon’ s sense of God’ s presence I knew Gordon. More than in any one, you felt when you were with him that there was One always closer to him than any one with him, in whose immediate presence he always lived. This was the secret of his life. (Florence Nightingale.) The thought of God ennobles life: “ Why carve you so carefully the tresses at the back of this statue’ s head?” asked one of an ancient sculptor. “ The statue will be placed high up on the temple wall, and with its back to the wall, and none will ever see it.” “ But God will see it,” was the noble answer. It was the spirit of sacrifice. It was the spirit which in this (Westminster) Abbey made the Gothic sculptor carve so elaborately the feathers on the wings of the angels who swing the banderoles in the spandrels of the transept as he carved the sweet and calm faces which were to be on the level of the eye. (F. W. Farrar, D.D.) Seeing God: He who, with the confiding disposition of an affectionate child, sets God always before him, goes on easily; not so easily he who regards Him only as a stern Lawgiver and Judge. A traveller over the Alps does not find it needful to be incessantly contemplating the precipices or perils he sees around him; he keeps his eye upon the track at his feet, and proceeds in safety. (A. J. Bengel.) Hebrews 11:28 Kept the Passover Faith and Mystery: There is scarcely one revelation of God in the Bible which does not involve mystery--which does not try, therefore, severely try, the submissiveness of our faith. Notoriously is this the case with that revelation which was typified by the Passover. What connection, man asks, can be conceived of, between the Saviour’ s crucifixion and the absolution of the sinner? What link of intelligible union can exist between the shedding of the life-blood of the Holy and sinless One, and the remission of the long and deep debt of the world’ s, or of so much as one man’ s, transgressions? And a thousand suppositions have been hazarded by human speculation, of which the aim and object is to lighten the weight of this doctrine--to make it less of a submission to receive it, by taking out of it the unexpectedness and the peculiarity. Thus we seek to make fewer and to make easier the submissions of faith--not by assuring ourselves more thoroughly of the Divinity of Him who speaks with us--not by a more implicit reliance upon the wisdom, truth, and love of Him who thus, and not otherwise, sends us salvation--but, by offering modifications which may palliate and dilute the difficulty, and in the same degree take from the revelation itself its very salt and life and virtue. There is something of the same trial in every ordinance of worship. What real connection can be dreamed of, we might ask, between the kneeling, elsewhere or here, on a little spot of earth, to think a few thoughts, to speak a few words, alone by myself, or in the congregation--and the influx of grace, or the supply of strength, or the ministry of consolation--not to mention any special outward or bodily relief--which those thoughts have desired, or which those words have asked, of an invisible God in a far-off heaven? The only answer is that which satisfied the man of faith here commemorated--faith, assured of the command, argues not, nor gainsays, “ Hath He said, and shall He not do it?” is a self-answering question, when God is the subject. “ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood,” and the destroyer “ passed over” the houses upon which the sign of faith was. (Dean Vaughan.) Faith in observance of ordinances: By Moses’ example we are encouraged 1. To obedience in the right use of God’ s signs. 2. To confidence that God’ s ends shall be obtained in the use of those instituted signs, and that the ordinances shall be effectual unto the ends for which God hath appointed them. Therefore waiving all other points, I shall insist upon this one alone. Doct.: That rightly to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’ s supper, there is great need of the vigorous and lively work and exercise of faith. First, in general, whoever would have any commerce with God must have some faith. He must believe steadfastly those two primitive and supreme truths, God’ s being and bounty, His essence and His providence; that there is a God, and that it is not in vain to serve God. Secondly, as this faith is necessary to religion in general, and all that respect we show to God, so all the duties of worship must be gone about in faith and obedience, otherwise they are not acceptable to God, for God accepts of nothing but what He hath appointed and instituted. Thirdly, there are special reasons why the work and exercise of faith is required in the use of these sacramental signs. I have hitherto showed you the necessity and use of faith to all acts of religion in the general, now I shall show it more particularly as to sacraments. There is faith in prayer, and faith in the Word, but especially in the use of the sacraments; and here they have a fourfold use. 1. To interpret the signs according to the use and end for which they were appointed, and to discern the mysteries represented thereby, namely, that God doth as effectually give Christ to the soul as He doth give bread and wine to the body; or, to use the apostle’ s phrase, to help us “ to discern the Lord’ s body,” that the eye may affect the heart (1 Corinthians 11:25). It is such a discerning as stirs up suitable affections, a holy joy, and a delightful converse with Him. It is such a discerning as is not opposite to ignorance, but to irreverence and slightness; when a man doth not consider what he is about, he hath no true sight and sense of Christ in the duty. 2. Faith is necessary, that we may not be offended at the mean and despicable appearance in the sacraments. Here are excellent mysteries, veiled under the simplicity of a few outward rites that make no fair show in the flesh. 3. The nature of these signs is to excite and confirm faith. There are three uses of signs--to represent., to put in remembrance, and to confirm; and so signs are either significative, commemorative, or confirming and assuring. Now, since there are several sorts of signs, unto which of these shall we refer the sacraments? That must be determined by God’ s institution; for mark, the sacraments are not natural signs, as smoke is a sign of fire, but instituted signs; bread doth not naturally signify the body of Christ, or wine the blood of Christ, but only by institution. Now, in all instituted signs we must look to the author and the end. Instituted signs in religion can have no author but God, therefore no creature can institute a sacrament, because they cannot give the grace that is signified thereby, nor bind God to give that grace by a sign of their own devising. But now to what end hath God instituted these signs? whether to signify or to admonish, or to certify and assure? I answer, In some sense for all these ends, but chiefly the latter. 4. There is this peculiar to sacraments above other duties, that they imply a closer application. First, What to do before the supper. 1. Before we come to remember Christ, we must first consider ourselves, and reflect upon our own state. 2. For the manner in which you ought to come. (1) Come judging and condemning yourselves, and humbled under the sense of your own vileness and unworthiness, that Jesus Christ may be more sweet to you. (2) They must come with hunger and thirst after sacramental benefits, the comforts and saving graces of the Spirit, God invites such, whatever discouragements they have upon them (Isaiah 55:1). (3) They are to bewail their unbelief, and to make what application of Christ they can; when they cannot apply Christ to themselves, they must apply themselves to Christ. They must go to Christ with that faith they have, and say (Mark 9:24). (4) Renew thy consecration, and consent to surrender and give up thyself to the tuition and service of Christ; for the more we mind our duty the more ready is God to prepare our comfort for us. Secondly, What we are to do in the supper of the Lord. Oh, look that you excite and stir up faith! It is not enough to have it, but it must be exercised; ay, and that in a lively and vigorous manner (Son 1:12). There is a twofold faith to be exercised--a faith that respects the whole duty, and a faith that is more specially terminated on the person of Christ. Thirdly, What we are to do after the Lord’ s Supper. Examine what exercise and increase of faith there hath been. Have I acted faith in this duty? How shall I know it? If you have in the acting of faith been waiting upon God for the blessings of the institution, the effects will show it. The effects are these 1. It will stir up joy and thankfulness; you will find it will increase both Acts 8:39). 2. It will produce a longing to meet with God another time, that we may be thus kindly refreshed, and have another good meal from God, and be feasted in His house (Psalms 63:2). 3. There will be resolution to serve the Lord the more faithfully, and walk with Him in all the ways of holiness. You have been with God, and you go aside and say (Psalms 116:12-14). 4. For the present the heart should be more warm and serious, and all those things omitted, for a time at least, which rather savour of the flesh than of the spirit, which, though they do not directly belong to the flesh, yet they border on it. And those things will be omitted which do not well agree with the lively sense and fervour of godliness, which should be stirred up in us in an action so important. (T. Manton, D. D.) Faith securing deliverance from the destroyer I. THE FACTS WITH THE . 1. The hopeless bondage of the people (Exodus 10:28). 2. The Divine method of deliverance. 3. This method a singular type of Christian redempiion. II. THE FAITH BY WHICH MOSES KEPT THE . 1. Faith was manifested in believing that the judgment was about to come. 2. Faith was manifested in expecting deliverance through the simple means God appointed. 3. Faith was manifested in the assurance that this would be the means of their deliverance from Egypt. III. THE BETWEEN THIS FAITH AND THAT FOR . 1. The requirements of faith in each case are similar. 2. The ground of faith in each case is the Word of God. 3. The difficulty of faith in each case is the mystery of the method. 4. The result of faith in each case is a new and blessed life. (C. New.) The best security against the day of wrath I. SHOW WHAT IS THAT . OF THE OF CHRIST’ S BODY AND BLOOD, WHICH IS THE BEST FOR A SINNER AGAINST THE DAY OF WRATH. We will be helped to a view of this by considering the ordinance pointed at in the text. 1. The Christian and communicant that would manage this ordinance so as he may be secured against the day of wrath, must have his bunch of hyssop ready; that is, he must have faith, by which alone that blood can be sprinkled on the soul. 2. He must believe his own desert of wrath, that he himself deserves to fall amongst them that fall. 3. He must, with an eye of faith, discern the sacrifice and the virtue of it, seeing that in the ordinance which a carnal eye cannot. And here faith will say two things (1) Faith will look in through the ordinance, and seeing Christ in it, will say, “ There is a hiding-place from wrath (John 1:29). (2) Faith will look more narrowly yet, even through the hiding-place itself; and where the fearful unbeliever sees many faults the believer will see none, but say, “ He is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). In a word, he will believe (a) That Christ is the appointed: Refuge against wrath; and (b) That He is a safe Refuge, and that there is no other. 4. He must dip his bunch of hyssop in the bason where the blood of the Lamb is. Christ is our Paschal Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7); the covenant is the bason wherein the blood of the Lamb is poured (Hebrews 13:20), and the cup the New Testament. The believing communicant will lay hold on the covenant made by sacrifice, that he may be safe in the day of wrath (Psalms 1:3-5). 5. He must sprinkle this blood, make an effusion of it; apply it by faith, and receive the atonement. 6. He must sprinkle it on the lintel and side-posts, only not on the threshold. Look with an eye of faith on it as precious blood, and sprinkle it over your whole man, above you, on every side; only not under your feet. Despise it not (Hebrews 10:29). 7. He must not sprinkle it only on the back of the door, but on the outside, the lintel and side-posts, that the angel may see it. The Lord is coming to call the land to a sad account, and to examine every one. On with your mark this day, on your foreheads. 8. He must feed on the body and blood of Christ. (1) On a whole Christ--Christ in all His offices. (2) With the bitter herbs of repentance and sorrow for sin. (3) Ye must eat in a departing posture; turning your backs on the world and your lusts, and setting your face stedfastly to Immanuel’ s land. II. SHOW WHAT THIS WILL BE AGAINST THE DAY OF WRATH. 1. Thus ye will be secured from eternal wrath. 2. In a day of wrath upon the land; though the storm blow never so hard, ye shall have a manifold security. Though ye must not promise yourselves security from trouble, yet (1)Ye shall be kept from mixing with the generation under God’ s wrath. Build ye the partition-wall, and God will build the protection-wall (Psalms 12:7). (2) “ It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’ s anger” (Zephaniah 2:3). (3) Ye shall not be straitened for provision, though it be a scarce Psalms 142:5). (4) Though the weight of common calamity should bruise you, yea, and crush you, “ there shall no evil touch you” (Job 5:19). (a) No evil that is an only evil; mercy shall always be predominant in thy cup. (b) The evil shall be taken out of the evils that come on thee. (c) The evils that may come on thee shall be turned to good Romans 8:28). III. COMFIRM THE . 1. He that thus manageth this ordinance, unites with Christ, the Peace-maker. Christ is his; his security is in Him, for Christ is in him Galatians 4:19), He cannot die. His blood is sprinkled on His people, and that marks them for the Lord. 2. He gets all this sealed under the broad seal of Heaven in this ordinance. Herein the covenant of peace between God and sinners is sealed in both hands; and all these, and much more, are promises and articles of the covenant. And what greater security can ye imagine in this world? IV. THE . Use 1. For information. (1) The slighters of this ordinance are great fools and despisers of their own mercy. (2) The mismanagers of this ordinance are great fools, who sit down at the Lord’ s table but communicate not believingly. They do the outward work, but it is not in faith; they bring no faith, no discerning, &c.; and so instead of securing themselves against the day of wrath, do mark themselves out for wrath. Use 2. Of exhortation. (1) Ye that are not communicants, ye are in hazard of the day of wrath as well as others, though ye sit not at the table. Will ye by faith embrace the sacrifice exhibited there; receive and sprinkle the blood, the covenant sealed there. (2) Communicants, manage this work so as ye may be secured against the day of wrath. All of you, flee into Christ Jesus as the city of refuge; and make sure work, and lay down your measures for time and for eternity. (a) Let not the thoughts of wrath prevail to darken your view of the love of Christ in the gospel and in this ordinance. Particularly assure yourselves if ye be willing to be the Lord’ s, and take Him for your God, the white side of the cloud is to you; and that though God were to destroy the whole land from off the face of the earth, if there were but one soul who would take shelter in the covenant of peace, he should be welcome. (b) As ye give yourselves to the Lord, so give your families too. Take all yours that way, and lay them over on Him, and leave them with Him for the evil day. (c) Let it be your main concern to get strength to be carried cleanly through; that ye be not led away with the sins and snares of the evil time, and so fall from your stedfastness. (d) Be not peremptory and particular as to what otherwise may be your portion of common calamity; but leave that on the Lord. (T. Boston, D. D.) Hebrews 11:29 Passed through the Red Sea Israelites’ passage through the Red Sea I. , AS A NOTABLE PATTERN OF ; and so it represents to us two things 1. Unspeakable comfort to all believers in the midst of their extremities. God can disentangle and help them out, for He is with them in all their dangers (Isaiah 43:2). 2. It speaks terror to the wicked, and such as maliciously pursue the people of God, as the Egyptians did here. II. (1 Corinthians 10:2). 1. They were baptized unto Moses in the sea; that is, Moses’ ministry was confirmed by that miracle, and so they were bound to take Moses for their leader and lawgiver; as the miraculous dispensations by Christ assure us that He was sent by God as our Lawgiver, whom we should hear and obey. 2. It is called a baptism, because it signified the difference that God puts between His people and their enemies, or the deliverance of His people from the common destruction of mankind was sealed to them by this passing through the sea, for here God shows that He would put a difference between His people and others. 3. They were baptized in the cloud and sea, because by submitting to God’ s command they gave up themselves to God’ s direction and the conduct of His providence by this initiating act, that He should lead them through the wilderness unto Canaan, and the land of promise; as we pass through the waters of baptism, that we may give up ourselves to be led through this world, which answers to the wilderness, to heaven, to Canaan, the land of promise, to be commanded and governed by Him till He brings us to our rest. III. , with respect to the use for which the apostle brings these instances; and it is to confirm believers in the faith of Christ, though they were sorely pushed at, and endured great sufferings for Christ’ s sake. 1. I shall show what is the nature of faith, which we may learn from this instance. (1) Faith inclined them to obey God’ s command, and upon obedience to expect the mercy promised: Go through the Red Sea and you shall be saved. Now this is the common nature of all faith (Psalms 119:66). (2) For the command, faith gives courage to obey God in the most difficult cases. (3) For the promise, the Red Sea was as a grave to them in visible appearance, and for a considerable time they walked every moment in the valley of the shadow of death. But this is the nature of faith, it teaches us to depend upon God’ s promises in the greatest extremities. 2. This instance doth very much commend to us the excellency of this grace of faith, which was so necessary to believers in that age, when they were exposed to such great sufferings. Now, how it is manifested from this instance. (1) God’ s promise produces its miraculous effect through faith, and not otherwise. God could do it, whether the Israelites did believe, yea or nay; but their faith must concur. (2) Here is another circumstance which commends faith likewise: this faith was weak at first, and mingled with unbelief; for first they murmured Exodus 14:11-12). Now, when after such great faults God takes it so kindly, we will believe the promise, we should address ourselves to believe in Him. (3) There is yet another circumstance in this instance; all of them were not true believers, but the faith of some made others partakers of the benefits. The ungodly receive many temporal benefits by the faith of others Acts 27:24). (4) It is commended to us again by the distinction God makes between believers and unbelievers; the one pass through the sea as on dry land, and the other sink as lead, and are drowned. We see our privileges in their destruction. Having laid this foundation, the doctrine is this--that they who, upon the belief of God’ s promises, do resolve to run all hazards with Christ in the performance of their duty to Him, are only capable of salvation by Him. To evidence this, take these five considerations--First, that true faith receives the promise of God, with the terms and conditions which it requireth. Secondly, that the conditions which God requireth are, partly a belief of the promise, and partly obedience to the command annexed; as the Israelites were to believe that God would carry them safe and sound to the next shore through the Red Sea as upon firm land; and therefore, believing this, they were, upon the authority of God’ s Word, to resolve to go down into the great deep, and try what God would do for them. Thirdly, these being the conditions, the belief of the promise, and thorough obedience to submit to the appointed way; lest we deceive ourselves with a notion, God loves to try us, to see if we have received the promise sincerely, whether we thoroughly believe His word, and are fully obedient to His commands (James 1:12). Fourthly, because we are fickle creatures, God will have us, by the solemn profession of such a faith, visibly to enter into His covenant. Fifthly, having thus solemnly entered into covenant with God, certainly we are bound to make it good, if we would have benefit by it. For it is not enough to make covenant, but all the promises run to him that keepeth covenant. Salvation is promised not to the undertaker, but the conqueror (Revelation 2:7). (T. Manton, D. D.) God’ s care of His Church: What a standing record is here of God’ s care of His Church! Does the flood come upon them? Then He will build an ark for them. Have they to go through a wilderness? He will make the wilderness a place of safety and comfort. Are they in want of bread? They shall have manna. Do they come to the Red Sea? He will smite the tongue of the Red Sea. Nothing shall hinder Him from watching over the people, who are dear to Him as the apple of His eye. I. GOD LEADS HIS PEOPLE FROM TIME TO TIME INTO STRAITS FROM WHICH NO POWER OF MAN CAN THEM The Word of God declares it, and there are but few of God’ s saints but have the testimony of it in their own hearts, and all sooner or later shall. Sometimes this is seen in providential difficulties: the Lord brings them into them. True it is that they are sometimes the means of bringing themselves into straits: but then still the Lord is with them. And we see this too, in spiritual things. He does bring His people to be tried in a way that they had no conception of. Thus the young convert frequently cometh, with his low looks, in great sorrow, wondering whether it is possible for one to be a child of God, and to be assaulted as I am by the powers of darkness. He thought all should be smooth before him: he thought all should be plain under his feet. Perhaps he saw so much in Jesus as made him begin his way happy in God; he thought his enemies were all dead upon the sea-shore. And instead he finds himself let and hindered in prayer. But all these things are of an indispensable necessity: I do not learn what worldliness is by seeing it in my brother, but I learn what it is by seeing it in my own soul; I must know an evil before I can loathe it. And therefore be assured, you that are learning out some of these lessons, painful to your nature, humiliating to your pride, yet be assured of this, we never can know the worth of Jesus but as we try, and never can we know what there is in God but as the creature sinks, and is brought down to his right place before Him. This is God’ s mercy, this is God’ s wisdom, this is God’ s goodness, this is God!s faithfulness, that He brings His people from time to time into such straits as no power on earth but Himself can extricate them from. II. BUT OBSERVE NOW THAT THE LORD THEM. And if you ask why He delivers them, it is because He loves them. But for whose sake is it that He loveth His covenant people? Is it for Abraham’ s sake? No; it is for His Son’ s sake: “ even as God, for Christ’ s sake, hath forgiven you.” It is for His own name’ s sake, and because He had compassion on them, and chose them, and redeemed them, that in time He preserves them; and as long as that blessed Intercessor standeth up at the right hand of God, with your names upon His heart, as long as His great work goeth up with its much incense moment by moment, be assured of this, it is as much impossible for God not to remember His covenant, as it is impossible for God to deny Himself. III. BUT OBSERVE, NOW, THE WAY AND THE MEANS BY WHICH THE LORD IN THIS CASE. It was a way through the Red Sea, typical of Jesus, the way through the Red Sea to Canaan, and that Red Sea typical of the vials of God’ s wrath, the trials and temptations of the way, the floods of evil by which we are surrounded in this poor dying world; and yet Jesus is the way to the land of Canaan, by which all the Israel of God shall pass, and not one shall perish. Is it not a wondrous way to see an incarnate God standing in the breach? Is it not a wondrous way to see Jesus by His own blood opening a way for His ransomed to pass over, yea, bringing life and immortality to light in His own death? See what it has cost: the blood of God’ s own Son. See what your sins deserved. See what God’ s love was. See what Jesus is. And remark, too, that these very waters, that seemed in themselves as if they must destroy, became a wall on the right hand and on the left, became, as it were, a supporter. Oh, is it not a truth to die upon, when a man turning upon his pillow is enabled to look up and rest in Jesus, the Spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God, to see the debt completely paid? Do you think anything like this can bear up a dying bed? And now consider the means. It was by faith. Faith, resting upon the promise, went into the sea; presumption, without a promise, rushed into the sea; faith was safe; presumption was destroyed. Here was faith, with its meek look, resting upon the promise going forward. So it is with you, casting yourselves, in your feebleness, in your beggary, m your vileness, simply upon God’ s promise of life in Christ Jesus to every soul that believeth, Now, as faith enters into the mighty waters, it can see righteousness and peace all in glorious perfection. It can stand up, in the midst of providences, and say, not a drop of wrath is here. Mighty faith! O Lord, increase our faith. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) The Hebrews and Egyptians at the Red Sea: a picture of modern men I. THEY WERE ALL IN A COMMON . The pursuit of happiness is universal. Men seek it in different directions: some in sensual indulgence, some in worldly wealth, some in scenes of revelry and debauch, some in spheres of mental culture and religion. All are trying to cross some Red Sea in its pursuit. They will brave the greatest dangers, and venture their all if haply they may find it. II. SOME AND SOME FAILED. The vast majority get engulfed in the sea of worldly anxieties, spiritual conflicts, moral remorse, and dread forebodings. III. FAITH THE SUCCESS OF SOME AND THE FAILURE OF OTHERS. “ It is certain,” says Southey, “ that all the evils in society arise from want of faith in God, and of obedience to His laws; and it is no less certain that, by the prevalence of a lively and efficient belief, they would all be cured.” (Homilist.) Faith enabling us to do what seems impossible I. THE WHICH OPPOSED MOSES’ FAITH 1. The task itself to which he was called seemed impossible. 2. The committing so vast a multitude to the strange pathway was full of peril. 3. The unworthiness of the people seemed to forbid Divine help on their behalf. II. THE GROUNDS OF MOSES’ FAITH. 1. God’ s revealed purpose. 2. God’ s past dealings. 3. God’ s glory over His enemies. III. THE TRIUMPH OF MOSES’ FAITH. 1. Faith can do what is impossible without it. 2. This because it secures the aid of Omnipotence. 3. And this, by simply doing fearlessly what God bids. (C. New.) Of sinners perishing by that which preserves saints 1. This comes to pass through man’ s abuse of the means which God affords for his good. 2. God being provoked by such men turns blessings into curses. This may afford us a good direction about the use of those means which we see to be successful to others. For this end 1. Be sere of thy warrant for the use of such and such means. These Egyptians had no warrant so to rush into the sea as they did. When the Israelites presumed to go up against the Amalekites and Canaanites without God’ s warrant, they were discomfited (Numbers 14:44-45). 2. Use warrantable means after a right manner: herein David failed (1 Chronicles 15:13). 3. Aim at a right end. The King of Assyria aimed at a wrong end in the successes that God gave him (Isaiah 10:12-13). 4. In all lawful things seek God’ s blessing, for it is not means, but God’ s blessing on means, whereby we come to prosper (Deuteronomy 8:3; Proverbs 10:22). (W. Gouge.) Fear and courage: While at war with each other a small company of Thebans under Pleopidas unexpectedly met their Lacedaemonian enemies on the road. One ran and told Pleopidas, “ We are fallen into the enemies’ hands.” “ And why not they,” said he, “into ours?” (Plutarch.) Folly of presumption: Presumption is a fire-work made up of pride and foolhardiness. It is indeed like a heavy house built upon slender crutches. Like dust, which men throw against the wind, it flies back in their face, and makes them blind. Wise men presume nothing, but hope the best: presumption is hope out of her wits. (T. Adams.) Reckless presumption A noble ship was bearing in to port. It was the evening hour, and too late to enter without a pilot. There were two passages into the harbour: one a dangerous narrow channel, the other a wide and safer one. The captain determined to pilot himself by the narrow passage. A storm was coming up; and the passengers, with fear and consternation, begged him to take the wider channel. He laughed at their cowardice, and swore he would do as he pleased. As the night advanced, the gale increased. Soon arose a cry, “ Breakers ahead, breakers ahead I “ The captain flew to the wheel; the sails were struck; the wind had the mastery; and the captain found a will that could defy his own. The vessel made a fearful plunge, struck the foreship deep into the sand, to be shattered by the wild waves’ pleasure. Few survived the terrors of that fearful night; but among the dead thrown up by the rising tide was the body of the wilful and presumptuous captain. (New Cyclopedia of Illustrations.) Hebrews 11:30 The walls of Jericho fell down Feeble means and great results: In the means employed by the children of Israel there was nothing adequate to so great and instant a catastrophe. There was surely no visible or real connection between compassing the city in procession and the falling of the walls which followed. We learn from the whole of this part of our subject, that whatever obstructs the march of the people of God, God not only is able, but is pledged and willing to remove. Rocks shall start from their places--rivers shall abjure their channels--the fire shall fail to burn--wild beasts, ravenous with hunger, shall refuse to devour--rather than one jot perish from the least promise that God has spoken, or one grace be exhausted from the least heart that God has sanctified by His Holy Spirit. When we see these great effects follow in answer to faith, it may be asked, Why use means at all, since the means were inadequate? By His prescribing means, He showed that He is and that He was present in the midst of them; by prescribing inadequate means, He showed that that presence was omnipotent, and that all the glory of the issue of the enterprise must shine and rest upon His name. In other words, He would show that, while might was used and power was wielded, the victory was not by might nor by power, but “ by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Now let us look at this great lesson illustrated in the whole history of the Church of Christ--that magnificent and glorious results have ever followed in connection with the cause of Christ from weak and insignificant means. If I refer to a modern instance, there is no book in the English language that has given more tone to the English mind among the humbler religious classes than Bunyan’ s “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” --a book so simple that a child can understand it, whose theology is so rich that all the tomes of a Calvin and a Luther do not excel it; and there is no book, let me say, that has left a finer and a more substantial impression on the mass of enlightened Christian minds than the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” of John Bunyan. At Leicester he was appointed to stand sentry. A comrade came to him, and offered freely and gratuitously to take his place. The exchange was made, and a bullet struck the head of the comrade in three minutes afterwards; and if John Bunyan had been there, “ Pilgrim’ s Progress “ had never been written, and its blessed effects would never have been heard of. Thus a very incidental, microscopic occurrence became the hinge of very precious effects. I might notice other evidences of the same truth. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries perhaps the greatest obstruction to the progress of real religion was the want of books and the means of circulating knowledge--I say, before the era of the Reformation the greatest obstruction to the progress of real religion was want of books. A Dutchman, at Haarlem, was one day amusing himself by cutting out letters upon the bark of a tree, and after he had done so, the idea struck him that he might transfer impressions from the bark of the tree to paper. He did so; and in the course of a few weeks wooden types were carved, and printing was begun; and then literally the greatest obstruction to the progress of the truth, and the spread of living religion, was removed, when the walls of ignorance fell down before what the world would call an accidental thought, what the Christian would call the inspiration of his God, as unequivocal and as real as the command to blow the ram’ s horns, and to lay the walls of Jericho level in consequence. Another obstruction to the spread of religion was the fact of nations being so severed. Continents and islands were separated by broad and almost impassable oceans. The sailor never thought of going far from the coast, still less of navigating wide seas. Accidentally, the world would say--by an inspiration from on high, the Christian believes--a man discovers the polarity of a piece of loadstone; and that discovery, so insignificant in itself, led to that intercommunion between our own and the most distant isles of the ocean, which has made continents our next door neighbours, oceans ferries, and consolidated the whole world into one community preparatory to the cement of the gospel, which will consolidate it into one happy and united brotherhood. We see in all these little means used and blessed of God to produce very great results. I must refer to another instance in the rise and progress of different missionary societies. For instance, the Moravian Missionary Society, one of the most useful of all the societies we have, was originated as follows: Two poor Greenlanders arrived in Copenhagen, where there was a Moravian congregation consisting of about six hundred persons. They looked upon these Greenlanders not as curious specimens of a savage race, but as having immortal souls that needed to be saved, and the grand resolution took possession of the Moravian heart that they should be brought to the knowledge of the gospel of Christ. These six hundred persons instantly conceived the project of preaching the gospel at Labrador, in America, at the East Indies, and even in Africa. They set about a work so disproportionately great, that the world laughed, but God smiled upon them, and at this moment these means are crowned with the most magnificent results. I do not know a society more honoured than the Moravian Missionary Society. After the storm and chaos of 1793, a poor cobbler in his stall, of the name of Carey, conceived the first idea, in this country at least, of sending the gospel to the heathen. Wilberforce, who introduced so much Christianity into the higher classes of society, had the magnanimity to say of this, “ I know not a more striking instance of the sublime than that cobbler on his stool conceiving the idea of carrying the gospel to the distant parts of the heathen world.” That idea was conceived by that poor man, and at first the whole annual income of the Baptist Missionary Society was £13 2s. 6d.; it is now increased to some £30,000, if not upwards. Then the London Missionary Society took its rise very much from the preaching of Dr. Bogue. The Church Missionary Society, the Bible and Tract Societies, are all the creation of the last century, and all arose from the most insignificant of means, which have been crowned with the most magnificent results. Now, what does this teach us for the future? That if God has used the most despised of means for the accomplishment of the greatest and most precious results, we are to thank God that He has so honoured the past, and to look for that God to come unto us in the opening and veiled future, and to trust for triumphs of His presence, and monuments of what grace can do, that shall eclipse all that has yet been accomplished. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Why Jericho fell; or, faith the condition of success in Foreign Missions A great many really good people laugh at the story of Jericho’ s fall, as something impossible, and count the whole transaction as one of those semi-mythical events that find their parallel in the siege of Troy which Homer sang. But whether history, or myth, or poetry, the conquest of Jericho emphasises a great principle. Considered as a piece of military tactics, the whole performance seems the height of the ridiculous. Considered as an act of faith, it stands sublime. A pious rationalism has tried to explain the so-called “ miracle” by the vibration of the walls at the trumpet blasts. But this seems to my mind to increase rather than to diminish the marvel The best explanation is, God foreknew that an earthquake was impending, and so ordered the marching and trumpeting that they should be finished at a moment coincident with the shock produced by the forces of Nature. But this is neither here nor there; His methods are none of our business. We have simply to look at man’ s part of the work, and the Bible does not explain this upon the “ vibration theory,” nor upon any known laws of physics or aerostatics. On the contrary, it ascribes Jericho’ s overthrow not to a physical, but to a purely mental and spiritual cause. “ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.” Joshua and his soldiers did not stop to theorise nor rationalise, nor yet to discuss the relation between cause and effect. They just did what they were told, and left the rest to God. This is faith. Not the mere subscription to a creed, but such implicit and absolute trust in God, as leads men unquestionably to obey His commands and to believe His promises, without stopping to argue, or debate, or discuss. No ordinary battle was ever won, in which the private soldiers presumed to criticise the plans and tactics of the commander-in-chief. On the contrary, the prime condition of victory is absolute trust and confidence in the leader, and all the host acting as an unit. Jesus declares that “ through faith His disciples may remove mountains” ; and history is lustrous with thousands of apparently impossible feats wrought by men no different from the rest of the race, save in the greatness of their faith. As the topic of missions to the heathen occupies so large a space in our services and preaching, according to our Lord’ s command, “ Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” believers and unbelievers in Christianity sadly or sneeringly ask the question, “ Why are not the heathen converted after all these hundreds of years? Why do not the walls of these pagan Jerichoes fall down?” Read your Bible, friends. “ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,” and just so soon as we Christians have somewhat of the same faith that possessed these Jews, just so soon will the strongholds of error be overcome. As a matter of fact, it is only during the last fifty years that any effort worth speaking of has been made by Protestant Christianity to convert the heathen. Men complain of the vast sums squandered to convert these pagans. Well, which is better, to send a million dollars to make men of our own flesh and blood moral, decent, respectable, as befits souls for whom Christ died, or to send a million dollars’ worth of rum to debauch them and make their savage condition more densely savage still? And how vast are these sums, think you, sent to foreign lands to teach men of their Heavenly Father and loving Saviour? Ten million dollars is the largest amount ever given in a single year to Foreign Missions, and this distributed among one hundred million Protestants, averages about ten cents for each soul. Here is munificence! Here is faith I Here is love to God and to man for you! And yet, despite the indifference and hostility of the Church at home, what hath God wrought? Behold the walls of Jericho that have fallen in less than fifty years, and this with a Christianity merely playing at missions, and not playing very hard at that. A few royal sons of God have had the faith through which alone all this has been done. Grand old Doctor Livingstone had faith enough to dwell thirty-three years in Africa, where glorious Bishop Hannington has lately laid down his life. Bishop Selwyn had faith enough to spend the best of his days among the South Sea savages, and his successor, Bishop Pattison, had faith enough to find in that same field a foremost place in the noble army of martyrs. I tell you it all sifts right down to a matter of pure faith, this business of Foreign Missions. Why is this? Simply because that the more truly religious a man is, the more he grasps the supernatural idea of Christianity, the more real become all the prophecies of God, the more binding all His commands. The armies of the living God march round the pagan Jericho, and blow the gospel trumpets. This is man’ s part of the business. The throwing down of the walls, this is God’ s work. Not, “ the Lord will give,” but, “ the Lord hath given you the city,” The fall of Jericho was a mathematical certainty, just so soon as the conditions had been complied with. And so again, “ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.” By the same faith, too, the walls of China, the walls of India, the walls of Africa shall fall, can fall as well as not in our lifetime as a hundred or a thousand years hence. Oh! it makes me sick to hear people praying for the world’ s conversion. Stop praying and convert it now! It is as easy as breathing, if you have faith in God. “ Why criest thou unto Me?” methinks I hear God say. “ Speak unto My people that they go forward.” (L. S.Osborne.) The walls of Jericho--perseverance in faith: One striking feature in Christian faith is that it is a most persevering faith. 1. No failures daunt it. 2. No difficulties alarm it. 3. No troubles quench it. 4. No taunts shame it. Now the particular property and work of faith we are called upon to examine and contemplate is this persevering nature of it. “ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.” Let us examine the full spiritual force of this. (1) The city of Jericho was strong. (2) The host which besieged and took the city of Jericho was a large and strong host, well tried and disciplined by the trials of the wilderness, led on by their leader Joshua. So the power which must besiege the wicked heart of man, and the sinful inclinations harboured therein, must be the soul well tried by sorrow and well schooled in adversity, strengthened by the Spirit of God. (3) And the way they took the city was by encompassing it seven times, as God had appointed; so at length the walls fell down, and they entered. So also the enemies which our hearts contain must be subdued only in certain appointed ways--by prayer, the Sacraments, the Word of God, His public service, self-denial, and repentance. This, then, is the spiritual force and application of the text to ourselves. And before I proceed to the particular examination of the subject let me make some general remarks on it. 1. It reminds us that our hearts, like Jericho, do harbour the enemies of God. 2. We are reminded how we must drive them out by the grace and the guidance of Christ. Men adopt many ways, but there is but one way. Some try to drive out bad passions by philosophy and learning. Another will try and overcome his bad heart by living away from the world. Another will try to overcome his sinful heart by works of charity, self-denial, and benevolence. Some people seem to think that natural kindness and morality makes up for, and so subdues the bad heart. “ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.” Nothing but the grace of God’ s Holy Spirit, applied to us through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and gained by faith, can enable us permanently and really to subdue our hearts. But let us examine the more particular working and view of faith which this text suggests. Let us, then, see what this perseverance Isaiah 1. Perseverance requires a continual struggle, only to be ended with life itself. 2. But again, what is perseverance applied to? First, the repressing sin; secondly, the doing good. (E. Monro.) The ruin of mystical Jericho First of all, observe here that Jericho had mighty walls, and trusted in these walls; or else they would have come out and have made conditions of peace with Israel. And next you see here, that God overthrows their walls; and by what means? By poor and base means, by trumpets of rams’ horns. From hence, by analogy and proportion, we may see, first of all, that carnal men they build up walls, and put their trust in them. The second is, that God confounds these courses. The third is, that God doth it by weak and silly means, believed by faith. The last point is, that faith in the use of these means overcomes all. 1. Natural men, since the fall, they must have somewhat to trust to. Since man lost his first confidence, and communion with God, he turns to the creature; and men leave God in what measure they trust that. Every one will have some castle and wall of Jericho to trust to. Riches are the rich man’ s stronghold (Proverbs 11:16). Ahithophel trusted to a shrewd head and policy that proved his ruin afterwards. The Jews had outward sanctity to trust to, opposing it to the righteousness of Christ (Romans 10:6). Man will have a holiness, a wisdom, a strength, and power of himself in the things below here. Now the Spirit of God in the Scriptures takes notice of this proneness to false confidence (1 Timothy 6:17). And man, when he sets his heart upon false confidence, the issues are more dangerous; he will come against God; he doth not only set up these holds that he hath in rebellion against God, but he proclaims, as it were, defiance to God, and His word, and His ordinances, till afterwards God destroy all his false confidence, and bring him to shame. There are three mighty things in every natural man. (1) This false reasoning and sophistry. There is no man will go to hell without reason. “ God is merciful,” “ Christ is come,” and “ others are as bad as I,” and “ I hope in time to repent” ; this vile reasoning must be turned out of a man before he can be saved. (2) Then there are proud thoughts. What, shall I yield to such a one as He? I am better than He; I understand these things as well as He. As that proud cardinal in Germany said, “ I confess these things that Luther finds fault with are naught; but shall I yield to a base monk?” The proud rebellious heart of man is lift up in proud thoughts against God. (3) And then there be forecasts. If I do thus, this danger will come of it; I shall provoke such an enemy; I shall lose such a friend; I shall endanger myself. Now, when the truth of God comes, down goes all these sophistries and all these forecasts; they all lie fiat when the Spirit of God comes in the power of the word. But naturally every man hath these; he builds up some castle against God; he builds up the walls of Jericho, and trusts in them too. 2. God first or last overturns all vain confidence in the creature. The walls of Jericho, down they must; and whatsoever exalts itself against God, either it shall end in conversion or confusion, because the time must come that God must have all the glory. Therefore let us make that use that Jeremiah doth (Jeremiah 9:23). Let a man joy in none of these; but if he will joy, let him joy in this, that he knows the Lord, that he is in covenant with God. 3. God doth this by base and weak means. And the reason is clear, that He may have all the glory. 4. It was by faith in the use of means that the walls of Jericho fell down. If they had not depended upon God in their going about seven days, the walls had stood still. But here were other graces likewise that sprang from faith, that helped them also. There was a great deal of patience to go about after that silly fashion with rams’ horns seven days together. Here was patience, and perseverance, and hope. But, because faith doth enliven, and stirs up all, therefore that is named. In the whole chapter the exercise of other graces is attributed to faith, because they draw strength from that to quicken them all to their several offices. Strengthen faith, and strengthen all other graces whatsoever. 5. Now, let us by way of proportion raise them higher, and make use of them to other things. The walls of Jericho represent to us many things. (1) The kingdom of Satan in general, the power of the devil in himself and in his instruments, who hinders what he can, our coming out of Egypt to Canaan. He labours to come between us and heaven; to hinder us all he can by all means. He hath walls of many kinds; the strength of tyrants, the subtilty of heretics. But Christ came “ to destroy the works of the devil,” as it is said 1 John 3:8; and He Himself overcame Satan and triumphed over him, as it is Colossians 2:15. He triumphed over Satan himself, and He will triumph over Satan in all His members (1 John 4:4). (2) But besides Satan, there is in us much opposition that must be subdued before we come to Canaan. So it is with our own corruptions. There be these wails within us. Satan could not hurt us but that we betray ourselves. Now, by little and little all these walls shall fall; not all at once, as the wails of Jericho did. God by degrees will perfect the work of mortification and sanctification till He make us like His Son Christ, like our husband and head, that we may be fit for so glorious a head. (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Faith the westport of the Church I. SEE HERE THE OF FAITH. 1. The difficulty of the undertaking. 2. The inadequacy of the means. 3. The strangeness of the delay. II. SEE HERE THE OF FAITH 1. In their joyous expectation. 2. In their undaunted perseverance. 3. In their utmost preparedness. III. SEE HERE THE OF FAITH. 1. The fact of God’ s presence. 2. The fact of God’ s command. 3. The fact of God’ s promise. (C. New.) The faith of man, and the energy of God 1. It is the prerogative of God to do whatever He pleases, and by whatever agency He chooses. 2. It is man’ s solemn duty to do whatsoever God commands. 3. Faith in God is indispensable to the fulfilment of God’ s command. I. THE FAITH OF MAN. 1. It was not faith in (1) their benevolent sympathies; (2) moral institutions; (3) their notions of adaptations; (4) merely the Divinity of the command. 2. It was faith in God--in His wisdom, righteousness, and power. II. THE ENERGY OF GOD. 1. Whatever God commands, however it may seem to clash with our notions or intuitions, we should attempt. 2. Whatever Divine command we attempt to carry out, with faith in Him, we shall accomplish. 3. Whatever we accomplish, it will be through His energy, as the reward of our faith in Him. (Homilist.) Impulse of nature counteracted by faith: The impulse of nature was to attack that city; to try upon its bulwarks the skill of military science, as then understood, as by them possessed. The power of faith was shown in curbing that impulse; in submitting to an unexplained, unintelligible, severely trying, edict of inactivity; nay, in consenting to play what must have seemed a ridiculous part in the face of a warlike and disciplined host waiting to see what this intrusive, this presumptuous horde of rovers had to say for itself. How often has the Church, as a body, failed to understand the duty of refraining! How often has she rushed headlong upon some dimly-descried or imaginary Jericho with weapons quite carnal! What shall we say of the religious press, of the religious platform, of the religious controversy, of the religious conversation, so called, of this present age and country? Is it not a matter of simple fact, of sorrowful notoriety, that the armour, whether of attack or of defence, worn in this warfare, is of precisely the same material, and the same make, and all but the same colour, with that of the world’ s quarrels and the world’ s antagonisms? Certainly if the giant Jericho of this world, with its lying vanities, its covert or open infidelities, its harmful lusts, its crying sins, is ever to be brought low before the revealed presence of Jesus Christ, it will not be by the use against it of weapons forged in its own workshops--weapons of sarcasm and invective, weapons of strife and debate, weapons of insinuation and repartee, weapons of rhetoric and oratory, weapons of man’ s wisdom or man’ s strength. It will be--and, in whatever degree that victory has been foreshadowed, it always has been--by the quiet march, round the walls and towers of human pride and human luxury and human sin, of the ark of the holy covenant, of the Word and Sacraments of the New Testament, ministered and heralded by devout and devoted pastors, “ showing out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom.” And if this be true on the large scale, and with reference to ages and nations and communities, how must it be with individuals? How large a part of the action of faith, viewed as an instrument, as an influence, as a power, for God, lies, in their case also, in refraining! Show me the Christian wife, the Christian sister, the Christian daughter, who knows how to refrain, and I will predict for her an eventual success in influencing the husband, the brother, the father, towards her gospel. Not to answer again--not to urge matters of discord--not to insist on externals--not to wear a look of offence--not to irritate by a disdainful composure--not to speak against faulty but loved ones as though exiled from sympathy--always to pray, never to faint--seeking refuge, when refuge is necessary, from the strife of tongues, not in isolation, not in moroseness, but in the sweet tabernacle of God’ s Presence--this sort of refraining, within the walls of homes, is worth all the “ testifying “ in the world for Christ against evil--nay, it is the noblest and the highest and the most ancient of testimonies--“ by faith,” thus refraining, the walls of Jericho fell, not undermined, and not assaulted, but just encompassed for seven days. (Dean Vaughan.) Hebrews 11:31 Rahab Rahab 1. Think what a moral mixture the human heart may hold, what a mass of contradictions it is! Rahab, loyal lover to her kindred, traitor to her king, gifted with insight above her fellow-citizens, yet exposing herself to the scorn of man, possessed of a crude faith, yet selling her honour for gain l Surely the warp of heaven and the woof of hell were never woven together more strangely. Surely there never was such a peculiar character thrown off from the loom of life. But no, such contradictions are common, and that may be one of the reasons why her name is left on record. How many men do you know who are of perfectly simple moral character, who act from one motive, who are dominated by a single passion, whose conduct, under given circumstances, you can infallibly calculate? How many saints do you know who bear on them no traces of sin? How many sinners who show signs of nothing else? The best have their weak points: the worst retain some features of good. 2. Observe how independent religion may be of morality, how strong a hold faith in God may have in those on whom righteousness have a most imperfect grasp. Rahab’ s faith still held; while of her morals the less said the better. This is the perplexity of the present time, that so many men are honestly and ardently in love with goodness, and are yet able to do without God; and the converse, that a man may have faith in God and yet be wicked. Religion and righteousness are two different things, though ultimately one. They satisfy different needs of our nature. We may seek God for shelter. A man finds the world crumbling beneath his feet and he hides himself in the Eternal; or he is oppressed by the meagreness of his range of vision, and he flees to Him in whom there is no darkness at all; or he is crushed by pain, or he seeks help from Him who bears the cares of the world, and who can bring peace in the midst of sorrows. But morality! That is the soul’ s working day and loins must be girded. Rest here means idleness, apathy, death, Moral progress must be struggled for; advance in purity implies a hotly-contested race. Religion brings rest; morality means toil. The noble, impassive soul, strong in affection but weak of will, makes much of religious help and consolation. He is not dishonest, but the ideal has never dawned on him of religion and morality clothed in double raiment, offering at the altar, body, soul and spirit. 3. Notice the power of even a rudimentary faith. In Rahab’ s case, a little religion went a long way. As some one says, faith is the one before the ciphers on the cheque presented at the bank of heaven. It is the beginning of all virtues. It may be crude at first, but it cannot continue so; for it brings the Spirit of God into the heart. The harlot Rahab, by her crude faith, stepped forth from the ranks of heathendom; and so the most disgraced child of man can be rescued from his sin, through faith in God. (A. Martin, M. A.) Rahab’ s faith: Some lessons of the story lie on its surface. How the publicans and the harlots may enter the kingdom of God before Sadducee and Pharisee--not in their sins, but washed from them, and inclined towards the possibilities of grace by the very fact that at least self-satisfaction is impossible--that at least boasting is excluded. Also we find here the recognition of a very imperfect knowledge and a very elementary faith, as having in it “ the root of the matter” if it will but work. What was Rahab’ s knowledge, what was Rahab’ s faith, when she received the two Hebrew spies, hid them from discovery, and “ sent them out by another way” ? What Rahab knew was only this--that the God of Israel had wrought a great deliverance for His people, first in the exodus from Egypt, then in the wars of the march, and that evidently no power could stand against Him--she and her nation were foredoomed to discomfiture before this mighty God and this favoured race. Upon this small and elementary foundation of dogmatic truth was reared the superstructure of a changed and transformed life. She “ received with peace,” with friendliness and hospitality, the emissaries of the invading people, protected them with ready inventiveness from the instant search and pursuit of her king--and was herself, in the terrible slaughter of her countrymen, incorporated, with all her house, into the conquering race, to become the ancestress, as St. Matthew teaches, of king David, and of the Messiah Himself. It would be a mistake, at anachronism, to apply to a dweller in one of the old Canaanite cities, amidst the worshippers of false and cruel deities, destitute of one ray either of law or gospel light, principles of conduct and character which we owe to the revelation of all truth and all duty by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Epistle is contented to say only this, Behold in the example of this woman the working of that faith which grasps the unseen. Behold the action of faith upon evidence presented and upon an alternative of conduct. Behold the inference of truth honestly drawn, and the preference, on the strength of it, of the future to the present. Behold, St. James adds, how faith differs from opinion, and evidences its existence by the sign of work. The hearts of other inhabitants of Jericho were melting, she tells us, with the terror of Israel--she alone acted upon the conviction and added another element to the “ great cloud of witnesses.” We all see why the apostle should have singled out for mention the faith of this woman of Canaan. She was an instance of faith lifting a life out of the prejudices and partialities of birth and companionship, and making it willing, at the call of duty, to seek a new kindred and a new citizenship, amongst strangers, amongst aliens--if need be, amongst enemies. Her example is like that of Abraham leaving his birthplace, of Moses forsaking his palace--like these, yet, in degree, rising above them. For Abraham pitched his tent not amongst foes--and Moses, in renouncing the land of his adoption, returned to the citizenship of his birth and of his ancestry. She cast herself upon a hostile race, and had to unlearn every association, every habit, every feeling of the past. Thus might it be, at no distant day, with these Christians of Palestine. They were to suffer the sword of Rome to fall upon apostate Jerusalem--they were to raise no arm in her defence--on the contrary, when they saw her compassed with armies, when they saw the abomination of desolation stand in her holy place, they were to recognise the predicted token, and themselves to flee to the mountains. Christ must be more than country to those who would be worthy of Him. (Dean Vaughan.) Rahab’ s faith I. SAVING FAITH. II. A FAITH. III. A STABLE FAITH, which stood firm in the midst of trouble. IV. A SELF-DENYING FAITH. V. A FAITH. Desired mercy for her relations. VI. A FAITH. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Rahab I. SHE FAITH. 1. She received no instruction from her parents. 2. She was not in a believing country. 3. Her means of knowledge were very slender; and therefore, the food of her faith was comparatively scant. 4. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about her faith was that she should be a woman of such a character. She was apparently the most unlikely person to become a believer in Jehovah. She was a harlot, a woman that was a sinner, and universally known to be such. 5. The subject of her faith was difficult. II. HER FAITH WAS ACTIVE. 1. It was active mentally. When she believed, she began to think. 2. Her faith was active in her own sphere. Home duties are one of the very best forms of the activity of faith, especially in Christian women. 3. She did all this to the best of her ability, and she used her common sense. 4. She was also active at great risk. III. RAHAB’ S FAITH WAS MARRED WITH GROSS . She lied unto the men who came to the door to seize the spies. There were, no doubt, in her conscience indistinct glimmerings of an idea that to lie was an evil thing, but, nevertheless, her surroundings prevented her clearly knowing it as we know it. To this very day among many orientals it is far more usual to lie than to speak the truth. You must judge individuals from their own standpoint, and consider their circumstances, or you may do them an injustice. I am not going to excuse Rahab’ s lie. A lie in Rahab, or in Abraham, is as bad as in any one else; but in this case there is this to be said, she had not been taught, as most of us have been, that a lie is a degrading sin. Her fault was by no means one which we can afford to throw stones at; avoid it carefully, but do not censure it self-complacently. IV. Rahab’ s was A FAITH THAT WAS NOT ABOVE THE USE OF OUTWARD SIGNS AND SEALS. There are persons in the world who altogether despise the outward ordinances; they may be good, but they are not wise. Rahab first of all required from these spies an oath that they would preserve her, and next they gave her a token, a scarlet line, which was to be hung up in her window. This was the blood red flag of Israel. Was it not hoisted on the Passover night, so that the angel might pass by and deliver the people? She felt great comfort when she had placed the token in her window. She was not superstitious; she did not believe that anything mystical was in the red cord, but she put it there, because she had been told to do so. Now, the highest faith in Christ is perfectly consistent with the obedient use of Christian ordinances. V. HER FAITH WAS SAVING FAITH. I have shown how it was grievously marred, but it was effectual notwithstanding. So, true faith in Christ, despite its weakness, will save us, separate us from the world, join us unto God’ s Israel, give us kinship with the Lord Jesus Christ; and what higher dignity is it possible to receive? VI. HER FAITH BECAME WITH GOD , SO THAT SHE WAS THE MEANS OF THE OF OTHERS. Oh, I like this in Rahab, that she did not bargain for her own safety alone. Her sin had not hardened her heart as sin does in many cases. She thought of her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and her sisters. Now, wherever there is a real child of God there will be anxiety for his family. If you do not want to have)’ our children saved, you are not saved yourself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sovereign grace: Observe here 1. The person spoke of, Rahab, a Gentile, an Amorite, an harlot, who kept a victualling house in Jericho, and so was both harlot and hostess, defiled both in body and mind with idolatry and adultery. 2. What is spoken of her: she believed. Behold here a blessed instance (1) Of the sovereignty and freedom of God’ s grace. (2) Of the power and efficacy of Divine grace, in calling and converting a person given up by her own choice to the vilest of sins; but no sinner nor sin is to be despaired of, in whose cure sovereign grace is engaged. 3. The effect and fruit of her faith, she received the spies with peace; that is, entertained them safely. 4. The benefit and advantage she received by her faith, she perished not; that is, when the credulous and idolatrous people of Jericho were destroyed, she and her family were preserved. From the whole learn 1. That God is ready to show wonderful mercy to penitent sinners, if they return to Him and believe in Him, how great soever their sins have formerly been. 2. That true faith, wherever it is, will show itself by some eminent effect, and notable fruits of it. 3. That the rewards of faith are excellent and truly glorious; as she was preserved from the common ruin at Jericho, so shall all believers be saved from the wrath and destruction which shall come ere long upon the impenitent and unbelieving world. (W. Burkitt, M. A.) Faith recognised and rewarded in the unworthy I. AN OF THE NATURE OF FAITH. 1. The character and circumstances of Rahab show that faith is not necessarily a Christian grace. 2. Her faith was but the reasonable acting of a thoughtful mind. 3. Its reality proved itself by works. II. AN OF GOD’ S . 1. God’ s ready response to true faith, though it be characterised by ignorance and unworthiness. 2. This is seen in the remarkable preservation of Rahab. 3. And in her abundant reward for all her faith had hazarded in His cause. III. AN OF THE POWER OF FAITH IN GOD. 1. It separated her in character and doom from all her surroundings. 2. It made her the means of preserving all her kindred. 3. It allied her, an outcast Gentile, with the people of God. (C. New.) Hebrews 11:32-40 And what shall I more say?A bevy of heroes I. HEROIC NAMES (Hebrews 11:32). The men of faith. Six names are given. Some of them are names that few would have selected to occupy such a position as is here assigned to them. Note in this list (1) A disregard of chronological order. Gideon is put before Barak, and Samson before Jephthah. There will be a Divine re-arrangement of the order of all names soon, and “ there are first which shall be last” (Luke 13:30). (2) The men of pious parentage. Samson’ s father and mother appear to have feared God (Judges 13:1-25.), Jesse, David’ s father, was, we may well believe, a godly man (1 Samuel 16:1-3), and the mother of Samuel was a woman of prayer (1 Samuel 2:1). Samson’ s strength, David’ s piety, and Samuel’ s wisdom were doubtless begotten in answer to prayers of faith presented by their revered progenitors (cf. 2 Timothy 1:5) . (3) Heroes from the ranks of the lowly. Gideon was an agricultural labourer (Judges 6:11), David a shepherd lad (1 Samuel 17:34), and Samuel a servitor in the Temple of God (1 Samuel 3:1), but all were exalted to honour. Some of the grandest revelations of God have been made to the humblest of men (cf. Luke 2:8-9, and Matthew 11:25). (4) The dignity of faith springing from the dust of shame. Jephthah was the son of a harlot, but he came to be a judge in Israel (Judges 11:1; Romans 5:20). (5) Faith conspicuous in men of conspicuous failings. Gideon put an “ if” against the solemn promise of God (Judges 6:36). Barak trusted too much to Deborah (Judges 4:9). Samson was bound by the wiles of Delilah Judges 16:16-17). Jephthah sinned in making a rash vow, and added to his folly by observing it (Judges 11:30-32). David was guilty of murder and adultery (2 Samuel 12:9), Samuel failed to correct his sons 1 Samuel 3:13). They fell, but rose again, and “ all died in faith.” We should be patient with the erring, and though we have erred ourselves we should not despair. For illustrations of the faith of these men see Barak in pursuit (Judges 4:16), Gideon giving glory to God (Judges 7:15), Samson acknowledging the help of God (Judges 15:18), Jephthah realising dependence upon God (Judges 11:9), David expressing 474 confidence in God (1 Samuel 17:37), and Samuel rehearsing the goodness of God (1 Samuel 12:1-25.). II. HEROIC DEEDS (Hebrews 11:33-35). Faith often finds utterance in words 2 Corinthians 4:13), but most frequently in acts. See here faith on the battle-field (“ kingdoms” --cf. “world,” 1 John 5:4; “ flesh,” Galatians 2:20; “ devil,” 1 Peter 5:9); in the workshop (“ wrought” Mark 14:6); taking hold of God’ s word (“ obtained,” Greek, ἐπιτυχάνω, to happen or come upon); in the lion’ s den (Daniel 6:21-22); in the furnace (Daniel 3:25) eluding violence (“ escaped” , Greek, φεύγω, to flee. Faith is prudent to avoid danger 1 Samuel 19:18; Genesis 39:12); recruiting strength (Samson was weak but was “ made strong,” Judges 16:28-30); routing foes (note the alliance of valour and victory), and raising the dead (2 Kings 4:35). III. HEROIC (Hebrews 11:35-38). See here 1. The world’ s estimate of its best friends (cf. 1 John 3:13). 2. The believer’ s refusal of the world’ s help . 3. The world’ s unworthiness of the believer’ s mission . 4. The believer sustained by the hope of a future world . 5. The coming union of all believers in that world (verses 39, 40). (H. Thorne.) The moral meaning of human history I. THE OF MAN TO MAN. Man’ s cruelty argues 1. His unnaturalness. 2. His need of the gospel. II. THE FORCE OF FAITH IN HUMAN LIFE. 1. Power to conquer enemies. 2. Power to work out the right. 3. Power to realise the invisible. 4. Power to endure the overwhelming. III. THE CHARITY OF HEAVEN IN ITS OF . Not a man mentioned in this paragraph was perfect. Falsehood, adultery, greed, cruelty, profanity, attached to most of them; to some in a pre-eminent degree, Yet here is no mention of their sins; they are put among the saints, canonised in the roll of heaven’ s illustrious heroes. The Great Father is more charitable in His treatment of human character than men in treatment of each other. IV. THE OF THE WORLD AS A SCENE FOR TRUE HEROES. 1. The world’ s ideas of true heroes. 2. God’ s idea of the worthiness of the world. (Homilist.) Faith victorious by the prospect of future blessing I. THE FAITH OF OLD SAINTS, AND ITS REWARDS. 1. This faith was the secret of most wonderful victories (Hebrews 11:32-38). 2. This was inspired by the promise of certain future blessings. “ The promise.” 3. They did not receive those blessings in this life. Their faith was rewarded here in the victories it secured, but its great reward was unbestowed when their earthly course ended. So with faith always; its best blessings are to come. II. THE FAITH OF NEW SAINTS, AND ITS MORE PERFECT HELP, 1. a contrast. “ God having provided some better thing for us.” Then what should not our faith accomplish! 2. A resemblance. The object of our faith, like theirs, is still future. III. THE FAITH OF OLD AND NEW SAINTS IN ITS PERFECT . 1. The present imperfection of the saints in heaven. 2. Their perfection and ours is to be simultaneous. 3. The present waiting of the redeemed in glory must then involve profound interest in the affairs of earth. (C. New.) Illustrations of faith 1. Has your faith “ subdued kingdoms” ? Here is the subduing power of faith declared. If final judgment were to-night, is your heart subdued? I do not mean, is the inclination for sin no longer existing? but I mean, are you able to overcome it by God’ s grace? 2. Have you by faith “ wrought righteousness” ? Behold the man without faith working; he “ works all uncleanness with greediness” ; he works for self and despises the command of God. 3. Has your faith “ obtained promises” ? The Lord Jesus Christ, before He left this world, at the ascension, left us certain promises, which on certain conditions we should obtain. If we abide in Him that we should bring forth fruit. Do you do it? If we pray that we should receive the gift of the Spirit. Do you receive it? If we love Him that we should have peace. Have you peace? If we serve Him that we should be hated by the world. Are you hated by it? 4. Have you “ stopped the mouths of lions” ? The devil is “ the roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour,” and when we stand before God to be judged, the devil will be there to accuse us, and to bring against us the charge of every sin we have committed at his instigation. 5. Have yon” quenched the violence of fire” ? There is a fire now preparing for the lost in which Satan and his angels are making ready an abode for their miserable victims. None shall be able to quench its violence and escape its fury save those who have lived by faith. Have you thought of that fire, feared it, shunned it? If not, you are not prepared to meet the Judge. 6. “ Out of weakness were made strong.” Have you been weak and are now strong? Faith gives strength to every feeling and principle in us. 7. Has your faith led you to bear the trial of “ cruel mockings” ? There are many mockings we meet with from the world if we live by faith. 1. There is the open opposition, an unbridled, undisguised hatred of the world, more exactly “ cruel mockings,” which led men in times of yore to drive families from their quiet homes. 2. There is the “ cruel mocking,” more difficult, perhaps, to bear, and which we are more called to bear--the silent and significant remarks made in a general way, yet intended personally; the mocking of sacred and holy subjects in our presence, when we know it is intended for and directed at ourselves; the laugh of open ridicule, or the smile of half-concealed contempt; the attacks on the faults and inconsistencies of religious characters, which we well know to be intended for our own. (E. Monro.) The heroes of faith: Mark the characteristics of that faith, in virtue of which the writer brings together these honoured names, and by the power of which they were enabled to be God’ s instruments and deputies in carrying forward on the earth His great purposes of salvation. There are certain marks common to their faith, which will be found also to characterise those who have succeeded them in New Testament times. I. The first is, that THEIR FAITH IS IN A LIVING GOD--a true believing that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. That is no very distinguishing characteristic, you may think; most men believe in God. Most men profess to believe in Him, but in how many does their conduct show that the profession is worth much? They believe in forms of words, in current opinion, in worldly maxims, in the conventions of society, in the fashions of the church; but genuine faith in a living God, whose righteous laws ought to be obeyed, whose promises are true and ought to be acted on, whose loving care guards and guides their lives, so that they have only to do His will and fear no evil--that is a Tare thing yet, and makes men more or less strange where it is seen. It was found in all these heroes of faith, so that they had strength and courage to do the will of God, when it seemed not only difficult, but utterly impossible. II. A second characteristic of the faith of these heroes is that ITS GOAL IS IN THE FUTURE, its eye is fixed on the invisible. They felt the evil of the present state, its disorder, its degradation, its wrong, its misery; but they knew by the vision of faith that this visible world is girt about with the invisible, that there is a higher order of things, a kingdom of truth, of righteousness, of peace, of purity above, and that its powers and laws shall yet penetrate and rule this earth, and the kingdom of God be established among men. And though the promises, whose fulfilment bounded the horizon of pre-Christian believers, have now been accomplished, and faith has now that fulfilment to rest upon, it still looks forward to the future, to promises yet to be fulfilled of a better day and a better kingdom. But still it confidently lays hold of the invisible, and works towards an end which seems a mere will-o’ -the-wisp in the judgment of ordinary men. III. Again, the faith of these true heroes is marked by INSIGHT INTO PRESENT NEEDS AND DUTIES. Faith has a prophetic glance. Discerning God and God’ s holy order, it has an understanding of the times and the seasons, knows when to cast in the seed, and to put in the sickle, sees the fruit in the flower, and the great tree in the little germ. Hence the wonderful variety, for instance, in the work of these leaders of faith recorded in this chapter. They were not guided by custom, nor ruled merely by traditions of the past, but holding and living by the truth already given, they were led into fresh applications of it. The new time brought its new duties, and they obeyed God’ s call to face them; it disclosed fresh light, and they dared to open their eyes to let it in. (W. Stevenson, M. A.) Faith a Arc de Triomphe: In the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul erects a triumphal arch to the honour of faith. It did not require much labour to make a selection of brave deeds to be engraven upon the monument; for faith’ s prowess has been shown in so many fields, and it has wrought such varied marvels, that when long lists of its deeds are mentioned far more are left. Time would fail to tell of the achievements of faith, but its record will never come to an end for lack of matter. It is somewhat striking that no such trophy has ever been raised to unbelief! None such could be raised, for it has done nothing worthy of remembrance. Subduing kingdoms, working righteousness, stopping the mouths of lions, and so forth, are quite out of its line, and it knows nothing of “ a better resurrection.” But it might have tried its hand at founding hospitals, erecting orphanages, and other ordinary fruits of a belief in Christianity. Why has it not done so? It is altogether negative, destructive, sterile; and is therefore by no means the principle upon which to build a life if a man designs to make it useful and honourable. Show us the value of your scepticism by its purifying influence upon the characters of sceptics, and the fruitfulness of atheism by the beneficence which has proceeded from its constraint, and we will consider the matter. But as yet we question whether any one of the human race was ever raised to anything noble, spiritual, or unselfish by the force of unbelief. The doubt which is nowadays cried up with as much noise as that of the craftsmen of Demetrius when they shouted for the space of two hours, “ Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” is a dead idol as far as any working out of good is concerned. Be it ours to be actuated by a principle tried and proved in all ages by the saintly and the heroic. Let those who prefer it choose to doubt; be it ours to believe. No man has ever had the hardihood to preach “ Doubt and live” ; but “ Believe and live” is the essence of the message from heaven. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Importance of noble living Life and not death is the all-important part of human history. We test the strength of the vessel not by the way in which she entered the sheltered harbour but by how she wrestled with the storm out in the defenceless ocean. We estimate the prowess of the warrior, not as he returns at the close of conflict, weak and weary, but as he bore himself up amid the fray, in the heat of battle. It is the opening and middle chapters of a man’ s biography that are the momentous ones, and which, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, determine the character of the closing scene. (J. R. Macduff.) Troubles made beautiful Most of the shells of the oyster are pearly in the interior; and as the true pearls are merely morbid growths, they may all produce pearls of various qualities. The formation of pearls is caused by the introduction of irritating substances, such as grain of sand, between the mantle and the shell. The irritation causes the animal to cover the obnoxious objects with layers of pearl, which generally attach the foreign body to the interior of the shell. The Chinese produce pearls artificially by placing substances in the position just described; and we have seen some shells, to the interior of which small metal images were attached in this manner by the pearly secretion. When we look at a pearl we look at an annoyance which has been ennobled. The oyster by itself is of merely nominal value. But the result of the oyster’ s own treatment of its irritations in this world--the pearl--is something “ of great price.” Apart from its pecuniary worth, this gem has a moral significance. It suggests that troubles may be made beautiful, and reminds us that amongst mankind some martyrs are more remembered by the glory with which they invested their sorrows than by any other portion of their lives. Biography has its moral pearls, which are treasured long after the creators of them have perished, just as material pearls are valued long years after the oysters have been discarded. (J. Dallas.) Gideon Gideon’ s excellencies The excellencies noted of Gideon m his history are these: 1. His providence in time of extremity (Judges 6:11). The point of providence is commended in Joseph (Genesis 41:48), and pressed by the wise man (Proverbs 6:8). 2. His valour (Judges 6:12). It is of excellent use for the managing of weighty works. 3. His acknowledgment of God to be the disposer of all (Judges 6:13). 4. His humble, lowly mind (Judges 6:15). 5. His desire to have his faith strengthened in God’ s promise (Judges 6:17). 6. His gratitude to him that brought him the glad tidings of his delivering Israel (Judges 6:18). 7. His liberal hospitality (Judges 6:19). 8. His fear and trembling at God’ s presence (Judges 6:22). 9. His piety towards God, manifested both by building an altar to God (which was in those days a solemn rite of worshipping God thereby), and also by the name he gave to the altar. 10. His obedience to God’ s charge, and that both in the general substance, and particular circumstances thereof (Judges 6:27-28). 11. His prudence in making preparation for that work whereunto God had called him (Judges 6:34-35). This care of preparing means may well stand with true faith: yea, it is a fruit thereof, 12. His care to encourage others to that whereof himself was confident Judges 7:15). 13. His care to raise up the hearts of his soldiers to God (Judges 7:18). 14. His meek spirit, and soft answer, whereby he pacified the furious rage of the Ephraimites (Judges 8:1-3). 15. His constancy in pursuing a victory well begun (Judges 8:4; Judges 8:11-12). 16. His care to refresh his soldiers, weary with pursuing their enemies Judges 8:5; Judges 8:8). Jonathan doth set out the benefit hereof (1 Samuel 14:27). 17. His just revenge on the inhuman, and scornful men of Succoth and Penuel (Judges 8:15, dec.). 18. His modesty in refusing that honour which the people would have conferred upon him (Judges 8:23). How few are of that mind? 19. His care to preserve peace after he had got full conquest upon his enemies; for it is noted, that after the conquest the country was in quietness all his days (Judges 18:28). This is the most proper end of war. 20. His contentedness with his own private means (Judges 8:29). In which respect he is said to dwell in his own house. The principal observation concerning Gideon’ s faith is, that it made him with three hundred unarmed men, upon God’ s command, set upon an army of many thousands (Judges 7:7). So as faith resteth on God with small means as confidently as with great (1 Samuel 14:6; 2 Chronicles 14:11). (W. Gouge.) BarakThe faith of Barak I. THERE WAS FAITH IN ONE OF SO OBSCURE THE OF THE HOST OF ISRAEL. We read nothing of him previously, and after his service was rendered he seemed to have retired into the obscurity out of which he had emerged. It was not self-confidence or ambition that brought him forward, it was faith in the summons of Jehovah. II. THERE WAS FAITH IN HIS OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE LORD’ S . Deborah, whether sitting under her palm-tree to administer justice, or standing upon the heights of Tabor, and giving the word of command to the warriors of the north, or singing praises to the Lord for the avenging of Israel, is a grand poetic figure. And it was Barak’ s faith that discerned, in this woman’ s voice the voice of the Lord that led him to exclaim, “ If thou wilt go with me, then I will go.” III. THERE WAS FAITH IN HIS FOR HIS OWN FAME. Deborah warned him that, though the devotion, the daring, the danger were his, he should not have the honour of Sisera’ s death, which should be the work of a woman. It is the part of selfishness to toil, to fight, to suffer, for honour and applause. Faith rises above such motive, loses self in duty, in obedience to God. IV. THERE WAS FAITH IN HIS A FOE IN THE NAME AND WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD. Had Barak thought of the mighty army of the Canaanites, and their nine hundred chariots, his heart might well have failed him. But when he heard the appeal of Deborah: “ Is not the Lord gone out before thee?” his courage rose, and he put to flight the armies of the aliens. V. THERE WAS FAITH IN HIS OF VICTORY TO THE GOD OF HOSTS. He “ rehearsed the righteous acts of the Lord,” who had “ made him have dominion over the mighty.” (Family Churchman.) Barak’ s name, infirmities, and virtues 1. Barak’ s name signifies lightning (Ezekiel 1:13). He was a terrible lightning to Sisera, and his host. He was chosen general against the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, who had oppressed Israel twenty years (Judges 4:2-3). 2. One infirmity is noted of him which was this, that being called of God he refused to go except Deborah went with him (Judges 4:8). This showed both diffidence in God’ s power and truth, and also disobedience to God’ s charge. But it seemeth that these came rather from the weakness of his flesh than from the obstinancy of his disposition. For he quickly recovered himself. 3. His virtues were these: (1) Prudence, in preparing an army out of those among whom he dwelt, and whom he might best command, and in whom he might best confide. (2) Obedience, in ordering matters according to the charge given unto him. (3) Courage, in setting upon a huge host well prepared, with so few as he did. (4) Constancy, in pursuing the victory. (5) Piety, in returning the praise to God. 4. In Barak’ s example we have a proof that such as are weak in faith may become strong. (W. Gouge.) SamsonSamson’ s faith: Whether the faith attributed to Samson was a faith that purified and saved his soul, or only a faith that made him an efficient and conspicuous actor in the Church’ s external history, is a question not easy to solve. Faith is an element of power sometimes where it is not saving. Any strong persuasion, any earnest belief, nerves the heart and strengthens the arm; and thus a deep and firm conviction may make a mighty and effective actor of one on whose character it exerts no salutary influence. The Crusaders are a striking instance of the power of a belief to produce labour and self-denial in men for an end, while yet they remain full of worldly passion, and are carried by it into gross crimes and excesses. They were not holy men because they went to a holy war, and were actuated by a lively and energetic faith in the object it contemplated, even though that faith was one which filled them with a certain sort of religious zeal and enthusiasm. Perhaps Samson’ s faith was of this sort. (R A. Hallam, D. D.) The nobility of Samson’ s character I am astonished at those rationalistic critics who mock at the story of Samson, and ridicule it as base and ignoble. If it was such a poor and vulgar affair, how came it that he occupies a place among the saints and sages of the Old Testament, and that his story is preserved while so much else is thrown aside? And how was it that every Hebrew was proud of Samson, and that he was loved more than all the other judges? Ah there must have been something grand and noble in the man, we feel his strange attractiveness. He was such a real man; his wit, humour, irony, his very sins and weaknesses bring him near to us. Remember how, when the Philistines demanded him, and the men of Judah made the cowardly proposition that he should give himself up to save their property from being plundered, the big-souled man replies, “ Yes; make me your sacrifice.” There is a touch of Samson’ s nobility. (Prof. W. G. Elmslie.) JephthaeJephthah’ s excellencies 1. His valour (Judges 11:1). That phrase implieth that he was a man of a strong body and courageous mind. 2. His improvement of his valour against enemies (though he were disgracefully thrust out by his countrymen), as is implied in this phrase, “ Went out” (Judges 11:3). 3. His care of others like himself. “ He went out with them that were gathered to him;’ (Judges 11:3), so dealt David with his (1 Samuel 22:1-2). 4. His providence in securing himself and his country for the future, which was manifested by binding them to make him their head (Judges 11:9-11), so long as he was head he had power to order matters; and he was privy to his own purpose and the integrity thereof. 5. His fear dealing with his enemies (Judges 11:12-13, &c.). He expostulates their wrongs; he adviseth them to desist; he manifesteth the equity and necessity of the engagements. (W. Gouge.) Hebrews 11:33-34 Through faith subdued kingdoms Doughty deeds I. THEY SUBDUED . Though this may agree to, and be affirmed of others; yet in this particular David seems to be most eminent, who subdued the Philistines, Edomites, Ammonites, and other of the Syrian kingdoms. 1. The cause of the conqueror was just. 2. He had warrant from God, and many times the warrant was extraordinary. 3. Sometimes he had directions from God, who was first consulted. 4. He depended not upon his own strength and policy but upon his God. 5. The victory was given by God upon the faith and prayer of the victorious party. 6. The Kingdoms subdued were not only enemies to God’ s people, but to God Himself and His laws; so that both the safety of the people, and also of religion, did much depend upon these victories, which were far more excellent because given upon the faith of such as trusted in their God. II. THEY WROUGHT . The subduing of kingdoms was the exercise of their military power, and this may seem to be the use of the sword of justice. The duty of a prince is to defend his people from foreign enemies, and to protect their loyal subjects, and punish the injurious. This righteousness therefore is judicial, and their doing of righteousness their constant administration of justice. III. BY FAITH THEY . By promises understand things promised, and these not general but particular. To the patriarchs before Joshua the land of Canaan was promised; yet not given, not enjoyed; only their posterity under Joshua obtained that promise. Christ was promised to them all, yet they obtained not this promise; for He was not exhibited till many years after. These were more general promises. There were besides many eminent mercies, particular of victory, deliverance, peace, and other things, which by faith they obtained; yet so as that they used the means which God vouchsafed unto them, and these means without faith had been insufficient. IV. BY FAITH THEY STOPPED THE MOUTHS OF LIONS. This is understood principally of Daniel. Samson slew a lion, and so did David; Daniel was saved from the hungry, fierce lions when he was cast into their den of purpose to be devoured. This he acknowledged as a great and special mercy from his God (Daniel 6:22). This preservation was miraculous, and a mercy obtained by faith. For his cause was just, he would not intermit his devotion unto his God though he should suffer death, and resolved to observe the just command of God, and refused to obey the unjust commander man, and was persuaded that God was able to deliver him, and therefore he cast himself wholly upon His mercy. This he could never have done without faith. V. BY FAITH SOME OF THEE THE OF FIRE. By this and the former we understand that divers of these particulars are not to be attributed to the faith of all and every one, but to some particular persons of them as severed from the rest. The former worthy intended was one of the prophets, and these might be such also, yet not so eminent; for these words are not meant of a single person, but of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. By these two last examples we understand how easily God can, and how ready He is to deliver His believing servants out of greatest dangers. VI. BY FAITH THEY, THAT IS SOME OF THEM, ESCAPED THE SWORD. The sword may here be taken synecdochically for any kind of destroying instrument used in either war or peace. In war David and many of the judges escaped the edge of the sword, and were saved from the fury of the enemy. In peace Elijah, Elisha, Jeremy, and others, were delivered out of the hands of those who intended to murder them. They were in danger because they served God, did His work, and gave no just cause of offence. They were delivered because whilst they were obedient to their God, they trusted in Him. No dangers can hurt those whom God will save; they are safe in the midst of greatest evils. VII. BY FAITH OF WEAK SOME BECAME STRONG. This, by many, is understood of recovery from sickness and diseases; and the same sometimes mortal, and by man incurable; and some instance in Hezekiah, whom God upon his prayer of faith restored to perfect health; and because his disease was mortal therefore the cure was supernatural, and said to be obtained by faith. Others understand it of such as were weak in respect of warlike valour, and far inferior to their enemies for multitude, strength, prowess, policy; yet by faith in God few overcame many; the weak subdued the strong; the plain unskilful not only defended themselves, but terrified their enemies; and though at first they were fearful, yet by faith they strengthened themselves in God, and upon their prayers were encouraged against potent enemies. VIII. WAXED VALIANT IN FIGHT. Many of God’ s saints, and some of the forenamed, were soldiers and men of mighty valour, who through faith were so encouraged that they feared neither the number nor the strength of their enemies. Valour is proper unto a good soldier, and in war is necessary, as cowardice is the ruin of many a goodly army. War is very dangerous and full of hazard, and the event uncertain. The more the danger and the difficulty the greater measure of fortitude is requisite. The nature of valour is not wholly to contemn dangers, but to foresee and resist them, and no ways to adventure upon them. It is the strength of the mind without which the strength of the body is to little purpose. This is not a blind boldness, nor merely moral and grounded only upon reason, but it is Divine. For when the cause was good, and they had a command with a promise, and sometimes with instructions from God, they had great reason to be valiant. These did not fight only for their estates, wives, children, and their country; but for their religion, the covenant, and the cities of their God. Their valour was grounded upon the goodness of their cause, and the promise of their God; which firmly supported their faith, as their faith did much increase their valour. IX. THEY TURNED TO FLIGHT THE ARMIES OF THE ALIENS. These aliens were heathens and idolaters, and so enemies not only to their country but to their religion and their God. This made their cause the better, and the enemies’ cause the more unjust. The event of their wars against these was that they routed them, and made them turn their backs and fly. For as they fought for God out of faith, so God fought for them according to His promise, which was the ground of their belief and confidence. If, in a just war, we have the like cause and the like faith, we may expect the like success. But now many wars are made amongst Christians, and sometimes against the same nation; and the cause is not just, but the quarrel is begun and continued out of pride, malice, cruelty, ambition, and desire of revenge; and they fight not out of faith against God’ s enemies, but against God’ s people. (G. Lawson.) The heroism of goodness I. THE DAILY DOERS OF WHAT IS RIGHT ARE AMONG TRUE HEROES. 1. They meet the same difficulties. 2. They are inspired by the same motives. They exert the same influence--glorifying God, and blessing men. II. FAITH IS THE ONLY WAY TO THE DAILY DOING OF WHAT IS RIGHT. 1. Faith in the right. 2. Faith in God. 3. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the incarnation of right, the revealer of God, and the helper of souls. (U. R. Thomas.) Obtained promises Promises obtained through faith I. INQUIRE WHETHER THERE ARE NOT MADE TO US WHICH WE DO NOT OBTAIN. 1. The great promise of justification by faith in Christ is made to you. This blessing is promised to every one that believeth. The inquiry then is, Have I Scriptural evidence to conclude that this has taken place as to me? Is the sense of guilt removed? Does the Spirit of adoption dwell in me crying, Abba, Father? Do I love Him, knowing that He hath loved me, and given Himself for me? And do all the fruits follow--“ love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” ? 2. We have the promise of constant supply of spiritual life, Christ came that we “ might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.” The effect of all this is spiritual vigour, and a relish in the application of our minds to Divine things. With this are also connected holy thoughts, lively affections, cheerful and persevering service. 3. A third class of promises relate to our deliverance from the worldly spirit. Do we so see the hand of God in the events of life, as to rest from anxiety? so enjoy inward and sweet communion with God, as to rest in Him with entire satisfaction? 4. A fourth class of promises relate to victory over temptation. The Lord is “ able to keep you from falling” ; He will “ bruise Satan under your feet shortly” ; and every regenerate man is said to “ keep himself,” so that “ the wicked one toucheth him not.” “ Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” “ This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Now the question with every one of us ought to be, “ Am I a conqueror; or am I a conquered man? Am I overcome by temptation, or do I preserve ‘ a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man?’” 5. There are promises of growth and progress in all religious habits and acts. All the commands on this subject, to “ grow in grace,” and to “ go on unto perfection,” have in them the nature of promises. I am directed to grow; and the command implies an engagement to supply the power. We are directed also to abide in Christ, the source of fruitfulness. All the apostolical prayers are promises, because they relate to God’ s gracious engagements. Every one of us ought, therefore, to inquire whether we “ obtain” these promises. Do I grow in grace, so as to be completely delivered from the corruptions of my nature, and to love God with all my heart, and mind, and soul, and strength? II. THE CAUSE OF THIS SAD FAILURE. 1. Faith may be defective as wanting its Scriptural concomitants. We are justified, and obtain all the promises, by faith alone; but saving faith is not alone. One concomitant of true faith is a sense of danger. It credits the whole revelation of God, the threatenings as well as the promises. Here is the ground of the grand failure in many. They are not awakened. Another concomitant of true faith is a broken spirit. Many persons have fear and remorse; but they have not that godly sorrow which worketh repentance. A sense of unworthiness is another concomitant of true faith. We can claim nothing at the hands of God’ s justice. Mercy, from first to last, is our only plea. Another concomitant of true faith is strong desire after these blessings. Intense hungerings and thirstings after righteousness. Another concomitant is persevering prayer. This is the ordinance of God’ s appointing as the visible expression of faith; and He will honour it. Now, has our faith failed in these concomitants? 2. Faith may remain feeble and powerless because we nourish it not by its proper food, the Word of God. 3. We may fail in the actings of faith. In addition to this general confidence, there must be an act of special trust in God for the present communication to us of those blessings which we particularly need, and which the promises of His Word authorise us to expect. III. IF, THEN, YOU FAIL IN THE WHICH RELATE TO YOUR , LET ME EXHORT YOU 1. That you cry mightily to God for a broken and contrite heart. 2. That you set before you all that God has promised as designed for you. 3. That, with your prayers, you stir up yourselves to the actings and exercise of faith. Lay hold upon the promises. (R. Watson.) Obtaining promises I. It is certain that holy men of old, and that good men now, do BY FAITH OBTAIN . If we have had a little promise, and up till now have realised it, and made it the stay of our souls, surely God will give us a greater one, and so, from promise to promise speeding our way, we shall find the promises to be rounds of the ladder which Jacob saw, the top whereof shall reach to heaven. II. By faith these men obtained not merely the giving of the promise, but THE OF IT. There are three ways of “ obtaining the promise.” Many of them only need the outstretched hand to grasp them; you may go with faith at once and take the promise, “ Ask and ye shall receive.” There are many of the promises so readily attainable that if you are in Christ you may this morning see them fulfilled by simply believing them. Believe them to be true, and you shall have what they promise you. Some of God’ s promises are like cheques, you present them at the counter and the cash is given; you have but to take the promise stamped by God’ s own hand, signed and sealed, believe it to be God’ s, and you shall have the mercy now. This is true of a very large number of the promises. Of some others you must not simply believe them, but exercise importunate prayer about them. “ Knock and it shall be opened.” You are certain to have the blessing if you know how to wrestle with the angel, and declare that you will not let him go unless he shall bestow it upon you A third kind of these promises are not even to be fulfilled by prayer or by faith alone; you must obtain them by earnest seeking after them. “ Seek and ye shall find.” Where God has appended to the promise a something that is to be done, diligently do it, and you shall obtain the blessing. 1. Child of God, babe in grace, wouldst thou obtain the promises? Take this advice first--meditate much upon them. There are promises which are like grapes in the wine-press; if thou wilt tread them the juice will flow. 2. Secondly, young man in Christ Jesus, do not only meditate upon the promise, but seek in thy soul to realise it as being the very word of God. 3. Then be sure that thou doest, in the power of the Spirit of God, what the precept annexed to the promise asks of thee. 4. Some of the promises thou wilt not inherit even so, unless thou shalt imitate the men who by faith and patience inherit the promise. 5. In the next place take care if you would get the promise that you select some one that is suitable to your own ease. Again, young believer, would you obtain the promise? 6. Then be careful that you are thankful for promises you have already obtained. 7. And lastly, if you would have your faith stirred up, look at the examples of all who in olden times, and in our own times, by faith have obtained the promise. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The promises: The promises of God are to the believer an inexhaustible mine of wealth. Happy is it for him if he knows how to search out their secret veins and enrich himself with their hid treasures. They are to him an armoury containing all manner of offensive and defensive weapons. Blessed is he who has learned to enter into the sacred arsenal, to put on the breastplate and the helmet, and to lay his hand to the spear and to the sword. They are to the believer a surgery in which he will find all manner of restoratives and blessed elixirs; he shall find therein an ointment for every wound, a cordial for every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well skilled in heavenly pharmacy, and knoweth how to lay hold on the healing virtues of the promises of God. The promises are to the Christian a storehouse of food. They are as the granaries which Joseph built in Egypt, or as the golden pot wherein the unrotting manna was preserved. Blessed is he who can take the five barley loaves and fishes of promise and break them till his five thousand necessities shall all be supplied, and he is able to gather up baskets full of fragments. The promises are the Christian’ s Magna Charta of liberty, they are the title deeds of his heavenly estate. Happy is he who knoweth how to read them well and call them all his own. Yea, they are the jewel-room in which the Christian’ s crown-treasures are preserved--the regalia, secretly his to-day, but which he shall openly wear in paradise. He is already a king who hath the silver key with which to unlock the strong room; he may even now grasp the sceptre, wear the crown, and put upon his shoulders the imperial mantle. Oh, how unutterably rich are the promises of our faithful, covenant-keeping God! If we had here the tongue of the mightiest of human orators, and if that tongue could be touched with a live coal from off the altar, yet still it could not utter a tenth of the praises of the exceeding great and precious promises of God. Nay, they who have entered into rest, and have had their tongues attuned to the lofty and rapturous eloquence of cherubim and seraphim, even they can never tell the height and depth, the length and breadth of the unsearchable riches of Christ which are stored up in the treasure-house of God--the promises of the covenant of his grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Out of weakness were made strong Strength out of weakness 1. See, first, how universal was the presence of this mark, in each of its two especial parts--of weakness growing into strength. Look back in thought on all. How surely did all begin in weakness! How was Samuel chosen in the weakness of childhood, and how was even that childhood strengthened till it bore all the burden of the prophet’ s office! How was Moses called amid great straits of external difficulty and internal self-distrust, and how was he made able to endure the burden of all the multitude, that gainsaying and stiff-necked generation which was committed to his guidance! Again, how did the weakness from which they were being rescued show its remaining presence in the partial unbelief of Abraham, and the deep fall of David, and in St. Peter’ s denial of his Master! Yet how evidently was there a process of strengthening going on in each one of these very saints, even until they were perfected! How firm was the faith of Abraham--how dear to David was the will of God! How strong was the courageous love of this same Peter, who once had trembled before a maid-servant. 2. And now mark next how, in all who bear the true mark, this marvellous change is accomplished. Clearly it is wrought by a power beyond themselves--for out of weakness they “ were made strong.” It was not of their own doing. A power out of themselves was moulding them; a higher Will was drawing up into its own blessed truth the lower and capricious actings of their weakened, dishonoured, and distorted will. A mighty love was brooding over and transforming them. The acting of that Holy Spirit to which they yielded was renewing and sanctifying them. He strengthened them to resist temptation, and in their resisting it He purified them. And then observe, further, what there was in them which thus brought them under the working of His strengthening power. All this chapter speaks of it; but it is gathered up into the fewest possible words. All this mystery of strength is revealed in this one utterance, “ Who through faith.” With more or less of clearness, as God had revealed it to them, they saw that He had laid help for them upon One that was mighty; and they clave to Him, and in them the mystery was accomplished; they sought to cast themselves in their weakness upon Him; and His mighty presence stood beside them. He was in them, and they who without Him could do nothing found His strength “ perfected in” their “ weakness.” In each one of the saints this is the pattern character. Every one passes from weakness into strength through cleaving for himself to Christ. And what they were that we are--weak, faltering, unworthy, tempted souls, far beneath His love, infinitely unworthy of His care; ever ready to sink before any enemy, to be over-mastered by every temptation; ever ready to fall away utterly, yet held up by His hand, and from the crumbling brink of perdition brought safely through to crowns and to His presence. Oh, unutterable wonders of the lovingkindness and faithfulness of God! Oh, mysterious deep of His counsels of redemption! Oh, blessed work of the life-giving Cross and bitter agony of Christ our Lord! Oh, glorious hope for every one who cleaveth closely to His righteous life for acceptance and for strength! But there is another application of this truth, which we may profitably make; for this which we have seen to be a special note of the separate spiritual life of every saint of God, is also the character of the corporate acts of the Church which is their common body. From her earliest planting this note has been especially stamped upon all which has concerned her spread and upgrowth. Thus, when our blessed Lord Himself, in His earthly ministry, gathered in the first fruits of His elect, He so veiled His glory in the likeness of our flesh that in Him there was for the common eye of men no “ beauty that we should desire Him” ; and so, plainly, He meant that it should be with those who bore His commission to their brethren. His chosen followers were fishermen of Galilee; and when He sent out the seventy, He sent them “ two and two,” with no outward accompaniment of power or presence to challenge the attention of the world. How could the note of an external weakness be more plainly stamped upon the infant Church? Yet what a manifest strength sprang out of all that weakness! And so it has been ever since. It would not be difficult to produce a multitude of instances in which it would be clear that whenever the Church has made any signal advance, it has been not by the strength of any arm of flesh, but through the power of God’ s grace working mightily through feeble instruments. So (to touch merely upon one example) it was manifestly when the goodness of our God towards this land enabled our fathers here to cast off that long accumulation of corruptions in doctrine, discipline, and conduct which had been heaped upon her truth, and well nigh choked her life. By what unlikely instruments, and with what an apparent feebleness of means, did the arm of God begin and carry through amongst us the blessed work of the Reformation. So that we may take this as an undoubted mark of His working in His Church, that the work may be seen to be wrought “ not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord” ; and that we may even expect to find the chief instruments of her increase marked with this character, that “ out of weakness they have been made strong.” (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) God’ s cure for man’ s weakness I desire to speak to those who are weak--weak where they ought not to be--and who feel a growing tendency to rest content in that weakness; I would stir up those who are beginning to imagine that weakness is the normal and proper state of a Christian; that to be unbelieving, desponding, nervous, timid, cowardly, inactive, heartless, is at worst a very excusable thing. I. MENTION CASES OF CURE. I shall not now cite cases from the Old Testament of bodily cures which have been wrought by faith, though I might mention Hezekiah. In the apostolic times it was through faith that many sicknesses were made to fly before the healing touch of the apostles. That power of healing has probably become extinct, or is lying dormant in the Church; yet there are still indications that faith has some power in that direction. I cannot but think that when honest John Wickliffe, raising himself up in the bed of sickness, said to the monks who surrounded his couch expecting him to die and tempting him to recant, “ I shall not die, but live to declare the wicked deeds of the monks” --I cannot but think that his faith had much to do with his cure; had he been a man of a timorous, wavering frame of mind, his sick-bed might have been his death-bed, but the vital forces were all thrown into energetic action by the mental energy of his faith, and the crisis was safely passed. I do not know how far faith may still operate upon the bodily frame, for there is certainly an intimate connection between the soul and the body. That faith strengthens Christian men has been proved often in the history of the Church of God. The Church’ s weakness springs mainly and mostly from a want of faith in her God, and in the revelation which God has entrusted to her. When men believe intensely they act vigorously, and when their principles penetrate their very souls, and become precious to them as life itself, then no suffering is too severe, and no undertaking is too laborious, and no conflict too heroic. This seems to me to be the great work which Luther did in his day, under God the Holy Spirit’ s power. He brought back the Church to the strength of faith, and then her whole force returned. What has been proved upon the largest scale has been true in all other instances. For instance, the weakness of depraved human nature always gives way before the energy of that faith which the Spirit works in us. The same is true of subsequent spiritual debility. Christians who are alive unto God, and are endowed with some Divine strength, are attacked at times with a spiritual, universal decline. Just as we sometimes see a strong and healthy person growing pale, losing appetite, and falling into sickness, until he becomes a mere skeleton, so have I seen it with Christians; they do not lose life, but they do lose all their energy. Then they can scarce walk, much less run, and mounting with wings as eagles were quite out of the question. Such persons will bear witness that the only way of recruiting their strength is by faith. They must come again to the first principles, and trust their souls anew with Jesus, believing over again with a novelty of energy the old doctrines of the gospel. They must go to God as to a real God in believing prayer, and they will not long remain weak. II. ANALYSE THE . The subject is so very wide that I must confine myself to one instance, and shall speak of the medicine as it would be mixed for a man struggling at very dreadful odds against a gigantic system of evil. He was very weak, but through faith he becomes strong. One of the first ingredients of faith’ s medicine is a sense of right. Everybody admits that when a man is sure that right is on his side, he finds strength in that belief. Faith is a belief in the rightness of that which God reveals, a trusting in its truth, and who wonders that a man who believes, therefore becomes strong? A second ingredient is heavenly authority. Everybody knows that a man who is naturally weak will often act very bravely when he has authority to back him. Let the Christian combatant feel that he is armed with Divine authority, and you will not wonder if from a dwarf he rises to a giant. Mixed with this is a consciousness of heavenly companionship which makes the believer courageous. Many a man who would have been afraid to go to battle alone has marched along very cheerily because of the many thousands who are hurrying to the same attack. The Christian feels that he has the companionship of his God and Saviour. In addition to all this, faith has an expectation of supernatural help. Faith hears the wheels of Providence working on her behalf. I must not omit one powerful ingredient in faith’ s life-draught--the prospect of ultimate reward. III. THIS . I cannot do it. You must go to Him who compounded it, namely, the blessed Spirit of the living God, and take with you this prayer, “ Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief,” and this other one, “ Lord, increase our faith” ; but I will just give you a few hints. Some of you are going through a present personal difficulty; you are embarrassed in money matters, or a child is sick, or the wife is dying, or some other providential trim is vexing you--you are saying, “ I cannot bear it! “ I will not pray with you that you may be comforted in that sinful weakness, but I do beseech you to ask for faith in that Father’ s hand which wields the rod, that you may get out of the weakness, and may now be made strong to suffer with holy patience what your loving Father’ s wisdom appoints for you. Others have a spiritual duty before you, but you are shirking it because of its difficulty. You do not like to “ go through the ordeal “ -that is what you call it. You are disobediently timid. Now, I shall not ask God to comfort you in that weakness; you know your Master’ s will, and you do it not; may you be beaten with many stripes, and may the stripes be blessed to you. I will ask that, knowing your duty, you may rise out of that weakness by believing that God will help you to obey, and so out of weakness you may be made strong. IV. PRAISE THE , and who is this? Who is it that has taught us to believe? It is our Father who is in heaven, who has taught us and bidden us trust Him; blessed be His name. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Out of weakness made strong “ Weakness.” How expressive, how suggestive, is that word to many. What memories it may awaken of anxious times in the history of souls and bodies! It may recall to some of us long days of dangerous sickness, their own or another’ s. To some it will speak of experiences, not less marked, of failing heart and discouraged resolution, in spiritual conflicts; times when, in the face of difficulties and trials to which they felt themselves unequal, they have had at the same moment no clear perception of any such power unseen as could turn the scale in favour of escape or victory. There is, indeed, no sense of the word, and no part of our being, in which the text has not again and again been verified--“ By faith, out of weakness, they were made strong.” 1. It has been exemplified, in every age, apart from all fancy and all fanaticism, in the body. There are cases on record in medical history, in which the perfect peace of a soul entirely prepared for either alternative has actually arrested the march of disease, and made the patient literally out of weakness strong. There are cases on record in which it has been said by the physician to the sufferer, desirous to depart and to be with Christ, “ Sir, in this state of joyous anticipation you cannot die.” But while we believe that there is a true sense of the words in reference to the restoration of bodily health, we read them with even more pleasure in other applications--still in the region of the body--of which none can challenge the certainty or the consolation. For example, there are persons marked from infancy to old age with this sign alone of disease or mortality, that they are “ weak” --“ without strength.” There are those whose days and years are divided between the positive seclusion of the chamber and the comparative seclusion of the home. The life so truly described as that of an “ invalid” --in other words, of one without strength--makes a very peculiar demand upon the faith and patience of the sufferer. Natural good sense, conscious or unconscious self-interest, the mere habit of suffering, may do something to check murmuring, to teach silence, even to induce resignation and self-control; but there is a grace beyond these, which is the gift of Christ alone--by virtue of which the negative passes into the positive, making thephysical weakness spiritual strength, and the home of the invalid a very “ house of God” to inmates and visitants taught (as St. Peter says) “ without the word” by the mere “ conversation,” that is, the tone and spirit and demeanour, of the sufferer. 2. We pass, by no violent transition, to a weakness, not physical, but mental, and would say a word upon cases in which an intellectual inferiority has been strengthened by a Divine power into a robustness not natural to it. We can recall companions of our boyhood who have done nothing, as the phrase is, in the world. They were regarded with admiration in that young community, in which gift is everything and attainment nothing; in which facility is the idol, and toil a synonym for dulness. Side by side with this unfulfilled hope and this broken promise, we place a career opposite to it in each particular--alike in the poverty of the expectation and in the richness of the result. Diligence, earnestness, perseverance, have won the day, and the saying, “ Out of weakness were made strong,” has received its fulfilment even before we pass entirely out of the region of man and the world. How much more when we bring God in--when we think of a case in which a true turning of the heart, a resolute faith in Christ, and a humble looking in all things to the present help of the Holy Spirit, has changed the barrenness of nature and of the Fall into the blessed harvest of grace and the gospel. 3. But if in all these ways the text has had its fulfilment--in the body, in the mind, which God the Creator has fashioned in His wisdom, has endowed out of His fulness, yet could not--the one thing He cannot do--create into independence of Himself; how much more is it witnessed inthe spirit; in that part of the man, which is capable of communion with God, of action for God, but which, above even the two other, bears the impress of the defectibility, of the weakness, of the corruption of the Fall. I cannot doubt that there are persons who feel that the word “ weakness” is the true description of their present spiritual state. The sense of duty is in them--but how to perform that which is good they find not. The “ weakness” which they deplore is a weakness of will; they would be Christians indeed, and they cannot; they would be servants of God, and they find themselves, on the contrary, the servants of sin. Is there yet hope for this despair--strength for this weakness? When St. Paul asks, “ Who shall deliver me?” he is able to answer, “ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And the text says, “ Out of weakness were made strong.” By the strong motive of the Cross and Passion, drawing us to God “ with cords of a man, with bands of love” --by the mighty power of His Holy Spirit, actually giving the strength which is obedience--thus is the work done. Thus St. Paul found himself emancipated, quickened, transformed. Thus all who in any age have given themselves, like him, to the seeking, have found, have attained, have conquered. The words are sweet, are attractive, are strong. But let us not rest in the words--let us press onward to the thing signified. “ Out of weakness were made strong.” Think with yourselves, each one, where and what is your weakness? Is it in some duty which flesh shrinks from? Is it in some affection, not lawful, or not moderate, or not compatible with the supreme Love? Is it in the difficulty of prayer--the heart flying back from the work of seeking and grasping and communing with the Invisible? Is it in some revelation which you cannot receive--something in the ways or in the works or in the will of God, which contradicts your present idea of the just, the wise, or the good? Bring that particular weakness to God in Christ for His strengthening. Delay not, dally not, try not again and again the miserable, the hopeless experiment of your own strength, your own will, your own endeavour. Come as weak, and be thou strong! (Dean Vaughan.) The best strengthening medicine 1. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we are called to two things, namely, to do and to suffer for His name’ s sake. There are warriors on the field of conflict, and sentries in the box of patience. 2. Both in doing and in suffering, if we are earnest and observant, we soon discover our own weakness. 3. Our longing is to be able both to do and to suffer for our Lord, and to do this we must have strength from above, and that strength can only come to us through faith. I. FAITH MAKES MEN STRONG FOR HOLY DOING. 1. The first duty of a Christian man is to obey God. Who among us can do this, unless a power outside of himself shall come to his aid? Faith alone takes hold of the Divine strength; and only by that strength can we obey. Hence faith is the essential point of holiness. 2. Taking another view, we would remark that faith makes us strong to fulfil the relationships of life. We are not alone by ourselves, and we can neither live nor die apart, for God has linked us with others. We either curse or bless those around us. If we have faith ill God, we shall bless our children, as Isaac and Jacob blessed their sons. If you have faith in God, you may bless your brothers while you live, as Joseph did: faith has housed many a family which else had starved. If you have faith in God, you can lead others out of the bondage of sin, and through the wilderness world, as Moses led the children of Israel; for faith is a great guide. 3. There is a high and blessed duty and privilege--I will call it both--which is to every Christian the necessity of his life, and that is to pray. 4. Faith is the great force which is needed by those whose principal work is to overcome sin. You will never be able to cut down this huge upas tree except with the axe of Christ’ s atoning sacrifice. Take that, and every blow will tell, but no other instrument will avail. God strengthening you, you shall out of weakness be made strong to overcome sin, though backed by the world, the flesh, and the devil. 5. Permit me to speak to some aspiring spirit here, and say--Dear friend, would you like to do something great for God? Have you heard the motto of our early missionaries: “ Attempt great things for God” ? Does that thought burn within your heart? Do you long to be of some use? “ Oh, yes,” says one, “ I would attempt great things for God, but I am terribly weak.” Make the attempt by faith in God; for it is written, “ Out of weakness were made strong.” If you feel incapable, throw yourself upon the infinite capacity of God. 6. I would make one more application of my text, which is capable of being used in a thousand directions. “ Out of weakness were made strong “ i this will be experienced in bearing witness for the truth of God. It is for us in our weakness to go forward as the Lord leads us; and the day of the resounding timbrels and the twinkling feet will come in due time, and Jehovah will be magnified when even humble maidens “ sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously.” II. FAITH MAKES MEN STRONG FOR PATIENT . The patience of hope is a very important part of Christian life, and faith is the essence of it. 1. Many are called to suffer much in daily life. Commend me to firm faith for power to bear the daily cross. He that believeth hath everlasting life, and the joys which come of it. Thy faith out of weakness shall make thee strong. 2. Certain saintly ones are called to bear great physical pain, and I commend to them, from practical experience, the power of faith in God under acute agony. Give thyself up to Him, and thou shalt yet sing of His lovingkindness and tender mercies. 3. But there are other forms of suffering than these. Possibly I speak to some who are suffering the evils of persecution. Do not attempt to escape by yielding what is right and true; but ask the Lord to help you to stand fast for Him. If it be true that the Lord has His martyrs still, let it be seen that they are as brave as ever. 4. We have among us those who are not exposed to persecution, but have to stand against assaults of unbelief. Do not try to answer cavillers; but if you do, mind that faith is your weapon. 5. Again, it may be that I am speaking to sad ones who suffer under mental depression. Be assured, beyond all questioning, that he that believeth in the Lord Jesus is not condemned. Believe in Him, though you see no flashes of delight nor sparkles of joy. We are safe, because we are in the city of refuge, and not because we are, in ourselves, ill or well. 6. It may be that certain of you are called to suffer in your minds, not because of any wrong thing in yourselves, but for the sake of others. If you are chosen to be a leader and a helper, or a mother in Israel, be satisfied to endure hardness with the full belief that it is all right, and that God will not only bring you through, but will also bless somebody else by the means of your tribulations. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Strength in weakness Moses, on his own showing, was “ slow of speech and of a slow tongue” ; but by his signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, God said to Pharaoh, “ Let My people go.” David was but a stripling when he smote the twelve-foot giant. Zaccheus was little of stature, but he also was a son of Abraham. Paul’ s bodily presence was weak; yet who was ever more of a man in Christ? Some say he had defective vision; yet in spiritual things he had the eagle’ s sight with the eagle’ s flight. Apollos “ mightily convinced the Jews,” though “ knowing only the baptism of John.” Delicate Timothy was “ strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” John Bunyan spent about fifteen years of his life in prison, yet his dungeon dreams have aroused many from the sleep of sin. Robert Hall suffered agonies from an affected spine, yet who had a better Christian backbone than he? Christmas Evans’ eloquence was none the less brilliant because he had lost an eye. Blind John Milton saw and sang of the loss and recovery of Paradise. Pollock, sick and feeble as he was, has blest the world with an immortal poem, in “ The Course of Time.” “ Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Thos. Spurgeon.) The strength of weakness: Many of the noblest specimens of our sermonic literature have come from men who were patient sufferers. Men who have had the most touching pathos, the deepest spirituality, the most marvellous insight into the deep things of God, have often known little of bodily health. Calvin laboured under many fierce disorders. Shall we ever see his like? Robert Hall was rarely free from pain. Who ever spoke more gloriously? And here I would mention one whom all of us love, Charles Stanford, who grows sweeter and sweeter as he grows weaker and weaker, and who sees all the more clearly now that his eyes grow dim. Physical force is not our strength, it may be our weakness. Health is to be desired, and carefully preserved where we have it; but if we lose it, we may count it all joy, and look forward to be able to exclaim with Paul, “ When I am weak, then am I strong.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The power of weakness: Little do I care if you become fools for Christ’ s sake. When our weakness verges upon fanaticism it may have all the more power about it. Mr. Plimsoll did nobly when he stood up and pleaded against coffin-ships; but he was never so strong as when he lost himself, and broke the rules of the House in the ardour of his passion. It was very weak of him, but in that weakness lay his strength. Give us more of the speech which comes of a burning heart, as lava comes of a volcanic overflow. When the truth conquers us we shall conquer by the truth. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Hebrews 11:35-36 Women received their dead “ Women … and others” Here we find an appreciative and sympathetic reference to the unknown heroes of faith. The apostle recognises the fact that all that is great in history cannot be catalogued under great names. God does not care to label all His wonders. The great men and women who are brought into prominence are only specimens of what may be found in lowlier spheres of life, just as the rocky strata hurled up through the earth’ s surface do but reveal the kind of deposit which is to be found everywhere down deep in the earth’ s bosom. Yet men, as a rule, have ignored that wealth of resource which does not project itself in huge protrusions before their sight. It is comparatively recently that even historians have learnt that human history does not consist exclusively of the record, however faithfully given, of the lives of kings, great warriors, powerful ecclesiastics, and other recognised rulers of men. This glorious Book has been the one grand exception. It has ever taught men that there is a mightier power than that of monarchs, which determines the destinies of nations, and works for righteousness, and which often works more powerfully out of sight than on the surface. Here, after the names of patriarchs, kings, noted women, and the great judges of Israel, come the prophets, but only as a whole and unnamed; and then the nameless “ women … and others” --not a jot inferior to those who have passed before them, and whose names have been echoed throughout the ages. The transition from “ the prophets” to “ women “ is sudden, but not incongruous. The list of the faithful is not complete without women, those in whom faith triumphed in true womanly fashion--in the power of patient endurance. Theirs was a faith mightier than the wrench of death. They were great in what is pre-eminently the grace of sanctified womanhood--the passive virtues. What a world of suffering and of heroic endurance is epitomised here! The writer has no time to tell more: the theme grows in its vastness; hence, under the pressure of a sublime necessity, he throws what has been left untold upon the shoulders of a few sentences until they stagger and are well-nigh crushed under their burden. Here the grandest summary of all types of patient endurance, which we can find within the covers of this book, is associated with the lives of obscure men and women. Heroism is shown to be no monopoly of position or of sex, of age or of nation. The favourite type of womanly devotion is presented not only in the words “ received their dead to life again,” but also in those which apply to the more general epithet “ and others” --namely, “ were tortured, not accepting deliverance.” How often is this illustrated in other days than those of persecution by the devotedness of consecrated womanhood to husband, child, sufferer, and outcast, in toil, feebleness, suffering, and shame! How often have labours and hardships been gratefully accepted, and the suggestion of deliverance or exemption from such emphatically ignored! It is the summary of this indignant repudiation of deliverance from suffering, and even death, when they have stood in the path of duty, that occupies one of the finest chapters in the illustrious history of faith. Edwin Long gives a striking illustration of this type of heroism in one of his paintings, where he depicts a Christian maid who will not burn a single grain of incense upon Caesar’ s altar to save her life, and that notwithstanding the eloquent appeal in the beseeching look of her lover, that for his sake she would do it. What significance there is in the words “ and others” ! They represent the forces which have not been tabulated in the ordinary records of triumphs, and yet they are the greatest of all. God in His record supplements every great name with “ and others.” Elijah in the hour of despondency thought himself alone as the centre and circumference of the true devotion of his age--“ I, even I only, am left.” God reminded him of the “ and others,” when He replied, “ Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). Who won the battle of Waterloo? Wellington. Yes, “ and others.” Who have wrought Christian reformations of the past three centuries? Luther, Wycliffe, Knox, Wesley. Yes, “ and others” in every instance. Now, it is of these “ women and others” anonymously mentioned here that the writer adds, “ Of whom the world was not worthy.” Observe that this is not said of any of the great names mentioned previously. That went without the saying. But there was need of emphasising this regarding the unknown heroes of God. The world which extended such poor hospitality to its King has, throughout the ages, made no room for the royal, although unknown, men and women whom the King has sent. One of the hopeful signs of to-day is that the world gives room to the good and the faithful as it never did before. We, too, can belong, if we will, to the “ and others.” Our names will not be added to those of the world’ s great ones, nor yet to those of the more prominent heroes of faith, but we can belong to the nameless ones who yet have a glorious record to give. Are we unknown? So were these; yet the story of the triumphs of faith cannot be told without admitting their achievements into the record. So shall it be with us if only we are found faithful. They without us cannot be made perfect. This is God’ s reason for providing “ some better thing for us” than was ever granted them. No age of faith is final or self-inclusive. The one becomes the counterpart of the other. Every generation of faithful heroes shall strike its own note, until all ages shall unitedly perfect the grand chord of music that shall ascend to the ear of God, and thrill heaven with its full and rich harmony. (D. Davies.) Not accepting deliverance Faith refusing deliverance: We have here an exhibition of faith in one of its noblest forms. It is much for faith to commit itself to suffering, without casting about for a means of deliverance. But faith wins a victory that is greater still, at such times as release is actually presented, and it waives the temptation away. For the deliverance that is spoken of here is a thing that lies shaped and ready; it is held ever before them as a near and inviting opportunity. And the struggle in such cases is not merely to refrain from attempting an escape, but to reject the outlets that are already open, there to tempt and importune by one’ s very side, with the short road they offer back into life and liberty. I. Let us take the truth before us AS A OF THE SAVIOUR’ S . AS His people’ s Surety and His people’ s Example, at once the Foundation and the Pattern of all their obedience, it holds true in regard to Christ that “ He accepted not deliverance.” Is it not true that in our views of Christ and His Surety-work we are apt to limit ourselves to the initial condescension, and forget the life-long struggle? We are apt to fix our attention on the first grand compliance, when the covenant agreement was embraced. Then and thenceforward we regard His obedience as a matter of course--a matter, indeed, involving both continued surrender and continued suffering, but a matter whose cost He had counted, to whose endurance He was shut up, and from whose bitter experiences there was no opportunity of release. And most true it is that the endurance of a Saviour was a matter of course with Him, if what we mean is this, that all the faithfulness of all His mediatorial nature was pledged, and all the energies of His Divine will were directed to the prosecution and the final fulfilment of His task. But if we mean that He was committed to His work so securely as that there was no room for the temptation to recoil from it on His human side, and no battle with self in suppressing that temptation, then we are wrong. For the life-long temptation of Christ lay just here. Over and over again deliverance presented itself; its possibility was suggested by a power from without, its offer was responded to by the weak flesh within. And the victory was of faith--faith like our own--when the Saviour repelled it, and, having escape set before Him, accepted it not. He accepted not deliverance, that He might obtain the resurrection, and the resurrection was better than any deliverance. He laid down His life that He might take it again, and the life re-taken was more powerful and glorious--oh, how far!--than the life He originally laid down. II. WHAT WAS TRUE IN THE HISTORY OF THE MASTER IS TRUE IN THE HISTORY OF THE ; FAITH, ON , MUST BE STRONG TO REFUSE, “ NOT .” Doubtless the task given Christ to accomplish was different in many respects from the tasks given to us; and as His task was, so was His temptation to recoil from it--different in intensity, perhaps different, too, in kind. But, after all, the refusals have this great point in common, that in each ease there is the rejection of relief, because relief is to be purchased at the expense of duty. Making all due allowance for distinctions, in the saint’ s case, as in Christ’ s, there is abundant opportunity for the exercise of faith in the aspect we speak of, its manifestation and triumph in declinature. And perhaps never is faith so signal as when it reveals itself just in this way; never is its nature so pure and exalted as when it toils and endures, “ not accepting deliverance.” For it is not merely that you make a grace of necessity, and settle yourself down in submission to suffer, because you recognise the suffering you endure to be inevitable; that is something, nay, it is much by itself, for there are various ways of enduring the inevitable, and there are many who meet and experience it amiss. But the victory of faith that we speak of lies here, that when the cup of relief is actually brought near, and the relief that it offers is urged by the tempter, commended by the world, and pled for by all the self-indulgence that lies deep in the human heart--I say the victory of faith lies here, that you bid the proposal away from you, rejecting the outlet for conscience sake and for Christ’ s. Such is the principle; and on its special applications our daily experience sheds light. Perhaps the burden appointed you is the care of others. Interests may happen to be linked with your conduct, lives may happen to be left in your keeping, whose needs you are obliged to consult for, whose sufferings you are called to alleviate, whose very sins and infirmities you are bound to restrain. There by their side is your post, the opportunity which Providence has given you to use, the task which Providence has assigned you to pursue; and there are times when the work seems thankless, the success doubtful, and the the depressing and irksome. Are there not those whose life, in the appointment of God, seems largely a sacrifice to such claims; and when the temptation comes to absolve themselves, as come it may, through the sense of a seeming failure, the attractions of a pleasanter lot, or the possibility of shifting the responsibility on others, are not theirs the triumph and reward brought before us in the text, as they cleave to the post of self-denial allotted them, “ not accepting deliverance” ? Or perhaps the burden is more personal, and connects itself with circumstances in your own lot. Embarrassment in worldly affairs,--who knows not what possibilities of temptation lie here, in the retrieving of credit at the expense of truthfulness, and the purchase of relief by the sacrifice of honesty. Is not faith triumphant in declinature when it leads the sufferer at such seasons to resolve, “ Let perplexities thicken, and circumstances hem, and disasters threaten as they may, I will abide by whatsoever things are pure, and refuse extrication till extrication is possible with honour, in the way which God discloses, on the terms of which conscience approves” ; thus refusing deliverence? But why go farther? The instances are as various as the paths of obedience and suffering, which God in His providence appoints, and the victories possible are as manifold as the temptations to evade or deflect from them. (W. A. Gray.) Anne Askew’ s martyrdom Rich and another of the council came to her (Anne Askew) in the Tower, where she was then confined, and demanded that she should make the disclosures which they required concerning her party and her friends. She told them nothing. “ Then they did put me on the rack,” she relates, “ because I confessed no ladies or gentlemen to be of my opinion; and thereupon they kept me a long time; and because I lay still and did not cry, my Lord Chancellor and Mr. Rich took pains to rack me with their own hands till I was nigh dead.” Provoked by her saint-like endurance, these two ordered the lieutenant of the Tower to rack her again. He (Sir Anthony Knevett), “ tendering the weakness of the woman,” positively refused to do so. Then Wriothesly and Rich threw off their gowns, and threatening the lieutenant that they would complain of his disobedience to the king, “ they worked the rack themselves, till her bones and joints were almost pinched asunder.” When the lieutenant caused her to be loosed down from the rack, she immediately swooned. “ Then,” she writes, “ they recovered me again.” After that, “ I sate two long hours reasoning with my Lord Chancellor on the bare floor, where he, with many flattering words, would have persuaded me to leave my opinion; but my Lord God (I thank His everlasting goodness) gave me grace to persevere, and I will do, I hope, to the very end.” Unable to walk or stand from the tortures she had suffered, poor Anne Askew was carried in a chair to Smithfield, and when brought to the stake, was fastened to it by a chain which held up her body; and one who beheld her there describes her as “ having an angel’ s countenance and a smiling face.” The three Throckmortons, the near kinsmen of the queen, and members of her household, had drawn near to comfort Anne Askew and her three companions; but they were warned that they were marked men, and entreated to withdraw. At the vary last, a written pardon from the king was offered to Anne Askew, upon condition that she would recant. The fearless lady turned away her eyes, and would not look upon it. She told them that she came not thither to deny her Lord and Master. The fire was ordered to be put under her, “ and thus the good Anne Askew, with these blessed martyrs, having passed through so many torments, having now ended the long course of her agonies, being compassed in with flames of fire as a blessed sacrifice unto God, she slept in the Lord, A.D. 1546, leaving behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men to follow.” Her crime was the denial of the mass. “ So this,” she wrote, “ is the heresy that I hold, and for it must suffer death.” She kept the faith to her God; she kept the faith to her friends, for she betrayed no one, enduring shame and agony with meek, unshaken constancy. (H. Clissold, M. A.) The martyrs: As willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. (J. Trapp.) A better resurrection The better resurrection: This inspired writer teaches us that these ancient saints were believers in a resurrection to eternal life. It is strange that this should ever be doubted. It seems clear they were, when we think of the very instinct of the spiritual life--of such expressions as those of David: “ I shall, be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness” --or of the language of Martha and Mary when they were still standing on Old Testament ground: “ I know that He shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Their faith could not have the certainty and clearness which ours should have; but that they did look forward to a life to come there can be no question. They gave the best evidence of their faith, for they submitted to the most cruel tortures and to death, that they might obtain a better resurrection. But what are we to understand by a better resurrection? If we look to the first clause of the verse we shall see, “ Women received their dead raised to life again.” This was one kind of resurrection--a restoration to the life of this world--and to achieve it was a great triumph of faith. But there is another and superior resurrection--to the life of the eternal world and the faith which carries men to this isof a nobler kind, because it is more difficult. There are, then, two spheres of faith--that of those whose dead were brought back to a resurrection in this life, and that of those who pressed on for truth’ s sake to a better resurrection in the heavenly life. I. THE BETTER . Imagine to yourselves an event you must in all likelihood meet, or which many of you may already have passed through, when some object of your dearest affection has been torn from you by death. There is the utter blank of desolation--the light of the eyes in which you could read tenderness and truth, quenched--no counsel or comfort, where you could always find it, however sore bestead. And if there came, in that day of darkness, One who gave you back your dead to be with you, to listen to your history of grief--of this very grief--to take your hand in His again, and make you feel He was yours as before--more than before--what could you ask, what could you think of, better than this? And yet if we could for a little rise above feeling, and appeal to reason--the reason which comes of faith--we might see that there is a better resurrection. 1. For think of the place of it. However quiet and happy the home might be to which the earthly life was brought back, it was part of a world which was smitten with the curse. Cares and fears and dangers and griefs were always ready to invade it. And, if we think of the body as the place to which the soul is brought back, it is a home that has also the curse resting on it, subject to pain and disease, which often make death to be chosen rather than life--to long torturing agonies, and to those strange depressions which cloud the soul, so that to those who look out at the windows everything is darkened. It is otherwise with the place of the better resurrection (see Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:3-5.) And the body which here depresses the soul shall be framed to lift it up, to give it perception and vigour, insight and wing, made like unto Christ’ s glorious body. 2. Then think, by way of comparison, of the company in the place. In the case of all those who were raised again to life in this world, we find that they were restored to the family circle--the child of the Shunammite and the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain and the brother of Martha and Mary. There was an anxiety, if I may so speak, to surround them with their nearest friends when they opened their eyes again, that the first faces they looked on might be those of kindred--of father, mother, brother, sister. It was a merciful arrangement, to break the strange transition, to soothe the agitated, wondering spirit. But there was surely something more in it than this. It was, I think, also predictive. For if these resurrections, as a whole, were intended to help men to the faith of a power stronger than death, they were also intended to lead us to something of the manner of the life beyond. Do they not shadow out this truth, that God will begin our life again among those we have known and loved, and cause us to open our eyes in the bosom of what we shall feel to be a family and a home, with faces round us that are dear and familiar, and voices whose tones we know, ready to reassure us? God will “ set the solitary in families,” and in some way broken household ties will be re-knit “ in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Only there will be something better in it. The feeling of sad distrust which sometimes comes over us, as if the truest human friendship had an element of selfishness in it, shall pass away. What we gain here, at intervals, in some chosen crisis of our life--the meeting of souls in one, and profound, untroubled trust in the sense of it--shall then be a fixed condition. 3. Think, then, of the essence of this eternal life. Its essence consists in its entire freedom from sin. The presence of sin in our nature is at the root of every ether evil, and deliverance from suffering in heaven is connected with perfect deliverance from sin. That must be a happy condition when all shall feel the blessedness of the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and the subject which often causes anxious thought, “ Can I look to God as my Friend and Father?” shall be settled for perpetuity--no doubt, nor shadow of a doubt, upon it--but quietness and assurance for ever. And when there shall not only be no guilt on the conscience, but no sin in the heart, no lurking sympathy with it, but every fibre of the root of poison extracted, and the tree of life shall find its counterpart in the perfect fruit of every redeemed soul! 4. But we have to think also of the security of this state. These resurrections of earth were a return to a world of change and death. But the children of the heavenly resurrection “ die no more; death hath no more dominion over them.” The shadow is all behind, the light before, and the light shall no more go down. 5. There is one thing more, without which the thought of this better resurrection would be incomplete--the presence to which it introduces. The best of these other resurrections brought their subjects into the earthly presence of the Son of God; but this, into His heavenly fellowship. II. THE HIGHER FAITH FOR THIS . It needed very great confidence in the living God to believe that He could reanimate the dead frame which the soul had quitted for a few hours or days; but to face entire decay and mouldering dust, and to believe that those who sleep in it shall yet awake and sing--this requires a frame of soul still nobler. 1. It needs more of what I may call the patience of faith. We must endure the scorn of unbelievers, the talk of unchanging earthly laws rolled like the great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and must listen to the taunts of those who rejoice most when they think they hear the iron gates of a materialistic universe grate in upon the grave as an eternal prison. We have to struggle with the murmurs of our own hearts, that it is hard in God to put us to so long and so sore an encounter. 2. It needs also more of what we may call the sanctified imagination of faith. The circle of these earthly resurrections was very narrow and very simple compared with that which we expect. Their faith had only to bring back their dead to the old accustomed house, the well-known seat, the familiar haunts. Ours has to win out a footing for itself from the void and formless infinite, where the scenes and inhabitants and states of mind are so different that our friends seem to have passed away beyond our knowledge. There is an imagination of faith, not unbridled nor unscriptural, which has formed for itself a true and real world beyond death, which gives substance to things hoped for, and thereby helps to the evidence of things not seen the Bible has encouraged it by its figures--“ the tree of life,” “ the river of life,” “ the city of gold,” “ the Father’ s house of many mansions” --and imagination has no nobler work than to enter among these visions, and brood and muse till they become a palpable and real world: and till those who are not, because God has taken them, are seen walking there. 3. It needs more of the spiritual insight of faith. The faith of those who received their dead back to the present life had a visible Helper with wonder-working power standing before them. Our faith has not such aid. It has a harder, but a nobler work. It must seek to live as seeing Him who is invisible. It must rest for its ultimate foundation, not on any outward sign, not even on any uttered word as spoken to the ear, but on the nature of God Himself, and the life He infuses into the soul--on that basis which Christ has given it, “ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Christ Himself must be known to us in His ever-living, spiritual power. III. SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY IN THIS HIGHER FAITH. 1. The first thought is one addressed to your reason. We read here of men who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. They surrendered all that life holds dear, and life itself, from loyalty to the God of truth. Not only is the Bible full of this, but the course of history. The noble army of the martyrs is seen in every age, marching on, by scaffold and through fire, into the unseen. Can you imagine that their self-devotion was founded on delusion, and that God has made His world so that the noblest and divinest deeds in its history have a perpetual falsehood at their heart? 2. The next thought is one addressed to your heart. “ Women received their dead raised to life again.” ! Observe the expression, “ Women--their dead.” That side of human nature which has the deepest affection is clinging to its dead, claiming an abiding right of possession in them, and aiding faith to draw its lost treasure back to its arms. And it is a striking truth that in all the resurrections of which we read there was not only strong faith, but deep love--the love of woman. God intended that our deepest heart affections should be the helpers of our highest hopes, and the instinctive guarantees of a life to come. We have a right to reason that He would either have made our love less deep and lasting, or that there must be a final home in which its longings shall be realised. Every pure affection points us towards a city in the skies; every happy Christian home is a pledge of it; every bereaved heart is a Divine reason for it. A ground this why you should make your family ties so loyal and sacred that they shall keep your dead still yours, and bind you irrevocably to a life to come. 3. The last way we mention of confirming ourselves in this faith is addressed to the spirit. It is gained by the exercise of that spiritual insight to which we have already referred, leading the way to a spiritual life. The object of this sight, and the source of this life, is described by the sacred writer in words that follow--“ Looking unto Jesus,” etc. Reasoning about immortality may lead us so far, and the instinct of the heart may lead us further; but I know of no certainty save what grows from union with the dying and risen and living Son of God. There is a spring of immortality not only welling out from the throne of God, but ready to rise up in every heart that will admit Him who is the true God and eternal life. It is this faith entering into the soul as a vital principle which formed those ancient martyrs, who counted it all joy to face suffering and shame, and to meet death, when the God of truth summoned them. (J. Ker, D. D.) The better resurrection I. REFLECT ON THE LESSON TAUGHT US BY THE CONDUCT OF THE ANCIENT SAINTS, THAT THIS EARTH IS NOT OUR HOME. II. INQUIRE WHAT THERE IS IN HEAVEN WHICH COULD THEM TO ENDURE SUCH EXTREME . In heaven a full and constant sense of God’ s favour, and uninterrupted communion with Him, are enjoyed. In heaven the most perfect love and gratitude are exercised towards God. Is it any wonder that the martyrs broke the fiercest terrors of death to reach such a heaven? the glorified saints possess the clearest apprehensions of the perfect and unchangeable happiness of God and of His kingdom. This is a source of the most pure and exalted delight. III. THE GLORIES OF THE WHICH THEY HAD IN VIEW. (E. Griffin, D. D.) Maccabaean martyrs: There can be no doubt that the apostle has here travelled beyond the canonical books of Scripture into the records of Jewish history given in the Apocrypha. If you will read the sixth and seventh chapters of the Second Book of Maccabees, you will find a full elucidation of the very words here employed. You will find the history of a Jewish mother, who, in the persecutions under Antiochus, saw seven sons tortured and put to death on one day, and encouraged them by her words to witness a good confession, on the very ground here stated, that they might obtain a better than any earthly resurrection. You will read there, in express terms, that offer of “ redemption “ which they are here said to have refused. “ Antiochus, while the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with oaths, that he would make him both a rich and happy man if he would turn from the laws of his fathers.” And you will read there likewise the answer. “ The King of the universe,” says one of these martyrs, “ shall raise us up, who have died for His laws, unto eternal life.” “ It is good,” says another, “ being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by Him.” “ Fear not this tormentor,” the mother said to the youngest, “ but, being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death, that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren.” (Dean Vaughan.) Hebrews 11:36 Cruel mockings and scourgings Cruelty I. THE EVILS WERE 1. Mockings. The parties mocked were God’ s saints and prophets; the parties mocking were their enemies and persecutors, which proved to be sometimes their own brethren, of the same nation, language, kindred, religion--and amongst these sometimes the basest of the people, sometimes the priests and princes. These mockings issue out of contempt, and tend unto the disgrace of the party mocked, and makes it a sport to abuse them, so as to rejoice in their misery. These mockings are sometimes in words, sometimes in signs, sometimes in both. And because to a grave, serious person, of eminent worth, some of these mockings are very bitter, cutting, cruel, not only in respect of the matter, but also of the circumstances, this made the sufferings more glorious. 2. Scourgings. This is a punishment also of great disgrace and sometimes of cruel pain, when by whips, either of cords or wires, not only the skin is broken, but the very flesh torn. And this was the more grievous because it was an usual punishment of slaves, of vilest persons, and of such as were of worst behaviour; and by it they were not only put to pain, but to open shame. 3. Bonds and imprisonment. Both these were restraints of liberty, which is so precious and desirable. The end of them was the reservation of malefactors or suspected persons till the time of trial and judgment; and close imprisonment was so much the more grievous when they were deprived of all comfortable society, and no friends suffered to relieve them. II. THESE THEY . Some endured one of them, some more, some all; for they had trial or experience of these things, so some understand it, as though the sense were that they did not fear them threatened but feel them inflicted. Though their enemies did afflict and vex them unjustly and wickedly, yet they suffered them patiently, and resolved that though God should kill them, yet they would trust in Him. III. THEY THUS THESE THINGS BY FAITH. For they knew the way to heaven was rough and troublesome, and that these sufferings could not separate them from the love of God nor deprive them of the great reward, but prepare them for eternal glory. For they verily believed that there was eternal life, that God had promised it, and that constancy in the covenant and perseverance in the way of righteousness was the only means to obtain possession; and they knew that though their sufferings were grievous, yet the reward would infinitely recompense all. (G. Lawson.) Man as a persecutor: Some creatures are unquestionably used as scourges; but perhaps the less we mortals say about such animated pests the better. They act up to their own organisation, but never beyond; whilst it is far otherwise with mankind. The serpent employs its poisoned fangs to procure food or avert peril, real or fancied; the jaguar uses its terrible incisors in the destruction of its prey; and the shark avails itself of its dental apparatus to assuage its appetite. But man, says Hugh Miller, must surely have become an immensely worse animal than his teeth show him to have been designed for; his teeth give no evidence regarding his real character. Of our racks and thumbscrews, our inquisitions and oubliettes, our noyades at Nantes and our mitraillades at Lyons and Toulons, there is no prophetic intimation in our dentology. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) Cruelty of persecutors: As a specimen of the fierce cruelty of Queen Mary’ s officers, Mr. Froude writes: “ The persecution degenerated into wholesale atrocity. On the 23rd of April six men were burnt at Smithfield; on the 28th, six more were burnt at Colchester; on the 15th of May an old lame man and a blind man were burnt at Stratford-le-Bow. In the same month three women suffered at Smithfield, and a blind boy was burnt at Gloucester. In Guernsey, a mother and two daughters were brought to the stake. One of the latter, a married woman with child, was delivered in the midst of her torments, and the infant just rescued was tossed back into the flames. Reason, humanity, even common prudence, were cast to the winds. Along the river bank stood rows of gibbets, with bodies of pirates swinging from them in the wind. Ferocity in the Government and lawlessness in the people went hand in hand.” (Tinling’ s Illustrations.) Hebrews 11:37-38 They were stoned Martyrdom: The word “ martyr” properly means “ a witness,” but is used to denote exclusively one who has suffered death for the Christian faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the chief and most glorious of Martyrs, as having “ before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession” (1 Timothy 6:13); but we do not call Him a martyr, as being much more than a martyr. He was not only a martyr; He was an atoning sacrifice. He is the supreme object of our love, gratitude, and reverence. Next to Him we honour the noble army of martyrs; not indeed comparing them with Him, “ who is above all, God blessed for ever,” or as if they in suffering had any part in the work of reconciliation, but because they have approached most closely to His pattern of all His servants. Now it may be said that many men suffer pain, as great as martyrdom, from disease, and in other ways: again, that it does not follow that those who happened to be martyred were always the most useful and active defenders of the faith; and therefore that in honouring the martyrs we are honouring with especial honour those to whom indeed we may be peculiarly indebted (as in the case of apostles), but nevertheless who may have been but ordinary men, who happened to stand in the most exposed place, in the way of persecution, and were slain as if by chance, because the sword met them first. But this, it is plain, would be a strange way of reasoning in any parallel case. We are grateful to those who have done us favours, rather than to those who might or would, if it had so happened. But in truth, if we could view the matter considerately, we shall find that (as far as human judgment can decide on such a point), the martyrs of the primitive times were, as such, men of a very elevated faith; not only our benefactors, but far our superiors. For let us consider what it was then to be a martyr. 1. It was to be a voluntary sufferer. Men, perhaps, suffer in various diseases more than the martyrs did, but they cannot help themselves. Again, it has frequently happened that men have been persecuted for their religion without having expected it, or being able to avert it. These in one sense indeed are martyrs; and we naturally think affectionately of those who have suffered in our cause, whether voluntarily or not. But this was not the ease with the primitive martyrs. They knew beforehand clearly enough the consequences of preaching the gospel; they had frequent warnings brought home to them of the sufferings in store for them if they persevered in their labours of brotherly love. Death, their final suffering, was but the concummation of a life of anticipated death. Consider how distressing anxiety is; how irritating and wearing it is to be in constant excitement, with the duty of maintaining calmness and steadiness in the midst of it; and how especially inviting any prospect of tranquillity would appear in such circumstances; and then we shall have some notion of a Christian’ s condition under a persecuting heathen government. I put aside for the present the peculiar reproach and contempt which was the lot of the primitive Church, and their actual privations. Let us merely consider them as harassed, shaken as wheat in a sieve. Under such circumstances the stoutest hearts are in danger of failing. Thus the Church is sifted, the cowardly falling off, the faithful continuing firm, though in dejection and perplexity. Among these latter are the martyrs; not accidental victims, taken at random, but the picked and choice ones, the elect remnant, a sacrifice well pleasing to God, because a costly gift, the finest wheat flour of the Chinch: men who have been warned what to expect from their profession, and have had many opportunities of relinquishing it, but have “ borne and had patience, and for Christ’ s name sake have laboured and have not fainted.” 2. But, in the next place, the suffering itself of martyrdom was in some respects peculiar. It was a death, cruel in itself, publicly inflicted, and heightened by the fierce exultation of a malevolent populace. The unseen God alone was their Comforter, and this invests the scene of their suffering with supernatural majesty, and awes us when we think of them. “ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me” (Psalms 23:4). A martyrdom is a season of God’ s especial power in the eye of faith, as great as if a miracle were visibly wrought. It is a fellowship of Christ’ s sufferings, a commemoration of His death, a representation filling up in figure,” that which is behind of His afflictions, for His Body’ s sake, which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24). And thus, being an august solemnity in itself, and a kind of sacrament, a baptism of blood, it worthily finishes that long searching trial which I have already described as being its usual forerunner in primitive times. To conclude. It is useful to reflect on subjects such as that I have now laid before you, in order to humble ourselves. What are our petty sufferings, which we make so much of, to their pains and sorrows, who lost their friends, and then their own lives for Christ’ s sake; who were assaulted by all kinds of temptations, the sophistry of Antichrist, the blandishments of the world, the terrors of the sword, the weariness of suspense, and yet fainted not? How far above ours are both their afflictions, and their consolations under them! (J. H. Newman, D. D.) God’ s martyrs I. SEVERAL WAYS THEY WERE PUT TO DEATH. 1. Some were stoned. This was a punishment determined by God in the Judicial Laws of Moses, to be executed upon several transgressors. Yet no judge had warrant from God to condemn any innocent person to this kind of death; yet Zacharias, for charging the Jews with their sins, and denouncing God’ s judgments against them, was stoned to death. 2. Some were sawn asunder: thus some say Isaiah was slain by Manasses. This was a cruel kind of execution. 3. Some were tempted by some cruel kind of death to forsake their God, yet they did net. 4. Some were slain by the sword, which is used as well by the magistrate against offending subjects as by the soldier against enemies. Martyrs might be thus slain, either judicially or extrajudicially, without any formal process of judgment; for many times they laid heinous crimes to their charge. Sometimes they made justice injustice, obedience to God disobedience to man, and virtuous acts heinous crimes; and so-called good, evil; and light, darkness. The whole signifies that the lives of the saints and prophets were taken away cruelly and most unjustly by several kinds of tormenting deaths. II. Some were not slain, BUT LIVED A LIFE. For 1. They wandered. They might be wanderers, either by constraint or voluntarily: by constraint, as when they were banished, or forcibly dispossessed of their houses; voluntarily, as when for fear of death, or to enjoy the quiet of conscience, they fled out of their country, or from the places of their habitation, so that they have no certain safe place of rest--they were continually flitting and removing, as not having where to lay their heads. 2. In this wandering condition they were destitute of raiment and clothes, whereby they might cover their shame, and defend their bodies from the injuries of heaven. They wanted stuff, or, if they had stuff, they could not have made them; and in this case they used sheep-skins and goat-skins. Which expression implies that their clothing was very mean and coarse; yea, not so much as shapen, sewed up, and fitted for their bodies, but only wrapped about some principal parts, leaving others naked. These did not deserve the name of garments, but were nothing else but skin upon skin, the skin of beasts upon the skin of man. 3. They were destitute, that is, in great want of other necessaries, and, as the word doth signify, very poor and indigent; for they had left all their substance, or it was taken from them, or they could have no use of it in their necessity. And if they wandered amongst strangers, little was to be expected from them; for strangers are many times used strangely, and few are sensible of their miseries. Some think the word may be turned (descerti)--deserted and forsaken; for in such a case few dare own their own flesh and blood and nearest relations. Yet the former sense seems to be more genuine, for their very habit did signify that their penury was very great. 4. They were afflicted; for in such a case their straits must be many, and the pressures and perplexities of body and mind very great, and such as none, but some who have been in their case, can truly apprehend. 5. They were tormented. The word may signify they were ill-handeled, sorely vexed, oppressed, and brought very low. (G. Lawson.) Sawn asunder Of sawing professors asunder: We do not read in sacred Scriptures of any that were sawn asunder. But the Jews, among their other traditions, have this, that the Prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder with a wooden saw, in the time of King Manasses. Epiphanius, in setting out Isaiah’ s life, noteth as much, so doth Hierom in the last close of the fifteenth book of his “ Comment on Isaiah,” p. 57. Whether that be true of Isaiah or not, most sure it is that some have after such a manner been martyred, either by sawing them asunder, or by pulling the members of their body asunder. This testimony of the apostle is sufficient to assure us of the truth thereof, and it giveth an instance of the cruelty of persecutors which showeth itself even in the death of martyrs. The ground of all was their extreme hatred of truth, and malice against maintainers thereof, which made them cast out all bowels of pity; yea, it made them take a devilish delight in cruelty. Herein lieth a difference betwixt cruelty that tends to death and that which is in death. The former may be to make men yield, but this is on malice and a mere devilish disposition. 1. This giveth instance of the depth of man’ s corruption, which makes him as a devil incarnate, worse than the most savage beasts. Some tyrants have so far exceeded in cruelty as they have hired men to invent instruments for cruel kinds of death. Phalaris among the heathen is famous, or rather infamous, for this. Perillus, at his motion, made a bull of brass, hollow within, which with fire might be heated red hot, and men put thereinto, their crying out for that torture seemed to be as the lowing of a bull, and thereupon no pity taken of them. Other like things are noted of Dionysius, Rouseris, and other tyrants. 2. These tortures do give demonstration of the inconceivable supportance and comfort of the Divine Spirit, whereby martyrs have been enabled with patience to endure what cruelties could be inflicted on them, and in the midst of torments meekly and sweetly to commend their spirits into God’ s hands, to the world’ s astonishment. 3. How should this stir us up patiently to bear smaller trials? Yea, not to be afrighted or discouraged with anything that man can do, but to rest upon this, that that God who hath enabled His servants in former times to endure such exquisite tortures unto death, will enable us to endure what He shall bring us unto. Pertinent to this purpose is the advice of Christ (Luke 14:4-5). (W. Gouge.) Tempted“ They were tempted” I. THE TRUTH OF THE . It is not true that all the saints were scourged, nor all imprisoned, neither were all stoned, nor all slain with the sword, but it is true that they were all tempted. The word “ tempted” bears two meanings; first of all, that of being tried or afflicted; and secondly, that of being enticed to sin. In the first aspect of it God did tempt Abraham, that is, He tried him; and this He does with all His people. God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without trial. Count it not therefore a strange thing that you should have a cross to carry. As for the other sense of the word “ tempt,” the bad and hard one, in that sense also the statement is universally true. All the people of God have been tempted to sin. Satan no sooner perceives a child of God renewed in heart than he endeavours to mar the work of the Holy Spirit, to ruin the happiness of the believer, and to weaken his usefulness by leading him into sin. The world is always tempting God’ s people, and there is no position in life which is free from peril. Whether our path be rough or smooth we are liable to be tripped up unless a hand unseen shall hold us up. This is true of all who have gone before us … they were tempted.” At times Providence permits those who are in authority to exercise great power of temptation. So it was with the saints of old: those who were in power accounted them as sheep for the slaughter. But if there were no devil and no wicked world it would still be true that the saints were tempted, for every man is tempted when he is “ drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” ; and there is that within the best of men which might make them into the worst of men if the grace of God did not prevent. This fact that all the saints have been tempted should put an end to all murmuring upon that score. Somebody says, “ Mine is a hard lot; I have to follow Christ under great disadvantages. My foes are those of my own household.” Yes, your lot may be hard, but if you could just peep within the pearly gates and see that brilliant company, who are the peers of the realm of heaven, you would see none but those who once were tempted. Dare you demand a better lot than theirs? II. THE BREADTH OF THE . “ They were tempted” : it does not say how. If one form of temptation had been mentioned, we should have surmised that they did not suffer in other ways, but when the statement is, “ they were tempted,” we shall not be wrong in concluding that they were tried in any and every form. Whatever form temptation may take, in some or in all the saints, that temptation has been endured. We may say of Christ’ s mystical body as we may say of Christ’ s self--“ tempted in all points like as we are.” The saints who are in heaven were tempted in all ways. They were tempted by threats, but they were equally tempted by promises. They were equally deaf to either form of solicitation: they could not be driven, and they could not be drawn; however the net might be spread they could not be taken in it. They have been tempted in subtlest fashion: reason and rhetoric, threat and scorn, bribe and blandishment, have all been used, and used in vain. They were tempted both with trials peculiar to themselves, and with trials common to us all. III. THE SPECIAL POINT OF THE TRIAL. All these temptations, according to the connection of our text, were aimed at the faith of these holy men. Let us see to it that we become strong in faith, for that is true strength. Feed your faith well. Know the truth, and know it thoroughly. Read the Scriptures, and understand them. Make sure of the eternal verities. Live much upon the promises of future bliss. The sorrows of the way will grow light as the eternal weight of glory is revealed. IV. THE OF THIS TRIAL. That I gather from the position of our text, which is very strange. The more we think of it the more we shall see that being tempted is worthy to be put side by side with being sawn asunder, and being slain with the sword; for many of those who are daily tormented with temptations will tell you that it is as painful to bear as any form of death. I want to answer the question which naturally arises--Why then does God permit His people to encounter so much temptation? Why is the road to heaven so beset with foes? The Lord answers many designs at one and the same time. 1. Persecution and temptation are a sort of sieve, to sift the Church of God. There must be these fiery persecutions, that the drossy hypocrites may be purged out. 2. Trial and temptation also discover the reality of conversion. Now the fact that he can stand against temptation is one of the very best evidences that he is born again and made a new creature in Christ Jesus; and those who see such a change confess that this is the finger of God. 3. Again, it is by this that men are left without excuse, inasmuch as they refuse the light. I sometimes wonder why ungodly men cannot let Christian people alone. But no; the moment a Christian appears among working men they are all upon him as though they were so many dogs worrying a hare. What does this show but that they know the truth and hate it? They know the light, but would fain quench it, and therefore they put from them the candle which God sends to them. This leaves the ungodly altogether without excuse; it is God’ s purpose that it should do so. Meanwhile it does saints good; for painful as it is to them, it drives them to prayer. Many a man lives near to God in prayer who would not have done so if he had enjoyed an easier position. His prayerfulness strengthens him; trial makes him grow in faith and in every grace, and he becomes a better Christian. I believe that persecution is overruled by God for displaying the work of the Divine Spirit. Men see in Christian patience, in Christian courage, and in Christian zeal what the Holy Ghost can work even in such poor raw material as our human nature is. God is magnified by the successful struggling of His people out of love to His name. Moreover the life of the Church is the life of Christ extended and drawn out in His people. It seems to me the trials and the temptations of this life are all making us fit for the life to come--building up a character for eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Wandered about Believers may be wanderers The grounds hereof are these 1. The envy and hatred of the world against them, which will not suffer them to sit safely and securely on their own nests. The men of this world are to believers as fowlers to fowls, and hunters to beasts. So was Saul to 1 Samuel 24:11; 1 Samuel 24:14; 1 Samuel 26:20). Hereunto does the prophet allude (Jeremiah 16:16; Micah 7:2; Lamentations 4:18). 2. Saints’ high esteem of the truth of God, and of the peace and quiet of their own conscience, which they prefer before house and home, kindred and country. They had rather wander with a quiet conscience, holding the truth, than sit at ease in their own house under their own vines and fig-trees with a torturing conscience upon denying the truth. 3. God’ s wise providence, who opens a way for them to escape death; yet so as their faith is proved to be sound by this kind of trial, which is a great one, and in the consequence thereof may prove worse than a present death. Yea, further, God hereby keepeth the light of His truth from being put out, and causeth it to shine up and down in more places (Acts 8:1; Acts 8:5). This being the condition whereunto believers may be brought, they who have settled places of abode ought to succour such wanderers (Hebrews 13:2). This, then, must needs be a strong motive to endure this trial, because it is no other than what is common to all saints. That we may the better observe this take notice of these rules 1. Be well instructed in the nature of this world and vanity of all things under heaven; how nothing is certain and sure. Why, then, should men seek a certain abiding in so uncertain a place? 2. Get assurance of that house, city, and country which is to come. Assurance thereof will make us more content to be without house, city, and country here in this world. 3. In thy best security and most settled estate be a pilgrim in thy mind and disposition, as Abraham and other patriarchs were (verse 13). Herewith the apostle supports Christians (1 Corinthians 10:13). (W. Gouge.) Of the extreme want whereunto confessors may be brought: Saints may be brought to extreme exigencies. So was David (1 Samuel 21:3); and Elijah (1 Kings 17:6), had not a raven brought him provision, he might have starved; and so again, had not an angel provided for him (1 Kings 19:7-8). So Lazarus (Luke 16:21), and many others in all ages. 1. God suffers this that His children might be the rather moved to look up unto Him, and wholly and only to depend upon Him. External means are many times an occasion of drawing the hearts even of saints from God Psalms 30:6). The wise man saith, that “ the rich man’ s wealth is his strong city” (Proverbs 10:15). 2. God suffers this that His succouring of them might be the more manifested and magnified. Of whom the world was not worthy An epic of failure: This chapter is the most audacious of all poems--it is the epic of failure. Other poets have recited the conquests of their legendary heroes; it was reserved for the poet of faith to recite an ode not less magnificent in honour of heroes all foiled and fallen. That is the way of the Bible. That is why the Bible is the comforter of the weary, the inspiration of all hope-blasted and heart-broken victims of life’ s illusions. No good man has wholly prospered in his aims; the best men mourn the failure of all that they best conceived. No true heart in this house of God is satisfied with itself. In proportion to its truth and nobleness it mourns the failure of its highest aims. All this, at least--in part. Enough to inspire thoughts of sadness. Let us listen to this voice which comes to us across the rolling waves of all the centuries, chanting the higher victories and the diviner gains of the heroes of faith. So shall we be comforted under every failure and re-inspired after every defeat. All these died in faith, not having received the promises--disappointed, cheated of the lower, the temporal, the material, yet receiving a spiritual, a higher and eternal fulfilment. An epic of failure! We have learned that the throne of highest glory is the cross of the world’ s rejection. At the feet of that colossal Failure who was gibbeted on Calvary we lose our carnal ideals and learn to read the divinest and most lasting triumphs in the defeats which seemed most shameful. Need I waste any word in explanation? The Failure I join with the poet of faith to celebrate is not that which springs from cowardice, from sloth, or from incapacity. Surely not! There are men who fail for no other reason than thai they are invertebrate sluggards, or waste their energies on aims that are unworthy and perishable. These I sing not; they are better forgotten. The charity of God has ordained that they pass quickly out of human memory. Before you sneer at any man as a “ failure” be sure you inquire whether the conditions of success were not then absent, or worse, whether the world, snarling at all noble enterprise, was not too strong for him. Fools sneer when wise men err! Before you scornfully label any man “ failure,” call to mind some of history’ s divinest defeats--Socrates, hemlock-cup in hand; Paul of Tarsus in Nero’ s dungeon; Jesus Christ on the Cross! Nothing is more tragic than the way society sometimes arrays its forces against daring and aspiring youth. It is an envious world. And not unseldom death overtakes a brave young soul before he has fought his way to victory. So it was with that Italian painter who, reduced to painting shop-signs for a livelihood, died by the roadside of starvation and a broken heart. After his death men woke up to find that an artist had been amongst them. That his soul was great can save no hero of faith from neglect and oblivion, if he have not built some brazen monument solid on the brute earth. That he left his generation richer in faith, in hope, in aspiration, is nothing. That he preserved it from brutishness, from moral stagnation, is nothing. How can these trifling divinities atone for his failure to run a successful church, or make a pile, or initiate a spirited foreign policy? These be thy gods, O Israel! But, Vivas to those noble failures I we exclaim. Vivas to the young men and maidens, over whose unfulfilled plans an early grave closed! Vivas to all thinkers who died with their theories un-demonstrated! Vivas to all statesmen hustled from power by a recreant and godless people, to die amid the shattered fragments of a just and righteous policy! Vivas to the merchant who, rather than riot in plundered thousands, died an honest bankrupt! Vivas to the incorruptible pauper, who might have exchanged the poorhouse for a palace, could he but have smiled and been a villain! Virus to the shackled and branded criminal, doomed to perpetual prison and disgrace by the lie of perjured witnesses! Vivas to all true souls who have perished in just causes amid rabble execrations! Vivas to all who have attempted great things for humanity and God, and--failed! Spanning my native Tay, a strong and stately viaduct successfally defies all pressure of wind and wave, bearing mighty engines with living freights from shore to shore in all weathers. Yet it is built upon a past failure! a few years ago another structure stood in its place, it was at once a thing of beauty to the eye and of profit to the shareholder. The engineer was honest and capable, and was knighted for his pains. But it fell before the strong winds of a night, and with it fell, not only four-score human beings, but the reputation, and, alas! the reason, of its constructor. Shall we upbraid him? Say, rather, shall we not praise him who, first of the whole race of men, attempted a design so vast, and built the longest bridge in the world! Other engineers came after him. They improved upon his ideas. They learned from his mistakes. The result is a bridge which seems good for the service of many generations. Vivas to those who have failed I I say that the Tay Bridge was built not alone by the successful men who reaped the subsequent rewards, it is built also upon the souls of the nameless workmen who perished in its construction, and upon the soul and mind of poor, demented Sir Thomas Bouch. No need to pile up illustrations. It is plain that humanity might have prospered fairly well without its successes, but could have progressed no jot or tittle without its defeats. Having regard to the conditions of human life, it is plain that defeat is not less essential than victory; misdirection and error prepare the way for solid and enduring good. If I may choose, I will have for my portion the failures of mankind; he may have the successes who will. Vivas to those who have failed! Of whom the Mammon-worshipping world was not worthy. Failure? Let us not breathe the word in connection with any honest effort. Let us not so insult the memory of the baffled brave. No true ideal is finally dishonoured; no true effort is wasted; no true worker wholly perishes. From his loss humanity achieves a greater gain. Our future is built upon his past. He himself may perish, Moses-like, upon some lonely Nebo, but we pass over into the promised land! (W. Walsh.) God’ s esteem of His people I. LET THE WORLD THINK AS WELL, AS HIGHLY, AS PROUDLY OF ITSELF AS IT , WHEN IT IT IS BASE AND OF THE SOCIETY OF TRUE , AND OF THE MERCIES IT IS . II. GOD’ S ESTEEM OF HIS PEOPLE IS NEVER THE LESS FOR THEIR OUTWARD AND , THE WORLD JUDGETH OF THEM. They cannot think otherwise of them in their sufferings, than they thought of Christ in His. They did “ esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4); as one rejected of God and man. Such is their judgment of all His suffering followers; nor will they entertain any other thought of them. But God is of another mind. III. IT IS BETTER, AND MORE SAFE, FOR THE SAINTS OF GOD TO BE IN THE AMONG THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD, THAN IN A SAVAGE WORLD, BY THE DEVIL INTO RAGE AND . IV. Though the world may prevail to drive the Church into the wilderness, to the ruin of all public profession in their own apprehension, YET IT SHALL BE THERE UNTO THE SEASON OF ITS --the world shall never have the victory over it. V. IT BECOMES US TO BE FILLED WITH OF, AND UNTO, THINGS, TO LABOUR FOR AN OF GLORY, THAT WE FAINT NOT IN THE OF THE EVILS THAT MAY BEFAL US ON THE ACCOUNT OF THE GOSPEL. (John Owen, D. D.) The world’ s unworthiness a cause of saints wandering: The first thing expressed in this reason of confessors wandering is, the world’ s vileness. The world is not worthy of them. This consequence is confirmed by this direction which Christ giveth to His disciples (Matthew 10:11; Matthew 10:13). They who preferred the things of this world before communion with the great King were counted not worthy of that favour to sit at His table Matthew 22:4-5). This should dissuade confessors of the truth to take heed of complying too much with the men of this world. This had almost cost Jehosaphat his life (2 Chronicles 18:31). He was sharply reproved for it by a prophet (2 Chronicles 19:2). Saints do herein undervalue themselves, and give occasion to be trampled under foot, yea, and torn to pieces. The world may take great advantage hereby, but saints may be sure to get no good. Should saints comply with them whom God thinks to be unworthy of them? This is the second thing expressed; for this phrase,” was not worthy,” is here set down as a judgment, which followed upon saints wandering from them. So as the world’ s unworthiness deprived them of the society of saints, and might be very beneficial unto them. On this ground Christ saith to the Jews, “ The kingdom of God shall be taken from Matthew 21:43). And it is expressly noted that Christ returned back again from the unworthy Gadarenes, where they besought Him to depart from them (Luke 8:37). This departing from the men of the world is sometimes done by the world’ s forcing them (Acts 8:1; Matthew 10:23). Thus God in His wise providence maketh persecutors spoilers of themselves. Potiphar spoiled himself of a very faithful and profitable servant by casting Joseph into prison (Genesis 39:20), so the Jews spoiled themselves of Christ (John 7:33-34). And of the apostles, who carried the light of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46-47). 1. Here we have one special reason of saints suffering what they do by the world. It is not God’ s displeasure against them; for in love to them, and for their present and future glory are they here persecuted. It is for the punishment of the world to deprive it of those that would be their greatest honour, comfort, and profit, if they were well entertained among them. 2. Herein appeareth the world’ s sottishness in punishing themselves by their attempts to punish saints. They may spoil saints of earthly habitations and revenues, they may put them to bodily pains and deprive them of life, but they spoil themselves of the means of spiritual grace, of peace of conscience, and comfort of soul. Yea, and of eternal life, and implunge themselves into easeless torments. 3. This showeth whose case is the worst, whether their’ s that are persecuted, or their’ s who do persecute. Surely if all things be duly weighed, we shall easily discern that the persecutor’ s case is the worst. The persecuted therefore may say,” Weep not for us, but weep for yourselves” Luke 23:28). 4. This giveth occasion to such as are deprived of faithful ministers and godly neighbours to examine themselves, and consider whether their unworthiness hath not been the cause thereof. 5. This exhorteth us to esteem ministers, saints, Divine ordinances, and other holy things appertaining to the kingdom of God, so as God may account us worthy to enjoy them; and not take them away by reason of our unworthiness. (W. Gouge.) The world’ s treatment of great men: The words occur parenthetically. Sufferings precede, and sufferings follow. It seems as if the writer, glowing with devout thankfulness over the worthy deeds of these martyrs of faith, was struck suddenly with scornful indignation at the thought that all their sufferings were inflicted upon them by a world that was all unworthy of them, a world for which they were far too good, a world which affected to despise and presumed to torture them, while in reality it was in comparison with this pure gold of humanity, thus tried in the furnace of persecution, mere contemptible dross. These heroes of all time, these the salt of the world, who saved it from utter corruption, and by the very blood which their persecutors poured out sowed the seed which was to renew the face of the earth; these representatives of what man can be when he allows God to work in him mightily, were men who in their lifetime were despised as unworthy of the world, and who loved the world which was indeed unworthy of them. There is something very awful, something which brings the blush of shame and indignation to our cheeks, in the thought that the world thus spills the blood, and tries to stifle the enthusiasm, of its best and noblest children; that their best acts are often misconstrued; that the finest and purest elements in their characters are often just those which during their lives are least appreciated. There seems to be an enormous waste of human goodness, while we have at the same time so little of it that we cannot afford, if we only knew our true interests, to lose a single lifeful. But the important point for each of us to consider, is to which of the two classes he himself practically belongs; whether in the sight of God, from whom no secrets are hid, he is one of those whom God calls “ the world,” or one of those of whom the world is “ not worthy.” I know no more simple or practical way of setting this question before ourselves, than by asking what is our own estimate of those whom we believe to be trying to serve God. When you see anything, any person, superior to yourselves, does the sight give you pleasure? Do you feel proud of him? Do you try to aid him? If you ever hear of some daring act being done, do you feel disposed to give it its right name; or do you prefer to single out any ludicrous incidents in it, to extract from it and deliberately disparage all its nobleness, and make it as unlikely as you can that there should be any repetition of such a manifestation of enthusiasm. So far as you can judge, does your personal influence tend to increase or to diminish the chance of any marked display of goodness or courage being exhibited in your own society? It was said of a great English statesman--the Earl of Chatham--that no man ever left his cabinet without feeling himself a braver man than he was when he entered … To know how to do justice to all persons; to admire what really deserves admiration in the characters of those with whom we have to do; to detect through the coverings of awkwardness, or shyness, or reserve, or even much more serious defects, the true solid metal which lies beneath--is a duty which is not learned in a day. But we have advanced far in the right direction when we have satisfied ourselves that it is a duty to do this; that we have no right to be blind to latent good in others; that God wishes us to find it out, and then to pay honour to it for His sake; and that for all hasty judgments, and for all blind judgments, and for all uncharitable judgments, and above all for all judgments which wish to find evil rather than to find good, we shall most certainly have to give account … It would be well if you could commence life with an instinctive hatred of all persecution, and especially of all religious persecution. There always is and always will be a “ world” --it may be a literary world, or a fashionable world, or a religious world--but there always will be some dominant body in every society which passes judgment without having the earnestness to care to know the merits of the case on which judgment is to be passed. This world always dislikes and is suspicious of everything new, everything which calls upon it to reconsider its principles, and, in short, to “ examine itself whether it be in the faith” ; whether its customs also, as well as its opinions, will bear testing. And the world finds means for making its dislike and suspicion felt, and it taxes to the uttermost the patience and courage of those who by honest and painful, if often misguided, efforts are striving to serve it. Among the chief benefactors, not of England only, but of the human race, stands William Tyndal, the man who almost alone gave us the substance of our wonderful translation of the Bible. He was a thorough student, not, so far as we know, a man of vehement action, like Luther. But he admired Luther, when to do so was dangerous. He expressed his opinion openly, and he fell into disgrace. He escaped into a foreign country. He translated part of the Bible. It was seized and destroyed by an English bishop. He continued his work. He was constantly under the shadow of martyrdom. But the student worked on; and his work was done. The Bible was given as a heritage to Englishmen; but scarcely was the long toil of life complected, when the workman was called into a higher Presence. By the treachery of an English spy he was placed in the hands of the English authorities, and as has been said, “ passed away in smoke and flame to his rest.” (H. M. Butler, D. D.) The world’ s estimates How different are the estimates of earth and heaven! How different is man’ s standard of judgment from that which Scripture calls “ the shekel of the sanctuary” ! The world drives its saints into deserts and caves of the earth. The world says of each, what it once said of one, “ Away with such a fellow from the earth--it is not fit that he should live.” God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, sees their rash judgments, hears their hard sentences, one upon another, and says, just of those whom the world counts wanting in every attribute of sociability and citizenship--“ of whom, on the contrary, the world was not worthy.” Let us try to estimate aright this parenthetical comment. “ The world.” This cosmos of sense and matter, with its pleasures and its ambitions, its lustings and strivings and warrings, its vanities, its falsehoods, and--its children. Yes, there are those who live for it and for it only, and who count any other life an enthusiasm, a fanaticism, or a hypocrisy. And the world is very real--who shall speak to the contrary? Very substantial, very powerful in its edicts, its threatenings, and its punishments. This is its day, and it makes the most of it. The world “ knows that it has but a short time” --and there is a misgiving, too, under its vauntings, which make them more arrogant and imperious. Such reflections are necessary to the understanding of the text. And they enable us to go forward, and show why men of faith are so repulsive to the world; why, in days of violence, they are persecuted; why, in days of tranquillity, they are courteously, but effectually, ostracised. There is a natural hostility between faith and the world. The one lives for the future: the other lives for the present. The one sees the Invisible: the other places Him at an immeasurable distance. Nowhere is the world really stronger than in Christendom. To profess faith--to fight for the faith--is the world’ s masterpiece of self-tranquillising. Are we not all of one speech? Why be more scrupulous, more sensitive, more religious, than your neighbour? The world worshipping is twice the world. It has made its covenant with death--with hell it is at agreement. And that which might seem to be faith’ sremedy is forbidden her. “ Wilt Thou that we go and gather them up?” Wilt Thou that we discern for ourselves between the false and the true, between the nominal believer and the real believer, within the professing Church, and within the visible communion? Not so. “ Lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.” At all risks, the world and the Church must be mingled together in the present; if so be the influences of grace may yet touch the worldly, and bring them into the fold of the real and of the true. Thus we are taught to look more at principles than at persons. We must not, we cannot, go apart by ourselves, and leave the Church-world to its own ways and its own devices. If it excommunicates, if it drives into the desert, it must have its way: and it will set its mark, if not publicly yet in secret, upon all who refuse to speak its thought and to do its bidding. The man of faith, the consistent Christian, may be in the world, of it he cannot be--and the world knows it. The world of the home, the world of the school, the world of the shop and the counting-house, the world of fashion and of society, feels and resents the reproving speech, and yet more the reproving silence, of the man who quietly and consistently lives for the unseen, and turns all his thoughts and actions that way. And this is the closing lesson of the chapter of faith. We are reminded that there is a “ world “ present and active in the heart of Christian England, and that there is also, side by side with it, not only a visible professing community, which, for us, is almost coextensive with it, but also a secret society, knit together in a bond of spiritual sympathy, not only by the possession of common ordinances of worship and rules of living, but by the actual presence, within each member, of the Holy Spirit of God quickening, guiding, enabling, sanctifying--drawing their desires heavenward, and making” that world,” the world of heaven and of God, more real and more present and more persuasive to them than all the pleasures and all the interests of things seen and temporal. We are reminded also that in this realisation of the invisible God lies a power, and a dignity, and a patent of nobility, altogether different, in kind as well as in degree, from all the greatness and all the honour which can be conferred by rank or wealth, by genius or intellect, by the admiration of senates or the favour of kings. “ Of whom the world was not worthy” is God’ s description of the very men whom the world casts out as fools or madmen. Live now, at all costs, for “ that world,” whether “ this world” shall curse or bless. In pureness, in meekness, in diligence, in love unfeigned--with the Holy Spirit within you--so pass the time of your sojourning, and look for your rest and your home in the one “ city which hath the foundations,” the city of the everlasting glory, whose light is the crucified and risen One, whose Architect and Artificer is God. (Dean Vaughan.) Great men I. THE WORLD AND THE CHURCH FORM A VERY OF . Look at history. What names are those that fill its pages? Kings, counsellors, and chieftains--men who have lived only to subdue and govern their fellow-men. History is so occupied with their deeds, that it finds no place to record manifestations of moral principle, and works of true greatness. There is no record in it of those men, who through a strength and purity of soul obtained a sway over the minds of their fellow-men; who, rising above their times, assailed all forms of error, rescued great truths from the corruption of ages, and by their characters, deeds, sufferings, and writings, proved themselves the benefactors of their race. The world does not know them; but their names are repeated with veneration by thousands. These are our great men; and the day is coming when their greatness shall be acknowledged. The Church esteems moral greatness as the highest kind of greatness; and whatever qualities a man may have apart from this, she refuses to admit his pretensions, and casts out his name. There is too much of lowliness and simplicity in true moral greatness to charm and attract the world. Intellectual greatness is far inferior to moral greatness. A man may be intellectually great, and yet morally mean. He may be like Bacon, the greatest and the meanest of men. The philosopher and the poet are inferior to the Christian. The Church knows nothing of the greatness of men as kings, as warriors, or as statesmen. In her estimation “ the Christian is the highest style of man.” It is necessary to moral greatness, that there should be an acquaintance with the truth--with God’ s truth; that truth which illuminates and saves the soul; that truth which sustains a man amidst the scoffings and revilings of an age; that truth which teaches a man how to live and how to die. To be a great man, therefore, a man must recognise the superiority of his nature. He must act as a man, knowing and feeling that he has a soul. He must not be imposed upon by the pageants of the world; he must not be allured by the charms of the things that are passing away; he must confess himself to be a stranger and a sojourner here, as all his fathers were. A great man must be a bold man--one who will act out his convictions, defying all peril, and hearing in his own conscience a voice louder than the threatenings of the world. He must be a man who will dare to be singular; who will hew out his own pathway; who will even look death in the face rather than give up his principles, and leave guilt upon his conscience. He must be an active man--a man making his existence necessary to the world, and who will not let the world do without him; yea, the world cannot, the world shall not do without him. It retains the impression of his deeds. His influence shall outlive himself, and shall never die. II. THERE HAVE BEEN GREAT MEN IN THIS WORLD OF OURS--men “ of whom the world was not worthy.” There have been some who were men above their age--men standing out from their fellows, men who have lived alone in their generation, and have been like stars in the expanse of heaven. Among the great men who have lived since the days of the apostles I may single out the monk of Germany. Among the most memorable scenes that have occurred in European history is, undoubtedly, that scene in which that great man stood before the world’ s authorities friendless and alone and when the question was proposed to him--“ Will you recant?” he answered “ By God’ s grace, never.” By that one act and deed of his he deserves to be enrolled among the list of those men “ of whom the world was not worthy.” III. GREAT MEN ARE MADE SO BY THE GRACE OF GOD. They were “ born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Their lives were a copy of the holiness of truth, an illustration of the beauty of truth, and a manifestation of the power of truth. IV. GREAT MEN HAVE, , GIVEN AN IMPULSE TO THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVED. It was impossible for them to think and speak and act in such a world as this, without producing undying impressions; it was impossible for them to suffer and to die, without leaving memorials of their names, their deeds, and their sufferings, in the sympathies and in the hearts of men. They laid the foundation of that vast structure of civil and religious liberty in which we meet and bow down and worship to-day. V. THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS BEEN OF ITS GREAT MEN. There was One, of whom it becomes us to speak with the greatest reverence. He came into this world; and though He had made the world, yet it knew Him not, and cried out--“ Away with Him! away with Him! crucify Him! crucify Him!” And if the world know not the Master, is it likely that it will recognise His disciples? The world has never known these great men. It has always treated them with contempt. They have been afflicted, forsaken, tormented; they have “ wandered about in goatskins and in sheepskins” ; and yet these very men have been among our true nobility and spiritual aristocracy; “ of whom the world was not worthy.” And yet, for them the world forged its fetters, opened the doors of its dungeons, and lit up its fires, that their spirits might ascend to liberty and to God.” (H. J. Bevis.) Hebrews 11:39-40 These all … received not the promise What of the saintly dead prior to the coming of Christ? It is altogether probable that among the Jewish Christians there would be great anxiety to know what had been the condition, in the unseen world, of their saintly forefathers who had died before the coming of the Messiah. It is probable, too, that on this subject revelations may have been made by the apostles which were not recorded in Holy Scripture, because their chief interest and practical importance would cease before the true tradition of their teaching had been corrupted and passed away. An incidental sentence of this kind seems to imply a knowledge, in primitive times, of the state of good men who had died before Christ came, which has disappeared from the memory of the Church. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The argument: Your fathers, the greatest of them, while they lived, and after they entered Paradise, were waiting and hoping for the coming of Christ. Neither on earth nor in heaven could they be “ made perfect” until He came. Till His birth, till His death, till His ascension to glory, their life was a life of faith; and yet you are ready--though the Divine promise is already in part fulfilled--to surrender your confidence in God, because the complete fulfilment is still delayed. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) The promise of incompleteness There was a plain mechanic in a little town in Scotland who feared God; and built houses for a livelihood. He never had more than three months of schooling in his life. Let us draw a circle round the seventy-five years of that life, and look at it merely by itself. Measured by the ordinary standards of the world, how cramped it is I how insignificant! But then can we look at that life in that way? It is plain that we cannot; for every life establishes connections and creates consequences. It is with a life as it is with a large estate. It cannot be closed up at once upon the death of the testator. Certain obligations have a given time to run. Certain outstanding amounts of capital may not be paid in for years. Indeed, it is doubtful if the real sum total of any man’ s life can be stated until the end of all things. This humble mechanic, for instance, was the father of a son whose name is known and honoured wherever the English language is spoken. To James Carlyle’ s life must be added the sum of Thomas Carlyle’ s life and the influence of his writings, and the influence of the men whose thought has been stimulated or shaped by those writings. I have taken this familiar illustration as containing in itself the substance of my text to-day. The truth it gives us is that no man’ s life can be estimated by itself, but helps to complete the past, and is completed by the future. These people--Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the rest--were the spiritual heroes of an earlier time, representing the nation’ s moral high-water mark. They were powers, and society acknowledged and bore witness to their power. Yet there was a good in store, which, though they contributed to it, did not come to them. There was a promise infolded in their life which was not fulfilled to them, but to those who came after them. If their life is to be estimated only in itself, if its record is to cover only the sum of its years, then this state of things seems unjust and cruel, and the life itself of little account. But you at once see that the writer is taking a far wider view than this. He is contemplating these early heroes, not only by themselves, but as links in a great succession of men of faith. He is viewing the results of their life as parts of the great development of humanity at large. Now, the recognition of this as a law of life has a vast influence upon any man’ s character. It shapes a man of a different type from one who regards his life as an end to itself; and it is here set down to the credit of these Old Testament heroes, as an element of their faith, that they apprehended this larger law and lived by it; that they put mere personal considerations out of sight--were content to be merely stages, and not finalities, in the great growth of human history. So far as this world is concerned their life goes to minister to other lives, and is simply a factor in the progress of mankind as a whole. This is a far wider conception of faith than we commonly form. We are disposed to make faith exclusively personal, to trust God mostly for what He will do for us, or for those most closely bound to us. We say to ourselves, “ We must trust God for daily bread, for provision for old age or sickness, for a place in heaven” ; and so we must. So Christ commands us to do; but, at the same time, He teaches us to give faith a much wider range. We are parts of a great Divine economy, of a great march of ideas and character; builders on a great building of God, each carving his stone, or laying his few courses of brick; husbandmen in God’ s vast domain, each tilling his few acres--one sowing, another reaping; one planting, another watering. No man’ s faith is perfect which regards merely his own salvation; no man’ s prayer is according to Christ’ s standard which leaves out “ Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Thus identifying ourselves with the interests of God’ s kingdom--the whole development of our race--we find ourselves identified with a process. The perfect man, the perfect society, are not created out of hand. They have not come yet, but they are slowly coming, and coming through much crudeness and imperfection by the way. Thus, then, the kingdom of God is no exception to the law which obtains in other kingdoms--that growth involves imperfection and destruction. Take the law as it holds in nature. Growth comes through death. The corn of wheat brings forth fruit only as it dies. In nature’ s processes we find much which serves merely as the step or the scaffolding to something better and greater and more beautiful, and which, when its purpose is accomplished, passes away. There is the worm. It crawls in the sun, and lies upon the leaf, and then wraps itself in the cocoon; and then springs forth the butterfly in all the glory of gold and purple: and the worm-life and the cocoon-life have done their work, and have given that beautiful creation to the air and the flowers, and they pass away. Go higher up, into the life of man. A perfect, healthy child, how beautiful it is! how winning! how innocent! how natural and graceful its attitudes! What parent has not found himself looking back to the years of infancy with a feeling that the years which have made his children men and women have robbed him of something ineffably sweet and precious? Childhood is only a stage: so is youth, with its flush of hope, its high aims, its fulness and vigour of life; and so manhood, with its strength and achievement. In a normally developed life each stage as it passes away hands over to its successor something better and stronger. Does the process end with old age? Is there not something better beyond the line which we call death? So of society. It passes through crude conditions, which give place to higher and better conditions. One life is spent in evolving the powers of electricity: the man who comes after reaps the full benefit of the telegraph and telephone. A Columbus discovers America, we enjoy it. Go still higher, into the region of religion and worship,. The same law holds. Religion is not given to man full-grown. The true faith works its way into shape and power out of a mesh of false faiths. One by one these fall off and die, leaving only what is essentially true to be taken up into the new and higher form. Not one of the men mentioned in this catalogue in the eleventh of Hebrews can be held up as a perfect model of character for the men of a Christian age. The New Testament morality is higher than that of the old. The humblest Christian believer has what Samuel and Elijah had not. And as to worship, we say, “ God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” We come to God without priest or victim or symbol; but what a stretch between our standpoint and that of the Israelite!--a stretch strewn with broken types. Prophet, priest, king--one after another, God breaks these types in pieces as the fulness of time draws on, when Christ, the Teacher, the great High Priest, the Lord of lords, is to come into the world. II. We come, then, to the second truth of our text. Having seen the fact of imperfection, WE SEE THAT ALONG WITH THE GOES A PROMISE. You notice the peculiar word here, “ received not the promise.” It is noted as a mark of the faith of these good men that they saw a promise of something better in the imperfection of their own age. Christ bears witness to this in the words, “ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.” In like manner Moses saw a nation in the rabble which went out of Egypt. To him the desert meant Canaan. So in nature, the seed, even in its falling into the ground and dying, utters the promise of the corn: the blossom, as it is borne down by the wind, promises the fruit. Even the falling leaf, as it settles down to its new task, promises next spring’ s juices and leaves. So in the moral progress of our race. Paul tells us that “ That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural,” that “ The first man is of the earth, earthy” ; but in these he sees the promise of something better. “ Afterwards, that which is spiritual. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.” Society in its best development to-day is imperfect: the ideal form of government is yet to be revealed; but as we turn over to the vision of John on Patmos, we see a perfect society, a holy city, a heavenly Jerusalem, a faultless administration. Now, the practical question for us is, What is our true attitude toward these two facts of imperfection and promise? Our text tells us, by the example of these men of old. There were imperfect men; they saw a possible good which was not for them: but through faith they accepted the imperfection and made the best of it, and cheerfully gave their energy, and endured their suffering, to make the coming man and the coming time better than themselves and their time. We are on the same line. We and our time are simply a stage toward something better. With all our boast of high civilisation, elaborated jurisprudence, rich spiritual acquirement, and vast knowledge, there is something better for the men of the coming time. They will know more, and enjoy more than we do. They will be better men than we are. They will have greater riches of spiritual culture. It is a high test of faith for a man to do his best under temporary conditions, as a mere faction of a great whole, as a mere means to the development of some better thing in a future which he is not to enjoy; and yet that is the lesson which God’ s administration teaches us. How much care and skill and beauty go into merely temporary things! Take a wheat-corn, that very thing which is to fall into the ground and die, and split it open, and put it under a microscope, and what a perfect and beautiful organism it is! Look at that apple-blossom, which in a few days will be blown away by the wind, and what perfection of form, what delicacy of texture and tint! Each one of those living motes which dances for an hour in the setting sunlight is finished with all the nicety of your own anatomy. Nature is prodigal in her apparent waste of beautiful and perfect things. So, when God gave a temporary system of worship to carry men over to Christ, how carefully selected were the types; how stringent the insistence on details which seem trivial to us! Cannot we read this lesson? Shall we refuse our best because our best is to be merged into something better? Or shall we not rather feel ourselves at once stimulated and honoured by being allowed to contribute our best to the great result which is by and by to gather up into itself the best of all the ages? You have read how, in the old border-wars of Scotland, the tidings of invasion and the summons to arms were carried by the fiery cross. One runner took it and went at full speed to a certain point, telling the news as he went, and then gave it to another, who ran on in like manner. It was not for the messenger to whom that summons came to sit down and prepare for the defence of his own house and the protection of his flocks and herds. He must take the cross and run for the next stage. The message of Christ’ s Cross points us beyond ourselves and our own interest and our own time. It lays on us the charge of the coming time. It bids us do our best in our own time, as a means to making that Cross the central fact of the future time. Our stage of life contains a promise for the next stage that it shall be better and higher for our faithful toil. Our problem is to push that promise nearer to its fulfilment. Thus, then, let us take the promise of the better thing into the inferior, incomplete conditions of to-day. Let us accept the fact of incompleteness, not passively, nor idly: that were to exclude faith, and faith is the very keynote of this lesson; nor, on the other hand, despairingly nor angrily that were presumptuous and useless as well. But let us recognise in it a promise of completeness, a stage towards it, and a call to promote it. No one of us can be more than a factor in the world’ s history. The power of each factor will appear only when the whole column shall be cast up. The sum total will be greater than any factor, but for the very reason that it will include all the factors. “ We must be slow,” as one remarks, “ to judge unfinished architecture.” Truthfully said the old Greek poet, “ The days to come are the wisest witnesses.” If there be truth in that theory of development, so widely ,accepted in this day; if we are living in an incomplete physical universe, no less than in partly developed moral and spiritual conditions, that fact goes to show that one law holds from the natural up to the spiritual. That holds out the hope that all the apparent waste in nature will one day be accounted for and shown to be no waste. That points again to the larger hope, that the imperfect work of true men, the imperfect teaching of half-taught men, the imperfect moral development of primitive men, and all the disappointed aspiration and seemingly fruitless toil, and rejected testimony of God’ s workmen in all times, will be found again, revealed in its true value and power. It was a profound remark of a modern essayist, that the continual failure of eminently endowed men to reach the highest standard has in it something more consoling than disheartening, and contains an “ inspiring hint that it is mankind, and not special men, that are to be shaped at last into the image of God; and that the endless life of the generations may hope to come nearer that goal of which the short-breathed three-score years and ten fall too unhappily short.” The present, for each of us, bears the sign of the Cross. The crown is in the future. (M. Vincent, D. D.) An increasing purpose I. THE BOND UNITING US WITH PAST . 1. The question then agitating men’ s minds was, Is not this new faith in Christ Jesus the destruction of Judaism? And the writer of this Epistle answers the question by the broad assertion that Christianity is the real Judaism, and that the true line of succession runs through the Church, and not through the synagogue. Fancy a stiff Pharisee’ s face, at hearing a Christian teacher claim Abraham, Jacob and, most audaciously of all, Moses for his side! But why did he do so? Because the foundation of their lives was faith. The writer will not allow any difference, except that of development, between the call of prophet and psalmist, “ Trust ye in the Lord for ever,” and the preaching of apostles, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” There has never been but one way to heaven, and faith has always been one, however different in completeness its creed. 2. It is but applying the same principle in a slightly different direction to say that all in Christian ages who have the same spirit of faith are one. All who lay hold of the same Christ with the same confidence are knit together. But it must be the same Christ, the Divine-human Christ, the world’ s Redeemer; and the faith must be so far the same that it leans the whole weight of man’ s weakness on that Incarnate Strength, and hangs all its hopes on that one Lord. II. THE BETTER THINGS FOR US. There is no such advance within the limits of Christianity as separated it from the earlier revelation. The further “ light’’’ which each age has a right to expect is to “ break forth from the Word” already given. “ The Christ that is to be” is the Christ that was, and is “ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” He is “ for ever,” as being complete. As for truth, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him, and may be drawn from the deepening understanding of the principles embodied in His life, death, resurrection and reign. All theology, morality, sociology, lie in Him as gold in ore, or diamonds in a matrix. As for powers, all that can be needed or done for the regeneration of the world and of single souls has been done and supplied in the work of Christ. What remains is but the application of the power which has been lodged in humanity. But while objective revelation is complete, and God’ s treasures contain no “ better thing” than the unspeakable gift once bestowed and ever possessed, there is meant to be an advancement in understanding of the truth, and in appropriation of the power. Jesus is inexhaustible. No one man can absorb Him all; no one age can. A thousand mirrors set round that central light will each receive its beam at its own angle, and flash it back in its own fashion. So true progress will consist in a fuller understanding and firmer grasp of Him as Son of God and Redeemer of the world, and in a more complete reception of His Spirit, manifested in more Christlike characters and more Christ-pleasing services. III. THE YET BETTER THINGS IN RESERVE FOR OUR . Naturally the progress is not to stop with us, but will go on as long as there is a Church on earth. We too have but partial light, and have partially appropriated the gifts, and discharged the duties given and enjoined in the partly understood gospel. The Church of the future will have broken down all sects. Religion will one day be harmonised with “ science.” Christian principles will be applied to social and national life with revolutionary effects. There will be a fuller baptism of the Spirit on the happier Church that is to be, resulting in more consecrated lives, in more missionary and evangelistic effort, and in a finer harmony of nature, and a more systematical and majestic development of capacities in the individual and the community. IV. THE FINAL IN WHICH ALL ARE UNITED. The saints of the old and the believers of the new covenant are not to be perfected apart. 1. There is to be a perfect union of all in the common joy of possession of the common gift. On the march the pilgrims were widely separated, but in the camp their tents will be near each other. Just as Dante saw Paradise under the symbol of a great rose, whose many petals were yet one flower, and just as astronomers tell us that the giant nebulae, consisting of infinite numbers of suns, are yet each one whole, though we cannot imagine what forces bind together across such bewildering spaces, so all who, in solitude here, and amid misconceptions and diversities have yet loved the one Lord and followed the one Shepherd, shall couch round Him above, and in some mysterious, but most blessed manner, know that they “ live together,” and “ all together with Him,” as the bond of their unity, and perhaps the medium Of their intercourse. There will be a united perfecting in the common possession of the whole Christ. 2. There will be united perfection in enjoying the consults of the long unfolding through the ages of the fulness of Christ. Here one generation originates and another completes. But the time comes when all the workers shall share in the gladness of the finished work; when all who, separated by long ages and thick walls of mutual misconception, and divergence in practice and opinions, have yet been unknowingly toiling towards the same end, shall clasp inseparable hands in the great result which contains all their work. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The greatness of faith: The point in these words on which we wish to fasten is, that it was through faith that the worthies, of whom St. Paul speaks, obtained “ a good report.” There is here a distinct assertion that faith, and nothing but faith, gained for the most distinguished saints their high pre-eminence; that if they enjoyed a larger than the ordinary share of the Divine favour, it was in consequence of their believing with a more than common steadfastness. Neither does our text stand alone in furnishing such a representation. Throughout Scripture faith is represented as most acceptable to God, and as securing to man the highest privileges and recompenses; and it is on this very account that the gospel is so distasteful to numbers, that numbers would reject it, and devise a better theology for themselves. I. Now it is very easy, but very unfair, to speak of faith as an act of the mind, which only follows where there is testimony enough, and over which, therefore, a man has little or no control, and which, consequently, ought not to be made the test or criterion of any moral qualities. We call this unfair because it takes no account of the influence which the affections exert over the understanding, in consequence of which a man will readily believe some things, and positively disbelieve others, though there shall be no difference in the two cases in the amount of furnished testimony. Just think for yourselves: if I bring you intelligence of a matter in which you have no personal concern, which you have no interest whatever in either proving or disproving, the mind is likely to be fairly impartial, and to give its decision on a just estimate of the evidence which I adduce. But suppose the intelligence to be of an obnoxious and troublesome character; suppose that if proved true it will compel you to exertions or sacrifices which you shrink from being called upon to make. Here is a widely different case. The strongest feelings of a man will be at once up in arms, and we shall find it needful to make assurance doubly sure before we can gain credit for the unpalatable truth. Apply this to the matter of revealed religion. Let, then, the Bible, with all its credentials, be submitted for the first time to a man whose reason is in full vigour for investigating truth; is he likely to feel any pleasure in the doctrines of the Bible? Are they such as he can be supposed to feel any wish to find and prove true? No; these doctrines present him with a portrait of himself whose accuracy he must undoubtedly be unwilling to admit. And though, indeed, the Bible, not content with exposing to him his condition, offers him a remedy, nevertheless this remedy itself is offensive to his pride. Now tell me, is it fair to say of a man who receives as true a document, thus humbling to himself, thus imposing duties from which nature shrinks; is it fair to say of him that he merely yields to a certain amount of testimony, which left him no choice? Nay, this is altogether wrong: even the evidences of the Christian religion are not such as leave no option to the student; they are such as will be sure to prove convincing, where there is diligent and candid inquiry; where there is a wish to ascertain truth, and a determination to obey it when once ascertained; but it is not such a testimony as is sure to prevail, even in the absence of all such qualifications. It is not a testimony addressing itself to the senses, graven on the earth, or glaring from the firmament, and forcing conviction alike on the careless and the diligent. It is, on the contrary, a testimony which may be overlooked by indolence, and overcome by prejudice. It will not ordinarily commend itself to the man who sits down to its investigation with hostile feelings and bitter prepossessions, hoping to be able to reject it as defective. Therefore you cannot say of the man who yields to this evidence that he only submits to what could not be withstood. He might have resisted, he would have resisted, had he not brought to the inquiry a teachable spirit, a sincere wish to discover truth, and a fixed resolve to conform to its dictates. But go beyond the evidences, go to the truths which revelation unfolds, and you will see still more clearly that believing presupposes the possession, or requires the exercise of dispositions which are confessedly excellent. There must be humility in him who believes, for from the heart he confesses himself unclean and undone. There must be the submission of the understanding to God, for much has to be received which cannot be explained. There must be a willingness to suffer, for Christianity summons to tribulation; there must be a willingness to labour, for Christianity sets a man about the most arduous duties. We do not know any achievement so remarkable, so little to have been expected from a proud, prejudiced, and depraved creature, such as man naturally is, as the believing in a record so humiliating, so condemnatory of lust, so rigid in enjoining duties, as is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You might tell us of great exploits, of splendid deeds, which have earned for those who wrought them surpassing renown; but we should not fear that any of the heroes had done a nobler or a more admirable thing than is effected by any one who exercises the faith of which my text speaks. Yes, give place, ye great ones of the earth, who have drawn the homage of your fellow-men by penetrating the secrets of nature, improving the arts, advancing the commerce, strengthening the institutions, or subduing the enemies of your country. We would bow before a lowlier and, nevertheless, a more illustrious throng; we would find a higher title to respect, and we see that throng, and we acknowledge that title in those of whom an apostle could say, “ These all obtained a good report through faith.” II. Let us advance a step further; let us proceed from the preliminaries, as they may be called, to the consequences of faith, and we shall find fresh warrant for that “ good report” of which our text speaks. For faith, you observe, cannot be a barren or an uninfluential principle. It is not so with regard to inferior truths, much less can it be so in regard to the truths of the Bible. Let us fasten on certain of the doctrines which God has revealed, and certain of the virtues which God demands, and let us see whether faith in the one will not be of necessity productive of the others. For example: it is a portion of the Scriptural revelation that God is omniscient and omnipresent; that nothing can be hid from His scrutiny, but that He is ever at hand, a vigilant inspector, to note human actions, and register them for judgment. Can this be really believed, and yet the believer fail to be intently earnest to approve himself in God’ s sight? Will be ever think himself in a solitude, ever act as alone and unobserved? Will not rather his faith produce a holy reverence, an awful fear of the Almighty? The Bible tells him, moreover, of an amazing scheme of rescue, planned and executed by God, on behalf of himself and his fellow-men. Can this be believed, and yet the believer not glow with intense love towards a gracious and benevolent God, who has done such surprising things for his good? Yea, and toward his fellow-men, seeing that they are objects of the same mercy with himself, and therefore equally precious in the sight of his Creator? Oh! will not faith, genuine faith in the mighty truths of redemption, make a man feel as an affectionate son towards God, and as an affectionate brother towards all men? And yet further, along with the revelation of this amazing scheme of mercy, the Bible sets forth conditions, apart from which we can have no share in the blessings procured by Christ’ s death, imposing duties, on the performance of which our future portion is made to depend, and annexing promises and threatenings, just as though we were to be judged by our own works, irrespective of the work of the Redeemer. It tells us of a heaven, and it tells us of a hell, and dealing with us as accountable creatures. Faith in these things must animate to effort, to obedience, to self-denial; and he who is really a believer in the revealed truths as to man’ s everlasting state, and the indissoluble connection between conduct here and condition hereafter, will necessarily be one who struggles for mastery, and wages continual war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is no strangeness, then, at all. Faith is precisely that condition of the soul which such a Being as God might have been expected to approve; for having given the revelation contained in the Bible, to require faith in its disclosures is to require that the understanding submit itself, that pride be cast down, that the “ flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts,” and that every energy be consecrated to His service. Where, then, is the marvel if He have been pleased to ordain that it should be through faith that men “ obtain a good report.” III. Finally, to impress, it possible, the argument on every hearer, we will represent the nature and achievement of this principle of faith. We, you and I, live in the midst of allurements and temptations, what is without conspiring with what is within to bind us to earth, and make us cleave to it as our home and our all; and whilst we are thus entangled there comes a revelation from the invisible God, a revelation of amazing truths connected with His nature and with His purposes to ourselves, His guilty and depraved creatures; in this revelation you and I are bidden to believe--bidden on the express declaration that in return for our faith we shall be admitted into privileges which thought cannot measure. And is it an easy thing to believe? Easy! it is to lay aside prejudice, it is to become as little children, it is to submit implicitly to God’ s authority. Easy! it is to abandon what we love, to forego what we desire, to do what we dislike, to endure what we dread! Easy! it is to cut off the right hand, pluck out the right eye, wrestle with principalities and powers, to despise death, and anticipate futurity! Easy! do it, ye who count it so easy. Ye who make so light of believing--believe. Ye who represent faith as a mere nothing, have faith. You would invite us to some great and hard achievement, we invite you to a greater and harder; we match believing against all your doing; we match it in difficulty, we match it in results. There is nothing which you admire which we may not attempt in our own strength, but we must have the power of the Lord God Almighty ere we can believe in Him whom He hath sent. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ, the prime promise, not received by true believers Of the believers before mentioned, and of others that lived before Christ, it is said they that received not the promise, that is, saints, under the Old Testament, had not an actual exhibition of Christ. This was one of the promises, concerning which it was said of the patriarchs, they received not the promises (Hebrews 11:13). In this respect it is said that many prophets and righteous men desired to see those things (Matthew 13:17), namely, Jesus Christ incarnate, living, preaching, working miracles, &c., and that the prophets inquired and searched diligently about those things (1 Peter 1:10). Therefore they did not enjoy them. God was herein pleased to manifest His wisdom in reserving such a promise to a fulness of time Galatians 4:4). 1. That His goodness might by degrees increase, as the sun doth, and so be the better discerned. For by degrees it was more clearly revealed. 2. That so great a blessing might be the more expected, inquired after, and longed for. 3. That the patience and other graces of saints might be the better exercised. 4. That Christ Himself might be the more honoured, in that He was reserved to the latter age of the world, as being a blessing which surpassed all other blessings before it. (1) Hereby we have instruction in the nature of faith, which is to rest upon promises for things future, as if they were actually accomplished. (2) This doth much amplify the faith of former believers, in that they did and endured so great things for Christ before they enjoyed Him. (3) It checks our backwardness and dulness in believing, who live in the times wherein the promise may be and is received. (4) This should stir us up to seek to excel them, in that we have received the promise which they received not. (W. Gouge.) Borne better thing for us Something better: Thus faith makes character. The Pyramids of Egypt are dead stone. The pyramids of Israel are holy men. Worldly fortune most of these heroes and heroines had none. Fame indeed came to them; but they did not march up to Fame and say, “ Be thou my god.” And what was that fame? Not that of eloquence; nor did they gain the laurels of war; they obtained a good report. Their virtues lived after them. Thus faith achieved the great result. And faith in what? A promise. Seeing, then, that faith in a promised Saviour is so good a thing, what can be better than such a promise? The apostle is speaking of the promise fulfilled. We live now not under the promise, but under the full revelation of the Christ. I. A OF THE OF GOD. “ Something better.” The works of man often show decrepitude, wasting genius, failing power. Witness Turner in art, and Sir Walter Scott in literature. But all God’ s works show development--onwardness. Creation in its physical aspect does. Look at the crustaceans and at the silurian fossils, &c. None can fail to see progress--some-thing finer, nobler, better. Look at the moral world! Look at God’ s revelations of righteousness and truth! How wonderfully superior the light which David had to that which Abel had! Then, as the course of inspiration rolled along, the devout Jew heard descriptions through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, which filled in the sublimely prophetic history with the story of Messiah’ s sufferings. In the incarnation and redemption of our Saviour we still see something better. And then our Saviour tells us that there is still something better. He says, “ It is expedient for you that I go away,” then the Comforter Shall come. Life is not to be a mere obedience even to Christ’ s words, but a spiritual potency within, God’ s Spirit in the inner man. The unprejudiced mind is bound to see in all this a revelation of God’ s character--of His interest in man, of His wisdom, His pity, and His grace! We ought to make history a ground of trust and hope in God, so that in looking back we may say, “ I will trust, and not be afraid.” II. A OF LIFE. The path of the Christian is like that of the Church, from strength to strength, from glory to glory. 1. Learn to interpret life by the key of this principle. It is the only one that can solve the mysteries of pain and sorrow, or that can soothe the heart in agony and trouble. The motto, “ It is better,” cannot be ever on our lips, it is true. We should act a lie as if we were false enthusiasts. We cannot say, “ I see or feel this to be good” ; but we can say, “ I believe it to be so.” Faith trusts. Faith rests upon the Divine order! 2. This principle of interpretation is supported by human histories. Life only blossoms by slow degrees, and only when it is in full bud do we see how suitable the soil, how perfectly adapted the atmosphere. We would not have had Stephen stoned, but it was better that his dying testimony should aid in turning Saul the persecutor into Paul the apostle, and better for Stephen himself to enjoy so early the welcome where Christ Himself rose from His throne to receive him. It is when the fabric is woven that we see what colours were best to let pass through the loom. It is when the temple is complete that we understand why the crooked stone that puzzled us was placed in its appointed spot. It is when the haven is reached by a circuitous voyage, and a strange tacking to and fro in troubled waters, that the captain tells you all about the sand-banks and the sunken rocks. 3. This principle of interpretation explains the providence of earth. Pitiable are those conceptions of life which treat the universe as though we moved only in some meaningless cycle. There is progress in all that makes for the enrichment of thought, the amplification of life, the elevation of the common lot. It is better to live now than in the old times before us. Nations, as well as men, do rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things. Doubtless as the waves of the incoming sea seem sometimes to recede, so there appear to be periods of drawback and disheartening. But progress is made. The islands once in darkness do see great light. The gospel does spread. Law does become more equitable. Sanitary science does triumph. Intercommunication between great nations in travel and commerce does increase. Education does spread. 4. This principle of interpretation explains the Saviour’ s preparation of heaven. The very same word is used--“ I go to prepare a place for you.” He has “ foreseen” all that, and made ready the home. We cannot see the occupations and delights of our departed ones, but we know that they are blessed; we know that where they are there is “ something better” ; and we know that this prepared home will be soon ready for ourselves. There knowledge is freed from earthly limitation. There love is no more enfeebled by divided affection. And what mean these words? “ That they without us should not be made perfect.” The temple is incomplete. The table is not full. They are blessed, but our home-coming will add intensity and fulness to their joy. How transfigured would human life be if we studied this text in all its breadth and beauty--if we remembered, as students, that God disciplines human life, so that the golden corn of experience may afterwards be a harvest for others; that as servants the heroism of our faith is remembered in that which is least as well as in that which is greatest, so that “ something better” is coming than any earthly reward; that as worshippers, when thrilled at times with the glories of spiritual song, we are nearing the fellowship of the great multitude which no man can number! (W. M. Statham, M. A.) The believer’ s portion--something better I. WHAT IS THIS PORTION? 1. Religion here in all that constitutes it. 2. Religion future in all its glorious prospects. II. BETTER THAN WHAT? 1. Certainly better than the world at its worst--in its degrading pleasures, selfish purposes, hatred, and strife. 2. Better than the world at its best. (1) In the achievements of science. (2) In art. (3) In literature. (4) In its friendship, sympathy, love. 3. Better than the best things of the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations. III. IN WHAT BETTER? 1. In that it includes God’ s care and attention, and our help cannot fail. 2. In that it forms His highest and most costly provision. 3. Now it (1) Provides for every man. (2) Fills every holy desire. (3) Is spiritual in character. (4) Is certain amid a changing world. (5) Grows continually better. 4. In the future (1) It ends in heaven. (2) Its blessings will be eternal. Learn: 1. To be sure you are the heirs of this portion. 2. To think of it often. 3. To walk worthy of your vocation. (E. Jerman.) The disposal of the times and states of the Church I. THE OF THE STATES AND TIMES OF THE CHURCH, AS UNTO THE OF LIGHT, GRACE, AND , DEPENDS MERELY ON THE AND WILL OF GOD, AND NOT ON ANY MERIT OR IN MAN. The coming of Christ at that time when He came was as little deserved by the men of the age wherein He came as in any age from the foundation of the world. II. Though God gives more light and grace unto the Church in one season than in another, YET IN EVERY SEASON HE GIVES THAT WHICH IS TO GUIDE IN THEIR FAITH AND UNTO ETERNAL LIFE. III. It is the duty of believers, in every state of the Church, to make use of and IMPROVE THE THAT GOD HATH MADE FOR THEM, always remembering that unto whom much is given, of them much is required. IV. GOD OUT UNTO ALL HIS PEOPLE THEIR PORTION IN SERVICE, , , AND REWARDS, TO HIS OWN GOOD . V. IT IS CHRIST ALONE WHO WAS TO GIVE, AND WHO ALONE COULD GIVE, OR UNTO THE CHURCH. VI. ALL THE OUTWARD WORSHIP OF THE OLD HAD NO IN IT; AND SO NO GLORY UNTO THAT WHICH IS BROUGHT IN BY THE GOSPEL (2 Corinthians 3:10). VII. ALL , ALL , IS IN CHRIST ALONE. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and we are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (John Owen, D. D.) That they without us should not be made perfect Man perfected through fellowship I. THE GIFTS OF THE LIFE CAN BE BY THE IN HIS AND . We may be ready to ask the question, Was it not hard that these early believers, who had so nobly satisfied God’ s demand upon their faith, should be shut out from their full and final blessedness for ages? For the present let it suffice to reply that they received, without a single exception, compensations that in the meantime more than filled up the measure of their desires. Each Old Testament saint was assured by some sign or other that he had become acceptable to God. Their comparative ignorance and detachment did not bar them from the possession of this precious rudimentary grace. These religious heroes, upon whom the seal of God’ s clear approval and acceptance was set, did not belong to great devotional and educating fellowships. They lived apart. In the brain of many a Bedouin sheik, who canters across the desert-sand to-day, you might find a more elaborate theology than in some of these patriarchs. If we, with our modern wealth of learning and abstract divinity and scientific illustration, could have conversed with Abraham or Isaac or Jacob, we should probably have been repelled by the crudeness of their views. Their expectation of the Deliverer had more in it that was akin to inspired instinct than reason. But they were entirely loyal to its leading, and God sealed their faith. In the absence of the fully accomplished promise, a witness of some sort was vital to their sustained fidelity. The God who had called them to His service could not well leave them destitute of it. He could not prove Himself an Egyptian taskmaster, and command His servants to form characters fit to be built into the universal temple, without granting one of the first requisites for the strengthening and consolidation of character, the sense of His favour and acceptance. It was through this assurance that the first believers became capable of an ever-growing fidelity. And then God could not leave an unnecessary burden on the conscience of His people. No organ or faculty of a man’ s nature can compare with conscience in its sensitiveness. To deny conscience the rightful assaugement of its pain would be a barbarity akin to torture. Whatever disabilities and tribulations might be laid upon the fathers of the Jewish Church, they were brought at least into the light of God’ s unshadowed favour. They lived in that light, and the light was not quenched when they passed away. II. THE GIFTS OF THE ARE TO MEN IN THEIR MUTUAL . “ That they without us should not be made perfect.” The world’ s gray fathers and the youngest child in the latest term of time must be glorified together. The firstborn cannot outrun or anticipate the last. The life of nature is social, and its different parts are perfected together. God does not fashion isolated orbs to shine in solitary splendour. He kindles systems and galaxies and constellations. In all parts of nature there is community of development, fellowship of life and ecstacy. The rapture of one type of life is timed to the ripeness of another. The skylark carols over the springing corn. The nightingale pours its liquid love-plaint into the red heart of the rose. There is a co-perfecting of all the kingdoms of life. God seems to delight in the magnificence of aggregate effects. And is it not so also in the spiritual world? Not till the golden chime is heard that proclaims the approach of God’ s ripe summer will the life of all the separate ages receive its highest glory and development. We are only in solitary training for the anthems that will usher in the coronation of our common humanity. True music will never be heard till the blended song of Moses and the Lamb awes the listening spheres. The higher you ascend in the scale of life, the more pronounced is this principle of interdependence. The whole of humanity is, after all, one organism. It is very significantly described as “ one body” . The description is almost as true if looked at from the commercial or political as if viewed from the religious standpoint. Humanity is being slowly bound into an economic whole. With the setting up of the new dispensation some new effusion of light and knowledge and spiritual victory has come to the Old Testament saints in the region of the unseen. The basis of faith must be laid in life; but faith can increase in ever-expanding progression after life has ceased. In respect to all these, of whom it is said they have received together with us the better things of the promise, the basis of faith was well laid in life. They through their faith had received, without exception, some sign of God’ s approval. And now, in ways unknown to us, they have entered into the fulness of the promises desired and waited for by kings and righteous men of old. In what way were the believing dead spiritually perfected, and made to enter into the fulness of the promise through Christ’ s manifestation amongst men? They were perfected in knowledge, in conscience, and in character. By that blood of sprinkling to which they came in common with their fellow-believers in the flesh, they learned that the forgiveness of sin was no piece of unthinking indulgence on the part of the Judge of all the earth; they came to recognise a higher significance in sanctity, and to feel their obligations of worship and service measured by a higher ideal of sacrificial love and unselfishness. Besides the richer effusion of joy that came to the first generation of God’ s servants through the work of God’ s incarnate Son, their joy is further perfected with the progressive perfecting of human history. The first promise to Abraham looked forward to the blessedness of all nations through his seed. The promise is not fully brought to pass, nor is the large hope of the father of the faithful fulfilled till that has been accomplished. The highest victories of the Church in heaven are only consummated by the victories of the Church on earth. We shall miss nothing by dying. The sunshine will come to us in the far-off land. We shall not be cut off from the supreme triumph. Just as the air of the polar and the equatorial regions is ever changing places and bringing about fresh and tempered atmospheres essential to all life, so between the different epochs of the human race there are grand and consolatory equalisations always going on. The perfecting will be common. Abraham and David and Daniel waited for us, and we in our turn shall wait for others. The perfecting is common for the Church of all ages. Within certain limits we hold in our hands the blessedness of God’ s servants of olden times, and we work in trust for the dead. Others will one day work in trust for us. There will be no supreme perfecting till the saved whole is brought in. The text suggests that there is a larger fulfilment of the covenant in the last great day, for which the spirits of the old and the new dispensation must alike wait. Before the crowning touch can be put on our destinies we must needs tarry till the most distant heir of the promises and the latest born of all God’ s sons has come into the horizon. God treated the race as a unity in Adam, He treated it as a unity in Christ, and He will treat it yet again as a unity in the consummation of all things. It is said that sometimes swallows arrive on our eastern coasts before the winter has quite passed away, and the great tide of migration set in. These stray birds have been observed to gather together and fly south, probably to the coast of Spain, for a few days or weeks, till the spring temperature has come, and the carnival of vernal life has begun to quiver in the air. They have had to turn aside to balmier climbs for a little space and await the coming of the rest. So with the saints and prophets and martyrs of the earlier ages. They have passed into the unseen before God’ s summer sun has begun to shine upon the universe. In some sphere of temporary rest and blessedness, in a more genial land than this, their spirits are refreshed, and they await the completed number of the elect. The rearguard and the vanguard, the sowers and the reapers, the fathers and the children. The quick and the dead, will be gathered into one common circle to share the matchless manifestations of the great day of God. The splendour to which the latest ages have come will flow back into the earliest. The last perfecting benediction will not alight upon us in our isolation, but as members of a countless assembly. The lowliest believer of the coming ages will not be shut out from the consummated bliss and triumph. All parts of humanity, all races, all generations, possibly all hidden worlds of the unknown universe, will be closely and significantly interdependent in their final blessedness. The fact that God should have determined to perfect the men of all ages together shows how much He thinks of those great principles of mutual association and fellowship which we sometimes esteem so little. He shows honour to those lowly disciples and followers of His Son whom we do not sufficiently honour. He will not crown them apart. Their services have been obscure, their prayers secret, but their recompense shall be in presence of all worlds and all generations. Be prompt to recognise God’ s law of community. He will put supreme honour upon that law by blessing and glorifying at His appearing all members of the saved humanity together. God will not honour those who set aside that law. In helping our brethren we are helping ourselves. Their progress and perfecting is necessary to ours. God seems to be teaching us in this way the humility which can be best learned and exercised through fellowship. It is a check to our pride to be reminded that we can only be crowned in common with the rest. We cannot be crowned alone. The honour would be too high for us to safely sustain. It might imperil the balance of our moral life. And then by perfecting His servants together God seems to remind us of the graciousness and beauty of patience. Disembodied saints of the olden time are waiting for us, and we shall have to wait for them. They had their blessed compensations here, and receive yet better compensations in the presence of their redeeming Lord; but they still wait till the last convert from savagery has been won, the last backsliding disciple reclaimed, the last weak and inconsistent servant of God strengthened and sanctified. They are in the van of the pilgrimage, but they have learnt so much of the gentleness and patience of Christ, that they wait about the fountains of life for the fading of the world’ s last twilight and the coming up of the last straggler in the far-off rearguard. Do not let us think ourselves isolated pilgrims or travellers. We belong to the sacramental host. Let us watch against selfish hurry and impatience. We shall have to await the weakest for our final blessedness. Let us wait for them with more Christlike patience here, and help them along the pilgrim path. And then God has ordained that the perfecting of our destinies shall be in common, because He wishes to set forth His grace and power upon a scale of incomparable magnificence. How splendid the perfecting for which the holy spirits of so many epochs wait! How sublime the destiny into whose effulgence all elect souls shall be together gathered! (T. G. Selby.) The interdependence of all saints The apostle had been speaking of the saints of the Old Testament. He had been building the triumphal arch of Old Testament history. The names of the world’ s spiritual conquerors are written there, But at the close of this triumphal commemoration you cannot fail to notice the unexpected turn of the text. The conclusion towards which this whole chapter of faith’ s heroism seems to move would be an ascription of our indebtedness to these valiant servants of the Lord who “ have made it a world for us.” Without them, the writer of this sacred history would naturally have said, Without them we are not made perfect. But instead he said, “ That apart from us they should not be made perfect.” We hardly transcend the text, we do but follow the inspired Word out to its larger revelation, when we say, Each Christian generation is necessary to all before; the last saint belongs in some measure to the first; the better thing of each age is for all who have lived and died; not only is it true that we inherit the lives of the saints, but they are to inherit ours; we are for them as well as they for us; neither they nor we are to be made perfect apart; the last century of human history shall crown all the centuries; the consummation of the world is the perfection together of all the saints. This is hardly our customary thought of the saints. We think of them as passed beyond all participation in this world’ s history, withdrawn from its trials and having no concern henceforth in its warfare and victories; made perfect in their own pure hearts, and their lives elsewhere no more bound up with this world’ s destiny. We remember with grateful love what they had been to us in the years gone by; we remind one another in our public places of our common inheritance in the lives of good men; we build monuments to the memory of the brave who died for their country; we draw inspiration for youth front the illumined historic page, and the spirit of the martyrs blends still with all sacrifice of love. But while we remember these worthy and sainted ones, we should not forget that we too are to be for them, as they have been for us. If you contemplate, for example, any sacred character from the Old Testament, you will observe that such character is never held apart either from the men of God who went before it, or from the servants of the Lord who are to follow after it. Each of these characters is put in the Bible into relation with all before and all after it--as a link in a chain; all personages that carry on God’ s gracious revelation, are as links in one continuous chain--and both ends of this unbroken chain of sacred history, running through the ages, with its many links of lives interlocked in one purpose of redemption, are bound to the throne of God, the beginning of it by the first Divine act of creation, and the final end of all in the glory of the Son of Man at the right hand of the majesty on high. The interdependence of all saints, the living and the dead, and those who are to be, appears in certain events in the life of Christ, and may be inferred also from certain inspired hints in the apostolic writings. It is clear from the narrative of the transfiguration, that Moses and Elias had not been cut off by death from personal interest and anticipation in the progress of God’ s kingdom on earth. What was done here upon a place called Golgotha, was to be done for them also there in that place called Paradise. And it is deeply significant and suggestive that the apostle Peter who was one of the two to witness this revealed intimacy of the saints of the old and the new, and to see upon the Holy Mount this close contiguity of two worlds, is the same apostle who has dropped in his epistle quite incidentally, and as a matter of course, that word concerning Christ’ s preaching to the spirits in prison, and again concerning the preaching to those that are dead. The Lord’ s life here, and the life of the dead there, were and are correlated; the history of the two spheres, the realm of the dead, and the kingdom of God on earth, were and are in some way ,connected and parallel histories; the two lands are contiguous, and one Lord passes back and forth across their boundary-line, to-day in the body, to-morrow in the spirit, and the third day risen again, and seen by the disciples; and He has the same administration of perfect justice and grace in both worlds. There is hardly anything more contrary to Scripture than is our common exaggeration of the importance of death. Do we not remember how Jesus seemed always to be putting death into the background as a very secondary and even incidental thing in the history of a soul which has attained the true, the eternal life? He minimized death when He called it a sleep. We magnify it when we call it destiny. The apostles, catching Jesus’ diviner tone, called sin death, and love life. Death in the apostolic speech was turned into a metaphor; it served to illustrate something far greater and more important than itself. Conversion to them was the great change; to die may be the greatest event which can happen to a man; but to die is one of the least important things which a man does; to repent of sin, to surrender to God, to live unto Christ--this is the great thing for a man to do. We think of death as a vast gulf between friends; as a great barrier between hearts that would go on loving and being loved for ever; as a wall of adamant suddenly reared by a Divine decree between mother and child, husband and wife; and with the years the great silence widens between men and women who were friends. But when one who had been taught of Jesus had occasion to refer to death, he thinks not of chasm or adamantine wall, but of the veil of the temple--the mere veil between the holy, and the holiest place. “ And this hope,” he said, “ enters within the veil.” Does it not revive us like a breath of the Spirit to know this truth of All Saints’ day, that we all shall be made perfect together, and none apart; that in God’ s plan our lives and theirs, whom for a little while we do not see, have been interwoven, and still run on interweaving their threads and colours; that still we are living for them, and they for us in the one kingdom of our Lord; that they in their rest, or in their new activities, are resting, or are ministering, not apart from us, as we in our toils and in our dreams still are living and still are loving not without them; that whatever in higher spheres is transpiring in their lives has also its worth yet to be revealed for us, as our thought and love may have growing worth for them; that whether in some silence in Divine light round about them they are becoming holy and radiant with perfect love in their own pure hearts, or whether along some way of God they are now made strong to run with some glad tidings, or whether with the Lord Christ they be permitted with their dear hands to give some added grace and human, homelike touch to the places in His many mansions which He has gone to prepare for us--still, still, they think, they fly, they rest, they love, not apart from us, and in them and their large happiness the great God thinks also of us; that without us they may not be made perfect in that final unspeakable perfection of all the saints in the last day. And we too--herein is a comfort which we must not suffer any man to take from us--we also are living for them; as the early Church before its Latin corruption did not hesitate in its childlike faith to express in its prayers for the sainted dead this most Christian sense of the mutuality of the believers’ lives both here and there. We also are living for our fathers, for our friends who have passed before us, for all the saints, if indeed we are living truly and unselfishly; if we are ripening for their companionships, and becoming strong and pure for celestial thoughts and deeds in the ages of ages. Another lesson from this truth of All Saints’ day lies close at hand. I shall have spoken in vain if you do not perceive once more the truth that to be a Christian and to be saved is not merely to become perfect for one’ s self, and to carry off a crown of glory at the judgment day. It is rather to come to the end of self, and to begin to be a member of a blessed society of spirits. No man is to be saved apart from all the saints. God’ s law of salvation is a social law, the law of a redeemed society. The social life of the Church, therefore, the social unity of the Church, is not an adjunct or accessory of the Divine constitution of the Church; it is an element of the Divine idea of the Church; it belongs to its essential Christianity. And hence it follows that churches are not revived, and do not grow, if this Divine idea of the covenant of believers and the household of faith, is lost sight of, or practically ignored. Once more, let the lesson come home to us from what I have been trying to say, that individually we cannot grow in grace apart from all saints. There is a beautiful Scripture, the most important clause of which we are too apt to hurry over as we read it: “ That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth.” The condition of knowledge of the love of Christ is that we find it and share it with all saints. Yet this is just what many of us sometimes are not willing to do. We would know the love of Christ with our favourite saints. With all saints, said Paul. It was Paul, to whom were given personal revelation above measure, who felt the need of learning the love of Christ with all the saints, those unknown saints, those humble saints, those poor saints, untaught, unlearned, are to be your fellow-helpers to the truth. There are faces among them--I have seen some such--in whose light we may learn more of the secret of the Lord than from any books. Oh, when will we understand that our Christ is the universal Christ? (Newman Smyth, D. D.) The one true Church 1. There appears to be little doubt, that the persons here spoken of are the Old Testament believers--all of them, not only those mentioned by name in this chapter, but those whose history is more comprehensively alluded to. “ These all, having obtained a good report through faith.” True religion was always the same, in every age of the world--that is to say, in the substance and vital saving truth of it--however the outward expressions of it may have varied, 2. But now consider, in the next place, what the apostle says concerning these men. He says that they “ obtained a good report through faith” ; they were well witnessed of, in consequence of the life they led, and that life was a consequence of their faith. The same vital principle which enabled them to rest implicitly on the Word of God, and thereby to be justified in His sight, enabled them also to overcome the world. It rose superior to the attractions and solicitations of sense, to let their light shine before men, so that all could see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven. By faith they were enabled to refuse every inducement which would have driven them off from obedience to their God. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 12:1-2 Compassed about with so great a cloud Great men: The witnesses that God has set before the eyes of men are twofold, the witness of greatness and the witness of goodness, the witness of the hero and the witness of the saint. To name these two together is at once to put the one far above the other. Without any argument we feel at once that the hero and the saint belong to different spheres, the hero to nature, the saint to religion; the hero to the earth, the saint to heaven if we examine what sort of a man we call great, we shall always find that it is one who leads his fellow-men. We do not call a man great simply for cleverness, nor for worldly success, the fruit of cleverness. Nor, again, do we call a man great for exceeding goodness, if he have nothing in him which makes that goodness a guide, and not merely a reverenced wonder to his fellows. A great man is he who stands out from others, not for some accidental difference, but for something which makes others follow his lead, acknowledge his power, accept his teachings, admire his course. Such a man will be sure to be marked with these characteristics; he will have a large mind, a strong conviction, and a firm will. 1. He must have a large mind to take in, and feel in full force the truths or the impulses which are dimly and dumbly moving in the minds of his fellow-men. This is the necessary condition of his being able to take the lead. In the great man all that is narrow and confined to himself is overpowered by what is large, what is shared and felt by thousands beside. He has room in his heart for many interests, for many impulses, for many aims; and he has that within him that shall comprehend and reconcile them all into one great purpose. 2. To this large soul he must add deep convictions. For he will be sure to meet with such obstacles as none but leaders ever meet. He will be aiming at that which is to last for centuries; but he will find straight in his path the passing passions of the day, roused to fiercer enmity by their own shallowness. Even when he is following the deep current, which none but himself is deep enough to feel, he will be stemming all the shallower currents which bear on their surface those that are living in his day. Hence it often happens that as long as he lives he sees no signs of success. He works his work; he sows his seed; but he never sees the harvest. What shall carry a man through all this? Nothing but faith. Be the great man a good man or a bad; be he like Elijah, a prophet and a faithful servant; or be he like Balaam, a prophet and a traitor, nothing can carry him through what he must often encounter but a deep conviction of the truth by which he lives; that truth, whatever it may be, of which he is the messenger. 3. The great man will need, besides a large heart and a deep conviction, a strong will. This is so indispensable a condition of greatness that we frequently fancy that strength of will is almost the whole of greatness, and are prone to admire that beyond all else that we see in a great man. And, indeed, if not the highest element in a great man’ s nature, it is yet the one which saves the others from downright degradation. What spectacle is more contemptible than clear knowledge combined with weakness? What character is more universally despised than that of a coward? So absolutely necessary is courage to all true service that we have been made by God with a natural admiration even of wicked courage, in order, no doubt, that we should learn early to put on a piece of armour which we cannot do without, and that even nature should assist us in the first element of our spiritual lesson. What is the crown that must be added to all these qualities to make the great man true to his own greatness? It is loyalty to his true Master. (Bp. Temple.) The cloud of witnesses I. THE . And what are the truths they bear witness to? 1. They bear witness to the fact that their confidence in God was not misplaced. A man may fail, but God never. 2. They bear witness to the sufficiency of Divine grace. They had no more natural goodness than we; but they overcame it all, and it was in the strength of the Lord they did so. 3. They bear witness to the faithfulness of God to His promises. II. THE APOSTLE’ S ADVICE. 1. We are to “ lay aside every weight.” I need scarce name particular things. In some it is vanity, in others worldliness, in others unlawful pleasure, in others a violent temper, others unholy attachments. It is, in fact, whatever deadens thy soul, and holds thee back when thou shouldest be pressing forward to the skies. 2. We are to renounce “ the sin that doth so easily beset us.” To “ beset,” means “ to surround,” and the sin that so easily besets us is that to which we are most liable. Very often, indeed mostly, it is that sin to which we were most given before our conversion: as when a breach is made in a wall, it is easier to effect another breach in that place, although it may be built up again, than where stone has never been dislodged. With different constitutions, and with different ages, there are different easily besetting sins. With youth it is often passion--evil desire. With age it is often fretfulness--peevishness. With the rich it is often pride and grasping of power; with the poor it is often repinings against providence. With the healthy it is often forgetfulness of God, and of their latter end; with the sick it is often rebellion against Him who lays on the rod. 3. We are also to “ run with patience the race set before us.” If a thing take us a long time in doing, we are inclined to be impatient about it. Or, if the word may be more properly translated,” perseverance.” Then, if a journey is long, we are generally inclined to grow weary and loiter by the way. But if the road is long and dusty, we are to be patient. If the trial is severe, we are to be patient, and not allow our souls to be agitated. Sometimes the blessing we expect may be delayed, but we are to be patient in waiting for it. Sometimes our persecutions may be fierce indeed, but we are to be patient whilst we endure them. This grace is like the rivet that binds all the machinery together. III. WE HAVE A EXAMPLE SET BEFORE US. “ Looking unto Jesus.” Christ endured the Cross, and He endured it patiently. (W. G.Pascoe.) Good men in both worlds I. THE GOOD THAT HAVE TO THE WORLD. 1. They live. 2. They live in vast number’ s. “ Cloud.” 3. They live as spectators of their surviving brethren on earth. “ Witnesses.” Though with the politics, commerce, and crafts of the world they have nothing to do, they are intensely alive to its spiritual interests and activities. II. THE GOOD THAT ARE STILL LIVING ON THE EARTH. 1. Their life is like a racecourse. They both have their limitation, rules, intense activity, speedy termination. 2. Their life, to realise its end, requires great attention. (1) There must be a divestment of all encumbrances. (2) There must be a freeing oneself from besetting sin. (3) There must be the exercise of great patience of soul in our efforts, 3. Their life should be salutarily influenced by the good who have departed. “ Wherefore, seeing,” etc. III. THE OF THE GOOD IN BOTH WORLDS. “ Looking unto Jesus,” dec. Christ is the chief example of human goodness. 1. He was pre-eminent as an example in the spirit that inspired Him. Self-oblivion. 2. Preeminent in the grandeur of soul with which He met unparalleled sufferings. 3. Pre-eminent in the exaltation which He ultimately met. (Homilist.) Immortality I. To any thoughtful and aspiring person, sensitive to fine influences, desirous of mental and moral advancement, eager for opportunities for culture or for usefulness, THERE IS ALWAYS A SENSE OF IN FEELING HIMSELF WITH A VARIOUS, , WIDELY-, SOCIAL SYSTEM. It impels naturally to larger effort, gives expansiveness to the whole plan of life, furnishes incentives to nobler personal aspiration and hope. It dignifies, instead of dwarfing, the individual personality. It widens the whole horizon of thought and expectation, and makes one more sensible of both the responsibility and the privilege of life. II. It is the privilege of the Christian to feel and know that he is associated NOT ONLY WITH SUCH ON EARTH, BUT WITH VAST AND AND PURE REALMS OF LIFE WHICH EYE HATH NOT YET SEEN, and of which there comes no whisper to us through the silent blue, yet with which our relations are already intimate, into which we are to pass at death, and in which we are to dwell thenceforth immortally. It cannot be said that there is a prophecy of this in human nature; but there is an instinct in human nature which prepares us for the reception of it when announced to us in the gospel. We can conceive of ourselves in any relation to others, imaginable--in any place on earth, in any position- but we cannot conceive of ourselves as non-existent. III. THE MORE CLEARLY WE THESE HIGHER REALMS OF LIFE, THE MORE DEEPLY WE FEEL OUR AND VITAL TO THEM, THE MORE WILL THEY, BY THE WHICH FALLS FROM THEM, ENRICH AND EXALT OUR DAILY LIFE. 1. For one thing they lessen the attraction of the world upon our minds and hearts. In our times this world seems to draw the spirit to itself, almost as the power of gravitation holds the body to the planet. Some months ago we had an ice storm. The gently descending rain froze as it fell, until it covered every tree and shrub with a raiment of brilliancy, as if it had been plaited in diamond and hung with diamond drops. It was superb to look upon, almost an apocalypse of natural beauty. Yet the very splendour broke the tree. The brilliant garniture overwhelmed that which was tender and vital in the shrub which it adorned. So it is with the great and splendid accumulations of wealth and the ornaments of pleasure that are so feverishly and anxiously sought. They destroy in us, often, by their very attainment, that which is finest and grandest in our spiritual nature. How shall we resist this encompassing influence? We cannot resist it by force of will; we might as well try to jump from the planet. We cannot extricate ourselves from the constant social influences which are around us, leading us to these results. We must somehow or other rise above it all. As long as we contemplate that into which we are to enter by and by, we are comparatively careless of that which is beneath. It ceases to make that masterful impression on our spirits which otherwise it had made, and which otherwise it must always make. 2. The contemplation of this superior life inspires, too, the noblest culture of character. As the sunshine of the morning lifts the mists, and reveal the landscape, and clothes it with a mantle of beauty, making the very rock burst into life and surround itself with verdure, so this influence from above, from the celestial realms which we have not reached, but toward which we are tending, and the gates of which Christ opens to us, disperses from the spirit what is malefic or obscure, and prints a new and vital beauty on it all. 3. This thought is also a vast incentive to the culture of power in us, of personal, moral, and intellectual power, for which there must be range in those circles of life which we are to join, if we are the disciples of the Divine Lord. IV. Here, then, you see at once THE OF THOUGHT, WHICH TENDS TO OBSCURE THIS VISION OF THE WORLD TO COME, and to make it signify a mere fancy, a mere dream of the world’ s youth, which, as the race goes on, will more and more be dissipated, as the tinted clouds of morning disappear when the sun rides higher and higher to the meridian. V. HERE IS THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. I do not find the most striking prophecies of the future life in any mere words of Scripture. I find them in the fact that He who had the power of miracle in His hands surrendered Himself to death, that afterward He might open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. There is the supreme glory of the celestial realms manifested to me by the agony of that death! The gospel is not simply a philosophy of religion, or a law of living. It is an apocalypse showing the heavens to us, and bringing thus its Divine benediction on every life. Here is the Divine mission of preaching; here is the beauty of every sacrament; here the glory of every Church. Here is the hidden meaning and blessedness which the thought of heaven brings in the events which seem most painful. So when our beloved friends pass from us; so when misfortunes come upon us; this thought of the higher life comes to cheer and comfort. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.) The Christian runner in relation to his spectators I. THE RUNNER IS AN OBJECT OF DEEP TO HIS . 1. The position of the spectators. They surround the Christian runner. 2. Their number. Vast. II. THE RUNNER SHOULD PUT FORTH GREAT EFFORTS BECAUSE OF HIS . 1. He should divest himself of every encumbrance. Ceremonialism, religious errors, business perplexities, fear of man, inveterate prejudices, sinful propensities. 2. He should avoid the sin to which he is most peculiarly prone. Pride, covetousness, intemperance, evil-speaking, anger. 3. He should maintain great self-possession. “ Run with patience.” III. THE RUNNER HAS AN OBJECT BEFORE HIM, FROM WHICH HIS SHOULD NOT BE by his spectators. “ Looking unto Jesus.” 1. The work of Jesus. 2. The history of Jesus. 3. The exaltation of Jesus. (Homilist.) The moral influence of departed saints: The North American Indians believed that when the flowers faded in the forest and prairie their beauty passed into the rainbow: thus our kindred and companions, the joy and pride of our homes and churches, fade away; but, lifting our eyes, we see our lost ones blossom forth again in the holier beauty of the rainbow about the throne. The text reminds us that these exalted ones exercise towards us a morally helpful influence. We are not to think of our exalted brethren as forming in the midst of heaven a brilliant cloud, admirable in the eye of imagination, yet exercising no real practical influence over the earth; but as a cloud full of mystic rain and dew, imparting life and beauty to those who dwell on the earth. Our beatified friends become our moral helpers. I. BY OUR FROM THIS TO THE ETERNAL WORLD. As the dove sent from the ark, returning no more, reminded Noah that a new world was blooming for him; so these departed ones who return no more, daily and powerfully remind us that another and brighter world is blooming for us beyond death’ s cold flood, and in earnest we prepare to leave this storm-tossed ark. The “ cloud of witnesses” cause us to look above the dust; gazing after their departing forms we find ourselves standing face to face with eternity, and thus acquire the seriousness, spirituality, and strength of the Christian character. II. BY THE CHARM OF THE WORLD. The departed saints humanise heaven, interpret it, render it more fascinating. It is true that the grand charm of the skies is the vision and fellowship of the glorious God, yet it is not less true that every saint who passes into paradise invests it with a fresh and powerful influence. Each crowned friend makes us understand heaven better, makes us prize it the more, makes us strive more ardently to reach its bright and wealthy plains. III. BY OUR SENSE OF SELF-RESPECT. Our departed ones are no longer before us in weariness and humiliation, but crowned with inconceivable and unfading splendours; and as we gaze upon them a new conception of our spiritual capacity takes possession of us--we feel that we belong to a race of conquerors and kings. It is said that the Kohei-noor diamond is only half its original size, the other half being in a distant country, where it was found in the possession of some one who used it as a common flint. Thus our churches, our families, are broken into two parts; one portion being exulted to the palace of the skies, the other fragment remaining in this lower realm, and used to ends apparently most commonplace and servile; yet we cannot contemplate the broken jewel, shining in the palace of the King, without thinking more highly of this other portion below, and watching it with intenser care lest its beauty should be dimmed, or its preciousness impaired, or its safety imperilled. Our celestial kinsmen minister to us, for they exalt our conception of the nature we possess, of the inheritance to which we are destined. IV. BY GIVING US THE SENSE OF AN ABIDING SACRED . The Jewish legend relates that Joseph was saved by the spirit of his mother, when he was tempted to sin in the ]and of Egypt. This legend is founded in the truth that the powerful and blessed memory of our dead is a preservative against sin, a strengthening to virtue. And this is the precise idea of Paul in our text. “ We are surrounded,” says he to his Hebrew brethren, “ by a great cloud of heroes; let us, under the eyes of these pure, noble, valiant spirits, act a worthy part; let us labour to be as pure, noble, valiant as they were.” Thus again are the glorified ones our helpers; these beatified spectators put upon us a sweet constraint to walk as they also walked, so that we may triumph as they also triumphed. V. BY THE OF THEIR . Altered in many respects, the glorified saints have still the same hearts, and profoundly sympathise with us in all our upward struggles. The “ cloud “ about us is composed not of cold and curious spectators, but of warm and interested friends. Is not this fact a blessed help to us? The transfigured ones beckon us onward! upward! and the knowledge of this sympathy is to us in the day of tribulation a fountain of strength. VI. BY OUR HOPE AND COURAGE. Again and again Satan almost paralyses us with his lofty vaunts of the might and majesty of evil. Sin rises before us so strong, so subtle, so mysterious and awful, that we are almost ready to surrender at discretion. The evil of our nature, the evil of the universe, seems well-nigh omnipotent. How fatal is this idea to our spiritual life! Nothing shatters this destructive imagination more than the triumphant death and exaltation of the saints. To see our brother on the crystal walls I our sister crowned with amaranth! our friends with the palm and diadem! how this reassures us! We feel that Satan is not omnipotent, that sin is not invincible, that suffering is not unconquerable. (W. L.Watkinson.) Lay aside every weight Weights and sins: There is a regular series of thoughts in this clause, and in the one or two which follow it. If we would run well, we must run light; if we would run light, we must look to Christ. The central injunction is, “ Let us run with patience” ; the only way of doing that is the “ laying aside all weights and sins” ; and the only way of laying aside the weights and sins is, “ looking unto Jesus.” Of course, the apostle does not mean some one special kind of transgression when he says, “ the sin which doth so easily beset us.” He is speaking about sin generically--all manner of transgression. It is not, as we sometimes hear the words misquoted, “ that sin which doth most easily beset us.” All sin is according to this passage a besetting sin. I. THERE ARE WHICH ARE NOT SINS. Sin is that which, by its very nature, in all circumstances, by whomsoever done, without regard to consequences, is a transgression of God’ s law. A “ weight” is that which, allowable in itself, perhaps a blessing, the exercise of a power which God has given us--is, for some reason, a hindrance in our running the heavenly race. The one word describes the action or habit by its inmost essence, the other describes it by its accidental consequences. Then, what are these weights? The first step in the answer to that question is to be taken by remembering that, according to the image of this text, we carry them about with us, and we are to put them away from ourselves. It is fair to say, then, that the whole class of weights are not so much external circumstances which may be turned to evil, as the feelings and habits of mind by which we abuse God’ s great gifts and mercies, and turn that which was ordained to be for life into death. The renunciation that is spoken about is not so much the putting away from ourselves of certain things lying round about us that may become temptations, as the putting away of the dispositions within us which make these things temptations. It is an awful and mysterious power that which we all possess, of perverting the highest endowments, whether of soul or of circumstances, which God has given us, into the occasions for falling back in the Divine life. Just as men, by devilish ingenuity, can distil poison out of God’ s fairest flowers, so we can do with everything that we have. II. And now, if this be the explanation of what the apostle means by “ weights” --legitimate things that hinder us in our course towards God--there comes this second consideration, IF WE WOULD RUN, WE MOST LAY THESE ASIDE. There are two ways by which this injunction of my text may be obeyed. The one is, by getting so strong that the thing shall not be a weight, though we carry it; and the other is, that feeling ourselves to be weak, we take the prudent course of putting it utterly aside. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Weights I. THE “ WEIGHTS” --what are they? 1. The “ weight” of unforgiven sin. How that hinders many. You have offended a father or teacher or friend--you have been guilty of disobedience or untruthfulness or dishonesty. How heavy it is! What a weight it is! If it has not been found out it lies like lead on your heart. How it hinders you in everything you put your hands to! Or the fault has been discovered, and you are in disgrace. Your dearest friends are displeased. You feel as if there were a great gulf between you and them. You are unhappy. You cannot get on with anything. You are just like one weighed down under a heavy burden. Whether it is work or play, company or solitude, there is a weight dragging you down in all. Now if it is so with sin as committed against man, what shall we say of sin as committed against God! How different your life would be if your sin were all forgiven; how different your worship would be; how different your work would be! 2. The “ weight “ of unsubdued sin. 1 shall try to explain what I mean by this. I shall suppose we are setting out on a long voyage. We have storms and contrary winds to contend with, and sometimes icebergs and dangerous rocks and opposing currents. But we have what is even worse than these. Some of the ship’ s crew are mutinous. They will not obey orders. They try to set the other sailors up against the captain. They damage the ship’ s machinery. They reverse the engines. They put out the fires. They do everything they can to provoke and hinder. And the consequence is, the ship’ s progress is seriously interfered with. Sometimes she comes to a stand altogether. In any case the voyage is slow and uncomfortable, as compared with what it should have been. At times it seems as if all on board must go to the bottom. Now what is wanted is, that the mutineers should be subdued--changed into obedient and right-hearted seamen, or put in irons and kept from doing harm. So long as they are unsubdued they are a “ weight” that seriously hinders. Now, is there no “ weight,” no hindrance of this kind with you? Is there no stubborn will that disobeys, and must needs be broken if things are to get on at all? What of your temper that bursts into passion on the slightest provocation, and in words or looks or actions gets outlet to itself, in a way that may well alarm? What of your pride and vanity? What of your selfishness, that disregards others and is always seeking your own gratification and pleasure? What of secret sins which you try to conceal, but which are always growing stronger, and if unsubdued will go on as they are doing, burning like a fire within, and eating out your very heart and soul? So long as these have the power which they have now, every now and then getting the better of you, your life can neither be happy nor good. 3. The “ weight” of evil habits. I do not refer so much here to single acts that are out and out bad and sinful. I refer more to things that may seem so far harmless at the beginning, but are apt to be repeated and to grow upon one, till they become habits, and rule him and hold him in chains. There is, for instance, the habit of procrastination--of putting off, instead of doing a thing at once. That grows terribly upon one, and becomes a hindrance of a very serious kind. There is the habit of drinking. There is the habit of idle and unprofitable reading, not to speak of what is positively bad. It consumes precious time, it takes away relish for prayer and for the Bible and all solid reading, it excites without doing any good, it takes away the heart from God. There is the habit of keeping company with unprofitable companions. 4. The last “ weight” I shall mention is that of care. Perhaps this may seem not very much in your way, and more for your fathers and mothers. And yet I know even young hearts have their care--about lessons, and work otherwise, often not knowing what to do--with sorrows which are sometimes heavy and bitter enough. I am sure there are none of you who do not know something about these “ weights,” and could tell how they hinder you in what is good. They will have much to do in making you the men and women that you shall be. And hence the great importance of looking at the matter, and that at once. II. WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH THE WEIGHTS? Our text says they are to be “ laid aside” --put off--cast away. Now the question is, how is this to be done? and to this question I have various answers to give. 1. By coming to Christ. The first “ weight” to be got quit of is that of unforgiven sin, and like “ Christian’ s” burden, that can only be got rid of at the Cross. 2. By drawing power from Christ. It is just like a man with all the resources of the bank at his call. He can have no fear of wanting anything. Christ has all that any of us can need, and He has it for us. Faith is just leaning upon Christ--looking to Christ--drawing upon Christ for everything. 3. By prayer. When we feel our own weakness, what can we do but cry to the Strong for strength? 4. By effort. We have the battle to fight, not in our own strength, but in the strength which Jesus gives. Now I wish to call special attention before closing to this--that we are to lay aside every weight. There is to be no sparing. Everything that hinders must go. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.) Spiritual weights: Spiritual weights are of many descriptions. They may originate in the very senses. Life in the world, in the enjoyment of good things, in the pursuit of wealth and position, may grow to such unwieldy proportions that the Christian conscience has enough to do to vitalise the mass, and cannot energise it to a race. Then the play of the ordinary human affections and social human instincts is allowed such preponderance, that the man becomes gregarious, has so absorbed the opinions and prejudices and criticisms of his circle, that swift, decisive, forward motion is impossible. He lies, like a great hulk in the wash of worldly opinion, without helm or sail. Big, human-hearted he may be, but power of initiative or incentive has he none. But some will add to their faith, tradition. They must keep on with usages which had been put away--aye, and add mere ordinances of men. And now, clogged in every organ of the soul, they are ready to give up in despair. The superinduced mass of ceremonial, imparting no strength, is closing round the vitals of living faith and hindering its every movement. But in addition to habits of mind and life hindering men from spiritual progress, there are weights imposed by men on themselves, which hinder advance and enfeeble the soul. They have their money in so many ventures, they are pursuing at one time so many schemes, or they are so engrossed in the one or two to which they have given themselves up, that they have little or no time for serious thought. Yea, they cannot shift their thoughts out of the worldly rut when they have time. They must have distraction, pleasure, society, travel, to relieve the jaded mind. And it is not merely in business that men put on weights. Some live in a whirl of social engagements, others to exalt their sense of self-importance, or from nobler motives heap on public engagements; yea, not a few in this our time are crowding on the back of every day so many spiritual or religious engagements that the life of God in them is weighted in its advance. They are dwindling under the pressure, or, at all events, they are not growing in life and thought and will as they might grow. What are we to do? Throw all our engagements away? By no means. Steam would be a useless thing if it were not generated within an engine. It is by working on through the engine’ s means that it becomes a power. And so the life of grace needs an environment of work and service through which to reveal its power. It must be embodied in deeds, and there is no lawful sphere in which grace may not shine. What I say is, that you may overload your engine and that you may overweight your grace. What is holding you down and keeping you back? Are you doing futile and unnecessary things--that is, things which, though innocent, are merely for self, apart from Christ? You cannot be wrong in putting them away. Are you doing too many things, so that you are distracted, and thus retarded? Remember that you are running the race of perfection, seeking entire likeness to Christ, and your very work will come to suffer if this religious dissipation go on. Rearrange, economise, lay aside every weight. (John Smith, M. A.) The sin which cloth so easily beset us The besetting sin 1. We have to strive against the whole body of sin, everything which is against the holy will of God, “ every evil inclination, all iniquity and profaneness, neglect and haughtiness, strife and wrath, passion and corruption, indolence and fraud, every evil motion, every impure thought, every base desire, every unseemly thought.” 2. We have all, probably, some one besetting fault, which is our own special hindrance. Both of these we must learn by looking into ourselves. They vary in all. No two persons have exactly the same temptations, as no two minds are exactly alike. And so we ought not to judge of others, nor can we judge of ourselves by them. We must look into ourselves. We have, then, these two searches into ourselves to make: one into every part of ourselves; the other into that part of ourselves which is the weakest, and through which we most often fall. Of these, holy men recommend that we should begin with our besetting fault. For this there are many reasons. It lies, most likely, at the root of many other faults. It burrows under ground, as it were, and comes up at a distance, where we look not for it. It branches out into other faults; it twines round and kills some grace; it hides itself behind other faults or virtues; it puts itself forth in the midst of them. It colours every other fault; it interferes with, or overshadows or overlays every grace. But the more this one fault spreads, the more, if you uproot it, you will clear of the field of your conscience, the more will your heart become the good ground, which, freed from thorns, shall bear fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold, to life everlasting. Thou hast, then, great reason to be most watchful to uproot thy besetting sin, because 1. It is the root of other sins, gives occasion to them, makes them as bad as they are, makes acts which would have no sin to be sinful, because they have this sin in them. And so, while thy besetting sin reigns in thy soul, it is the parent of many other sins; when it is destroyed many others die with it. 2. It is the sin which has most hold of thy mind, and so it is the cause why thou most often offendest God. It comes to thee oftenest, tempts thee most strongly, and where thou art the weakest and yieldest the most readily. It is called the besetting sin, because it continually besets thee--that is, it is always about thee, always on the watch for thee. It entangles thee at every step. More of a man’ s sins are done through his besetting sin than through all besides. It becomes his companion. He becomes so inured to it that he does not think of it as sin, or justifies it, or, at least, pleads to himself that his nature is weak and that he cannot help it. Nature is weak; but grace is strong, yea, almighty. 3. Then, too, it is the occasion of a man’ s worst sins, because a man yields his mind most to it, goes along with it, does it with pleasure. All sin is, to choose something else rather than God. But to choose a thing eagerly, with zest, taking delight in it against the wise love of God, this is the deadliest form of sin. 4. Then it will most likely be that, when not tempted in act, a man will be tempted to the thought of his besetting sin, both before and after. And so he acts his sin over again in thought, when he cannot in deed. Thus he may multiply his sin beyond all power of thought. Such, then, are grounds from the nature of the besetting sin itself, why thou shouldest earnestly and specially strive against it. It is thy deadliest enemy; that which most keeps thee from God, if unhappily thou art separated from Him; if not, still it is that which most offends Him, which hinders His love from flowing to thee and filling thee, which hinders thee from loving Him with thy whole heart. But then for thyself, too, it is thus that thou wilt have most courage to fight. It has been, no doubt, discouraging at some time to most of us that we could not become good all at once. Our garden, which we were to make clean, seemed full of weeds. They seemed to spring up fresh every day; how could we clean it? And so the weeds of our sins grew, as they would, left to themselves, with more luxuriant, foul rankness. It is said that one who thought thus, dreamed that He who had given him his garden to cleanse, came to him and asked him what he was doing. He said, “ I lost all hope of cleaning my garden, so I laid down to sleep.” His Good Father said to him, “ Clean every day as much as thou coverest, where thou art lying, and all will be in time cleaned.” So God speaks to us. “ Set about some one thing for Me; set thyself to get rid of some one sin for love of Me, to become in one thing more pleasing to Me, and I will be with thee; I will give thee victory in this; I will lead thee on from victory to victory, from strength to strength; thou shalt run and not be weary; thou shalt walk, and not be faint.’” By the same strength by which thou prevailest over thy first enemy, thou shalt prevail over the rest. IN human warfare, those who fight are tired even by their victory; in Divine warfare, they are strengthened. For they fight not in human weakness, but in Divine strength; and “ My strength,” He says, “ is made perfect in weakness.” There is another good in fighting against thy besetting sin. Thou art gathered upon one point. Thou art striving with thy whole heart to please God in that point; thou wilt be asking for and using God’ s grace for this. But therewith, secretly, thou wilt be transformed thyself. In learning to subdue one sin, thou wilt have been learning how, in time, to subdue all. Thou wilt have learnt the wiles of the enemy, the weakness of thy own heart, the force of outward temptations, the need to avoid, if thou canst, the outward occasion, but, in any case, the necessity of resisting in the first moment of assault. Thou wilt know, for thyself, the might which God gives thee when thou so resistest, the power of instant prayer. Thou wilt have felt the peril of tampering with sin, the value of watchfulness, the danger of security after thou hast conquered. Thou wilt have tasted the blessedness of gathering up thy whole mind to serve God, and giving thyself to Him morning by morning, to please Him in this, and not to displease Him. Thou wilt have known, in thine own soul, the value of obeying at once any suggestions which, by His Holy Spirit or in thy conscience, He giveth thee to avoid this or do that. (E. B.Pusey, D. D.) Causes of propensity to peculiar vices I. THE CAUSES OF OUR BIAS OR TO SOME VICE. 1. A propensity to particular sins may be complexional, derived from constitutional frame and temperament. Men are born with different propensities to pleasure, avarice, ambition, resentment, malice, envy, or the like. They may, indeed, by various methods be cultivated, and acquire vigour; but the seeds of them seem to be natural to the soil, and, in proportion to our neglect of them become still more difficult to be extirpated. 2. Another occasion of propensity to particular vices is, the power of custom or habit; which is commonly reputed a second nature, a kind of new nature ingrafted upon the former; and is often, in its influence and effects, not much inferior to it. It is to this principle, e.g., not to nature, that we may ascribe the vice of intemperance. Nature approves moderation; is disgusted and oppressed by excess. But custom leads men beyond the temperate limits marked out by nature into the extremes of intemperance; where, though nature denies them permanent pleasures, they form to themselves some that are fantastic, and subsist only in imagination. Another sin into which men are led by mere custom, and by nothing else, is the common practice of profaning the name of God. 3. Another occasion of a bias or inclination to some particular vice, may arise from our situation and condition of life. Every situation is exposed to some peculiar inconvenience; every condition of life to its own trials. Thus, affluence and poverty have each their respective inducements. And the same observation might be extended to the different periods of life, and to different professions and employments. II. THE ON US, OF TO CORRECT OR LAY IT ASIDE. The greater the propensity we feel in ourselves towards any culpable passion or failing, with the more care should we guard against it. It is in our power to maintain the authority of reason, to oppose the corruptions of our nature and the dominion of evil habits; to resist seducements from objects without, and temptations from passions within us. This is the proper work and business of religion: this the duty which God requires at our hands; and has therefore, undoubtedly, given us ability to perform. One great obstacle, indeed, to the correcting or guarding against the sin that most easily besets us, is the difficulty we often find in discovering and detecting it. Such likewise is the prepossession in our own favour, so flattering the glass that self-love holds before us, that this also prevents us from seeing our deformities, and marking the true features and complexion of the mind. Quick-sighted as we all are to the faults or foibles of others, we do not, or will not, with the same facility discern our own. Our passions are our apologists; they plead for our vices, and mislead our judgment. This may be a monition to us, to scrutinise with the strictest caution our own heart, to look well if there be any culpable inclination or passion lurking in it, that we may not be deceived by any flattering reports of our character made by self-partiality. To assist us in forming a Tight judgment of our conduct, and seeing it in a true light, the best method perhaps would be, to put ourselves as much as may be out of the question; to divest ourselves of all concern in it; and to suppose that we are passing judgment, not on ourselves, but on another person. (G. Carr, B.A.) The besetting sin I. THE SIN IS A REALITY IN . Every character has its weak points, just as every fort and every line of battle. II. THE SIN HAS VARIOUS OUTWARD FORMS. Just as some diseases in the human system manifest themselves at one place in one person, and at another place in another person, so sinfulness in the moral system comes to the surface at different points in different people. To one person the besetting sin may be uncleanness of imagination; to another, irritability of temper. It not infrequently happens that several forms of the besetting sin afflict the same person. In some form or another we all have a besetting sin; and it greatly interferes with both our happiness and our usefulness. III. THE SIN CAN BE . 1. Learn what our weak points are. 2. Pray every day for special help at the weak points. 3. Guard these points with special care. 4. Cultivate holiness in general. 5. There is great hope for those who are struggling for the mastery over besetting sins. (The Preachers’ Monthly.) A besetting sin dulls spiritual perception David Rittenhouse, of Pennsylvania, was a great astronomer. He was skilful in measuring the sizes of planets and determining the position of the stars. But he found that, such was the distance of the stars, a silk thread stretched across the glass of his telescope would entirely cover a star; and thus a silk fibre appeared to be larger in diameter than a star. Our sun is said to be 886,000 miles in diameter, and yet, seen from a distant star, could be covered, hidden behind a thread when that thread was stretched across the telescope. Just so we have seen some who never could behold the heavenly world. They always complained of dulness of vision when they looked in the heavenly direction. You might direct their eyes to the Star of Bethlehem through the telescope of faith and holy confidence; but, alas! there is a secret thread, a silken fibre, which, holding them in subserviency to the world, in some way obscures the light; and Jesus, the Star of Hope, is eclipsed, and their hope darkened. A very small sin, a very little self-gratification, may hide the light. To some, Jesus, as Saviour, appears very far off. He shall be seen where the heart lets nothing intervene. The danger of impediments: At Sidler Tchiflik three men sprang on to the train just as it was starting, and clung to the carriage-doors. The guard saw them, but dared not push them off for fear of killing them, yet could not venture to stop the train on account of the delay this would have caused. He therefore beckoned to the men to creep slowly along the side of the carriages after him. It was a terrible walk, and made my blood run cold to see it. The poor men were wet, benumbed, and awkward. Each had a bundle on his shoulder--one on a stick, one on a gun, one on a sword. As they crept slowly along, hanging on for their lives, first one bundle, then another, dropped off, till at last, after an agony of suspense, they were safely landed in a cattle-truck, having lost the very little all that they possessed. (Lady Brassey.) The injury of a besetting sin: The old proverb hath it, “ Here’ s talk of the Turk and the Pope, but ‘ tis my next neighbour that does me the most harm.” It is neither popery nor infidelity that we have half so much cause to dread as our own besetting sins. We want more Protestants against sin, more Dissenters from carnal maxims, and more Nonconformists to the world. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Besetting sins A man’ s besetting sin is the one that jumps with his inclinations. Does he love mirthfulness? Then he must be careful lest he runs into excessive levity and play the harlequin. He will be tempted to make jests of sacred things. A minister ought not to be a monk; but neither should he be a social comedian. Does a man love ease? Then he always interprets those providences in his own favour which allow him to shirk hard work and swing in his hammock. Does he love flattery and eclat? Then he is tempted to seek applause, and to imagine that he is serving God when he is only burning incense on the altar of self-worship. The worst enemy is the one which wears an honest disguise, Look out for selfishness. It is the “ old Adam” lurking behind every hedge. It will always keep place with you if you give it the upper baud. Keep no league with it; for Christ will never abide in the same heart with that subtle and greedy tyrant. A Christian is never safe, never strong, never true to Christ, unless he is constantly “ collaring” ever sinful and selfish passion, and forcing it into unconditional surrender. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) The deadly character of secret sin: Canon Wilberforce said that one day, while walking in the Isle of Skye, he saw a magnificent specimen of the golden eagle, soaring upward. He halted, and watched its flight. Soon he observed by its movements that something was wrong. Presently it began to fall, and soon lay dead at his feet. Eager to know the reason of its death, he hastily examined it, and found no trace of gunshot wound; but he found that it held in its talons a small weasel, which, in its flight, was drawn near its body, and had sucked the life blood from the eagle’ s breast. The same end befalls him who clings to some secret sin; sooner or later it will sap his life blood, and he falls. (C. W. Bibb.) One sin the soul’ s ruin There was but one crack in the lantern, and the wind has found it out and blown out the candle. How great a mischief one unguarded point of character may cause us! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The race that is set before us The race to heaven I. OUR THIS RACE. 1. It is not any race, but a particular one. “ The race set before us.” 2. The introduction to this race is by regeneration (John 3:2; John 3:7). 3. We must lay aside every hindrance that would impede our progress. II. OUR IN THIS RACE. 1. We must keep the course. 2. We must keep on in the way. 3. We must go on patiently under all difficulties. 4. We must keep the prize in view. 5. We must persevere to the end. III. OUR THIS RACE. 1. The certainty of having the prize. 2. The prize will be a glorious and enduring one. 3. The prize will be a just one. “ Crown of righteousness.” 4. The honour connected with the bestowment of this crown. (The Evangelical Preacher.) I. IN ITS . The race 1. Those who have departed from us are existing. Death is not annihilation. 2. The dead are in a state of conscious activity. These men are not asleep, but observe. 3. They are not far from us, for we “ are compassed about” by them. 4. They observe our line of life--are witnesses. II. IN ITS . 1. Religion requires self-denial. 2. Religion requires the conquest of sin. 3. Religion required personal effort. 4. Religion requires patience. 5. Religion requires thought and attention. III. IN ITS MODEL. 1. Our model is regarded as the inspirer of Christian life--“ the author and finisher of our faith,” --the originator in us of the life of God, which life can never be brought into maturity unless He becomes, by His gracious presence in the heart, its finisher. 2. Paul then refers to the Saviour’ s object in His life of toil--the object of His model life, “ who for the joy,” etc. 3. Finally, the apostle refers to the many sufferings, mental and physical, connected with His model life. (E. Lewis, B. A.) The Christian race I. THE RACE is one of 1. Christian knowledge. 2. Christian experience. 3. Christian duties. 4. Christian sufferings. The phrase implies (1) Exertion. (2) Progression. (3) Perseverance. II. THE DUTIES connected with it. Lay aside every weight--sin of every kind--but particularly 1. Attachment to the company with which formerly connected. 2. Love of the world, and inordinate attachment even to our lawful calling. 3. Improper fear of man; accommodation and compromise of the fear of God. And the besetting sin! III. THE afforded. 1. The cloud of witnesses. These are testifiers as well as spectators. 2. Jesus Himself. And He as an example also, “ who for the ,joy,” &c. Can we be tempted or suffer as He did? And remember, we, too, shall sit down on His throne. (J. Summerfield, M. A.) Stripping for the race I. THE SPEED OF THE LIFE. “ Let us run.” We must not sit still to be carried by the stream. We must not loiter and linger as children returning from a summer’ s ramble. We must not even walk as men with measured step. The idea of a race is generally competition; here it is only concentration of purpose, singleness of aim, intensity. How earnest men are around us! Newton poring over his problems till the midnight wind sweeps over his pages the ashes of his long extinguished fire. Reynolds sitting, brush in hand, before his canvas for thirty-six hours together, summoning into life forms of beauty that seemed glad to come. Dryden composing in a single fortnight his ode for St. Cecilia’ s Day. Buffon dragged from his beloved slumbers to his more beloved studies. And the beloved biographer, who records these traits, himself rising with the dawn to prepare for the demands of his charge. In a world like this, and with a theme like ours, we ought not to be languid, but devoted, eager, consumed with a holy love to God, and with a passion for the souls of men. Then should we make progress in the knowledge of the Word of God, and enter into the words of one of the greatest spiritual athletes that ever lived Philippians 3:14). II. WE MUST RUN FREE OF WEIGHTS. There would be little difficulty in maintaining an ardent spirit if we were more faithful in dealing with the habits and indulgencies which cling around us and impede our steps. Thousands of Christians are like water-logged vessels. They cannot sink, but they are so saturated with inconsistencies, and worldliness, and permitted evil, that they can only be towed with difficulty into the celestial port. There is an old Dutch picture of a little child dropping a cherished toy from its bands; and, at first sight, its action seems unintelligible, until, at the corner of the picture, the eye is attracted to a white dove winging its flight towards the emptied outstretched hands. Similarly we are prepared to forego a good deal, when once we catch sight of the spiritual acquisitions which beckon to us. And this is the true way to reach consecration and surrender. Do not ever dwell on the giving-up side, but on the receiving side. Keep in mind the meaning of the old Hebrew word for consecration, to fill the hand. There will not be much trouble in getting men to empty their hands of wood, hay, and stubble, if they see that there is a chance of filling them with the treasures, which gleam from the faces or lives of others, or which call to them from the page of Scripture. The world pities us, because it sees only what we give up; but it would hold its sympathy if it could also see how much we receive--“ good measure, pressed down, and running over given into our bosoms.” III. WE MUST LAY ASIDE SIN. “ Let us lay aside the sin which doth so closely cling to us” (R.V.). We often refer to these words; but do we not misquote them in divorcing them from their context? We should read them as part of the great argument running through the previous chapter. That argument has been devoted to the theme of faith. And surely it is most natural to hold that the sin which so closely clings to us is nothing else than the sin of unbelief, which is the opposite pole to the faith so highly eulogised. If that be a correct exegesis, it sheds new light on unbelief. It is no longer an infirmity; it is a sin. Men sometimes carry about their doubts, as beggars a deformed or sickly child, to excite the sympathy of the benevolent. But surely there is a kind of unbelief which should not meet with sympathy, but rebuke. It is sin which needs to be repented, to be resisted, and to receive as sin the cleansing of Christ. 1. Let us remember that the course is set before us by our heavenly Father, who therefore knows all its roughnesses and straitnesses, and will make all grace abound toward us, sufficient for our need. To do His will is rest and heaven. 2. Let us look off unto Jesus. Away from past failure and success; away from human applause and blame; away from the gold pieces scattered on the path, and the flowers that line either side. Do not look now and again, but acquire the habit of looking always; so that it shall become natural to look up from every piece of daily work, from every room, however small, from every street, however crowded, to His calm face; just as the sojourner on the northern shores of Geneva’ s lake is constantly prone to look up from any book or work on which the attention may have been engaged, to behold the splendour and glory of the noble range of snowcapped summits on the further shores. And if it seems hard to acquire this habitual attitude, trust the Holy Spirit to form it in your soul. Above all, remember that where you tread there your Lord trod once, combating your difficulties and sorrows, though without sin; and ere long you shall be where He is now. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.) The race set before us: “ Go ahead” was only half of David Crockett’ s motto--and not the most important half. “ Be sure you are right” precedes. The faster the ship goes ahead, the greater the danger, if there is not a good watch on the bow and a strong hand on the wheel. To run well is of importance; to start right is of prime importance. “ Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” says the sacred writer. A great many men lose the prize by dropping out of the text altogether the clause which we have put in italics. Every man must find his own race before he begins to run. God has a work for every man that no other man can do quite as well; and he succeeds best who quickest finds what that work is, and sets himself to do it. Many a good writer has been spoiled to make an insolvent merchant; not a few good housekeepers to make execrable poets; now and then an execrable mechanic to make a poor preacher. A race has been set before me; and it is my duty to find out what that race is, and run it, and not waste life in regrets that I cannot run a different one, or life’ s energies in unsuccessful attempts to do so. Patient running I remember once climbing a great Alpine peak. I was fagged and out of sorts, and the strain was considerable. I was not enjoying it, but I knew I should enjoy it at the top. I had not any spare energy to talk or look about, so I kept looking for a couple of hours at the heels of the guide, who was in front and above me. That is going with patience. It is the holding out till the next glimpse of light comes from above. It is the determination of the runner, when the afternoon sun is blinding his eyes, and the afternoon languor weighing upon him, that he wilt run on. (J. F. Ewing, M.A.) Looking unto Jesus Jesus the author and finisher of the Christian’ s faith I. “ The author and finisher of faith” must be looked to as THE ONLY TEACHER OF . II. “ The author and finisher of faith” must be looked to as THE AND OF . III. “ The author and finisher of faith” must be looked to as THE ALONE OF . (H. J. Stevenson, M. A.) Looking to Jesus, the secret of running well our Christian race I. THE PERSON” SET FORTH HERE IS JESUS; He, whose name is the light and glory of Scripture; whose coming and work formed the subject of ancient type, and symbol, and prophecy. 1. We are led to consider Him in His Divine nature and character. 2. The person set forth in the text is to be considered in His most gracious undertaking on behalf of men. II. THE HABIT --“ Looking unto Jesus.” This word expresses the mental posture, which the apostle would have all Christians maintain in relation to Jesus, their Saviour-God. It is not a single, unrepeated act that he wishes here to enforce, but a holy habit of soul. As the gaze of the mariner, steering his vessel through perilous seas, is perpetually fixed upon the compass, so we, voyaging to eternity through the treacherous waters of time, must have eye and heart centred on Christ, as the sole director of our progress. The word expresses a continuous and sustained action of the inner man. But it does more. It not only means “ looking,” as the translation gives it, but looking off, or away. We are taught to look away from all else to “ Jesus only?’ Let the counter attraction be what it may, its power is to be resisted: its spell is to be broken, and the full gaze of the soul is to concentrate itself on Immanuel alone, Now, in the direction of the apostle, as thus expounded, I think we are called to note particularly three suggested thoughts. 1. The entire sufficiency of Christ to meet all human requirements. 2. It is the sad tendency of man, notwithstanding, to turn to other dependencies. 3. This tendency must be corrected, in order to Christ’ s becoming all that He would be to any. III. THE END --that we may run well our Christian race; run it free from entanglement; run it with purity; run it with patience; run it with perseverance. Oh! is there anything that can compare with these objects in the estimation of a believer? We may well ask, then, how the “ looking unto Jesus” will enable us to compass these objects; in other words, how it will secure that we shall run well our Christian race? And here the answer is threefold. 1. “ Looking to Jesus” supplies the strongest motive to run well our Christian race; that is, love towards Himself. You know that fire and force are the effect of a supreme affection; how it makes light of difficulties, and changes leaden feet into feet of angel swiftness. Love lightens toil, and makes even waiting more than endurable. 2. “ Looking to Jesus” furnishes all needful strength for running well our Christian race. This is the act on our part that appropriates it for our various occasions and exigencies; just as plants, by opening out their leaves, to them the organs of assimilation, imbibe the light and dew, and distribute sustenance through their entire structure, so we, by “ looking to Jesus,” receive those communications of a spiritual kind, upon which the life of our souls and the vigour of our Christian walk depend. 3. “ Looking to Jesus “ brings before us the highest example of a successful runner in the Christian race. When you are in doubt, ask, “ What, in such a case, would my Master have done?” (C. M. Merry, B. A.) Looking unto Jesus I. WHY? 1. The best beings in the universe encourage it. (1) Angels. (2) Redeemed in heaven. (3) Holiest on earth. 2. Our own needs demand it. We want a Mediator, Example, Friend, such as He is. 3. The great God enjoins it. II. How? 1. By the study of His biography. 2. By communion with Christly souls. 3. By friendship with Himself. III. WHEN? 1. At the beginning of the Christian life. 2. In all the encouragements and discouragements of life. 3. At death. (U. R. Thomas.) The rule of the race I. First, then, we are to look to Jesus as THE AUTHOR OF FAITH. The apostle would have us view the Lord Jesus as the starter of the race. When a foot-race began, the men were drawn up in a line, and they had to wait for a signal. Those who were in the race had to look to the starter; for the runner who should get first by a false start would not win, because he did not run according to the rules of the race. No man is crowned unless he strives lawfully. The starter was in his place, and the men stood all waiting and looking. Our word at starting in the Christian life is, “ Look unto Jesus.” 1. We have to look to Jesus, first, by trusting in that which He has wrought for us. It is described in these words: “ Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame.” 2. We also begin looking unto Jesus because of what He has wrought in us. II. But now we must look to Jesus as THE OF FAITH. As Jesus is at the commencement of the course, starting the runners, so He is at the end of the course, the rewarder of those who endure to the end. Those who would win in the great race must keep their eyes upon Him all along the course, even till they reach the winning-post. 1. You will be helped to look to Him when you remember that He is the finisher of your faith by what He has wrought for you; for the text saith, “ He endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” You also shall have heaven, for He has it; you shall sit upon the throne, for He sits there. 2. We are helped to run to the end, not only by what Jesus has done for us, but by what Jesus is doing in us. (1) You that are in the middle of the race, remember that Jesus sustains you. Every atom of your strength for running comes from your Lord. Look to Him for it. (2) We are not only sustained by looking unto Jesus, but we are inspirited thereby. A sight of the exalted Leader fires the zeal of each believer, and makes him run like a roe or a young hart. (3) Looking unto Jesus, you will get many a direction; for, as He sits at the winning-post, His very presence indicates the way. (4) Look to Jesus, for by that look He draws you. The great magnet up yonder is drawing us towards itself. Christ’ s cords of love give us speed. III. Let us next consider our Lord Jesus as THE PATTERN OF OUR FAITH. Run, as Jesus ran, and look to Him as you run, that you may run like Him. How did our Lord pursue His course? 1. You will see this if you first note His motive: “ Who for the joy that was set before Him.” The chief end of man is to glorify God; let it be my chief end, even as it was my Lord’ s. Oh, that I might glorify Thee, my Creator, my Preserver, my Redeemer! To this end was I born, and for this end would I live in every action of my life. We cannot run the race set before us unless we feel thus. 2. Wherein are we to imitate Jesus? (1) First, we are to copy His endurance. He “ endured the Cross.” Ours is a trifling cross compared with that which pressed Him down; but He endured it. He took it up willingly, and carried it patiently. (2) Imitate your Lord in His magnanimity. He endured the Cross, “ despising the shame.” Shame is a cruel thing to many hearts. Our Lord shows us how to treat it. See, He puts His shoulder under the Cross; but He sets His foot upon the shame. He endures the one, but He despises the other. (3) Our Saviour is to be imitated in His perseverance. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising the shame, and “ is set down.” He never stopped running till He could sit down at the right hand of the throne of God; and that is the only place where you may sit down. IV. Lastly, our text sets before us Jesus as THE GOAL OF FAITH We are to run “ looking unto Jesus” as the end that we should aim at. True faith neither goes away from Christ Jesus, nor takes a roundabout road to Jesus, nor so much as dreams of going beyond Jesus. Now, we are to run towards Him, looking unto Him. Looking to Jesus and running to Jesus will look well and run well together. The eyes outstrip the feet; but this also is well, for the feet will thus be made to move the faster. Look you that you may see more of Jesus. Let us run towards Jesus, that we may grow more like Him. It is one of the virtues of Jesus that He transforms into His own image those who look at Him. He photographs Himself upon all sensitive hearts. Run, that you may come nearer to Jesus. Seek after more near and dear fellowship with Him. (C. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 12:3 Consider Him that endured such contradiction Christ’ s afflictions a lesson for His people: All heaven considers or looks at Christ. The angels look at Him with reverence and adoring wonder, as their Lord and King. All hell considers or looks at Christ. The devils look at Him with terror and alarm, as their Judge and the Author of their punishment. But neither heaven nor hell can get such precious views of Christ as can those whom Christ came to redeem. They consider Him as the Lawgiver who shows the path of duty, as the Redeemer who shows the way of life. They consider Him as the Physician who heals their spiritual diseases, as the Pattern after which they are themselves to copy. They consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners, in order that they may be not wearied, nor faint in their minds. The flowers that bloom upon a thousand hills, in more than royal stateliness, are rich in fragrant moisture; but it is not every gaudy insect that can extract the honey they yield. So, Christ, however rich and precious He be to those who know Him, is rich and precious to them alone. The ungodly get nothing by their contemplation of Him, except, indeed, a greater aversion ever to contemplate Him again. Believers are always benefited by this exercise. They are made better, wiser, holier, happier, by it. Looking unto Jesus is the attitude of spiritual health, the posture of spiritual activity, the habit of spiritual enjoyment: it is a blessed exercise--it strengthens the soul, it animates the heart, it enlivens the whole frame of the inner man. And while it is beneficial to all who engage heartily in it, be their circumstances what they may, it is peculiarly beneficial to all those who are in distress or perplexity. The contemplation of Him who suffered the contradiction of sinners hinders the mind from becoming weary and faint. I. LOOK AT THE PICTURE WHICH THE APOSTLE HERE . It is the picture of Him who endured such contradiction of sinners. It is the picture of a mighty Being, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It represents Him, however, as man. It represents Him as suffering contradiction, that is, animosity, hatred, and persecution. It represents Him as suffering all this from sinners. It represents the suffering as being in every respect intense, aggravated, and indescribable. Let us seek to fill our minds with a sense of what He underwent. 1. The sufferings of Christ were Divinely appointed and tremendously severe. They were not the mere natural evils which are shed upon us, all in consequence of Adam’ s disobedience. They were singular, peculiar, and transcendental. They had no like, no parallel. They were infinite sufferings. 2. The subject of Christ’ s suffering is deserving of consideration because, had He chosen, He could have avoided them. But He did not so choose. He did not spare Himself. He gave Himself up to death for us all. 3. Again, in estimating the contradiction of sinners endured by Christ, let us remember that He was, through out the whole of it, actuated by disinterested motives. 4. Once more, Jesus did not deserve the punishment that was inflicted upon Him. 5. Lastly, the nature of Christ’ s endurance will be still more strikingly manifested when it is recollected that it was borne for the sake of those who inflicted it. II. Let us now speak of THE LESSONS BY THE PICTURE on which we have been meditating. 1. By looking to the afflictions of Christ we derive materials for encouragement, because we could not of ourselves do what Christ has done for us. We may endure contradiction of sinners, as Christ Himself did; but ours will never be such contradiction as His. 2. Again, by looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because we should not expect to be treated better than He Himself was. 3. By looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because, as our great Model and Exemplar, He has exhibited to us a specimen of patient endurance and submission under the most dreadful inflictions. 4. By looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because we find that, as our great High Priest and Redeemer, He is able to sympathise with us in all our afflictions. 5. Lastly, by looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because, as He triumphed over all His enemies, so shall we if we be partakers of His salvation. Christians are one with their Redeemer. (Alex. Nisbet.) The endurance of Christ The contemplation of Christ’ s sufferings may, or may not, be spiritually beneficial to us. It is possible to occupy our attention with the physical side of the Passion to the exclusion of the moral and spiritual, and to think almost exclusively of the sufferings and scarcely at all of the Sufferer. Such contemplation may work upon our feelings much in the same way as thrilling incidents in a powerful work of fiction, and create a spurious sympathy with the Sufferer which cannot produce the effect which the passion of our Lord ought to have upon our lives. The remedy is to be found mainly in “ considering Him that endured” --in keeping before us the personality of the Sufferer. But we shall only rightly consider the Sufferer Himself when we keep in mind the purpose He had in His endurance. He suffers for sinners, as well as from sinners; and He suffers for the direct purpose of removing the contradiction which He endures--to take away sins. And all profitable contemplation of the sufferings of Christ ought to have in it the desire and willingness to have its purpose fulfilled in us. In considering Him we must keep in mind His faultlessness; the entire absence of any justification for the contradiction. He was not only faultless, but good. Although graced with the perfect qualities of human virtue, and rich in the beneficent works of goodness, He endured the contradiction of sinners. Remember, too, that within, and perfectly conjoined to, that holy humanity, was all the fulness of God. In every act of endurance there is the manhood which endures as human, and there is the deeper endurance of God underlying it all. The word “ contradiction” is here used to include the whole of the opposition which our Lord experienced from sinners. The Cross was only the climax of a long and varied course of antagonism out of which it sprung, without which it would not have been reached, and by which alone it can be understood and duly estimated. The first contradiction Christ endured was in the unbelief which met Him. He was the True One and the Truth; but they affirmed Him either deceived or a deceiver--utterly untrustworthy. But this contradiction advanced to open condemnation. He was said to be “ a gluttonous man,” &c. They said His power over evil spirits was due to a league between Himself and the prince of the devils. They charged Him with being the enemy of God and man, a blasphemer and an evildoer. Remember who it was against whom all these false and bitter things were spoken. Consider Him, and see His brave endurance. And there was an element in all this contradiction which added to its painfulness. It was not the result, in general, of a mistake, which could be excused by the Sufferer. It had its root in personal hate (John 15:24). And He knew the cause ofthat hate. It came out of a conscious moral antipathy. His pure, holy, humble, unselfish life made them conscious of the unreality and hollowness of their assumed excellence. And He endured this hate--He who combined in His own person all that is gracious in God and lovable in man. This antagonism and hate could not fail to proceed to acts of violence if occasion should arise. “ They took up stones to stone Him” ; and, think you, was it not as if He felt the blows of hardness of heart hurled at Him as He preserved Himself from this attempt upon His life? To Christ the spiritual was not less real than the physical; and in every infliction of suffering and wrong upon Him by the hands of wicked men He felt the spirit of the acts--the sin of the world--going right down deep into His soul. Yes, thepainful pressure of the crown of thorns, the piercing of nails and the anguish of the body, were means through which He bore in Himself the contradiction of sinners and of sin. One point more: This endurance of the contradiction of sinners was out of consideration to them. He might have saved Himself, and have made them to feel His contradiction against themselves. But He suffered Himself, instead of making them to suffer. His consideration for them was grounded in love--love to them and to us. In love He endured seeing them the opposite of that which He could love; endured receiving from them the reverse of what He had a right to expect, the opposite of that which His coming had made possible. If He could have hated and despised those who contradicted Him, it would have been less painful to His spirit to endure the contradiction. But the more He loved us, the more bitter became every experience, the more pointed and painful every act of wrong. “ Consider Him who endured,” etc., and consider Him, with this fact in mind, that in thus enduring He was exhibiting and putting forth His gracious power to save us from sinning against Him. The purpose of His Cross is to reconcile us and all things to Himself; to bring us to harmony of mind and life with Him; to destroy our contradiction by enduring it. (R. Vaughan, M. A.) The great source of courage: “ Consider Him.” Learn to look up. It is an exercise in which we have to be trained and drilled until we have mastered it. Unbelief gives a man a crick in the neck so that he cannot look up. But faith, like the eagle, sets her eyes on the sun and soars away until earth is lost in the mists below, and she lights on the highest mount of God. If we would have a life of singing and triumphant courage, we must get into this habit--the heavenly habit of considering Jesus. “ Consider Him.” This is everything. In the Christian life Christ Himself is the Source and Strength of all. A man is a Christian exactly as he receives Christ into his thought, and heart, and life. And this is the order, through the thought into the heart and thence into the life. Therefore consider Christ--gather the thoughts in from other things, and set them upon Christ. In everything that we would get hold of thoroughly we must give our minds to it, as we say. And this means give your mind to Christ. Christ is to us what we will let Him be. If I will let Him into my life, He will fill it with light and blessedness, as the sun fills the heavens. “ Consider Him” --not the truth about Him. Lectures on botany are poor things to put in place of flowers. Sermons and teachings about Christ are poor things indeed to put in place of Him. It is more than ever needful in times like these, when life is such a rush and whirl, that we make room and leisure in our lives to cultivate this art of considering Christ. Alas! what hurried and passing glimpses of out” great Master do content us! There is a bit of the country--than which, I think, there is nothing more lovely in all England--that I have often passed through in the railway carriage; eagerly I have looked out of the window, over the deep valleys, woods overhanging woods, going down to misty depths, and away to the moorland, stretching up to the rugged heights; then suddenly a bank of earth has blotted it all out; a narrow cutting has hemmed us in--and then the tunnel darkness. Out again and across some viaduct; looking down on the clear stream amidst the boulders below, another glance of the hills, and then a new obstruction. And some people call that “ seeing the country.” How much can one consider it amid such vexatious glimpses? But some fine day I have left the railway station and stepped out on to the moor, and in a few moments have stood amidst its stillness, the great unbroken stretch of earth and sky, the music of some little brook and the plover’ s call not breaking the silence, only heightening it. Then I have gone up on to the granite height, and there under the blue heaven I have looked away, away on every side, over the miles of country, catching here and there the faint, silvery line of the sea. Then and then only I saw it--thus I could consider it. We must get away alone up into the mount of the Lord if we would consider Him. The busier you are the more you need it: this thinking about Him until He comes to reveal Himself. With many bow would half an hour of such considering transform the life I He, my Lord and Captain, my Friend and Helper, my Deliverer and my God. (M. G. Pearse.) Suffering and glory: No pain, no palm; no thorn, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. (Wm. Penn.) Consider Him: Our troubles are but as the slivers and chips of His Cross. (J. Trapp.) Christ with us in trial: One thing which contributed to make Caesar’ s soldiers invincible was their seeing him always take his share in danger, and never desire any exemption from labour and fatigue. We have a far higher incentive in the war for truth and goodness when we consider Him wire endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Considering Christ in persecution Li Cha Mi, a Chinese preacher, was nearly killed by robbers during the excitement against foreigners, in 1872. At a subsequent conference, he said; “ You have all heard of my sufferings during the past few months. I wish to say that these sufferings were very slight. It was easy to endure pain when I could feel that I bore it for Christ. It is wonderful--I cannot explain it. When attacked by the robbers, and beaten almost to death, I felt no pain. Their blows did not seem to hurt me at all. Everything was bright and glorious. Heaven seemed to open, and I thought I saw Jesus waiting to receive me. It was beautiful. I have no words to describe it. Since that time I seem to be a new man. I now know what it is to ‘ love not the world.’ My affections are set on things above. Persecutions trouble me not. I forget all my sorrows when I think of Jesus. I call nothing on earth my own. I find that times of trial are best for me. When all is quiet and prosperous, I grow careless and yield to temptation, but when persecutions come, then I fly to Christ. The fiercer the trial, the better it is for my soul.” (The Christian.) Lest ye be wearied Spiritual weariness I. THERE IS A WHICH STILL DEMANDS OUR FAITH AND , The great purpose of life should be to attain the highest excellent of which our nature is susceptible. This involves difficulties. II. WE ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING HEART, AND GROWING WEARY IN THIS . Perhaps we may hardly wonder at this, if we think of the nature of the conflict itself, its continuousness, its unintermittent character. This result ensues, too, from the providential trials under which we are sometimes called to carry on the conflict. This danger also arises from the perpetual vigilance and resistance which are required to be exercised against custom, against kindness, against the slumbrous atmosphere in which we live. III. THIS AND FAILURE OF IS AN EVIL WHICH OUGHT TO BE . Weariness and exhaustion are fatal to real enjoyment. They are equally fatal to work. When worn down by fatigue, you have neither strength nor spirit for work. Moreover, there must be much danger in this state of weariness and exhaustion. IV. THE REST MEANS OF THIS AND IS TO JESUS. Look upon Him in such a way as to call out comparison with),ourselves, and it will encourage you, and enable you to rise above this exhaustion and fear. 1. The greatness and nobleness of the Sufferer! 2. Consider the poignancy and the severity of His suffering. 3. Consider the innocency of the Sufferer. 4. Consider the spirit in which Jesus suffered. (J. C. Harrison.) Discouragements in the Christian life I. MANY PERSONS ARE AT THE GREAT WHICH THEY IN THEIR , WHEN THEY RECEIVE FROM THE OF OTHER PEOPLE’ S MINDS, AND WHEN THEY ARE OBLIGED TO FURNISH WITH THE TRUTH WHICH IS FOR THEIR DAILY LIFE. II. MANY ARE LIABLE TO BECOME WEARIED AND FAINT FROM , FROM ARISING FROM . III. PERSONS OF A TIMID NATURE, WHOSE LIFE HAS, EITHER BY OR FROM IN , TURNED UPON , OR IN WHOM THEIR LIFE IS OF THE TYPE OF RATHER THAN OF LOVE, OR TRUST, OR HOPE, ARE LIABLE TO AND . IV. GREAT BEFALLS MEN WHO HAVE A WITHOUT ANY SOCIAL ELEMENT TO IT. V. MANY PERSONS ARE BROUGHT INTO GREAT AND AS TO WHAT THEY SHALL DO, BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE FULL PURPORT OF . VI. THE NEGLECT TO INTO HABITS IS AN OF , BECAUSE IT LEAVES MEN SUBJECT TO ALL THE OF FEELING. VII. MANY ARE OF SIN LESS DEEPLY AT THE OF THEIR LIFE THAN LONG AFTER ; AND THIS NOT ONLY ALARMS, BUT THEM. (H. W. Beecher.) Spiritual weariness and its antidote I. THE OF TO . Arising from 1. The little advancement we seem to make in spiritual excellence. 2. The little good we seem to accomplish in all our efforts to serve our fellows. 3. The little difference which Providence in its dispensation makes between us and those who are the enemies of Christ. 4. The little influence which our best efforts seem to have in correcting the evils of our age. II. THE OF TO . Reflection on Christ will renew our energies, reinvigorate the soul. 1. Consider what He endured. “ The contradiction of sinners.” 2. Consider how He endured (1 Peter 2:23). 3. Consider why He endured. For His enemies. (Homilist.) Liability of saints to faint-heartedness It was stated some time ago, that a man had discovered an invention for making a form of crystallised carbon, which to all intents and purposes was a diamond; but his invention was useless, because of the difficulty and expense in getting any vessel strong enough to bear the intense heat to which it must be subjected during the process. And so with some of God’ s saints, they faint beneath the trial, and the saintly virtue is not formed within their characters, because they have lost the power of endurance. (Canon Newbolt.) Hebrews 12:4 Not yet resisted unto blood The law of Christ’ s service I. THE LAW OF CHRIST’ S SERVICE. Resistance unto blood. 1. This law is not an arbitrary enactment. It is because the strife is against sin, and sin is an evil so terrible and tremendous that we are to resist unto blood. 2. Christianity is distinguished by its estimate of sin: the character it gives to sin. The darkest death man can die is preferable to sin’ s power and penalty. II. THE MOTIVE TO . Christ’ s own example. The argument is, Others before you, and, specifically, Christ Himself, have obeyed this law, fulfilled it in their blood, “ Ye have not yet.” 1. The law of Christ’ s service is a law obeyed in lower spheres of action. Love of freedom, love of country, love of friends, have proved stronger often than love of life. The Roman soldier swore to keep his eagles to the last drop of his blood, and history shows how nobly the oath was kept. Almost every year our hearts are thrilled by the story of men of our own name who have held honour and duty more sacred and precious than life and home. 2. The law of Christ’ s service has been obeyed by the good and noble of all ages. 3. Chief of all, the law of Christ’ s service is a law obeyed by Christ Himself. (W. Perkins.) Resisting unto blood I. SIN IS IN THE WORLD AS THE GREAT OF MANKIND. It is opposed to intelligence, to freedom, to progress, to peace--personal, domestic, social, national, and universal. It is the inspiration of all our foes, the virus in all our sufferings, the fountain of all our sorrows, the burden of all our oppressions. II. THIS GREAT DEMANDS THE MOST OF MANKIND. 1. Because the overcoming of this is the overcoming of all enemies. 2. Because it is only by the most strenuous human effort that it can be overcome. 3. Because our great moral Commander thus strove against sin. How much more should we! (1) He had done nothing to contribute to the sin of the world: we have. (2) He could not have been injured by the sin of the world. (Homilist.) Resisting unto blood The Tabernacle was covered over with red, to note that we must defend the truth even to the effusion of blood. If we cannot endure martyrdom (if called thereunto) and sweat a bloody sweat for Christ’ s sake, we cannot be comfortably assured that we are of His body. John Leafe, a young man, burnt with Mr. Bradford, hearing his own confession, taken before the bishop, read to him, instead of a pen took a pin, and so pricking his hand, sprinkled the blood upon the said bill of his confession, willing the messenger to show the bishop that he had sealed the same bill with his blood already. (John Trapp.) Good standard-bearers God wants standard-bearers who are willing to make a shroud of their colours. (J. Ker, D. D.) The worst not yet experienced The figure is changed; the Christian is a wrestler, a pugilist, struggling, fighting against sin; and the Jewish believers are told that up till now no “ blood” has been drawn; that is, the fierce severity of the conflict had yet to come. They had no right, therefore, to give way, and no excuse for exhaustion. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Striving against sin Striving against sin I. THE ENEMY AGAINST WHICH STRIVE--Sin. The name of it is short and easily pronounced, but who shall fully declare its dreadful nature? 1. It is an old enemy. Hence in Scripture it is styled the Old Man. It is old, for it existed in us as soon as we began to exist. But it is much older than we are. It appeared in the world almost as soon as it was created--nearly six thousand years ago. Nay, sin is older even than this, for it appeared even in heaven, and ruined myriads of celestial intelligences. It is no new upstart power, then, that believers have to strive against, but a veteran foe long inured to the warfare, and possessing the accumulated experience of innumerable ages. 2. Sin is an enemy that is always near. When driven, as it is in the case of every believer, from the throne of the heart, it is not entirely dislodged from the soul. It still lives and lurks in the nature of believers. 3. Sin is a crafty and deceitful enemy. Its wiles and cunning devices to seduce men, and lead them to the commission of crimes, are innumerable. 4. Sin is an active enemy. It is unwearied in its exertions to extend its influence. It pollutes all we do, and mingles with all we are. As the heart never ceases from beating, nor the blood from circulating, so sin never ceases from operating. We may sleep, but it never sleeps. 5. Sin is a powerful enemy. We read of “ the body of sin,” which implies its strength and vigour. Its “ motions do work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” It often bursts through the strongest resolutions set up to restrain it, as a swollen river beats down its banks and sweeps away everything before it. You may see its strength by looking at the conduct of some of those in whom it reigns. Into what awful lengths in wickedness does it carry them! II. THE NATURE OF THE ON STRIFE AGAINST SIN. 1. It is universal. It is directed against all sin. It is against secret sins as well as against open--against sins of the temper as well as against those of the tongue--against sins of the heart as well as against those of the life--and chiefly against sins of the heart, because from them proceed those of the life. 2. It is often a painful conflict. In piercing sin, the believer often feels a sword pierce his own heart. Sin can never be slain in him without his experiencing to some extent its dying agonies. 3. It is a constant and persevering conflict. There is no discharge in this war. It is a war of extermination. 4. This conflict is carried on in the Saviour’ s strength. In their own strength believers could never carry the strife on. 5. This conflict is maintained by prayer. “ When I cry unto Thee,” said the Psalmist, “ then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know, for God is with me.” “ In the day that I cried unto Thee, Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” 6. This conflict is to be carried on with constant watchfulness, Prayer without watchfulness is almost a mockery of God, since in it blessings are solicited, for the attainment of which no care is exercised. III. SOME OF THE MEANS BY WHICH SHOULD STRIVE AGAINST SIN. 1. Let them seriously think how hateful and abominable sin is to God. Abominable and offensive as outward sins are to Him, indwelling corruption must be even still more so, for it is the source whence all these proceed. 2. They should check the first motions and workings of sin in their souls. They should give no quarter to criminal thoughts, or evil desires, or unholy inclinations, but endeavour, through the strength of grace, to banish and crush them. By such constant endeavours to strike at the root, indwelling sin will be weakened and its power and strength reduced and kept under. 3. They should carefully avoid temptations to sin. 4. They should do all in their power to preserve and promote sanctified frames of mind when these are experienced. 5. They should be often engaged in prayer. (1) This prayer must be believing prayer. “ All things,” says our Lord, “ which ye shall ask in prayer, believe that ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them.” (2) Further, it must be prayer offered in the name of Christ. “ Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name,” says Christ Jesus, “ I will do it.” (3) Again, it must be humble prayer. We must feel a deep sense of our own weakness and proneness to sin if left to ourselves, and the absolute necessity of grace and strength to hold us up and keep us from falling. (4) In a word, it must be fervent and importunate prayer. 6. They must, if they would be successful in striving against sin, strive against Satan. Sin is just the Old Serpent’ s poison. IV. SOME MOTIVES FOR AGAINST SIN. 1. This is a strife or warfare which every Christian must maintain. The most shining saint has sin in him. He is only “ fair as the moon,” and will never find his principles of holiness brightened with a sunlight lustre, until he enters the kingdom of his heavenly Father. 2. In this strife and warfare the Saviour’ s honour is much concerned. Sin disgraces a religious profession. 3. You should strive against sin, for it offends God, and is the object of His infinite abhorrence. It cannot be otherwise, for it is enmity against Him, against His attributes, and against His government. It abuses His goodness, abhors His holiness, despises His love, vilifies His wisdom, denies His justice, defies His power, violates His law, and, if it could, would pluck Him from His throne, and deprive Him of His Being. 4. We should strive against sin, for it is seeking our own ruin. It is a foe, and not a friend. The man who cherishes sin cherishes a viper in his bosom, which will, unless timeously cast from him, turn and sting him to death. 5. Consider the reward they shall receive who truly, and believingly, and preservingly strive against sin. There is a reward for the righteous even now. Their striving against sin tends to their true comfort and enjoyment while here. V. . 1. Examine yourselves by what you have heard that you may ascertain what is your true state and character. These will turn upon your bearing in relation to sin. 2. While you strive against sin yourselves you should also strive against it in others. 3. Beware of that strife which is sinful. There is such a thing as not only sinful striving, but a sinful striving against sin. O how much of the contention about religious matters, both in doctrine and practice, may be thus characterised! Let, then, all such striving be avoided. “ The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” 4. Strive with God. There is a striving with God which is unlawful and destructive, but there is a striving with Him which is allowable and necessary. It is by prayer and supplication. 5. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; the gate, that is, of conversion, faith, “ rod repentance. Without engaging in the strife there can be no admission into heaven. (G. Brown.) Striving against sin I. How we are to strive against sin. 1. By constantly opposing the power of sin in our own hearts. 2. By a steadfast and constant profession of the Christian faith. 3. By a humble and holy dependence on the atonement of Jesus Christ, and a growing acquaintance with Scripture. 4. By directly and openly condemning it, whenever and by whomsoever it is committed. II. WHY we should thus strive against sin. 1. Because of its destructive and fatal designs upon our best interests. 2. Because it is the greatest evil that can curse society. 3. Because it will cause us satisfaction in the review when we approach the world of spirits. There is no alternative between striving against and striving for it. Those who are at peace with sin now will find death at war with them. (D. Jones.) How to strive against sin 1. By prayer. Let us pray against anger, pride, uncleanness, coveteousness, continually. 2. By Scripture. 3. By the subtracting of the nourishment of that sin. Let us strive against lust and uncleanness by a sober and temperate life. 4. By embracing the contrary virtue. Instead of pride let us embrace humility; instead of covetousness, liberality; of uncleanness, chastity, &c. (W. Jones,. D. D.) Striving against sin: The Red Indian will stand to have his flesh cut away by the knives of his enemies, and will not utter a sigh or groan--will not sue for mercy. Such is the fortitude of that iron will. If the pride of his heart enables him to bear such tortures without murmuring, surely the power of Christian motive is sufficient to cause us to pluck out the right eye, and cut off the right-hand sin, and cast them away from us, that we may present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. In Christ crucified we see the abhorrence with which God regards sin. And when He brings us into communion with Himself in the Cross we shun it, or resist it, as our most deadly foe. Striving against fierce sin: Where are the heroes “ who resist unto blood striving against sin” ? Should we weep or laugh at the foolishness of mankind, childishly spending their indignation and force against petty evils, and maintaining a friendly peace with the fell and mighty principle of destruction. It is just as if men of professed courage, employed to go and find and destroy a tiger or a crocodile that has spread alarm or havoc, on being asked at their return, “ Have you done the deed?” should reply, “ We have not indeed destroyed the tiger or crocodile, but yet we have acted heroically; we have achieved something great--we have killed a wasp.” Or, like men engaged to exterminate a den of murderers, who being asked at their return, “ Have you accomplished the vengeance?” should say, “ We have not destroyed any of the murderers; we did not deem it worth while to attempt it; but we have lamed one of their dogs.” (J. Foster.) Not to be discouraged by violent conflict: Whoever wishes to obtain the victory must not be discouraged by violent opposition. It is reported of Alexander, that when surrounded by his enemies, and sorely wounded, he still maintained his fortitude, and fought upon his knees. Sparticus did the same, covering himself with his buckler in one hand, and using his sword with the other. So the Christian, however wounded, must still persevere, fighting to the end the good tight of faith, that he may lay hold on eternal life. Hebrews 12:5-6 Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord How to bear afflictions The proposition that ariseth from the words is this: It is the duty and best wisdom of afflicted Christians to preserve themselves from the vicious extremes of despising the Schastenings of the Lord, or fainting under them. I. To “ DESPISE THE OF THE LORD,” imports the “ making no account of them,” as unworthy of serious regard, and includes inconsiderateness of mind, and an insensibleness of heart. 1. Inconsiderateness of mind with respect to the Author or end of chastenings. (1) With respect to the Author. When the afflicted looks only downwards, as if the rod of affliction sprang out of the dust (Job 5:6), and therewere no superior cause that sent it. (2) Inconsiderateness of the end of the Divine discipline is a great degree of contempt. The evils that God inflicts are as real a part of His providence as the blessings He bestows; as in the course of nature the darkness of the night is by His order, as well as the light of the day; therefore they are always sent for some wise and holy design. Sometimes, though more rarely, they are only for trial, to exercise the faith, humility, patience of eminent saints; for otherwise God would lose in a great measure the honour, and His favourites the reward, of those graces--afflictions being the sphere of their activity. But for the most part they are castigatory, to bring us to a sight and sense of our state, to render sin more evident and odious to us. 2. Insensibility of heart is an eminent degree of despising the Lord’ s chastenings. A pensive feeling of judgments is very congruous, whether we consider them “ either materially as afflictive to nature, or as the signs of Divine displeasure” : for the affections were planted in the human nature by the hand of God Himself, and are duly exercised in proportion to the quality of their objects; and when grace comes, it softens the breast, and gives a quick and tender sense of God’ s frown. II. THE CAUSES OF THE OF GOD’ S . 1. A contracted stupidity of soul, proceeding from a course in sin. 2. Carnal diversions. The pleasures and cares of the world, as they render men inapprehensive of judgments to come, so regardless of those that are present (Luke 21:34). 3. An obstinate fierceness of spirit, a diabolical fortitude. Their hearts are of an anvil-temper, made harder by afflictions, and reverberate the blow; like that Roman emperor, who, instead of humbling and reforming at God’ s voice in thunder, thundered back again. III. I shall proceed to consider the other extreme, of UNDER GOD’ S REBUKES. 1. The original word signifies “ the slackening and relaxing of things that were firmly joined together.” 2. It may respect the sinking and falling away of the soul like water, being hopeless of overcoming troubles. When water is frozen into hard ice it will bear a great burden; but when it is melted, nothing is weaker: so the spirit of a man, confirmed by religious principles, is able to sustain all his infirmities (Proverbs 18:14). 3. The causes of this despondency are usually (1) Either the kind of affliction. When there is a singularity in the case, it increaseth the apprehension of God’ s displeasure, because it may signify an extraordinary guilt in the person that suffers; and upon that account the sorrow swells so high as to overwhelm him. (2) The number and degrees of afflictions. When, like those black clouds which in winter days join together, and quite intercept the beams of the sun, many troubles meet at once, and deprive us of all present comfort. (3) The continuance of afflictions. When the clouds return after rain, and the life is a constant scene of sorrows, we are apt to be utterly dejected and hopeless of good. (4) The comparing their great sufferings with the prosperity of these who are extremely vicious, inclines some to despair. IV. TO PROVE THAT IT IS THE DUTY AND WISDOM OF THE NOT TO DESPISE THE OF THE LORD, NOR TO FAINT UNDER THEM. 1. It is their duty carefully to avoid those extremes, because they are very dishonourable to God. (1) The contempt of chastisements is a high profanation of God’ s honour, who is our Father and Sovereign, and in that quality afflicts us. (2) Fainting under chastenings reflects dishonourably upon God. 2. It is the best wisdom not to despise God’ s chastenings, nor faint under them. (1) The contempt of chastenings deprives us of “ ill those benefits which were intended by them. (2) The neglect of chastenings doth not only render them unprofitable but exposes to greater evils. (a) It provokes God to withdraw His judgments for a time. This the sinner desired, and thinks himself happy that he is at ease. Miserable delusion l This respite is the presage of his final ruin. (b) The slighting of lighter strokes provokes God sometimes to bring more dreadful judgments in this life upon sinners. No man can endure that his love or anger should be despised. (3) Faintings under chastenings is pernicious to sufferers. (a) It renders them utterly indisposed for the performance of duty. He that is hopeless of a good issue out of troubles, will neither ‘ repent nor pray nor reform, but indulges barren tears instead of real duties. Besides, it often falls out, that the same affliction is sent from God’ s displeasure upon His people for their sins, and is the effect of the rage of men against them upon the account of their professing His name. (b) They are incapable of the comforts proper to an afflicted state. Those arise from the apprehension that God loves whom lie chastens Revelation 3:19); for the least sin is a greater evil than the greatest trouble, and His design is to take that away; and from the expectation of a happy issue. Hope is the anchor within the veil, that in the midst of storms and the roughest seas preserves from shipwreck. USE. The use shall be to excite us to those duties that are directly contrary to the extremes forbidden; namely, to demean ourselves under the chastenings of the Lord with a deep reverence and humble fear of His displeasure, and with a firm hope and dependence upon Him for a blessed issue upon our complying with His holy will. USE I. With a humble reverence of His hand. This temper is absolutely necessary and most congruous with respect to God, upon the account of His sovereignty, justice, and goodness, declared in His chastenings; and with respect to our frailty, our dependence upon Him, our obnoxiousness to His law, and our obligations to Him that He will please to afflict us for our good. USE II. Let us always preserve a humble dependence and firm hope on God for a blessed issue out of all our troubles. 1. The relation God sustains when He afflicts believers. He is a Judge invested with the quality of a Father. 2. It is a strong cordial against fainting to consider that, by virtue of the paternal relation, “ He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” For no troubles are more afflictive and stinging than those that are unexpected. Now when we are assured that there is no son whom the Father doth not chasten, we are less surprised and less troubled when we meet with crosses. 3. The apostle represents the special prerogative of God as “ the Father of spirits” (verse 9). As a prudent physician consults the strength of the patient as well as the quality of the disease, and proportions his medicine; so all the bitter ingredients, their mixture and measure, are dispensed by the wise prescription of God, according to the degrees of strength that are in His people. 4. The apostle specifies the immediate end of God in His chastenings. God is pleased to fashion us according to His image by afflictions, as a statue is cut by the artificer, to bring it into a beautiful form. He is pleased to bring us into divers temptations to try our faith, to work in us patience, to inflame our prayers, to mortify our carnal desires, to break those voluntary hands whereby we are fettered to the earth, &c. (Wm. Bates, D. D.) The Lord’ s chastening I. DESPISE NOT THOU THE OF THE LORD. YOU are guilty of this 1. When you shut your eyes to the Author of your affliction. Everything that takes place in the whole universe comes to pass either by His direct appointment, or by His equally direct permission. 2. When you inquire not the cause of your affliction. God “ does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” If therefore He sends chastisement upon you there must be some adequate cause, which you are bound to search out and discover. 3. When you resist the design of your affliction. You have long, perhaps, been convinced that you ought to forsake sin, and turn wholly to the Lord. But sin has still kept its hold on you; and you have resisted the conviction of your conscience. At length, then, God interrupts your comforts-pours contempt upon your idols; or He comes even closer--chastises you with bodily sickness, sorrow, and pain. II. FAINT NOT WHEN THOU ART REBUKED OF HIM. 1. Although God be the Author of your sorrows, it is as a Father that He sends them. All is not against you. Your heavenly Father is for you, and, if you trust Him, will make these “ light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 2. Although sin be the cause of year sorrows, yet those sorrows are not the special penalty of sin. They may distress and scorch you, but you are not “ tormented in this flame.” Earth is not hell! Your Father is correcting you rather than punishing you. 3. Although conversion be the design of your sorrows, yet, it, was never intended that these should be, the only meads used by the Lord; and that you should be left, to do all the rest. The very expression, “ when thou art, rebuked,” implies that other methods are also employed. He gives “ grace for grace” --a Saviour to pardon-a Spirit to heal--promises to encourage and save your soul. (J. Jowett, M. A.) Chastisement; There are two dangers against which a person under the chastising hand of God should always be very careful to keep a careful look out. The one is despising the rod, and the other is fainting under it. We will begin with the first; “ My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.” I. THIS MAY BE DONE IN FIVE WAYS; AND IN THE SUBJECT I SHALL PROPOSE THE REMEDY FOR EACH OF THESE AS WE PASS ALONG. 1. A man may despise the chastening of the Lord when he mumurs at it. Ephraim is like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; when a son of God first feels the rod he is like a bullock--he kicks at it, he cannot bear it. A want of resignation shows that we despise God’ s chastening hand. A word with thee, O murmurer! Why shouldst thou murmur against the dispensations of thy heavenly Father? Hast thou not read that amongst the Roman emperors of old it was the custom when they would set a slave at liberty, to give him a blow upon the head and then say, “ Go free” ? This blow which thy Father gives thee is a token of thy liberty, and dost thou grumble because tie smites thee rather hardly? After all, are not Ills strokes fewer than thy crimes, and lighter than thy guilt? 2. We despise the chastening of the Lord when we say there is no use in it. It is always a providence when it is a good thing. But why is it not a providence when it does not happen to be just as we please? Surely it is so; for if the one thing be ordered by God, so is the other. It is written, “ I create light and I create darkness, I create good and I make evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.” But I question whether that is not despising the chastening of the Lord when we set a prosperous providence before an adverse one; for I do think theft an adverse providence ought to be the cause of as much thankfulness as a prosperous one. 3. There is a third way in which men despise the chastening of the Lord, that is--we may think it dishouourable to be chastened by God. How many men have thought it dishonourable to be persecuted for righteousness sake! But, my son, thou dost not weigh the blessing rightly. I tell thee it is the glory of a man to be chastened for God’ s sake. Now you who faint under a little trouble, and despise the chastening of the Lord, let me encourage you in this way. My son, despise not the persecution. Remember how many men have borne it. What an honour it is to suffer for Christ’ s sake! because the crown of martyrdom has been worn by many heads better than thine. 4. Again, in the fourth place, we despise the chastening of the Lord when we do not earnestly seek to amend by it. Many a man has been corrected by God, and that correction has been in vain. Take heed if God is trying you, theft you search and find out the reason. Are the consolations of God small with you? Then there is some reason for it. I have sometimes walked a mile or two, almost limping along, because there was a stone in my shoe, and I did not stop to look for it. And many a Christian goes limping for years because of the stones in his shoe, but if he would only stop to look at them, he would be relieved. What is the sin that is causing you pain? Get it out, and take away the sin, for if you do not, you have not regarded this admonition which speaketh unto you as unto sons--“ My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord” 5. Once more: we despise the chastening of the Lord when we despise those that God chastens. II. The second evil is this: “ NOR FAINT WHEN THOU ART REBUKED OF HIM.” 1. The first way of fainting is when we give up all exertion under the rod. 2. Again, the man faints when he doubts whether he is a child of God under chastisement. Remember the passage: “ If we be not partakers of chastisement then are we bastards, and not sons.” Say not He has forgotten thee, but look upon thy trial as a proof of His love. Cecil once called on his friend Williams, and the servant said he could not see him because he was in great trouble, “ Then I would rather see him,” said Cecil; and Williams, hearing it was his old pastor, said, “ Show him up.” Up he went, and there stood poor Williams, his eyes suffused with tears, his heart almost broken, his dear child was dying: “ Thank God,” said Cecil; “ 1 have been anxious about you for some time; you have been so prosperous and successful in everything that I was afraid my Father bad forgotten you; but I know He recollects you now. I do not wish to see your child full of pain and dying; but I am glad to think my Father has not forgotten you.” Three weeks after that Williams could see the truth of it, though it seemed a harsh saying at first. 3. Again, many persons faint by fancying that they shall never get out of their trouble. “ Three long months,” says one, “ have I striven against this sad trouble which overwhelms me, and I have been unable to escape it.” “ For this year,” says another, “ I have wrestled with God in prayer that He would deliver me out of this whirlpool but deliverance has never come, and I am almost inclined to give the matter up. I thought He kept His promises, and would deliver those who called upon Him, but He has not delivered me now, and He never will.” What! child of God, talk thus of thy Father! say He will never leave off smiting because He has smitten thee so long? Rather say, “ He must have smitten me long enough now, and I shall soon have deliverance.” Say not thou canst escape. The fetters on thy hands may not be broken by thy feeble fingers, but the hammer of the Almighty can break them in a moment. Let them be laid on the anvil of Providence and be smitten by the hand of Omnipotence, and then they shall be scattered to the winds. Up, man! up. Like Samson, grasp the pillars of thy troubles and pull down the house of thine affliction about the heads of thy sins, and thou thyself shalt come out more than conqueror. Let me ask those who are afflicted and have no religion, where they get their comfort from. The Christian derives it from the fact that he is a son of God, and he knows that the affliction is for his good. But what does the worldling do when he loses his wife, when his children are taken away, when his health departs and he himself is nigh unto death? I leave him to answer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The aim of Divine chastisement Whom He loves, He loves so much that He will not let them abide in the lower parts of their nature. He will rout them out; He will drive them up. Whom He loves He means to make more of. He means to ennoble them. A king ennobles a man by putting a crown on his head: but God ennobles men by putting dispositions in their hearts. Whom He loves He chastens and scourges. That is very severe. A man may be chastised with small whips, but no man is scourged except with cord, laid on with soldiers’ hands. It is a horrible operation. God both chastens and scourges men, and all because He loves them. Wonderful love that is! and yet it is just your love. You have not a child whose body is worth more to you than his mind. No child of yours ever told a lie under circumstances of great baseness, that you did not feel rising against him an utter indignation, not because you hated the child, but because you loved him. All your identification with the child pleads for punishment. You said, “ It is my child, and he is not worthy of me; and he shall be worthy of me.” As I was reading, “ For they” --that is, our parents--“ verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.” Great pleasure they had in it, if they felt as I did! I would rather be whipped any time than whip my children. And when my father used to say, “ Henry, I do not want to do it,” I used to say to myself, “ What under heaven do you do it for then?” I did not want to be whipped; and if he did not want to whip me, it seemed to me a very unnecessary ceremony! But when I became a father, I felt that nothing in the world was more true. When I had children to bring up, they so far inherited my nature that they deserved to be whipped often, and they got their deserts! It was true that I would rather have taken five blows than to have given one; and yet I put it on to them. And I remembered the precept, “ What your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Do not you know what that is? Are you not familiar with both sides of the experience? Paul says, “ We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He” --God--“ for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Here is the end that God is driving at continually, by such a grand sympathy, by such a tender personal connection with us, by such a constant interference and meddling with all that belongs to us, that we shall not be thralled in lusts and the lower parts of our nature, and depart from His will, and inherit the final remuneration; but that we shall escape, and go up and be made partakers of the Divine nature. (H. W. Beecher.) Faint not when rebuked 1. To “ faint” when we as “ rebuked” is to lose self-possession, or to be so overwrought, or overwhelmed with the trial, that we grow insensible to its nature, its extent, its punishment. 2. To “ faint” when we are “ rebuked” is under the pressure of the sorrow, to relax any duty--for praise or love--and especially to let go our holy confidences, and to take the eye off Jesus. 3. To “ faint” when we are “ rebuked” is to grow weary on account of its length, and not to let “ patience have her perfect work.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Submission under loss: When John Flavel lost his wife and child in one day--root and branch cut off together--he acknowledged the bitterness of the cup, but said there was not a drop of injustice in it. Under the severest losses the Marquis de Renty was wont to go to his chamber, and drop on his knees to thank God that not his own but the Lord’ s will was done. Submission: Stonewall Jackson was once asked, “ Suppose that these unprofitable eyes of yours, that give you so much trouble, should become suddenly blind, do you believe your serenity would remain unclouded?” He paused a moment, as if to weigh fully the exact measure of every word he uttered, and then said: “ I am sure of it; even such a misfortune could not make me doubt the love of God.” Still further to test him it was urged: “ Conceive, then, that besides your hopeless blindness, you were condemned to be bedridden, and racked with pain for life; you would hardly call yourself happy then?” There was again the same deliberateness before he replied: “ Yes, I think I could; my faith in the Almighty wisdom is absolute: and why should this accident change it?” Touching him upon a tender point--his impatience of anything bordering on every species of dependence--the test was pushed further. “ But if in addition to blindness and incurable infirmity and pain you had to receive grudging charity from those on whom you had no claim, what then?” There was a strange reverence in his lifted eye, and an exalted expression over his whole face, as he replied with slow deliberateness: “ If it was God’ s will, I think I could lie there content a hundred years!” (H. O. Mackey.) Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth Suffering, the gift and presence of God: This, then, is the first, most comprehensive, yet most special way, in which God is the consolation of the afflicted, that He has revealed, that sorrow is a token of His love. We have often thought perhaps, “ If God did but tell me that He loves me!” If He has sent you sorrow or pain, He has told you that He loves you. Suffering is in the order of our salvation; it is in order to our salvation. In the mercy of our God, it arrests the sinner; it deepens the loving sorrow of the penitent; it proves and advances the all-but-perfected. It exhibits us to ourselves; it enhances the love of our Redeemer; it is God’ s instrument to make us of one mind with Himself. This, then, is the great comprehensive comfort in every ache of mind or body, that we know infallibly from God’ s infallible Word that it is a token of His love. Be it disease or loss of bodily health or strength, or of clearness of intellect, the consequence of sin; be it the shame with which God “ filleth the face that they may seek Thy Face, O God” ; be it the first terror of hell, which, by God’ s grace, scares the yet unconverted sinner towards the wide-open arms of Jesus on the Cross, or the last sharp pang of death, which lets the imprisoned soul go free, to meet its God for whom it yearned and fainted, we know, by God’ s own Word, it is His love. Yet it is not only love, working through some fixed or some general rule of His Providence. It is something far nearer, more tender, more blessed. It is God’ s own personal act. It is our Redeemer’ s own medicinal hand. “ I have afflicted thee.” “ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” “ Happy is the man whom God correcteth.” “ Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law.” This is the deep reassuring truth, that it is not man’ s caprice, nor a fixed iron law, nor a combination of events, but our own God. This is the deep inward peace in every trial, that He orders each particular blow or weight of sorrow, or fretting care, or harassing discomfort or unrest, in His all-wise love, fitting each trial to our own particular temperament. He gives to each of us just our own trial, what, by His grace, will most amend us, what will bring us most to Himself, what will most draw out the good which He has implanted in us, or burn out the evil which would most estrange or ruin us. This too is not all. It is not an all-wise God, unseen, unfelt, at a distance, guiding all things in perfect wisdom for the good of each individual creature which He had made. Great were this, yea, in one sense, all; for it is His individual, infinite, personal love. He who loves us infinitely loves us individually. But this too not afar off, not only in the heaven of heavens (Psalms 91:15). Trouble is the special presence of God to the Isaiah 43:2). He who, present with them, soothed to the three youths the flames of fire, so that they fanned softly around them, and were to them an unharming robe of glory; He who, ever-present with His disciples, then appeared to them, when the storm was at its highest, and its waves were boisterous; He, still present to the soul, now soothes to His own the fire of affliction, that, while it burns out the dross, it should not touch the soul, but should yield it pure, transfigured and translucent with the fire of love. He who baptizes with a baptism of blood, holds His own, that, although immersed and sunk deep down, the waters should not come in to the very soul itself, but should only wash away its stains through His most precious blood. Can there be more yet than the presence of God with the soul? Yes, the end of the presence is more to the soul itself than that presence itself. For it is the earnest of His abiding presence, yea, of union with God. Suffering, the due reward of our deeds, becomes, by His mercy, the means of conforming us to the Son of His love. While we suffer for our own sins, and bear about us less than their deserved chastisements, God gives us yet an outward likeness to His Cross, in that it is suffering. For “ on Him were laid the iniquities of us all.” But we still hang, as it were, by His side; His healing compassionate look falls upon us; from His all-holy sufferings there goeth forth virtue to sanctify ours. Hence is deserved suffering by God’ s mercy such a token of predestination, that it brings us near to, makes us partakers of, the sufferings of Christ. (E. B.Pusey, D. D.) The mystery of suffering: This, after its sort, is a kind of philosophy, a phenomenon of human experience. Everything in nature, according to the measure of its power, is happier than man. Men have been studying how to create happiness that should be unbroken in this world. They have invented a great many things, found out a great many medicines, but happiness has eluded their search. A steady flow of happiness, a soul that knows how to keep time as that watch knows how to keep time, has never been born, and does not live. We flit between light and dark blow, happiness is certainly, we may believe, the final end of creation. Whatsoever maketh a lie or causeth offence in the grand land of consummation will have been purged out, and happiness without alloy will yet be the end of every true life that by sorrow and suffering has been wrought out into the full possession of its birthright. The process or education of man in this world proceeds on the law of suffering--happiness the graduating point; suffering the academy, the seminary; and the best teachers are the teachers that inflict suffering on man. Clear down to the last vision they are highest that have been most suffering in the great school of this life. It is the law of education. Why it was made so, if you know, please instruct me. Why did God make things thus and so? Why did He make the law of suffering the law of education, rather than the law of happiness? This why pours into the gulf of ignorance. We don’ t know. We are ignorant in proportion as we go back to the beginnings of things. These are secrets that no science will penetrate; at any rate, not for ages yet; these lie hidden in the bosom of God. But Christ is the type of the moral kingdom of God. It was necessary to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering, because He was leading the multitude, the whole world’ s population, towards elevation through suffering, and He entered Himself under that august law of the universe, suffering. It is a badge of discipleship--suffering is. Men do not come to the fulness of their relation to God except through it. Now, look at the scale of suffering. The first is physical pain, which is the lowest; it is cautionary. The remembrance of it prevents a man violating some natural law; that is, some law that has its seat in the physical structure of the man’ s own body. It teaches men patience; it teaches men to bear valiantly. Cheerfulness under physical suffering is a wonderful victory, repining is a defeat. If a man shirks down, if he sneaks into complaints and all forms of bewilderment, and dissipated faith, he is wretched indeed, and there is no moral end gained under such circumstances. Then, aside from the suffering which comes to us through our bodily organs, there is that suffering which comes to us through the law of evolution in ourselves. The law of conflict between the lower man and the higher man, or, as St. Paul phrases it, “between the flesh man and the spirit man.” If, in unfolding ourselves from childhood to manhood, the process goes on by which we subdue the animal that is in us, and the passions that belong to it, by the ascendency of higher social, moral and intellectual inspirations, then suffering is more immediately and perceptibly a schoolmaster. Men are driven up higher and higher towards the citadel of God, by the sufferings which take place in the conflict between the lower and the higher man. Living largely in the West in my early life, I had the opportunity of beholding phenomena that are good illustrations. When the great western rivers were suddenly swollen, and booming freshets came tearing down, flooding the country on either side, I have seen the river Ohio, that was not a quarter of a mile wide, ten miles wide in the flood. Nothing is more familiar to the settlers than the fact that the animals are all driven from the lower places, and frequently it is the case that they mount to some round hill and the water following surrounds it, and they are imprisoned on that hill. But they still go higher up, and higher up, and higher up, until they get a place that is a refuge. Suffering that teaches an animal to go up ought to teach a man to go up. Then suffering is still on another level, where we suffer by our social relations, where we suffer with and for each other, and here is the beginning of the grandeur of the kingdom of suffering. Vicarious suffering then, I may say at last, is the law of the universe. Christ entered into the world to partake of those very things that the race have passed through, “ Tempted in all points like as we are,” tried into all points as we are; and as it is the law of social connection that one shall suffer for another, Christ suffered for men under the same great grand law of vicarious suffering. That is a wretched child, that is a wretched man, who has no one to suffer for him. Then, higher than this, or rather more extended in its relation, is the suffering which men have in civic relations. Men are not individuals. Man is a collective animal; every man stands on his own stem, but he also stands on the trunk which holds up a million stems, and if anything afflicts the root it afflicts everything at the top. Although blossom is not identical with blossom, nor fruit with fruit, human life is made up of individualisms; but collected and made into one great organisation. And so men must suffer when society suffers. Then, next and yet higher, men suffer on account of their moral relations that unite them to man and to God and to the universe. The progress of knowledge is through suffering. One man suffers, and leaves a glow of new truth behind him, which irradiates the whole of a generation. Thus far we can see and understand. But the world is the workshop of heaven. There we shall see the consummation of that which we see but feebly and understand but partially. Many there are on earth who see no outcome; they are underfoot, they are out of place; suffering seems not only to bring to them no relief and no inspiration, but it seems never to have declared its real nature to their surroundings or to their generations. Oh I there will be a land where these things will be known; there will be an interpretation to every pang and to every tear, and to every crushing sorrow; and as for those who suffer for a noble cause, who suffer for children, who suffer for those who have no parents, who suffer for the community, though they are accounted unworthy, and are east out by the community, though they be crushed out of life and hope, and go mourning all the days of their lives, there is a reckoning--that is to say, there is to be an unfolding of the reasons of their suffering, and the results of it which do not by any means all appear upon this mortal sphere and in this limited life--it is to be made known. You do not know what is going on, you do not know all the meaning of your sorrow; God does. Do you suppose that the wool on the sheep’ s back knows what it is coming to when it is sheared? When it was scoured, and washed, and spun, and twisted of its life almost; when it went into the hateful bath of colour; when it was put into the shuttle, and was thrust back and forth, back and forth, in the darkness, and out came the royal robe, it did not know what it started for; yet that is what it comes to--kings wear it. The flax in the field sighs to be made into the garment of the saints. All right. Pluck it up; rot it, put it under the brick, thread it, weave it, bleach it, purify it; and the saints may wear it now. It came to honour and glory through much suffering. Suffering is God’ s guardian guiding angel to those that will; it takes them up through the gate of trouble and trial to that land of perfectness and of everlasting peace. And you do not know what your suffering means? Yet you may rejoice in the general fact that somehow or other it is going to make you glorious if you are only worthy of it. Allow me still one more figure; for some may take one figure easily and some another. When this organ was built the lead and the zinc did not know what the men were about when they were melting them, and making them into pipes, and when the work was distributed through the different shops among different hands. Here you have the sesquialtera and the mixture--hideous stops unless they are masked or hidden under a great weight of sound. If you tried them in the factory you would run out with your fingers in your ears, and cry, “ Lord deliver me from that sort of music! “ Then there are the flute stops, and the diapasons in their grand under tones. With all the different parts of the organ separately made, unconnected, nobody can tell what is coming except an experienced workman; but by-and-by, little by little, the frame is erected, the stops are all arranged and in connection with the wind-chest, and now that it is an organic whole every part plays into every other part. As a whole it is magnificent; but the separate steps were poor and weak and unsatisfactory. God makes stops on earth, but He builds the organ in heaven; and many a man will never know till he comes there what was the reason of that providence by which he was trained and fitted to be of that great band of music in the heavenly home. Thus far illustrated and explained the subject will give rise to some applications. And, first, no man should hunt after suffering any more than a man should hunt after sickness. Do not regard suffering as if it were in and of itself a means of grace. If it makes you better it will come of itself. Secondly, lower animal suffering is penalty for sin; but, going up the scale, it is not punishment, but the other way. Men suffer because they are so good; they are the vicarious sufferers for those who are not good, through sympathy, through pity, through endeavour to help them, through self-repression for the development of those that are round about. I have but one more thought, and that is final--not alone in this sermon, but final in creation. No imagination can conceive the wonder, the ecstasy, of the great hour of finding out. When we have borne our body, borne our allotted suffering and pain, borne our obscurity and our persecution, borne all the troubles that go to the making of manhood in this life, unrecognised, not rated according to our moral value, rated according to the law of selfishness in human society, when at last emancipated the pauper from the poorhouse, the debtor from the prison, the broken-down man in business, who has been living on the crusts of his former prosperity, mothers, nurses, servants, whose souls were greater than their places, when at last they shall come and stand in the light of the eternal heavens--oh, what a surprise, and oh, what a dismay, when the last tumble from their heights of imagined greatness, when the first shall be last, and the last first! But oh! when the suffering is all gone, and we come to find ourselves, and come to find that the work of life, racking, filing, sawing in various violent ways upon us, has made us perfect, and we stand in the light of the other life, to see the meaning of all that has taken place in our obscure life--oh, what an hour of joy and of consolation! (H. W. Beecher.) The ministry of sorrow: There is no fact in human life more certain than universality of suffering, and there is, perhaps, nothing for which man finds a greater difficulty to discover an adequate or satisfactory reason. The Bible does not solve the difficulty. The Bible deals with the subject practically, and only practically. The Bible never satisfies your speculative inquiry. No question is solved by the Book so as to answer everything that you can ask. It is only solved so that yon can live as faithful servants of the Eternal One. And the Bible shows us the relation of suffering to sin. But, finally, it bids us fall back upon God. He will do right, He will make all well, He is the great consoler of man. These are the three facts that lie in this text of ours: sorrow, discipline, love. I. THE OF GOD’ S MERCY DOES NOT ASSURE THE FROM THE LOT OF THE . It is perfectly true we may promise to him who accepts the gospel much joy and much pleasure. For a man to place himself in harmony with the Divine law; for him to say, “ No longer my will but Thine be done” ; for him to seek no more his ends but the Divine ends; he will find therein the peace, the calm, the quiet restfulness, enter his spirit, and will give him infinite delight. Now, this is true; but at the same time the believer will not be exempt from the conditions of distress. They will come. Natural griefs will be yours. The imperfections of his own character will distress him; the ideal that we sometimes set before us, and then the real that is ours; the picture that we would paint, and the unhappy daub that is often the result of our best endeavour; the beautiful garments that we would set upon ourselves--the garments of righteousness and glory--richer and brighter than the garments that the angels wear--and then the poor tattered rags of the righteousness that we have lost, and the smear and smirch of the secular wrong or the sensual vice into which we have fallen. Oh the disappointment through which life seems to pass until it shall reach the blessed consummation which you hope for! I promise you blessedness, infinite blessedness; but the sorrows will conic. II. THE OF THE ARE TO BE OF LIFE AND OF . They direct the soul to its true home and life. Life eternal, remember, is a quality; it is not merely a state; and you may enter into eternal life now. Your sorrows and your pains do not belong to the eternal life; and they are given to you that you may lift your spirit out of the surroundings of the present, and that you may clothe them with the glory and the blessedness that belongs to the life that lies beyond. Yes; and these sufferings limit and destroy the evil that remains. And think of the scope it gives for the practice and perfection of the Christian’ s virtues. III. THESE , BEING , ARE THE PROOFS AND THE RESULTS OF THE DIVINE LOVE. They are signs that God has not forgotten us. One of the most famous men of this city one day said to me: “ I know not how it is, I sometimes tremble at the success of my life. I have wealth beyond the dreams of avarice; I have success in business phenomenal even in these days of success; I have a satisfaction and joy in my family life and in all the relations of my public life that I cannot describe; I sometimes tremble with fear and apprehension.” Within six months that man was smitten--smitten in what was the dearest part of his own self-consciousness; charged with an unworthy action, charged with base behaviour, and held up to obloquy because of things done in his name over which he had no control, and for which he was not responsible, but for which he suffered. Ah! God had not forgotten him. What is God’ s will concerning you? It is not merely your joy; it is the bettering of your moral nature; it is the perfecting of all those virtuous characteristics that come out even in the midst of your sorrow. And it is always accompanied by some proof of peculiar favour. When sometimes your loved ones have entered into the place of sorrow, be silent; God is with them. “ Far off, far off, ye profane ones!” was the cry of the ancient priestess. So, sometimes, should be the cry to your own souls when the presence of God is manifested in the sorrows of those you love. This is the spirit in which we should receive it, and this is the forecast of its complete removal. For the work of chastisement shall be perfected. All the dealings of God with us shall issue in the attainment of the highest conceptions of the Christian life. And when sorrow shall have done its work, we shall have entered into that infinite life where death itself shall die, and sin itself shall be forgotten, the life that issued even out of the sins and the sorrows and the death of this. (L. D.Bevan, D. D.) Trouble for our good The dealings of the Lord, which seem so mysterious to us, may be and often are, the answer to some forgotten petition for spiritual gifts or grace which we have desired. (Anna Shipton.) Adversity the blessing of the New Testament: Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carried the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God’ s favour. (Lord Bacon.) Love in pain Years ago I went into the operating room of University College Hospital, and once saw one of the most skilled of our surgeons removing a limb. It was my first sight of the movement of the surgeon’ s knife. I could not keep back a shudder. It made me ill to note the writhing of the sufferer as the cruel instrument penetrated the quivering flesh. I looked at the surgeon’ s face. Not a muscle betokened anxiety. His gaze was steady, his spirit calm. His larger vision of the issues, the beneficent issues of his work, filled him with strength, steadied his nerve, and delivered him from weakening fear. The sight of his countenance made me strong. I could look to the end in calm self-control. So have I often found an unspeakable consolation in the joy of God. If He, the Lord of this pain-filled, care-laden, sin-fettered life, where misery and sin and shame abound, and the struggle is so keen, and the strife so dinning; if He is glad and blessed amid all this, it is because He sees all and knows all. (D. Clifford, D. D.) Afflictions precious: When Munster lay sick, and his friends asked him how he did, and how he felt himself, he pointed to his sores and ulcers (whereof he was full) and said, “ These are God’ s gems and jewels wherewith He decketh His best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world.” (J. Trapp.) Afflictions--tokens of Divine regard Lawns which we would keep in the best condition are very frequently mown; the grass has scarcely any respite from the scythe. Out in the meadows there is no such repeated cutting, they are mown but once or twice in the year. Even thus the nearer we are to God, and the more regard He has for us, the more frequent will be our adversities. To be very dear to God, involves no small degree of chastisement. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Divine discipline In Southern Europe grow the larches. When they were first introduced into England, the gardeners took it for granted that they needed warmth to cause them to grow; so they were placed in the hothouses, and at once began to wither and droop. The gardeners became disgusted, and threw them out of doors. They at once began to grow, and became trees of great beauty. So it ofttimes becomes necessary for Christ to throw us out of doors into the cold of reverses, disappointments, sorrow, and pain, that our Christian characters may be developed. It becomes at times necessary that God bring upon us sore trials and bereavements that we may be brought back to Him and His service. God does not willingly afflict His people; but in order to bless us it is often necessary to put us in a position to receive and to appreciate His blessings, though it may be through severe trials and galling crosses. (C. W. Bibb.) Divine discipline: Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things. Far up the mountain side lies a block of granite, and says to itself, “ How happy am I in my serenity--above the winds, above the trees, almost above the flight of the birds! Here I rest, age after age, and nothing disturbs me.” Yet what is it? It is only a bare block of granite, jutting out of the cliff, and its happiness is the happiness of death. By and by comes the miner, and with strong and repeated strokes he drills a hole in its top, and the rock says, “ What does this mean?” Then the black powder is poured in, and with a blast that makes the mountain echo, the block is blown asunder, and goes crashing down into the valley. “ Ah!” it exclaims as it falls, “ why this rending?” Then come saws to cut and fashion it; and humbled now, and willing to be nothing, it is borne away from the mountain and conveyed to the city. Now it is chiselled and polished, till, at length, finished in beauty, by block and tackle it is raised, with mighty hoistings, high in air, to be the top-stone on some monument of the country’ s glory. So God Almighty casts a man down when He wants to chisel him, and the chiselling is always to make him something finer and better than he was before. (H. W. Beecher.) Hebrews 12:7-8 If ye endure chastening Chastening: what is it? “ It is for chastening that ye endure” --such is the reading and translation in the R.V. That is the purpose sought and prized; an end that sufficiently justifies God in such dealing with His sons, and that sustains His sons in experience of His dealing. 1. But what is “ chastening” ? Supposing we had a word that meant child-training, son.training, and this under the direction of a father who would spare no pains necessary for its perfect realisation, we should have exactly the corresponding term. But unfortunately we have not, and so we are driven to put up with the poor substitute “ chastening.” The father knows his child, his capacities, and, therefore, all the possibilities that are locked up in his being; his opportunities as they lie in the pathway of life, and therefore his obligations; his propensities and habits, and therefore his perils; his hindrances and helps, and therefore his chances. The father yearns over his boy; labours to secure the highest outcome of his life; guards and directs him; will do anything and bear anything for his advancement. He wants him to be an ideal son; his pride and joy in every faculty and feature of excellence. He wants to “ make a man “ of him; so that the terms “ father” and “ son,” “ son” and “ father,” may never jar, as they dwell on each other’ s lips, but may be as choice music to the ear, as beauty to the eye. For that end, with that hope, all is planned, all is done. It is at once the father’ s care, he “ trains” ; and the son’ s ambition, he “ endures for the training.” The application is obvious. “ It is for chastening that ye endure” ; to be sons, not in name only, but in deed and in truth; to come up, to be urged up to the standard. Such an issue may well reconcile us to all the pains and humiliations of the “ chastening.” To have the mind enlarged, the heart purified, the life exalted, refined, transfigured! To lose all that is dross; to cast out all that is low and selfish! 2. Now for the word “ endure.” This is no tame word. It Jeans something widely different from insensibility, or proud defiance. These Hebrews had joyfully taken the spoiling of their goods, not that they did not value them, not that their loss was no privation, but that they knew in themselves they had a better and an enduring substance in heaven. They had a boldness, a confidence, an exultation even. “ Endurance” in them was the triumph of active faith in the recompense of reward. They were “ exercised,” much “ exercised” in their afflictions, and the “ exercise,” like a Divine alchemy, was turning every constituent of distress into gold. I. WHO DOUBTS THE NEED OF ? Sin in one or other of its myriad forms has aggravated all the imperfections of inexperience, so that we require far surer correction and direction than a childhood and youth of innocence had ever called for. II. WHO DOUBTS SHE SPIRIT IN WHICH THIS IS ? Dictated by love, directed by wisdom, aimed at the highest ends, it has every quality to keep us alike from despising it or fainting under it. III. WHO IS NOT DRIVEN TO SELF-? There is no talismanic power in afflictions, in pains and penalties, that of itself can correct and transform. Would we realise the” profit” our Father seeks, we must be “ exercised” by our chastening. It calls for thought, for reflection, for faithful survey of our life, with its temper, aims, and spirit. IV. WHO DOES NOT REJOICE IN THE ADVANCE OF AND GROWTH? The mastery of our evil tendencies, the due regulation of our desires, the elevation of our motives and aims, the higher and completer discharge of the claims of life, the stricter integrity, purity, and spirituality of our characters, the closer our likeness to Christ and our fellowship with God, these and kindred issues may well reconcile us to the pain, and sacrifice, and cost of the chastening, and make us “ kiss the rod” with all praise. (G. B. Johnson.) God’ s medicine: If a man be visited with a providential reverse of circumstances, if he be under oppression, if he be attacked by disease, if the delight of his eyes be taken away, methinks I hear God saying, “ Take this medicine; it is exactly suited to your case; weighed out by My own hand; take this medicine from Me.” (R. Cecil.) God dealeth with you as with sons Life an education I. GOD US BY MEANS OF OUR NEEDS. Man is born naked and defenceless; if he would live he must obtain shelter from torrid suns and piercing cold; he must provide himself with food and raiment; he must, by means of his wits, be able to defend himself against enemies infinitely more powerful than himself. How is it that man alone, of all God’ s creatures, is sent into the world unprovided with any of those things which are necessary to the support of physical life? It is because God dealeth with us as with sons. It is because life is meant to be to us, and to us alone, an education; and from the first we are pricked on by these goads of necessity. God has taken security that our work shall not be easy, that it shall not be mechanical; but that it shall tax our ingenuity and educe our mental powers to the uttermost. For man is born not only without instinct and without clothing, but without tools. Nature provides the lion with the claws and fangs which make it easy to seize its prey; the bee has in itself all the apparatus necessary for extracting honey, and carrying it, and building its cells, and acting out all its life-history; the spider has its wonderful film ready wound about its body, and the machinery for spinning many threads into one, and affixing it, and weaving its web; but man must first provide himself with external aid if he would hold his own, be it but a sharpened flint or a fishbone! Moreover, God has made man relatively one of the weakest of living things. His bodily powers are poor indeed compared with those of other creatures. What does it all mean? It means this, that God would educate us not chiefly in body, but in mind; it is by the brain that man has subdued the earth and become lord over all creation; it is the necessity of surmounting difficulties and guarding against dangers that has called forth all his resources and educated his faculties and perfected his powers. See, then, how large a part of man’ s education is due to his bare bodily necessities! In the endeavour to meet these he has invented all the industrial arts and sciences. And it is not only mental gifts which labour educes. Patience, endurance, forethought, courage--these and many other moral qualities are the outcome of that necessity for work which God lays upon us all. II. GOD MEN BY MEANS OF THEIR MENTAL NEEDS. He has implanted in nature that which awakens curiosity in man, and He has implanted in man a hunger and thirst after knowledge and truth, and the result is education. Man’ s intellectual needs are not less imperative than his physical requirements; they must be satisfied at any cost. He must know all about the flowers at his feet; the science of botany is the result. He raises his eyes to the stars above; their mystery perplexes him; generation after generation he struggles with this mystery till little by little the secrets of the sky are discovered, and the great science of astronomy is pieced together. Curiosity awakened by shells and fossils has led to geology; curiosity about the antecedents of our race has led to history, and so forth. It is thus with all those departments of knowledge which are not purely utilitarian; they are all the result of the desire for knowledge implanted in us by God, acted upon by external nature. And there is in man another intellectual appetite nobler than any of these, which is most powerful in evolving his higher nature--I mean the love of the beautiful. God has clothed hill and vale, mountain and lake, sea and sky, with splendour of colour and form of which the eye never wearies. And further He has put something in the human heart to which these things appeal; there is a strange correspondence between the human soul and the beauties of nature; they were made for one another; there was meant to be action and re-action between them. When gazing on a sunset sky or a lovely scene we realise our immortality as at no other time; we feel that they have a message from God for us. III. GOD US BY THE SORROWS AND TRIALS OF LIFE. In this matter also man’ s position is unique. The lower animals are almost exempt from suffering. It is true that they are liable to physical pain, but there is abundant evidence to prove that this pain is much less acute than in human beings, and in their case there is neither anticipation nor retrospection. But man, to whom was given the dominion over the brutes, man, who was made but a little lower than the angels, how different is his lot! He is “ born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward.” He alone has to endure those mental and spiritual griefs compared with which bodily sufferings are as nothing. All his life is leavened with pain, with forebodings, with vain regrets, with unsatisfied longings. Why is this? Because life is an education; because God dealeth with us as with sons. Men ask why sorrows are permitted. As well might the flower ask why clouds and stormy days are permitted. As well might one expect blossoms and fruit without rain as expect that men can bring forth the fruits of righteousness without the discipline of sorrow. The saintliest of men have been always those who have suffered most; and it behoved even the great Captain of our salvation to be made perfect through suffering in order to teach us that only be who drinks the bitter cup and bears the cross of shame can hope to wear the crown of glory. IV. GOD US BY OUR NEEDS. The most imperative want of our nature is to know God. Everywhere there is a belief in a God or gods, the instinct of worship, conscience more or less developed. Everywhere is felt the necessity of propitiating and being reconciled to the Invisible Power whom transgression has offended. And the more a man advances in holiness and moral greatness, the more is he impelled to make the thought of the Psalmist his own: “ Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God” ; “ My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” And while he is ever hungering after God with a hunger which nothing on earth can appease, conscience is ever urging him to a closer and closer walk with God, and yet he never feels that he has fully attained or is already perfect. What is the reason why these strange desires and instincts have been implanted in man? What but the truth our text teaches that God dealeth with us as with sons? Just as God has given in the book of Nature that which educes and partly satisfies man’ s intellectual needs, so He has given us in Holy Scripture that which educes and ministers to our spiritual needs. The correspondence between our craving for knowledge, and the revelation by which that craving is met, affords the clearest proof that both are from God, and that in sacred things as in secular the main purpose of our life is education. 1. It throws light upon the mystery of the present. This earth is but the lowest room in God’ s school; in other spheres and at other times the education which circumstances thwarted and hindered here will be carried on under happier circumstances. 2. And it throws light upon the mystery of the future. It affords one of the strongest arguments for a future life. For, of course, the education which is commenced here can be at best but in its initial stage when death removes us. (A. M. Mackay, B. A.) Correcting a son: Like as if two children should fight, and a man passing by should part them, and afterwards beat the one and let the other go free, every one that seeth this will say that the child which he beat is his own son: even so when God chastiseth us, if we submit. (Cawdray.) Adversity a purifier God often uses adversity as a purifier. The wintry snows that lie before my window here (at Saratoga) this morning will kill the vermin; so God sends wintry seasons upon His children to kill certain species of besetting sins. (T. L. Cuyler.) Severe discipline A child was taken ill with that dangerous disorder the croup. It was a child most ardently beloved, and, ordinarily, very obedient; but, in this state of uneasiness and pain, he refused to take the medicine which it was needful, without delay, to administer. The father, finding him resolute, immediately punished his sick and suffering son. Under these circumstances, and fearing that his son might soon die, it must have been a most severe trial to the father: but the consequence was, that the child was taught that sickness was no excuse for disobedience; and, while his sickness continued, he promptly took whatever medicine was prescribed, and was patient and submissive. Soon the child was well. Does any one say that this was cruel? It was one of the noblest acts of kindness which could have been performed. If the father had shrunk from duty here, it is by no means improbable that the life of the child would have been the forfeit. (W. Abbott.) The stripes of love: Fear not: these stripes are the tokens of His love. He is no son that is not beaten; yea, till he smart, and cry; if not, till he bleed. No parent corrects another’ s child; and he is no good parent that corrects not his own. O rod, worthy to be kissed, that assures us of His love, of our adoption. (Bp. Hall.) Hebrews 12:9-10 Subjection unto the Father of spirits Divine correction I. THE DUTY IS . “ Shall we not be in subjection?” This is not opposed to insensibility. There is no patience, no resignation, in bearing what we do not feel. If you do not prize what you give up at the call of God, there can be no value in your obedience. But it is the repression of everything rebellious--in our carriage--in our speech--and in the temper of our minds. II. Let us consider THE REASONS BY WHICH THIS DUTY IS . Here are four motives. 1. The first is derived from the relation in which God stands to us. He is our Father. But to what does this lead? The conclusion, says the apostle, is obvious. If He pre-eminently fills this relation, His claims to duty are proportionally great. You gave the fathers of your flesh reverence. And shall a man obtain more obedience than God? 2. This brings us to the second reason of submission. It is taken from the danger of resistance. “ Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?” Clearly intimating that disobedience will end in death. There cannot be a more awful presage of future misery than to counteract the afflictive dispensations of Divine Providence, and “ despise the chastening of the Almighty.” It provokes the anger of God, and operates penally in one of these two ways. Either, first, it induces God to recall the rod, and give a man up to the way of his own heart, or, secondly, He turns the rod into a scorpion, and fulfils the threatening: “ If ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me, then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.” 3. The third motive is taken from the brevity of the discipline. They verily chastened us; but it was only “ a few days.” The child soon became a man, and the course of restriction and preparation resulted in a state of maturity. This is to be applied to our heavenly Father, and contains an encouraging intimation, that the whole season of trial, when opposed to our future being and blessedness, is but a short period. 4. The last motive is derived from the principle and design of affliction. Men are imperfect, and their actions are like themselves. Hence, when as their children they chastened us, it was frequently “ for their pleasure.” They would do it. It was to give ease to their passions; to vent their feelings. It was to show their authority, or maintain their consequence, regardless of our welfare. But this is not the case with God. “ He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” He does it only “ if needs be” --He does it “ for our profit.” What profit? A profit that infinitely weighs down every other advantage, and which, above all things, yea, and by “ any means,” you should be anxious to secure: spiritual profit; Divine profit--“ that you might be partakers of His holiness.” If God chastens us to make us holy, we learn (1) The importance of holiness, and the value of it in the eye of a Being who cannot be mistaken. (2) We learn how defective we all are in this attainment; seeing God deems such trying means necessary, in order to promote it. (3) We learn that if anything can promise a happy deliverance from trouble, it is the sanctification of it: when the end is answered, the rod is laid by. (4) We learn that whatever our afflictions may do for us, they have not fulfilled the Divine purpose unless they have made us more holy. (W. Jay.) The purpose of Divine chastisements In nothing, perhaps, is it so hard to feel for ourselves and to help others to feel that God is good, as in life’ s great afflictions. We are so prone to look only at the present sorrow and forget the future joy. “ Why is this so? Can it be that there is mercy in such seeming wrath?” God condescends to reason with us, from the analogy of parental affection, drawing both argument and illustration. We have often felt the beauty of the methods elsewhere used for presenting the same essential truth, as, for example, where God compares Himself to the refiner of silver, melting His people down in the crucible of affliction to “ purge away their dross” ; but in this comparison is couched the beauty of an unutterable tenderness. He addresses our parental instincts, and asks us whether we do not ourselves know that love and chastening are not contradictory or inconsistent. I need not say that this doctrine of love as the impulse and interpreter of affliction is peculiarly Biblical. When calamity befell a pagan he beheld in it a mark of Divine displeasure, and at once set himself at work to appease the wrath of Deity. Even the ancient people of God were very slow to accept the right view of God’ s chastisements. I. The first element of contrast suggested by the text is this. OUR HUMAN PARENTS PUNISH , AND NOT ALWAYS . Without meaning to, without, perhaps, being conscious of it, they are sometimes simply giving vent to impatient, excited, or even angry feeling, in chastising their offspring. The impatient impulse, the caprice of the moment, rules us and puts into the correction the severity, it may be violence, of an indignation by no means wholly righteous. God is not susceptible of anything like passion as we understand it--either in its impulsiveness, impetuosity, malice, or malignity. Even God’ s anger is the unchanging hatred of evil--the anger of principle, not of passion--calm even in its fury, slow even in its haste, cool even in its heat. Our anger is like the agitation of a shallow lake, rippled with every breeze. All this is our assurance in affliction that God cannot deal harshly, severely, or unjustly with us. With the calmness of eternal patience, the steadfastness of eternal love, He afflicts us solely for our good. II. Again, our earthly parents chastise us AND NOT . They aim more to punish the offence than to correct the evil and reform the evildoer. Here is another way in which passion often inflicts chastisement. An earthly father is grieved and rightly angry because the son has offended against truth, virtue, honesty, integrity. This is a far nobler passion than the caprices of ill-temper, yet it is doubtful whether a parent can be sure of inflicting profitable correction under its influence. It hurries one into a method of punishment which hardens rather than softens which is ill-adapted to the peculiar temperament of the child, which may restrain from similar offences, if at all, only from fear of the rod, and not at all from love of the right. It should ever be borne in mind that the highest purpose of all punishment is not the vindication of a principle, but the reformation of an offender, or at least the salvation of others from similar sins. To contend for a principle is noble, but oh, how insignificant all else in comparison with the welfare of a soul! Oh, let us not forget that true love of the parent may help to kindle that true love of the right which is stronger than any fear of correction. The word here rendered “ chasten,” means educate. All God’ s chastening is meant to educate His children; His dealings are designed as a discipline. He must punish our offences; but the grand end He proposes to Himself is to secure our sanctification and salvation. God teaches us that with Him fatherly pity prompts His chastisements. In all God’ s afflictions He consults the exact temperament of His children. He knoweth our frame. It is one of the most palpable facts of history that the men who have wielded the mightiest moral influence have been prepared for it by the severest Divine discipline. No less means would have subdued that great will and made its stubbornness an element of steadfastness anti stability. A degree of heat that must melt down the harder metals is far more intense than that which melts the softest; yet when made into vessels, that which it took the hotter fire to fuse is far the stronger and more serviceable; while you can bend and twist the other, this is unaffected by hard usage. So does God use the chastening rod with tender consideration for our temperament and constitution, adapting His discipline to our need. If we desire the largest fitness for service, we must submit to His wise chastening. III. Again, our earthly parents chastens us , NOT ; according to their own fallible judgment of right and wrong. This thought is suggested in the text by the phrase, “ according to their own pleasure,” literally according to what seemed good or right to them. Parental love is imperfect, and so is parental wisdom, so that with the best possible intentions grave mistakes may be committed in a child’ s discipline. Hero appears perhaps the principal emphasis of the text: They, according to what seemed good: He, according to what is good for us. God reminds us that He cannot err. The chastening He inflicts is for our profit--and let us grasp the full meaning--not only for our profit is it designed, but adapted. Not what seems best, but what is best. Oh, let us remember the perfect fatherhood and fatherliness of God! This is the profit for which He chastens us, as He Himself defines it, “ that we might be partakers of the Divine holiness.” IV. Once more, our earthly parents chasten us , NOT , as the text says, “ for a few days.” This phrase means more than it seems to imply. It probably refers to the fact that much of our parental training looks to immediate results, not remote ones--it is with reference to a few days, or at most to our short earthly life. The effect is transient, not permanent. Now, God’ s chastening always looks to eternal results. That which is near at hand impresses us most vividly; we are therefore always emphasising present good and undervaluing the more precious things of the hereafter. How different must all this appear to God, whose omniscient eye sees the end from the beginning, and to whom the remotest future is as vivid as the present, the remotest result as real as the present process! (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Our virtues witnesses against us: There is a very interesting argument involved in this saying of the apostle--the argument from what we are as men to what we ought to be as Christians. A dutiful child submits meekly to a father’ s correction; why, then, do we not submit meekly to the correction of God? The mere fact of submission to the human goes far towards showing that it is not through any actual inability that we refuse submission to the Divine Parent. The reasoning, in short, is a reasoning from what men are as members of society to what they ought to be as creatures of God; and they may be brought under condemnation if they fail to act towards God, displaying Himself under certain characters, as they act towards their fellow-men, who bear those same characters, though only subordinately. And this reasoning is of very wide application--so that what we may term our social conduct will furnish overwhelming evidence against us at the last, if we are not found among those who have loved and served God. If God demand faith in His Word, are we not capable of believing? Are we not accustomed to believe, yea, and to allow our belief to influence our practice, whenever there is a sufficiency of testimony? And will not this, our capacity of believing, demonstrated as it is by facts of daily occurrence, justify our condemnation, if we fail to put faith in the declarations of Scripture? In like manner, if God demand from us gratitude and love, does He demand what we are unable to give? On the contrary, we are so constituted that we naturally feel thankful to a benefactor; and any one of us who could receive kindness, and yet show himself void of all affection towards the giver, would make himself an object of scorn and abhorrence, as wanting the common sensibilities which characterise our nature. If, then, God manifestly bring Himself into the position of a benefactor, it is very evident that He has right to ask from us in return gratitude and love; that in asking them He only asks what we continually prove ourselves able to give, and that, consequently, if we refuse what is asked of us, there will be needed nothing beyond our conduct in the several intercourses of life to prove us without excuse, if finally condemned for not giving God our hearts. And once more--if God asks obedience to His laws and submission to His authority, He asks only what we are in the daily habit of rendering to earthly superiors. He may surely appeal to our conduct in reference to earthly magistrates, as proving us without excuse if we wilfully violate His laws. Thus our text involves a principle of very general application; and we perhaps little think what material of condemnation we heap up against ourselves by the conscientious discharge of every relative duty, whilst we remain virtually strangers to the power of religion. Now, I have thus engaged you with the general argument, rather than with the particular case presented by the text. Now, however, we will confine ourselves to that case, the case being that of parents and children, and the implied argument, that the reverence which we show to our earthly father will be a swift witness against us, if we fail in the reverence which is due to our heavenly Father. There is no more beautiful and graceful affection of our nature than that which subsists between parents and children. We must admire this affection, even as exhibited amongst inferior animals. There is no page in natural history more attractive than that which tells how tenderly the wild beasts of the forest will watch their young, or with what assiduousness the fowls of the air will tend their helpless brood. And in the human race the affection goes far beyond this; for if not more intense at the first, it is abiding and reciprocal. And this affection of a parent for a child is not merely a graceful and beautiful sentiment, shedding a charm over the privacies of domestic life; it is one of the chief mainsprings of human activity, and contributes perhaps more than anything else to the keeping together the elements of society. It is quite extraordinary, if you come to think, how this single affection or instinct will tie down a man to unwearied occupation, so that he will toil night and day to gain subsistence for his family. He might betake himself to another scene, where, having only himself to provide for, he might live in comparative ease; but his young ones have nestled round his heart; he cannot be tempted by any prospect of relief to desert those who lean on him as a father, and therefore, with a heroism which would draw on itself intense admiration if it were not so common, will he employ all his energies, and wear down all his strength, in obtaining a sufficiency for those beneath his roof. Thus is society virtually knit together by and through the parental affection; and you have only to suppose this affection extinguished, so that fathers and mothers cared nothing, or only for a short time, for those to whom they gave life, and you destroy the fine play of a healthful activity, and slacken the bonds which make fast communities. And whilst parents are thus abidingly and profitably actuated by affection for their children, children maintain an affection towards their parents scarcely less graceful and scarcely less advantageous. This is not so much an instinct as a principle; and, accordingly, while the Bible contains no precept as to loving children, it contains a most express precept as to honouring parents, so that there is given to the latter the character of a high duty, to whose performance we are urged by a distinct and full promise. And the point to which I have to bring you is, that this duty is very generally and very faithfully performed. It is comparatively but seldom that children show want of affection towards a father and a mother, when that father and that mother have done their part as parents; whether it be in the highest or the lowest families of the land, there is generally a frank yielding to its heads of that respect and that gratitude which they have a right to look for from their offspring. There is no disputing the first statement of the text; for it is the general rule--“ We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.” But how now as to the inference which St. Paul draws from this statement? How as to our subjection to another and a higher Father, “ the Father of spirits” ? If it be the common rule, the exceptions not being such as to bring the rule into question, that children give reverence to their fathers, surely, if God be a Father, He too will be reverenced. Once establish the relationship, and the reverence and submission will follow almost of course. Children! listen ye to this; parents! listen ye to this--children, who are never wanting in dutiful affection towards your parents; parents, who are never unmindful of what you have a right to look for from your children--children, who will do all in your power to soothe the declining years of a father or a mother, who feel it a privilege to pay back by labours of love the tenderness lavished on you from infancy upwards, who attach a sacredness to the every word and the every wish of persons so beloved and revered; parents, who feel cat to the heart by the ingratitude of a child, who are conscious of being robbed of your incontrovertible rights, whenever a son or a daughter is deficient in attachment and respect--yes, children and parents, listen ye alike to this; ye are self-condemned, ye are swift witnesses against yourselves, if as members of the universal family ye fail to be what ye are as members of particular households; and oh! ye must be speechless at the judgment, if the simple “ argument of our text should be worked out against you--if the Judge should say to you, “ Ye had fathers of your flesh, and ye gave them reverence,” and should follow this up by the thrilling and unanswerable question, “ Why, then, were ye not in subjection to the Father of spirits, that ye might live?” I do not know whether you have been accustomed to follow for yourselves such trains of thought as the words of our text have thus led us to open; but we own that we regard the subject which has been under discussion as one of no common importance and interest, presenting, as it does, all that is amiable and admirable in domestic life as fraught with testimony to be delivered at the great day of assize. Is there the merchant amongst you of unimpeachable rectitude, who would sooner die than be guilty of a fraud? Why, that man’ s ledger is one of the books that shall be opened at the judgment; the hatred of everything base which it displays will be a witness against him if he have robbed God of His due. Is there the tradesman who would abhor the overreaching a customer, whom nothing could persuade to use the false weight and balance? Why, that man’ s shop will be referred to hereafter; it will prove him rigidly conscientious towards his fellow-men, and therefore self-condemned if he have defrauded his God. Or is there a patriot, who, with a fine love of liberty, would do and dare nobly to uphold the free institutions of his country? That man’ s generous ardour will be quoted hereafter; could he be indignant against all lesser tyranny, and yet be excusable in making no struggle against the tyranny of sin? Is there the son or the daughter amongst you who has shown reverence to parents? That man or that woman will have nothing to plead when God shall affirm Himself to be a Father, but a Father neglected by His children. Or are there servants amongst you who answer the apostle’ s description--“ Obedient to their own masters, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity” ? Their unblemished characters will rise against them at the judgment; so true to their employers, what shall be said for them if false to their Maker? Ah, it may sound strangely, but, nevertheless, we may confidently assert that virtues, the want of which must exclude us from heaven, may themselves doom us to a lower place in hell. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The Fatherhood of God in the sufferings of life This chapter contains one of the clearest expositions in the Bible of the Divine philosophy of suffering. In this chapter we trace two great convictions which, when combined, form the apostle’ s explanation of suffering--the belief in a Father, and the belief in His purpose to make man divinely glad. He does not attempt to explain this by any assertion of laws and penalties; he says nothing about inherited sin or transmitted judgment; his one solution is this--the Father is educating His child. I. THE PURPOSE OF LIFE’ S . II. GOD’ S PURPOSE IN IS TO EDUCATE MAN THROUGH INTO JOY. For the attainment of this end two things are requisite 1. The vision of a higher world. It is manifest that unless we are delivered from the thraldom of the present world, we cannot resist its temptations or escape its snares. Until we realise the world of God and the angels, we can reach no true holiness. And for this the discipline of sorrow fits us. It isolates us from the turmoil of the present, and opens the spirit’ s eye. 2. Divine power is the second requisite for the full attainment of this joy. Until we are strong, we cannot be “ partakers of His holiness.” We become strong by self-surrender, for self-surrender is self-control. We must glance at the practical lesson which is here suggested, “ Shall we not be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?” The question arises, How can this be realised? In three ways (1) By accepting the fact--by believing that all life is a discipline, that its sorrows and its joys are intended to train you into holiness, and therefore into blessedness. (2) By endorsing it with your choice. Choose what God has chosen for you. Heartily accept His will as your will. Ask neither for joy or sorrow, success or failure, life or death. (3) And then, lastly, by acting under that choice. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) The proper view and improvement of affliction I. THE LIGHT IN WHICH OUGHT TO BE VIEWED BY . 1. As coming from God. 2. As merited by our sins, 3. As the effect of fatherly wisdom and love. 4. With a desire that His gracious design may be fulfilled in us. II. THE WHICH HAS TO BENEFIT US. “ That we may be partakers of His holiness.” Now the way in which affliction tends to produce this great end Isaiah 1. By giving us a just idea, giving us a practical impression, of the evil of sin. 2. Affliction tends to convince us of the insufficiency of the present world. 3. Submission to the will of God. 4. Sympathy. 5. Affliction weans us from the world, and fixes our thoughts on another state. Lessons: 1. Let the afflicted derive comfort. 2. Let those who have been afflicted seriously consider what has been the effect of their trials upon themselves. If no effect has been produced, what can they expect but “ sorrow upon sorrow” ? (R. Hall, M. A.) Afflictions salutary I have read of a mariner who got tossed by the storm, lost his reckoning, and was driven he knew not whither by the raging winds and darkness and danger. But when all was calm and clear he found he was actually nearer home than he could possibly have been under ordinary circumstances. Shall not I be glad, when my night of storm and trial is past, to find (which I think I shall) that I am nearer God and heaven than I should otherwise have been? (Geo. Brazier.) The profitableness of chastisements: Absalom sends once or twice to Joab to come and speak with him; but when he saw that he could not come, he commands his corn-field to be set on fire and so he fetched him with a witness; so children of God, when they stand off upon terms, and will not see His face, the fire of affliction will make them seek Him early and diligently. It is the custom of our gallants, when their horses be slow and dull, to spur them up. If iron grows rusty, we put it into the fire to purify it, and so doth God; in our backwardness to duties, He pricks us on, or, being in our filthiness, casts us into the hot embers of tribulation to purify us. (John Barlow.) Suffering advantageous: There is a great want in those Christians that have not suffered. (R. M. McCheyne.) Afflictions salutary: Bitter pills bring sweet health, and sharp winter kills worms and weeds, and mellows the earth for better bearing of fruits and flowers. The lily is sowed in its own tears, and God’ s vines bear the better for bleeding. The walnut-tree is most fruitful when most beaten; and camomile, the more you tread it the more you spread it. Aloes kill worms, and stained clothes are whitened by frosting. (J. Trapp.) The Father of spirits: Men are not animals plus a soul, but spirits with an animal nature. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Submission John Newton said he would rather be able to pronounce these three sentences in his mother tongue from his heart than be master of all the languages of Europe: “ What Thou wilt; when Thou wilt; how Thou wilt.” Gratitude for affliction A lady, from injuries received in a railway accident, had to keep her bed in much pain and suffering for tong weary months. Upon the anniversary of the accident she gathered some of her most intimate friends into her room, and there, still a prisoner to her bed, she held a meeting of praise, counting up all the mercies of her year of sickness. (Mrs. Reaney.) Subjection to God A lady one day, in her husband’ s absence from home, lost two children by cholera; but she laid them out with a mother’ s tenderness, and spread a sheet over them, and waited at the door for her husband’ s return. “ A person lent me some jewels,” she said, when she met him, “ and he now wishes to receive them again; what shall I do?” “ Return them, by all means,” said her husband. Then she led the way, and silently uncovered to him the forms of his dear children. (C. Leach.) The accepted will of God: When Dr. Bushnell was dying, his wife repeated to him, slightly transposing the words of the text, “ The good and perfect and accepted will of God.” He replied, “ Yes, and accepted.” (Bushnell’ s Life.) Father teaches me: Passing through a narrow street in an old town, under the shadow of an equally old church, with its tall spire pointing heavenward, a woman hurries on her way to the station with a troubled heart and a load of care, none the less heavy that it is more worry than trouble. Two little mites of children, happy and merry-looking, are peering over their school-lessons. She catches the words of one as she passes, spoken with the ring of a child’ s loving pride, “ Father teaches me” ; and then comes the answer from the other child, “ How nice to have a father to teach you!” with an emphasis on the name which showed that she knew something, small though she was, of what a father’ s love and teaching might and should mean. The woman’ s face brightened as she heard, and she turned with a grateful smile to the two little ones, pausing to look at them for a minute before she went hurrying on again. And as she went her face kept its brighter look, for she thought to herself, “ Surely, many beside that little child can say, ‘ Father teaches me.’” That we might be partakers of His holiness The benefit of afflictions I. THE LIGHT IN WHICH OUGHT TO RE VIEWED, AND THE WITH WHICH THEY OUGHT TO BE . II. THEIR , WHEN THUS VIEWED AND , TO PROMOTE OUR . “ That we might be partakers of His holiness” ; that is, of the holiness which He requires. Holiness consists in conformity to the will of God. Afflictions have a tendency to promote the great work. 1. They teach you the evil nature of sin, on account of which they are sent, and point you to the Saviour. Practical lessons are the best of all lessons. 2. The utter insufficiency of this world, as a portion for the soul. In days of prosperity you may not be thoroughly convinced of this. 3. Afflictions excite and increase some of the most amiable and pious dispositions of the human heart. Such as resignation and patience. 4. When viewed in their true light, and received with a proper spirit, they are most satisfactory proofs of the love of God. Remarks: 1. In the light of this subject we see the reason why so many instances of affliction fail to produce any good and lasting effect. The agency of God is not acknowledged in them. 2. This subject furnishes solemn reproof and warning to such as have experienced affliction, and yet have not repented. 3. This subject affords instruction and peculiar encouragement to Christians. Those who wear the white robes in heaven came out of great tribulation. (John Matthews, D. D.) Sanctified affliction: The following is from a letter of John Frederic Obeilin, pastor of Waldbech, to a lady, who had suffered many bereavements: “ I have before me two stones, which are in imitation of precious stones. They are both perfectly alike in colour; they are of the same water--clear, pure, and clean; yet there is a marked difference between them as to their lustre and brilliancy. One has a dazzling brightness, while the other is dull, so that the eye passes over it, and derives no pleasure from the sight. What can be the reason of such a difference? It is this. The one is cut but in a few facets; the other has ten times as many. These facets are produced by a very violent operation. Nevertheless, the operations being over, it is done for ever: the difference between the two stones always remains strongly marked. That which has suffered but little is entirely eclipsed by the other, which alone is held in estimation, and attracts attention. The profit of adversity: Surely we deceive ourselves to think on earth continued joys would please. It is a way that crosses that which Nature goes. Nothing would be more tedious than to be glutted with perpetual jollities. Were the body tied to one dish always (though of the most exquisite flavour that it could make choice of), yet, after a small time, it would complain of loathing and satiety; and so would the soul, if it did ever epicure itself in joy. Discontents are sometimes the better part of our life. I know not well which is the more useful: joy I may choose for pleasure, but adversities, are the best for profit; and sometimes these do so far help me, as I should without them want much of the joy I have. (O. Feltham.) Sanctified affliction for the future: It is not so much by the symmetry of what we attain in this life that we are to be made happy, as by the enlivening hope of what we shall reach in the world to come. While a man is stringing a harp, he tries the strings, not for music, but for construction. When it is finished it shall be played for melodies. God is fashioning the human heart for future joy. He only sounds a string here and there to see how far His work has progressed.(H. W. Beecher.) The father loved for correction: On one occasion a minister found it necessary to punish his little daughter. But Mary climbed into his lap, and throwing her arms around his neck, said, “ Papa, I do love you.” “ Why do you love me?” the father asked. “ Because you try to make me good, papa.” It is in this spirit that God’ s people should accept the chastisements He sends, remembering that it is in love He rebukes and chastens; not for His pleasure, but for their profit, that they may be partakers of His holiness. Truth seen in adversity: A diamond had slipped from its setting, and rolled away, none knew whither. Diligent search was made in every apartment where its owner might have been, but in vain. At length evening drew on, and, sitting in a careless mood, her eye caught the sparkle of a tiny ray, almost imperceptible, but bright as only a diamond’ s glance can be. Out of the darkness it gleamed, and one might stoop and take that which daylight had failed to reveal, though sought with tears. And thus it is in the Christian’ s experience. In the daylight of prosperity he seeks in vain for the precious presence of the Holy Spirit. Yet when the night of adversity draws nigh, suddenly there shines a light amidst the darkness of spiritual despondency which reveals to him “ the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Hebrews 12:11 Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness Sweet fruit from a thorny tree: When our heavenly Father “ puts His hand into the bitter box” and weighs out to us a portion of wormwood and gall in the form of bodily pain, we very naturally ask the reason why. Nature suggests the question at times in petulance, and gets no answer; faith only asks it with bated breath, and gains a gracious reply. I. PAIN TEACHES US OUR . Health permits us to swell in self-esteem, and gather much which is unreal; sickness makes our feebleness conspicuous, and at the same time breaks up many of our shams. We need solid grace when we are thrown into the furnace of affliction; gilt and tinsel shrivel up in the fire. The patience in which we somewhat prided ourselves, where is it when sharp pangs succeed each other, like poisoned arrows setting the blood on flame? The joyful faith which could do all things, and bear all sufferings, is it always at hand when the time of trial has arrived? The peace which stood aloft on the mountain’ s summit and serenely smiled on storms beneath, does it hold its ground quite so easily as we thought it would when at our ease we prophesied our behaviour in the day of battle? When nought remains but the clinging of a weeping child, who grasps his father’ s hand; nothing but the smiting on the breast of the publican, who cries “ God be merciful to me a sinner” ; nought but the last resolve, “ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” --no real loss has been sustained, say, rather, a great gain has come to the humbled heart. II. HEAVY AND PAIN SHUT OUT FROM US A MINOR CARES. We cannot now be cumbered with much serving, for others must take our place, and play the Martha in our stead; and it is well if then we are enabled to take Mary’ s place as nearly as possible, and lie at Jesus’ feet if we cannot sit there. The Lord must do all, or it must remain undone. The weary head could only exaggerate the need; the sinking spirits could not suggest a supply. All must be left; yes, must be left. The reins drop from the driver’ s hands, the ploughman forgets the furrow, the seed-basket hangs no longer on the sewer’ s arm. Thus is the soul shut in with God as within a wall of tire, and all her thought must be of Him, and of His promise and His help; grateful if but such thoughts will come, and forced if they come not just to lie as one dead at the feet of the great Lord and look up and hope. This cutting loose from earthly shores, this rehearsal of what must soon be done once for all in the hour of departure, is a salutary exercise, tending to cut away the hampering besetments of this mortal life, and make us freer for the heavenly race. III. HAS CAUSED MANY WORKERS TO BECOME MORE INTENSE WHEN THEY HAVE AGAIN BEEN TO RETURN TO THEIR PLACE. We lie and bemoan our shortcomings, perceiving fault where it had in healthier hours escaped observation, resolving, in God’ s strength, to throw our energies more fully into the weightiest matters, and spend less of force on secondary things. How much of lasting good may come of this! The time, apparently wasted, may turn out to be a real economy of life if the worker for years to come shall be more earnest, more careful, more prayerful, more passionately set upon doing his Lord’ s business thoroughly. Oh that we could all thus improve our forced retirements! Then should we come forth like the sun from the chambers of the east, all the brighter for the night’ s chill darkness, while about us would be the dew of the Spirit, and the freshness of a new dawning. IV. PAIN, IF , CREATES TOWARDS OTHERS. Alone it may harden and shut up the man within himself, a student of his own nerves and ailments, a hater of all who would pretend to rival him in suffering; but, mixed with grace, our aches and pains are an ointment supplying the heart, and causing the milk of human kindness to fill the breast. The poor are tender to the poor, and the sick feel for the sick when their afflictions have wrought after a healthful fashion. Grief has been full oft the mother of mercy, and the pangs of sickness have been the birth-throes of compassion. If our hearts learn sympathy, they have been in a good school, though the Master may have used the rod most heavily, and taught us by many a smart. V. PAIN HAS A TO MAKE US WHEN HEALTH RETURNS. We value the powers of locomotion after tossing long upon a bed from which we cannot rise, the open air is sweet after the confinement of the chamber, food is relished when appetite returns, and in all respects the time of recovery is one of marked enjoyment. As birds sing most after their winter’ s silence, when the warm spring has newly returned, so should we be most praiseful when our gloomy hours are changed for cheerful restoration. Gratitude is a choice spice for heaven’ s altar. It burns well in the censer, and sends up a fragrant cloud, acceptable to the great High Priest. Perhaps God would have lost much praise if His servant had not much suffered. Sickness thus yields large tribute to the King’ s revenue; and if it be so, we may cheerfully endure it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The effects of sorrow It is of sorrow I would speak. None can escape it. A man unacquainted with suffering would be a monstrous exception. You have doubtless seen the famous painting of a modern artist, “ The Call of the Condemned, during the Reign of Terror.” The prisoners, already sentenced by the revolutionary tribunal, are there, huddled up together in the vast hall and beneath the low arches of the Conciergerie. In the background, the door stands open, and the jailer, behind whom the fatal chariot is visible, reads the names written upon the list of death. All listen; some have already risen and press the hands of their friends in a farewell grasp; others, whose countenance is ghastly and full of anguish, wait; others veil their feelings beneath stoical scorn; they seem to say, “ To-day or to-morrow, what matters? It is but a question of time.” Thus it is with each of us; we are doomed to suffer; none of us is forgotten on the roll of the elect of affliction. Well! here is a strange fact: this question of suffering, the most universal and individual, the most ancient and actual of all questions, remains one of those which natural reason is absolutely incompetent to elucidate. Interrogate the ancient world, the Greek or Roman societies with their most illustrious philosophers, and you will find that every one of them, in presence of suffering, has but one of two counsels to give man: dissipation with Epicurus, or indifference with the stoic Zeno. I cannot, however, forget that some few more clear-sighted souls have seen in affliction a mysterious instrument of Providence, a means of education for man; but these were only stray gleams, like flashes of lightning illumining the darkness of ancient philosophy. This is what Seneca writes to a mother who had lost her son by death: “ Prejudice, which causes us to mourn so long, leads us further than nature commands. See how vehement are the regrets of dumb animals, yet how short is their duration! Cows that have lost their offspring moan but two or three days; mares pursue their wild and wandering course no longer. When the savage beast has followed the traces of her young and scoured the forest in every direction, when she has returned time after time to the den ravaged by the hunter, her fierce grief is very soon appeased. The bird that whirls with startling cry round her empty nest is quieted in an instant, and resumes her wonted flight. No animal long regrets its young; man alone loves to nurse his sorrow, and grieves, not by reason of what he feels, but in proportion as he has determined to grieve” (“ Consolation to Marcia,” ch. 7.). Having read this page, open the gospel and, with adoration, acknowledge the debt of gratitude you owe to Jesus Christ. According to Holy Writ, suffering is neither a simply natural phenomenon nor an effect of the primordial will of the Creator. According to Scripture it is an anomaly. God did not ordain it; in the beginning God beheld His work, and lo, it was good. Suffering is the logical, inevitable consequence of the false relation in which man has placed himself with God (Hosea 14:2). But, if Scripture lays down this grand general principle that suffering is the consequence of sin, it affirms, none the less clearly, that in our earthly life sin and suffering are never fully equivalent; it forbids our drawing from exceptional affliction the inference of exceptional guilt; it interdicts our taking the Divine balance into our own hands and interpreting the judgments of God according to our imperfect knowledge of things. Such, in a few words, is the teaching of Scripture on what we might call the theoretical side of the problem of suffering. But if, looked at in this light, this teaching appears to us measured and limited; everything changes when we look at it from a practical point of view. Here light abounds: when we endeavour to demonstrate the providential action of suffering, its salutary effects upon souls, the various and often sublime ends to which God makes it serve, we feel that lessons gush forth from every detail, and that we are verily at the school of the Divine Educator. Let us, first of all, lay down a principle: Suffering in itself is not good. Suffering is what we make it. It can produce humiliation or revolt, it regenerates the heart or renders it a thousand times more vile; it is the pensive and gentle angel that brings us back to the true life, or the demon that beholds with a cynical sneer the nothingness of all hope; it causes the sacred source of repentant sorrow to gush forth, or, like a consuming fire, it parches and withers in the depth of the soul all the germs of the future. It is blessed or accursed, it raises to a new life or it kills. The two wretches agonising upon Calvary, one on Christ’ s right hand and one on His left, are both crucified, but the one believes whilst the other blasphemes; the one repents whilst the other hardens his heart. In consequence, the point to be solved is, not only if we suffer, but if we accept affliction as coming from God. For those who bear suffering in this spirit I would show what it may be and what are the fruits it may yield. In the first place, I say that affliction gives us a fuller understanding of religious truth, Not that it teaches us anything which is absolutely new, but it makes realities of those beliefs which are often in danger of being considered by.us as pure abstractions. You will be convinced of this if, for a moment, you examine the notion which sorrow gives us of God, of others, and of ourselves. As regards the truth concerning God. For many God exists only as a cardinal notion, in truth, but as a mere notion nevertheless. What is required that He may reveal Himself to such, as a living and present Being, that truly religious faith may be joined, henceforth, to purely intellectual faith? A profound thinker (Schleier-reacher) has told us, Man must feel that he is dependent upon Him. Religion comes into existence together with the sentiment of dependence. Now, what is most sure of producing this sentiment within us? Affliction. Just as the darkness of night unveils to our gaze the splendours of the starry heavens, even so it is in the gloom of trial, in that night of the soul, that the eye of faith most clearly discerns the glories of Divine love. As regards the truth concerning men. This demands no proof. At all times it has been said: We know men only when we have suffered. As regards the truth concerning ourselves. Does a man know himself when he has not suffered? Does he take a serious view of evil when he has not felt its pangs? Can he have a correct idea of his weakness when he has not been vanquished? If death is the wages of sin, suffering is its humiliating earnest, and we may well discern in it the cruel effigy of the master to whom we have sold ourselves. Therefore affliction gives us a fuller understanding of the truths concerning ourselves, our fellow-men, and God. It does more, it acts upon conscience, it subdues the will. Would the idolatrous Canaanite ever have thought of coming to Christ if her heart had not been rent by the fearful spectacle of her demon-possessed daughter? Would Jairus, ruler of the synagogue, have called the Saviour if he had not seen his child in the agony of death? Count those who followed Jesus during His ministry upon earth, question the innumerable multitudes which compose His retinue throughout the ages, and you will see that most of His disciples went to Him because they suffered. And as suffering has begun the work of their salvation, it serves also to continue and perfect it. Without it, pride, self-will, guilty passion would spring up again like vivacious roots, but the hand of the Divine husbandman passes and cuts them off, and the sap of life, which would spread with so much vigour in wrong directions, is forced to rise and spread itself out in holy affections. Thirdly, I have indicated the action of suffering upon the heart. We must consider this side of our subject for a few moments. There is a fact which we may observe daily; it is this: when a man is for the first time smitten with disease, for the first time also he thinks that others suffer like himself; this is for him a sort of discovery; he knew the name of the disease which lays him low, but he did not really believe in its existence. We have heard of deaf and blind individuals, of persons who have suddenly become poor; we have felt for them a sincere sentiment of superficial commiseration, but if we are unexpectedly threatened with one or other of these terrible trials, then the image of those whom it has before smitten starts up before our eyes, we are surprised to find they are so many, we reproach ourselves with having too long ignored them. From this experience flows sympathy, that Divine sentiment which signifies that we suffer with others, and which has become the mightiest power of consolation the world has ever known. It is to the afflicted that God has entrusted the sublime mission of consolation; the terms widow and deaconess originally signified one and the same thing, and, in the order of joy, as in the order of mercy, it is the prerogative of the poor that they are called to enrich others. What is it, in reality, that has produced the Church and transformed the world? A unique, incomparable, inexpressible grief which has found its consummation in the sacrifice of the Cross. Finally, I have said that affliction is the means which God makes use of to awaken and entertain within us the sacred life of hope. Hope is that virtue of the soul by which we affirm that the future belongs to God. Christian hope lies not at the soul’ s surface, it dwells in its innermost depths, and appears, radiant and strong, in the hour when all things fail us. Now, is it not evident that hope is the daughter of affliction? It is not those that are satisfied who hope. Those that are satisfied find their reward here below, as Jesus Christ tells Matthew 5:5-16), and that is the manifest sign of their condemnation. See the Jewish nation under the old dispensation: two nations mingle in this one nation. Throughout the history of the Church I find these two nations; if the Church is still standing, if she has not died, dishonoured by the ostentation, pride, and pollution of her representatives on the earth, by so many crimes perpetrated in the name of Jesus Christ, we owe it to those of her children who from age to age have maintained the sacred tradition of voluntary suffering and of sacrifice, and who have never ceased to expect the reign of God in righteousness and in truth. There exists, in the Roman Catholic religion, an institution which has always impressed me strongly: it is what is called perpetual adoration: in certain monastic orders, nuns relieve one another day and night, so that there are continually some praying before the Holy Sacrament. (E. Bersier, D. D.) Chastisement--now and afterwards I. First, we have very clearly in the text SOME . 1. Keeping literally to the words of the text, we observe that all which carnal reason can see of our present chastisement is but seeming. “ No chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.” All that flesh and blood can discover of the quality of affliction is but its outward superficial appearance. We are not able by the eye of reason to discover what is the real virtue of sanctified tribulation; this discernment is the privilege of faith. How very apt we are to be deceived by seemings! Understand that all that you can know about trial by mere carnal reason is no more reliable than what you can discover by your feelings concerning the motion of the earth. Nor are our seemings at all likely to be worth much when you recollect that our fear, when we are under trouble, always darken, what little reason we have. I remember one so nervous that, when going up the Monument, he assured me that he felt it shake. It was his own shaking, not the shaking of the Monument; but he was timid at climbing to an unusual height. When you and I under trial get so afraid of this and afraid of that that we cannot trust the eyesight of the flesh, we may rest assured of this, that “ things are not what they seem.” Besides, we are very unbelieving, and you know how unbelief is apt always to exaggerate the black and to diminish the bright. Added to this, over and above our unbelief there is a vast amount of ignorance, and ignorance is always the mother of dismay and consternation. In the ignorant times in this country men were always trembling at their own superstitions. 2. The text shows us that carnal reason judgeth afflictions only “ for the present.” “ No chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous.” It judges in the present light, which happens to be the very worst in which to form a correct estimate. Suppose that I am under a great tribulation to-day--let it be a bodily affliction--the head is aching, the mind is agitated, am I in a fit state then to judge the quality of affliction with a distracted brain? 3. This brings me to observe that since carnal reason only sees the seeming of the thing, and sees even that in the pale light of the present, therefore affliction never seemeth to be joyous. If affliction seemed to be joyous, would, it be a chastisement at all? (1) It never seems to be joyous in the object of it. The Lord always takes care, when He does strike, to hit in a tender place. (2) Nor is it joyous in the force of it. (3) Nor as to the time of it. (4) Nor as to the instrument. 4. Nay, more, the text assures us that every affliction seemeth to be grievous. Perhaps to the true Christian, who is much grown in grace, the most grievous part of the affliction is this. “ Now,” saith he, “ I cannot see the benefit of it; if I could I would rejoice. Instead of doing good, it really seems to do harm.” “ Such a brother has been taken away just in the midst of his usefulness,” cries the bereaved friend. A wife says, “ My dear husband was called away just when the children needed most his care.” 5. But now let me add that all this is only seeming. Faith triumphs in trial. There is a subject for song even in the smarts of the rod. For, first, the trial is not as heavy as it might have been; next, the trouble is not so severe as it ought to have been, and certainly the affliction is not so terrible as the burden which others have to carry. II. We have spoken of sore afflictions; well, now, next we have BLESSED FRUIT-BEARING. 1. I want you to notice the word which goes before the fruit bearing part of the text. “ No chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless.” Now what does that mean? That this fruit-bearing is not natural--it is not the natural effect of affliction. Trials breed discontent, anger, envy, rebellion, enmity, murmuring, and a thousand other ills; but God overruleth and makes the very thing which would make Christians worse to minister unto their growth in holiness and spirituality. It is not the natural fruit of affliction, but the supernatural use to which God turns it in bringing good out of evil. 2. And then observe that this fruit is not instantaneous. “ Nevertheless,” what is the next word?” Afterwards.” Many believers are deeply grieved because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions. Well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree which you have planted but a week. 3. Well, now, you will note in the text a sort of gradation with regard to what affliction does afterwards. “ It brings forth fruit” ; that is one step. That fruit is “ the fruit of righteousness” ; here is an advance. That righteous fruit is “ peaceable” ; this is the best of all. III. And now for the third point, and that is SONS. “ Nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them which are exercised thereby.” It is not every Christian who gets a blessing from affliction, at least, not from every affliction that he has. I conceive that the last words are inserted by way of distinction--“ those that are exercised thereby.” You know there are some of the Lord’ s children who, when they get a trouble, are not exercised by it, because they run away from it. There are others who, when under trouble, are callous and do not yield; they bear it as a stone would bear it; the Lord may give or take away, they are equally senseless; they look upon it as the work of blind fate, not as the fruit of that blessed predestination which is ruled by a Father’ s hand. They get no benefit from tribulation; it never enters into them, they are not exercised by it. Now, you know what the word “ exercised” means. In the Greek gymnasium the training master would challenge the youths to meet him in combat. He knew how to strike, to guard, to wrestle. Many severe blows the young combatants received from him, but this was a part of their education, preparing them at some future time to appear publicly in the games. He who shirked the trial and declined the encounter with the trainer received no good from him, even though he would probably be thoroughly well flogged for his cowardice. The youth whose athletic frame was prepared for future struggles was he who stepped forth boldly to be exercised by his master. If you see afflictions come, and sit down impatiently, and will not be exercised by your trials, then you do not get the peaceable fruit of righteousness; but if, like a man, you say, “ Now is my time of trial, I will play the man; wake up my faith to meet the foe; take hold of God; stand with firm foot and slip not; let all my graces be aroused, for here is something to be exercised upon” ; it is then that a man’ s bone and sinew and muscle all grow stronger. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The good fruits of afflictions I. WHAT ARE THOSE FRUITS OF WHICH THE DIVINE ARE SENT TO PRODUCE. 1. The mortification of our sinful lusts. 2. A more warm and active zeal and diligence in all the great duties of life and religion. 3. Another good fruit of affliction is manifest in the visible growth and improvement of those particular virtues and graces in which we have been too deficient. (1) One great design of affliction is to revive our regards to God; and to engage us to seek our happiness from and fix our dependence only upon Him. (2) Another Christian virtue which afflictions are very proper to cultivate is humility. (3) Patience is another grace that is often much improved by afflictions. For without them it could have no exercise or trial. (4) Another Christian grace which afflictions are sent to exercise and strengthen is faith. (5) Submission and resignation to the will of God is another Christian grace that is often much improved by affliction. (6) An increase of heavenly-mindedness is another good fruit that is often produced by afflictions. And to produce this indeed they have the directest tendency. For when the soul is well weary of this world it will naturally begin to look out, and long for a better. II. WHY THESE ARE CALLED THE FRUITS OF . 1. Because they will help us to bear afflictions with the most quiet and peaceable temper of mind whilst we are under them. 2. Because they give it an habitual peace and serenity afterwards, III. WHO THEY ARE ON WHOM HAVE THIS HAPPY EFFECT. 1. It is most certain that all who are under afflictions do not receive benefit by them. 2. It is not every good man that reaps all those advantages by his afflictions I before mentioned. 3. The meaning is that the Divine discipline has this design and tendency, that afflictions are in their own nature a powerful expedient to reform the mind and make the heart better, and to procure the greatest spiritual benefit to those who are exercised thereby. And 4. That they actually have this effect upon those who take a proper care to improve them. They take effect the same way that all other means do, that is, by being carefully used, attended to, and improved by us. IV. WHAT IS ON OUR PART TO PROCURE THESE HAPPY FRUITS OF , or in what manner we are to behave that they may actually yield to us the peaceable fruits of righteousness whenever we are exercised thereby. 1. The first thing necessary on our part in order to improve affliction is serious thought or deep self-reflection. 2. A constant watchfulness under our afflictions is equally necessary to our receiving real good from them. 3. Another means to get good by afflictions is frequent and persevering prayer. Conclusion: 1. We hence learn that it is a great mistake to think, as some good Christians are ready to do, that all afflictions are sent in a way of anger, and are tokens of God’ s. 2. From what hath been said upon this subject we may distinctly see what it is to have afflictions sanctified. Afflictions are then sanctified, and then only, when they increase our love to God, our humility, our patience, our faith, resignation, and heavenly-mindedness. 3. What reason have we to adore the wisdom and goodness of our heavenly Father in laying His children under those afflicting dispensations which are necessary to their true interest? 4. What hath been said may tend to prepare us to meet the future sufferings of life and teach us how to bear them. 5. How little reason have we to he very fond of a world so subject to vicissitude, anxiety, and sorrow! (John Mason, M. A.) Beating out the air bubbles: The first time I went to a potter’ s house was in a very remote part of the Southern States. I do not know that what I witnessed there was a fair sample of the ruder forms of pottery, but I judge it was. I had never seen a vessel shaped on the wheel before, and I asked the potter to let me see him make one. He took a little lump of clay, but instead of putting it immediately on the wheel, he took it in one hand and began to give it very heavy blows with his fist. I almost thought he was angry with the poor clay before him, and I said, “ What are you doing with it? I thought you were going to make a vessel.” “ So I am, when I get it ready. I am getting the air bubbles out of it. If I were to put it on the wheel as it is, it would be spoiled ill a few moments. One of those little bubbles would mar all my work. So I beat it and beat it, and in this way get all the air out of it.” Ah! I thought, so does God have to treat us. The great difficulty with us is those little bubbles of self-conceit, of our own self-will, and sometimes of our self-righteousness--something that, in the process of God’ s work, would wonderfully mar it. So He has to deal with us severely; but He is not angry with the poor clay before Him. He is not angry with us when He puts us through this process of adversity. He is only getting out of us all that would mar His blessed work. How wise it is, then, for us just to accept, with perfect simplicity, His will! The use of a clouded sky A sky never clouded would cause a barren earth. (Good Words.) Experimental religion learned in sorrow: Dr. Bushnell lost a son. When, a year or two after, he went into the country to preach for an old friend, the latter noticed an increased fervour in his preaching, and, in intimate talk, perhaps, alluded to it, when he said, earnestly, “ I have learned more of experimental religion since my little boy died than in all my life before.” (Dr. Bushnell’ s Life.) Now and afterwards: So it must ever be. Day out of night, spring out of winter, flowers out of frost, joy out of sorrow, fruitfulness out of pruning, Olivet out of Gethsemane, the ascension out of Calvary, life out of death, and the Christ that is to be out of the pangs of a travailing creation. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.) Advantage of adversity: Of Anna, Lady Hacket, it was said that as a ball when forcibly struck down rebounds the higher, so what had beaten down her worldly hopes raised her faith to a more steadfast persuasion that God, who is the Comforter of those who are cast down, would still be her God and guide unto death. (H. Clissold, M. A.) Afflictions winning the heart for God I have been all my life like a child whose father wishes to fix his undivided attention. At first the child runs about the room, but his father ties up his feet; he then plays with his hands until they likewise are tied. Thus he continues to do, till he is completely tied up. Then, when he can do nothing else, he will attend to his father. Just so has God been dealing with me to induce me to place my happiness in Him alone. But I blindly continued to look for it here, and God has kept cutting off one source of enjoyment after another, till I find that I can do without them all, and yet enjoy more happiness than ever in my life before. (E. Payson.) Affliction sanctified Ulrich Zwingle was a convinced reformer, and a self-denying pastor, before the plague broke out in Zurich, but that visitation was to him as life from the dead. He had returned hastily, while still an invalid, from a watering-place where he was seeking health, to minister to the dying, till struck down by the scourge himself; but when he rose again, it was with such a sight of spiritual things, and such a power of ministry, as he had never had before, so that two thousand of his fellow-citizens were soon after converted by his preaching. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Uses of pain: Robert Hall, although he had been admitted to membership in his father’ s church at fourteen years of age, after “ a very distinct account of his being the subject of Divine grace,” believed that his moral transformation was effected much later by means of the terrible discipline of pain which interrupted his ministry, and even for a time unhinged his reason. “ There can be no question that from this period he seemed more to live under the prevailing recollection of his entire dependence upon God, that his habits were more devotional than they had ever before been, his spiritual exercises more frequent and more elevated.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Divine harmony out of discord As musicians sometimes go through perplexing mazes of discord in order to come to the inexpressible sweetness of after chords, so men’ s discords of trouble and chromatic jars, if God be their leader, are only preparing for a resolution into such harmonious strains as could never have been raised except upon such undertones, Most persons are more anxious to stop their sorrow than to carry it forward to its choral outburst. (H. W. Beecher.) Divine tuning: Men think God is destroying them because He is tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the siring upon the musical rack. (H. W. Beecher.) The afterward of trial The Rev. James Hog, of Carnock, an eminent minister, was long under deep mental distress. When he had lived in Holland for a considerable time, it pleased God unexpectedly to impart a great measure of light to his mind. “ Oh, how sweet,” says he, “ the light was to me, who had been shut up in a dark dungeon! for sometimes I could do nothing but cry, ‘ Send out Thy light and Thy truth.’ After I had thus cried, not without some experience of a gracious answer, and expectation of more, I quickly found my soul brought out of prison, and breathing in a free and heavenly air; altogether astonished at the amazing mercy and grace of God.” The schemes of Providence but partially seen: There is a striking passage in which a great philosopher, the famous Bishop Berkeley, describes the thought which occurred to him of the inscrutable schemes of Providence, as he saw in St. Paul’ s Cathedral a fly moving on one of the pillars. “ It requires,” he says, “ some comprehension in the eye of an intelligent spectator to take in at one view the various parts of the building in order to observe their symmetry and design. But to the fly, whose prospect was confined to a little part of one of the stones of a single pillar, the joint beauty of the whole, or the distinct use of its parts, was inconspicuous. To that limited view the irregularities on the surface of the hewn stone seemed to be so many deformed rocks and precipices.” That fly on the pillar, of which the philosopher spoke, is the likeness of each human being as he creeps along the vast pillars which support the universe. The sorrow which appears to us nothing but a yawning chasm or hideous precipice may turn out to be but the joining or cement which binds together the fragments of our existence into a solid whole! That dark and crooked path in which we have to grope our way in doubt and fear may be but the curve which, in the full daylight of a brighter world, will appear to be the necessary finish of some choice ornament, the inevitable span of some majestic arch! (Dean Stanley.) After the tempest: Keen students of nature, and especially of marine life in all its forms, often welcome the tempest, because after it they frequently get their choicest specimens. In the journal of the late Dr. Coldstream it is thus written: “ This morning, as the storm had subsided, I determined to go down to the sands of Leith, that I might revel in the riches that might have been cast up by the deep after the terrible storm.” So it is with believers; their very richest experiences and the choicest tokens of Divine favour are often got in and after their stormiest trials. Hebrews 12:12-13 Lift up the hands which hang down Christian compassion: The words of the text are taken from Isaiah 35:3-4, and are addressed to the believing Hebrews as an admonition to comfort and encourage one another. The disheartened among them are compared to such as had been running in a race, or sustaining a protracted conflict till their knees began to tremble, and their hands to hang down: and in this condition, those who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. I. NOTICE THE STATE OF THOSE WHO ANSWER TO THE GIVES IN THE TEXT. Were we to compare Christians in general of the present day with those of the first ages, it would appear that they are grown weak and faint. We have but little of the zeal and activity which characterised the primitive Church. The description, however, is more particularly applicable to certain individual cases and characters amongst us, who need the compassion of their brethren, under their various difficulties and discouragements. 1. Some are ready to faint under difficulties and troubles of a worldly nature. 2. Some are discouraged through distrust, and groundless fears of future ills. 3. Others are distressed not only with the difficulties of life, but from being under the chastening hand of God. 4. Some are disheartened by repeated opposition from the enemies of religion. 5. Some are greatly discouraged by inward conflicts, arising from the evil propensities of their own hearts. 6. A departure from evangelical truth has weakened the strength of some by the way, and left them shorn of their dignity and glory. 7. The despondency of some good people arises no doubt from a natural gloominess in their constitution, which disposes them to dwell on the dark side of every subject rather than on the other. II. THE DUTY OF TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER UNDER THESE . “ Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” 1. In order to perform this duty aright, it is necessary to exercise much tenderness and forbearance towards those who are labouring under great discouragements. Let the strong bear the infirmities of the weak, remembering that they are a part of the mystical body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:21; 1 Corinthians 12:25). The compassionate tenderness of the great Shepherd of the flock is left as a pattern for our imitation (Isaiah 40:11;Matthew 12:20). 2. Another way in which our compassion may be exercised is to point out to one another the directions and consolations of the gospel, according as the case may require; and here the tongue of the learned is necessary to speak a word in season to him that is weary. 3. Let us be concerned to remove the stumbling-block out of the way, and so to “ make straight paths for their feet.” Let us learn from hence: 1. That all our difficulties and discouragements in the ways of God arise from ourselves, and from the evil that is in the world. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. 2. How lovely and how interesting is Christian society, whose object it is to strengthen and encourage each other in the way to heaven; and how wretchedly defective must it be, if it has not this tendency! 3. How essential to the Christian character are brotherly kindness, charity, and a disinterested but affectionate concern for the spiritual and everlasting welfare of our fellow-Christians! (Theological Sketch Book.) Of conquering discouragements: Hands which hang down--that is the gesture of discouragement. Gesture addresses itself to the eye. Articulate speech addresses itself to the ear. Both tell the thoughts, feelings, purposes of the inner spirit. Consider I. WHY IS. 1. Ill health is a very frequent reason for a discouraged mood. 2. Necessary reaction from a great strain is a frequent reason for discouragement. 3. The slighter disappointments of life in most real way shadow the spirits. There are days when the sky wears a steadily disappointing grey, and when an east wind of discouragement blows steadily through all its hours. 4. The haunting fear that in some great matter which vitally affects us we have made mistake is a frequent cause of discouragement. 5. Hostile circumstances are causes of discouragement. 6. A frequent cause of spiritual discouragement is allowed sin. We talk about the hiding of God’ s face from us. Oftener we have ourselves hidden ourselves from God by doing what we know He cannot smile on. II. SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY TRIUMPH OVER THIS SO COMMON MOOD OF . And we must triumph over discouragement. If we do not triumph over it, it will triumph over us. And no man can be well or do well who is in the perpetual gloom of a shadowed heart. “ It is safe to say that no great enterprise was ever yet inaugurated, sustained, or completed in any other spirit than that of hope. The Suez Canal was not built, nor the ocean cable laid, nor the great war of a quarter of a century ago brought to a successful termination by men who were easily discouraged.” All these undertakings, and all undertakings of any sort, must have their root in hope. There are two ways of conquering the discouragement. 1. By the law of opposites. For example, if one finds himself shadowed by ill health, he will increase both his ill health and the shadows which it casts by perpetual thought of it and constant attention to its symptoms. The way is, as far as possible, to front health, and in all right ways to determine to reach it. The man who persistently thinks toward sickness is the man who will gather about himself the gloom of sickness. The man who persistently thinks toward health is the man who will soonest get both into it and into its sunshine. I read once of a woman who said that she always went through at least two hours of worry and despondency about her trials, and when she had cried until she had a wet handkerchief spread out to dry on every chair in the room, she thought she might cheer up a little, but she never expected to be happy in this life. “ Why,” she said, “ if I were happy I should think I had lost all my religion.” Too often such is the Christian notion. But God wants us to be happy; and the way out of the gloom of petty disappointments is by thought of Him and our many blessings. For example again: Nobody need be discouraged by sin, if only one will repent of it. “ There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.” 2. Also, we can overcome discouragement by the law of faith. One tells how, in his youth, he and a young companion became lost in the maze at Hampton Court; they wandered about tired and discouraged, but they felt sure that they would find their way out presently, and they thought it would seem foolish to ask direction, though they saw an old man working not far off. They utterly failed, however, in getting out, and at last came to ask the old man if he could possibly tell them the path out of the maze. “ Why,” he answered, “ that is just what I am here for. Why did not you say you wanted to get out before?” And he put the young men at once on the right track. And that is what our Lord Jesus is for. The steady asking of Him and the following of His directions will deliver from many of life’ s mazes and from its gloom. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Encouraging others: At the battle of Five Forks, a soldier, wounded under his eyes, stumbled and was falling to the rear, when General Sheridan cried, “ Never mind, my man; there’ s no harm done.” And the soldier went on with a bullet in his brain until tie dropped dead on the field. (H. O.Mackey.) Stimulating the discouraged: Arago ascribes his success to words found on the paper cover of his book when greatly discouraged. They were, “ Go on, sir; go on! The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increased clearness on your path,” written by D’ Alembcrt. “ That maxim,” says Arago, “ was my greatest master in mathematics.” Following out these simple words, “ Go on, sir; go on!” made him the first astronomical mathematician of his age. What Christians it would make of us! What heroes of faith, what sages in holy wisdom, should we become, by acting out that maxim, “ Go on, sir; go on!” The joy of sympathy: Happy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such a one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south. (H. W. Beecher.) Make straight paths for your feet The Christian’ s footprints I. THE ’ S CORRECT WALK. Beasts, birds, and fishes make different tracks, and in a museum you will find specimens of each in the rocks which have been strata of the earth, made probably before the creation of man. And we do not have to ask which were tracks of birds or quadrupeds--it is evident. And if, in the future, somebody should find your footprints, will they be tracks of a worldling or a Christian? “ He left half a million when he died,” it will be said of one. “ He turned many to righteousness,” it will be said of another. Ah! that is a Christian’ s track. “ He toiled to destroy the works of the devil.” “ He gave his goods to feed the poor.” There is one Example--Christ. He never swerved a single iota. Straight as the path of a sunbeam was His journey from the footstool to the throne. II. THE ’ S HELPFUL . HOW tenderly the Lord cares for the lame! You are strong, and have no need to be afraid of rough places; but perchance there is a weak and crippled brother coming after you, who will stumble and fall where you tread firmly. Think of him, and act accordingly. A father, climbing up a steep and precipitous cliff at a summer watering-place, says that, to his astonishment, he heard his little boy calling out behind him, “ Take a safe path, father, for I am coming after you.” What was safe for the strong nerves and sturdy strength of the father, might be exceedingly perilous for the weak and unpractised step of the child. Therefore, the father must “ make straight paths for his feet,” &c. It is a lesson running through all life and conduct. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.) Lame sheep: There are some believers of strong and vigorous faith. Fleet of foot, they can run and not be weary, or with steady progress they can walk, and not faint. But all are not so highly privileged. I suppose there is seldom a family which has no sickly member. I. IN GOD’ S FLOCK WHERE ARE ALWAYS SOME LAME SHEEP. There is a peril intimated here; “ lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.” This is only too likely to happen. Lame sheep will commonly be found even in the tiniest flock. It will be necessary, then, to be tender of their infirmity. Some of these people of God who are compared to lame sheep seem to have been so from their birth. It is in their constitution. Do you not know some friends of yours who naturally incline to despondency? For them the road is always rugged, the pastures unsavoury, and the waters turbid. You will find such unhappy souls in all our Churches; people who seem from their very conformation to be lame as to the matters of faith, and full of doubts and fears. Besides, have you never noticed a constitutional tendency in some professors to stumble and get lame? If there is a slough, they will fall into it; if there is a thicket, they will get entangled by it; if there is an error, they will run foul of it. Good people we trust they are, and they do believe in Jesus, but somehow or other they do not see things clearly. Can you not detect, too, some who are lame in point of character? They seen to have been so from their very birth. There is a something about their gait that is unsteady. With some it is a cross temper; with others it is a general moroseness, which it does not seem as if the grace of God itself would ever cure in them; or it may be a natural indolence oppresses them; or it is quite possible that habitual impatience harasses them. Now, the grace of God should eradicate these vices; it can and will, if you yield to its influence. Other sheep of Christ’ s flock are halt and lame because they have been ill-fed. Bad food is the cause of a thousand disorders. Many a sickly man, instead of being dosed with drugs, needs to be nourished with wholesome meat. Had he something better to feed upon, he might conquer his diseases. May God supply us constantly with strong meat, and sound health to digest it. Full many of the Lord’ s sheep are lame because they have been worried. Sheep often get worried by a dog, and so they get lamed. It may be I am addressing some poor child of God who has been beset by Satan, the accuser of the brethren, and frightfully tormented. Oh, what trouble and what terror he can inflict upon us! Others, too, have been harassed by persecutors. Many a poor woman has lost her cheerful spirits through a harsh, ungodly husband, who has excited her fears or vexed her with sneers; and not a few dear young children have been broken down for life through the hard treatment they have had for conscience sake to endure at home. Some precious saints I have known have grown lame through a rough and weary way, just as sheep can be lamed if they are driven too fast, or too far, or over too strong a ground. To what an excess of trouble some children of God have been exposed! The Lord has graciously helped them through all their adversities. Still the trouble they have had to endure has told upon their hearts. Perhaps more still are lamed through the rough road of controversy. If you are a child of God, and you know your bearings, keep always as much as ever you can out of the jingle-jangle of controversy. Little good ever comes of your subtle disputations, but they do gender much strife. Full many of the Lord’ s sheep have become lame through negligence, faintness, and the gradual declension of spiritual health. They have backslidden; they have been remiss in prayer, and forsaken communion with God, so it is no marvel that their walk betrays their weakness. Beware of catching a chill in religion. Lameness is not unfrequently the result of a fall. Saddest, most sorrowful, of all the causes of lameness this which comes through a fall into any sin. Heaven spare us from turning aside to folly! II. DO YE ASK, THEN, WHAT HE SAYS WE ARE TO DO FOR THESE LAME ONES? Evidently, we ought to comfort them. Lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. Cheer the hearts when the limbs are weak. Tell the doubting that God is faithful. Tell those that feel the burden of sin that it was for sinners Christ died. Tell the backsliders that God never does cast away His people. Tell the desponding that the Lord delighteth in mercy. Tell the distracted the Lord doth devise means to bring back His banished. But will you please give heed to the special instruction. We are to make straight paths because of lame people. You cannot heal the man’ s bad foot, but you can pick all the stones out of the path that he has to pass over. You cannot give him a new leg, but you can make the road as smooth as possible. Let there be no unnecessary stumbling-blocks to cause him pain. Do you ask me how you can observe this precept? If you have to preach the gospel, preach it plainly. Would you make straight paths, then take care that your teaching is always according to the Bible. And, in all our walk and conversation let us make straight paths to our feet as those who aim at holiness of life. Unholy Christians are the plague of the Church. The inconsistencies of professors spread dismay among weak, desponding believers. Once more let me admonish you. Do not be negligent when your Lord is so vigilant. The Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, evidently cares for the lame ones. The charge He gives is a proof of the concern He feels. He bids us to be considerate of them, because He Himself takes a warm interest in their welfare. III. WHAT NOW SHALL I SAY TO YOU WHO FEEL YOUR OWN AND ? YOU lame ones who cannot walk without limping, I know bow you complain. “ Ah,” say you, “ I am no credit to Christianity. Though in all sincerity I do believe in Jesus, yet I fear that after all he will disown me.” When Mr. Greatheart went with Muchafraid and Feeblemind on the road to the celestial city, he had his hands full. He says of poor Mr. Feeblemind, that when he came to the lions, he said, “ Oh, the lions will have me.” And he was afraid of the giants, and afraid of everything on the road. It caused Greatheart much trouble to get him on the road. It is so with you. Well, you must know that you are very troublesome and hard to manage. But then our good Lord is very patient; He does not mind taking trouble. In the Divine economy the more care you require the more care you shall have. Besides, you know somewhat of our blessed Redeemer’ s covenant engagements. Did our Lord Jesus Christ fail to bring His weak ones home, it would be much to His dishonour. In your weakness lies your great strength. Jesus Christ will be sure to cover you with His power, so that when you are utterly defenceless you shall be most efficiently defended. “ Ah,” says another, “ I have had a weary life of it hitherto.” Yes, but you have brighter days to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace.., and holiness The winnowing fan I. TWO THINGS TO BE . We are to follow peace and holiness; the two are consistent with each other and may be followed together. Peace is to be studied, but not such a peace as would lead us to violate holiness by conforming to the ways of unregenerate and impure men. We are only so far to yield for peace sake as never to yield a principle; we are to be so far peaceful as never to be at peace with sin: peaceful with men, but contending earnestly against evil principles. Courtesy is not inconsistent with faithfulness. It is not needful to be savage in order to be sanctified. Follow holiness, but do not needlessly endanger peace. Having thus hinted at the connection between the two, and how the two together make up a complete character, let us now take them one by one. I. Follow PEACE, “ peace with all” says the text--an amplification of the expression. Follow peace with all the Church. Hold what you believe with firmness, for you are not to trifle with God’ s truth; but wherever you see anything of Christ, there confess relationship, and act as a brother towards your brother in Christ. Follow peace with all, especially with all your own relatives and friends at home. Call we that man a Christian who will not speak with his own brother? Follow peace with all your neighbours. &Christian man should not make himself hated by all around him, yet there are some who seem to fancy that they are true to their religion in proportion as they make themselves disagreeable. Win your neighbours by your willingness to oblige; disarm their opposition, if possible, by courtesy, by charitableness, by kindness. Follow peace with all--even with persecutors. The anvil after all breaks the hammer, because it bears every stroke and returns none; so be it with the Christian. The text says II. “ FOLLOW peace,” and the word “ follow” indicates a hunter in pursuit of his game. He tracks the footsteps of his prey, he follows it over hill and dale, by the edge of the precipice, over the dangerous ridge, across the brook and along the river, through the wood and down the glen. Follow peace in this way; that is, do not merely be peaceful if nobody irritates you, but go out of your way to be peaceful; give up many things that you have a right to enjoy; the respect that is due to you be willing to forego; in fine, yield all but truth for peace sake. “ Charity suffereth long, and is kind.” “ Charity beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” Often the Alpine hunter, when pursuing the chamois, will leap from crag to crag, will wear out the live-long day, will spend the night upon the mountains cold brow, and then descend to the valleys, and up again to the hills, as though he could never tire, and could never rest until he has found his prey. So perseveringly, with strong resolve to imitate your Lord and Master, follow peace with all. The next object of pursuit is a still higher attainment--would God we had reached it. III. “ Follow peace with all men, and .” The amplification of the term “ holiness” is the solemn declaration, “ without which no man shall see the Lord.” I understand by this sentence, in the first place, that no person who is unholy can see or understand Christ the Lord, or God His Father; that is to say, he does not know who Christ is so as to have any real fellowship with Him. He may know His name and know His history, and have some theoretical ideas of what the Redeemer did and is, but he cannot discern the spiritual character and teaching of the Lord. But perhaps the great meaning lies in this--without holiness no man can see the Lord in heaven at last. He will see Him on the throne of judgment, but he cannot see Him as his Friend, he cannot see Him in that beatific vision which is appointed for the sanctified, he cannot see Him so as to find joy and delight in the sight of Him. Now, see, the text says, “ Follow holiness” ; follow it, that is to say, you will not gain it by standing still. Nobody ever grew holy without consenting, desiring, and agonising to be holy. Sin will grow without sowing, but holiness needs cultivation. You must pursue it with determination, with eagerness, with long-continued perseverance, as a hunter pursues his prey. II. Two THINGS TO BE AVOIDED. “ Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.” The first thing to be avoided is failure. There are some persons who for a time exhibit many outward evidences of being Christians, but at last the temptation comes most suitable to their depraved tastes, and they are carried away with it. They fail of the grace of God. Like a man in business who makes money for a time, but fails in the end. Some have maintained an admirable character to all appearance all their lives, and yet have failed of the grace of God because of some secret sin. It says, “ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.” The word is “ episcopountes,” a word which signifies overseeing, being true bishops, looking diligently as a man on the watchtower watches for the coming foe. See the sentry pace the rampart, he looks in one direction and he sees the brushwood stirred, he half thinks it is the foe, and suspects an ambush there; he looks to the front, across the sea, does he not discern a sail in the distance? The attack may be from the seaboard; he looks to the right, across the plain, and if even a little dust should move he watches lest the foe should be on foot. So in the Church of God each one should be on his watchtower for himself and for others, watching diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. The second thing to be avoided is uprising evil: “ Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” In the centre of my lawn horse-radish will sprout up; after the smallest shower of rain it rises above the grass and proclaims its vitality. There was a garden there once, and this root maintains its old position. When the gardener cuts it down, it resolves to rise again. Now, if the gardener cannot get it quite out of the ground, it is his business constantly to cut it down. We are but men, and even when associated in church-fellowship, each one brings his own particular poisonous root, and there are sure to be bad roots in the ground. We are to watch diligently lest any of these poisonous roots spring up, for if they do they will trouble us. Sill and error always bring sorrow and division, and thereby many are defiled. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The ideal life: How beautiful and solemn are these words, like the swelling cadence of heaven’ s own music. Evidently they do not emanate from this sorrow-stricken and warring world; they are one of the laws of the kingdom of heaven, intended to fashion our life on earth. I. THERE IS OUR TOWARDS GOD. “ Follow after holiness.” In R.V. this is rendered “ sanctification.” And this in turn is only a Latinequivalent for “ setting apart,” as Sinai among mountains, the Sabbath among the days of the week, the Levites among the Jews, and the Jews among the nations of the earth. But after all there is a deeper thought. Wily were people, places, and things, set apart? Was it not because God was there. We can never be holy apart from God, but when God enters the spirit of man, He brings holiness with Him. Nay, the presence of God in mall is holiness. He is the holy man in whom God dwells. He is the holier, in whom God dwells more fully. He is the holiest, who, however poor his intellect and mean his earthly lot, is most possessed and filled by the presence of God through the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:19). Why then does the sacred writer bid us “ follow after holiness,” as though it were an acquisition? Because, though holiness is the in-filling of man’ s spirit by the Spirit of God, yet there are certain very important conditions to be observed by us, if we would secure and enjoy that blessed gift. 1. Give self no quarter. It is always asserting itself in one or other of its Protean shapes. It may show itself in religious pride, in the satisfaction with which we hear ourselves remarked for our humility. It will need incessant watchfulness, because where self is there God cannot come. He will not share His glory with another. 2. Yield to God. He is ever seeking the point of least resistance in our natures. Help Him to find it, and when found, be sure to let Him have His blessed way. 3. Take time to it. This is not natural, but it may become as second nature by habitual diligence. II. THERE IS OUR TOWARDS MEN. “ Follow after peace.” The effect of righteousness is always peace. If you are holy, you will be at peace. Peace is broken by temptation, but the holy soul has learnt to put Christ between itself and the first breath of the tempter. Peace is broken by care, dissatisfaction, and unrest, but the Lord stands round the holy soul, as do the mountains round Jerusalem, which shield off the cruel winds, and collect the rain which streams down their broad sides to make the dwellers in the valleys rejoice and sing. Others may be fretful and feverish, the subjects of wild alarms, but there is perfect peace to the soul which has God, and is satisfied. But there must be a definite following after peace. The temperaments of some are so trying. Hence the need of endeavour and patience and watchfulness, that we may exercise a wholesome influence as peacemakers. 1. Avoid becoming a party to a quarrel. It takes two to make a quarrel: never be one. 2. If opposed to the malice of men, do not avenge yourselves. Our cause is more God’ s than it is our own. It is for Him to vindicate us, and He will. 3. Do not give cause of offence. If you are aware of certain susceptibilities on the part of others, where they may be easily irritated, avoid touching them, if you can do so without being a traitor to God’ s holy truth. III. THERE IS OUR TOWARDS OUR FELLOW . “ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.” It is a beautiful provision that love to a common Lord attracts us into the fellowship of His disciples, and as no individual life truly develops in solitariness, so no Christian is right or healthy who isolates himself from the communion of saints. But we go not there only for selfish gratification, but that we may look after one another, not leaving it to the officers of the host; but each doing our own share. There are three dangers. 1. The laggards. This is the meaning of “ fail.” The idea is borrowed from a party of travellers, some of whom lag behind, as in the retreat from Moscow, to fall a prey to Cossacks, wolves, or the awful sleep. Let us who are in the front ranks, strong and healthy, go back to look after the weaklings, who loiter to their peril. 2. The root of bitterness. There may be some evil root lurking in some heart, hidden now, but which will bear a terrible harvest of misery to many. So was it in Israel once, when Achan conceived thoughts of covetousness, and brought evil on himself, and mourning on the host whose defeat he had brought about. If we can discover the presence of such roots of bitterness, let us, with much searching of our own souls, humility, and prayer, root them out, ere they can spring up to cause trouble. 3. The profane and earthly minded. Of these Esau is the type, “ who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” Alas! are there not many such? For one momentary gratification of the flesh, they forfeit not their salvation perhaps (we are not told that even Esau forfeited that), but their power to lead, to teach, to receive and hand on blessing to the Church. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Follow peace I. THE NATURE OF THE DUTY : “ Follow peace.” The word “ follow” is full of meaning. It implies strong desire, and vigorous endeavour; both the inward and outward man are to be engaged in this necessary and delightful service. It is also implied that we shall meet with many obstacles and difficulties in the way, both from the corruptions of our own hearts, and the perverse disposition of others: so that we shall need invincible perseverance. 1. In following after peace, we must pray that our own hearts and the hearts of others may be inclined to peace; we to propose, and they to accept it, and both to maintain it when once it has been established. 2. It becomes us to avoid whatever might become an obstacle to peace. Pride must be mortified; the pride of riches, of talents, and of reputation. Let us also beware of covetousness; for the love of money has separated those who would otherwise have been happily united. In order to preserve peace it is necessary also to discountenance slander and reproach, and to guard against ill-grounded jealousies and evil surmisings. Nothing can prosper where these propensities are indulged; they are the bane of confidence, and the rottenness of friendship. 3. We must endeavour to exercise those graces which have a pacific and uniting tendency. Of this description are humility, meekness, and love. Of the exercise of such virtues it may be said, as Tertullus did of the actions of Felix, by them we enjoy much quietness. 4. As the desire of peace should excite to the exercise of grace, so also to the faithful discharge of duty. We should do unto others, as we would have others in like circumstances do unto us. It becomes us to be courteous in our deportment, neither envious of those in superior circumstances, nor haughty towards others whom providence has placed beneath us. Let us also forget ill services, and requite good ones. Above all, let us mark those who would sow the seeds of strife, and avoid them, as we would a rock or quicksand, or a house infected with the plague. 5. Let us remember that a mild and peaceable disposition is one of the greatest ornaments to the Christian character. In this we shall resemble the ever blessed God, who is emphatically styled the God of peace. Jesus is also called the Prince of Peace, and His gospel is the gospel of peace; His followers therefore ought to be men of peace. II. THE EXTENT OF THE DUTY: “ FOLLOW peace with all men.” 1. We must follow after peace with men of all ranks and conditions in life. We should behave with reverence towards those above us, and with courtesy towards those below us; avoiding on the one hand a proud spirit, and on the other, whatever is mean and grovelling. 2. With men of various tempers and dispositions. If masters are froward, servants should he submissive. If neighbours are unkind, ye must be patient towards them, and towards all men. Virtue of every kind shines the brighter, when contrasted with its opposite, and gains a victory over it. 3. We must follow peace with men of every character and description, let their principles be what they may; with the righteous and the unrighteous, with both saints and sinners, in (he Church and in the world. 4. Christians of other denominations, and of different religious sentiments, are entitled to our attention and benevolent regard. 5. We must follow peace, even with our enemies. We must do good, where nothing but evil is to be expected in return. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The duty of following peace with all men I. Attend to THE OF THE TEXT, “ Follow peace with all men.” 1. Consider, in the first place, the object which you must follow--peace with all men. All believers in Christ are the children of peace, and therefore, as far as is possible, they must live peaceably with all men. What is it that constitutes the happiness of heaven? It is the perfect and everlasting reign of peace. 2. That peace which we ought to cultivate sometimes flies away. That peace often departs from nations cannot be denied; that it often flies away front families is equally evident; and that it is not always found in the Church is a matter of deep and bitter lamentation. 3. When peace has departed it must be followed: “ follow peace.” Some imagine that if they had no hand in driving peace away, nothing is required from them to bring it back again. But though the driving away of peace from a congregation may have been the work of a few, it is the duty of all to endeavour to bring it back again. Others, again, say, We will not prevent the return of peace, we wilt sit still and wait for its return, and when it comes we will give it a most hearty welcome. This is well so far as it goes, but it is not enough. In the pursuit of peace there must be mutual forgiveness. Have you obtained forgiveness of God? then you will reckon it both your duty and your privilege to forgive others. And be it remarked farther, that this forgiveness must be frank, and hearty, and open. In the pursuit of peace you must sacrifice your feelings, your prejudices, your angry passions, and even your interests. Blessed are the peace-makers; and blessed especially are those who make the greatest sacrifices to maintain, or to restore peace. In the pursuit of peace everything must be avoided which has a tendency to prevent the return of peace. The grounds of difference should be buried in perpetual oblivion. Even angry, discontented, suspicious looks must be avoided. A man can fight with his eyes, as well as with his tongue, or with his hands; as, therefore, there must be hearts of love, and actions of love, there must be also looks of love. In the pursuit of peace you must abound in prayer. II. THE GREAT DUTY OF PEACE MIGHT BE BY MANY . 1. The authority of God enjoins this duty. God hath called us to peace. The fruit of the Spirit is peace. If, therefore, you desire to enjoy the favour of God, which is life; or if you dread the anger of God, which is perdition, follow peace with all men. 2. Consider the Master whom you profess to serve. Is He not the Prince of Peace? Has He not made peace by the blood of His Cross? Is not His gospel, which you all profess to believe, the gospel of peace? 3. Consider the injury which you do to the Church by these unseemly contentions. 4. Consider that the hour of death is coming. You cannot die comfortably if you are not at peace with all mankind. Hasten, then, in pursuit of peace, and give yourself no rest until you have overtaken it and brought it back. (W. Smart.) The peaceful temper: There are many particular duties in which Christianity and worldly wisdom meet, both recommending the same course. One of these is the duty mentioned in the text, viz., that of being at peace with others. A wise adviser of this world tells any one who consults him as to his conduct in life, to beware especially of getting into quarrels with people. He tells him not only to avoid actual quarrels, but to cultivate a peaceful temper. The gospel tells us to do the same. The reason which worldly prudence suggests is the quiet and happiness of life, which are interfered with by relations of enmity to others. The reason which religion gives is the duty of brotherly-love, of which the peaceful disposition is a part. But the frequency of the advice, under either aspect, is remarkable, and shows that there is some strong prevailing tendency in human nature to which it is opposed. When we examine, then, the tempers of men, to see what there is in them which is so strongly opposed to this precept of following peace, the first thing we observe is, that people rush into quarrels from simple violence and impetuosity of temper, which prevents them from waiting a single minute to examine the merits of the case, and the facts of the case, but carries them forward possessed with a blind partiality in their own favour, and seeing nothing but what favours their own side. Again, there is the malignant temper, which fastens vindictively upon particular persons, who have been either the real or supposed authors of some disadvantage. Men of this character pursue a grudge unceasingly, and never forget or forgive. But impetuosity and malignity are not the only tempers which are opposed to the law of peace, and to the peaceful disposition. There are some very common habits of mind, which, without being so conspicuous in their manifestations, lead to a great deal of enmity of a certain kind--sometimes open enmity, sometimes, when this is avoided, still to bad relations towards others. There are many persons who can never be neutral or support a middle state of mind. If they do not positively like others, they will see some reason for disliking them; they will be irritable if they are not pleased; they will be enemies if they are not friends. They cannot bear to be in an attitude of mind which does not give active employment to the feelings on one side or the other. On this principle many of their neighbours are eyesores to them and the very sight of them interrupts their repose, when there is no real occasion for any such feelings; inasmuch as if they have furnished no cause for pleasure, they have not furnished any cause for pain either. And now, what I want to observe is, how completely this rule is opposed to the law which the apostle lays down, of “ following peace with all men.” When we examine what the relation of peace is, we find that it is exactly that relation towards others which the temper I have described has such a difficulty in adopting, and which is so repugnant to its taste. It is not a state of active love and affection, for these we do not call being at peace, but something more: nor is it a state which admits of any ill-feeling; but it lies between the two, comprehending all kindly intentions, forbidding the least wish for another’ s injury, avoiding, as much as possible, dispute and occasion of offence; consulting order, quiet, and contentment, but not arriving at more than this. Peace implies the entire absence of positive ill-will. The apostle then says that this is our proper relation toward all men. More than this applies to some, but as much as this applies to all. He would have us embrace all men within our love, so far as to be in concord with them, not to be separated from them. Be in fellowship, he says, with all men, so far as to have nothing wrong in your relation to them, nothing to disunite: follow peace with all men. Is any other principle of conduct and kind of temper indeed fit for this world in which we live? The great mass of those even whom we know and meet with in the intercourse and business of life must be comparatively nothing to us. More than this, they must be often persons who are not made after a model that we like, persons who do not sympathise with us or elicit sympathy from us. True and genuine intercourse and communication between minds, if it could be obtained, might clear up a good deal of this cloud, and remove the barrier which separates one man from another: but this is not given, and if it were, there still remains dissimilarity of tempers, gifts, and tastes, The apostle then lays down a plain rule with respect to the whole of this large section--viz., to be at peace with them. I have shown that there is a kind of temper and disposition which, without impetuosity, and without malignity, is still in opposition to the law of peace, and does in fact produce a great deal of latent, if not open enmity, in the world. I will now mention one or two reasons which have a great deal to do in promoting this temper. In the first place, it is very irksome to keep watch over ourselves, and to repel the intrusion of hostile thoughts by the simple resistance of conscience, when we are not assisted by any strong current of natural feeling in doing so. This is a difficult duty. But those who say that they either like or dislike, avoid and evade this duty. Another reason which tends to keep up the disposition which I have been describing is, that the hostile class of relations are evidently accompanied by their own pleasures in many temperaments. They furnish an excitement to them; and, at the bottom, they prefer it to a state of peace on this account, because there is agitation and a flutter of spirits in this relation; whereas peace is repose, and does not offer this play to the mind and temper. They would rather a great deal be in a state of irritation with any person for any reason than feel at all dull. To be dull is the greatest trial to them. They will stir up the scene at any rate, even at the cost of renewing vexatious subjects. It breaks the level of life; it varies the flatness of it. It is a stimulant; it keeps the spirits in motion. So, too, is the justification of dislike; the explanation how it arose and was called for. All this is much more to the taste of many than being at peace. They are not conscious of any deep malignity, but they derive a pleasure still from the disturbance of the ground, the agitation of the elements of life, which they take care shall not subside into complete repose. It was with the entire knowledge of these weaknesses and frailties of human nature, and these elements of disturbance, even in minds of average goodness, that St. Paul said--“ Follow peace with all men.” You must not, he says, be at peace only with those to whom you are partial; that is easy enough; you must be at peace with those toward whom you entertain no partiality, who do not perhaps please you, or suit you. That is the rule of peace which the gospel lays down, and it must be fulfilled by standing guard at the entrance of our hearts, and keeping off intruding thoughts. And he says again that we must not seek excitement from the petty quarrels and discords of life, from prejudice and antipathies, and the commotion which is bred out of them. This is a poor and morbid pleasure which impoverishes and lowers every mind that indulges in it. Let us “ follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” It is not without design that these two were connected together by the apostle--following peace and holiness. A life of enmities is greatly in opposition to growth in holiness. All that commotion of petty animosity in which some people live, is very lowering, it dwarfs the spiritual growth of persons. In a state of peace the soul lives as in a watered garden, where, under the watchful eye of the Divine Source, the plant grows and strengthens. All religious habits and duties--prayer, charity, and mercy, are formed and matured when the man is in a state of peace with others--with all men; when he is not agitated by small selfish excitements and interests which divert him from himself and his own path of duty, but can think of himself, what he ought to do, and where he is going. (J. B.Mozley, D. D.) A patterer of peace I. WHAT IS THIS PEACE? Peace is threefold. 1. Above us: namely, reconciliation with God. 2. Within us: namely, an inward conformity of sanctified faculties, of mind, will, and affections. 3. Without us: with the creatures, especially with man, which our text speaketh of. And this external peace of man with man is nothing else but an holy agreement and consent of minds, speeches, and carriage in all good things. II. WHAT IT IS TO FOLLOW PEACE. 1. Seek it out, and beat it out, as dogs at a loss: if we cannot find the track in one place, seek it in another. 2. Follow it with earnestness, as hunters follow their game earnestly, with strong intention, not as on a cold scent. 3. With desire to take it; for so do they. 4. With pleasure and delight in taking it. Our souls must delight in the purchase of peace. Thus Abraham hunted after peace with Lot, and obtained. III. WITH WHOM MUST WE FOLLOW PEACE? With all men. To embrace peace with good men is not hard for a good man; for they will hardly be put out of the way, and are soon led in again; but to hold peace with evil men is praiseworthy. But with some men we must not have peace, and with many men we cannot have peace. For the former: Israel must never seek the peace of Moabites and Ammonites (Deuteronomy 23:6), and the same of the Canaanites (Ezra 9:11). If it be so by special revelation, which is no rule for the common course. But peace cannot be had with all men; some will not be at peace: wicked men will have no peace with godly men. As soon shall you reconcile darkness to light, fire and water, heaven and hell, as Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jews and Samaritans. 1. Though we cannot have it with all men, we must follow it with all men. If thou seekest it though thou canst not find it, it is enough for thee. First, so far as is possible (Romans 12:18). If it be not possible to recover peace but upon bad conditions, let it go; we must prefer many things before peace, as (1) We must prefer peace with God before peace with men. (2) We must prefer piety, and purity of religion before peace. (3) We must prefer grace before peace: so the apostles everywhere, grace and peace. I must walk in the way of grace whether I meet with peace or not. (4) We must prefer peace of conscience before peace with men. Secondly, there is another rule of limitation (Romans 12:18), so far as lieth in us. For it lieth not in us often to obtain peace. It may be our lot to deal with contentious, envious, proud, quarrelsome persons, that Scorn to capitulate with us, and defy peace with us, as they do our persons. Or we may have to deal with devouring men that will have no peace, unless they may swallow our names, and estates, and carry all afore them with horrible lies and suggestions. What can we do, where is so little hope of peace? Only thus: thou must have peace so far as is in thee. Motives to be considered thereunto. Christ hath died to bequeath peace. Peace with holiness makes up a full harmony in heaven and in earth. Holiness joins us with God, peace with men. Take harmony and peace out of the world, it is dissolved, heaven and earth must fall asunder. Take harmony and consent out of the body, the members are at war, and the whole tends to dissolution. Take peace from men, it is all one as to take the breath from the body, the sun out of the world. Heaven is a place of peace, and the blessedness of it belongeth only to them that make peace, and keep peace (Matthew 5:9). (T. Taylor, D. D.) A life of peace and kindness: Dean Stanley said to the crowd of children at Westminster Abbey, on Innocents’ Day, December 28th: “ I knew once a very famous man, who lived to be very old--who lived to be eighty-eight. He was always the delight of those about him. He always stood up for what was right. His eye was like an eagle’ s when it flashed fire at what was wrong. And how early do you think he began to do this? I have an old grammar which belonged to him, all tattered and torn, which he had when a little boy at school; and what do you think I found written, in his own hand, in the very first page? Why, these words: ‘ Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, to silence vicious tongues--be just, and fear not.’ That was his rule all through life, and he was loved and honoured down to the day when he was carried to his grave.” Peaceable holiness:--It was a saying of the pious Richard Baxter, recorded by himself in the “ History of his own Times” : “ While we wrangle here in the dark we are dying, and passing to that world which will decide all our controversies: and the safest passage thither is by peaceable holiness.” God’ s love of peace: Of all the birds the dove is the most easily alarmed and put to flight at hearing a shot fired. Remember that the Holy Ghost is compared to a dove; and if you begin to shoot at each other, the Heavenly Dove will take wing and instantly leave you. The Holy Spirit is one of love and peace, not of tumult and confusion. He cannot live among the smoke and noise of fired shots: if you would grieve the Holy Spirit and compel Him to retire, you have only to commence firing at one another, and He will instantly depart. (Williams of Wern.) The evil of disunion: When the troops of Monmouth were sweeping the bridge (at the battle of Bothwell Brig), and Claverhouse, with his dragoons, was swimming the Clyde, the Covenanters, instead of closing their ranks against their common foe, were wrangling about points of doctrine and differences of opinion. In consequence, they were scattered by enemies whom, if united, they might have withstood and conquered. (T. Guthrie.) Christianity and war: Dr. Gutzlaff, who spent three years as a missionary in Siam, said: “ The Siamese looked with great anxiety upon the part which the English would take in the war between Quedah and themselves. When the king first heard of their neutrality, he exclaimed: ‘ I beheld, finally, that there is some truth in Christianity, which formerly I considered very doubtful.’ This favourable opinion influenced the people to become friendly with us. The consequence was that we gained access to persons of all ranks and of both sexes.” (Tinling’ s Illustrations.) Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord The highest end of being, and the only way to reach it I. THE HIGHEST END OF BEING. TO “ see the Lord” means to have loving fellowship with Him who is infinite Love. II. THE ONLY WAY TO REACH IT. “ Holiness.” 1. God cannot be so seen as to be admired through the medium of a corrupt heart. 2. God cannot be so seen as to be admired, through the medium of a guilty conscience. : 1. This subject serves to expose some popular religious errors. (1) That the grand end of human existence is to get to heaven as a place. No; the true heaven of humanity is a loving vision of a loving God. (2) That future happiness is to be obtained by the adoption of certain creeds, attendance to certain rites and ceremonies, and a punctual observance of all the ordinances of religion. No; holiness is wanted, nothing else. 2. This subject serves to show the infinite value of the work of Christ. 3. This subject serves to reveal wherein true wisdom consists. (1) The choice of the highest end. (2) The employment of the best means to attain the end. (3) The application of the best time for the employment of the means. Now. (Homilist.) Holiness I. THE OF . II. THE WAY TO . 1. Grace is the source of it. 2. Constant progress is necessary to it. 3. Diligence is a requisite in it. III. THE MOTIVES TO , 1. Troublers are destroyed by it. 2. Backsliding is prevented by it. 3. Influence for good is increased by it. 4. There is no heaven without it. (Homilist.) Holiness demanded I. First, then, YE ARE ANXIOUS TO KNOW WHETHER YE HAVE OR NOT. NOW, if our text said that without perfection of holiness no man could have any communion with Christ, it would shut every one of us out, for no one, who knows his own heart, ever pretends to be perfectly conformed to God’ s will. It does not say, “ Perfection of holiness,” mark; but “ holiness.” This holiness is a thing of growth. As the Spirit of God waters it, it will grow till the mustard-seed shall become a tree. Well, now, let us note four sorts of people who try to get on without holiness. 1. First, there is the Pharisee. The Pharisee goes to work with outward ceremonies. 2. Then there is the moralist. He has never done anything wrong in his life. Ah, but this is not holiness before God. 3. Another individual who thinks to get on without holiness, and who does win a fair reputation in certain circles, is the experimentalist. You must be aware that there are some professed followers of Christ whose whole religious life is inward; to tell you the truth, there is no life at all; but their own profession is that it is all inward. You may say what you will about what you dream you have felt, you may write what you please about what yon fancy you have experienced; but if your own outward life be unjust, unholy, ungenerous, and unloving, you shall find no credit among us as to your being in Christ. “ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” 4. There is another class of persons, happily fewer than they once were, but still there are some among us still--opinionists, who think they can do without holiness. They have learned a sound creed, or perhaps an unsound one; they think they have got hold of the truth, that they are the men, and that when they die the faithful will fail from among men. They understand theology very accurately. They are wiser than their teachers. Down with thy hopes! Heart-work, carried out afterwards into life-work, this is what the Lord wants, You may perish as well with true doctrines as with false, if you pervert the true doctrine into licentiousness. 5. But to help you still further, brethren, that man is destitute of true holiness who can look back upon his own past sin without sorrow. 6. And I am quite sure that you know nothing of true holiness if you can look forward to any future indulgence of sensual appetites with a certain degree of delightful anticipation. 7. Again, methinks you have great cause for questioning, unless your holiness is uniform. Some farmers I know in the country maintain a creditable profession in the village where they live; they go to a place of worship, and very good people they are: but there is a farmers’ dinner once a year; it is only once a year--we will not say anything about how they get home--the less that is said the better for their reputation. “ It is only once a year,” they tell us; but holiness does not allow of dissipation even “ once a year.” And we know some who, when they go on the Continent, for instance, say, “ Well, we need not be quite so exact there” ; and therefore the Sabbath is utterly disregarded, and the sanctities of daily life are neglected, so reckless are they in their recreations. Well, if your religion is not warranted to keep in any climate it is good for nothing. 8. Then, let me further remark, that those who can look with delight or any degree of pleasure upon the sins of others are not holy. II. Now, then, for the second point: “ WITHOUT NO MAN SHALL SEE THE LORD” ; that is to say, no man can have communion with God in this life, and no man can have enjoyment with God in the life to come without holiness. “ Can two walk together except they be agreed?” If thou goest with Belial dost thou think Christ will go with thee? III. I come to my last point, which is WITH YOU. “ What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” “ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” But I hear one say, “ It is impossible; I have tried it and I have broken down: I did try to get better, but I did not succeed; it is of no use, it cannot be done.” You are right, my dear friend, and you are wrong. You are right, it is of no use going about it as you did; if you went in your own strength, holiness is a thing you cannot get; it is beyond you. But you are wrong to despair, for Christ can do it; He can do it for you, and He can begin it now. Believe on Him and He will begin with you; in fact, that believing will be the fruit of His having begun with you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Holiness alone fits for heaven I. MAY BE AS TO THE LAW OF GOD, OR AS TO HIS MORAL . It is, however, quite immaterial which definition we adopt. As “ love is the fulfilling of the law,” and as “ God is love,” to obey the law, is to be like God in moral character. II. IS THIS WORLD IS TO OUR IN ANOTHER, 1. It is so by the unalterable appointment of God. 2. It appears from the character of God. 3. From the fact that none of the sources or means of happiness, which the wicked possess in this world, will exist in heaven. 4. From the fact that the character of man becomes unchangeable at death. 5. From the nature of the soul. 6. If we consider what heaven is. Every being there reflects the image of God. Everything we hear in that world is the voice of praise and thanksgiving--the universal burst of gratitude, and wonder, and love, in songs of joy and transport, filling all its arches, and making all its pillars tremble. Remarks: 1. Every impenitent sinner may be convinced, from his own experience, of the necessity of a new heart to fit him for heaven. 2. Christian brethren, “ what manner of persons ought ye to he in all holy conversation and godliness?” (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Holiness Valuable as peace is, we are not to sacrifice truth or righteousness in order to obtain it. I. EXPLAIN THE : “ Follow after holiness.” Men in general make no pretension to holiness; and some who do, know not what it is. Many imagine that it consists merely in chastity, or putting a restraint upon the sensual appetite, which is only a particular branch of that purity to which we are here exhorted. Others suppose that it extends no farther than to outward decency of conduct, or general regularity of behaviour. Though these things do not constitute real holiness, but fall very far short of it; neither does it imply an absolute freedom from all imperfections as some have vainly imagined. Sorrow for sin, and a hatred of it, take place in every renewed heart, but not an entire exemption from its being. Holiness, however, though it is not in the present life what some make it to be, nor what the saints wish it to be, yet it is the beauty and ornament of the soul. All moral excellences are included in it; and all spiritual consolation, which is the most satisfying, is derived from it. It is our brightest resemblance to God; our principal glory in this world, and our highest happiness in the next. 1. Holiness is the fruit of sovereign and effectual grace (Ezekiel 36:25-26). 2. True holiness is seated in the heart. It is not an outward name, but an inward nature; a Divine principle implanted. 3. Holiness is not a single grace, but an assemblage of all the graces, and extends to all the duties of the Christian life. It is not like a single luminary, but a constellation, where numerous planets intermingle their lustre and their beauty, and give additional brightness to the whole. It is not meekness, humility, faith, hope, or charity; but all these united. Thus the Church, the spouse of Christ, is described as coming up out of the wilderness, perfumed with myrrh, and frankincense, and all powders of the merchant. 4. All true holiness in man is through the mediation of Christ, and is derived from Him as the Head of His mystical body. In Him it is concentrated, like light in the sun; in us it is as light in the air, emanating from His fulness. We begin to be holy when we begin to know Christ; and we grow in holiness as we increase in the knowledge of Him. Real saints are a living image of the invisible Saviour. 5. True holiness is an abiding principle, consisting in the habitual rectitude of all the powers and faculties of the soul. It is a well of water springing up, amidst innumerable obstructions, to eternal life; a light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Those who seek after holiness, shall always find it; and those who love it shall never lose it. 6. We are to “ follow” after holiness, so as to make it the object of intense and continual pursuit; to leave no duty unperformed, no means untried, in order to obtain it in a still higher degree. For this purpose let us search the Holy Scriptures, attend upon holy ordinances, keep company with holy men, and be daily conversant with holy things. Above all, let us earnestly implore the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit. II. THE MOTIVE by which the exhortation is enforced: “ without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” 1. Observe, “ no man,” no individual, not one of all the human race, whatever be his expectations or attainments, whatever opinion he may have of himself, or whatever opinion others may entertain concerning him. 2. He shall not “ see the Lord.” It is as it were written over the gate of heaven, Nothing enters here that defileth. The wicked shall indeed have a sight of God, in some respects; but it shall be to their everlasting sorrow and confusion. They shall behold Him as Balaam did, but not nigh; at an awful unapproachable distance they shall see Him, but not for themselves; as a Judge and Avenger, but not as a Friend or a Father. 3. “ Without holiness “ no man shall see the Lord. Not that holiness is the meritorious or procuring cause of salvation; for when we have done all that we can do, even through Divine assistance, we are unprofitable servants. Holiness accompanies salvation, and prepares for it, but not in a way of desert. Nevertheless, holiness is absolutely necessary to eternal life (1) By a Divine and unalterable constitution. (2) Holiness is necessary as a preparative for heaven. It is both our evidence and meetness, not in form or shadow, but in substance and reality. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Holiness essential to a sight of Christ: There are, unhappily, many who will talk of the everlasting covenant, and of the inscription of their own names on its pages, with as much assurance as though God had made them a special revelation; and it were at least to be expected, that with all this assumption of superior revelation there should keep pace a striving after superior holiness. It were, at least, to be hoped, that they who pronounce themselves sure of heaven, would put forth more than ordinary tokens of an increasing fitness for heaven; for it is indeed a strange anomaly if, knowing as we do, that there shall enter into the New Jerusalem nothing that defileth, and nothing that worketh abomination, men who have a title of admission, chartered and signed, may go on in recklessness and unrighteousness of living; and too commonly they who are fondest of solving all doubts by an appeal to God’ s covenant, are just those who could obtain no satisfactory verdict from their own life and conversation. Our business is not so much the depending on our election as the ascertaining our election; and it is, therefore, to use the mildest language, a beginning at the wrong end, when men assume that they are elected, and then go on to be confident. The safe and the direct course is to observe whether they are changed men, and renewed men, and God-fearing men, and then to infer, though with the very deepest humility, that they are elected men. We have no such text in the Bible as this--“ Election, without which no man shall see the Lord” ; but we have this--“ Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” We go on to observe that there is a peculiarity in the expression, “ no man shall see the Lord,” which marks a reference to the present life yet more than to the future. “ Every eye shall see Him,” is St. John’ s declaration, when looking on to the Second Advent of Christ. We know that without a single exception the descendants of Adam shall stand face to face with the anointed Judge of human kind, so that the holy and the unholy shall alike behold Him, though the one rejoicingly, while the other shall shrink from His presence; and therefore we cannot uphold it as literally true, that “ without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” if it be on the future that we mainly fix our contemplations. But a most extensive, and at the same time a most interesting field of inquiry will open before you, if we consider the words as applicable to the present life, though, of course, without excluding a reference to the next life. The passage would seem decidedly to announce, that holiness, in some degree or other, is indispensable to the obtaining any knowledge whatever of Christ. We admit, indeed, that a thorough historical acquaintance may be obtained, whilst there is a bold persisting in a course of iniquity. But our text shows, that to whatever extent this scholastic knowledge of the scheme and nature of Christianity can be ascribed, there can be gained no sight of Christ Jesus Himself until some inroads be made on the sinfulness of our nature. And when a man is converted, and therefore “ renewed in the spirit of his mind” --that is, the organ is obtained through which the Lord is beheld--the strength and clearness of his looking upon Christ will ever after be exactly proportioned to the advance of sanctification. If the Christian fall into gross sin, or if he conform himself to the passions and prejudices of the world, or if he encumber himself unnecessarily with cares and anxieties, the retardation in holiness will tell on the strength of the newly-acquired vision, and the view of Christ will become so obscure, that fresh witness will be given to the fact of holiness being indispensable to seeing the Lord. And, on the other hand, let the Christian be prosecuting an uncompromising warfare with corruption--let him be proceeding daily with a dominant step towards higher attainments in practical piety, and you will find that his sight of the Redeemer is continually improving. The mysteries of Christ’ s person, the loveliness of His character, the might of His attributes, these open increasingly and shine out more vividly; and thus there is gathered an accession of proof that holiness is indissolubly connected with seeing the Lord. We would never give up that grand fundamental principle that faith is the gift of God, and that, consequently, no man can see the Lord, according to the definition we have sought to establish, unless a telescope, so to speak, be put into his hands by the Holy Ghost, and directed towards that illustrious Being in whom the natural eye discerns nothing of comeliness or form. But at the same time we are to the full as anxious to withstand the unwarranted opinion, that there can be no preparation made by the man himself; that because faith must be strictly the gift of God, all we have to do is to wait for its reception. We are assured from the Bible that it is very possible to resist the Holy Ghost, and to grieve the Holy Ghost, and that, consequently, the case is of common occurrence in which this Divine agent comes unto men, bringing with him the telescope, or the organ of vision, and then opposed by their passions and lusts, departs without bestowing the precious donation. And hence we set it forth as an indisputable position that it lies in man’ s power, and is manifestly man’ s business to remove impediments to the operations of God’ s Spirit, and that though he cannot give himself the Spirit, he may throw off very much that may withstand the approaches of that Spirit. Let us go on to endeavour to show you how holiness would affect the clearness of all future contemplations of Christ. There remains nothing to be added to the work of the Saviour, in order that it may be available to the complete justification of the sinner. But, then, does imputed righteousness at all interfere with personal holiness? Not one jot. There is to be wrought in us a righteousness which is quite independent of that perfect righteousness which has been wrought out for us by Christ. The righteousness of Christ is that meritorious righteousness which deserves for us heaven; the righteousness which is wrought in our spirits is that qualifying righteousness which prepares us for heaven. And if it be thus certain that holiness, personal, inwrought holiness, is essential to that sight of the Lord which shall constitute the great bliss of heaven, we may justly argue that it is essential to those contemplations of the Saviour which are our foretastes of that bliss whilst we sojourn upon earth. And this, in other words, is the proposition laid down in our text, though the proof of that proposition may be thrown into easier and yet more popular shape. How can the man who is falling back into sin have his eye upon Christ, who condemned sin in the flesh? How can the individual who, after professedly renouncing the world, suffers himself to be entangled in its follies and allured by its flatteries, be looking fixedly towards Christ--Christ who said, “ Marvel not if the world hate you; ye know that it hated Me before it hated you” ? How can that disciple have a comforting assurance of the sacrifice of Christ in his own stead and in his own behalf, who by his lax and inconsistent conversation would falsify the account of Holy Writ, that “ the grace of God which bringeth salvation teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world” ? Whenever you find that you have no clear evidence of an interest in Jesus--that there is a sensible interruption of the hope and assurance which have been wont to flow ill and gladden the soul-then let a recurrence to the sentiment of our text bring to your notice the reason, which in all likelihood best accounts for the change. Christ cannot be seen without holiness. Therefore search ye and determine whether the luminary be not riding as high and as bright as before in the firmament, and whether the sole cause why the murkiness is around you, and deep gloom seems wrought into the overhead canopy, be not in the passions which have been gratified, the concessions made, and the resolutions relaxed, so that from the witherings of a once flourishing holiness have gone up vapour and mist, which have darkened the sun, and intercepted the rich light which fell around your path. It is not that Christ withdraws His lustre; it is only that men, through carelessness, or lukewarmness, or conformity to the world, destroy the keenness of the spiritual vision. We reject, therefore, as presumptuous and insulting to God, all pretensions to privileges and rights which are independent on holiness, in thought, word, and deed; we refuse to take our test from what men style their experience; but we go alone, without hesitancy, to their practice. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The connection between holiness and felicity I. THE NATURE OF . The most intelligible description of holiness as it is inherent in us, may be this, “ It is a conformity in heart and practice to the revealed will of God.” Now His revealed will comprises both the law and the gospel: the law informs us of the duty which we as creatures owe to God; and the gospel of the duty which, as sinners, we owe to God as reconcilable through a Mediator. Our obedience to the former implies the whole of morality, and to the latter the whole of evangelical graces, as faith in a Mediator, repentance, &c. From this definition of holiness it appears that it is absolutely necessary to see the Lord; for unless our dispositions are conformed to Him, we cannot be happy in the enjoyment of Him. I shall expatiate upon the dispositions and practices in which holiness consists, or which naturally result from it; and they are such as follow: 1. A delight in God for His holiness. Self-love may prompt us to love Him for His goodness to us; and so many unregenerate men may have a selfish love to God on this account. But to love God because He is infinitely holy, is a disposition natural to a renewed soul only, and argues a conformity to His image. 2. Holiness consists in a hearty complacence in the law of God, because of its purity. The law is the transcript of the moral perfections of God; and if we love the original we shall love the copy. 3. Holiness consists in a hearty complacence in the gospel method of salvation, because it tends to illustrate the moral perfections of the Deity, and to discover the beauties of holiness. The gospel informs us of two grand pre-requisites to the salvation of the fallen sons of men, namely, the satisfaction of Divine justice by the obedience and passion of Christ, that God might be reconciled to them consistently with His perfections; and the sanctification of sinners by the efficacy of the Holy Ghost that they might be capable of enjoying God, and that He might maintain intimate communion with them without any stain to His holiness. 4. Holiness consists in an habitual delight in all the duties of holiness towards God and man, and an earnest desire for communion with God in them. This is the natural result of all the foregoing particulars. If we love God for His holiness, we shall delight in that service in which our conformity to Him consists; if we love His law, we shall delight in that obedience which it enjoins; and if we take complacence in the evangelical method of salvation, we shall take delight in that holiness without which we cannot enjoy it. 5. To constitute us saints indeed, there must be universal holiness in practice. This naturally follows from the last, for as the body obeys the stronger volitions of the will, so when the heart is prevailingly disposed to the service of God, the man will habitually practise it. II. THE WE SHOULD USE TO OBTAIN THIS . 1. Endeavour to know whether you are holy or not by close examination. 2. Awake, arise, and betake yourselves in earnest to all the means of grace. III. THE OF TO THE OF . 1. The unchangeable appointment of God excludes all the unholy from the kingdom of heaven; (see 1 Corinthians 9:6; Revelation 21:27; Psalms 5:4-5; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). 2. The very nature of things excludes sinners from heaven; that is, it is impossible in the nature of things, that, while they are unholy, they could receive happiness from the employments and entertainments of the heavenly world. (Pres. Davies.) Follow holiness: This being the larger idea, explains and covers the lesser one of “ peace with all.” As when the tide recedes, the waters fret and raise angry surfs upon the sunken rocks, but when it has advanced in full flow these rocks are submerged, and there is deep stillness over them, so in the full tide of consecration unto God all causes of disquietude are swallowed up and covered. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.) Heaven--none admitted but those like Jesus At heaven’ s gate there stands an angel with charge to admit none but those who in their countenances bear the same features as the Lord of the place. Here comes a monarch with a crown upon his head. The angel pays him no respect, but reminds him that the diadems of earth have no value in heaven. A company of eminent men advance dressed in robes of state, and others adorned with the gowns of learning, but to these no deference is rendered, for their faces are very unlike the Crucified. A maiden comes forward, fair and comely, but the celestial watcher sees not in that sparkling eye and ruddy cheek the beauty for which he is looking. A man of renown cometh up heralded by fame, and preceded by the admiring clamour of mankind; but the angel saith, “ Such applause may please the sons of men, but thou hast no right to enter here.” But free admittance is always given to those who in holiness are made like their Lord. Poor they may have been; illiterate they may have been; but the angel as he looks at them smiles a welcome as he says, “ It is Christ again; a transcript of the holy child Jesus. Come in, come in; eternal glory thou shalt win. Thou shalt sit in heaven with Christ, for thou art like Him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) No sin in heaven: “ There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.” Heaven is not like Noah’ s ark, that received clean and unclean. A sinner is compared to swine (2 Peter 2:22), and shall a swinish creature tread upon the golden pavement of heaven? Indeed the frogs came into king Pharaoh’ s court, but in heaven there is no entertainment for such vermin. (T. Watson.) Admittance to heaven Governor Corwin says that some church members will have to make a great many explanations, before St. Peter, the reported keeper of the gate of heaven, will let them in. The character of others is so unequivocal that none will be required: the gate will fly wide open before them. Holiness a generic disposition: When we speak of holiness in man, we speak of that positive character which reveals itself by the exercises or manifestations of a high moral character, which repeatedly shows itself in some men as the occasion may call forth. It is not a separate and distinct grace like humility, truth, temperance, or meekness, neither is it a union of all the graces in such a way as light is the union of the primary rays of the sun. It is not an amalgamation of all the graces, but they are the means by which it shows itself in different directions and situations. There is a decided distinction between it and justice and meekness. The possession of one or other of these virtues does not imply holiness, but where holiness is, each of these graces will duly appear, h man may be temperate or just without being holy; but if he be holy all the graces will display themselves in him as a matter of course. Each of the graces will appear in him in their own proper occasions. Holiness is not one good quality, but the hand that moves beneath and around all of them. It is not one good action, but the principle that inspires all good actions; I might almost say it is like some essence we can hardly get at. It is not itself so much as the goodness of everything good in us; it is the virtue of virtues; or, in the words of an American theologian, it is not a head or part, but a complete whole, and by that we are to understand not a collection of properties, but a generic disposition which regulates all the movement of a Christian’ s existence. Holiness, therefore, is the moral nature or character of God; and in man it is his moral nature, so that he who possesses it is a partaker of God’ s nature. Thus we come back to the definition from which we set out. Holiness is God’ s likeness, and when a man is disposed to think as God thinks, act as God acts, and seeks to live in unison with God and His character, then we have real and true holiness. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Sight of God: “ I cannot love God,” said a thoughtless man, “ for I have never seen Him.” “ Canst thou not?” responded his companion; “ then thou canst do less than the little blind child who sits under the shade of the chestnut tree on the village green. She can love her father and mother, though she has never seen them, and will never see them to the latest hour of her life.” There is truth here. It requires a special faculty to see God. And it is a terrible fact that this sense, the power of God-consciousness, is often all but entirely destroyed by sin. Hebrews 12:15-17 Lest any man fail of the grace of God Are you a failure? The wish to succeed is natural. It is seen in a little child, who will sometimes shed tears if he happen to lose the race which he runs with other children. The desire not only to do well, but to excel is the prevailing aspiration with all sane men and women. But the best men always feel as if they came short of the excellence they desire. One of the most eminent and beloved bishops of the Church of England had a book which he intended no one to see but himself, but he omitted to destroy it before he died; and in this book he had written under his name this sentence, “ A man who has failed to accomplish his ideal.” Yet he was, indeed, a good man. When John Knox was on his death-bed, his friends said of him in his presence, “ How pleasing for him now to remember the great deeds he has done for the gospel of Christ!” He replied, “ I bid yon hush. Do not by such remarks add to the reproaches of my conscience, which upbraids me for the many things I have left undone, and the numberless things I ought not to have done; God be merciful to me a sinner!” When wise and good men do succeed, they feel that the result is scarcely due to their efforts, but to the working of the Spirit of God within them. A true artist forgets himself, thinking only of his work, and when he receives praise feels that he is merely the hand used by the spirit of art. In his finest strains the poet feels that it is not his own mind but the Divine muse, which possesses and inspires him to write glowing words. The sculptor, when be has chiselled the most beautiful specimen of his plastic art, feels how greatly distant he is from achieving his ideal of perfection. I have spoken thus to encourage those of you who I believe are truly great, and who feel that the work you do is imperfectly done. All divinely directed men of true genius feel as you do. Be cheered! Persevere in your work, and let not the consciousness of failure distress you too much; for that feeling is the evidence of genius--it is a blessed genius that can detect a flaw or an inferiority in your own work and stimulate you to continued effort. Let me now address those who are satisfied with their efforts, or who fail in them through some wilful fault of their own. “ Looking diligently lest any man fail, or come short, of the grace of God.” 1. It may be that some of us fail through our want of continued effort. In nay garden there is a cherry tree. It bore no fruit the first year, but we took great pains with it, and the second year it brought forth one splendid cherry, and that was all. It made its effort and succeeded. Likewise, every tree, every flower, and even the common grass by the wayside makes strenuous efforts to put forth beauty and fruit after its kind. But unfortunately some of us men are not like trees and flowers; we do not make continued efforts. 2. Another reason your life is a failure is because you do not depend upon God, and you live more for yourself than for your fellow-men. What do I mean by “ depending upon God” ? Well, this. See that ship. The captain has put up the sails, and has done all he can. The ship is trimmed, the sails are set, and the captain waits upon the wind; he feels he is dependent Upon it. In the same way we should be dependent upon God. We should wait for Him. We should do what we can to make ourselves ready for His coming, and then wait for Him to do the rest, and be willing to be guided by Him. There is too much self with many of us, that is why, comparatively speaking, our lives are failures. 3. The reason why others of us fail is because we take not advantage of God’ s grace. 4. Another reason for your failure may be that you delay doing your present duty. You do not do the thing that lies nearest you, but wait to do something great in the future. This habit of procrastination not only robs you of present good but of future blessing. In the same way, you are waiting for some great work to do instead of doing the thing at your right hand. Doing little things well is the best preparation for the achievement of great things. (W. Birch.) Falling short of the grace of God: To prevent this danger they must look diligently. To this end 1. Every man must have a care of himself, and look to his own soul. 2. They must watch one over another, and if they see any inclining to apostasy, or beginning to doubt of, or decline his profession, they must, by good example, instruction, admonition, reproof, and exhortation, seek to reform him. 3. The minister of the gospel being trusted with man’ s soul, must be very watchful above all other; must exhort, reprove, and by his wholesome doctrine, inform the ignorant, strengthen the weak, reform the erroneous, encourage the faint, and suffer no such bitter root to spring up amongst his people. 4. They that have the power of discipline, upon information, must by admonition and lighter censures first seek to reclaim a sinning brother; and if so, they cannot rectify him, they must cast him out, lest others be infected. (G. Lawson.) Anxiety for souls: Fleming mentions one John Welsh, often, in the coldest winter nights, found weeping on the ground, and wrestling with the Lord, on account of his people, and saying to his wife when she pressed him for an explanation of his distress,” I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, while I know not how it is with many of them.” Piloting stalls As the pilot-boats cruise far out, watching for every whitening sail, and hover, through day and night, all about the harbour, vigilant to board every ship, that they may bring safely through the narrows all the wanderers of the ocean; so should we watch off the gate of salvation for all the souls, tempest-tossed, beating in from the sea of sin, and guide them through the perilous straits, that at last in still waters they may east the anchor of their hope. (H. W. Beecher.) Grace should permeate the entire man: In the camphor-tree every part is impregnated with the precious perfume; from the highest twig to the lowest root the powerful gum will exude. Thus grace should permeate our whole nature, and be seen in every faculty, every word, every act, and even every desire. If it be “ in us and abound,” it will be so. An unsanctified part of our frame must surely be like a dead branch, deforming and injuring the tree. Root of bitterness springing up Roots of bitterness: Sin, whether in men or among them--whether viewed as inherent in the individual, or spread through the community--sin may well be compared to a root. This analogy does much to point out the nature, and the origin, and the consequences, and the cure of that one evil which offends God and afflicts men. I. The analogy of a root serves to illustrate the NATURE of the evil. An accurate knowledge of the danger goes far to constitute a defence. The figure directs our thoughts at once to the heart as the seat of the affections. “ Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,” and words, and actions. Our care must not be exclusively directed to the deeds--the fruit above ground--we must seek to reach that hidden root which grows in the soul unseen, generating actual transgression in the life of men. There are many points in which the analogy holds good between a root and the sinful disposition of soul which gives birth to unrighteous action. 1. The root is below ground--unseen. The surface of the field, when you pass by, may be naked, and clean, and smooth--not a green blade to be seen, far less an opening flower, or ripening fruit; yet there may be in that field a multitude of thriving, vigorous roots, that will soon cover and possess its surface with thorns and thistles. So in a church, or a family, or a single member of it, though for the time all that meets the eye be fair, there may be in the soul within a germ of evil already swelling, and ready to burst out into open wickedness. 2. The root not only is, but grows. It has a vital self-increasing principle. Unless you kill it, you cannot keep it down. So with the sinful disposition in the heart. It is not the existence of the thing merely that we have to dread, but its vitality. The Scripture (Ephesians 2:2-3) speaks of men being dead in sins, and yet walking according to the course of this world. In like manner, though the guilty state of the soul be called death, yet it is a death that lives and grows. It not only bears fruit upward, but strikes root downward; and the more vigorously it shoots its fibres down into the soil, the heavier a harvest of wickedness it bears. 3. Though you may be able to destroy the fruit, and cut down the branches, the root may be beyond your reach. Though the branches be lopped off, and the stem cut down close by the ground, yet the root left in the soil will keep its hold, and send up another stem, and spread out other branches. So with this sin. Much may be done to check its outward exhibition. Many agencies may be brought to bear upon it, which will not only prevent the ripening of the fruit, but will blight the opening blossom, and maim the spreading branches. Many schemes may be tried, and tried successfully, to stop the committing of sins, while the disposition to sin lives as vigorous, and grows as rank as ever in the soul. II. In the text the root is significantly called A hoot OF . The analogy of a root suggests the existence, and the life, and the growth, and the power of a principle, without determining whether it be good or bad; but the distinguishing characteristic of the root spoken of is “ bitterness.” Everything depends on the nature of the root that is bedded in the soil. There is a plant called the nightshade, which is in some respects like a vine. Like the vine, its branches are slender, and unless supported, they trail upon the ground. Its bunches of fruit, too, are very similar, both in form and colour, to clusters of grapes. Its fruit is a poison. From its nature, it gets the name of the deadly nightshade. Now, this plant may grow beside a vine--may cling to the branches of a vine, and intermingle its clusters of fruit, so that you could scarcely distinguish the one from the other. Nay, more; in such a case the roots of the two plants will shoot down into the same soil--they will intertwine with each other in the earth--they will drink up the same sap at the same place. It would require a very close examination to distinguish the fibres that belong to each; yet this root converts the sap into delicious food--that into deadly poison. The result does not depend on air and sun, and moisture and earth--these were all the same in this case. The fruit takes its character from the root. If it be a root of bitterness, it turns everything into poison. Such is the distinguishing characteristic of a sinful affection. Our living souls are the seat of many thoughts and emotions they constitute the soil which nourishes many roots. Some roots grow there bearing sweet fruit to the glory of God and the good of men; but they are “ the planting of the Lord.” It is the root of bitterness that springs first, and spreads farthest. There are the shattered remnants of much good in the human soul. There are in it many materials which may be turned to good account, when a new heart has been given--a new spirit created. But in all at first, and in many still, a strong one has possession. A bitter root occupies and sucks the soil, wasting its strength in bringing forth death. Pride, envy, worldliness, ungodliness--these, and other roots, pervade the ground, and drain off all its fatness. The natural powers and emotions of the soul--the sap which these roots feed upon--would nourish trees of righteousness, if they were but planted there. There are many precious qualities of mind, efficient for good or for evil, just as they are employed. You have known a man possessed of many good qualities--such qualities as attract and bind to their possessor a wide circle of friends. He is, in the common sense of the term, a good-hearted man. He is generous, and kind, and honest. He will not maliciously resent an injury--he gives liberally of his goods to feed the poor--he renders to every man his due; but he is a drunkard. A bitter root has fastened in that generous soil, and drinks up all its riches. Oh! it is sad to see that strong one keeping possession of a wealthy place. It is sad to see so promising a field exhausted in bearing the filthiest fruit. Avarice is another root of equal bitterness. There is no more pitiable creature on earth than a man whose heart’ s warm affections have been sucked out by the lust of gold. The power of understanding and judging, of liking and disliking, of hoping and fearing--all these, as natural capabilities of the human soul, are wielded by the presiding will either on the side of righteousness or the side of sin. The same learning and ardour which Saul of Tarsus employed to waste the Church, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, plied as the instruments of extending and establishing it. Paul had met the Lord in the way, and received into his heart the seed of a new life. This is the one needful thing. These understandings and memories, and all these natural powers that are now wasted on sin, the same instruments will do for serving God, when the quickening Spirit has implanted the new life within Deuteronomy 29:14-18). The root that beareth gall and wormwood is a heart that turneth away from God; and to that spring of evil must the cure be applied. Although it be “ a root out of a dry ground,” all will be well, if it be not a “ root of bitterness.” If the root be holy, so also will the branches be. (W. Arnot.) How bitterness grows A young girl had but few social opportunities. She fell into habits of excessive self-inspection, and a morbid sensitiveness to criticism. With good gifts, and refined tastes, and careful culture, she began to grow conscious of a kind of superiority to most of those about her. But the absence of lively sympathies fostered reserve and taciturnity, so that few found out or appreciated her real attainments. While her own standard of character was rising, others ceased to care what so indifferent and haughty a spirit might know or be. Presently a sense of injustice began to spring up in her. Each new acquirement only seemed to separate her more and more from her neighbours. Even her equals failed to appreciate the hidden merit. Gradually, as years went on, a silent resentment was kindled. Temper was a little soured; speech grew sarcastic; judgment grew bitter. She revenged herself for neglect by withdrawing further and further from the world. Those of her own sex were alienated, and as to those of the other, they were a little frightened. Very few men value criticism enough to marry it. And so, every way, society loses in the person of this fine capable young woman an ornament and a strength. (T. D.Huntingdon.) Hebrews 12:16-17 Essau, who for one morsel The character of Esau: There are certain features of character which, if they do not exactly enlist our admiration, never fail to secure our goodwill, and an instinctive sympathy with those who possess them. The man who along with his virtues, which by reason of their very nature lift him above many of his fellows, combines a few of those failings which bring him down again to their level, is by far the greatest favourite. Good men are glad to acknowledge his goodness, and for the sake of it are disposed to deal gently with his inconsistencies. The multitude find that they, too, have a share in him, and are pleased to recognise their own features in such respectable and perhaps unusual company. Now it is just such a character as this of which it is most difficult to form an impartial estimate.’ And it is all the more difficult if the good qualities in question are of that striking sort which almost disarm criticism. For there are qualities that act in such a way. It seems, for instance, almost impossible to resist the impression which energy makes upon our minds, especially the energy that throws itself out upon the broad arena of practical life, and produces visible and manifest results. The same thing holds true, though in a less degree, of all that class of actions which we distinguish by the word “ impulsive.” We pardon a man a great deal for the sake of this particular temperament. If he does what is wrong, it mitigates the wrong that it was done on the spur of the moment, and not by a cool, deliberating wickedness. If he does what is good, it makes the good still better, because goodness that acts spontaneously is more genuine than a habitual calculating virtue. Besides, we give more latitude to impulsive actions, because they break through the routine of things. Hence the popularity of what is vulgarly called dash, a quality we all naturally admire. It serves as a sort of flourish that relieves the monotony of life. And we watch any singular display of it as a man watches a game of chance, knowing there may be some brilliant successes, but just as likely some ruinous catastrophe. The character of Esau, as it is brought before us in Scripture, partakes largely of this element. He was if anything an impulsive man. He had none of those faults which attach themselves to timid and more thoughtful characters, the tendency to equivocate, and compass an end by somewhat doubtful means to bargain, and finesse, and sail close to the wind. A character like this shows, of course, all the more favourably when compared with such as one as that of Jacob. His faults spring, no doubt, from his peculiar temperament, but they are those which we regard with the greatest dislike. His virtues, on the other hand, had none of that spontaneity and freshness which makes an excellence doubly excellent, but were always unpleasantly prudential. They seem to have been developed only by infinite patience and a vast variety of discipline, and not to have come to very much after all. Yet Jacob was the man on whom God’ s blessing rested, whose nature was the most susceptible of Divine treatment, and most capable of receiving and transmitting the promise of the covenant. Esau, according to the Scripture, was a profane man, with little or no capacity for the spiritual and unseen, unable to understand it, whose strong earthly instincts and exuberance of life repelled everything of the sort, or hardly admitted of its approach. On what, then, is our sympathy with Esau grounded? He stands out as the representative of the warmhearted, high-spirited man of the world, whose sins, because they scorn the grosset attributes of meanness, seem little more to us than acts of extravagance. The growths of a rich though wayward nature, they carry along with them a certain savour of its richness, that renders them somewhat less unpalatable. And the fact that now and then he can do most liberal things, be touched with poignancy of sorrow, or rise into an ardour of affection, seems to prove that he cannot be a bad man. It shows he has it in him to throw his sin aside, and rise above it, that there must be an inward fountain of goodness, that but for untoward and embarrassing conditions, would be certain to obtain the ascendency. So we are inclined to argue. But the argument may he a mistake. For what determines the nature of a man’ s life, and stamps his character as good or bad, is the course of it in the main. A few glimpses of sunshine, however bright, will not make a fine day, especially if it pours heavily throughout the intervals. The stream that lingers in its deep pools, and doubles on itself in doubtful windings through the plain, is none the less surely seeking for the sea. So we are not to imagine a man good or bad because the level of his life is broken up by occasional deeds of goodness or the reverse. We are to look at the tenor of the whole and discover, if we can, the sovereign motive that governs its drift. Now it is unfortunately true that much generosity and warmth of emotion may co-exist with serious moral weakness, that a man’ s nature may break out at times into admirable actions, while its habitual temper is rigidly selfish, nay, that these actions themselves may only be selfishness working in a somewhat unusual way. For what is impulsiveness but the tendency to act at the bidding of one’ s own feelings? And to indulge our feelings, irrespective of those of other people, what is that but selfishness? A man who habitually lives for himself will, almost unconsciously, act upon the same principle of selfishness even in those very instances in which he seems to have most thoroughly broken away from it. His good deeds are, in all likelihood, so many acts of expiation by which he tries to make up for cases of neglect. Besides, even apart from such considerations, there is a subtle pleasure in being occasionally better than ourselves, in surprising people, and rising above their expectations, which is only another form of selfishness. It is as much as saying, “ See how much more generous I am than you supposed. What an injustice you have done me in concluding I am hard-hearted and inconsiderate!” We must not be deceived, then, by the superficial attractiveness of the warm-hearted, impulsive type of character, nor forget that exceptional actions only prove their opposite to be the rule. Selfishness may disguise itself in a coat of many colours, and take its own way among a multitude of devices that seem to surround it with a contrary atmosphere, but which are all intended only to make room for it, and allow it to go on without interference. It is only when a man’ s life involves him in self-denial; when it recognises the claims of others and the claims of God, and submits to adjust itself faithfully to these; when it gives up its own waywardness, and curtails its freedom, to add to the happiness and well-being of those around him; only, in short, when he bows himself to the yoke of Christ, and begins to burden himself, as He did, with the sins and sorrows, the toils and struggles, of the world--that he learns the first lesson in the school of Christianity, and truly practises the fear of God. But it is not as a selfish but as a profane man Esau is held up as a beacon of warning; and by a profane man is meant one who has no perception of the sanctity of Divine things. But this profaneness simply describes the selfish man’ s character on that side of it which is turned towards God. He has no such respect for God as moves him to obedience. He removes religion out of his way as a serious hindrance, or shuts it up within so narrow a compass it never comes into collision with himself. What else can he do, if it only thwarts and annoys him? If it gives him no pleasure, and adds nothing to his resources, is it to be expected that it should be found anywhere except amid the lumber of his life? But there is another reason besides those I have mentioned which has much to do with our sympathy with Esau, and that is his misfortunes. We are apt to look at him as the victim of a fraud, and it seems to us almost a contravention of justice that the impostor should flourish in the favour of God and his victim be disowned and cast aside. But this is a one-sided view of the occurrence and falls short of the truth. No man can be cheated out of a Divine gift against his own will. God does not hold His benefits with so lax a hand, or dispense them with such indifference, as to allow them to be diverted from their destined possessor by the craft or subtilty of man or devil. Esau lost the birthright by his sin, sold it for a mess of pottage, and had himself and not his brother to blame for his calamity. But it was highly characteristic of Esau that he should not have seen this. It is the way of selfish, worldly men to resent exceedingly that their sin should find them out. And having his father on his side, who had the blessing to bestow, it seemed to him a settled thing that he should receive it. The old affair of the pottage was not so serious after all, and it would be absurd to suppose that so trifling a transaction would interfere with the stated rights of the eldest born. But though hand join in hand iniquity shall not go unpunished, and the conspiracy of sin was broken, and its purpose baffled, by an utterly unprecedented trick. It is a terrible illustration of the truth that as a man sows so shall he also reap; that every sin we commit, instead of passing into the past with the time that witnessed it, remains embedded among the forces of our life, that there it works and spreads, and dissipates its influence, till it brings us face to face with the measure of retribution. But even though it be granted that Esau suffered for his own fault, was not the suffering disproportioned to the sin? Was it not too trifling to be followed by so grievous a penalty? It might have been so if his sin had only consisted in the act that was the immediate occasion of his loss. But no sin stands by itself. And it is not the evil action that makes a man bad, it merely reveals the fact that he is bad. It is the outlet by which the inward wickedness issues’ into broad daylight, and publishes the fact of its existence. Esau was a profane man, not because he sold his birthright; but he sold his birthright because he was profane. And there was nothing for it but to transfer it to some one who should watch over it with becoming pains, and yield himself to be fashioned by the hope of its fulfilment. It happened according to that saying of our Lord, “ Unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have.” And so, let us beware of cherishing a spirit of self-indulgence and of indolent yielding to our desires. Your nature may grow so enfeebled by selfishness you will not be able to rouse yourself to the call of God. Some critical moment may arrive, some day of grace, when there shall be set before you with a freer and more abundant entrance than ever the open door of the kingdom of God, and you will be too easy-going to be disturbed, too enervated by indulgence to seize your opportunity. Or, to keep more closely to the tragic example of my text, some long gratified desire may insist on being satisfied at the expense of fidelity to Christ. You may find that in some hour when you have least expected it you are faced with the alternative of denying yourself, or parting for ever with an interest in Him; and if you have not been bearing the Cross and enduring hardness as a good soldier, if you have not been accustoming yourself to sacrifice your own will to the will of God, how terrible the risk that in that hour of everlasting issues you may fail to stand the test, and barter your birthright for a worldly lust! (C. Moinet, M. A.) The relation of animal appetites to spiritual prerogatives There are three classes of sentient life: first, those which have animal appetites, and no spiritual prerogatives--such are the beasts of the field, dec.; secondly, those which have spiritual prerogatives, and no animal appetites-such, probably, are angels; and thirdly, those that are compounded of both--such are men. In men, these two kinds of power occupy two very different relations; in some--the mass--the animal is the sovereign; in others--the few--the spiritual guides and governs all. I. ANIMAL OFTEN COME INTO WITH . 1. Spiritual independency. 2. Moral approbation. 3. Divine fellowship. II. ANIMAL OFTEN LEAD TO THE OF . 1. This is foolish. 2. This is criminal. III. ANIMAL , WHEN THEY LEAD TO THE OF , REDUCE MAN TO THE UTMOST . (Homilist.) Esau I. HIS IN ITS . Oh, it is a strange parable, that sale of the birthright; a parable fulfilled again and again in the irreligious man selling eternity for time; the man of faith giving all that he now has for a better hope in years to come. It is a parable having its own peculiar lesson for our own days. Now, when natural accomplishments are so highly valued, when intellect, science, energy, skill, win the admiration even of foes; and implicit belief is construed as superstition, a self-denying, meditative life viewed almost as treason to the interests of human fellowship. Now, when even religion is denuded, as much as possible, of everything supernatural; and whilst honour, and benevolence, and generosity are lauded, and a general providence recognised, prayer, meditation, sacramental grace, like the promise of old, are put aside; we call you back to Isaac’ s tent, and show you the types of our modern life in his twin sons, and bid you note how the man of religious faith, in spite of many faults, won the eternal love, whilst the man of this world, the free, frank hunter of the desert, brave yet Without reverence, affectionate yet without faith, became an alien from the commonwealth of Israel; stamped, for a perpetual warning, as the profane person who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. II. HIS IN ITS FINAL ISSUE. HOW do men live on year after year foregoing religious privileges, forgetting God, and scarcely remember it! The man who has been baptized, and whose conscience tells him that he dare not die as he is--what is he but one who has verily parted with his spiritual birthright? Once he was sure of heaven, now he is sure no longer; nay, if he reflects has little hope of heaven in his present state; where is his birthright? He means to alter before he dies. He intends to win back his inheritance. What is this but Esau, dimly conscious of a loss, yet continuing in the same career which ruined him at the outset, a cunning hunter, and nothing but a cunning hunter still? We must wait till the next world for the “ exceeding bitter cry “ from such men, for it is seldom here that the conviction of being lost for ever is experienced. The same carelessness lasts on to the end. There is, indeed, nothing more alarming than the fearlessness with which the majority meet death. Whenever there is manifested anxiety and dread, the minister of Christ knows what to do. But the difficult case to deal with is that which is the most common case; when the man who has never accustomed himself to make much of God and Christ in his health, appears in his sickness utterly without fear, unable to realise the bitter things that are written against him; unable to imagine that he has gone so far astray, and has so far to return. It is as if the habit of treating religion lightly, once contracted, dislocated the whole moral being, that we can never afterwards see, or hear, or taste aright, the powers of the world to come. And so the thoughtful man, who feels what sin is, what God is, what heaven is, must often fear for those who fear not for themselves; and tremble lest the instant of the death pang should be the signal of a terrible awakening--lest, at the moment when this world hears the faint whisper of the dying no longer, the eternal world may be ringing with the loud, bitter cry of a soul just conscious of a birthright lost for ever. (Bp. Woodford.) Esau’ s profanity: It was the contemptuous treatment of that which should have been held sacred and invaluable. It was the selling of station, honour, influence, power, pre-eminence, for a dish of soup and a little brewed. It was the parting with chieftainship at the bidding of an empty stomach. It was the allowing of the animal to swallow up the man. It was sinking the interest of a great future in the little pressing need of the present. I. THE OF YOUR DANGER HERE. 1. The first element of danger which I mention is present stress--urgency of present need. The man who has just risen from a hearty meal and gone out into the street, is under no temptation to steal from the baker’ s wagon which stands by the sidewalk. But the case is vastly different when the street-boy, who slept last night in an ash-barrel, and whose lips for twenty-four hours have not tasted food, comes along by the bread-cart. Involuntarily his tired feet halt. His eyes, how wide they open upon those loaves! His mouth, how it waters! Now he looks to the right and the left; up the street, down the street; no one in sight, and his hands spring like a steel-trap upon the nearest loaf. Why? Because he is hungry. So oftentimes do children of a larger growth come unto their critical hour. By misfortune, by loss, by squandering, or by the increasing power of an evil appetite (growing by that it feeds upon), the man’ s desire for money has been made fierce, clamorous, raving. And now he is brought into the presence of his coveted boon. Money is before him, within his reach. It is not his own, but it is within sight. Oh, how he wants it! And so the man stands in the presence of his temptation, weak through the power of the craving within him. The next step is soon taken. The exposed man risks the penalty of the law; ventures honour, character, reputation; sells all these at the bidding of his hungry nature. And there is yet another and more vivid view of the working of this same mighty power. Man is born to a nobler birthright than honour or reputation even. In every sinful human being there vests the possible title to a blessed immortality. But the hour of present and pressing indigence bursts upon the man. He comes back from his long chase after satisfying good. He feels that he must have the desire of his heart--must have it now. And then the world offers it--offers it for a price. “ Give me your birthright,” she says, “ swear it me, and you shall have what you want. Throw away principle, and wealth is yours. Renounce integrity, and here is honour. Sell me conscience, and I give you success.” And the man reasons, Esau like, “ Behold, I am at the point of death, and of what use is the birthright to a dead man? Heaven is far in the future, a dim, uncertain good. My title to it is not wealth or honour or success. Better have what I can get now.” “ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lintiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way,” --without his birthright. So the world gives its victim. He eats, he drinks, he rises up and goes his way; goes his way to meditate upon the words, “ What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” 2. The second element in the danger here is the almost omnipotent power of the present. Esau would not have felt his hunger so keenly if the broth had not been before him. Besides, he would have reasoned, “ If I must wait until food is prepared by some one, I’ ll prepare it myself and keep my birthright.” But the case was, that to Esau’ s pressing need Jacob could bring immediate relief, could offer food already prepared. And so he got the birthright; bought it at a low figure, because he was able to pay the price at once. And men always sell at a lower price for cash in hand; and this, whether their merchandise is houses, or lands, or conscience, or character. Take the holders of real estate in our city who wish to sell. They have all of them one price for the buyer who pays all cash, and another and higher price for the buyer who wishes to pay in the future. This is so because the possession of money has value; because there is always more or less uncertainty about promises for the future, whether to pay or to do anything else. And I think I can see this same principle reaching out from this narrow sphere and ramifying all through the conduct of men. A child would rather have one toy to-day than the promise of a dozen to-morrow. And men are but older children. Look at the man who is wrecking his business, his health, and his family with strong drink, He would never pay this fearful price for a distant gratification. The men who are living in the enjoyment of dishonest wealth to-day--of wealth for which they have given their honour, their peace, and their souls--would not have paid this fearful price for riches which should come in a distant day. The uncertainty of the future, the dimness of the distant prize, their own valuation of moral character, would have prevented the foolish and profane transaction. So it is with all sin. It overcomes through the hope, the assurance, of immediate gratification. Heaven is in the future; so is death; so is judgment; and so is God. These all at uncertain distances, while right before them, ready to their hand, is the price of iniquity, the wages of sin. They sell so cheap because they sell for cash. II. SOME WHICH SHOULD SAVE A MAN HERE. 1. Today is not all. If the man who, in the midst of his ill-gotten wealth, is now lying upon the bed of death, had thought of this bed in the far off day of his temptation, the thought would have saved him. Out of it would have been born such wisdom as this: “ The opportunity is most tempting. But I see a long future reaching out beyond it, and I cannot afford to blacken all this.” Oh, take into your hearts this preservative thought--to-day is not all. There is a future coming--a future with its days and its years and its ages. A future with its glory, honour, and immortality. A future with its endless heaven, and its blessed and blessing Father God. Mortgage not this future. Sell it not for a temporary gratification. Throw it not into the mouth of a single hungry hour. 2. There are things more important than the gratification of present desire. Principle is better than prosperity. Some sacrifices you cannot afford to make for any results. There are things which you ought not to sell at any price. They are these--usefulness in the world, peace of conscience, purity of heart, the favour of God; a good life, which shall not blanch or quiver in a single nerve, when Death shall lay his hand upon it. 3. The sale of the birthright is irrevocable. There are thousands of the world’ s successful ones longing for peace and for happiness, who would give all they have in the world for the approval of conscience and the blessing of God. But it is too late. These things which they desire are the fruits of character; and, having bartered this, these sorrowful ones cannot have its fruits. Neither can tears buy these fruits. No one ever has sold, no one ever can sell, duty for a price, and keep happiness. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.) The profane exchange: The history of the wicked, as well as of the righteous, is useful. By their crimes we are cautioned; and we are warned by their miseries. Anxious for our welfare, the Scripture addresses our fear as well as our hope, and holds forth instances of Divine vengeance, as well as proofs of Divine mercy. I. Let us view Esau in his original state--and COMPARE YOUR WITH HIS . To stand supreme in the house of the patriarch Isaac was no trifling prerogative: his house was “ the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” To the birthright belonged pre-eminence over the other branches of the family. Such were the prospects of Esau. And what are yours? It is true, you were not born in the house of Isaac; but you have been brought forth in a Christian country in a “ land the Lord careth for,” where “ the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” You have the Bible; you have Sabbaths; you have sanctuaries; you have ordinances; you have ministers; you have the throne of grace; you have the promise of the Holy Ghost: and all things appertaining to your everlasting happiness are now ready. You possess much; but all your present advantages are not to be compared with those glorious hopes to which you are called by the gospel. You have the prospect of becoming a “ kind of firstfruits of His creatures” : a birthright which comprehends a “ better country” than Canaan, even heaven. But this pearl is not for the swine, who, ignorant of its value, tramples it under foot; but for those who, conscious of its incomparable worth, prefer it to everything else, and, like the wise merchant, are willing to sell all to buy it. These high advantages may be sacrificed. II. Let us therefore view Esau in the surrender of his privileges, and COMPARE YOUR SIN WITH HIS SIN. “ For one morsel of meat he sold his birthright.” It is obvious that the loss was voluntary and base. 1. It was voluntary. No one forced it from him--he sold it. And who compels you to abandon your hopes of heaven? Who forces you into perdition? You say that you live in a world of enticing objects; that the dominion of sense is strong; that it is not very easy to resist the impulse of the moment. But is it impossible to resist? Have not many overcome, though placed in the same circumstances, and possessed of the same nature with you? What is goodness untried? Have you not reason as well as appetite? Is not grace attainable by you? Is it not sufficient for you? 2. It was equally base. For what is the price of the birthright? An empire? A crown? A crown sparkles in the eye of ambition: a throne is the highest pinnacle of human pride: nothing like it--but a despicable trifle, “ one morsel of meat” --“ a mess of pottage” --the dearest dish, says Bishop Hall, that was ever purchased, except the forbidden fruit. But I feel ready to dispute this. Are not you more than like him? Do not you surpass him in folly? For what do you sell the treasures of the soul and eternity, but a thing of nought, a fleeting indulgence, a false point of honour, an imaginary interest? Here is your eternal infamy and disgrace! “ Ye have sold yourselves,” says the prophet, “ for nought.” III. LET US ESAU IN HIS MISERY, AND COMPARE YOUR DOOM WITH HIS DOOM. Nothing could be more affecting than his expostulations, and his bitter cries, but to no purpose does he urge his petition or press his father to retract: the benediction is pronounced, and Isaac acquiesces in the decision of heaven. Are you disposed to pity him? Yea, rather, weep for yourselves. Your loss is inestimably greater than his loss. After all his disappointments he had something left, and could entertain himself with the diversions of the field; but your condition will be destitute of all resources. Sin unavoidably brings a man sooner or later to lamentation and regret. Let us also remark, that there is a repentance which is unavailing. Paul tells us of a “ sorrow of the world which worketh death.” The eyes which sin closes, eternity will open. But then grief comes too late. The blessing once lost, cannot be recovered. (W. Jay.) Esau’ s sensuality and profanity: Esau was, undoubtedly, sensual, or addicted to gross carnal pleasures. His wild, roving character prepares us to find in him imperious passions and an unscrupulous will. The steady tradition of the Jews is that he was an abandoned profligate; and this is sufficiently borne out by what we read (Genesis 26:34-35). Again, Esau was profane; as, in truth, all sensual persons are. Show me a rake, and though an oath may never be heard to escape his lips, I will pronounce that man profane; for his sins belong to that class which, more than any other, eat out all fear of God from the human heart, and harden and petrify it into the most reckless godlessness. Esau’ s profanity sufficiently appears in the brief account of it we have in Genesis 25:32-34, and in the flippant levity with which he sold his birthright, clinching the transaction with an oath which he never meant to keep--thus consistently blending blasphemy and fraud. And the chartered treasure he sold was no commonplace one. It was a birthright not only to Canaan, but to all the privileges and distinguished honours of the Messianic people. It was a birthright, therefore, in which the spiritual interests of Esau’ s children, and children’ s children, were most vitally implicated. Of this matchless and marvellous honour, Esau flippantly said, under a passing sensation of hunger, “ Behold I am at the point to die (which, as we have already said, was not true), and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” Well might the inspired historian add, “ Thus Esau despised his birthright.” A passing sense of hunger, which any common soldier would scorn or forget in the pursuit of honour; which the pettiest trader can forget in the eager pursuit of gain; which Esau himself would often despise in the keen urgency of the chase, was now, in his spiritual balance, to make the proudest birthright the world ever saw to kick the beam! What mattered it to profane Esau whether the blood of the chosen holy seed, or of a heathen predatory tribe, was at the time flowing in his veins? Thus the inspired writer has only too good reasons for affirming that Esau was both sensual and profane; and that it was these bad qualities that led him to barter away his birthright, yea, and to pour the utmost contempt upon it by weighing against it a paltry mess of lentile pottage. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Sensual and profane Every gospel rejecter, as such, is both sensual and profane. He is sensual, for he is “ a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God.” He is profane, for he trifles year after year, though death’ s darts are flying around him, with the tremendous realities of duty and destiny. So sensual is he that “ the pleasures of sin for a season” bulk larger in his eyes than “ the pleasures” that are “ for evermore.” So profane is he that “ he worships and serves the creature more than the Creator,” whom he dethrones from his conscience and banishes from his heart. Do not cavil at the terms; for if you are still a gospel rejecter, the terms fit you; they mean you. One unbeliever may indignantly say, I am not sensual; another may say, I am not profane; no matter, your place lies somewhere between them; and to flee from one is just to fall into the other, cross and recross each other as you will. You do not need to be an abandoned profligate in order to be sensual: you do not need to be a blasphemer in order to be profane. If there is anything you prefer to God, to Christ, to a present salvation, you are both. And oh remember, that as any object, though only an inch square, if kept over the eye, is large enough to keep the whole world of vision, and all its enjoyments, out of the mind, so a very trifling indulgence, clung to in spite of conscience, is large enough to keep the boundless tide of salvation out of your soul. Lovers of pleasures, beware! Oh, remember that “ the pleasures of sin “ will, ere long, be a phrase of greatly altered meaning. It has some meaning now; but ere long the tie, such as it is, that binds pleasure and sin will be in a large degree finally ruptured. There will be pleasure and there will be sin, but the great gulf will roll between. In the preponderating point of view, all the pleasure will be in heaven, but there will be no sin there; all the sin will be in woe, but there will be no pleasure there. (Ibid.) The unhallowed bargain I. ESAU’ S SALE. 1. An instance of the foolish behaviour of men. (1) They will exchange the greatest blessings for the most paltry considerations. (2) They will yield up home, friends, happiness, for a moment’ s passion. Eternity is lost, that time may delight. 2. An instance of thoughtless words bringing serious realities. The wise man never speaks at random. The prudent is not overtaken to betray himself by the feelings of the moment. 3. An instance of the little value often set upon the most precious blessings. 4. An instance of the sensual prevailing over the ideal. 5. An instance of the irretrievable character of wrong choice. II. JACOB’ S . 1. What he lost. (1) The confidence of his father. (2) Peace of mind. (3) The comforts of home. (4) The same confidence he had taken from his father. 2. What he gained. The birthright--but with certain penalties attached. It was got by fraud, and the curse of the fraud clung to it. Learn: 1. The folly of rash and hasty impulses. 2. The folly of trifling with religious matters. 3. The folly of dishonesty. (Homilist.) The price of birthrights: There is only one price that can be had for a birthright, and that is “ one morsel of bread.” There are no higher figures; there are no better bargains. If he had received ten thousand worlds they would have constituted but one morsel of meat, when in the other hand there was a birthright. The devil has no more in his counter; the enemy has no more at the bank; he pays you all he can pay you when you sell your birthright--one gulp, one morsel, one flash of pleasure, and then hell! Nothing more is possible. Then why haggle with the old serpent the devil? Why ask for threehalfpence more for your soul? The whole transaction totals up to one morsel of meat. That is all he gave to the mother of the world. She and he struck the first bargain about birthrights. So it comes and goes, age after age, the same temptation, the same bargain, the same price, the same perdition! See if these things be not true in experience, in every degree of the circle of life’ s tragedy. You will have pleasure, you will gratify a passion: do it; having done it, what have you got in your hand, in your mouth? In the very indulgence of the passion you consume the compensation; when all is over there is nothing left but fire, shame, reproach, the sting of hell. This is inevitable; this is the law of Providence, the law of experience, the law of justice. The highest rights can be parted with. A man can get rid of his birthright. A man can deplete his soul of itself. One would think it would be impossible to part with anything but that which is material, commercial, arithmetical; but history--and may we not add personal consciousness?--testifies to the fact that we sell our souls. Why do we not say so to ourselves plainly and frankly? Why not confess the crime of suicide? This is the intolerable agony of remorse. If we had sold a hand we could make it up again in some form, but when we have sold the brain, the heart, the soul, how can we recover such birthrights? “ In the day then eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” That word “ die” has never been explained. It must be terrible beyond the power of language to express, for God hath no pleasure in it; and if He of the infinite heart cannot make room for death, who shall describe it in words or figure it in sufficient symbols? There are possessions without which we could not be men, without which we Could not begin to live, and without which we could not receive the ministries of nature. Is a man deaf? then he cannot receive the ministry of music. Is a man blind? then he is excluded from the ministry of light and colour and form and all that peculiarity of distributed magnitude which constitute the very apocalypse and wizardry of form. And you cannot represent to blindness what a beam of light is like. So you may have got rid of your religious sensitiveness, and now you may say about the hymn-book out of which you used to sing that you can find nothing in it. The book is not dead, but your spiritual sensitiveness is extinct. So with the Divine revelation. You were once accustomed to delight in it, you meditated therein day and night, and now any last critic who is dealing in the expectorations of critics who are already ashamed of their folly can tempt you to leave the Church. Has the Church changed? Not at all. Is the Bible so revised as to have ejected its own wisdom and made room for sonic man’ s folly? No. Then what is the explanation of it? The birthright is gone, the soul’ s power of vision, the soul’ s responsiveness to appealing heavens and all the nurturing ministries of nature. You can exhaust yourselves. You have sold your birthright. What things are there that may be called birthrights? There are some birthrights that are moral, others that are intellectual, and others that are social. Surely we come into something; surely there is some law of inheritance and some law and discipline of succession. We cannot get rid of instinct, much older than logic; we cannot get rid of aspirations that have no words, God’ s own songs in the soul. Let us one and all take care lest we part with our birthright on any terms; and let us especially remember that whatever the terms may be in figures they total up into one morsel of meat in reality. It is a morsel, and it is one morsel, and it never can be more under any circumstances. What is the relation of Christ to these Esaus? Has Christianity anything to say to such poor merchantmen? Christianity first begins with a revelation of their folly; Christianity shows them that if a man should gain the whole world and lose his birthright, he has gained nothing, he has profited nothing, he is a loser by all the transaction. What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his birthright? (J. Parker, D. D.) Wisdom of temptation: The devil doth not know the hearts of men; but he may feel their pulse, know their temper, and so, accordingly, can apply himself. As the husbandman knows what seed is proper to sow in such soil; so Satan, finding out the temper, knows what temptation is proper to sow in such a heart. That way the tide of a man’ s constitution runs, that way the wind of temptation blows. Satan tempts the ambitious man with a crown, the sanguine man with beauty, the covetous man with a wedge of gold. He provides savoury meat, such as the sinner loves. (T. Watson.) Dislike to sensuality His contempt of all sensual enjoyment was expressed in his saying, “ I would rather be mad than sensual.” (O. H. Lewes.) Ruined men Ruined castles are picturesque, they add charm to a landscape--alas I we cannot say the same of ruined men. Sin causing degradation When the followers of Ulysses degraded themselves by the misuse of pleasures, until they fell to the level of the brutes, it is said that Circe, touching them with her wand, turned them into swine. She brought to the surface the inner ugliness; revealed the animal that ruled within. (H. O. Mackey.) The soul bartered Esau sold his inheritance for pottage. Lysimachus, besieged by the Goths, suffered so severely from thirst that he finally offered his kingdom to his foes for a supply of water. Having slaked his thirst, lie cried: “ Oh, wretched man, who for a little joy has lost so great a kingdom!” (Preacher’ s Cabinet.) A bad bargain Said a thoughtless young man to his sister under deep concern for her soul: “ I’ ll give you five dollars if you will quit this nonsense and be yourself again.” She took the paltry gift, lived without religion and died without hope. (Preacher’ s Cabinet.) No place of repentanceNo reversal I. THAT AT ONE TIME IS SOUGHT AT ANOTHER. II. THE VALUE OF WHEN . The habit forms the character, Rejection becomes permanent, e.g., an icicle a foot long is formed drop by drop. So repeated indifference forms the permanent state in which it becomes impossible to seek a blessing. 1. Warning here to the indifferent, rash, profane; e.g., Saul offering sacrifice and losing a kingdom. 2. Warning to the hardened. An old man said, concerning religion, “ There was a time, sir, when I might have turned, it is no use now. I am past even thinking about it.” 3. A warning to procrastinators. There are those who believe, but who will not act. Fable of the angel and hermit who constantly saw an old man adding from the wood to his bundle of sticks, and who could not lift and carry it. 4. See your birthright and take the Bible as your possession. Make it, as Hedley Vicars did, by placing a Bible on his table in his quarters, the sign of allegiance to Christ. If this were the first time some heard, there might be hope of some influence being brought to bear. Many times heard, and hardening following, the last opportunity will come when the chance of repentance will be gone. That time is not come if a penitent spirit is now possessed. Christ will grant forgiveness to every penitent soul. (H. De Lynne.) Things we never get over There is an impression in almost every man’ s mind that somewhere in the future there will be a chance where he can correct all his mistakes. Live as we may, if we only repent in time, God will forgive us, and then all will be as well as though we had never committed sin. My discourse shall come in collision with that theory. I shall show you that there is such a thing as unsuccessful repentance; that there are things done wrong that always stay wrong, and for them you may seek some place of repentance, but never find it. 1. Belonging to this class of irrevocable mistakes is the folly of a misspent youth. We may look back to our college days and think how we neglected chemistry, or geology, or botany, or mathematics. We may be sorry about it all our days. Can we ever get the discipline or the advantage that we would have had had we attended to those duties in early life? A man wakes up at forty years of age and finds that his youth has been wasted, and he strives to get back his early advantages. Does he get them back? “ Oh!” he says, “ if I could only get those times back again, how I would improve them!” You will never get them back. When you had a boy’ s arms, and a boy’ s eyes, and a boy’ s heart, you ought to have attended to those things. A man says at fifty years of age: “ I do wish I could get over these habits of indolence.” When did you get them? At twenty or twenty-five years of age. You cannot shake them off. They will hang to you to the very day of your death. I said to a minister of the gospel last Sabbath night at the close of the service: “ Where are you preaching now?” “ Oh!” he says, “ I am not preaching. I am suffering from the physical effects of early sin. I can’ t preach now; I am sick.” A consecrated man he now is, and he mourns bitterly over early sins; but that does not arrest their bodily effects. The simple fact is, that men and women often take twenty years of their life to build up influences that require all the rest of their life to break down. When you tell me that a man is just beginning life, I tell you that he is just closing it. The next fifty years will not be of as much importance to him as the first twenty. 2. In this same category of irrevocable mistakes I put all parental neglect. We begin the education of our children too late. By the time they get to be ten or fifteen we wake up to our mistakes and try to eradicate this bad habit of the child; but it is too late. That parent who omits in the first ten years of the child’ s life to make an eternal impression for Christ, never makes it. The child will probably go on with all the disadvantages which might have been avoided by parental faithfulness. When I was in Chamouni, Switzerland, I saw in the window of one of the shops a picture that impressed my mind very much. It was a picture of an accident that occurred on the side of one of the Swiss mountains. A company of travellers, with guides, went up some very steep places--places which but few travellers attempted to go up. They were, as all travellers are there, fastened together with cords at the waist, so that if one slipped the rope would hold him--the rope fastened to the others. Passing along the most dangerous point, one of the guides slipped, and they all slipped down the precipice; but after awhile one more muscular than the rest struck his heels into the ice and stopped; but the rope broke, and down, hundreds and thousands of feet, the rest went. And so I see whole families bound together by ties of affection, and in many cases walking on slippery places of worldliness and sin. The father knows it and the mother knows it, and they are bound all together. After awhile they begin to slide down, steeper and steeper, and the father becomes alarmed and he stops, planting his feet on the “ Rock of Ages.” He stops, but the rope breaks, and those who were tied fast to him by moral and spiritual influences once, go over the precipice. Oh l there is such a thing as coming to Christ soon enough to save ourselves, but not soon enough to save others. 3. In this category of irrevocable mistakes I place also the unkindness done to the departed. When I was a boy, my mother used to say to me sometimes: “ De Witt, you will be sorry for that when I am gone.” Oh, if we could only get back those unkind words; those unkind deeds. If we could only recall them; but you cannot get them back. You might bow down over the grave of that loved one, and cry, and cry. The white lips would make no answer. 4. There is another sin that I place in the class of irrevocable mistakes, and that is lost opportunities of getting good. Esau has sold his birthright, and there is not wealth enough in the treasure-houses of heaven to buy it back again. What does that mean? It means that if you are going to get any advantage out of this Sabbath-day, you will have to get it before the hand wheels around on the clock to twelve to-night. It means that though other chariots may break down or drag heavily, this one never drops the brake, and never ceases to run. It means that while at other feasts the cup may be passed to us, and we may reject it, and yet after awhile take it, the cup-bearers to this feast never give us but one chance at the chalice, and rejecting that, we shall “ find no place for repentance, though we seek it carefully with tears.” 5. There is one more class of sins that I put in this category of irrevocable offences, and that is lost opportunity of usefulness. There comes a time when you can do a good thing for Christ. It comes only once. Your business partner is a proud man. In ordinary circumstances say to him; “ Believe in Christ,” and he will say; “ You mind your business and I’ ll mind mine.” But there has been affliction in the household. His heart is tender. He is looking around for sympathy and solace. Now is your time. Speak, or for ever hold your peace. There is a time in farm life when you plant the corn and when you sow the seed. Let that go by, and the farmer will wring his hands while other husbandmen are gathering in their sheaves. When an opportunity for personal repentance or of doing good passes away, you may hunt for it, you cannot find it. You may fish for it, it will not take the hook. You may dig for it, you cannot bring it up. I stand before those who have a glorious birthright. Esau’ s was not so rich as yours. Sell it once and you sell it for ever. The world wants to buy it. Satan wants to buy it. Listen for a moment to these brilliant offers, and it is gone. (De Witt Talmage.) No remedy: In the action of every natural law there is a point up to which transgression is punished with a lenient hand that has in it provision for reparation upon repentance and reformation; but beyond that point you come to a line of facts where it makes no difference how sorry you feel, nor what you do, there is no remedy. There is a point beyond which violations of natural law involve suffering that is absolutely permanent. Our children understand this in respect to some things. A child, before it has attained any considerable age, knows that though he may fall down three or four stairs without serious injury, it cannot fall down a precipice three or four hundred feet and survive. If we go up a step higher we come to those silent, unwritten, unthought-of laws, that connect us one with another, in families, in societies, and in states, that are observed with benefit, and violated with regrets and penalties. A man may do many mean, wicked, and cruel things, and get over it. But there are some things which, if a man does once, and is found out, where social laws prevail, he will never recover from as long as he lives. Men may break down under trust and confidence in social connections, and never be able to build up again a state of things that will lead men to trust them. The same is true in economic laws, upon which business and property depend. Not a man lives that does not make mistakes in business. But some mistakes a man may make to-day, and correct to-morrow, and not seem to be a loser in consequence of them. If a man drives a heavily laden wain along the road, and a side-board cracks, he goes on, and the accident does not make much difference; but if an axletree breaks, it makes a great deal of difference. As when a ship is at sea without a forge with which to make a new crank--if the crank breaks, it is broken for the voyage; so in business there are some things that a man cannot do twice, for the reason that the first time kills him. The same is true of moral laws, or those that regulate influence, position, trust, among men. There are some violations of moral law that only limit and hinder men’ s comfort and usefulness. There are some violations of moral law that put a man out of joint with society, but not so but that the disaster in time may be remedied. And there are some violations of moral law that destroy a man hopelessly, so that there can be no place found for repentance, though it be sought carefully with tears. In each of these departments we come to a line on one side of which repentance will work change and benefit, and on the other side of which it will have no influence whatsoever. Consider, then, some of the things which repentance can but very little change, or change not at all. 1. First, there are bitter injuries that we inflict upon others, which no man can follow after, nor in any wise change. And yet, we are responsible for them. With your tongue you may hew down a man’ s reputation, and the things you have said will torment him to the very end of his days. You may afterwards see your error, you may go to the man and confess the wrong, and you may go to those to whom you have spoken ill of him, and say, “ I have learned contrary things; I was false: and now I speak the truth to his credit” ; but you cannot hunt slanderers. You might as well try to hunt all the flies that are abroad, or all the mosquitoes that covet your blood, in summer. The man that once lets loose these flying, stinging insects, may be as sorry as he pleases, but his repentance will not remedy the evil. 2. Parallel with these, although differing from them, are those things by which men wound the hearts of those whom they should shield. Your anger may sting venomously. Your cruel pride may do a whole age’ s work in a day. You cannot take back the injuries that you have done to those whose hearts lie throbbing next to yours. Ah! when winter has frozen my heliotropes, it makes no difference that the next morning thaws them out. There lie the heliotropes--a black, noisome heap; and it is possible for you to chill a tender nature so that no thawing can restore it. You may relent, but frost has been there, and you cannot bring back freshness and fragrance to the blossom. It Is a terrible thing for a man to have the power of poisoning the hearts of others, and yet carry that power carelessly. He cannot find place for repentance, though he seeks it carefully with tears. 4. You may have injured, defrauded, and even betrayed men in their worldly estate, and in some cases it will be in your power to make reparation; but in many cases it will not be in your power to make reparation. And here is one of those things that you do not know anything about. It is as if a man should amuse himself by sitting in a window of his house, and shooting arrows into the street, without troubling himself to see whom they smote. He could not tell whom he hit, or what mischief he wrought. Now thousands of men are dealing in life in such ways that they shoot arrows of misfortune at their fellow-men. Men practise what is called fraud; but they do not watch the results of their fraudulent deeds, and they do not know anything about them. I do not doubt that many of every man’ s troubles and misfortunes may be traced to his own conduct; but I am convinced that a large proportion of the misfortunes and troubles that afflict society may be traced to the heedless, dishonest, and wicked ways of worldly men. Now, when a man is brought to a condition in which he sees that he has done wrong, and says, “ I have organised and carred on a business whose effects are pernicious, I am sorry I went into it, and I will quit it at once,” he may quit it, but he cannot wipe out its effects. They are irreparable. It is a fearful thing for a man to stand on debatable ground, where the question of right and wrong is held in perpetual suspense. Under such circumstances a man may be spending his whole life in the production of mischiefs to be revealed to him hereafter, when he will have no power to recall them. 5. And this leads me still more particularly and solemnly to say that men stand connected with each other in methods that lead to the most awful destruction. As an apple, touched with rot, will, simply by lying its cheek alongside of the glowing, blushing cheek of a sound apple, cause that sound apple to decay; so it is in the power of a man, if his morals are tainted, to damage the morals of another man merely by being with him. He is your disciple till he is drawn into evil; but the moment he is fascinated by it he ceases to be your disciple. Suppose I should preach the gospel in some gambling saloon of New York, and suppose a man should come out convicted of his wickedness, and confess it before God, and pray that he might be forgiven. Forgiveness might be granted to him, so far as he was individually concerned. But suppose he should say, “ O God, not only restore to me the joys of salvation, but give me back the mischief that I have done, that I may rule it out.” Why, there was one man that shot himself: what are you going to do for him? A young man came to Indianapolis, when I was pastor there, on his way to settle in the West. He was young, and very self-confident. While there, he was robbed, in a gambling saloon, of fifteen hundred dollars--all that he had. He begged to be allowed to keep enough to take him home to his father’ s house, and he was kicked out into the street. It led to his suicide. I know the man that committed the foul deed. He used to walk up and down the street. Oh, how my soul felt thunder when I met him! If anything lifts me up to the top of Mount Sinai, it is to see one man wrong another. Now suppose this man should repent? Can he ever call back that suicide? Can he ever carry balm to the hearts of the father and mother and brothers and sisters of his unfortunate victim? Can he ever wipe off the taint and disgrace that he has brought on the escutcheon of that family? No repentance can spread over that. And yet how many men there are that are heaping up such transgressions! (H. W. Beecher.) Lost blessings: Some blessings which, when lost, are lost for ever. 1. Opportunities for an education. 2. Purity. Sin may be forgiven, but the memory remains. We can have absolute purity only once. 3. Means of grace. We may improve the present, but the means unimproved in the past are for ever lost. 4. Opportunities for doing good. Present work will not make good past neglect. 5. The blessings of a Christian home in childhood. 6. A soul finally lost. There is a time beyond which there is no redemption. The time will come when you will seek these blessings with tears, but it will be too late--for ever too late. (W. M. Hamma, D. D.) No going back: There is an old fairy tale about a knight who was riding along a dangerous road. It was dark and lonely, and there were many wild beasts and robbers along the way. So he thought he would turn back, and see if he could not find another road, which would be less dark and dangerous. But when he turned and looked behind, what did he see? All the road that he had ridden on had disappeared, and at his horse’ s heels there was a gulf, so deep that he could not see to the bottom. And so it is in our life. There is no possibility of going back in it. We can never undo what we have done. We use each moment as it comes, either well or ill, and then it is gone, and we can never recall it. Irretrievable loss I once had for a brief companionship a sweet friend, a relative, on a visit where I was residing. We used to go out rowing together. She had a way of dallying with her hand in the water over the side of the boat. One time she lost all the rings off from her fingers in an instant. Out of sight of course hopelessly they fell to the bottom. But whenever we rowed across that place again she would gaze restlessly over the edge, trying to search the very lowest depths of the lake. I have even seen her suddenly bare her arm, as if she had caught a gleam of the jewels down in among the weeds, and was going to grasp after them yet l It is a great mockery, this clutching after youth and hope and joy and vanished ambition, when one had come to be an elderly and weather-beaten man. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) A bitter wail: How bitter is the wail of the mighty Mirabeau, “ If I had but character, if I had but been a good man, if I had not degraded my life by sensuality, and my youth by evil passion, I could have saved France!” Many a man has felt the same; he has clipped his own wings, he has suffered to be shorn away the sunny locks of the Nazarite who once lay weeping upon his shoulders, and wherein would have lain his strength. Lost opportunities A famed German preacher tells that he began life as assistant to a careless old minister. Often he saw the grey-headed man pacing sadly up and down the garden, and overheard him saying, “ Oh, that God would give me back my past years!” (J. Wells, M. A.) Esau’ s tears: Those tears of Esau, the sensuous, wild, impulsive man, almost like the cry of some “ trapped creature,” are amongst the most pathetic in the Bible. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.) A life lost for eighteenpence! Some time ago a ship went down, having struck a hidden reef. Fortunately, unlike the sad case of the Teution the other day, there was time enough to get the passengers and crew into the boats, which safely held off from the foundering vessel. Just before the last boat started, the captain and mate, having seen that all were safe, stood upon the gangway ready to leave the ship. She was fast sinking--no time to be lost. The mate said to the captain, “ I have left my purse below; let me go and get it.” “ Man,” replied the other, “ you have no time for that; jump at once.” “ Just a moment, captain--I can easily get it” ; and away the mate rushed below. But in that moment the ship went creeping down. I hear the gurgling flood! The captain has barely time to save himself, when, swirling in the awful vortex, the vessel disappears i By and by the body of the mate was found, and in his stiffened hand was tightly grasped the fatal purse. When the purse was opened, what do you think it contained? Eighteenpence! And for that paltry sum he risked and lost his life. Hebrews 12:18-24 The mount that might be touched Sinai and Zion I. IS A , NOT A , . “ The mount that might be touched” --a palpable mountain: the words indicate that the religion thereon proclaimed was a mass of ritual, legal service, and physical endurance; and not that spiritual surrender, and inner life of holiness, essentially belonging to the gospel. The apostle having elaborated this idea, shows that Christians have left behind them the barren Arabian mount, and in approaching God have increased the spirituality of their religion. II. THOUGH IS IN ITS NATURE, IT EMPLOYS FORMS AS . Sinai has given place to Zion. We have our material forms, but they are subordinate, not primary: bodies, not souls: servants, not lords. III. SINAI AND ZION ARE ONLY MARKS OF , NOT FINAL . The home is further onward. Our past victories are only earnests of a universal conquest. Lessons: 1. Privilege is the measure of responsibility. 2. There is no limit to progress in love and knowledge. (J. Parker, D. D.) The sensuous and the spiritual: All things are capable of being intensified by contrast. There is no colour so bright but it may be made to look doubly so, by placing it by the side of its opposite. There is no beauty so exquisite but it may be made to appear more beautiful, by nearness to the unlovely and deformed. We should not know half the cheeriness of the day, if it were not for the gloom of night. There are some sculptured figures in St. Peter’ s, at Rome, which are reduced, to the eye of the beholder, to a third of their real size, by the vastness of everything around them. One half, and sometimes more, of the pleasure of the things that please us comes of the sorrows we have known. Whose are the eyes that greet the light of the morning with the greatest eagerness? Surely, the eyes of those who have watched all the darkness of the night. Whose rest is the sweetest, if not theirs who have toiled the hardest through the day? Who were they whose shout in heaven was like the sound of many waters, as they said: “ Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” ? It was the voice of them which had come out of great tribulation. And who was the man who seemed best to understand, and most to revel in, the freedom and love of the gospel, as a system of salvation? Why, it was the man who had most heartily yielded himself up to the whole influence of the former dispensation, and most conscientiously kept his neck in its yoke. And what was the spirit of the first dispensation, as contained in these words? Is it not this?--It was sensuous; it was artificial; it was based on fear. Whilst the great and blessed character of the second is that it is spiritual, it is real, and it is based on love. I. FROM TO END, JUDAISM WAS AN APPEAL TO SENSE. It was God’ s most merciful accommodation of His revelation of Himself and of His will to the necessities of man’ s weakness and ignorance. Sinai was designed to he, and was, a splendid Divine answer to a few of the deepest questions of the whole human soul--“ Is there a God? And have we anything to do with Him? And what? And will He dwell with us here, upon the earth?” The true answer, Divinely written, at the first, upon the heart and conscience and intelligence of man; ay, written, too, on every leaf of nature’ s living page, in golden letters of the sunlight, in silver gleamings from the moon and stars, sharp graven on the mountain edges, on azure page of heaven, had faded from man’ s heart and eye and ear. “ Is there a God?” said the restless, troubled heart of man. And so, in His own time and way, God gave the answer Himself; and that answer was Sinai. Now look! Yon cloud! It is the robe of Deity. Doubt you? Then hark! And see! Those thunders and sharp lightning flashes are the tramping of His heralds, and the flashing of their spears. Only a storm, say you? Then hark again! What warrior blast is that? So piercing shrill, that, like a steeled sword, it darts through every heart--a blade of fear--and makes the stoutest tremble like a leaf. And then, more awful still, a voice, a voice of words--but not an earthly voice, of human words. The voice of very God. And so God answered these great questions of the human heart. There it was! A great, sensuous thing, that could not but make its own impression on those who saw and heard it, and, through them, might gain the ear and heart of posterity and all the world. And by as much as what we see impresses us more deeply than what we only hear, by so much was this people’ s heart more deeply touched than by any simpler revelation of the truth. But because it was sensuous, it was artificial, unreal. As an allegory wraps up a truth in beauteous, but concealing folds; as a picture reveals the countenance of your friend, and yet is not himself, and cannot be more than a miserable substitute for himself; so, all this was not God; it was not even the likeness of God, it was but the shadow of God. And so again, because it was sensuous and artificial, it was terrible. It is of no use to appeal to the reason of a child, or of a savage, or of a man utterly under the dominion of his senses; you appeal to what is not, or to what has lost its power to act. You must, then, appeal to some lower part of his nature; to his self-interest, if he is capable of perceiving it, if not, to his fear. Now what was it that made it necessary for God to reveal Himself and His will to the Jews in a sensuous and artificial way? It was because they were not susceptible of the higher way. They were children, and wanted to see in order to believe. Ay, they were children morally, subject to great temptation, and God wanted them for their own sake to obey Him, and to worship Him; and so, in the first instance, He laid the foundations for their obedience in terrors. He bound them to Himself by the bands of fear, and holding them thus He then, in the after history of the nation, began to draw them to Himself with the cords of love, the bands of a man. So they came “ to the mount,” &c; to the sensuous, the artificial, the terrible. II. Now, in the second place, let us view the contrast, in all its particulars, which marks THE UNDER WHICH WE ARE PLACED. 1. All is spiritual. At the first, indeed, it pleased God so far to accommodate His ways to the wants of humanity in this respect, as to give us the truth in a sensible, bodily form. “ When the fulness of time was come,” &c. “ The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” &c. And so there was enacted, down here on the earth, once for all, the splendid mystery of the incarnation and the crucifixion and the resurrection. Jesus Christ is the full and complete answer to all those questions that man ever had asked or ever could ask about himself, and God, and all other spiritual facts. But after he had looked for a little while at the new Temple, and the new Priest, and the new law, and the new sacrifice--long enough to feel and see the Divine splendour that was in it, without fully comprehending what it was--it was taken up boldly into the heavenly, that men might know to the full what it was that had been amongst them. But mark you! When it was done, there was not a vestige of the sensuous left. The Holy of Holies was an empty shrine; the very temple was suffered to be thrown down so that not one stone was left upon another; ay, Jerusalem itself, the centre of the whole of the previous system, was desecrated, and has ever since been heathen ground; and the very Jews, the chosen people, the medium of the former revelation, ceased to be a nation, and were scattered among the nations of the earth. And what, then, have we in its place? We have a history, a record, a book, and nothing else. That is to say, we have the truth in its purest, simplest form. The world a temple, thrown open to all mankind; worship possible everywhere, at every time. Would you see God now? Look on the face of Christ, in the mirror of the book, and that is all that you can have. Would you go to God now? Kneel where you are, and He is there, to hear you and to bless. 2. All is real now. There is no exaggeration. Nothing artificial. Christ is the express image of the Father. I do not say that it is the whole truth about God, that we shall come to have some day, when this veil of flesh has been dissolved; but it is all that we can bear. 3. It is as loving and as winning as Sinai was terrible. It makes no appeal to our fears; only to our reason and our love. He is the tender Shepherd of the sheep, come to seek the lost. He is the Father’ s plaintive pleading with His rebellious child. He is the outstretched hand of God to every repenting sinner. He is the utterer of a grand amnesty to all the world who will receive it. He lays His Cross athwart the threatening law, and takes away its curse. He is the rebuke of all men’ s guilt-born fears about God, and all their hard thoughts of Him. In a word, He is the incarnate love of God pleading with sinful man. (G. W. Conder.) Man’ s place is Christianity I. MAN’ S PLACE IN IS RELATED MORE TO THE THAN THE . II. MAN’ S PLACE IN IS RELATED TO THE RATHER THAN THE . This subject presents a motive for 1. Gratitude. 2. Catholicity. Heaven is not a sect. 3. Self-inquiry. “ Are we come” to this system? How do we “ come” to it? Not by mere birth, not by profession, but by a new creation in Christ Jesus. (Homilist.) Ye are come unto mount Sion The privileges and the duties of believers I. What are the of the members of Christ’ s Church? 1. The first and greatest, because the foundation of all the rest is, union with Christ. 2. Association with the whole body of the faithful. 3. The right to the heavenly inheritance. II. If the of all who “ are come unto Mount Zion” are thus precious and ennobling, their DUTIES are proportionate. 1. Correspondent to the first-named privilege there is the duty of loyalty to Christ. 2. Correspondent to the second privilege, there is the duty of love to the brethren. 3. It is the duty of the members of Christ’ s Church, as heirs of the celestial inheritance, to set their hearts and hopes on heaven. (J. M.McCulloch, D. D.) The heavenly life The whole chapter shows that this is the nature of a picture motive. It is an influence rather than a knowledge. And yet how shall one feel influence except through the reason, or through knowledge? But it is the way of the highest instruction to enter through the imagination, and come to the reason in that way. That is the genius, certainly, of the New Testament, in its description of the life above--the life that is to come. It never defines. It seeks not so much to impart knowledge to the reader, as we should call it in this life, as to produce in his mind certain states of feeling. Unskilled men writing, without inspiration, of the new city beyond, of the great afterlife, would have fallen into the mistake of attempting to give in revealed distinctness and accuracy things which by the very terms of our existence we cannot comprehend accurately and distinctly. Not so the inspired teachers. They poetised heaven; they dramatised the future; they gave to man conceptions through his imagination--and not aimlessly, but because through the imagination the sympathies of our nature, hope, joy, trust, aspiration, and the rest, could all be reached. What men need is to be stirred up, and then to be quieted. Intensity and quietude are harmonious in the higher spiritual life. What we want is some motive that will propel us along the sphere of our present life. We do not so much need to know what is to be the daily bread, converse, and activities of the other life; but we do need to know that there is One who has promised us personal sensibility and personal identity there, and that we shall know and be known, love and be loved. We do need to know that heaven is more than a compensation for earth. We do need to know that our being here contributes to immortality, glory, all that belongs to the act of rising into a pure spiritual form and condition where that which is Divine remains and continues in activity. To this Revelation and all the Pauline teachings tend. To this the writings of the unknown author of the Book of Hebrews tend. They give us an inside revelation which reveals nothing. “ Well,” say men, “ what kind of a revelation is that?” When the poor wayfarer from old plantation life, hiding himself by day, and then beginning to live at night, pursued his weary way toward the north, he had but one guide and that was the polar star. That star said nothing to him. It shed no warmth on him. He did not know its contents. He knew nothing about it. But it was a star that, when he looked upon it, directed him to where liberty was. From that bright point in the far north he gathered zeal, so that in the darkness, through forest, through fen, across streams, over mountains, pressed by adversaries, with hounds baying on his track, he sped on his way. It was the inspiration of that star that supported him, though it revealed nothing to him but this: “ You will be free.” So there is no real description of the future life given to us in the New Testament except this: It is more grand than anything that you can conceive. It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive it. Nor can man’ s capacity compass it and take it all in. Nevertheless, what there is in human notions that inspires us with a sense of grandeur we apply to it. Now, the imagination teaches men in such a way that if you accept the description of heaven simply as a picture or vision, it is full of inspiration and hope. When you say that it shall be glorious, it is a good deal; but the moment you attempt to tell what the glory is, it is nothing at all. To say “ we shall reign,” is a good deal; but to undertake to tell what reigning is spoils the whole thing. “ I love you” fills the soul and makes it vibrate like a harp, but undertake to explain what the love is, and it is turned to ashes at once. Nevertheless, the emotion is real, and the highest and most potent of our feelings are those which do not suffer themselves to be touched. The most glorious things in us are silent, and will not submit to rude handling, dwelling as they do in the centre of the ineffable. How much greater, better, and more untranslatable by mortal knowledge than physical existence is the realm of love! It is all right if you do not want to know what it is and how it works; but the moment you undertake to philosophise about it, its character is changed. The realm of purity is glorious so long as you do not attempt to analyse it; but you may as well bid it good-bye if you commence to reason about it. There are, then, some lessons to be derived from this. Having thrown off the peril of misinterpretation, there are certain great truths that we may deduce from it without resorting to the curiosity-monger’ s process--without attempting to anatomise heaven and deal with it scientifically. There are certain elements that it was meant we should derive from the pictures of it, and that, if we consider them aright, may be of exceeding great comfort to us in our Christian life. If it be true that we are to live again; if it be true that we are living here that we may go forward and live in a higher state, then the grandeur of the life that now is out of sight. You cannot tell by the earlier condition of things what their later states are to be. You cannot tell by the bud what the inflorescence is to be. You cannot tell by the flower what the fruit is to be. We cannot understand human life by looking at what it has yet come to under the influence of physical economy. In this life many are discouraged; but let a man maintain integrity under all circumstances and in all conditions, let him always and everywhere act with simplicity and fidelity, let him ally himself to those great qualities which God has revealed to be the centre-current of the universe, and all will be well with him. Love works no ill to one’ s neighbour; God’ s law is love; “ Thou shalt love” is the command; and let a man conform himself to that central law of the universe, and then let death plant him, and we will run the risk of his coming up in the other life. And that ought to be a consolation to a man who in this world is poor and inconspicuous, and, as helpless amid the sweep of human affairs as a last year’ s leaf on the current of the Amazon. There are multitudes of such men, to whom a view like that which I have been presenting should carry not only comfort, but a great deal of instruction. Consider another fact in this connection--namely, that in this life the things which make the most ado are not the things which are the most important. There is nothing on earth noisier than a storm beating on the shore, and yet what does it do? It is bred in the desert sea. It lashes itself into a useless rage. It thunders in the heavens, and shakes the earth, and comes pouring down, and is broken into a million globules on the immovable rocks. By-and-by its wrath ceases, it smooths its blow, and the sea is tranquil again. What has happened? Nothing. Not a single thing has been done. A man’ s life goes thundering on, and the things which are most in the eyes of men are often of the least possible importance. The rage of nations, the march of armies, the rise of inconspicuous tribes to power, and their deliquescence and fading away again--these things seem great to men; but they come and go, and the earth is no whit changed, and men are no whir changed. So the things which are actually worth chronicling, and which are being chronicled, for ever and for ever, are the things which no man hears or sees. This great empty scroll above our heads is God’ s workshop, and He is writing there the history of time and the world. The scroll itself shall shrivel and depart; but the things that are written on that scroll shall never change. A man is not what he seems. This life is not what it appears to be. That which men call nothing--the great invisible realm--is the power which was declared by the apostle to be real. It is the things which are not that bring to naught the things that are. There is dominion in imagination, or in faith, to the man that knows how to avail himself of it. I remark, also, that if these views of the other life,. of the invisible, uninterpreted, and uninterpretable life, of the life of joy and power and grandeur which is to come--but which we cannot define any more closely than this--if these views be true, then how beautiful are the conceptions which are in the nature of comfort to men in the decays that take place in this state of existence! I have always been very much struck by that illustration of Paul’ s which is contained in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. He is speaking about the act of dying. And that which is true of the mere act of death is just as true of every other relation that terminates, or of any other composition which is analysed and goes back to its elements again. He says there are two sides to this matter. You cannot stand in the time-world and see what you will see in the world to come. You only see corruption, you only see dishonour, you only see weakness in the natural body. But then there is another side. There is the way in which God sees things, and there is the way in which the heavenly host see them. But what is to be seen on that side? Why, incorruption, glory, power, a spiritual body. If you look up at the bottom of the coffin from the earth side it is all sad and solemn. If you look down upon the coffin from the Divine side it is all radiant, triumphant, joyful. Those that I have known, whose virtues I have dwelt upon, and whose nature has shed great beauty in life, I love to follow, step by step, as they go down toward death. My faith rejoices in their advance till their voices fail out of my ear, and till their faces are hidden from me, because they have gone to live in Zion and before God: Wherefore comfort one another with words: Strengthen each other by the way. Sing and rejoice, knowing that, bright as is any experience here, it is but a twilight experience till the day shall dawn and the sun shall arise upon your souls. (H. W.Beecher.) The Church likened to a mountain 1. For the height of it. A mountain is higher than the ordinary earth. The Church is high, it is above (Galatians 4:26), and they that be of the Church must carry high and regal minds. We must leave earth, and mount up in our affections into heaven; we must seek the things that be above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 2. The Church is compared to a mountain: for the security of it. 3. For the difficulty of ascending to it. A man may not go up a high hill, but it must cost him pains, sweat and labour; so it is a laborious thing to get to heaven. 4. For the immobility of it. The Church is as Mount Zion that standeth fast for ever, and cannot be removed. Happy are they that be of the Church. (W. Jones, D. D.) Within sight of it, but cannot see it: Crossing from Belfast to Greenock by the night-boat late one autumn, after several attempts to sleep, I came upon deck soon after the steamer had entered the Clyde, and stood for a time in conversation with the mate, a true son of Erin. A dense haze prevented us from seeing far beyond the vessel, and I was disappointed in not being able to get a view of the coast. Thinking we were still at sea, I remarked to the man at the helm “ I suppose we shall soon be in sight of land?” when, judge of my surprise, the following rejoinder was tendered in reply: “ Sure, and we’ re within sight of it now, but ye can’ t see it I “ More than a little amused with the paradox, I thanked my Hibernian friend, and waited till the hills, purple with heather and crowned with the first signs of winter, rewarded my anxious gaze. I knew that with the firs beams which should penetrate the mist the land would be visible, so I kept looking, and had not long to wait. The landscape, aglow with a thousand blended charms as the sun chased away the gloom of night and the mist of the early dawn, soon stood revealed in all its beauty, and forms a memory to be fondly cherished. (V. J. Charlesworth.) The heavenly Jerusalem The heavenly Jerusalem I. THE STATE OF HEAVEN AS A CITY. “ Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” This is that city 1. Where the most glorious display of Divine wisdom appears, everything conducted with exquisite policy. 2. Where omnipotent goodness operates at large, and deals her favours with the richest profusion (Psalms 16:11). 3. Where the King of Glory Himself dwells, and everything declares His more immediate presence (Revelation 7:15). 4. Where the laws, manners, and employments of the inhabitants most resemble and are most worthy of God. 5. In fine, this is that city which is the first production of the grand Architect of nature, and whither we are at last conveyed; but not till duly prepared for it (Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:14). See a fine description of this Revelation 21:10-22). And of this city, all real Christians are represented as members, even while they are in this world. II. OUR OR TO IT. There is a certain figure made use of by our Saviour and His apostles, a figure that makes futurity present and realises the distant glories of immortality (Matthew 5:3; Ephesians 2:6). And the text says, “ Ye are come” ;--“ already come,” etc. The Christian religion suggests particular grounds for this sublime representation, such as no other system can exhibit. For example, we have 1. The express promise of God to put every persevering Christian into the possession of Mount Zion above (Revelation 22:14; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:10). 2. It is farther ascertained from the mediation of Christ, the grand end of which see Hebrews 2:10. 3. The supreme power of the Redeemer (Matthew 28:18), which is equal to remove every difficulty, subdue every enemy, supply every necessity, and exalt to the highest dignity. III. OUR TO THE HEAD AND TO THE MEMBERS OF THIS CITY. 1. Ye are come to God, the Judge of all, angels and men; the knowledge of God, His nature, unity, perfections, providence (Ephesians 5:8). The worship and service of God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). To His favour Romans 5:1). His family and household (Galatians 4:6-7). His presence; an event so certain that the apostle at once transports the Christian beyond the grave, to that Being who is the soul’ s portion, her centre and final happiness. 2. To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant: in and through whom both parts of the covenant are reciprocally conveyed and transmitted. Blessings from God to man, through Christ; and duties from man to God, acceptable through Christ. Come to the Mediator, so as to be united to Him; participate a new nature through Him (2 Corinthians 5:17), rely on His sacrifice, obey His commandments, and, according to the aforementioned figure, to be taken by Him at last to the city of God (Revelation 3:21). 3. To an innumerable company of angels. Good men in this world have, indisputably, various connections with those superior beings; they are fellow-subjects and servants (Revelation 22:9). Protected by them Psalms 34:7). Minister to them (Hebrews 1:14). Conduct them to heaven (Luke 16:22). As public heralds, proclaim their Lord’ s approach (Matthew 24:31). The apostle here anticipates our incorporation with those happy spirits in glory (Revelation 7:9-12). 4. To the spirits of just men made perfect. We are one community, of the same spirit and disposition, loving the same God, enjoying the same felicity, differing only in degree. They are got home, we are going; they have got the prize, we are wrestling for it. 5. To the general assembly and Church of the firstborn (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15-18). It may respect themselves; they are the chiefs the excellent ones, the firstborn. Written in heaven, alluding to the custom of ancient states, who enrolled their freemen; Christians enrolled in heaven Luke 10:20), to signify that they have a right to all the high privileges of the city of God: and when all collected, compose the general assembly, Matthew 24:31; Revelation 7:9). Of this amazing corporation every Christian becomes a member at the moment of his conversion to God. Improvement: 1. Hence see the peculiar excellency of that religion which animates her proselytes with so glorious a hope. 2. Let our temper and conduct declare our kindred to those serene and happy intelligences. 3. Let the views of these glorious and animated prospects raise our souls to God in grateful adoration of His goodness and love (Psalms 31:21; Psalms 72:18-19). (J. Hannam.) I live there: Some one asked a Scotchman if he was on his way to heaven. “ Why, man,” he said, “ I live there.” He was only a pilgrim here. Heaven was his home. (D. L. Moody.) Already in heaven: Are you dreaming, father?” I said one day, when he (Father Taylor) was leaning back in his chair, with closed eyes and a happy smile playing about his mouth. “ I am in heaven a little way,” he answered, without moving. “ And what is heaven, really?” I asked, climbing upon his knees. “ It is loving God,” he replied, still with the same soft dreamy tone. (Mrs. Judge Russell.) Heaven should be much in the thoughts A lady, unused to the rough travelling of a mountain land, went thither to make her home, and received from one of her new friends this bit of advice. She had been telling of her faintness when guiding her horse through a deep ford where the waters ran swiftly and the roar was incessant, and said she feared she should never be able to overcome the abject physical terror which dominated her whenever she found herself in the strong current midway between the banks. “ Oh, yes, you will,” said her companion. “ Just take a leaf in your mouth and chew it, and as you ride across keep your eyes on the other side.” (M. E.Sangster.) Heaven not flit away: We measure distance by time. We are apt to say that a certain place is so many hours from us. If it is a hundred miles off, and there is no railroad, we think it a long way; if there is a railway, we think we can be there in no time. But how near must we say heaven is?--for it is just one sigh, and we get there. Why, our departed friends are only in the upper room, as it were, of the same house. They have not gone far off; they are upstairs, and we are down below. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The nobility of the Christian life: How noble the lowest life may become, like some poor, rough sea-shell with a gnarled and dimly-coloured exterior, tossed about in the surge of a stormy sea, or anchored to a rock, but when opened all iridescent with rainbow sheen within, and bearing a pearl of great price! So, to outward seeming, my life may be rough and solitary, and inconspicuous and sad, but, in inner reality, it may have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living. God, and have angels for its guardians, and all the first-born for its brethren and companions. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) An innumerable company of angels The office of angels I. Angels are, as far as we know from revelation, the only beings who take an interest with us in God and the spiritual world. Angels are fellow-citizens with us in the kingdom of Christ. It is certain, moreover, that angels are immortal, but not eternal; that they are very numerous, and have different ranks; that they are used by God as His special ministers, and that they have sympathy with man. But how far this sympathy extends is not so certain. Are they cognisant of human things generally, and of their own accord, or must they in each case be informed by God? In the course of three thousand six hundred years there are, I believe, recorded only twenty instances of angels’ visits, which would allow on the average an interval of one hundred and eighty years between each appearance. Thus their visitations were, in the strict sense of the word, extraordinary, and will be found for the most part to accompany a great national crisis. Next, had angels in those days power to influence the souls of men? It is very questionable. That they led men by the hand, and spoke God’ s messages to them, is certain; but it is not so sure that they instilled into the soul a secret thought, or endued the tempted spirit with heavenly grace. Again, when angels are said to have interfered, were they not visible, no phantom or vivid imagination of the mind, but the impression of a visible substance upon the eye and brain? Thus much of the Old Testament. Let us now proceed to the New. Perhaps the first thing which strikes us here is the frequent mention of angels in contrast with their rare appearance under the old dispensation. It is as if the light of the presence of God on earth brought out more vividly the lesser lights of the spiritual world; just as it has been remarked that the evil spirit also is more apparent in the Gospels, and as the light of God’ s glory becomes more intense, so is Satan more evident (as witness the Book of the Revelation). Now some of these references belong to the office which angels hold in heaven, as do all the passages that occur in the Revelation. Of the rest, all but one are concerned with the Divine person of their and our Lord, or with momentous events in immediate connection with Him. The exception is the solitary instance of an angel stirring the waters of Bethesda. Thus there is no more evidence in the Gospels than in the Old Testament to justify us in believing that angels exercise their ministry on earth on ordinary occasions, or that they have any spiritual influence on man at all, or that they act in any way without making themselves visible to those whom they approach. Our next step, then, will be to examine what Holy Scripture says of angels after Pentecost. St. Peter is twice rescued by an angel; Cornelius is advised by an angel to send for Peter; Philip the deacon is sent by another to the eunuch; Herod is smitten by an angel; St. Paul had an angel standing by him in the ship. Thus it is clear that angels are not displaced by the Holy Ghost; and these passages are extremely important, as being those to which we should look, rather than to any which precede them, for an answer to the question, what place do angels hold in the Church of Christ on earth? The answer is very explicit on one point at least. The influence of angels in these instances is not spiritual, but external; their aid is in times of physical danger, not of inward temptation. Again the answer is explicit as to their visible presence--confirming the result to which former records in Scripture had led us, that when they interfere they are not only felt but seen. Finding this to be the case, it is natural to inquire how far this view of angels’ ministries agrees with the whole spirit and character of the Christian dispensation. Let me ask your close attention to this portion of the subject. What is the great change wrought in our condition by the holy incarnation of the Son and by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost? Words fail me when I try to answer; let me use the language of St. Paul:--“ 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 … Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” And rising higher to St. John’ s divine words, so wondrously simple and profound, on the truth of the incarnation: “ The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” ; and of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the words of Christ Himself: “ The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This is the change wrought by Christ in the relation of man to God. I will not say, “ what room is there here for spiritual aid from angels?” because we know not the boundaries of God’ s scheme of mercy to man; but I will ask, is there not here in God’ s own presence all that the spirit of man can desire or imagine? Tell me any sorrow, or doubt, or temptation, or critical emergency of life, in which your heart need look elsewhere for aid but to the Holy Ghost? To look for angel’ s help against the enemy of souls, when God Himself has promised to abide in us, is worse than for the traveller to seek at his feet a glowworm’ s light to show the path when the moon has risen and called the stars about her overhead. Still, after all, much is doubtful. As with the saints departed, so with angels; it is well to think of them often, but safer to think of them as above, not amongst us, each in his happy sphere midway between ourselves and heaven. (Canon Furse.) The connection between Christian, s and angels I. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS FRIENDS, from whom we have been separated by the fall. Men and angels, in their original creation, formed but one family; and, though they differed in nature and in residence, they had one Father, and there would have been a free and pleasing intercourse between them. But sin destroyed the harmony of the world. Sin disunited heaven and earth. Sin separated not only between God and men, but between angels and men. When man revolted from his lawful Sovereign, they remained in their allegiance; and as sin rendered God our enemy, so it rendered angels our enemies too. Accordingly we read of their being the executioners of the Divine vengeance. But, in consequence of the mediation of our Lord and Saviour, the breach is healed. We are reconciled not only to God, but to the angels. Men and angels form again one family; they remained in their original state; we are restored to it; and such is the disposition of those celestial beings, that they do not repine, like the elder brother, at the return of the prodigal, but rejoice to welcome the younger branches of the family home. III. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS , whose care is to follow us through life. God’ s noblest creatures are His children’ s servants. “ Such honour have all the saints.” III. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS , whose observations we are to reverence. It would be well for us to remember that we are always in sight. The eyes of our fellow-creatures are often upon us; and if they were always upon us, they would restrain us from a thousand sins. But invisible beings always behold us. There are cases in which two guilty individuals are implicated. They accuse each other; and no human being was privy to their wickedness. But angels saw Abel and Cain when they were alone together in the field. They can decide, in an intrigue, who was the seducer, and who the seduced. What a world of private wickedness will they develop! IV. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS , whose example we are to imitate. To these models our Saviour Himself leads us in the form of devotion He gave to His disciples; in which He teaches us to pray, “ Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” And, even now, this prayer is accomplished. Between believers and angels there is a resemblance, though not an equality. Wherein does it appear? 1. It appears in the nature of their obedience. We are told that the angels, however great, find it their privilege to serve. Their obedience is ready, without delay; cheerful, without reluctance; constant, without intermission; and impartial, without choice. The reason is, they love God, and it is His will alone they regard. And whatever low idea you may form of a Christian, such is, and such must be, His leading desire, and His prevailing endeavour. 2. It appears in their union. These beings have various degrees among them. Yet these produce no contempt, no envy, no eagerness to dictate, no backwardness to co-operate. They perfectly harmonise. They have but one spirit, one wish. Shall I say that Christians do resemble all this? Alas 1 there is too little of it in our churches and assemblies. 3. It appears in the subject of their study. The angels are proverbial for knowledge; we read of being “ wise as an angel of God.” Had we heard only of such exalted beings, we should be anxious to know what things they deemed most worthy of their attention. But we are informed. They are “ the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow--which things the angels desire to look into.” Are you like-minded? Is this the most welcome subject to your hearts? The most important to your minds? 4. It appears in their worship. They adore the incarnate Redeemer. And is there a Christian upon earth that does not delight in the same praise? V. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS , with whom we are to blend our future being, and from whom we shall derive no inconsiderable part of our happiness. It is not good for man to be alone. He is formed for social enjoyment; and it is a great source of his present pleasure. The representation of heaven meets this propensity. And there are two classes of beings that will contribute much to our satisfaction and improvement. The one is endearing. It takes in those you loved in life, with whom you took sweet counsel together, and went to the house of God in company, your pious friends and relations, who now sleep in Jesus. The other is dignifying. It comprehends patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs--angels. You shall be introduced to company of the very first sort. Angels are the flower of the creation; and the poorest, meanest believer shall enjoy it; and be prepared for it. Let us conclude with two questions. 1. How can it be said that “ we are come to” this blessed assembly? By the certainty of the event. By promise--and “ he Scripture cannot be broken.” By hope-and “ hope maketh not ashamed.” By anticipation, by earnests, by foretastes of this exalted felicity. 2. To whom are you come? (W. Jay.) The nature of angels: I. THEY ARE THE HIGHEST OF ALL CREATED BEINGS, WHOSE HOME IS THE OF GOD. They were heaven’ s earliest inmates, when “ the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” They see God face to face continually; they worship Him, and rest not day and night from praising Him; their obedience is perfect and secure; where laws end, love begins. To borrow the image of South, like a cup of crystal thrown into a brim-ruing river, which first is filled, then lost in the stream, so sinks their overflowing love in the love of God. Nor is their vision limited to heaven. Once they saw the eternal Son descend from thence to earth, and marked His life and death, and ministered to Him in His abasement and His glory. With sympathetic insight into the mystery of redemption, yet there remained things into which they “ desired to look.” And now that the Son has returned in glory to His eternal home, they look for the fulfilment of His joy; watching for the coming in of souls for whom He died; rejoicing when one by one are drawn into the circle those for whom He prayed, “ Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me, where I am.” And when through the contentions of a doubtful life grace has at last prevailed, who can tell the joy with which through the yielding air they spread their level wings, and bear in their hands the sour of the contrite, secure from sin, far off into Abraham’ s bosom? II. Lastly, as to THEIR OF GOD IN HEAVEN. Worship is angels’ work; and in the contemplation of their office here no room is left for difference or doubt. The Old Testament and the New conspire in holy emulation to reveal the heavenly vision in the noblest terms. Worship is the sum of the life in heaven; and what is the noblest work of our life on earth? The same. As among our natural passions and affections towards our fellows love is the highest, and has mightiest influence, so towards God is worship. Worship is love sublimated by the majesty of God. Think what the example of angels teaches us in this great portion of the Christian life. 1. First, that worship is only possible in the presence of God. Their worship in the Church above is only more perfect than that of saints in the Church below, because they are more near to God. The sight of Him is their joy; and such will be yours, if yours be the promise, “ Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Meanwhile what sight is now to angels, and will hereafter be to you, is at the present time your faith. 2. Next this apprehension of the Divine Presence fills them with awe and reverence. The cherubim with his wings covers his face and his feet; the angels before the throne fall on their faces. Such a thought may give us a rule of conduct in our acts of worship. In all our public devotions, above all at Holy Communion, let our commonest actions be ruled by a tender spirit of reverence. 3. Again their worship exercises not only their affections, but their intelligence. They understand what they worship. The principle of all true worship is this--“ I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” 4. Above all with their praises and their prayers goes on the sweet accompaniment of an obedient will, a heart attuned to the love of God, sympathy with all His doings in judgment and in mercy, sympathy with His holiness and His vengeance against sin. 5. Again we little know how much we are affected by the example of numbers. The numbers on one side or the other decide the choice of waverers. We cast our lot into the heaviest scale. The broad way, though it lead to death, has its contented wayfarers, chiefly because it is so broad; the narrow way discourages so many, because there are so few that walk in it. Then, like Elisha’ s servant, open your eyes and see the hosts of angels serving God, exceeding in number the generation of men, whom you see afraid to confess Him here. 6. Lastly to think of their happiness! happiness, so rare a gift, that among friends it is but seldom named, and then under their breath, and in a tone almost of despair of finding it; each heart knowing its own bitterness; the stranger not intermeddling with it, the friend unable to hear it, so he must let that alone for ever! And then to read of angels’ happiness, so perfect, so secure! (Canon Furse.) General assembly and Church of the firstborn The Church of the firstborn I. THE SPIRIT OF THE . It is pre-eminently mild and gracious. This being so, it becomes those who are under it, and who have been made partakers of its blessings, to cultivate a spirit in accordance therewith. A spirit of slavish terror, however befitting the law, is altogether unsuitable to the gospel. It is related of Titus, the Roman emperor, when a certain petitioner presented his address to him with a trembling hand, that he was much displeased; and addressing the affrighted suppliant, he asked, “ Dost thou present thy petition to thy prince as if thou wert giving meat to a lion?” While a spirit of reverence might have been proper on such an occasion, he regarded the extreme fear which this person displayed as altogether unbecoming. A spirit of trembling fear should be avoided by the Christian, being forbidden by the many gracious assurances which God has given to encourage us in our approaches to His throne; and also as being opposed to the distinctive features of the dispensation under which we dwell, II. THE NATURE AND OF THE CHURCH. 1. Its unity. 2. Its glory. Judging by outward appearance, the Church of Christ may appear despicable; much that is ignoble and mean may be seen in its members. But is it so in reality? What I ignoble, when the city they belong to is the city of the great King; a city whose streets are of gold, whose gates are of pearls, and into which the glory and honour of the nations shall be brought! And then there is, not merely the city of the believer’ s habitation, but his associates and his friends. Talk of meanness, when myriads of angels, and the great multitude of the redeemed, are his companions [ 3. Its spirituality. “ But ye are come” --come to what? To things pre-eminently glorious; but they are at present invisible, being spiritual realities, objects of faith, and not of bodily vision. (1) Let the Christian seek to realise his true character and position. Where your treasure is, there let your heart be also. (2) That the only way in which we can become members of the heavenly commonwealth, is by a believing application to the Redeemer. Having an interest in Him, an interest in all the rest will follow. (Expository Sermons.) The firstborn Sweeter to our ear than the full chorus of bright skies and greenwood, are the first notes of the warbler that pipes away the winter, and breaks in on its long, drear silence! And more welcome to our eye than the flush of summer’ s gayest flowers, is the simple snow-drop that hangs its pure white bell above the dead bare ground. And why? These are the firstborn of the year, the forerunners of a crowd to follow. In that group of silver bells that ring in the spring with its joys, and loves, and singing birds, my fancy’ s eye sees the naked earth clothed in beauty, the streams, like children let loose, dancing and laughing, and rejoicing in their freedom, bleak winter gone, and Nature’ s annual resurrection. And in that solitary simple note, my fancy hears the carol of larks, wild moor, hillside, and woodlands full of song, and ringing all with music. And in Christ, the Firstborn, I see the grave giving up its dead; from the depths of the sea, from lonely wilderness and crowded churchyard they come, like the dews of the grass, an innumerable multitude. Risen Lord! we rejoice in Thy resurrection. We hail it as the harbinger and blessed pledge of our own. The first to come forth, Theft art the Elder Brother of a family, whose countless numbers the patriarch saw in the dust of the desert, whose holy beauty he saw shining in the bright stars of heaven. The firstborn! This spoils the grave of its horrors, changing the tomb into a capacious womb that death is daily filling with the germs of life. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The general convocation around Mount Zion I. First, I want to set out, A IN THE ENTIRE PASSAGE--a contrast between the economy of law and the economy of grace.Every good thing is enhanced in value by its opposite. The contrast between free grace and law makes grace appear the more precious to minds that have known the rigour of the commandment. The contrast presented here is sevenfold. First, as to place, “ Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched” (Hebrews 12:18); “ But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem “ (Hebrews 12:22). Behold Sinai with its rugged crags: scarce had a human foot ever trodden it: perhaps until that hour in which Jehovah descended upon it in splendour it had remained a virgin peak, which the foot of man had never polluted. It was sublime, but stern and tempest-beaten. God came upon Sinai with His law, and the dread mount became a type of what the law would be to us. It has given us a grand idea of holiness, but it has not offered us a pathway thereto, nor furnished a weary heart with a resting-place. The Jews under the law had that stern hill for their centre, and they compassed it about with pale countenances and trembling knees. We gather to quite another centre, even unto the palace-crowned steep of Zion. There David dwelt of old, and there David’ s Lord revealed Himself, This mount which might be touched, we are told, in the next place, “ burned with fire.” God’ s presence made the mountain melt and flow down. Jehovah revealed Himself in flaming fire. What, then, have believers come to instead of fire? Why, to another form of fire: to “ an innumerable company of angels” --“ He maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.” God comes to us by them: “ He rode upon a cherub, and did fly.” Pursue the contrast, and you find on Mount Sinai that there was blackness, doubtless made the more intensely black as the vivid lightnings flashed out from it. “ Ye are not come unto blackness,” says Paul, What is the contrast to this? “ But ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” Blackness is the symbol of sorrow, it is the garb of mourning. Everywhere we associate blackness with grief; but now Paul sets before us the grandest embodiment of joy. The word for general assembly in the original suggests a far-reaching festivity. “ Ye are come to the paneguris: to a solemn festive assembly, comparable to the National Convocation of the Greeks, which was held around the foot of Mount Olympus, every four or five years, when all the Greeks of different states came together to keep up the national feeling by festivities and friendly competitions. Follow the next point of contrast, and you have darkness mentioned. “ Nor unto blackness, and darkness.” The cloud on Sinai was so dark as to obscure the day, except that every now and then the lightning-flash lit up the scene. What are we come to in contrast to that darkness? “ To God the Judge of all.” “ God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” What a contrast to the darkness of the law is a reconciled God! And what follows next? Why, tempest. It is said, “ Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest.” All over the top of Sinai there swept fierce winds and terrible tornadoes, for the Lord was there. All heaven seemed convulsed when God did rend it, and descended in majesty upon the sacred mount. But what do you and I see? The very reverse of tempest--“ The spirits of just men made perfect,” serenely resting. They are perfect, they have fought the fight, they are full of ecstatic bliss, the glory of God is reflected from their faces; they have reached the fair haven, and are tossed with tempest no more. Follow the contrast further, and you coma to the sound of a trumpet. This resounded from the top of Sinai. Clarion notes most clear and shrill rang out again and again the high commands of the thrice-holy God. You are not come to that. Instead of a trumpet, which signifies war and the stern summons of a king, ye are come unto “ Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,” and the silver tones of “ Come unto Me, all ye,” &c. The seventh contrast lies in this--together with the trumpet there sounded out a voice, a voice that was so terrible that they asked that they might not hear it again. We have coma to another voice, the voice of “ the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” There is a voice from Zion, there is a voice that rolls over the heads of the innumerable company of angels, a voice of the Lord that is full of majesty, and exceedingly comfortable to the “ general assembly and Church of the firstborn,” who know the joyful sound. II. There is A in our more central text. “ We are come to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” It is a comparison, not with anything Jewish, for that would not have been suitable, but with a Gentile festival, which more readily lent;itself to the apostle’ s great thought. In Greece, in her happier times, in order to preserve a national unity, the various states, kingdoms, or republics, which constituted Greece proper, held at the foot of Olympus a great gathering, to which none came as participators except citizens of the various Greek nationalities. The object of the gathering was that every part of the Greek nature might be educated and displayed, and the unity of the Greek race be remembered. How much I wish that we could look upon all the conflicts, sufferings, and troubles of this mortal life as occupations of the great festive gathering which is now being held in heaven and in earth around the city of our God. If we all understand that this period is not comparable to a battle, whereof the result hangs in the balance, but comparable to those deeds of prowess wherewith of old men celebrated a victory, then the face of things is altered, and our toils are transfigured. Angels come down, and poor men and women are lifted up, in patience triumphing, and giving pleasure to their Lord, and bringing honour to that favoured city which God has prepared for them. Oh, the bliss of feeling that even nosy heaven is begun below, and the sufferings of this present life are but a part of the glory of the Lord manifested in His people! III. The third point is--A COMING TO BE ENJOYED. This is the essence of it all We are come unto this general assembly and Church of the firstborn. How then do we come? This festival is only for the firstborn, and you are not that by nature. You must first be born again, and become one of the firstborn. The Spirit of God must make you a new creature in Christ Jesus, and then the porter will open the wicket, and say, “ Come in, and welcome.” Which part are you going to take in this great gathering? Will you fight against sin? Will you wrestle against error? Will you run for the crown? Will you sing or speak? What will you do in this great congress of all the saints? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Anticipating holy society Socrates was glad when his death approached, because he thought he should go to Hesoid, Homer, and other learned men deceased, whom he expected to meet in the other world. How much more do I rejoice, who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ, the saints, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all holy men who have lived from the beginning of the world! Since I am sure to partake of their felicity, why should not I be willing to die, to enjoy their perpetual society in glory? (Henry Bullinger.) Intercourse between heaven and earth I was reading the other day that, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the wives of fishermen whose husbands have gone far out upon the deep are in the habit, at eventide, of going down to the seashore, and singing, as female voices only can, the first stanza of a beautiful hymn. After they have sung it, they listen till they hear, borne by the wind across the desert-sea, the second stanza, sung by their gallant husbands as they are tossed by the gale upon the waves; and both are happy. Perhaps, if we could listen, we, too, might hear on this desert-world of ours some sound, some whisper, borne from afar, to remind us that there is a heaven and a home; and, when we sing the hymn upon the shores of earth, perhaps we shall hear its sweet echo breaking in music upon the sands of time, and cheering the hearts of them that are pilgrims and strangers and look for a city that hath foundations. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The general assembly written in heaven: We have in this whole passage a description of the Catholic Church as it is now revealed to us under the gospel. And this is put in contrast with the state of the Church under the law. The kingdom is now united, and the Church is catholic; and those who come into it are not only joined in mutual earthly fellowship, but they come into union, as real, although not so conscious and apparent, with the Church invisible and glorified. As we consider some aspects of this subject, let us try to think and feel ourselves into that higher fellowship. I. We come to that unseen and glorious company BY OUR . We have far more actual knowledge of the invisible world than we vivify and use. We know, that when flitting like shadows here, from place to place, and ever nearer to the grave, there is a city which hath foundations, in the records of which our names may be enrolled. We know that when struggling and crowding here--striving for space and room, and particular standing--there is a house of many mansions, and a place prepared for each, large enough for the developments of the immortal life. Our knowledge is in some respects limited enough. We cannot see it; we cannot come to it in the flesh; flesh and blood shall not inherit it; no mortal hand can draw aside the veil, nor pierce it, although it sometimes seems so thin. Perhaps if we were better, purer, more saintly, we could safely be trusted with more light on the future, and it is certain that if we ask and look and wait we shall attain to more. We are like men gazing towards the land from the deck of a ship. A dim outline appears, like a cloud, at which they strain their sight; until by the movement of the vessel and the custom of the eye it becomes clearer and clearer still. The mountains gradually reveal their peaks; then the valleys show; then the corn; then the smoke of the cottage; the group by the cottage door; the apples on the tree; and then--the vessel is in port. So, by looking, heaven becomes clearer; as welook, it comes more near. To us as individuals, this revelation will be much or little, according to our personal realisation of it. Our knowledge may be a lamp unlighted as well as burning. It may be a map of a country on which we seldom look, or on which we trace with careful finger every mountain ridge, every river and plain. Central Africa is now opened, and to the world it can never be a blank any more. Some individuals may know very little of it, yet that knowledge is a possession to the race for ever. And so, to the world has been given the unalienable possession of the knowledge of the “ better country, the heavenly,” which is on the other side of death, in which the Saviour is, into which He has already gathered myriads of His friends, to which so many of our own friends have gone, and to which we ourselves are travelling. II. We come to the invisible Church BY OUR FAITH. We come to it more by our faith than by our knowledge. Faith is knowledge glorified, and vitalised; it is, as the former chapter tells us, the “ substance of things hoped for.” It makes the objects of our cognition so real and vivid that we possess in our thought the very substance of them. We have such assured confidence in their existence that the removal of them from the realm of faith would be like taking away the solid world from our senses. “ Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” It proves them, and presents them so that the mind feels their presence; sees them; is solemnised by them; holds them fast! It redeems our humanity from its degradation to know that there are men, who, while living here, are also living yonder--who have a life hidden as well as visible “ with Christ in God.” We believe that He is. We believe that our friends are with Him; and if we can come to Him, and to them, in our daily faith--in the seekings, strivings, and settlings of our souls, then we are believers indeed. We may form what views we will on the time and nature of the resurrection--on the intermediate state, or on the physical characteristics of the life to come. If only we come to Him--our High Priest within the veil, and our forerunner there--we shall in due time stand rejoicing in His presence. III. “ We are come” to that invisible triumphant Church, IN OUR LOVE, as truly as in our knowledge and our faith. All heaven-born souls love the place of their birth. Born again, or born from above, is to have enrolment and citizenship there--it is to have our treasure there and our heart also. IV. And all these comings, need we say? are presages of THE FINAL COMING BY DEATH into the “ general assembly and Church of the firstborn in heaven.” We speak often of death as a going away, and picture to ourselves the spirit passing into vast solitudes, friends and dear familiar scenes all left behind, as it looks out upon the first reaches and roundings of the everlasting journey. Some thoughtful writers have dwelt much on the loneliness of death, until one has felt intensely solitary in the prospect. They have fixed upon the fact that each of us must meet death alone, and, of course, that is true, at least as regards earthly companionships. But that even then we shall be absolutely alone is only conjecture; and if we must conjecture, I for one would rather take the other side, and believe that since God gives us company here from the moment of birth to the moment of death, He will have other company awaiting us there, so that we shall take no step in loneliness or dread, but enter at once and easily into the higher fellowships, and go forward with a cheerful confidence through the valley of transition. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) God the Judge of all Faith’ s access to the Judge and His attendants I. FAITH PLANTS US AT THE VERY BAR OF GOD. Here is a truth which it is the office of faith to realise continually in our daily lives. Your loving access to God, Christian men and women, has brought you right under the eye of the Judge, and, though there be no terror in our approach to that tribunal, there ought to be a wholesome awe as to the permanent attitude of our spirits, the awe which is the very opposite of the cowering dread which hath torment. Then, again, notice that this judgment of God is on e which a Christian man should joyfully accept. “ The Lord will judge His people,” says one of the Psalms. “ You only have I known of all the inhabitants of the earth; therefore will I punish you for your iniquities,” says one of the prophets. Such sayings represent this present judgment as inevitable, just because of the close connection into which true faith brings a man with his Father in heaven. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 12:25-29 Refuse not Him that speaketh The voice of God in the vicissitudes of humanity I. THE VOICE OF GOD IS UTTERED IN AGES OF THE WORLD. God speaks to rational beings on earth in two general ways 1. Natural. Everything around and within us is a book; all these are materials of knowledge--the soul alone is the reader, the student, the philosopher, the interpreter; a world is spread out by God, impressed with principles and laws for man, that he may look through them to Him. 2. Supernatural. (1) Communications before Christ (Hebrews 1:1). (2) Communications by Christ (Hebrews 2:1). II. THE VOICE OF GOD GREAT CHANGES IN THE OF MEN. There are two classes of things, and but two--things that may be shaken, and things that may not be shaken. There is one Being who exists by necessity--the absolute, immutable God. The nearer things are to God, the more fixed they are; the farther from God, the more changeable. III. THE SHAKING OF THINGS MUTABLE IS TO LEAD MEN TO THE . The immutable things of Judaism are preserved in Christianity; its God, spirit of worship, law--these are retained. IV. GOD, BY ALL THESE THINGS, BRINGS MEN TO THE TRUE WORSHIP OF HIMSELF. (Caleb Morris.) The doctrine of Christ not to be refused I. To REFUSE HIM THAT , WHICH MEANS OF GOD, WHO OUT OF MERCY HAD UPON FAIREST TERMS. II. THE REASON IS TAKEN FROM THE OF THE SIN, AND THE OF THE , BOTH WHICH ARE SET FORTH BY A IN . Let us apply this unto ourselves, and consider 1. Who speaks unto us. 2. What He speaks. 3. From whence He speaks. (1) It’ s not man, but God; not Moses, but Christ: the law indeed was by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. The majesty and power of Him who speaks is such as angels are bound to attend and obey with all humble submission; and shall we worms, nay, dust and ashes, refuse to hear this glorious Lord? (2) The matter that He speaks and we hear is the best, the most sweet, the most comfortable, and the most excellent; never better things seen, or heard, or understood by the heart of man. The gospel is a doctrine of profoundest wisdom, or greatest love and mercy, and of highest concernment, and most conducing to our everlasting good. And shall we reject it? Shall we sin against so great a majesty, so great a mercy? Sins against the mercies of God so freely tendered to us in Jesus Christ, are the most heinous of all others. Let us tremble to think of these sins, and those punishments which they must suffer that are guilty of them. (3) He speaks from heaven; for the gospel is a mystery hid from the beginning of the world, and was brought unto us from the bosom of the Father, by His only begotten Son, and by the Holy Ghost; it’ s the clearest manifestation of God’ s deepest counsels concerning man’ s eternal estate, and of His greatest love to sinful wretches, the brightest light that ever shined from heaven; yet we hear it, and most men regard it not, but reject it to their everlasting woe. (G. Lawson.) Hear! hear! I. THERE IS NEED OF THIS FROM MANY . 1. The excellence of the word. It claims obedient attention. 2. The readiness of Satan to prevent our receiving the Divine word. 3. Our own indisposition to receive the holy, heavenly message. 4. We have rejected too long already. It is to be feared that we may continue to do so; but our right course is to hearken at once. 5. The word comes in love to our souls; let us therefore heed it, and render love for love. II. THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF HIM THAT . 1. Not hearing. Absence from public worship, neglect of Biblereading. “ Turn away from Him.” 2. Hearing listlessly, as if half asleep, and unconcerned. 3 Refusing to believe. Intellectually believing, but not with the heart. 4. Raising quibbles. Hunting up difficulties, favouring unbelief. 5. Being offended. Angry with the gospel, indignant at plain speech, opposing honest personal rebuke. 6. Perverting His words. Twisting and wresting Scripture. 7. Bidding Him depart. Steeling the conscience, trifling with conviction, resorting to frivolous company for relief. 8. Reviling Him. Denying His deity, hating His gospel, and His holy way. 9. Persecuting Him. Turning upon His people as a whole, or assailing them as individuals. III. THERE ARE MANY CAUSES OF THIS . 1. Stolid indifference, which causes a contempt of all good things. 2. Self-righteousness, which makes self an idol, and therefore rejects the living Saviour. 3. Self-reliant wisdom, which is too proud to hear the voice of God. 4. Hatred of holiness, which prefers the wilful to the obedient, the lustful to the pure, the selfish to the Divine. 5. Fear of the world, which listens to threats, or bribes, or flatteries, and dares not act aright. 6. Procrastination, which cries “ to-morrow,” but means “ never.” 7. Despair and unbelief, which declare the gospel to be powerless to save, and unavailable as a consolation. IV. TO HEAR CHRIST, THE HIGHEST IS . “ Him that speaketh from heaven.” 1. He is of heavenly nature, and reveals to us what He has known of God and heaven. 2. He came from heaven, armed with heavenly authority. 3. tie speaks from heaven at this moment by His eternal Spirit in Holy Scripture, the ordinances and the preaching of the gospel. 4. He will speak from heaven at the judgment. He is Himself God, and therefore all that He saith hath divinity within it. V. THE DOOM TO BE FEARED IF WE REFUSE CHRIST. Those to whom Moses spake on earth, who refused him, escaped not. 1. Let us think of their doom, and learn that equally sure destruction will happen to all who refuse Christ. Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The murmurers dying in the wilderness. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 2. Let us see how some have perished in the Church. Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira, &c. 3. Let us see how others perish who remain in the world, arid refuse to quit it for the fold of Christ. They shall not escape by annihilation, nor by purgatory, nor by universal restitutions. They shall not escape by infidelity, hardness of heart, cunning or hypocrisy. They have refused the only way of escape, and therefore they must perish for ever. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The plea of the gospel: To “ refuse” is a positive rejection of the word. But to “ turn away” may be only neglect and disregard. To treat the message carelessly is to “ turn away” from the speaker. And as the ancient people were condemned for refusing, so may we be far more terribly overwhelmed in destruction if we turn away from Christ. Christ in His preached Word, Christ in His perpetuated Church, Christ in the continued ordinances of His dispensation, is for ever speaking unto men. If you scorn, then, the feeblest presentation of the gospel, it is not the preacher that you despise, but the Lord Jesus Christ who speaks through the preacher. I. THE OF TRUTH IN THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST HAS THE HIGHEST WHICH CAN BE FOR AND FAITH. Do you ask for dignity in the person who claims your allegiance and evokes your faith? Where shall you find a higher worth and glory of personal nature and character than were in Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you impressible by power, and will you allow your conscience and heart to follow, where first your senses and imagination have been aroused? What more Divine glory and power shall you anywhere find than in Him, who stills a tempest with a word, who calls the dead back to life, and is the master of the unseen world, whom the very demons hear and swiftly and abjectly obey? Perhaps you ask for wisdom and the light of an intelligence that shines with the lustre of the mind of God. Go and listen to Him who taught upon the mountains, or compelled the wondering multitudes to a reverent attention, as He unfolded the mysteries of the kingdom in the parables that linked the simplest facts and events of earthly life to the sublimest truths of the Divine nature and government. Does moral heroism arouse you? Will the signs of the spiritual and the Divine, found in the conflicts of a true and tried life, stir your heart and compel your admiration? Where in the world hath ever shone a light so signalised by truth and bravery, by virtue, and perfection, as the life of Jesus Christ? Perhaps you will yield to the claims of holiness and justice. Like the ancient statue which broke the awful silence in a deep sweet note of music, when the morning sunlight first fell upon it, your nature answers with an echo of fine melody, to the revelation of law, and to the outshining of the claim of God. Behold, how it breaks in clearest light, from the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Or perchance to all these forces you only turn a hard, insensate nature. But surely you can melt beneath the influence of love. The traveller drew his cloak the tighter when the blustering north wind blew, but he cast off his covering when the sunshine came out. Wilt thou not, then, throw from thee thy coverings of self-righteousness, and rebellion, when the grace and pity of thy God stream upon thee from the offered sacrifice of the dying Lamb? II. THE NEGLECT OF THIS MESSAGE OF GRACE IS THE DEEPEST SIN WHICH CAN RENDER A MAN TO THE JUST OF GOD. TO wrong a stranger of his stranger’ s right, to rob even an enemy of what justly belongs to him--these are crimes which human law of the imperfect sort punishes. But what is the deeply dyed shame of love outraged? What of the wickedness which tears the hand that is extended to help? These are enormities at which human nature stands aghast. And this is the sin which you commit, when you “ refuse Him that speaketh from heaven.” III. ESCAPE FROM THE RESULT OF THIS IS . A company of shipwrecked sailors are on yonder raft. They drift helplessly upon the wide ocean. They are thousands of miles from land. That frail bundle of spars can never bring them to the shore. Storms may arise, and if the winds blow, and the waters beat in mountainous surges upon them, they must perish. But see, a vessel comes in sight. It is an ocean steamer. It bears down to them. It comes alongside, and offers to take them on board. Thereupon, they begin to speculate whether they may not still be saved, even if they refuse to accept the offer of succour, and remain upon the raft. Who would not pronounce them mad to the last degree of madness, if they hesitate to climb on board? The question would not even suggest itself. While we speak, every man of them has left the broken spars, and is safe on the deck of the ship. What then of you, of any of us, who wonder whether there may not be yet a chance, even if the salvation of Christ is not made your own? The voice from heaven is speaking. To reject it, is the deepest guilt. What hope can there be if this be not accepted? (L. D. Bevan, D. D.) Refusing God: 1. Doubt of His truth, dissatisfaction with His Word, is perhaps one of the most prominent features of such refusal. When a person begins to say, “ This in the Bible is, perhaps, an hyperbolical and figurative phrase; it needs to be palliated in order that we may reach its truth; it needs to be subtracted from in order that we may attain the exact meaning of the Spirit of God” ; he shows his tendency to depart from the living God. 2. A second evidence is, disagreement with God. How can two walk together except they be agreed? If two persons are in partnership, they can agree so long as they work together; but if one feels one course to be right and follows it, and the other, another, the two are at issue, and the one departs from the other. Departure begins at the smallest possible point of refusal. When a line starts from another, when a tangent starts from a circle, or one line diverges from another with which it ran parallel, it may be minutely, almost imperceptibly at the commencement, but, however, it will issue in an opposite and contrary direction. So your divergence from God may begin about a small matter; a very little which God demands but which you refuse; a little matter which you think ought to be in your way, but which God has said shall be in the opposite way; but that divergence which begins on that little fact in that little Bible may issue in results disastrous as imagination cannot conceive, and terrible as are pourtrayed in the condition of the lost by the Holy Spirit of God. 3. Another element is, dissatisfaction with what God is and what God does. God rules in providence. Some great blow falls upon your home, some disastrous loss occurs in your circumstances; you have light enough to see that God is in this, and grace enough to feel that it is God’ s hand that strikes the blow, and you murmur against God; you object to religion; you are dissatisfied with Him who is its author, and you begin a course of departure from the living God. The tenant leaves the house with which he is dissatisfied; the friend leaves the friend’ s company with whom he is offended; and you, dissatisfied with the providential government of God, believing that He has punished when He ought to have rewarded, arrested when He ought to have given impulse, retire from Him, forget His Word, forsake His sanctuary, and refuse Him. And such a course, I again remind you, may begin from very little indeed, but it must issue in terrible results. A person departing from God walks in the company of the ungodly. He stands in the way of sinners. Then, he sits in the seat of the scornful. Here you have, then, the course of one who refuses God. What are some of the signs or evidences that a Christian can take cognisance of? (1) The first trait of refusal of God is dissatisfaction, perhaps, with the people of God. (2) Another trait is less delight in His Word. Whenever men begin to think the Bible and religion very dull, and to long for a romance as the only exciting book, there is something wrong. (3) Another strong mark, too, of refusing God is less delight in prayer. He that really has the grace of God in his heart will be always discovering deeper wants that need to be satisfied, infirmities that need to be removed, prejudices that require to be scattered, passions that require to be broken, and his heart will be ever rising quietly, but fervently, to God for strength to be made perfect in weakness, and grace to be made sufficient. 4. Another evidence is excessive love of the world. “ Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” I have submitted these as simple tests or criteria by which to ascertain either our growing acceptance of God, or refusing Him. It is a serious question, Am I a child of God? Is my heart set on heavenly things? (J. Cumming, D. D.) Refusing God’ s voice: I. THE SOLEMN OF REFUSAL. NOW, to gain the whole solemnity of this exhortation, it is very needful to remember that it is addressed to professing Christians, who have in so far exercised real faith as that, by it, they “ are come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.” Then, again, it is to be noted that the refusal here spoken about, and against which we professing Christians are thus solemnly warned, is not necessarily entire intellectual rejection of the gospel and its message. For the Israelites, who made the original “ refusal,” to which that which we are warned against is paralleled, recognised the voice that they would not listen to as being God’ s voice; and just because it was His voice wanted to hear no more of it. Then, remember, too, that this refusal, which at bottom is the rising up of the creature’ s will, tastes, inclinations, desires against the manifest and recognised will of God, may, and as a matter of fact often does, go along with a great deal of lip reverence and unconsciously hypocritical worship. The unconscious refusal is the formidable and fatal one. Will God’ s voice be heard in a heart that is all echoing with earthly wishes, loudly claimant for their gratification, with sensual desires passionately demanding their food to be flung to them? Will God’ s voice be heard in a heart where the janglings of contending wishes and earthly inclinations are perpetually loud in their brawling? Will it be heard in a heart which has turned itself into a sounding-board for all the noises of the world and the voices of men? The voice of God is heard in silence, and not amidst the noises of our own hearts. And they who, unconsciously perhaps, of what they are doing, open their ears wide to hear what they themselves, in the lower parts of their souls, prescribe, or bow themselves in obedience to the precepts and maxims of men round them, are really refusing to hear the voice of God. II. THE TO THE TO RERUSAL. “ See that ye refuse not.” A warning finger is, as it were, lifted. Take heed against the tendencies that lie in yourself and the temptations around you. The consciousness of the possibility of the danger is half the battle. If there is any need to dwell upon specific methods by which this vigilance and continual self-distrust may work out for us our seem try, one would say--by careful trying to reverse all these conditions which lead us surely to the refusal. Silencethe passions, the wishes, the voices of your own wills and tastes and inclinations and purposes. Bring them all into close touch with Him. Let there be no voice in your hearts till you know God’ s will; and then with a leap let your hearts be eager to do it. Keep yourselves out of the babble of the world’ s voices; and be accustomed to go by yourselves and let God speak. Do promptly, precisely, perfectly, all that you know He has said. That is the way to sharpen your ears for the more delicate intonations of His voice, and the closer manifestations of His will. III. THE SOLEMN MOTIVES BY WHICH THIS IS . “ If they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth” --or, perhaps, “ who on earth refused Him that spake” --“ much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.” The clearness of the voice is the measure of the penalty of non-attention to it. The voice that spoke on earth had earthly penalties as the consequence of disobedience. The voice that speaks from heaven, by reason of its loftier majesty, and of the clearer utterances which are granted to us thereby, necessarily involves more severe and fatal issues from negligence to it. Mark how the words deepen and darken in their significance in the latter portion. The man that stops his ears will very soon turn his back and be in flight, so far as he can, from the voice. Do not tamper with God’ s utterances. If you do, you have begun a course that ends in alienation from Him. Then mark, again, the evils which fell upon these people who turned away from Him that speaketh on earth where their long wandering in the wilderness, and their exclusion from the Land of Promise, and final deaths in the desert, where their bleaching bones lay white in the sunshine. And if you and I, by continuous and increasing deafness to our Father’ s voice, have turned away from Him, then all that assemblage of flashing glories and majestic persons, and of reconciling blood to which we come by faith, will melt away, “ and leave not a wrack behind.” We shall be like men who in a dream have thought themselves in a king’ s palace, surrounded by beauty and treasures, and have awakened with a start and a shiver to find themselves alone in the desert. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Unheeded warnings: As he (Caesar) crossed the hall his statue fell, and shivered on the stones. Some servants, perhaps, had heard whispers, and wished to warn him. As he still passed on a stranger thrust a scroll into his hand, and begged him to read it on the spot. It contained a list of the conspirators, with a clever account of the plot. He supposed it to be a petition, and placed it carelessly among his other papers. The fate of the empire hung upon a thread, but the thread was not broken. (A. S. Froude.) Fear due to authority: Julius Caesar once said to one who appeared to treat his words with indifference: “ Know, young man, he who says these things is able to do them.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) The word has not done with us: We seem to have done with the word as it has passed through our ears; but the word, be it remembered, will never have done with us, till it has judged us at the last day. (Judge Hale.) “ Where are his ears?” A nobleman, skilled in music, who had often observed the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Cadogan’ s inattention to his performance, said to him one day, “ Come, I am determined to make you feel the force of music; pay particular attention to this piece.” It was accordingly played. “ Well, what do you say now?” “ Why, just what I said before.” “ What! can you hear this and not be charmed? Well, I am quite surprised at your insensibility. Where are your ears? … Bear with me, my lord,” replied Mr. Cadogan, “ since I, too, have had my surprise. I have often, from the pulpit, set before you the most striking and affecting truths; I have sounded notes that might have raised the dead; I have said, ‘ Surely he will feel now,’ but you never seemed to be charmed with my music, though infinitely more interesting than yours. I, too, have been ready to say, with astonishment, ‘ Where are his ears?’” Yet once more Yet once more: The expression implies an approaching change. Whenever we speak of doing a thing once more, of visiting a place once more, of seeing a person once more, we imply that there is about to be, after that one act, a cessation, removal, separation, the thought of which is already casting its shadow over it and us. It is an old remark, but none the less true, that even things which we have little prized may awaken in the mind a tender feeling when they are viewed as for the last time, as what we shall never see or never do again. A man may become so habituated to a desert island or to a prisoncell, as to shed tears in quitting the one for his country or the other for freedom. And certainly the dullest home, the most monotonous occupation, the most uncongenial and unattractive circle, may easily be invested with an interest not its own, an interest which never belonged to it while it was regarded as permanent, the moment we feel that our hold upon it is shaken, that we are going forth from it to another abode, or in quest of another abode, which is as yet to us but an unrealised idea. Whenever we use the term “ once more,” in the sense here intended, let us remember, that it signifies “ the removing of the things that are shaken,” of things that are capable and in the process of shaking, “ as of things that are made.” When God Himself said, in the passage quoted, “ Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven,” if was implied that the convulsion of nature, as it was the last, so also was the prelude to an actual removal and displacement of the framework of nature itself, in preparation for the introduction of that which should be absolutely indestructible. Every change, from the very greatest of all to the very least, from that which convulses empires to that which agitates a little world like ours, is the removing of something made, of some thing or some person that is temporal and transitory, with a view to the greater prominence, perhaps the restoration to notice, of things or of persons immutable and eternal. What, then, are some of these things which cannot be shaken? 1. I might bid you to think of this school which we all so much love, and to remember that through centuries of changes and fluctuations it has already stood its ground, and that it is now one of those institutions of our country which possess in themselves, by God’ s blessing, an element of vitality and of permanence. 2. I will bid you, in the second place, to contrast with those human agencies which are necessarily so transitory in a place like this, and even with the institution itself in which they are carried on, those individual results of our work which we express by the comprehensive term of a human character; that mind, that heart, those habits, that life, which are the ultimate result, in each particular case, of education considered as a complete whole. 3. To speak of the formation of character, just and true though the words be, has a somewhat chilling sound. But when we go on to the verse following the text, and read there of “ a kingdom which cannot be moved,” and hear of our receiving it, and find ourselves charged to “ have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably,” as though that also were by His gift in our own power; when we are thus brought, as it were, into His living presence, and made to view all things as coming to us from Him, and being ours already in Him; then whose heart does not burn within him; who does not then feel that there is, in deed and in truth, a rock higher than lie on which his feet may, if he will, be securely set, and that, if only we can reach that place of safety, no change can ever come amiss to us, no change can ever touch us, us ourselves, though it may make strange havoc of every earthly shelter which we had provided for ourselves or for a time rested under and trusted in? (Dealt Vaughan.) I shake not the earth only, but also heaven The gospel as a power: I. As A POWER. Falsehood, evil, corruption--these, wherever they exist, in hearts, governments, commerce, literature, science, or art--Christianity has shaken and will shake. II. As A POWER. It is a “ kingdom.” 1. He that does not receive it as a reigning power, does not receive it at all. 2. He that does not receive it as a reigning power, is exposed to the fate of a rebel against heaven. III. As A POWER. “ A kingdom which cannot be moved.” 1. Its elements are immutable. Love and truth. 2. Its fitness is eternal. Man through all the ages will never outgrow it, never cease to want it, never be able to get on without it. IV. As A POWER. 1. The mode of acceptable service. “ Reverence and godly fear.” 2. The qualification for acceptable service. “ Let us have graces,” i.e., thankfully realise the high blessings conferred on us, and with devout gratitude engage in the work. 3. The motive of acceptable service. “ Our God is a consuming fire” Deuteronomy 4:24). The God who rolled thunder and flashed light-nings on Sinai has not changed, His antagonism to sin is as great as ever. (Homilist.) The shaking and the kingdom I. There are two shakings here referred to by the apostle; the first is that of Sinai, which is already past, the second is that at the Lord’ s coming, which is still future. Of this STILL FUTURE SHAKING he affirms three things. 1. It is a final shaking. It is but “ once more,” and then all creation is at rest for ever. It is but “ once more” that the stormy vengeance of Jehovah is to be let loose upon the earth to work havoc there. That last tempest is even now drawing together its clouds of darkness from every region, and mustering its strength for the terrible outburst--an outburst terrible indeed, but yet the last! 2. It is a more extensive shaking than any heretofore. “ I shake not the earth only but also heaven.” The heaven here spoken of is not the “ third heaven,” which is the peculiar dwelling place of God and the shrine of His glory; but the visible heavens above us--the same as those of which we read, “ in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This universal shaking is that which Jesus Himself predicted (Matthew 24:29). It is also that of which the prophet Isaiah (chap. 24.), has given at length so dark a picture. Very fearful will these convulsions be. Above, beneath, around; earth, air, and sea shall be all one dark, wide circle of infinite desolation and terror. Careless sinner! What shall then become of thee? 3. It is a shaking followed by a glorious issue. It is not for the annihilation of this material fabric, nor is it for reducing all things to their primitive chaos. It is for a very different end. That end is twofold. There is first “ the removing of those things which are shaken as of things which are made,” that is, things of perishable workmanship. Then there is the consolidating of what resists and survives this shaking into an immovable creation. The foreground is dark, but the scene beyond it is all glad and bright. The commotions in immediate prospect of which we are already beginning to descry the forerunners, are apt to depress and sadden; but all beyond that is so stable, so unchanging, and spreads itself out before us in such refulgent, holy beauty, that we can overleap the dreary interval and stay our hearts as well as refresh our eyes with the glory to be revealed when the skirts of the last cloud shall be seen passing off in the distance, and the echo of the last thunder heard remotely upon the joyful hills. II. The apostle having thus foretold the convulsions of the last days, and alluded to the “ times of the restitution of all things,” proceeds to show THE EFFECT WHICH THESE THINGS SHOULD HAVE UPON , and in what a solemn attitude it places them. This is the object of what follows, which, from the use of the word “ wherefore,” is obviously an inference from his preceding statements. 1. The kingdom. It is “ a kingdom which cannot be moved.” All present things are to be shaken, and out of these is to come the kingdom that cannot be moved--a kingdom unchangeable and eternal. Sin, we know, has loosened everything, transforming a stable world into a decaying, crumbling ruin. In order that stability may be restored, all things must be shaken, and after these shakings comes this immovable kingdom. There is no kingdom like this among all that has ever been. Everything about it is incorruptible, as well as undefiled. Its territory, its subjects, its laws, its throne, its sceptre, its sovereign, are all everlasting! Nothing can shake it. No war, no enemy, can disturb its peace. No storm, no earthquake, can assail it. No internal weakness or decay can dismember or dissolve it. The day of its duration shall be the eternal Sabbath--the rest that remaineth for the people of God. 2. The kings. Who are they? “ We,” says the apostle--that is, not “ we apostles,” but “ we saints.” As believers, we have received a kingdom, being made kings and priests unto God; being made “ heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” Angels are but “ ministering spirits” : we are kings--partakers with Christ Himself of His crown and throne! Behold whatmanner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us! What a holy life should then be ours! Surely we may be expected to keep in mind our coming glory, and to walk worthy of such a calling, and of such a kingdom! 3. Our present position and employment. “ Let us serve God.” Our whole life is to be one of service: not merely certain portions of our life, but our entire life from the moment that we believe. It is the life of men redeemed to God, and who have therefore become His property. Each saint is a priest unto God as well as a king. And as Jehovah’ s priesthood, we serve in the true sanctuary which the Lord pitched and not man. Ours is a consecrated life, and therefore a continual service, the service of priests. We are sprinkled with blood set apart for God, and our whole life is to be one of priestly service. With our holy garments upon us, our censers in our hands, and standing under the shadow of the glory, how can we give way to levity, or wickedness, or indolence in circumstances so unutterably solemn and overawing. Oh! what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! 4. In what manner is this service to be performed? (1) Acceptably--that is so as to please God. In all our service this is to be distinctly kept in mind. In our prayers, praises, duties, we are not only to gratify ourselves but to please God. Let us observe, however, that to serve God acceptably, is not to serve for the purpose of making ourselves accepted. No; before our services can be accepted, we must be accepted ourselves. A saint is not one who serves God in order to be forgiven, but one who, having found forgiveness, serves God in love and liberty as a forgiven soul, and with an enlarged heart. (2) With reverence and godly fear. There is to be no irreverence, no rashness, no presumption in our service, as if God were one like ourselves, or nearly upon our level. There is to be fear and solemn awe when we consider whom we worship; who we are who are thus permitted to draw near; in what temple it is that we worship, and what blood it cost ere we could be permitted to enter. 5. How are we to maintain this service? By holding fast grace, says the apostle. When that free love of God entered our souls, it brought with it liberty and gladness and light. It dispelled all our darkness, it removed all our sorrow, it struck off every fetter, and blessed us with the liberty of God’ s beloved Son. And it is in this same love that we are to abide to the end. We are to beware of losing sight of it, or letting it go. 6. Our God is a consuming fire. This evidently comes in as an additional reason to the preceding. And a most weighty and solemn one it is. The fire, indeed, has not consumed us, but still it is consuming. The God with whom we have to do is a God who has saved us, yet still this very God whom we call ours is a consuming fire. Should we not, then, serve Him with reverence and godly fear? (H. Bonar.) The shaking of Sinai and Calvary: That voice of Sinai was a shaking of earthly things. How were nations dispossessed, how were thrones tumbled into the dust, how was the course of human history and human life changed or directed by that shaking of Sinai! And so with the shaking voice of Calvary! Earthly things were moved, and are still moved, by the power of that voice Divine. Not a home to-day in all our land, not a single relationship in life, no duty of the ruler, no obligation of the subject or the citizen, but is bent and swayed and governed from Golgotha’ s hill. But heavenly things are shaken by the voice which cried on Calvary. Some have understood, by the term “ heaven” as here used, those high states of human faith and worship, not only in the Jewish economy but in the idolatries of the world, which were as “ heaven” to the men who received them; and these, the “ It is finished” of our Lord has utterly overthrown. Is it a mere play of imagination, if we suppose that the voice which shook the heavens, was indeed heard by the inhabitants of that celestial world, and arrested the very worship of the skies, and startled angels from their lofty stations, to look with absorbed gaze upon the wonders of that sacrifice? Furthermore, may we not reverently suggest that the voice of victory on the completion of redeeming work, wrought even upon the heart of the Infinite One Himself? At least, the issue was a Divine acceptance, the change of threatening judgment into saving mercy. There was shaking at Sinai--shaking of old temporal and earthly relations, of old human and profane habits, and in their place the appointment of things seen in the heavenly, commanded by God, “ made” indeed by men, but made “ after the fashion given on the Mount.” But now, the voice from heaven hath shaken both earth and heaven. Once again, and far more surely and destructively, are the earthly things shaken, and there topple down all secularities and temporalities and mere passing phenomena of human thought and law of man’ s mere worldly duty and faith. But with these also pass the heavenly things that Sinai established. The rules of life, the precepts of morality, the very commandments received as mere external ordinances, the gorgeous ritual of priest and sacrifice of temples, offering of chant and incense, of blood and altar--all these “ things made” are shaken, and being shaken, show their passing temporal character as they quickly vanish and disappear. But what remains to us? what are the things that not even the voice from heaven can shake, that not even does the voice desire to shake, but only to establish? 1. Law remains, grand, inviolable, Divine. A law may have vanished, the law may have grown effete and dead, but law is now personal and incarnate, and dwells for ever serene, benign, almighty in the Son of Man, who is raised into the glory of the Godhead, and who sways, with the power of the Father, alike the hosts of heaven and the inhabiters of the earth. 2. Love remains. Love is the form that dwells in heaven, love is dominion and the rule of God in Jesus Christ His Son. 3. And law and love combine, and in their union salvation remains. All the preparations and the promises, all the weary wanderings of human life, God-led or man-directed, all the times and dispensations, all the aims and hopes and despairs and sins of men, these have all ended now, and there is naught but salvation free and full and certain and eternal, for all who will believe--salvation for the worst--salvation that cannot fail, for it stands assured upon the foundation of the sovereign God, the suffering Son, the ever-gracious Spirit. And so abides for ever the kingdom of our God. Human weakness shall not sap its strength, and Satan’ s malice and the wildest assault of hell shall never overthrow its glory. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.) The shakings of Jehovah These Hebrew Christians were living in the midst of a great shaking. It was a time of almost universal trial. God was shaking not earth only, but also heaven. The Jewish tenure of Palestine was being shaken by the Romans, who claimed it as their conquest. The interpretation given to the Word of God by the Rabbis was being shaken by the fresh light introduced through the words and life and death of Jesus. The supremacy of the temple and its ritual was being shaken by those who taught that the true temple was the Christian Church, and that all the Levitical sacrifices had been realised in Christ. The observance of the Sabbath was being shaken by those who wished to substitute for it the first day of the week. In such a time we are living now. Everything is being shaken and tested. But there is a Divine purpose in it all, that His eternal truth may stand out more clearly, when all human traditions have fallen away, unable to resist the energy of the shock. I. SYSTEMS ARE BEING SHAKEN. There was a time when men received their theological beliefs from their teachers, their parents, or their Church, without a word of question or controversy. It is not so now; the air is filled with questionings. Men are putting into the crucible every doctrine which our forefathers held dear. In these terrible shakings, not one jot or tittle of God’ s Word shall perish, not one grain of truth shall fall to the ground, not one stone in the fortress shall be dislodged. But they are permitted to come, partly to test the chaff and wheat as a winnowing fan, but chiefly that all which is transient may pass away, whilst the simple truth of God becomes more apparent, and shines forth unhidden by the scaffolding and rubbish with which the builders have obscured its symmetry and beauty. “ The things which cannot be shaken shall remain.” II. SYSTEMS ARE BEING SHAKEN. Teachers of religion are challenged to show reason for their assuming their office, or of claiming special prerogatives. Methods of work are being weighed in the balances, missionary plans trenchantly criticised, religious services metamorphosed. Change is threatening the most time-honoured customs, and all this is very distressing to those who have confused the essence with the form, the jewel with the casket, the spirit with the temple in which it dwells. But let us not fear. All this is being permitted for the wisest ends. There is a great deal of wood, hay, and stubble in all our structures which needs to be burnt up, but not an ounce of gold or silver will ever be destroyed. III. OUR AND LIVES ARE BEING SHAKEN. What a shake that sermon gave us, which showed that all our righteousness, on which we counted so fondly, were but withered leaves! What a shake was that commercial disaster, which swept away in one blow the savings and credit of years, that were engrossing the heart, and left us only what we had of spiritual worth! What a shake was that temptation, which showed that our fancied sinlessness was an empty dream, and that we were as sensitive to temptation as those over whom we had been vaunting ourselves. What has been the net result of all these shakings? Has a hair of our heads perished? The old man has perished, but the inward man has been daily renewed. The more the marble has wasted, the more the statue has grown. As the wooden centres have been knocked down, the solid masonry has stood out with growing completeness. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) A lesson from the great panic It is a most popular error that the world stands still, and is fixed and immovable. This has been scouted as an astronomical theory, but as a matter of practical principle it still reigns in men’ s minds. Galileo said, “ No, the world is not a fixed body, it moves” ; Peter had long before declared that all these things should be dissolved; at last men believed the astronomer, but they still doubt the apostle, or at least forget his doctrine. “ This is the substance,” cries the miser, as he clutches his bags of gold; “ heaven and hell are myths to me.” “ This is the main chance,” whispers the merchant, as he pushes vigorously his commercial speculations; “ as for spiritual things they are for mere dreamers and sentimentalists. Cash is the true treasure.” Ah, you base your statements upon a foundation of falsehood. This world is as certainly a mere revolving ball as to human life as it is astronomically; and hopes founded thereon will as surely come to nought as will card houses in a storm. Here we have no abiding city, and it is in vain to attempt to build one. Every now and then, in order to enforce this distasteful truth upon us, the God of providence gives the world, in some way or other, a warning shake. The Lord has only to lay one finger upon the world, and mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, while the waters of the ocean roar and are troubled until the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. I. The original draft of the statement refers to THE OLD JEWISH . Why was it that it could be shaken? 1. One reason was that it had so much to do with materialism. It needed an altar of earth or stone, and such altars the hand of the spoiler can overturn; it required a bullock that hath horns and hoofs, and such sacrifices the plague may slay; it demanded a priest of the house of Aaron, and a race of men may be cut off from the families of the nations; it needed a tabernacle or a temple, and buildings made with hands are readily demolished; hence it could be shaken. These were but things which are made, and they have been shaken and removed; but the things which cannot be shaken still remain; our spiritual altar still endures, our great High Priest still lives, our house not made with hands is still eternal in the heavens. 2. The Jewish religion could be shaken because it could be combated by material forces. Antiochus could profane its altars, Titus could burn its temple, and cast down the walls of the sacred city; but no invader can pollute the heavenly altar of our spiritual faith by brute force, or destroy the celestial bulwarks of our hope by fire and sword. Material forces are not available in our warfare, for we wrestle not with flesh and blood. The tyrant may burn our martyrs and cast our confessors into prison, but the pure truth of Jesus is neither consumed by fire nor bound with chains; it hath within itself essential immortality and liberty. 3. Moreover, the Mosaic economy passed away because it could be affected by time. But see the doctrine of the Cross of Christ! No time affects it. The message of salvation by grace is as fresh to-day as when Peter preached it at Pentecost. The great command, “ Believe and live,” has as much life-giving power about it as when it was first applied by the Holy Ghost. II. ALL THAT IS TRUE IN OUR CREEDS AND WILL STAND WHEN MERE ARE SHAKEN. III. THE REAL IN OUTWARD STANDS, TIMES OF SHAKING. I do not think times of storm to a Church are in the long run to be regretted; a calm is much more dangerous. The plague bearing miasma settles and festers in the vale till the atmosphere becomes deadly, even to the casual passenger; but the storm fiend, as men call him, leaps from the mountains into the sunny glades of the valley; with terrific vigour hurls down the habitations of men, and tears up the trees by the roots; but meanwhile all is superabundantly compensated by the effectual purging which the atmosphere receives. Men breathe more freely, and heaven smiles more serenely now that the heaviness of the death-damp is gone, and the poisonous vapour clings no longer to the river’ s bank and the valley’ s side. IV. We will further apply the principle to our OWN . LET me mention a few methods of soul-shaking. 1. Affliction is one of them. The man thought that he had resigned everything to God--death came and took away his child; where was his resignation then? Tribulations, losses, crosses, sicknesses, and bereavements, are very stern trials, and the things within us which may be shaken will be shaken by them; but if we can bear them well and trustingly, and yet praise God for all, we have evidence of possessing gracious qualities which cannot be shaken, and therefore will remain. 2. What a shake temptation gives us! Why, we shall then know whether our grace is the grace of God or the grace of man; we shall now see whether we have the faith of God’ s elect or not. The faith of God’ s elect can write “ Invicta” upon its escutcheon; it is unconquered and unconquerable. There is a time of shaking coming which none of us shall be able to avoid. 3. If we should live without affliction and without temptation, which I think will be impossible, yet we cannot enter into the promised land without passing through the river of death, unless the Lord shall come. What a testing-time will the death-hour be! V. I must now bring before you ALL THAT YOU HAVE IN . The things which can be shaken will be removed, but things that cannot be shaken will remain. We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill-becomes a Christian man to set much store by them. Yet some of us have certain “ things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you to read over the catalogue of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. 1. In the first place, whatever your losses may have been, you enjoy present salvation. 2. In the next place, you are a child of God to-day. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob yon of that. 3. You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. HE who is God and anon loves you with all the strength of His affectionate nature. Now, nothing can rob you of that. 4. You have another thing, namely this truth, that whatever may happen to you you have God’ s faithful promise which holds true that all things shall work for your good. Do you believe this? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Things passing and things permanent: The giving of the law shook the earth, the giving of the gospel is to shake earth and heaven. The concussion begins when Christ comes; it is going on now; and it will continue till the world receives its last shock and falls asunder. This is not a very common view of the gospel history, but it has its side of truth. The gospel cannot build up and make strong without shaking down. The things that are shaken are “ things that are made.” They are created things, and therefore they can be and must be changed. But the things that are not made cannot be shaken. They are things that belong to God’ s own nature, His truth and righteousness and love, which are unassailable and eternal, and give eternal power and life wherever they enter and become part of a creature. It is a very great thing for us to feel assured of this in the midst of the perpetual breaking down of everything around us. I. IN THE LAW, WE, MAY BEGIN WITH THE MORE GENERAL AND COME TO THE . 1. The Jewish dispensation was shaken, but the great realities enclosed in it remain. The New Testament Church emerges like a spirit clothed in a new and ethereal body fitted for a greater time. 2. The forms of human society are shaken, but the principles that regulate if remain. Every chaos has its harmonising voice, “ Let there be light” ; every flood its ark and its rainbow. Amid the tumults of nations and the guessing plans of politicians, a Christian man need never lose hope, for he has his foot on a kingdom that cannot be moved; and the communities of this world are being shaken and broken that they may be built up again, with more in them of that kingdom which is truth and righteousness, and which at last shall be peace. 3. Outward systems of religion are shaken, but the great truths of the Church of Christ remain. By outward systems of religion we mean the organisations that men form, with a particular human name and locality and administration; by the Church of Christ we mean the spiritual children of God, called together by His grace out of every country, and built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone. The great wants of man’ s soul cannot be changed any more than the necessities of his physical nature, and the great truths of the Bible that satisfy them can no more be shaken than the ordinances of heaven that furnish man with bread and light and life. 4. The temporal circumstances of man are shaken, but the great possessions of the soul remain. There are few who pass through life without experiencing many changes in it. All our possessions are in things of earth, and we hold them by a clay-tenure. Perhaps the saddest change of all is that which takes place in our feelings. How different the dreams of the opening of life from the realisations of its close! What broken hopes, what frustrated aims, what a poor handful of ears for the rich sheaves we saw before us! So God shakes our lives till all seems gone, things of possession and things of promise. And yet, the while, the soul may have within its grasp things that cannot be touched, that youthful expectations once thought little of, but that now grow into bright and great realities. It may have faith rising to God and laying hold of the treasure that nothing can endanger or diminish. It may have hope going down like an anchor and keeping the heart stable in every storm. It may have love within and around, dwelling on the things of God and giving, in communion with Him, a peace in trouble that is above all earthly good. If these have become part of the soul they may be clouded, but they are never lost. When we lose hold of them Christ holds them fast for us, and brings them out like stars over drifting sky-rack, and brightens them as night deepens. 5. The material frame of man is shaken, but the immortal spirit remains. Where the Divine life enters, it brings with it not only the promise but the pledge and foretaste of the immortal life. The light of faith already spoken of, shining when all else that looks out at the windows is darkened, is one of its foretokens. Augustine said of his mother, Monies, that the crevices of the falling tabernacle only let the celestial light shine in more clearly. “ The soul’ s dark cottage shattered and decayed Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.” And when death gives the last shock to the frame the work is completed. The soul is that light in Gideon’ s pitcher which shines out most clearly when the earthen vessel that held it is broken. 6. Last of all, we observe, as an illustration of this law, that the whole system of nature is shaken, but the new creation remains. That which we can trace in all past eras, rising still to a better and brighter, must reach its brightest and its best if there be truth in earth or heaven. The passing things in the universe must lead to something permanent, for time no more than space can have a sea without a shore. That new material creation shall be suited to the nature of man’ s glorified, material frame, as that frame is suited to his perfected spirit. It must be free from all the elements of disorder and decay that press upon us here--a soil that never opens for a grave, a sky that never darkens with a cloud; to describe which God’ s word fails, because it can only use figures drawn from things that are passing, and speak to finite minds enclosed within these limits. I do not know if there is anything that can give us a higher idea of that great end than this, that it is the end--the close to which all the events and processes around us are conducting--the one permanent, imperishable result of the history of the universe. II. WE NOW COME TO SOME OF THE THAT RESULT FROM THIS LAW. Could not God, it may be asked, have made a permanent world at first, without requiring us to pass through this process of change deepening so often to ruin? After all, this may be asking why God has seen fit to make this world under the condition of time, for, wherever time enters, change, as far as we can see, must accompany it. It may be that finite minds can learn, or at least begin their learning, only under some such forms of change as we see around us--processes of birth and growth and death and revival, taking place under our eyes, arresting our attention, and stimulating our study. It is a book where God is turning the pages to every generation, and giving it something new, an advancing development that bids men look back and forward. The world as we here see it is a becoming--a process where constant change is imprinted on all. It has seemed fit toGod’ s wisdom to put us through such a course of learning, where change should be so prominent, and yet the permanent never far off to those who will feel after it till they find it; and if we could understand all things we might see that the proportion in which the two are mingled is best suited to our present condition. We come, however, to something more practical when we remark that this is a world into which moral disorder has entered, and that the painful changes that touch us are the consequence of it--the consequence of it, and yet an aid to the cure of it. Without sin there might still have been mutation, but it would have wanted the sting and the shadow. We have lost through our fall the true perception of spiritual and eternal realities, and we must be made to see them through painful contrasts. It is by this process, too, that we not only see the greatness of these permanent things, but learn to cleave to them as our portion. This at least is the purpose, and if God’ s Spirit stirs the heart when His providence shakes the outward life this will be the result. Still further, things that are shaken preserve those things that are to remain until their suitable time of manifestation. God gives us earthly comforts and hopes, till He gives something better in their stead. A young Christian could not be reconciled to many things which the more advanced cheerfully accept. In our present state we could not bear the view of another world, and the veil is kept between till our souls are attempered. Meanwhile, the seed of the incorruptable is here now--the seed of the everlasting inheritance in these frail hearts, of the glorious body in these dying frames, of the new creation in the world we look on. The things that perish encase them, as winter’ s snow covers the seed, as the husk the flower. When all is ready, the sun will come and the snow will melt, the husk will fall, the flower will blossom to the summer day, and we shall see that the things which perish have also their place in the plan of God. They are the veil between grace and glory, very needful, and only to be done away when that which is perfect shall have come, and we are ready to take possession of it. (J. Ker, D. D.) A kingdom which cannot be moved The immovableness of the gospel dispensation The gospel dispensation is the “ kingdom which cannot be moved.” It is described as a “ kingdom which cannot be moved,” because it is the complete development of God’ s design towards this earth, and not a mere herald of a fuller manifestation. And when St. Paul appeals to the reception of an immovable kingdom as furnishing a motive to earnestness in the service of God, he is to be considered as arguing from the fixedness of the present dispensation to the duty of a reverential and filial obedience. The object, therefore, of our discourse must be to display the fairness of such reasoning; in other words, to explain how the fact that the kingdom that cannot be moved furnishes a motive to the serving God “ acceptably with reverence and with godly fear.” I. First, then, upon general grounds. WHY SHOULD THE OF THE GOSPEL URGE US TO IN THE SERVICE OF GOD? Suppose we take the opposite supposition, and imagine that there had been none of this fixedness in the gospel of Christ. Let us conceive ourselves placed under an imperfect and temporal economy, and see what difference would be made in our moral position. If you could throw an air of doubtfulness around the completion of revelation--if rather you could prove that there was still a portion of God’ s will to be made known; that we are not in possession of all that knowledge in respect of redemption which shall be communicated to man on this side of eternity, then immediately there would be engendered a feeling of restlessness and uncertainty; our minds, in place of setting themselves earnestly to the study of what was given, would waste themselves in conjecturing what was withheld. It is evident that under the Jewish dispensation there was a vast deal of this moral dissatisfaction. An absolute sickness of heart appears to have been felt by the most upright and pious at the long delay of a fuller revelation. There is just the difference between our condition under an immovable kingdom, and the condition of those who were under the movable kingdom, that there would be between a man who should be bidden to do something in the dark, and that of another man who should be told to do the same thing in the daylight. We will not say that the darkness is an apology for remissness, but that the sunshine takes away a great show of excuse. Receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, there are not brought to bear on us the disturbing forces which acted within the moral orbit of the Jew. We look straightway to Christ as a sacrifice, and are not set to behold Him in bulls and goats led up to the brazen altar. We can mark the Mediator, entering by His own blood into the holy of holies, and are not left to search out His intercession in that of a priest who, compassed with infirmity, needed for himself what he presented for others. We can go at once to “ the fountain open for sin and uncleanness,” and are not required to learn the methods of spiritual purification from the multiplied processes of ceremonial. We have been made acquainted with the abolition of death, of life and immortality being brought vividly to light, and we are not reduced to a vague hope or dim conjecture of the resurrection of matter and of its fresh inhabitation by spirit. But in these and numerous like points of distinction lies the difference between a kingdom which can be moved and a kingdom which cannot be moved. That which cannot be moved is the substance, whilst that which can be moved is only the shadow. He, therefore, who is under the immovable, has realities within his grasp, whilst he who is under the movable has only figure and parable; and just in proportion that the knowing with precision what is to be hoped and what feared will make a man more decisive in action than the being left in doubt and uncertainty--in that same proportion ought energy under the immovable dispensation to carry it over energy under the movable dispensation. The statutes of this kingdom are not written in hieroglyphics; the laws of its citizenship are not propounded in enigmas; everything wears the aspect of a final and complete revelation; the figurative has given place to the literal: prophecy has sunk into performance; who, therefore, will refuse to acknowledge that there is laid upon those who receive the immovable kingdom a mighty weight of responsibleness over and above that which rested on the recipients of the movable? And if the fixedness of the dispensation thus enhance the responsibleness of its subjects, we put beyond controversy that the fixedness should furnish motives to the serving God “ acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” II. Now we propose, in the second place, to make good the same truth on the particular ground which the apostle lays down. St. Paul argues the duty of obedience from the fixedness of the dispensation; BUT THEN HE AS HIS --“ For our God is a consuming fire.” Let us see how the several arguments are associated. We cannot be wrong in arguing that until the gospel was published--until, that is, the spiritual kingdom was finally settled on an immovable basis, there were points on which God’ s will was not clearly ascertained, and men might easily have formed incorrect suppositions, forasmuch as they proceeded on an imperfect knowledge. Informed of God’ s gracious design of providing pardon for the guilty, but not informed of the details of the arrangement, it might well come to pass that they would indulge in expectations which a fuller intelligence would have caused them to reject. They knew that God was “ a consuming fire” ; but they derived this knowledge from that tremendous outbreak of thunder and flame which accompanied the delivery of the law. But you will, we think, allow that if the Israelites knew God as “ a consuming fire,” because so revealed on Mount Sinai, and if they did not as yet know thoroughly the character under which lie would reveal Himself on Mount Zion, it might be a matter of question with them whether the mildness of the one revelation would not so temper the fierceness of the other, that “ a consuming fire” might no longer be a just description of God. They lived under a movable dispensation; the immovable which was to follow, came charged with discoveries of God’ s purposes of lovingkindness; might there not consequently have been somewhat of hesitation on their minds as to whether the tire which blazed awfully before mercy was allowed to shine out in its brightness, would be equally devouring when the day of free pardon had dawned on the creation? But so soon as the kingdom became “ a kingdom which cannot be moved” ; the possible union of characters--the characters of the punishing God and the pardoning God--was established beyond the reach of a question or a doubt. We cannot, unless we hoodwink our understandings, and take pains to be the victims of a lie, flatter ourselves that judgment when brought out into action will be less fiery and less tremendous than when graven on the statute book. Ours is the immovable kingdom, and the very process by which this kingdom was set up and wrought into steadfastness witnesses with a testimony the most thrilling, that it was a law with God, the least swerving from which would be the shaking of His own throne, that sin must be punished before the sinner can be pardoned. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 12:29 Our God is a consuming fire The fire of God I. THE FACT. It is doubly certified. Science and revelation attest it with concordant voices. The testimony of Nature, as interpreted by science, affirms the working upon a prodigious scale of a law of destruction, ever since life first appeared upon the globe. The scientific formula of this law is in the familiar phrase, “ the survival of the fittest.” For countless ages there has been going on throughout the domain of physical life, a relentless extirpation of the weak by the strong, of the sickly by the healthy, of the ill-conditioned by the welt-conditioned. The gradual development of improved forms of life has been secured by the constant destruction of inferior and deteriorated forms. There is no statement of the Bible to which science, in studying the development of nature, more thoroughly asserts than to this: “ Our God is a consuming fire.” But when we pass up from the lower forms of life in which we see this inexorable rooting up and weeding out of the less vigorous and healthy, we find in humanity a life which is capable of improvement by a different method. God introduces a higher method when He introduces a higher subject that is capable of it. The chief difference between man and the highest of the creatures below him is in the teachableness of man. Hence the difference of method in the improvement of the lower and the higher types of life. In the lower, improvement by elimination of the unfit; the unimprovable perish. But in the higher, education of the unfit; the improvable are saved. The method which, in the lower, results in the survival of the fittest, is superseded in the higher by a method of fitting to survive. But now we have to observe that, wherever this higher method is resisted, the lower method still holds sway. See how sins against the body are punished still by fiery inflammations, hectic consumptions, burning ulcers, fierce disorders of nerve and brain, in which the drunkard, the debauchee, the glutton, and other transgressors of the laws of physical health are, as it were, consumed from among the living. See, also, how national or social sins against humanity, righteousness, purity, or any of the laws of social health, are punished by social cancers, which burn out social patriotism, eat away the social conscience, consume the nerves of national life, devour the youth in the heats of vice, kindle the conflagrations of war, and shrivel UP the glory of empire. The same thing is shown, and with special significance, by the familiar phenomena of remorse. II. OUR TO THE FACT. We shall best approach the truth by entering into sympathy with the sentiment apparent in the text. There is no tone of dismay in it. It is inexpressibly solemn, but with no sign of shrinking as from an object of dread. It is uttered with the profoundest awe, but without the slightest sign of alarm, and seems to speak as from under a safe shelter in the blazing throne itself. The whole thought is coloured by the dominating word of sympathy and affection--“ our.” So might the dear child of some strict guardian of the law say: “ My father is terribly just.” It is spoken out of a heart that is at one with God in the peace of a filial endeavour to think His thought and to live His truth--a heart for which the fire of God has no terror, because no evil which belongs to that fire is guiltily held back from it. It is spoken out of a heart in which is even now progressing that purifying work which was ascribed in prophecy to Jesus (Matthew 3:11). Thus, when we have seen a little child put forth its hand to some forbidden object, we have seen that hand drop nerveless, and the whole frame recoil in confusion, as the mother’ s glance of mild reproof shot through the windows of the tempted soul--“ a consuming fire” to the impulse of transgression. So is the thought of “ our God” to a loving child of God. As his irregular desires and selfish impulses melt away in his awakened consciousness of the Father’ s presence, he finds there is grace and salvation in his wholesome experience that to his sin “our God is a consuming fire.” (J. M. Whiton, D. D.) The consuming fire 1. Fire is the most powerful agent in the world. It supplies heat, which is the source of life and existence in all nature. It destroys all vegetable substances, and resolves them into their original elements. It purifies all corruption, and removes all impurities. 2. But fire cannot destroy or injure the valuables of the mineral kingdom. Gold and silver are purified by its influence, their impurities are destroyed, but they themselves are uninjured. The excrescences are removed, but the substance remains. 3. This image is introduced to represent the influence of God’ s Spirit. What does it consume? Not the precious gold or the valued stones, but the more worthless substances--hay, straw, stubble, &c. I. ALL MEN MUST PASS THROUGH THE FIRES. That is, they must be subject to the scrutiny of God’ s righteous judgment. This is as a refiner’ s furnace. II. THE , BEING AS PURE GOLD, SHALL COME OUT OF THIS FIRE AND . The dross of their characters shall be removed, their corruption shall be destroyed, and their hopes, confidence, and prospects enlarged. III. THE WICKED, BEING LIKE THE CHAFF, SHALL BE IN THE FURNACE. Their hopes--being as a spider’ s web--shall be carried away. IV. OUR GOD IS A FIRE. 1. TO His people this is a welcome thought; for He shall consume all that is hateful and repulsive to them. 2. To the sinful it is a thought of terror; for He shall destroy all that upon which they trust, and leave them helpless, desolate, lost. (Homilist.) The consuming fire: The use of the element of fire as a symbol for the Supreme Being is familiar enough. Ancient marriage-rites involved the use of fire as a sign of that divinity in whose presence the marriage was performed, and who was invoked as a witness of the unbroken pledge taken by those entering into the sacred bond of wedlock. In India a fire is kindled of some sacred wood. The mango-tree is often used for this purpose. The fire is lighted in the middle of the room; the young people sit on stools. The Brahmin commences an incantation. Then they arise and walk round the fire three times. “ Fire is the witness of their covenant, and, if they break it, fire will be their destruction.” “ Call your son,” says the father of the bride according to an ancient story, “ call your son, that I may give him to my daughter in the presence of the god of fire, that he may be the witness.” Then “ Usteyar gave his daughter Verunte in marriage, the fire being the witness.” Who can fail in this to see a reflection of the story of the burning lamp and the smoking furnace in the vision of Abraham? It is not wonderful that the worship of fire should have been one of the forms of idolatry by which men corrupted the true idea of the ever-blessed God. The rising sun in his morning splendours, the strength of that luminary in noonday brightness, the glory of the setting sun, the moon in her beauty walking through the palaces of the heavens, the countless stars shining in the glories of the nightly firmament, what more striking images of God, if man must employ such! 1. In the first place, there is the idea of purity, which belongs as an essential quality to the element itself. It is not possible to conceive of a flame as impure. And such flame is incorruptible too. Water and air, both also symbols of purity, may be tainted and befouled. But the flame, when still flame, compels whatever it may touch, and changes it into itself, into its own purity and freedom from defilement. Fire is the final, the only perfect purgation, because it is itself the only absolutely pure element. Who can tell the purity of God whose symbol is a flame? No word of ours can add to that simple idea. 2. Fire is a defence, a means of protection, and to symbolise the strong refuges of God’ s people is thus often used. The fire descending and consuming the offering was a gracious and encouraging sign of acceptance and favour. The chariots and horsemen of fire proved to be the defence and guard of the man of God. The pillar of fire that the people saw rising above the encampment at night and towering into the heaven, was their cheer, their protection in the wandering of the wilderness. What comfort does the bivouacing party not take in the fire that is kindled among the tents; and as it throws its strange and fantastic illumination upon the scene around, how the forest darkness is illumined or the solitude of the plain cheered by a sort of companionship of light! when the travellers in lonely places, where only the stealthy footfall of the beast of prey upon the crisp leaves, or the crackling boughs and branches fallen from the overhanging trees, breaks the solemn silence, light up their fires and make a line of blazing points around their halting-place, they know that they can sleep securely, and their beasts of burden are safe from the sudden spring of the tiger, the cruel teeth of the hungry lion. So is our God the comfort and the defence of His people. In the lonely ways of life He lights their path, and casts a gleam of comfort upon their desolate spirits. The world were very cold and very dark without our God. The vast spaces of the universe would stretch around us into illimitable distance, and nothing could issue thence to press upon our souls but the forces of death and destruction, ruin and despair. But let the soul feel that God is there, and then the whole is enlightened by a Father’ s presence, and every force in nature becomes a ministry of love. What a refuge and a defence is God with His people! Around us prowl the enemies of the soul. The roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, is near, but we are centred within the love of God, and he dares not rush upon that consuming fire within which we are safe. 3. But the energy of fire is not only repellent; it also is communicative. Air may wear down a substance presented to it and reduce it to dust, water may dissolve and change the form of that upon which it acts; but fire seizes an object, separates its particles, kindles them to burning, and then compels them to burn up in the flame of its own consuming. Fire kindles, fire sets on fire. These symbols of the Divine Being suggest this comunicableness of the Divine nature and activity which is the very basis of our religious, our Divine life. That old legend of Prometheus, told by Apollodorus, how he made the first man and woman out of clay, and animated them by the fire which he stole from heaven, is only the grotesque and paganised version of the deep truth of the life of God within the soul of man that the Scriptures reveal and illustrate. It is fire that gives life. It is the burning rays of the sun that vitalise and inspire all the dead matter of the earth, and cover this world with the beauty and movement, the varied forms and colours and activities of plant and flower, bird and beast. Man’ s life is but fire, and we get it from the central fire of the universe. And so of the higher life, the life of faith, of love, of holy character. This is gained from God. He who finds Jesus Christ, there finds God; and God in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, who comes through Christ, kindles the flame of a Divine life within his heart. 4. The passage from this thought to that of the purifying power of fire is not difficult or forced. Some have seen only this in the word. We think that would be too much. To limit the extent of the application so as not to see this, however, would be as completely to miss its significance. When the new life began, how much of earth mingled with its heavenly constituents! There was selfishness, and greed, and passion, and sloth. There was pride, and envy, and hard-heartedness, and love of the world. There was slackness and doubting, and infidelity and neglect. There was ingratitude and insensibility, blindness to the show of God’ s face, and deafness to the sound of God’ s voice. But slowly the burning flame of the Divine nature has purged the evil. “ A consuming fire! “ A deeper, darker mystery still lies behind it all. Did the exhortation suggest us grace and piety, it also, in language unmistakable, bids us entertain a becoming and a godly fear. We have no desire to hide, we dare not hide, the solemn and the awful truth. That Divine nature, a burning fire, is a refuge, a defence, a quickening, purifying force; but be not deceived, it is also a destroying element. Material fire is purging to one thing when it is destructive of another. The fine gold it refines; the dross, the baser substance, it consumes, it destroys. And that Divine life which cleanses and renews, and purifies the faithful, the penitent, the obedient, becomes a burning indignation, a ceaseless and consuming fire against the soul that renders not its due honour and makes not its life its own. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.) The severity of God I. WE WILL TO GIVE YOU NOTIONS OF THAT WHICH THE CALLS THE WRATH, THE ANGER, THE OF GOD. Recollect that when the Scripture speaks of the perfections and operations of God it borroweth images from the affections and actions of men. Things that cannot be known to us by themselves can be understood only by analogy. Divine things are of this kind. From this remark follows a precaution--that is, that we must carefully lay aside every part of the emblem that agreeth only to men from whom it is borrowed, and apply only that part to the Deity which is compatible with the eminence of His perfections. II. Observe THAT THOSE EMBLEMS OF WRATH AND UNDER WHICH GOD IS TO US HAVE ONE PART THAT CANNOT BE TO HIM, because it is not compatible with the eminence of His perfections, and another that must be applied to Him because it is. 1. It is a consequence of the frailty or of the depravity of men that their anger inclines them to hate those whom they ought to love, and in whose happiness they ought to interest themselves as far as they can without violating the laws of equity. Such a hatred cannot be attributed to God; He loves all His intelligent creatures. 2. It is a consequence of human frailty or depravity that men’ s wrath makes them taste a barbarous pleasure in tormenting those who are the objects of it, and in feasting, as it were, on their miseries. This is incompatible with the eminence of the perfections of God. 3. It is a consequence of the frailty or of the depravity of men that their anger disorders their bodies and impairs their minds. See, the eyes sparkle, the mouth foams, the animal spirits are in a flame; these obscure the faculties of the mind, and prevent the weighing of those reasons that plead for the guilty offender; anger prejudgeth him, and, in spite of many powerful pleas in his favour, his ruin is resolved. All these are incompatible with the eminence of the perfections of God. God is a spirit; He is not subject to revolutions of sense; reasons of punishing a sinner never divert His attention from motives of pardoning the man or of moderating his pain. 4. It is a consequence of the frailty and depravity of men that their anger makes them usurp a right which belongs to God. God useth His own right when He punisheth sin. 5. It is a consequence of the frailty and depravity of men that time doth not abate their resentment, and that the only reason which prevents the rendering of evil for evil is a want of opportunity; as soon as an opportunity offers they eagerly embrace it. This is incompatible with the eminence of the perfections of God; He hath at all times the means of punishing the guilty. 6. It is a consequence of the frailty and depravity of men that their anger puts them upon considering and punishing a pardonable frailty as an atrocious crime. This is incompatible with the eminence of the Divine perfections. If we imagine that God acts so in any cases, it is because we have false notions of sins, and think that a pardonable frailty which is an atrocious crime. III. We are to conciliate WHAT THE SAITH OF THE OF GOD WITH WHAT IT SAITH OF HIS ANGER OR ; and as the two subjects never appear more irreconciliable than when, having used all our endeavours to terrify people who defer their conversion till a dying illness, we actually take pains to comfort those who have deferred it till that time, we will endeavour to harmonise the goodness and justice of God in that particular point of view. 1. First, let us endeavour, in a general view, to reconcile the goodness of God with His justice by laying down a few principles. (1) To speak properly, there are not several perfections in God; but there is one single excellence, inclusive of every other, that ariseth from all His perfections, but of which it is not possible that we can either form any complete ideas or easily express by any name: in general, it may be called order, or love of order. (2) Although God hath only a general excellence, yet it is necessary for us to divide it into several particular excellencies in order to the obtaining of some knowledge of an object, the immensity of which will not allow us to comprehend it at once. (3) The general excellence of God being thus divided into parts, each part becomes what we call a perfection, or an attribute, of God, as vengeance or justice and goodness; but each particular attribute will be still mistaken unless we subdivide it again into other and still more contracted spheres. Thus, when God sendeth rain and fruitful seasons, we call the blessing simply bounty. When He delivereth us out of our afflictions we call it compassion. When He pardoneth our sins we call it mercy. But as all these particular excellencies proceed from that general attribute which we call goodness, so that attribute itself proceedeth, as well as His justice, from an excellence more general still which we have denominated order or love of order. (4) Perfections that proceed from the same perfection, or, rather, which are the same perfections applied to different subjects, cannot be contrary to each other. Strictly speaking, God is no more just than good, no more good than just. His goodness is restrained by His justice, His justice by His goodness. (5) God is as amiable and adorable when He exerciseth His justice as when He exerciseth His goodness. That which makes me adore God, believe His word, hope in His promises, and love Him above all things, is the eminence of His perfections. 2. Let us now apply this general harmony of the goodness and severity of God to the removing of a seeming inconsistency in the conduct of your preachers and casuists, who first use every effort to alarm and terrify your minds with the idea of a death-bed repentance, and afterward take equal pains to comfort you when ye have deferred your repentance to that time, and when your case appears desperate. Why do we not despair of a man who delays his conversion till the approach of death? Because that order, which constitutes the eminence of the Divine perfections, doth not allow that a sincere conversion, a conversion that reforms the sin and renews the sinner, should be rejected by God. Now we cannot absolutely deny the possibility of a sincere death-bed conversion for the following reasons. (1) Because it is not absolutely impossible that a violent fit of sickness or an apprehension of death should make deeper impressions on the mind than either sermons, or exhortations, or books of devotion could ever produce. (2) Because we are neither so fully acquainted with other people’ s hearts, nor indeed with our own, as to determine whether sin have so entirely depraved all the faculties of the soul that it is past remedy; or whether it have arrived at that precise degree of corruption to which the eminence of the Divine perfections doth not allow a display of that efficacy which is promised to those who desire the grace of conversion. (3) Because we find in the Holy Scriptures that some have obtained mercy after they had committed the very crimes, the remembrance of which, we have said, ought not to drive any to despair. (4) Because we still see people who, having lived thirty, yea, fifty, years in sin, have been converted in a time of sickness, and who, being restored to health, give full proof of the reality of their conversion. (5) Because God worketh miracles in religion as well as in nature; and because no man hath a sufficient knowledge of the nature of God’ s perfections to enable him to affirm that a miracle cannot or ought not to be wrought in behalf of such a sinner. (6) Because we cannot find that your pastors have any authority from their Bibles to say to a penitent sinner at any time, There is no more hope for thee; thou hast exhausted the mercy of God. 3. It is true God’ s thoughts are not our thoughts; and it is possible that the approach of death may make deeper impressions on you than either sermons or pious books have made: but yet our God is a consuming fire. What a time is a dying illness for the receiving of such impressions! Ah! what obstacles! What a world of obstacles oppose such extravagant hopes and justify the efforts of those who endeavor to destroy them! Here is business that must be settled; a will which must be made; a number of articles that must be discussed; there are friends who must be embraced. There the illness increaseth, pains multiply, agonies convulse, the whole soul, full of intolerable sensations, loseth the power of seeing and hearing, thinking and reflecting. It is true God’ s thoughts are not our thoughts; and we have neither a sufficient knowledge of other people’ s hearts, nor of our own, to affirm with certainty when their faculties are entirely contaminated: but yet our God is a consuming fire. We know men to whom the truth is become unintelligible, in consequence of the disguise in which they have taken the pains to clothe it, and who have accustomed themselves to palliate vice till they are become incapable of perceiving its turpitude. God’ s thoughts are not our thoughts, it is true; and we have seen some examples of people who have proved, since their recovery, that they were truly converted in sickness, and on whose account we presume that others may possibly be converted by the same means: but yet our God is a consuming fire. How rare are these examples! Doth this require proof? Must we demonstrate it? Ye are our proofs; ye yourselves are our demonstrations. It is true God’ s thoughts are not our thoughts; and God worketh miracles in religion as well as in nature: but yet our God is a consuming fire. Who can assure himself that, having abused common grace, he shall obtain extraordinary assistances? It is true God’ s thoughts are not our thoughts: and there is nothing in the Holy Scriptures which inpowers us to shut the gates of heaven against a dying penitent; we have no authority to tell you that there is no more hope for you, but that ye are lost without remedy: but yet our God is a consuming fire. There are hundreds of passages in our Bibles which authorise us--what am I saying? there are hundreds of passages that command us--not to conceal anything from the criminal; there are hundreds of passages which empower and enjoin us to warn you, you who are fifty years of age, you who are sixty, you who are fourscore, that still to put off the work of your conversion is a madness, an excess of inflexibility and indolence, which all the flames of hell can never expiate. (J. Saurin.) Divine love is fire I. Fire is , and God’ s love is everywhere--the life of all the living, the beauty of all the beautiful, the blessedness of all the blest. II. Fire PAIN. And a flash of Divine love on a guilty conscience enkindles a hell. III. Fire CREATES STORMS. And all the moral tempests in the universe have their origin in Divine love. IV. Fire is ACTIVE. SO is Divine love--creating, sustaining, and directing all things. V. Fire has a . Divine love burns up falsehoods, wrongs, and all the ten thousand forms of sins. VI. Fire has the POWER TO CHANGE ALL THINGS INTO ITS OWN NATURE. So Divine love will turn all human souls into love one day. Evil cannot remain evil for ever before it. (Homilist.) God a consuming fire: Because God doth not always show Himself in the likeness of fire, a terrible God, pouring down the coals of His wrath upon us, because He beareth with us, and doth not by and by punish us for our sins, we think we may condemn Him, we may serve Him as we list, any service will content Him. Ay, but remember likewise that our God is a consuming fire. It is long, peradventure, before a fire breaks forth; iS may lie lurking a great while and not be seen; but if it begin to flame, to set upon a town, without great prevention it will burn up the whole town. So God is patient, His wrath is long a-kindling; but if we provoke Him too much, He will break forth as a fire and consume us all. He is a fearful God with whom we have to deal, therefore let us serve Him with fear and reverence, in holiness and righteousness all our days, that we may not only avoid this fire, but enjoy the light of the heavenly Jerusalem for ever. (W. Jones, D. D.) God a consuming fire: This is one of the shortest texts in the Bible. It takes rank with those other three brief sentences which declare the nature of God: God is Light, God is Love, God is Life. But to many it is one of the most awful sayings in the whole of Scripture. It rankles in the memory; recurs continually to the uneasy conscience; and rings its wild tocsin of alarm in the ear of the anxious inquirer. And yet there is an aspect in which it may be viewed which will make it one of the most comforting, precious passages in the whole range of inspiration. I. OUR GOD IS A FIRE; AND THERE IS TERROR IN THE SYMBOL. But the terror is reserved for those who unceasingly and persistently violate His laws and despise His love. Sin is no light matter. In this world even it is fearfully avenged. Walk through certain wards in our hospitals, and tell me if anything could exceed the horror, the agony, or the penalty which is being inflicted on those who have flagrantly violated the laws of nature. And so far as we can see the physical penalties which follow upon wrong-doing are not unto life and restoration, but unto death and destruction. It is necessary that these sufferings should be veiled from the eye of man, but surely they must be taken into account, when we estimate God’ s treatment of sin. And if such pain, keen as fire, consumes those who violate physical law, surely we must admit that there is a still more awful doom for those who violate the laws of God’ s love and grace and pleading mercy. II. OUR GOD IS A FIRE; AND THERE IS COMFORT AND IN THE THOUGHT. When we yield to God’ s love, and open our hearts to Him, He enters into us, and becomes within us a consuming fire, not to ourselves, but to the evil within us. So that, in a very deep and blessed sense, we may be said to dwell with the devouring fire, and to walk amid the eternal burnings. 1. Fire is warmth. We talk of ardent desire, warm emotion, enthusiasm’ s glow and fire; and when we speak of God being within us as fire, we mean that He will produce in us a strong and constant affection to Himself. 2.. Fire is light. We are dark enough in our natural state, but when God comes into the tabernacle of our being, the shekinah begins to glow in the most holy place; and pours its waves of glory throughout the whole being, so that the face is suffused with a holy glow, and there is an evident elasticity and buoyancy of spirits which no world-joy can produce or even imitate. 3. Fire is purity. “ How long, think you, would it take a workman with hammer and chisel to get the ore from the rocks in which it lies so closely embedded? But if they are flung into the great cylinder, and the fires fanned to torrid heat, and the draught roars through the burning mass, at nightfall the glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all dross and rubbish are parted, flows into the waiting mould.” This is a parable of what God will do for us. Nay, more, He will burn up the wood, hay, and stubble, the grit and dross, the selfishness and evil of our nature, so that at last only the gold and silver and precious stones shall remain. The bonds that fetter us will be consumed, but not a hair of our heads shall fall to the ground. (M. B.Meyer, B. A.) God as fire: As regards the use of fire as a symbol in Holy Scripture, while it is true that it often represent the punitive wrath of God, it is equally certain that it has not always this meaning. Quite as often it is the symbol of God’ s purifying energy and might. Fire was not the symbol of Jehovah’ s vengeance in the burning bush. When the Lord is represented as sitting “ as a refiner and a purifier of silver,” surely the thought is not of vengeance, but of purifying mercy. We should rather say that fire, in Scripture usage, is the symbol of the intense energy of the Divine nature, which continually acts upon every person and on everything, according to the nature of each person or thing; here conserving, there destroying; now cleansing, now consuming. The same fire which burns the wood, hay, and stubble purifies the gold and silver. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.) The beneficent becoming destruction A glass inkstand was placed on the table so that the sun’ s rays fell upon it. Brightly and cheerily, no doubt, they played upon its facets and angles; but that inkstand affected these beautiful sunbeams in such a way as to extract from them heat in sufficient force to set the table upon which it stood on fire, reducing it, and all it came in contact with, into ashes. What is there more beautiful than the sunbeams? How they cheer, and cherish, and inspire nature all around! Yet there are some objects which can convert this thing of beauty, and health, and life into a consuming fire. So there are moral characters which extract death out of life; transform the loving, life-giving gospel into an instrument of destruction; in short, cause the God of love to become to them a consuming fire. (A. J. Parry.) Lightning as well as light I am thankful that men do not now speak of the penalty of sin, as if, according to Foster, the Almighty “ were a dreadful King of Furies, whose music is the cries of victims, and whose glory requires to be illustrated by the ruin of His creation.” We cannot speak in terms that are strong enough, or in tones that are pathetic enough, of the love of God in Christ. But he is unfaithful who, by silence or by speech, diminishes the sense of the evil of sin, and of the certainty and awfulness of the penalty that follows it. A representation of Jehovah as a Being of infinite good nature, whose Fatherly love is reduced to grandfatherly weakness, who cannot inflict pain and suffering, and who will easily overlook sin, is a false representation; it is contrary to well-known facts, it is oblivious of the greatness of the sacrifice of Christ. When I was in Naples I thought nothing could be more beautiful than that fine bay, with its clear blue waters, and its picturesque surroundings; but eight miles away there was Vesuvius, with the column of smoke ever resting on its summit, with the elements of destruction within it, and with the effects of its destructive power seen in Herculaneum and Pompeii near its base. So behind all the beautiful and attractive aspects of the gospel of grace there is the mount of blackness and darkness and tempest, which cannot be blotted out. There is death as well as life in the world; there are cemeteries as well as gardens, gaols as well as schools. Christ has not thrown the winnowing fan from His hand; there was lightning as well as light in His speech; words of doom came from the lips of Him who looked upon Jerusalem through tears. He teaches us that sin is not to be trifled with, and we preach Him as the deliverer “ from the wrath to come.” (James Owen.) Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue Brotherly love I. WHAT IS LOVE? It is that feeling of mutual regard, subsisting among the members of the faithful, which is felt to be due from one brother to another, and without which, in the intercourse of domestic life, there could be neither peace in families nor comfort in society. If, though hatred should not exist among them, there were yet no cordial affection, nothing like a desire to promote each other’ s welfare, the members of that family would deprive themselves of the most fruitful source of enjoyment still permitted to fallen human nature. But brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus form but one family in the eyes of our common Parent; and He has commanded them to love as brethren. II. How IS LOVE TO BE AND ? There may be differences of sentiment and practice in many particulars, which human infirmity will always occasion, even among those who are endeavouring to find the way to the same heavenly city. But there must be a reception of the Lord Jesus; in all His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and a desire to submit to the guidance of His Word, and to be led by the gracious direction of His Spirit, as a foundation for that brotherly love in which we are commanded to live. Common feelings imply common principles; and the peculiar love of Christians must have the peculiar faith of Christians for its basis and origin. III. How MAY LOVE MOST ? 1. Of course the first object, with this view, should he to retain the feelings in which that pure affection for the Christian brotherhood originated; to recollect, from day to day, that” one is our Master, even Christ, and that all we are brethren” ; and still more especially to look upon every trait of Christian character as a link of attachment, a feature in that family likeness which belongs to all the faithful, and gives them an instinctive interest in each other’ s well-being. But, after all, the chief preservative of this characteristic grace of Christianity is, the love of Christ Himself, which will always necessarily expand in love for the brethren. 2. But, further; if we desire this mutual regard for all the brethren to continue among us, and to grow, we must attend to two things. (1) We must be on the watch to do those actions which have a tendency to promote and to strengthen brotherly love. We must inquire into each other’ s wants, with a view to relieve them, and thus exercise the affections which we wish to cultivate. (2) We must be careful to remove those impediments which thwart and retard its growth. Now, there are a number of little causes, which, by being suffered to grow up in the bosoms of Christians, tend to narrow their affections, and restrain that brotherly love which ought to be their delight. Differences of taste will sometimes, if not controlled, engender personal dislikes, against which a wise man can never be too much on his guard. It is surprising how often some slight, but frequently recurring, peculiarities of manner will produce a distaste for the society of a person who is yet a Christian. 3. Again; every man has his infirmities, his failings, his besetting sins. There is no habit more injurious to the exercise of brotherly love than that of dwelling unnecessarily on the defects of those whom we are bound to love as brethren. Whatever be your neighbour’ s faults, he is still your brother, for whom Christ died. I have not now spoken of the duty of forgiveness, because, among those who are Christians indeed, the occasions for the exercise of this virtue ought to be rare. But yet a forgiving disposition is so essential an attribute of Christianity that brotherly love cannot be cultivated without it. 4. But the grand instrument for the removal of all impediments to our charity, from within or from without, is intercessory prayer. (E. G. Marsh, M. A.) Brotherly love A brother is a hallowed name. Born of the same parents, nursed with the same untiring, tender care, dependent on the same protection, and sharing in the same blessings of the same common hearthstone, expectant heirs of a common inheritance, the tie that binds me to my brother is one most sacred in its nature, and nothing ought to be allowed to injure, much lest to destroy, this hallowed relationship. I. LOVE MAY BE AND SEVERED. Christianity does not deprive us of our individuality. With the same inspired truth before us we differ, honestly, in our opinions as to the meaning or extent of that truth. We still have our pride of opinion. Again, we are liable to have our preferences and prejudices as well as our opinions. Here is need for the exercise of that charity “ that thinketh no evil” ; that, in honour, prefers another to itself. Love is magnetic. It attracts pure hearts together and all to God. It throws its wondrous power over sinful opposition, and with more than the skill of Orpheus is a true tamer of wild beasts. Love is the great law of gravity in God’ s spiritual universe; it binds each orb and keeps it coherent, while it rolls all in harmony around the grand central sun. Love is the vitalising principle of truth and experience and duty. Love concentrates individual piety in intense beauty in the character of the Church, while it unifies and employs all the strength of the Church in its sacred mission on the earth. II. Again, THERE IS THE PURPOSE FORMED BY EACH LOVER OF THE SAVIOUR THAT LOVE SHALL . The first approaches of the small foxes that injure the vines are carefully guarded against. Special care is taken to put out the least spark of “ envy, or malice, or uncharitableness,” that the enemy may throw into the soul. The little courtesies of Christian as well as polite society are tendered with suitable delicacy, and “ little deeds of kindness” are kept busily at work receiving and reciprocating true brotherly love. III. LOVE ACCORDS TO OTHERS WHAT WE CLAIM FOR , AND MORE--for, in true humility, in honour it “ esteems others better than itself.” It is deferential, forbearing, and forgiving. To rejoice in the success of a brother, more than in our own, is strong evidence that we “ have been with Jesus,” and breathed largely of His Spirit. “ Let brotherly love continue.” 1. This should be the theory and practice of the ministers and officers of the Church. 2. Among different denominations of Christians this should be observed. 3. Among members of the same Church this apostolic injunction is a vital necessity. It is utterly opposed to detraction of the gifts, ability, and usefulness either of ministers or of any member of the Church. 4. We should cultivate this principle of brotherly love, for through it we must show, by contrast with unsanctified human nature, that Christ’ s religion makes us gentle, kind, patient, and forgiving; and as Christ’ s history is the loveliest exhibition of Divine love, so we must reflect the highest honour on our once crucified but now risen Lord, by loving the brethren. 5. Nowhere is there a more attractive picture of genuine piety than in “ the fellowship of the saints.” (W. H. Anderson, D. D.) Love one another: Love is one of the most important and distinctive of all Christian graces, and some of the churches seem to have been distinguished by a great abundance of it. Writing to the Thessalonians, the apostle says: “ Concerning brotherly love, ye have no need that I write unto you.” “ I thank God for all the grace that has abounded in you; still let it continue.” Let us now glance at the objects of brotherly love. In the first place, it must mean Christian brotherhood. Only as we love them for Christ’ s sake have we any true brotherly love. But what is to be the rule of our brotherly love? It is to be after the measure and the pattern of our Lord’ s love to us. This is the revealed standard, and it has been set before us most plainly again and again. When the Saviour announced it to His disciples He said: “ A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you,” and very soon after He refers to it again and says: “ This is My commandment, that ye love one another.” Then He refers to the strongest proof of love: “ Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.” The Apostle Paul said: “ Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,” and the Apostle John said: “ Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Why, this laying down of His life is the mystery of redemption, the strongest revelation of the Divine compassion, the innermost sanctuary of the absolute goodness. How can we attain to this standard of love? It is a good rule--aim high, or you will never excel. Ay, and this, too, is needed--for brotherly love has a good deal to do, to endure, and to give--a heart divinely tender, a hand divinely strong, a soul divinely generous. And now consider some reasons why we should join the apostle in his desire: “ Let brotherly love continue.” First, it has a power of living and growing. Brotherly love is a living power. We may well and consistently say, “ Let it continue.” In the trials that will come of the furthering of the cause of Christ, let brotherly love ever continue. The want of it hinders more than almost anything else. Besides, the presence and power of it is mightily helpful. The Saviour prayed that His disciples might be all one--not in oneness of ceremonial and creed, but in character and life with the Father and with the Son. But that was only to secure another object--that the world might know, that the world might believe that the Father had sent the Son. This was the direct effect produced by the descent of the new Christian life on the Day of Pentecost. The primitive disciples were few and poor, unlearned and despised. Yet by moral force alone they emptied the temples and demolished the altars, vanquished Caesar, the philosophers and priests, and changed the aspect of the world. By what? Supremely by the vision of the Crucified--that manifestation of matchless love, which at once showed what love for sinners was and could do. And next to that was the image of brotherly love, a Divine creation, sent amongst men. In a world where the few were tyrants and knew no mercy, and the many crushed and toiling slaves that found no pity--lo! they looked up, saw this new creation--men loving one another--and they said: “ See how these Christians love one another!” and their hearts were eased, and a new life began in them, and a new life was conferred upon them. Was it so? There is no question. Then “ let brotherly love continue.” Further, brotherly love is for the edification and establishment of the cause of Christ. Paul says: “ Knowledge puffeth up; charity edifieth.” The great appointed force for all Christians, where by each believing man may attain to a full salvation, is faith; but faith works by love. Christian fidelity consists not merely in speaking the truth--you only want a hot temper to do that sometimes--but in speaking the truth in love--a very rare and a very difficult thing. In the midst of all infirmities andsufferings to have a patience that never frets and an energy that never tires, forbearing one another in love--oh, there is the calm and glow of the divinest life that can possess the soul of a man I God grant that this grace of love may abide with you, because it edifies every way and everywhere. Let it continue in the midst of the infirmities and sufferings of life. One brother is rash, another sluggish; one vain, another proud; one rude, another sensitive; one shy, another forward. Amidst all imperfections there is nothing so good and nothing so helpful as brotherly love--meek, generous, thinking no evil, seeking not its own, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. And in one way or another all have their sufferings. These sufferings are to us a great mystery; yet one feels that they furnish a grand field for the exercise of brotherly love in which to speak its kind words, do its best deeds, win its triumphs, and shine forth in all its glory. Brotherly love is also a sign of grace, and a good one. A sign of grace, I say, and a blessed sign of grace, a mark of the true Church if you try to get it and keep it. Finally, “ let brotherly love continue” until it return unto glory; for by Divine appointment it shall live in heaven and be perfect there. (John Aldis.) The duty of brotherly love 1. There is the express command of God and of Christ in regard to it. It is a permanent obligation. 2. The relationship continues, and so should the affection; the bond of brotherhood abides, and the love of the brotherhood should abide also. 3. The fountain from which it flows continues, and so also should the stream that flows from it. 4. The necessity for its cultivation continues, (1) You have need of it. (2) Your brethren have need of it; for oh, you know not how you grieve and wound them. (3) The glory of Christ and the triumphs of the gospel need it. (Thos. Main, D. D.) The preservation of brotherly love: Brotherly love is very apt to be impaired if we do not endeavour continually to preserve it. It is a part of the wisdom of faith to consider aright the occasions of the decay of mutual love, and the means of its preservation. Without this we cannot comply with this caution and injunction in a due manner. I. The CAUSES OF THE DECAY OF THIS LOVE, whence it doth not continue as it ought, are 1. Self-love. 2. Love of this present world. 3. Abounding of lusts in the hearts of men. 4. Ignorance of the true nature, both of the grace and the exercise of it, in its proper duties. 5. Principally, the loss of a concernment in the foundation of it, which is an interest in gratuitous adoption, and the participation of the same spirit, the same new nature and life. Where this is not, though conviction of truth and the profession of it may for a season make an appearance of this brotherly love, it will not long continue. II. THE OF ITS DECAY AND LOSS ARE 1. Differences in opinion and practice about things in religion. 2. Unsuitableness of natural tempers and inclinations. 3. Readiness to receive a sense of appearing provocations. 4. Different, and sometimes inconsistent secular interests. 5. An abuse of spiritual gifts, by pride on the one hand, or envy on the other. 6. Attempts for domination, inconsistent in a fraternity; which are all to be watched against. III. THE MEANS OF ITS OR ARE 1. An endeavour to grow and thrive in the principle of it, or the power of adopting grace. 2. A due sense of the weight or moment of this duty, from the especial institution and command of Christ. 3. Of the trial which is committed thereunto, of the sincerity of our grace, and the truth of our sanctification. For “ by this we know that we are passed from death unto life.” 4. A due consideration of the use, yea, necessity of this duty to the glory of God, and edification of the Church; and 5. Of that breach of union, loss of peace, disorder and confusion, which must and will ensue on the neglect of it. 6. Constant watchfulness against all those vicious habits of mind, in self-love, or love of the world, which are apt to impair it. 7. Diligent heed that it be not insensibly impaired in its vital acts; such as are patience, forbearance, readiness to forgive, unaptness to believe evil, without which no other duties of it will be long continued. 8. Fervent prayer for supplies of grace enabling us thereunto, with sundry others of a like nature. And if we judge not this duty of such importance as to be constant in the use of these means for the maintenance of it, it will not continue. (John Owen, D. D.) Christian union I. ITS NATURE. 1. Unity in sentiment. 2. Union of feeling. 3. Union of effort. II. THE OR OF UNION. 1. The teachings of Scripture. 2. The example of the early Christians. 3. The evils of division. 4. Christians are engaged in the same cause. 5. Union is strength. 6. Union is promotive of happiness. 7. It is only by the exercise of that love, which is the substratum of union, that one can resemble God, and become imbued with the spirit of heaven. (W. C. Whitcomb.) Motives to brotherly love 1. Brotherly love is a grace absolutely necessary. It is the foundation whereon all duties that have relation to the brethren are erected. 2. Brotherly love is one of the fairest and most glorious flowers in the Christian garden. It makes men amiable before God and man. It sends forth a sweet fragrant savour wheresoever it is. 3. Such is the life and vigour of brotherly love, as it puts on them in whom it is unto all duties. A stronger incitation and enforcement thereunto cannot be given. 4. So violent and irresistible is the power of love, as it will pass through all difficulties, and overthrow all obstacles. It will not be hindered from doing the good it should do. 5. Love is as salt, which infuseth a savoury and wholesome taste into such things as would otherwise be fresh and flashy. It is therefore joined with sundry other duties for this very purpose, even to season them. The apostle so far commends love in this kind, as he maketh all things unsavoury and unprofitable without it (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). He therefore giveth this general advice, “ Let-all your things be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). 6. Love hath a strong operation on others. It is a fire which heateth the things that are near it. As apprehension of God’ s love to us works love in us to God (1 John 4:19), so others’ apprehension of our love to them will make them love us. And as love puts us on to all kindness unto them, so their love of us will put them on to do all kindness unto us. David and Jonathan. 7. Love is one of the most comfortable graces that a man can have. It gives evidence to others, and brings assurance to a man’ s own soul of the love of God to him, of his right to Jesus Christ, of the Spirit’ s abode in him, and of his right to the heavenly inheritance. 8. Love is an especial means of strengthening and establishing the kingdom of Christ. It unites the subjects and members of that kingdom in one, which is a means of great stability. 9. The nearest union that is betwixt any in this world is betwixt professors of the faith, and that in their mutual relation one to another, and in the joint relation that they all have to Christ. Resemblances of the nearest relation that be, are used to set this forth, as of a foundation and edifice Ephesians 2:20-21) of a vine and branches (John 15:5), of a husband and wife (Ephesians 5:32; 2 Corinthians 11:2), of a head and body (Ephesians 1:22-23). This near union should stir us up to brotherly love; for therein we love that body which is styled Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12). 10. This world s hatred of saints should the more stir us up to love them. Christ enforceth this duty upon this ground (John 15:17-19). The world most hateth saints, and that, in this very respect, because they are saints. But brotherly love is a sovereign antidote against the poison of the world’ s hatred, and a precious cordial to revive and support the saint’ s spirits. (W. Gouge.) Brotherly love: A truly pious man, of rank in society, was in the habit of entertaining persons of very humble circumstances of life, if they only gave evidence of true religion. A friend of his, who was accustomed to measure everything according to the standard of this world, pleasantly rallied him on the subject of his associates; intimating his surprise that he should admit to his hospitality and friendship persons of so obscure origin, and of so little estimation among men. He replied, in a tone of unaffected humility, that as he could scarcely hope to enjoy so elevated a rank as they, in a future world, he knew not why he should despise them in the present. The reproof came home to the feelings of the proud man, and he was silent; conscience whispering, meanwhile, how dim were his prospects of rising in the future world to an equality with the pious poor, if his Christian friend was in danger of falling below them. Brotherly love among the early Christians A striking instance of the brotherly love of the early Christians transpired in the great plague that raged round Alexandria, during the reign of Gallienus. At the first appearance of the symptoms, the heathen drove the infected man from their sight; they tore themselves from their dearest connections; they threw their friends half-dead into the streets, and left their dead unburied. But, in contrast with this cruel selfishness, “ the Christians, in the abundance of their brotherly love,” as their Bishop Dionysius says, “ did not spare themselves, but mutually attending each other, they would visit the sick without fear, and ministering to each other for the sake of Christ, cheerfully gave up their lives with them. Many died after their care had restored others to health. Many, who took the bodies of their Christian brethren into their hands and bosoms, and closed their eyes, and buried them with every mark of attention, soon followed them in death.” Hebrews 13:2 Entertain strangers Entertaining strangers: The text derives much of its importance from the times in which it was written. They were perilous times for Christians. The disciples of Christ had often to flee to strange cities, and in entertaining some stranger, a man might find he had entertained a Christian, or had given shelter and food to a messenger or angel of the Church, and he would be more than repaid by the discourse and benediction of the wayfarer. I. SMALL DUTIES ARE OFTEN BY GREAT . Small duties, like small mercies, are often overlooked. God has scattered His gifts over life’ s pathway, we mistake them for wild flowers or mere weeds; but they yield fragrance when pressed by our worn and weary feet. Life is made up, to a great extent, of small things,--they give symmetry and beauty to character, and make up the proportions of life; they are necessary to the order of the family and the harmony of the home; their absence would soon be detected in the irregular movements of the simple machinery, or in the note of dissonance which would mar the music of life. There are numerous instances in the past, in which pity to the oppressed and the captive, kindness to the stranger, and charity to man, were enforced by great promises; by the promise oftentimes of “ living long in the land which the Lord their God had given them.” And so in the text men are to entertain strangers because some “ have entertained angels unawares.” II. OUR MAY BE AS FOR OUR SAKE AS FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE TO WHOM THEY ARE . We get, in one sense, as much good by giving, as we confer on those who receive our gifts. We are to be merciful, that thus we may imitate God. Hospitality is of importance, because it involves a genial nature,--a large, loving heart, consideration and care for man. A man who is not a lover of hospitality is in danger of living to himself, shutting up life within himself, being separate and divided from his fellows. Man is a social being, and he who would have friends “ must show himself friendly.” Apparently incidental circumstances often lead to great and unexpected results. An introduction to a stranger--an act of courtesty--a few passing words, have led to results which have influenced all the future. Men have only thought of entertaining a stranger, and they have entertained an angel. We are to do life’ s duties; we are to be generous and hospitable if no angel ever enters our tent; we are to entertain strangers, though they may never turn out to be angels. III. THE PRECEPT ENJOINS ON US AND OF HEART. Men are too much accustomed to live with men of their own class, with men who read the same books, think the same thoughts, and live the same kind of life; they do not know men out of their circle, they do not receive the benefit which results from freshness of thought, and interchange of sentiment, and deeper and warmer feeling. (H. J. Boris.) Hospitality: In hospitality these things are required: 1. That we do it frequently. One swallow makes not a spring. The receiving of a stranger once makes not a hospitable man. We must make a daily use and occupation of it. It was the continual practice of Lot and Abraham, as may appear by their behaviour. 2. It must be willingly. We must not tarry till strangers offer themselves. We must pull them in, as Abraham and Lot did. We must constrain them, as Lydia did St. Paul and Silas. 3. Cheerfully without grudging (1 Peter 4:9), we must not repine at it, speak hardly of them when they be gone. 4. Meekly; not receive them after a stately and lord-like manner; but after a meek manner, as if we were rather beholden to them, than they to us. They be the brethren of Christ, the sons of God; we are not worthy of such guests. 5. Abundantly; according to that ability wherewith God hath blessed us. If we have but a little, let them have a little, as the widow of Sarepta dealt with Elias. If we have a great portion of God’ s blessings, let them taste of them. 6. We must do it perseveringly: be not weary of well doing. Hospitality is a good thing, be not weary of it. Let thy house be open to good men all the days of thy life. But alas, this is a hard doctrine, who can abide it; we are too much wedded to the world: yea, they that make a great show of Christianity, are ready to say with Nabal,” Shall I take my bread and my water, and my flesh, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? “ Oh forget not this duty. Here he means such strangers especially as are compelled to forsake their country for the gospel’ s sake; but it is to be extended to all. It is an excellent duty, and we have many spurs to prick us to it. 1. God requires it (Isaiah 58:7). 2. We have many ensamples for it. 3. We ourselves may be strangers, therefore do as ye would be done to. 4. The want of it hath been grievously punished, it was the overthrow of the whole tribe (Judges 20:1-48.). 5. In receiving men that are strangers, we may receive angels. Preachers which be God’ s angels, nay, Christ Himself (Matthew 25:6). 6. It is gainful for this life, and that which is to come. (W. Jones, D. D.) A gracious disposition unexpectedly rewarded I. SEASONS ARE , AND MOTIVES UNTO DUTIES. And he who on such occasions will forget to receive strangers, will not long remember to retain anything of Christian religion. II. OUR HEARTS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED UNTO IN DUTIES, IF WE THEM NOT IN A TOWARDS THEM. If that be lost, no arguments will be prevalent to engage them unto present occasions. III. THAT THE MIND OUGHT TO BE ON ITS WATCH, AND IN A TOWARDS SUCH DUTIES AS ARE WITH AND CHARGE. Such as that here commanded to us, without which, we shall fail in what is required of us. IV. OF ANNEXED TO DUTIES, WHEREOF THE IS FULL, ARE GREAT MOTIVES AND TO THE SAME, OR THE LIKE DUTIES. V. FAITH WILL MAKE USE OF THE HIGHEST THAT EVER WERE ENJOYED ON THE OF DUTIES, TO UNTO , THOUGH IT EXPECTS NOT OF THE SAME KIND ON THE OF THE SAME DUTIES. VI. WHEN MEN THAT WHICH IS GOOD, DO MORE GOOD THAN THEY , SHALL OR MAY REAP MORE BENEFIT THEREBY THAN THEY . (John. Owen, D. D.) Kindness to stranger: Even in later ages of the Church, there have been fine exemplifications, personal and public, of kindness to Christian strangers. Some of the most remarkable of these belong to the age of the Reformation. The heart warms towards Frankfort and Geneva, in the memory of the hospitable shelter which those venerable cities gave at that eventful epoch, to so many of our English and Scottish exiles. And not a few evangelical Protestants on the Continent of Europe now delight to extend their humble hospitality to British Christians whom an interest in “ the common faith,” or even a less sacred motive, may have carried to their shores. (D. S. Patterson.) A genius for kindness: “ There is a man,” said his neighbour, speaking of a village carpenter, “ who has done more good, I really believe, in this community than any other person who ever lived in it. He cannot talk very well in prayer-meetings, and he doesn’ t very often try. He isn’ t worth two thousand dollars, and it’ s very little that he can put down on subscription papers for any good object. But a new family never moves into the village that he does not find them out, to give them a neighbourly welcome and offer any little service he can render. He is usually on the lookout to give strangers a seat in his pew at church. He is always ready to watch with a sick neighbour, and look after his affairs for him; and I’ ve sometimes thought he and his wife keep house plants in winter just for the sake of being able to send little bouquets to invalids. He finds time for a pleasant word for every child he meets, and you’ ll always see them climbing into his one-horse waggon when he has no other load. He really seems to have a genius for helping folks in all sorts of common ways, and it does me good every day just to meet him on the streets.” (Baxendale’ s Anecdotes.) Entertained angels unawares Strangers may be angels I. Strange PERSONS may often turn out to be “ angels.” 1. It may be so with the “ stranger” who enters our household. 2. It may be so with the “ stranger” in our neighbourhood. 3. It may be so with the “ stranger” in our church. 4. It may be so with the “ stranger” in our country. Treat all men with generousness and goodwill, and you may perhaps find angelic things within them. II. Strange THINGS may often turn out to be “ angels.” 1. A “ strange” truth may turn out to be an “ angel,” solving difficulties, enfranchising the intellect, and making the horizon of the soul beam brightly with unearthly stars. 2. A “ strange” trial may turn out to be an “ angel.” Adversity, disease, bereavement, may prove blessings in disguise. 3. A “ strange” charity may turn out to be an “ angel.” “ It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Homilist.) Angel visits: There is no reason for thinking that under the Christian dispensation angelic beings ever assume a visible form, though we have nevertheless the comforting assurance that they are all “ ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be the heirs of salvation.” But the visit might be like that of an angel, inasmuch as the visitor might bring rich intelligence as to the glorious things of the invisible world. What is there to prevent God from enabling one of our fellow-men to discourse to us so exquisitely on the deep things of our faith and the beautiful and harmonious things of heaven, that the effect shall be literally the same as though He had commissioned a cherub or a seraph to take human form and speak in human speech? We will give you as nearly as we may the scene which was likely to occur in the early days of the Church, and which, with due allowance made for change in circumstances, might occur in our own. We suppose a Christian family gathered round their fireside in times when the profession of Christianity exposed to persecution. They are themselves almost dreading the coming of the inquisitor, and they are startled by that knock at their door, fancying that it may proceed from some minister of cruelty; but there is only an aged wanderer who solicits admission, and the storm pleads for him as eloquently as his grey hairs. Shall he be refused?” It is not unlikely that he is some poor victim whom the dogs of persecution are hunting down. If we admit him, he may be tracked to this house, and then, without being able to shield him, we shall be ruined ourselves.” But the master of that house is too staunch a character to be deterred from duty by the fear of consequences. Simply reminding his family of the precept--“ Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,” he opens his door, and bids the old man welcome in the name of the Lord; and the stranger, whilst partaking the proffered hospitality, enters into conversation, and, finding that they are Christians who have so kindly received him, seeks to recompense the kindness by discoursing on Christianity, and he pours forth all the treasures of his experience, and enlarges on the mysteries of redemption. He is one who has thought deeply and felt deeply; and as he dilates on the love of God in sending His own dear Son, and explains the blessed and marvellous manner in which the provisions of the gospel meet the wants of fallen creatures, or speaks thrillingly of “ the exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” for which the trials of life are only a preparation, every eye is fast rivetted upon him, and his voice falls on every ear as some unearthly sound; but most sweet and most musical in its unearthliness. Is there any reason whatsoever why this might not occur, why it might not happen in any age of the Church, though more likely when persecution had caused the excellent of the earth, like the Master whom they served, to have not where to lay the head? And when the old man, wearied by his own high stretchings into mysteries and glories, had sunk to repose, would not the amazed and delighted family say, one to another, as the disciples who had journeyed to Emmaus, “ Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? “ Would not their feeling be as though they had received into their circle the inhabitant of a better world, known, not indeed by the wing of light and the eye of fire; but by wisdom drawn from gazing upon God; and would they not exclaim, “ Oh! well hath the apostle followed up his precept, ‘ Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,’ by saying, ‘ for thereby some have entertained angels unawares’” ? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Angels as strangers: We often mistake the dispensations of God’ s providence. They come to us as angels veiled in sadness, or in strange forms; we think they are enemies, and wrestle with them; in the darkness, the struggle goes on,--we want our way, it is not till they touch us and teach us their Divine character; it is not till the day begins to break, that we find we are in the presence of God’ s messengers. We learn that we have wrestled with an angel, and then we seek to detain him, and earnestly ask for a blessing. Sorrow comes unbidden, unwelcomed; it takes its place at our fireside, sits at our table; its presence casts a shadow on us; but when we allow it to commune with us, when it touches us, our life seems changed, our thoughts and affections are transfigured. Death comes over our threshold, into our home; and life is never more the same. It reads us some lesson out of the black-letter book of God’ s providence. The lesson we bear in tears, but we never more forget it. “ We confess that we are strangers and sojourners here.” We begin to think of leaving this tent. “ We declare plainly that we seek a better country.” Death, so dreaded by us, acts in his ministrations only as an angel, who takes our loved ones into the everlasting home of the heavens. (H. J. Bevis.) Hospitality rewarded Jupiter and Mercury once visited a village, and, disguised in human form, sought entertainment, but in vain, till they came to the thatched cottage of the aged Baucis and Philemon. Before the strangers was spread the best the place afforded, with careful attention. The unwasted wine revealed to them the gods to whom they would have sacrificed. “ This inhospitable village shall pay the penalty of its impiety. You shall be free. Come with us to the top of yonder hill,” said the gods. They obeyed, and beheld the country around sink into a lake, while their own house grew into a magnificent temple, in which they served as priests until transformed together. (New Cyclopedia of Illustrations.) Entertaining a prince unawares: During the Prince of Wales’ s stay at Torquay he has walked or driven to many of the numerous points of beauty or interest with which the coast abounds. It is related that on Friday the Prince landed at Babbicombe Bay, and after exploring its charms, in company with Captain Stephcnson and Lord Hastings, the trio betook themselves to an adjacent tea garden, and ordered refreshment. The establishment, however, is chiefly frequented by visitors who bring their own provisions, and was unprovided with any but very homely fare. A lady who was taking tea with friends in an adjoining arbour, overheard the colloquy to which the request gave rise, and courteously placed at the disposal of the gentlemen a portion of her provisions, including, of course, Devonshire cream, tea and cakes. The offer was accepted, and, the lady’ s creature comforts having been freely partaken of, the recipients, the Prince especially, were warm in their acknowledgments of this display of courtesy to strangers. It was not until after they had departed that the lady became aware that she had entertained a prince unawares. (Western Times.) Hebrews 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them Sympathy Reverence is the spirit of the Christian towards that which is above him, and sympathy is his spirit towards that which is about him. That which is above is summed up in God; that which is about us is summed up in man. We speak of sympathy as a feeling for others, where it is in the fullest sense of the phrase a feeling with others. Sympathy is not from without, not from above, as of one who looks afar off upon some object which moves his pity, but it is from within, and reaches to our whole being. He who really sympathises has in the true language of the heart entered into the feelings of another and made them his own. That which moves him belongs not to a stranger but to himself; he has mastered so far the secret of a true communion of life. And then, for the most part, and very naturally, we understand by sympathy a fellowship in suffering. We are most conscious of our need in moments of sorrow, and in such moments we can most recognise how much we owe to those who help us. But sympathy does not find scope in suffering only or even chiefly. It is co-extensive with human emotion and human experience. No doubt the service of sympathy costs us something. We must bear and feel the burden which we remove. The wonders of Christ’ s infinite compassion were indeed triumphs of human love rather than of Divine authority, and as we study them we dimly discern with something of trembling awe what is meant by “ the power of His resurrection” and “ the fellowship of His sufferings” ; how it is through pain and seeming loss and death that we gain, in Him, for others and for ourselves, the blessings of life. The service of sympathy does cost us something, but it brings abundant compensation. St. Paul has told us the secret of his unmatched influence: “ I became all things to all men.” His influence flowed, that is, from his sympathy, and the transformation wrought in him by sympathy was a reality and not a superficial imitation. It is always so. Just as the great poet lives in the characters which he creates, so the great teacher makes himself the true fellow of his scholars; he regards things with their eyes, he reflects on them with their thoughts; he offers his lessons to them in the form which answers to their condition; he wins to them a larger knowledge because he enables them to see how the new grows from the old, guards their peculiar treasures, and makes these also tributary to the interpretation of his messages. As it is with the great teacher, so it is with the great leader. He who sways men must be one with them, however far removed by his personal gifts. For sympathy is not the communion of like with like, but the power of uniting things different in the embrace of a greater life. Sympathy, therefore, preserves these small differences answering to our individuality, on which the beauty of the whole order of things depends. It does not only give; it receives. He who enters into the feelings of others becomes partaker of their energy. It does not only offer; it claims. He who is seen to sacrifice himself freely for the service of another, can justly demand in return a service corresponding to his own. And both aspects of its working must be observed carefully. Till we have called out the response of action we have not attained the object of our efforts; till we have sunk ourselves in those we wish to help, we have not measured the full extent of our power, for all experience tends to show that self-surrender is the gauge of power. It cannot be otherwise, for self-surrender is the gauge of faith. It is the soul’ s answer to the voice which calls us to become fellow-workers with God. That voice too often is unheard, and “ when we consider our worst failures and disappointments, we must confess that words which are constantly on our lips express most truly how they have been brought to pass. Even in our highest purposes “ we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,” we have pursued our ends in our own manner, we have fashioned them according to our own fancies, we have placed our own things and not the things of others in the forefront, we have not used the way of sympathy. So we have gained no entrance to the hearts of those whom we sought, and we have been cast down by the conviction of our weakness. Perhaps during that conviction we have recognised what we needed and found encouragement. For sympathy, which is the source of influence, is also the source of strength. In isolation there can be no experience of the highest human forces. It is through contact with our fellows that we feel the majesty of truth and righteousness. As we move among men, we see that our own best thoughts are shared by others, and we are invigorated by their silent support. Thus common testimony tells us that God is on our side. He has not left us desolate. He Himself works among us by His gifts, and they who have them are said to be ministers of His loving wisdom, trusting not to their own power but to His, confident not in their own foresight but in His sovereign will. So it is that as soon as we see this social destination of our several endowments, sympathy enriches us with the manifold resources of all through whom God is working. We draw strength from the very burdens which we have to bear. (Bp. Westcott.) Christian sympathy: There are, as we think, two very different, but both highly important principles here asserted: the principle of fellowship, and the principle of forethought. That of fellowship, for we are to feel as though bound with them in bonds: that of forethought, for we are to remember that we ourselves are also in the body, and therefore exposed to the adversities which claim our sympathy in others. Or to expound our text by the motive rather than the principle it puts forth, there are here two reasons or inducements suggested by the apostle, why Christians should be earnest in works of Christian love; the one is derived from their intimate connection with the suffering, the other from their own liability to similar visitations. I. St. Paul may here be said to go even beyond what he has laid down in Romans 12:15. He requires something more than sympathy as commonly understood. One man is said to sympathise with another, who is pained when and because theft other is pained: and sympathy, as thus understood, is little more than pity or commiseration. But to suffer with another, which is actually to sympathise, goes much beyond the weeping with another; it is making the griefs of that other mine own, so that the wound is in my heart as well as in his. The members of one family actually sympathise and suffer themselves, when death has come in and snatched away one from their circle; the loss is a common loss, attecting all equally, and the sorrow of each is literally the sorrow of every other. According to the Scriptural idea Christians constitute but one body, the mystical body of Christ; and if this be the application of the acknowledged principle, that “ if one member suffer all the members suffer with it,” it follows that every Christian, in the measure which he has attained towards perfection, would seem to bear in his own person the very sufferings, and to receive in his own person the very blessings allotted to those who have like precious faith with himself. And when we think how deficient we are even in such sympathy as is generally understood by the world, and which would result from universal brotherhood, we may well be staggered at finding, that the Christian standard is yet vastly higher, and that universal brotherhood would be but a stage towards universal membership. But what an image does it give us of the condition of the world, to suppose all men actuated by the consciousness of being members one of another. Beyond nature, we confess it, but not beyond grace; and the Christian is not to be content, until in relieving the distressed lie can feel that he acts on the great principle of membership. He must see to it, that he has part in the bearing, as well as in the relieving the calamity. His relieving is to be the result of his bearing; he is to relieve, that is, as one who is relieving himself, with all that activity and all that perseverance which our own personal interests are sure to elicit. II. St. Paul descends to a lower and yet not wholly different ground: he descends from Christian membership, and takes his position on that of our own exposure to misfortunes. “ As being yourselves also in the body!” What an amount of motive is gathered into these simple words! It has been one of the natural, and, we might almost say, necessary consequences on the combination of men into societies, presenting almost every possible variety of condition and circumstances, that there has been a comparative losing sight of the equal liability of all, to the several ills to which flesh is heir. It is very difficult not to fancy that the man of large ancestral revenues has an exemption from the contingencies and changes of want, which beset the poor peasant that tills one of its fields. It might sound to him as a threat, whether of ignorance or insult, that it should thus be implied, that notwithstanding all his state, and all his abundance, he might come to want the morsel which we ask him to bestow. And, of course, it does need a very thorough and practical recognition of the truth, that “ The earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof,” to be able to put aside all the appearances of security and independence, which hoarded wealth furnishes, and to view in every man, whatsoever his circumstances, a pensioner on the bounty of that omnipotent Parent, who “ openeth His hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing.” I would rather have the security against want, which the meanest of our villagers enjoys, whose daily bread is the subject of daily prayer and daily toil, than that of the foremost of our capitalists, who in any way gives indulgence to the sentiment of the rich man in the parable; “ Soul, thou hast goods laid up for many years.” The one, indeed, has a security--the security of a prayerful dependence on God; whereas the other has no security whatever, but lies exposed to the peril of being punished for presumption. And it matters not to us, what may be the worhtly circumstances of any, nor how far they may seem to remove him from liability to poverty. If he be a man, he may come to be a starving man; and that, too, without any of those explicable occurrences and reverses, which seem to mark God’ s special interference to bring round an unlooked-for catastrophe. There ought, therefore, to be to him as much cogency as to the man whose property seems jeopardised, in the motive of being himself in the body, when it is for the relief of the actually destitute that we appeal to his bounty. And this is, perhaps, the only case in which there is even the appearance of exemption from liability to the misfortunes with which we see others oppressed. It cannot be said that any one form of sorrow is appropriated to this class of men, and warded off from that; all are accessible through the same channels, and all are capable of the same ills. And is there not in consequence the greatest cogency, whosoever be the party addressed and whatsoever the affliction which asks to be remembered, in the motive of being in the body? It is the enlisting of selfishness on the side of the afflicted, and calling on us to be merciful if we would have mercy ourselves. Inexpressibly bitter would it be if living to be oppressed and deserted ourselves and to ask in vain for succour and for sympathy, we should have to remember how in our own sunshine we had cared nothing for those over whom darkness had gathered, and to feel that we were but reaping the harvest of which our own want of charity had sown all the seeds. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The fellow of suffering: We feel our own burdens distinctly enough and our own limitations and sorrows. Now if we felt those of other people a tenth part as distinctly, we could do almost anything with them and for them. To Christ other people were real: just as real as He. God was interested in men because to Him they were lovable. “ God so loved the world” ; that was where redemption began. And it was not a general, diffusive kind of thing, His love was not. It was not like some great sea of translucent fog which sometimes inundates our city of a warm morning, which only has a kind of general reference to everything and no particular reference to anything. His love was rather like a sunbeam, which drops down ninety million miles upon one specific grass-blade, into one particular bird’ s eye. People, indeed, are interesting as soon as we get near enough to them to feel that they are people, not things, and as soon as we get far enough into the secret of their life to discover its workings, its difficulties, its disappointments, its ambitions, its defeats, its penitences, its remorses. I believe we would love everybody we came near to if we realised what a hard time they are having. No two people would ever quarrel if they could be each other for a little while. “ If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’ s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” Then, besides that, if we could feel the sorrow and suffering that is in a man’ s life, no matter how wicked or degraded he might be, his degradation would be no barrier to kindly regard for him. If we came near enough to a bad man’ s history to understand it, to see how unfortunate influences tell upon him, what susceptibilities to evil were in him, entirely independent of any choice of his own in the matter, we should find that circumstances were what made a large:part of the mischief, and that the poor fellow has had just as hard and sad a time in keeping from being worse than he is, as we have had in keeping from being worse than we are. We are sometimes surprised that Christ, who as we are told “ knew what was in man,” nevertheless was able to love man, to love all men. But that was exactly the reason why He was able. Tragedy is all about us--a good deal more tragedy than comedy; and any life becomes inter-resting as soon as, with a key wrought out of love, you unlock it and begin so to be yourself closeted on the inside of it as to feel yourself somehow involved in it, and all its difficulties to be your difficulties, and all its weaknesses and sins even to be so taken upon yourself that you commence to feel the burden of them as your burden. That is what Christ did. That is the meaning of His life; that is the distinctive quality in His redemptive work. He carried people. By becoming like them He helped them to become like Him. And as Christ can do this for each of us, because in His loving way He so perfectly understands all the ins and outs of each of us, so we, in order to make our own lives redemptive in another’ s behalf, have to make a distinct and affectionate problem of his life, get on to the interior side of it, discover the impulses that play in it, the history that lies back of it, the circumstances that encompass and dominate it. These things quicken in interest as we go on. If you have commenced to read a book, and some one says to you, “ Do you like it?” you will very probably answer, “ I can hardly say, for I have not yet got fairly into it.” So the characters and lives of people only then begin to be interesting, when we have fairly got into them. They are then sure to be of interest, even when we treat them merely as problems to be mentally solved; how much more when we bring to them a heart fraught with personal regard and Christian sympathy. It is in this way, then, that people must be saved and lifted. I do not believe we are going to solve the problem of city and country evangelisation till we get over lumping people. When, at this season of the year, you look up into the sky of an evening, you discern a nebulous belt of light, an indiscriminate mass of stars, lying up and down the sky like a vast white cosmic rainbow. Now, telescopes, as they are directed to that great nebulae, are showing themselves competent to crumble up that mass of stellar uncertainty into myriads of little diamond-like stellar individualities, and as, year by year, the penetrating powers of telescopes are increased, this crumbling, individualising process goes steadily on, so that now we do not any longer think of the Milky Way as a mass of star stuff, but as a host of brilliant worlds, each as distinct from the rest, and as complete in itself as our own great sun, which is indeed thought to be one single flaming member of that superb host. Now, what lenses of enhanced power do for the human eye in the way of splitting up a world of filmy splendour into keen-edged points of individual light and lustre, the same thing love does for human discernment when exercised upon the mass of humanity by which, in a great city, we are environed. It crumbles the mass up into glittering individualities, each a little distinct personal world all in himself. When the sun melts the snow in the spring it tackles each little snow crystal by itself. Each sunbeam picks out its own crystal and turns it into a tear, and so is able to do a great deal in its little way and saves itself the embarrassment and weariness of thinking how many flakes there are that it can never reach; and the snow goes off. How much better that is than it would be for the sunbeams to spend all their time holding conventions in order to devise means for melting the masses of snow. The next thing, therefore, for you and me to do, is to go into the Snow-bank, if we have not already done so, and pick out our particular snow crystal, and commence melting it. (C. H.Parkhurst, D. D.) Sympathy not scared by suffering Sympathy for each other in suffering is not confined to mankind. “ There is one trait,” says Mr. Jesse, “ in the character of rooks, which is, I believe, peculiar to that sort of bird, and which does them no little credit. It is the distress which they exhibit when one of them has been killed or wounded by a gun while they have been feeding in a field or flying over it. Instead of being scared away by the report of the gun, leaving their wounded or dead companion to his fate, they show the greatest anxiety or sympathy for him, uttering cries of distress, and plainly proving that they wish to render him assistance, by hovering over him, or sometimes making a dart from the air close up to him, apparently to try and find out the reason why he did not follow them ‘ While circling round and round, They call their lifeless comrade from the ground.’ If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the rooks appear to animate him to make fresh exertions by incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to follow them.” (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) Remembering the needs of others: In one of Dickens’ s letters referring to a notice of Tom Hood’ s book which he had written for the Examiner, he says: “ Rather poor, but I have not said so, because Hood is poor too, and ill besides.” (H. O. Mackey.) Value of sympathy: Every man rejoices twice when he has a partner of his joy; a friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but he swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets, and make it fordable and apt to be drunk up by the first revels of the Syrian Star; but two torches do not divide but increase the flame; and though my tears are the sooner dried up, when they run on my friend’ s cheeks in the furrows of compassion, yet when my flame hath killed his lamp, we unite the glories and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God, because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy. (Bp. Taylor.) Nature of sympathy: It is by sympathy we enter into the concerns of ethers, that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do or suffer. For sympathy may be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as he is affected. (E. Burke.) Practical sympathy: We must not make too much of sympathy, as mere feeling … We praise feeling and praise its possessor. But feeling is only a sickly exotic in itself--a passive quality, having in it nothing moral, no temptation, and no victory. A man is no more a good man for having feeling, than he is for having a delicate ear for music, or a far-seeing optic nerve. The Son of Man had feeling--He could be “ touched.” The tear would start from His eyes at the sight of human sorrow. But that sympathy was no exotic in His soul, beautiful to look at, too delicate for use. Feeling with Him led to this, “ He went about doing good.” Sympathy with Him was this, “ Grace to help in time of need.” (F. W. Robertson.) Helpful sympathy self-remunerative: It is said of the saintly George Herbert, the quaint old English church poet, that once in a walk to Salisbury, to join a musical party, he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fallen under his load. They were both in distress and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and afterwards load his horse. The poor man blessed him for it and he blessed the poor man, and was so like the Good Samaritan, that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse. Thus he left the poor man; and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder that Mr. Herbert, who used to be trim and clean, so soiled and discomposed. But he told them the occasion; and when one of the company told him “ he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment,” his answer was, “ that the thought of what he had done would prove music to him at midnight, and that the omission of it would have upbraided and made discord in his conscience whensoever he should pass by that place; for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practise what I pray for; and let me tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul, or showing mercy, and bless God for this occasion.” Oh, how many might have anxious thoughts which often infest their midnight hours changed into sweet music, if they would only be more frequently seen with full hands and friendly words in the abodes of poverty and suffering! These are the places in which to attune one’ s conscience to midnight harmonies. Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honourable Marriage: It is not to be denied that marriage hath its proper inconveniences. There are peculiar cares and hindrances belonging to it. For the new relations that are acquired by it, as those of husband and wife, father and mother, master and mistress, are attended with peculiar crosses and troubles. But then it is to be considered that there is no condition of life whatsoever without inconveniences, and particularly celibacy is a great trouble of itself; it is comfortless and unarmed, exposed to hazards, and beset with dangerous temptations. But the state of wedlock, if it be wisely entered into, hath a natural tendency to a happy way of living, as it is conducing to order and government, to industry and diligence, to frugality, to stability, and to a care for futurity. It is best for the good of mankind, for the uses of human life, for the interest of the universe, and the welfare of Christian societies. But there have been always some in the world that have remonstrated against this state of life, and these are of two sorts--the religious and the witty; that is, those who would be thought to be such. Saturnius, a professed gnostic, held that marriage was of the devil, as Iremeus relates, and most of that sect cried it down as a cursed and diabolical thing. The Marcionites, the Montanists, and the Manicheans declared it to be unlawful. The Hierachites held that marriage excluded from heaven, and they admitted none but single persons into their communion. But here by the way we are to note, that the gnostics and some others, who were very fierce against marrying, practised promiscuous lust. It is an honour then to this state that it is doomed by such. Some make use of the Holy Scripture to patronise this cause; and the chief place which they allege Isaiah 1 Corinthians 7:1. We are to know, then, that when the apostle lived the times were perilous, and persecution was the allotment of the faithful Christians; and therefore that was an unfit season for embracing a conjugal life. We see then that the authority of the apostle is made use of to no purpose, because it is wholly misunderstood. Of which we cannot but be convinced, when we find in this very chapter a positive license given to the Christians to change their condition, if they saw occasion for it, and were willing to venture on the dangers which attended matrimony. “ But if thou marry,” saith he, “ thou hast not sinned” (verse 28). There is no absolute unlawfulness in doing so. And he condemned those heretics that taught otherwise, forbidding to marry (1 Timothy 4:3). But the witty people are another sort of men, that affect to rally upon marriage; and that they may have a full shock at it, they except against the other sex itself. The Jewish Rabbins think themselves great wits in jeering the sex for their restless tongues and false tears, as we frequently find in their writings. Nay, they are so virulent as to publish to the world, that the honestest woman on earth is a witch, and given to enchantment and sorcery. The Arabians vote all married persons to be fools in that proverb of theirs, “ If all men were wise” (that is, if they would abstain from marriage) “ the world would soon be at an end.” Even some men of gravity cannot abstain from inveighing against the sex, as such Cato often said that “ if the world was without women, the gods would come down and converse with men; but whilst those are here, these will never visit us.” Yea, Chrysostom, the celebrated father of the Greek Church, the famous pulpit orator, made a sermon in the dispraise of all women, and tells us that matrimony in its own nature is a sin, only by Divine permission it is excusable. In brief, he is reckoned the wittiest man that is most dexterous in defaming of women, though at the same time he defames himself. Whatever prejudiced, fanciful men may suggest, we are sure the apostle is in the right, and utters an incontestible truth, “ Marriage is honourable in all.” The married state is not only lawful, but noble, appointed by God, and of Divine institution. It was first ordained in Paradise, in the state of innocency (Genesis 2:18). This gives repute and authority to wedlock, and renders it commendable. And it hath been always esteemed as such by those who have a reverence for God’ s ordinance. It is observable that our Saviour Himself honoured marriage with His first miracle, gracing the solemnity by turning water into wine. Here I may take notice of the high esteem some nations have had of a married life, and how concerned they were that men should not always be single. Among the Lacedemonians there were actions brought against men for not marrying, and for marrying late; and those that lived unmarried were infamous among that people by the law. There were penalties among the Romans inflicted on those that refused to marry after such a term of years, as Tacitus and the Code testify. Every one is bound to embrace matrimony at twenty-five years of age by the Alcoran. The Tartars think this so good and excellent a thing, that they believe their god Matagai hath a wife and children. And if their sons and daughters die before they are at age, they celebrate a marriage between parties thus deceased, that they may be man and wife in the other world. Though this is very gross indeed, and is a sign they are unacquainted with what our Saviour said, “ In heaven they neither marry, nor are given in marriage” ; yet it shows what respect and esteem these people have for the state of wedlock, and how congruous it is to the natural reason and sentiments of mankind. 1. Marriage must be with great deliberation. There is no undertaking of man’ s life that doth more require freedom of thought and choice than this doth. Plato would have no man marry before thirty, nor Aristotle before thirty-five years of age, designing thereby not peremptorily to confine persons to that computation, but to warn them against a precipitant changing of their state, and to put them in mind of acting very cautiously in this affair. Nor should they only weigh and consider the matter themselves, but apply to their friends, but especially their parents, for their advice and counsel. 2. Marry not merely for money or estate. This is the prevailing fault of men, as well as women, they court the estate rather than the person who hath it; they may be said to wed the lands and money, not the possessor. A wife is put to sale, and marriage is a mere bargain. 3. Let not the man marry the woman merely for beauty, or finery, for feature, for dress, which latter is the body’ s artificial beauty. 4. Marry not a woman merely on the account of her wit, learning, or parts. Arts and sciences are not the proper talent of that sex. 5. Though you are not to marry merely for money, beauty, or wit, yet never marry one that is poor, or deformed, or a fool. A single life with indigency may be endured, but that and wedlock together are a double misery. If you be not able with your own estate and way of living to maintain a wife, never take one that hath none. Again, choose not one whose deformity is very conspicuous and remarkable, unless some extraordinary qualities and perfections compound for it, lest you should be tempted afterwards to change the object of your sight, and look upon others as more acceptable. Wherefore make choice of one who hath competent comeliness, or who by modesty mends her countenance, and gives it a beauty by blushes. Mate such a one as we know is mistress of those accomplishments and graces which are not liable to be impaired by any accidents whatsoever, that so we may ever find that in her which deserves our love. Lastly, methinks that there should be no need of advising a man or woman not to marry one that is noted for folly and weakness, for this too plainly shows that they themselves are liable to the same imputation. 6. Above all things make choice of a virtuous person, one that fears God, one whose mind is endued with a deep sense of religion, and whose conversation is regular and upright. All the aforesaid qualifications must give place to this, and without this they are mean and inconsiderable, and of no real value. 7. Next to religion good nature is to be prized most. This contains in it a peaceable and quiet temper, a sweet disposition, an obliging and winning carriage, free from all extravagant passion, wrath, and bitterness. Else a man, in a worse sense than the Duke of Venice, marries the Adriatic, is espoused to waves and storms. 8. Be careful to marry one suitable to you; suitable in age, birth, and humour. Such a one will be truly a meet-help. 9. Be well satisfied of one another’ s love, chastity, and faithfulness, and increase and nourish them by all means. A wife, as Sir Thomas Overbury rightly saith, is an abbreviature of all the rest of the sex: to her husband she must be (as Eve was) all the world of womankind. 10. Let it never be known which of them is superior. Always divide and share your power. 11. Begin and proceed in the conjugal state with prayer and great devotion, and all acts of religion and piety. (J. Edwards, D. D.) Marriage honourable I. DIVINE IS TO RENDER ANY STATE OR OF LIFE . II. THE MORE USEFUL ANY STATE OF LIFE IS, THE MORE IT IS. The honour of marriage arises much from its usefulness. III. THAT WHICH IS BY DIVINE , AND USEFUL IN ITS OWN NATURE, MAY BE ABUSED AND VILE BY THE OF MEN; as marriage may be. IV. IT IS A BOLD OF OVER THE OF MEN, AND A OF THE OF GOD, TO FORBID THAT STATE UNTO ANY, WHICH GOD HATH AMONG ALL. V. MEANS FOR PURITY AND , NOT , BLESSED, NOR UNTO THAT END, WILL PROVE OF AND , OR OF WORSE EVILS. VI. The state of marriage being honourable in the sight of God Himself, IT IS THE DUTY OF THEM THAT ENTER DULY TO HOW THEY MAY APPROVE THEIR UNTO GOD IN WHAT THEY DO. VII. IN THE STATE OF THERE IS OF MEN A DUE OF THEIR CALL UNTO IT, OF THEIR ENDS IN IT, THAT THEY ARE THOSE OF GOD’ S ; prayer for, and expectation of His blessing on it; reverence of Him as the great witness of the marriage covenant; with wisdom to undergo the trials and temptations inseparable from this state of life. VIII. LIGHT MEN MAY HAVE OF SIN, OF ANY SIN, THE OF GOD ALL SIN, WHICH IS TO TRUTH, MUST STAND FOR EVER. TO have slight thoughts of sin will prove no relief unto sinners. IX. AND ARE SINS IN THEIR OWN NATURE, ETERNAL . If the due wages of all sin be death, much more is it so of so great abomination. X. ALL OF, ALL LEADING UNTO THESE SINS, ARE TO BE AVOIDED, AS WE TAKE CARE OF OUR SOULS. (Joliet Owen, D. D.) Whoremongers and adulterers Whoremongers and adulterers I. WHO ARE UNDER THIS . Every person will at once perceive that all who live in common fornication, or who defile the marriage-bed, are evidently comprehended in this description. Let those then tremble, and know that this is their true state and name, who, though they disdain the open and more notorious commerce, yet secretly beguile the innocent and unwary, and become the agents of Satan in the ruin of others. Neither let those deceive themselves who, though they may not traverse the ranges of unbounded lust, yet keep up a cursed league with some particular person with whom they live in a state of fornication or adultery; let them not flatter themselves with an idea that this is a small matter, or shelter themselves under the fashion or the opinion of the times; God is not ruled by caprice or fashion, nor does His eternal standard of rectitude and good vary with human desires or modes of action. II. THE OF THE WORD OF GOD AGAINST THIS SIN. 1. God has directly and expressly forbidden it in His Divine law. “ Thou shalt not commit adultery” is the seventh of those commandments which stand in the sacred decalogue, as the injunctions of God to mankind. And that every avenue to this sin may be stopped, and His holy displeasure against it plainly testified, He has again enforced it by taking a part of it into the tenth commandment: “ Thou shalt not so much as covet thy neighbour’ s wife.” Nor is this law any matter of Jewish obligation only, but equally incumbent upon us; for our Lord Himself in Matthew 5:1-48. enjoins this command in a very peculiar manner, and through the whole of the New Testament it is abundantly charged and enforced (1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:2-8; Ephesians 4:19-20; Ephesians 5:3-5). 2. We may learn God’ s hatred and displeasure against these sins from the odious and alarming description given of them in the Scriptures. The author of the Book of Proverbs is peculiarly diligent in endeavouring to lay before the thoughtless sinner the snares and delusive temptations which draw men into these evils, as well as the miserable and fatal consequences which attend them. The sixth and seventh chapters are almost entirely taken up with this subject, and part of the second and ninth is employed to the same purpose. Now we must remember that it is the intention of the sacred writers in setting these things thus before us to imprint the same odious image of them on our hearts, that we may know their nature, and flee their practice. Happy if it might but thus succeed! 3. I shall, in the next place, call your attention to the dreadful threatenings which the Word of God denounces against impure sinners. This sin is declared in the Scriptures as the cause of God’ s controversy with nations and with individuals (Hosea 4:1-3). And Jeremiah (chap. 5.) represents God as ready to give His people up, and to forbid His prophets to reprove them any more. His mercy and forgiveness seem to put, as it were, to a stand. And in 1 Corinthians 3:1-23., when the apostle had represented this sin as a defilement of the body, which is the Temple of God, he adds this awful word, “ If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is (or ought to be) holy,” and not made a nest of unclean lusts. St. John, in the Book of the Revelation, declares the doom of whoremongers to be with the rest of notorious sinners, in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. How impiously bold then are those sinners who dare all these terrors for the gratification of a base lust! To such as have been entangled with this sin, and have a real desire to be delivered from it (as well as to those who are anxious to secure their modesty and virtue), I would suggest a few considerations. (1) Seek for a spirit of true and hearty repentance for all the uncleanness of which you have been guilty before God; rest not in a mere wishing you had been more wise, or a dislike of your conduct from prudential maxims; but seek to God to give you true repentance by the grace of His Holy Spirit. (2) Be ever upon your guard against the first appearance of this evil. Keep at a distance from the tempter. If you would be kept from harm, keep out of harm’ s way. And this caution must be observed, not only respecting any particular person, but also the places and other occasions which may tempt you to sin. (3) Let sinners of this kind think much of death and hell. (4) Apply daily to the mercy-seat for the Divine aid. In the blood of Christ there is virtue to wash away the foulest guilt; in His grace there is sufficiency of power to subdue the most raging sins. (J. King, B. A.) Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness Covetousness I. Covetousness in life SHOULD BE AVOIDED. 1. Unnatural. 2. Immoral. 3. Pernicious. II. Covetousness in life WITH . It is in the heart like the tide in the sea, allowing no rest. III. Covetousness in life is WITH IN GOD. (Homilist.) The heinousness of covetousness 1. It is a deceiving sin. It blinds the understanding and corrupts the judgment in a main point of happiness; for the covetous man maketh “ gold his hope, and fine gold his confidence” (Job 31:24). 2. It is an insatiable sin (Ecclesiastes 5:10). In this respect covetousness is like a dropsy which increaseth thirst by much drinking; and like a fire which by addition of fuel is the more fierce. The desire of a covetous man ariseth from abundance; and in that respect is unnatural; for nature is satisfied with sufficiency. Hunger and thirst cease when a man hath eaten and drunk that which is sufficient. 3. It is a galling sin. It works a continual vexation, and takes away all the comforts of this life (1 Timothy 6:10). There is a threefold woe that accompanieth covetousness. (1) A woe of labour in getting wealth. (2) A woe of trouble in keeping it. (3) A woe of anguish in parting with it. Nothing makes death more unwelcome than a covetous desire of the things of this world. 4. It is an ensnaring sin (1 Timothy 6:9). Wealth as it is a bait to allure men to snap thereat, so it is a snare fast to hold them, and a hook to pull them down to perdition (Mark 10:23; Luke 14:18-19). It keeps many from the Word, yea, it steals away the heart of those that come to the Ezekiel 33:31). 5. It is a mother sin (1 Timothy 6:10). Fitly therefore doth the prophet thus style it evil covetousness (Habakkuk 2:9). There is no evil which a covetous man will forbear. It is a root of impiety. It draws the heart from God: so as there can be no true love nor fear of God in a covetous heart. For gain he will profane the Sabbath. It makes inferiors purloin from their superiors, and superiors to neglect their inferiors. It is a cause of much rebellion, of many treasons, murders, thefts, deceit, lying, false witness, and what not! 6. It is a growing sin. The longer men live in the world the more covetous they use to be after the world. Old men are commonly the most covetous. Herein it differeth from other violent sins, which by age abate in their violence. 7. It is a devouring sin (Matthew 13:22). 8. Iris a crying sin. The cries of them which are oppressed by covetous persons enter into the ears of the Lord. Hereupon an apostle bids them weep and howl (James 5:1). Covetousness causeth a curse from man and God. “ He that withholdeth corn the people shall curse him.” As for God’ s curse, “ the wrath of God cometh upon men because of these things” Ephesians 5:5-6). The apostle reckoneth covetous Persons among those that shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:10). (W. Gouge.) Remedies against covetousness: For preventing or redressing covetousness, these rules following are to be observed. 1. The judgment must rightly be informed in these two points. (1) In the nature of true happiness. (2) In the vanity and deceitfulness of riches. Many learned men want this point of understanding. It is the blindness of a man’ s mind that maketh him place a kind of happiness in the things of this world. If therefore we shall be rightly instructed, that happiness consisteth in matters of another kind than this world affords; surely their immoderate desire of riches could not be but much modified. He that said, “ There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us” (Psalms 4:6), well discerned the difference betwixt earthly and heavenly blessings. So did he who said, “ Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death” Proverbs 11:4). 2. The will and heart of man must follow the judgment well informed, and raise themselves up to that sphere where true happiness resteth Colossians 3:2). This will keep the heart from doting on things below. A beast which is feeding in fresh pasture will not stray into a barren heath; much less will an understanding man that finds the sweetness of heavenly blessings dote upon earthly trash (Philippians 3:8). 3. A man’ s confidence must be placed on God and His providence. God’ s providence is an overflowing and everflowing fountain. The richest treasures of men may be exhausted; God’ s cannot be. Be therefore fully resolved of this, that “ God will provide” (Genesis 22:8). This casting of our care on God’ s providence is much pressed in Scripture, as Psalms 55:22; 1 Peter 5:7; Matthew 6:25-26), &c. By experience we see how children depend on their parents’ providence; should not we much more on our heavenly Father? 4. Our appetite or desire of riches must be moderate (Proverbs 30:8; Matthew 6:11). Be content with that portion which God gives thee, and be persuaded it is best for thee (Philippians 4:11). Contentedness and covetousness are directly opposite as light and darkness. 5. We must pray against covetousness (Psalms 119:36). (W. Gouge.) A vile weed and a fair flower: Is it not humiliating that the best of Christians should need to be cautioned against the worst of sins? May the consecrated become covetous? Is it possible that the regenerate may drivel into misers? Alas, what perils surround us, what tendencies are within us I It appears from our text that the children of God need also to be exhorted to cherish that most simple and natural of virtues--contentment. One would think that, at least in some instances, they would have this good thing as a matter of course. Among our villagers we have met with persons so well satisfied with their lowly lot that they would not cross the sea to gain an empire. Yet their contentment has sprung up wild as the daisies and buttercups of their own meadows, for they have not been acquainted with the blessed hope which makes trials light to bear. Do Christians, then, need to be admonished with precepts, and stimulated with promises, to make them yield the commonplace virtues of life? Do their fields refuse to grow “ the herb called heartsease,” which simple folk have gathered unsown from their little garden-plots? I. I shall have to say a little about . We are told that our conversation is to be “ without covetousness.” The term “ conversation” includes, as you know, the whole of our lives. 1. Taking the first meaning of conversation, namely, talk, we ought not in our words to be on the side of those who grip for wealth or growl for wage, who grasp for power or grind the poor. We ought not in our talk to take part with the churl and the illiberal. 2. But our conversation has to do with our actions as well as our words. The sugar of words is sickening if it be not attended with the honey of deeds. Let our whole life in our dealings with our fellow-men be moved by liberal principles, and enriched with a generous spirit. 3. But this will not do unless the word “ conversation” takes in our desires, our projects, our plans, our thoughts. We must be without covetousness within, for if that vice reigns in the soul it is sure to rule in the life. Our prayer should be that of David, “ Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” It is so very easy a thing to be covetous, that no class of society is free from it. A man may be very poor and covetous withal, and a man may be exceedingly rich and still may think that he is not half rich enough. It is not possible to satisfy the greedy. Covetousness has many ways of manifesting itself; and the text does not warn us against one of those ways, but against them all. (1) In some it is most seen in repining and complaining against their lot. This disease is born and bred in our very bones, and it needs the grace of God to get it out of us. God help us all to get rid of every particle of it, for it savours not of grace, but it is earthly, sensual, devilish. (2) In some others this covetous principle shows itself in envying others. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? Now, if I envy a man, I am clearly guilty of covetousness, for I wish that something which he has were not his, but mine. And that may happen to you when you do not think about his property. You may be covetous of his gifts. This ill-natured vice shows itself generally in finding fault. Of course our brethren are not perfect; but why should we take a delight in pointing out their eccentricities, or their shortcomings? (3) And covetousness may show itself by perpetually craving and desiring that which we have not. The old moralists used to say that the man who would be truly rich had better retrench his appetites than increase his fortune. Some men seem as if they never could fix their thoughts on what they have, but they are always thinking of what they could, would, or should have. They have swallowed the two daughters of Solomon’ s horseleech, and these continually cry, “ Give, give.” (4) In many--perhaps in the most numerous class--this anxiety for acquisition betrays itself in fretful fears about the future; and I must in all honesty grant that this form of the vice has sometimes the appearance of being the most excusable of the whole. Full many are not content with such things as they have because the dread of a distant season of trial is constantly harassing them. In vain for them their table is bountifully spread unless they have a store in hand against every contingency that may happen. Do you notice how precious is that promise which provides for all possible casualties that may befal you? “ He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” The censure, therefore, falls where this sacred pledge is unheeded; and he is accounted covetous who walks after the cravings of the flesh rather than after the counsel of the Spirit of God. If God would have thee live by the day, why dost thou want to gather enough for seven days at once? Covetous people, I have often observed, are classed in Scripture with the worst of criminals. How revolting to be included in such bad company! Here in this very chapter we read, “ Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness.” Thus covetousness is classed with the very filthiest of vices of the flesh. In another place the apostle says “ covetousness, which is idolatry” ; and thus it is identified with a loathsome impurity of the spirit. Let the Christian dread it. Covetousness is a deadly poison, destructive of all virtue; it dries up the milk of human kindness in a man’ s breast, and makes him hard, indifferent towards the needs of his fellow creatures. How much infamy it fosters! The man whose heart is set on covetousness will do anything for gold; he will venture to stain his hands with blood itself if he may but gain it. II. As there is a vice to be shunned so there is a virtue to be sought. The theme is more pleasing now that we speak upon . “ Be content with such things as ye have.” It is, after all, no very great virtue if we should attain it: the more pity, therefore, if we should miss it. The old moralists constantly twit us with the fact that we may have the necessaries of life upon very easy terms, whereas we put ourselves to great pains for its luxuries, To be content with such things as we have should be specially easy to us, because we have so much to be thankful for, such constant communications from the great Benefactor, and so certain an assurance that He will withhold no good thing from those that walk uprightly. This world is ours, and worlds to come. Earth is our lodge, and heaven our home. I believe that contentment depends very much upon taking right views of things. 1. There is, to wit, a short view. To live by the day is the way to be cheerful. 2. Take also long views as well as short views. Take the view which says, “ It will be all the same a hundred years hence.” Take the view which says, “ We shall soon laugh at this present little vexation.” Take that distant view which says, “ When I get to heaven this great trial will seem very small; when I look from the hill-tops of glory at my present dilemma, it will probably cause me many a smile, to think that I should have been so vexed and tormented by it.” The secret of true contentment, and the way to get at it, is admirably expressed in these words, “ Be content with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Some of the most easygoing people in the world are those who have a Government pension of so much a month. It is little, but it is sure. If all the banks break they will get it. They have no trouble as to how the markets fluctuate, or how different stocks rise and fall in value; or what dividends they might derive from investments. Now, then, that is exactly where the child of God stands; for ye know who hath said--“ Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure.” Between now and heaven I do not know who may starve; but I never shall, because the Lord is my Shepherd, and I shall not want. III. Our last point is the with which we may encourage ourselves, and bid defiance to a frowning world. “ So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me.” This promise of the Lord is fitted to nerve us with courage, as well as to solace us with contentment. If we are oppressed, or if we have to encounter opposition, we may just go straight ahead in the strength of our text, and say, “ What can man do unto me?” If God be our helper, why should we shrink or falter; why should we droop or look dismayed; why should we hold our peace or speak with bated breath? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Covetousness--an insidious sin I asked a question, some years ago, of a person whom I believed to be one of the most covetous individuals in my acquaintance, and I received from him a singular reply. I said, “ How was it that St. Francis de Sales, who was an eminent confessor, found that persons confessed to him, in private, all sorts of horrible sins, such as adultery, drunkenness, and murder; but never had one person confessed the sin of covetousness?” I asked this friend whether he could tell me why it was, and he made me this answer, which certainly did take me rather aback. He said, “ I suppose it is because the sin is so extremely rare.” Blind scull I told him that, on the other hand, I feared the sin was so very common that people did not know when they were covetous, and that the man who was most covetous of all was the last person to suspect himself of it. I feel persuaded that it is so. Covetousness breeds an insensibility in the heart, a mortification in the conscience, a blindness in the mind. It is as hard to convict a man of it as to make a deaf ear hear of its own deficiencies. You cannot make a horseleech see the impropriety of desiring to suck; to all your expostulations it renders the one answer, “ Give, give.” Covetousness goes about in disguise. In the “ Holy War” we read that, when Diabolus sent traitors to lurk about the town of Mansoul, he sent among the rest a young fellow named Covetousness; but when he entered into the town of Mausoul, he took the name of Mr. Prudent Thrifty, and he was engaged at once as a servant, I think it was in the house of Mr. Conscience, the Recorder. He seemed such a likely young man, this youth of the name of Prudent Thrifty. Now, mind you, when you are taking a servant, that you do not engage one of the name of Prudent Thrifty; for I have information that he comes of the family of the Greedies, and that his true name is “ Covetousness,” though it may be long before you find it out. His near relations are the Screws, the Skinflints, and the Graballs; but he will not own them, but always mentions his great-uncle, Squire Prudence, and his mother’ s brother, Professor Economy, of the University of Accumulation. You will have need to carry your eyes in your head if you mean to practise the precept, “ Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have.” (C. H. Spurgeon,) Covetousness destructive of religion: The Fabulist tells a story of the hedgehog that came to the coney-burrows in stormy weather, and desired harbour, promising that he would be a quiet guest; but when once he had gotten entertainment, he did set up his prickles, and did never leave till he had thrust the poor conies out of their burrows: so covetousness, though it hath many fair pleas to insinuate, and wind itself into the heart, yet as soon as you have let it in, this thorn will never cease pricking till it hath choked all good beginnings, and thrust all religion out of your hearts. (T. Watson.) Covetousness a sign of death: As it is, therefore, a mark of life in an evergreen, when transplanted, to suffer its fading leaves to fall off easily when touched; and a sign of death when they retain their hold, so that to disengage them you must pull off part of the stem with them; so it is an evidence of spiritual life in the Christian, to sit loose to his possessions, instead of setting his heart upon them; while the covetous man parts with his money in charity as if he were parting with his life. Be content with much things as ye have Christian contentment: its hindrance and its help: Contentment is the central word of the passage, and stands between words representing its greatest foe and greatest friend, like Joshua with the Angel of the Lord and Satan on either side. I. --WHAT IS IT? TO be contented is to be satisfied; it is the Amen of our spirit with regard to what is. 1. Christian contentment presupposes effort. We are not to be content with many things that we have, nor with anything short of our best. 2. Christian contentment implies a certain amount of failure. There is no room for its exercise where matters cannot be improved; you could not speak of the angels as contented. Joy is the word for heaven; contentment for earth. 3. Christian contentment delivers us from the power of circumstances. It is not a doing without things because we must--that is possible apart from Christian grace; it is repose, satisfaction, the heart saying “ Thy will be done.” To attain to that is to reign as a king over our circumstances. What a great thing is that religion which helps one to this! II. BY . “ Let your conversation [character, mode of life] be without covetousness.” 1. Covetousness is a wrongly placed desire for what in itself may be good. The word in the text refers specially to money (R.V.), but it is not the object that makes covetousness. Covetousness may fasten on different things. What is it? (See Luke 12:13-15, etc.). It is a desire for anything (good or bad) not regulated by an appeal to God and God’ s requirements; our own spiritual needs. 2. Covetousness is regarded by God as one of the grossest sins. See the position in which it is mentioned as here coming after verse 4, as though a similar sin; also (1 Corinthians 5:10-11; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:3-5; Colossians 3:5-6; 2 Peter 2:14; Mark 7:21-22). 3. Covetousness is the deadly enemy of contentment. They are opposites, and cannot coalesce. Admit covetousness to the heart and contentment takes its flight. Let contentment return, and she will scourge the traders from what she calls, and from what then she makes it, her Father’ s house. III. BY THE OF THE DIVINE . “ Be content, for He hath said, I will never,” &c. 1. This is a declaration of God’ s personal presence. Only God can say, “ I will not leave thee” ; not one of His gifts can say it. Loneliness destroys content. God satisfies. 2. This presence pervades the arrangements of our life. The words must mean that God will be in all our circumstances, and where He is He will not play a subsidiary part, and follow where chance or our waywardness may dictate. “ I will not leave thee” must mean I will guide thee: choose thy lot, appoint thy changes, where thou comest thou shalt be brought by Me. Dread of the Unknown destroys content. God in all we have creates content by removing that dread. 3. This presence is the guarantee of protection and supply. No hurt can come to him with whom God is as his friend. Fear destroys content, but God with us enables us to say, “ I will not fear.” “ He hath said.” There are five negatives here to prevent our doubting it. (C. New.) Contentment: Every one knows that contentment is another name for happiness. I. In the first place, let us INQUIRE INTO THE CHIEF CAUSES OF THE TEMPER. We see, in too many instances, how men, misled by vain illusions, in the eagerness of their pursuit, miss the road even to earthly happiness. Now this unhappy propensity to become our-own tormentors is to be traced, chiefly, to three bitter roots, growing within the mind itself--pride, selfishness, and envy; whence probably proceed a great part of the miseries of mankind. II. Consider now MUCH THE DIVINE BOUNTY EXCEEDS OUR DESERTS. Instead, therefore, of being the ingenious artificers of our own misery, let us make a better use of our reason. If Providence offer us the means of attaining a happier state, let us thankfully embrace them. But if the will of God appoint otherwise, before we admit a repining thought, let us first endeavour to recount, if we can, the numberless calls we have for gratitude. Though the present state is a state of trial and probation, it is by no means left destitute of comforts and gratifications. Let us resolve, for the time to come, to make a more careful improvement of the blessings of Providence. Gratefully acquiescing in our own condition, let us, instead of envying, be kind and helpful one to another; and sincerely rejoice with those who are placed above us. This is true benevolence. This is true wisdom. (P. Houghton.) Christian contentment I. EVERY MAN HAS HIS OWN PORTION IN THIS LIFE, HIM BY GOD. 1. The portion of every man consists of such things as he has: literally, present things. 2. That which each man has, is assigned him by God. Suppose he has a competency for all the comforts of life which he has acquired. In that case, who, but God, gave him capacity of mind, strength of body, business to do, and success in the doing it? II. WITH THAT PORTION WHICH GOD HAS HIM, EVERY IS TO BE CONTENT. 1. Cautionary remarks. (1) This command does not forbid a proper regard to the future. (2) Industrious efforts to obtain more are not forbidden by this command. (3) The embracing a proper opportunity of improving one’ s condition is not forbidden by this command. 2. Contentment is (1) The opposite of a complaining spirit. (2) The opposite of an envious temper. (3) Opposed to anxiety. (4) Opposed to covetousness. (5) Opposed to restless schemes and endeavours after more. 3. How it is to be cultivated. (1) By habitual self-abasement. (2) By thankfulness. Gratitude gives fitness to our raiment, relish to our food, and sweetness to all. (3) By the exercise of faith. He hath said, “ He, who has all power; he who abideth faithful.” He has said that He will never leave nor forsake thee, whosoever thou art, who puttest thy trust in Him; therefore, “ be content with such things as ye have.” (4) By “ looking unto Jesus.” Though the earth and the fulness thereof were His, He assumed the lowest state of poverty. (5) By habitual prayer and dependence on Christ. (Essex Remembrancer.) A satisfied spirit To be content is to be in good humour with our circumstances, not picking a quarrel with our obscurity, or our poverty, or our social position. There are four or five grand reasons why we should be content with such things as we have, 1. The first is the consideration that the poorest of us have all that is indispensable in life. We make a great ado about our hardships, but how little we talk of our blessings. 2. Our happiness is not dependent on outward circumstances. I find Nero growling on a throne. I find Paul singing in a dungeon. I find King Ahab going to bed at noon through melancholy, while near by is Naboth contented in the possession of a vineyard. Haman, prime minister of Persia, frets himself almost to death because a poor Jew will not tip his bat; and Ahithophel, one of the great lawyers of Bible times, through fear of dying, hangs himself. The wealthiest man, forty years ago, in New York, when congratulated over his large estate, replied: “ Ah! you don’ t know how much trouble I have in taking care of it.” Byron declared in his last hours that he had never seen more than twelve happy days in all his life. The heart right toward God and man, we are happy. The heart wrong toward God and man, we are unhappy. 3. Another reason why we should come to this spirit inculcated in the text is the fact that all the differences of earthly condition are transitory. The houses you build, the land you culture, the places in which you barter, are soon to go into other hands. However hard you may have it now, if you are a Christian the scene will soon end. Pain, trial, persecution never knock at the door of the grave. 4. Another reason why we should culture this spirit of cheerfulness is the fact that God knows what is best for His creatures. Sometimes His children think that He is hard on them, and that He is not as liberal with them as He might be. But children do not know as much as a father. I can tell you why you are not largely affluent, and why you have not been grandly successful. It is because you cannot stand the temptation. If your path had been smooth, you would have depended upon your own surefootedness; but God roughened that path, so you have to take hold of His hand. 5. Another consideration leading us to the spirit of the text is the assurance that the Lord will provide somehow. Will He who holds the water in the hollow of His hand, allow His children to die of thirst? 6. Again, I remark that the religion of Jesus Christ is the grandest influence to make a man contented. Indemnity against all financial and spiritual harm! It calms the spirit, dwindles the earth into insignificance, and swallows up the soul with the thought of heaven. (T. De Witt Talmage.) The Bible warning against discontent I. We ought to mind it--FOR OUR OWN COMFORT. Now suppose that you have a long walk to take every day, but you have a thorn run into your foot, or a sharp stone in your shoe--could you have any comfort in taking that daily walk? Certainly not. But a feeling of discontent in our minds is just like that thorn in the foot or that stone in the shoe. It will take away from us all the comfort we might have, as we go on in the walk of our daily duties. A certain bishop had passed through many great trials; but he was never heard to complain in passing through them. He was always contented and cheerful. An intimate friend of his, who had often admired his calm, happy temper, and who felt as if he would like very much to imitate his example, asked him one day if he would tell him the secret of the quiet, contented spirit which he always had. “ Yes,” said the bishop, “ I will gladly tell you my secret. It consists in nothing more than making a right use of my eyes.” “ Please tell me what you mean by this.” “ Certainly,” said the bishop; “ I mean just this. When I meet with any trial, I first of all look up to heaven, and remember that my chief business in life is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, and think how small a space I shall need in it when I die, and come to be buried; and then I look round in the world, and think how many people there are who have more cause to be unhappy than I have. And in this way I learn the Bible lesson--“ Be content with such things as ye have.” II. FOR THE COMFORT OF OTHERS. We cannot all have really beautiful faces, but we can all have sweet, pleasant tempers; and a sweet temper gives a loveliness to the face, which is more pleasing than any amount of mere outward beauty. A contented spirit, or a sweet temper, is to a home what sunshine is to the trees of the field or to the flowers of the garden. John Wesley used to say, “ I dare no more fret, than curse or swear.” A friend of his, who was intimately connected with him, for a large portion of his life, in speaking of him after his death, said, “ I never saw him fretful or discontented under any of his trials. And to be in the company of persons of this spirit always occasioned him great discomfort, and trouble. He said one day, ‘ To have persons around me murmuring and fretting at everything that happens is like tearing the flesh from my bones. I know that God sits upon His throne, ruling all things. With this thought in my mind, and the grace of God in my heart, I may well learn, “ To be content with such things as I have.’ Good Mr. Wesley was minding the Bible warning against discontent when he used these words, and was setting a good example for us all to follow. What a blessed thing it would be if all Christians would try to follow his example. III. TO PLEASE GOD. No trials can ever come upon us in this world without God’ s knowledge and consent. He is so wise that He never makes a mistake about our trials, and He is so good that He never lets any trouble come upon us but what He knows will be for the best. And when we try to be patient and contented under our trials, because we know that God orders or permits them, this will be pleasing to Him. “ I was going down town in a Fourth Avenue car one day,” says a New York merchant, “ when I heard somebody cry out, ‘ Holloa, Mr. Conductor, please stop your car a moment; I can’ t run very fast.’ The car stopped, and presently there hobbled into it a little lame boy, about ten or twelve years old. I saw from the nice clothes he wore that he was the son of wealthy parents; but oh! his face told such a tale of silent suffering! and yet he was bright and cheerful. He put his little crutch behind him, and placing his poor withered limb in a more easy position, he began to look round at his fellow-passengers. A happy smile played over his pale face, and he seemed to take notice of everything. Presently I got a seat next to him, and as he looked around him I heard him humming in a low tone the words of the hymn, ‘ Hark, I hear an angel sing.’ Then I had a little talk with him, and found that he knew and loved the Saviour, and it was this which made him so contented and cheerful. He told me he was born with this withered limb, and that the doctor said it never would be any better. ‘ Well, my dear boy,’ I said, ‘ under these circumstances, how can you be so happy and cheerful?’ His reply was, ‘ Jesus, my Saviour, has sent this trial for me to bear. Father tells me He would not have sent it unless He knew it would be best for me. And don’ t you think, sir, that I ought to be satisfied with the best?’ This touched my heart, and brought tears to my eyes. I was just going to get out of the car then. So I shook hands with the little fellow, and thanked him for the lesson he had taught me, which I told him I should never forget as long as I lived.” (R. Newton, D. D.) The unreasonableness of discontent I. Observe, in the first place, THAT IS OFTEN OWING TO CAUSES WHICH THE MAY REMOVE. How often do you see people grow sullen and dissatisfied in consequence of straits to which they have reduced themselves by sloth, by waste, or by expensive indulgences? How often do men become the victims of chagrin through the failure of expectations which they permitted themselves, without any good reason, to indulge. How often, in fine, does it happen that people, instead of endeavouring to make the best, make the worst of every inconvenience in their lot? II. Are there not in human life innumerable circumstances wholly independent of us, by which the lot of man is very much diversified, and WHAT SHALL WE SAY WHEN ARISES, NOT FROM CAUSES WHICH WE CAN CONTROL, BUT FROM THE OF OUR LOT? NOW, granting that, owing to circumstances which you cannot control, you do not possess all the temporal advantages which you might wish; yet what claim can you advance to more? Food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, a shelter from cold and storms, the pleasing warmth and light of day, and calm silence of night, the alternate enjoyments of labour and rest, our social and domestic pleasures, these are blessings to be found in all the ordinary situations of human life; and these, so far as depend on mere outward things, are the chief blessings which Providence bestows. With respect to luxury and pomp, splendid raiment, magnificent habitations, honours, attendants, and all the dazzling train of circumstances which wait upon riches, they are but little connected with true happiness. III. The observations hitherto offered apply chiefly to the ordinary situations of human life. BUT ARE THERE NOT CASES OF THAT PLACE THE BELOW THE LOT? and in all situations does not affliction often await us amidst our most tranquil enjoyments? The duty required in such situations is resignation rather than contentment. It is religion, however, which in all situations possesses the most consoling influence, inspiring contentment amidst the ordinary inconveniences of the human lot, and resignation under the pressure of our heaviest afflictions, and we proceed to consider the arguments applicable to our present subject, that may be derived from this Divine source. One of the views is that suggested in the words immediately following our text. “ The Lord is my helper, therefore I will not be afraid for what man can do unto me.” The Scripture informs us farther how it is that these perfections are exercised towards us. Now we are informed that in consequence of that new dispensation, which God hath been carrying on ever since the fall of our first parents, this world is only a state of temporary preparation for the next. To give a proper scope for the exercise of our talents, to afford us an opportunity of cultivating good dispositions by placing us in various relations to one another, to form us to habits of obedience and resignation, God hath in His infinite wisdom ordained a very great diversity of ranks and circumstances among men. But all this is only a temporary state of things, and when it has accomplished its purposes is abolished by death with respect to each individual, and will be abolished with respect to all mankind when the world is dissolved. (Thos. S. Hardie, D. D.) Discontent: Discontent is doubtless, on the whole, a useful element in our nature, for it prompts to better things; and it is only when it goes beyond the bounds of moderation that it is seriously objectionable. The great error is that people do not pursue their course of advancement with calmness; they forget to enjoy the advantages which they now possess; and while they look at the future they neglect the present, forgetting that the present is the only real time. This error leads them into two follies; they believe that at some future period they will be happier than they are now, because they will then have at their command means which are at present denied; and secondly, they fancy that people who follow a different mode of life are more favourably circumstanced than themselves. They seem to want a change. I have heard men in business say, “ Ah, if I could devote my life to study, instead of grubbing here to get money, I should then be all right.” And, on the other hand, students are heard to say, “ After all, it is the man of business who really enjoys reading, when in his hours of relaxation he goes to his books as a relief. But it is odious to make your study a workshop.” Both parties are labouring under a kindred delusion. And thus people go on; their energies are devoted to the attainment of some object, and “ if they can reach that they will find repose.” The end is gained, but soon the object fails to satisfy; they miss the excitement which the chase afforded, and they must propose some new goal or be wretched. The men who place their hopes exclusively in the future confess, by the very act, that they are incapable of enjoying the present (and by enjoyment much more is meant than the mere taking of pleasure); but not wishing to make this humiliating admission, they flatter themselves that something else than what they possess is essential to peace and comfort. This is nothing tess than an excuse for want of contentment; because, when the object of search is attained, they are as far from what they really need as ever. He who does not begin by placing contentment as the basin of external goods, heaps up in vain, and might as well try to fill a sieve with water as to construct a building of happiness upon a shadowy foundation. Besides, a constant restlessness is the greatest possible hindrance to sound education of the mind. The feverish gaze of the fortune-seeker cannot look aright upon the beautiful creation which is around him, if it ever looks upon it at all. There are many men surrounded by the comforts of life who, if you told them to divert their eyes awhile from future prospects, to cease envying their associates, to admire the wonders of nature and the beautiful world we live in, to be rejoiced at the remembrance of their daily blessings, and to be fully satisfied with their numerous advantages, would put you down for a madman or a fool. It is quite as easy to cultivate such a state of mind as to be constantly pining after what you have not got, or distressing yourself because you are not so well off as other people; and while every man of active mind must desire to go through his daily duties with energy and skill, and to fulfil his vocation with diligence, yet when he has done all this calm contentment is one great means to make him happy and keep him so. (Scottish Pulpit.) The discontented character: There are people who are constitutionally discontented. Nothing gives them satisfaction. They are like the hermit-crabs, and may well be designated “ crabbed.” We see that the animal and the shell are mostly well suited to each other; but it is a remarkable fact that, however well the shell and the crab may be suited to each other, the crab always thinks that a shell belonging to another crab would make a better house. Consequently they will wage direful battles over a few empty shells, although neither of the shells would make so commodious a habitation as that which was already occupied. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.) Contentment in vicissitudes: The other day I watched a little bird who had alighted on a branch almost too frail to bear his weight. The branch was swaying to and fro, but the little songster did not cease his song, He knew he had wings! Christian, learn the lesson that bird would teach thee, and, amid life’ s vicissitudes, sing on, for thou art immortal. (The National Baptist.) Contented without contentment What a beautiful example for all of us is the resolution of the old lady who, from a crabbed and anxious body, became quite the opposite! When asked what had induced the change, she replied, “ To tell you the truth, I have been all my life striving for a contented mind, and finally concluded to sit down contented without it.” (New Cyclopedia of Illustrations.) Contentment under loss A friend of mine sat down to breakfast one morning, and an ugly-looking letter was handed him, it having just come by post. He opened it and found it was from a broker who transacted business for him. It ran something like this: “ Dear sir, I am sorry to inform you that you have lost £50,000.” Now, it is no joke to lose a sum of money like that. To this friend of mine it meant the loss of every penny he had. He had not been gambling, but speculating, as he thought, carefully and wisely. He quietly looked around the breakfast table, then without saying a word he rose and went to his room. He did not go and buy a pistol and blow his brains out. He simply fell on his knees before God, and said, “ Dear Heavenly Father, help reel Thou hast given me plenty, and I have tried to use all to Thy glory; now Thou hast taken everything away. Now, Lord, Thou wilt have to feed me straight from heaven. I thank Thee for making me poor, that I may the more fully know Thee as my Father.” He came downstairs again and finished his breakfast. His losses had not even power to spoil his appetite. He has ever since been as poor as a church mouse--and that is poor enough--but he has been rejoicing always, because he has the “ joy of the Lord.” I can testify to the truth of this as I know him well, and he was one who came to see me off when I left England. (G. C.Grubb, M. A.) Never satisfied: My dear hearers, there is not a single soul of you all that are satisfied in your stations: is not the language of your hearts when apprentices, We think we shall do very well when journeymen; when journeymen, that we should do very well when masters; when single, that we shall do well when married; and to be sure you think you shall do well when you keep a carriage. I have heard of one who began low: he first wanted a house; then, says he, “ I want two, then four, then six” ; and when he had them, he said, “ I think I want nothing else.” “ Yes,” says his friend, “ you will soon want another thing, that is, a hearse-and-six to carry you to your grave” ; and that made him tremble. (G. Whitfield.) Contentment: Contentment bears the hues of joy. (Shakspere.) Content with little: On the eve of General Gordon’ s departure on his last journey, a friend is related to have said to him, “ Have you got your kit ready, General?” “ I have got what I always have. This hat is good enough, and so are these clothes. I shall start as I am, my boots are quite strong.” “ And how are you off for cash, &c.? You must have some ready money.” “ Ah, I had forgot that; I had to borrow five-and-twenty pounds from the King of the Belgians to get over here. Of course I must pay this, and I shall want a little more. A hundred pounds apiece for myself and Stewart will be enough. What on earth do we want more for?” Contentment: Is that beast better that hath two or three mountains to graze on than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouses of heaven, clouds, and providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than a full urn; or drink better from the fountain which is finely paved with marble, than when it wells over the green turf? (Jeremy Taylor.) Contentment and duty: There is a fable told about a king’ s garden in which the trees and all the flowers began to make complaint. The oak was sad because it did not bear flowers; the rosebush was sad because it did not bear fruit; the vine was sad because it had to cling to the wall and could cast no shadow. “ I am not the least use in the world,” said the oak. “ I might as well die, since I yield no fruit,” said the rosebush. “ What good can I do?” said the vine. Then the king saw a little pansy, which held up its glad, fresh face, while all the rest were sad. And the king said, “ What makes you so glad when all the rest pine and are so sad? I thought,” said the pansy, “ that you wanted me here because you planted me, and so I made up my mind that I would try and be the best little pansy that could be.” Let us all try to do our best in the little spot where God’ s hand has placed us. True contentment John Sinclair once alighted from his carriage near an abject-looking hovel, and entered into conversation with an old labourer who lived there alone. On leaving he asked if he could serve him in any way. “ Sir,” said the old man, with a look of honest contentment, “ there is not in this world a thing that I want.” Sir John often said that that poor abode was the only home in which he had found perfect happiness, and requested his daughter to draw him a picture of that one-windowed hut where lived a man who had not a wish ungratified. Contrast the happiness of this man in poor circumstances with the ennui of Napoleon on the day when he was crowned with unexampled splendour by the Pope in Notre Dame. He returned home, and, flinging his splendid robes to different corners of the room, declared that he had never spent in his life such tedious hours. Polish the dark side A complaining grumbler was lamenting how things went wrong, when a friend, writing to console her, bade her “ look upon the bright side.” “ Oh,” she cried, “ there seems to be no bright side.” “ Then polish up the dark side,” was the reply. Contentment not hostile to aspirations: We must not make the ideas of contentment and aspiration quarrel, for God made them fast friends. A man may aspire, and yet be quite content until it is time to rise. A bird that sits patiently while it broods its eggs flies bravely afterwards, leading up its timid young. And both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment. The very fruit of the gospel is aspiration. It is to the human heart what spring is to the earth; making every root and bud and bough desire to be more. I will never leave thee Providence--God never leaves things or persons: You perceive at once, perhaps, that this promise has two distinctive peculiarities. In the first place, it is limited as to its aspect; and secondly, it is mixed as to its character. It is limited as to its aspect. Being not addressed to sinners generally as sinners, its sphere must at once be considered circumscribed and sacred. It is a promise, not to the world as such, but to the Church which has been redeemed out of the world. The design, evidently, of this glorious promise is to keep down the fears of believers in passing through this world to everlasting glory. And we see that there are two classes of evils which make them afraid, against which fears there is a provision in this promise. There are things that trouble you--their confusion, their irregularity, their aspects; and then you live amidst intelligent beings, like yourselves imperfect, and not only so but evil, and you fear from them--you fear things, you fear persons. But God has made a merciful provision against both these fears by saying, “ I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” I. The remarks assume somewhat of a secular character in the first part of the subject. In speaking of these “ Things,” the passage refers to such subjects; therefore it is not improper for me to do so. By “ things” I understand things of this life--food, raiment, habitation, health, comfort, all those things which are necessary for our existence, for our convenience, and for our comfort, according to our relative positions in society, and especially to the answering the end of our being, namely, doing good and glorifying God our heavenly Father. 1. Now these things, we say, are necessary for us. And when a thing is absolutely necessary, it is right to think of it. But then there is the danger of magnifying our wants, of supposing that we have wants that we have not, and that ten thousand things are necessary for us which would actually be, if given, injurious to us. But so little do we feel that we are in danger here, that it is only when we do feel it, and at no other time, that we in this respect rejoice in the truth and glory of the promise, “ I will never leave thee,” etc. And there is another danger to which we are exposed. The very fact that the things of this life have necessity imposed upon them very frequently tends to covetousness. Christian friends, when the world comes over you and consumes your heart and destroys your spirituality, go and weep before the Cross; go and plead this promise again and again in the name of the Saviour, that you may stand, and in the Lord be mighty and strong. 2. I refer to another thing impressed upon the things of this life: there is difficulty; that is to say, the universal law of our natural living in this world is this, “ In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.” Labour is man’ s necessity, and man’ s glory. A man says, “ I know that without labour I cannot exist.” The tradesman says it, the politician says it, the philosopher above any says it, the Christian ought to say it. He says, “ I see that labour is essential to prosperity and elevation and usefulness” ; and then he imagines that it is the cause of it, whereas it is only the condition of it--it is only the connection made by God to subsist; for labour itself, which is merely acting upon matter, trying to produce changes, is nothing without God. We repeat it again, man labours in vain, bodily and inwardly, unless God grants a blessing. And God says to the soul humbled and chastened, “ I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee.” 3. I might refer to the mutability that is impressed upon all these “ things,” as a frequent occasion of sorrow. The great political changes, the great commercial storms, the great commercial stagnations which very frequently follow; the death of a friend, a brother, a child, a failure, or what is called a common accident, may change the whole history of a man. And then come the trials of the soul, and then it is the heart goes forth to covetousness; it is then that man begins to fear; and it is then too comes, and then too is felt, the preciousness of the promise, “ I will never leave thee.” II. Let me just glance, in the second place, at PERSONS. Paul, addressing himself to the Hebrews, says, quoting David, “ The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Will you not? Man may injure you; some men have injured you, and you are in danger of being injured still more in the dark future. What is your protection?” The Lord is my helper.” I should be afraid of man; but He being my succour and my helper I shall not be afraid. Man in very many ways may injure us; taking society as it is constituted, and taking into consideration especially its evils. Man may injure our feelings, which is not a very trifling matter--may injure our reputation, civil, social, sacred--may injure our property--may injure our persons--may do what is still more painful, may injure our souls. The nearer and dearer persons are to us, the greater is the danger of being injured by them. They may injure us by the carelessness or even by the impurity of their conversation, they may injure us by false guiles or by base cruelties, they may injure us by their seductions, they may injure us by their frowns, and by their severities, and by their contempts, and by their persecutions. “ But the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear,” &c. These then are the external circumstances which render the promise before me peculiarly applicable, “ Be content with such things as ye have,” for He, “ God,” hath said, “ I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” I was going to say, whence evils spring up, and that is ourselves. Many of our fears rise and terminate in our own beings. Evil thoughts, evil imaginations, evil affections, malice, pride, unkindness, indifference to the misery of others, and a variety of other things; these in frightful numbers and in horrid forms present themselves to the conscience, and then the soul is afraid. He thinks of sins in life and sins in language, sins of the soul and sins of the senses, sins against God as a personality, against God as a governor; and, as the scene blackens before his eyes, he says within himself, “ I could have trusted that that cloud would have passed away; but I am an offender against my God, I feel that I have increased His displeasure, therefore what shall I do?” Now again comes the promise; yes, and we need not hesitate, we need not tremble to go to God and say, “ It is mine, it is mine.” He has said, “ I will never leave thee,” etc. Now, I said that the evils were of two kinds--external, arising from circumstances, and personal, springing up from ourselves. Now God meets these two evils, the first by His Providence, and the second by His influences and His Spirit. First, God says, “ I will take care of the things” ; and secondly, He says, “ I will take care of you.” (Caleb Morris.) An unwritten Word of God: Where has He said so? If the chapter-and-verse theory be insisted upon, there is no proof that these precise words were ever uttered by God. Yet if the doctrine be withdrawn from the Bible, the Bible will be impoverished by the withdrawal of its richest solaces. There are words, too, marvellously like the very words of the text Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 31:6; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:5). There are words spoken to the soul in secret. The heart remembers, attests, clings to them With tenacious love. There are paraphrased revelations; seed-revelations grown into blooming flowers of assurance. Let us take it, then, as the most assured fact in spiritual history that God never forsakes the man whom He has undertaken to guard and nourish--it is the unwritten and eternal law which comes out of the very nature of the Divine Being. I. This word is --because GOD HAS SPOKEN IT. We say of some men, “ Their word is their bond.” Shall we say less of the Living One, of whose eternity our life is but a spark? II. The word is --because IT PLEDGES THE OF GOD. “ I will never leave thee” : not, Angels shall be sent to thee, &c. Enoch walked with God. To Moses God said, “ Certainly I will be with thee.” To the Church Jesus says, “ I am with you alway,” &c. III. This word is --because IT ALL TIME: “ I will never leave thee.” The child becomes free of the parent; the apprentice is liberated from his bonds; the hireling fulfils his day--but union with God is perpetual, and its joy is an ever-augmenting sum. IV. This word is --because IT IS IN ITS . It is not a pledge given to the universe as a whole; it is spoken to the individual heart, and is to be applied by each heart according to special circumstances. The whole exists for the part, as well as the part for the whole. “ All things are yours.” Every flower may claim the sun. V. This word is Assuring--because IT IS IN ITS . “ I will never leave thee,” would have been enough for a merely technical bond; more is added; we have word upon word, so that the heart cannot escape the golden walls of protection and security. Love does not study terseness. It must be emphatic; it must be copious. Regarding this promise, what should be its practical effect? 1. We should inquire whether we are entitled to apply it to ourselves. It is not for all men. The question is one of spiritual character. Are we the children of God? 2. Be entitled to it, we should live as if we truly realised it: not gloomily; not self-trustingly; not fretfully; but joyously, devoutly, thankfully. 3. Living as if we realised it, we should ask what we can do in return. “ Glorify God in your body,” &c. “ Were the whole realm of nature mine,” &c. “ Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” &c. (J. Parker, D. D.) A lesson and a fortune for Christian men of business: I. A WORD OF THE LORD IS OF GREAT WEIGHT TO A . See then the argument, “ Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said.” That “ He hath said “ is the hammer which drives the nail home, and clinches it, with every true child of God. II. THE WORD OF THE LORD MAY HAVE A . When man makes a promise, and he keeps it, that promise is done with. You cannot expect a banker to pay a cheque a second time. The merchant who duly meets his bill once has met it once for all, and the document is henceforth of no value. But when God makes a promise He fulfils it, again, and again, and again, to the same man, and to hundreds of other men. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 13:6 The Lord is my helper.A cheerful confidence in God I. THE OF IN GOD AGAINST ALL , AND IN THE MIDST OF ALL , IS THAT WHICH HAVE A WARRANT FOR IN THE THAT ARE MADE UNTO THEM. II. AS THE USE OF THIS IS OUR DUTY, SO IT IS A DUTY HIGHLY UNTO THE OF THE GOSPEL. III. MAY USE THE SAME THAT DAVID USED, SEEING THEY HAVE THE SAME GROUNDS OF IT THAT DAVID HAD. For outward circumstances alter not the state of things as unto faith or duty. IV. THAT ALL , IN THEIR , AND UNDER THEIR , HAVE A IN DIVINE AID AND . For the promises hereof are made unto them all equally in their suffering state, even as they were unto the prophets and apostles of old. V. IT IS THEIR DUTY TO EXPRESS WITH AND , AT ALL TIMES, THEIR OF THE DIVINE IN THE , TO THEIR OWN , THE OF THE CHURCH, AND THE TERROR OF THEIR (Philippians 1:28). VI. FAITH DULY FIXED ON THE POWER OF GOD, AS ENGAGED FOR THE OF IN THEIR , WILL GIVE THEM A OF ALL THAT MEN CAN DO UNTO THEM. VII. THE MOST MEANS TO OUR SOULS IN ALL OUR , IS TO COMPARE THE POWER OF GOD WHO WILL ASSIST US, AND THAT OF MAN WHO DOTH OPPRESS US (Matthew 10:28). VIII. THAT WHICH IN OUR US FROM THE FEAR OF MEN, TAKES OUT ALL THAT IS EVIL IN THEM, AND SECURES OUR SUCCESS. (John Owen, D. D.) God’ s people protected from enemies 1. These have their enemies, signified by the word Man, “ what man may do against me.” 2. These men being enemies do much against them, or at least attempt to do much; for wicked men together with the devil are great enemies to Christ’ s kingdom and His subjects. The devil designs their spiritual, the wicked their temporal ruin; and the design of the one is subservient to the other. The devil makes use of temporal persecutions to shake their faith; both hate the Church and thrust sore at it. 3. Yet God is with them, stands for them, helps them, strengthens and protects them, and gives them safety in the midst of danger, joy in the midst of sorrow, bread in the midst of famine. 4. If God be with them, for them, and their help, they need not fear anything, no, not the worst that man can do unto them, but may be confident of safety and deliverance; they need not much desire the best things of the world, nor fear the worst. 5. They may think, believe, say, and be assured, that God is their help. And so much the rather, because God hath promised that He will not leave or forsake them at any time, and why should they be covetous or fearful, there is no cause of either. (G. Lawson.) Man not to be feared: When Dr. Rowland Taylor was brought before Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, the bishop asked him how he durst look him in the face, and if he knew who he was. “ Yes,” replied the doctor, “ I know who you are--Dr. Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Lord Chancellor, and yet but a mortal man, I trow. But if I should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear you not God, the Lord of us all? How dare you look any Christian man in the face, since you have forsaken the truth, denied Christ, and done contrary to your oath and writing? With what face will you appear before Christ’ s judgment-seat and answer to your oath against popery in King Henry VIII.’ s time and in the reign of King Edward VI., when you both spoke and wrote against it?” (W. Whitecross.) A right to the promises of God cleared up: Let it be thy chief concern to have thy interest in and right to the promises cleared up. This is the hinge on which the great dispute between thee and Satan will move in the day of trouble. Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise, in the dark night of affliction, afraid to lift the latch, whereas he should then come as boldly for shelter as a child into his father’ s house. (W. Gurnall.) Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule.The duty of imitating the primitive teachers and patterns of Christianity I. THE DUTY . If we would preserve that purity of faith and manners, which our religion requires, we should have frequent recourse to the primitive teachers and patterns of Christianity, and endeavour to bring our belief and lives to as near a conformity with theirs as is possible. Who so likely to deliver the faith and doctrine of Christ pure, as the primitive teachers of it, who received it from our Lord Himself; and were, by an extraordinary assistance of the Holy Spirit, secured from error and mistake in the delivery of it? And who so likely to bring their lives and conversations to an exact conformity with His holy doctrine, as they, who were so thoroughly instructed in it by the best Master, and shown the practice of it in the most perfect example of holiness and virtue? II. WHEREIN WE SHOULD IMITATE THESE . 1. We are to imitate these primitive patterns, in the sincerity and purity of their faith; I mean, that the faith which we profess be the sincere doctrine of Christianity, and the pure word of God, free from all mixture of human additions and inventions. 2. We are to imitate them, in the stability and firmness of our faith, and not suffer ourselves to be shaken, and removed from it, by every wind of new doctrine; the faith of Christ being unchangeable as Christ Himself. 3. We are to imitate them, in the constancy and perseverance of their faith; and that, notwithstanding all the discountenance and opposition, persecution and suffering, which attend the profession of this faith. 4. We should imitate them in the efficacy and fruitfulness of their faith, in the practice and virtues of a good life; “ whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation,” that is, their perseverance in a holy course to the end. And these must never be separated; a sound faith and a good life. III. THE TO THIS, from the consideration of the happy state of those persons, who are proposed to us for patterns, and the glorious reward which they are made partakers of in another world. “ Considering the end of their conversation,” τὴνἔκβασιν, their egress or departure out of this life into a blessed and glorious state, where they have received the reward of their faith and patience, and pious conversation in this world; or else (which comes much to one)considering the conclusion of their lives, with what patience and comfort they left the world, and with what joyful assurance of the happy condition they were going to, and were to continue in for ever. (Archbp. Tillotson.) The remembrance of past teachers I. THIS IS OUR BEST, THIS IS OUR ONLY WAY OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN OUR GUIDES, LEADERS, AND RULERS IN THE CHURCH, WHETHER THEY HAVE BEEN , OR , OR PASTORS; NAMELY, TO FOLLOW THEM IN THEIR FAITH AND . II. THIS OUGHT TO BE THE CARE OF THE GUIDES OF THE CHURCH; NAMELY, TO LEAVE SUCH AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH AND , AS THAT IT MAY BE THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO THEM, AND FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE. Alas! how many have we had, how many have we, who have left, or are likely to leave, nothing to be remembered by, but what it is the duty of the Church to abhor! how many, whose uselessness leads them into everlasting oblivion! III. THIS WORD OF GOD IS THE SOLE OBJECT OF THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH, THE ONLY OUTWARD MEANS OF THE MIND AND GRACE OF GOD UNTO IT. Wherefore upon it, the being, life, and blessedness of the Church doth depend. IV. A DUE OF THE TRUTH OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BEFORE US, OF SUCH WHO WERE IN ; ABOVE ALL, OF THOSE WHO WERE UNTO DEATH, AS THE HOLY MARTYRS IN FORMER AND LATTER AGES, IS AN MEANS TO STIR US UP UNTO THE SAME OF FAITH WHEN WE ARE CALLED UNTO IT. (John Owen, D. D.) The Church in relation to her past: The feeling which underlies these words of reverential admiration for the saintly dead, the founders and confessors of the Church gone to their rest, is one which at a later age wrought to Christianity much mischief. Yet it is in itself an eminently natural and proper sentiment. It was surely becoming in the early Church to keep green the names of her noble apostles; to guard with pious care the dust of her martyrs; to connect with each local congregation the memory of those missionaries who had planted, of those pastors who had nourished it. Customs in their origin so inoffensive and beautiful as these led speedily to serious abuse. Out of beginnings the most harmless there grew up all over Christendom, as pure religion degenerated, a mighty system of holy places, holy days, and holy relics; a system of saint-worship, sustained by lying miracles and discredited by acts of the grossest superstition; a system the vastness and persistency of which must still provoke the astonishment of a Christian historian. Yet our text reminds us that at the root of such abuses there really lay, after all, a valuable truth. It is this: The Church of Christ is the heir of her own past. That inheritance she ought never to disown. Her successive periods, like the stages of human existence, have a link of natural piety to bind them together. The present grows out of that which has been; and the generation which is now alive has lessons to learn from the dead generations that are gone before. God has written Himself and His truth upon the lives of our godly fathers, and on their triumphant witnessing deaths, in such wise that we their children shall lose much if we fling away the memory of it. Inspiration we shall lose; for what kindles imitation like the examples of the beloved and revered dead? Continuity we shall lose; for in the children there ought to live anew the spirit of their fathers. Experience we shall lose; of which the lessons are for our warning as well as guidance; experience that is the child of history and the parent of wisdom. Steadfastness we shall lose; when, lightly forsaking the devotion and the beliefs that made our forerunners strong, we suffer our religion to vary with the passing moods of every age, and are carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Let it be asked, first of all, why should it be worth our while to review with close attention the career of dead saints, and reflect in what their course of Christian living issued at the last? For this reason, that He who was the object of their faith, and the source of their life, and the prize of their fidelity, He in whose truth and fellowship lay all the glory and hope of their career, is to us exactly what He was to them--the same unaltered, undiminished object of trust and source of power! “ Christ Jesus is the same yesterday and to-day; for ever.” But yesterday your eyes beheld your leaders. The names you venerate as you recall them were living names. He it was in whom their life was lived, and their words uttered, and their deeds of witness-bearing done. If the issue of their career was memorable for its fearless martyr-devotion or its unshaken trust in death, who but He was the Lord in whom and for whom they died? To-day we are in their place; and we miss them, and the times are evil, and timid hearts are quaking. But today, as yesterday, Jesus, for His part, abides the same; passed into the heavens, able to save to the uttermost, ruling a kingdom which cannot be moved. Thus the lives and deaths of departed believers become instinct with lessons of encouragement so soon as you perceive how they were but the temporary organs through whom an enduring Saviour discovered to the world His truth and grace. Christ is Himself the sum of His own faith, as well as the Head of His whole Church. In a sense in which no other founder of a religion ever was identified with the faith He founded, He is Christianity. Therefore in His unchangeableness there lies a permanent factor, an element of perennial life and youth, for Christian history. If the dead fathers spoke to us the Word of God, it was because they found it in the person of Christ. If the end of their conversation, the last exit scene of their earthly walk, was edifying and saintly, He who gave them steadfast endurance and grace for dying need has not bade us farewell, but is as able to hold us in His peace and keep us from falling and conduct us across the sullen river to the shining shores beyond! Courage, then, for the desponding Christian heart! Hope for every generation that mourns its vanished leaders! New times bring new perils and impose new labours; but no time can rob us of Him in whose strength all past saints grew strong, or quench or dim the deathless presence which burns on through all the ages. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Duty to spiritual rulers I. THE SPECIAL DUTY TO WHICH WE ARE . It is very instructive to observe, that when the apostle fastens our attention on those servants of God who have gone to their rest, he does not call up before our minds the gifts with which they were endowed, or the attainments by which they were distinguished; he says nothing of the learning of which they were possessed, or the eloquence with which they were adorned. Nay, it is not on that which was official or personal that he fastens; not on aught that was distinctive or peculiar to them, as the commissioned ambassadors of Christ, but on that which they professed in common with all saints. Now when the apostle here singles out the faith by which they were distinguished, and bids us be followers of that, it is not because that was the one solitary feature of Christian character by which they were distinguished. Nay, faith never stands alone; but it is singled out just because it is the one great fundamental principle which ministered to the vitality of all the other graces of the Christian character. It is faith that unites the soul to Christ; and so it is the spring of their spiritual life. It is faith that keeps the soul leaning upon Christ, and thereby secures their safety. It is faith that keeps the soul ever near to Christ, and so it promotes their holiness and conformity to Christ. It is faith that draws out of the fulness that is treasured up in Christ, and supplies the believer with the nourishment needed for the ripening of his Christian character, that he may reach “ the measure of a perfect man.” II. THE THAT IS TO ANIMATE US TO THE OF THEIR FAITH. 1. The word rendered “ considering” signifies looking at, or beholding with attention. It is a metaphor from the art of painting. When a pupil is learning his art, he is set to copy a picture of his master--to imitate that picture, and reproduce it if he can; and in order to do this he must keep carefully looking to it, keeping it ever before him. In like manner, the apostle summons us, while engaged in this work of imitating the faith of departed believers, to keep steadfastly before us the end of their faith. 2. The word rendered “ the end” signifies not only termination, but also exit. It means an end accompanied with, and consisting in, an escape or deliverance from the trials and temptations to which they were exposed. (1) It conveys the idea that they are not lost, but gone before; not dead, but living. Their place here is empty, but their place in heaven is filled. What to us was an end, to them was only a beginning--not the sunset, but the dawn--not the blotting out and extinguishing of their life, but the rising of new stars on yon glorious firmament. (2) There is more than mere survival; there is escape from all the toil and weariness of this earthly scene. No note of sadness in their song; no drop of bitterness in their cup. (Thos. Main, D. D.) The remembering of departed Christian ministers: When we have followed the remains of our departed pious friends to the house appointed for all living, we are apt to conclude that our connection with them has, for the present, entirely ceased. But it is not so. They are gone; but we have not done with them. We are to embalm their memory in our heart, to recollect the instructions which we have received from them--to consider their life, and especially how they died; that we may be taught, both how we are to live, and how to be prepared to die. I. THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE. 1. A Christian minister must be a guide to his flock. It is true that it is God alone who efficiently leads His people like a flock through this wilderness to the heavenly Canaan. But it is also true that Christian ministers are undershepherds of the great Bishop of souls. In the exercise of these important functions, however, they have no dominion over the faith of the flock; no authority to constrain the conscience, except by the presentation of the truth and the influence of love. 2. A Christian minister must preach the Word of God. He is to beware of preaching himself, or of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 3. Such being the nature of the pastoral office, and the duty of those who hold it, what ought to be their character? They should be like those described in the text. These were, in the first place, men who were strong in faith, giving glory to God; and, in this point of view, were worthy of the imitation of all believers. But, further, they were men whose conversation was worthy of their profession. They lived as Christians; they glorified that Saviour “ who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” To promote His cause was the object of their existence. In Him they placed their confidence; in Him their affections centred. And they consecrated their time, their talents, their property, and life itself, to the promotion of his cause in the world; and their end was like their life. II. THE DUTY WHICH WE OWE TO . 1. We ought to remember pious ministers. Remember what they were--the ministers of God to you--the messengers of the King of kings, invested with the high commission of proclaiming to you those glad tidings of great joy which bring glory to God and salvation to men. 2. We ought to follow their faith, that is, imitate them in their steadfastness in the profession of the faith which they preached, and, like them, be faithful unto the death, 3. We ought to consider the end of their conversation--we should attentively, and with a view to our own profit, consider their deportment its object, and its issue. (G. Johnston.) How to honour the saintly dead Men naturally desire to be remembered, though dead and gone, to have their names perpetuated to after ages; nor has there been wanting among the heathen such, who, though not inspired with the hopes of a future reward, yet have taken care to have their memories conveyed to posterity. Witness the Egyptian pyramids, as also certain statues among the Greeks, with the names of their founders inscribed On them. And indeed so it is; for otherwise God would never have assured it to righteous men that they should be had in everlasting remembrance, that their righteousness should remain for ever, and their memories never perish. Whereas God hath threatened the wicked with excision, even of their very names, that their memory should perish; or, if it did out-live them, it should rot. How very exact too were the primitive Christians in honouring the memories of their martyrs and deceased bishops? For this were the diptychs read in the church, which were two leaves or tables, on the one whereof were written the names of those pious men and confessors who were yet alive; and on the other those who had died in the Lord and were at rest. For this were altars erected over their graves; for this were their pictures hung up in their private shops and houses; for this were churches, though dedicated to God, made to boar the names of saints to preserve their memories; for this were their feast days celebrated, panegyrics made on them, and their lives written. St. Basil wrote the life of Barlaam, who was but a poor shepherd; Nazianzen, of Basil and others, which, he saith, he left to posterity as a common table of virtue for all the world to look on. We do not read of any worship in those times addressed to them; we do not read of any prayers for them to be delivered out of purgatory; nor of adoring their relics; nor of making vows or oblations unto them. But the greatest honour which they did them was to follow or imitate them, which is the second duty inculcated in the text. The very remembrance of good men is an approach to holiness, otherwise St. Paul would not have required it. By virtue of this imitation it is that we become influenced, nay, ecstasied with the spirits of those who are gone before us; that we become meek with Moses, patient with Job, chaste with Joseph, devout with David. Would they have unworthily betrayed their holy faith? With what courage, with what patience were they endowed! And indeed, as I intimated even now, this is the highest honour we can do them, to propound them to ourselves as our patterns, and to follow them in their constant love to God, to religion, and to all mankind, whatsoever we suffer for it. By this we raise them as it were from the dead to life again, we revive their memories, we personate them in this world, and act their parts. Our actions are the resultances of theirs, our praises the echoes of their songs, and our selves the living images of them. And those who do thus honour God’ s saints and friends, God Himself will honour everlastingly. Here are two graces expressed in the text in which especially we are obliged to follow them. 1. Their faith. 2. Their perseverance and constancy even unto the end of their conversation. As to faith, we here understand by it the grace rather than the rule of faith, and by it we mean a constant dependence upon God for the performance of His promises; a being convinced of the truth of those things of which we have no ocular or sensible demonstration. Intuentes, looking upon seriously, and diligently, again and again, their exit, their going out of the world. Revolve with yourselves how holily they adorned their faith, how constantly they persevered in the profession of it, how gloriously they attested and signed it with their blood! Faithful they were unto death, or, as Clemens Alexandrinus expresseth it, to the very last gasp, as they did run the race set before them, so they did it with patience and perseverance. (Edward Lake, D. D.) Ministers to be remembered after they are dead I. WHAT A TRUE OF JESUS CHRIST LEAVES TO BE BY HIS PEOPLE AFTER HIS DECEASE. 1. And the first thing which offers itself to our observation herein, is, his doctrine--sound and true; perfectly agreeable to the oracles of God with which he is entrusted, and which he has taken in charge to deliver to the souls of men. 2. The next thing which a true minister of Christ leaves to be remembered is--his example as a true follower of Jesus Christ. 3. Another particular which a faithful minister leaves to be remembered, is his injunctions and admonitions. 4. The last thing which I shall mention, that a true minister of Jesus Christ leaves to be remembered by his people after his decease, is his love to their souls. II. THE DUTY WHICH IS ON THE PEOPLE, TO FOLLOW THE SOUND FAITH OF SUCH A TRUE AND . “ Whose faith follow.” III. THE REASON WHY THE PEOPLE SHOULD THUS AND FOLLOW THE FAITH OF SUCH A , FROM THE OF THE GOOD END WHICH HE HAD IN VIEW IN ALL HIS LABOURS, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH HE IS ENABLED TO FINISH HIS COURSE. “ Considering the end of their conversion,” I shall use these words in two senses. 1. “ As respecting the end of their conversation in life, or that end which the ministers of Jesus Christ have in view, in the things which they preach and recommend.” This end is--the good of your souls. 2. This expression may more particularly mean the end by which the Christian minister finishes his course. And this, I apprehend, is the sense in which it is more generally understood. Now, if here, in the finishing part, he be able to bear a good testimony to the truth of that which he has delivered, it is the fullest human confirmation which we can expect of its truth. For death is a trying hour. However any may be able in the day of health and strength, firmly to hold to their deceits, yet, unless the mind be overwhelmed with ignorance, or the conscience seared, that hour will tear all such webs asunder; it will try every man’ s work of what sort it is. But now, the delusions of fancy or the pretensions of the hypocrite are detected by this awful test; if, on the other hand, in this hour of severe trial, the Christian minister’ s hope stands firm, and instead of retracting anything from the doctrines which he has delivered, he testifies of them as more precious than ever; surely such evidence recommends itself to our fullest attention, and carries with it the greatest force for the conviction of every candid mind. (James Stillingfleet, M. A.) Preachers speak after death: There are strange legends extant of churches which have been swallowed by earthquakes, or buried beneath fallen mountains. The rustics declare that they have heard the bells still ringing, far down in the bowels of the earth, just as they did when they hung aloft in the tower. Take the bells to be preachers and the legend is true, for being dead they yet speak, and from their graves they sound forth lessons not less powerful than those with which they made their pulpits resound while they were yet with us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Honour God’ s ministers: Take heed of that; for then God is dishonoured, when anything is the more despised by how much it relates nearer unto God. No religion ever did despise their chiefest ministers; and the Christian religion gives them the greatest honour. For honourable priesthood is like a shower from heaven, it causes blessings everywhere; but a pitiful, a disheartened, a discouraged clergy waters the ground like a waterpot--here and there a little good, and for a little while; but every evil man can destroy all that work whenever he pleases. Take heed; in the world there is not a greater misery can happen to any man than to be an enemy to God’ s Church. All histories of Christendom, and the whole Book of God, have sad records, and sad threatenings, and sad stories of Korah, and Doeg, and Balaam, and Jeroboam, and Uzzah, and Ananias, and Sapphira, and Julian, and of heretics and schismatics, and sacrilegious; and after all, these men could not prevail finally, but paid for the mischief they did, and ended their days in dishonour, and left nothing behind them but the memory of their sin, and the record of their curse. (Bp. Taylor.) Jesus Christ the same. The immutability of Christ: The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has just been recalling memories of the first apostles of the gospel. Many of them were dead. Those who had seen Christ, and who had listened to Him, became day by day fewer in number. The flux of time, and the ravages of persecution, had done their work in thinning out the illustrious band. More than one soul had been dismayed and discouraged, and therefore it was necessary to recall to the minds of all that, though men may come and men may go, the cause of Christ is immortal. It is just this thought which the sacred writer expresses in glowing words of lofty exultation, “ Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” To be immovable, unchangeable, immortal, is the greatest end men can think of. It is the supreme dream of earthly vanity. In this world nothing remains long. Man is carried to and fro by the sweeping and the swirling of the tide. The very molecules of which his body is composed are changed from time to time with a rapidity which defies the calculating powers of science. Generations come and generations go as rapidly and as transiently as the forest leaves swept by the autumn breeze, and it is precisely this mutability, this feebleness, which man most resents. Was there ever a man--an educated man, at any rate--who did not passionately desire to leave a name which would survive him? There is the dream of literary ambition. There is the dream of military glory for which men face, with cool composure, the cannon’ s mouth. Well-a-day! Of all those whom the thirst for glory has seized, how many ever attained it? Many were called. How many were chosen? How small, after all, is the number of those who leave behind them an undestroyable memory or fame that no man will dispute! To some it has been vouchsafed to serve with distinction their country on the field of battle, or in Parliament; others have opened up new tracts to civilisation, and have acquired a fame purer than that of arms, or they have guided the consciences, and have made themselves the teachers of humanity. Is it not certain that, in the treasure-house of history, there are reputations which are imperishable, against which time and the changes of this mortal life are powerless to corrode? Now is this an idea similar to that of the text, where we are told that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever? Is it merely a question of saying that, among the sons of men, nobody has left on earth a pro-founder trace or a more indestructible fame? That of itself would be an imperishable glory, but the text has more to say than this. It speaks to you of a truth believed under every sky by the Church’ s children, that Christ is living, and that He reigns for ever. Christ is in the midst of us by His Eternal Presence. Others have acquired immortality by their work, but it is an immortality limited by questions, whether their work is more durable, more true, more striking, more useful, than that of possible rivals. Jesus Christ is working to-day as He worked yesterday, and as He will work to-morrow. The better to understand this immutability, consider--I. THE OF HIS . He told us that it would be so. Standing one day in view of the Temple, He said, “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” It is remarkable that, when He pronounced these words, not one of them was written down. They were confided to the memory of a few poor, ignorant men, who hardly understood them. In the sanctuaries of Thebes, of Delphi, and of Nineveh, the religious thought of millions of worshippers have been engraved on marble and on metal, in the desire to hand down to coming generations the names and the exploits of their gods. What is there left of it all? The memorials of the proud religions of the masters of the world, and those remembrances which one might have expected to be imperishable, have vanished into the sombre depths of the great ocean of oblivion but, like the ark of old, the words of Christ preserved in four little books have become the heritage, and the treasure, not only of all the successive generations of all the superior races on the face of the earth, but also of the humblest and the poorest among the children of men. You will tell me, perhaps, that in this perpetual duration of the teaching of Jesus Christ, there is nothing very extraordinary and nothing peculiar to Himself. I may be told of many thinkers and poets since Homer and Plato whose works have become the property of humanity. But there is; in the teaching of Jesus Christ, another feature. It is unchanging, not only in its duration, but in the nature of the authority it possesses. Here is a gospel which, in every age and in every clime, subjugates and makes captive the human conscience. Hundreds of millions of souls live and die under the same spell which, in the days of our Lord, captivated disciples as they listened to Him for the first time. Ask yourself why this should be so. The object of true religion is to establish and strengthen the double tie existing between God and man, and between man and his fellow man. What is the root of all our knowledge of Jesus Christ if it is not just this? The tie which linked us to God has been broken by sin. It can be re-established by pardon from God and faith from man, and when it has been formed anew it should show itself in the justice and the charity of our lives. That is the substance of all Christ’ s teaching. Let us take another step. The teaching of Christ is remarkable, not only for what He said, but for what He did not say. His extraordinary sobriety of thought and of language is the best proof that His was not the supreme effort of the human soul aspiring towards the infinite. It is the revelation of God who tells man just as much as it is necessary for him to know and no more. This sobriety is the most striking proof of His immutability. Let us suppose that, like every other religious teacher, He had touched upon political and social questions, that He had pronounced some views on scientific questions, and we found in the pages of the Gospel a system of caste, as in Brahminism, or a code of legal enactments, as in Mahommedanism, or even a religious philosophy, such as that of the schoolmen. Is it not plain that on all sides He would have exposed Himself to unnecessary attacks from the progressive thought of the ages? He might have impressed men by His brilliancy, but in His teaching there would have been the seeds of decay. What do we find it: them? Why, we find that marvellous, that indefinable, thing which we call life. Just in that way, life is always found in the words of Christ, immutable in its essence, infinitely diverse in its applications. They are words which can never grow old. They are as immutable as Justice, fruitful as Love, eternal as Truth. II. Look, again, at the immutability of Jesus Christ as exemplified in His PERSON. Jesus Christ is not only a Master, a Revealer, but He is also a Revelation. He did not merely say, “ Listen to Me” ; He said, too, “ Look at Me.” Not only did He say, “ Believe My words,” He said, “ Believe in Me.” In the person of Jesus Christ there are two Beings in unity, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the visible image of the invisible God, and the ideal type of humanity. I am not going to attempt to explain the Mystery. I simply place myself in the presence of Jesus Christ. There I see the Ideal Type of moral perfection. I say that this Type is immutable, and that the words of the text are true of that Type, “ Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” Just think of it for a moment--an immutable Ideal! Is there not something bold and even presumptuous in the very phrase? Nothing in the history of the human imagination is so difficult as to create an ideal of perfection which will last. The greatest geniuses have failed in the endeavour. Dante and Milton described with wonderful power the sufferings of hell; they failed, utterly, when they tried to paint the harmonies of heaven. Novelists who have depicted with bitter truth the anguish of remorse, and the consuming tortures of guilty passion, have never yet succeeded in creating an ideal hero. The ideal of one race is not the ideal of another. But in Christ’ s Person I behold a strange fact. Here is a Being who came forth from the East. Here is a Descendant of Shem who will bend the sons of Japhet. Here is a Representative of the House of Israel in whom representatives of all earth’ s races have found and adored the absolute Moral Ideal. He has bent before His Throne the art-loving children of Greece, who in His Cross of shame have discovered a creation of beauty which none of their most gifted artists could imitate. Before His sceptre have bowed low the chiefs and the soldiers of Imperial Rome, and when in the ruin of that Empire young and barbarous races streamed forth from the far-off lands of the East, like troubled waves of the ocean tossing and heaving beneath the anger of God, those restless souls bowed down in the dust before a Majesty simpler and purer than any they had ever seen, in fact, or in dream. He restrained the brutality of men in the Middle Ages, when, in the Renaissance, the antiquity which men had rediscovered intoxicated their minds with subtle fancies, He took possession of the strong souls, like Luther and like Calvin, who, by their very faults, checked the shortcomings of their age. So it was in the seventeenth century, the century of positive science, the age which saw masters like Copernicus, like Euler, like Newton, like Pascal, great souls whose glory it was to devote themselves and all their genius to the service of their fellow men. And so it is to-day. After criticism the most pitiless, after scrutiny the most rigid, after all His acts, His works, His life have been dissected, that sublime Figure still remains as sublime and as holy as ever, towering above human ideas of grandeur, above human idols and human follies. III. Immutable, too, is He in His WORK. For three years He worked on earth. By the Spirit He works throughout the centuries, and in all time you will see in His work three great characteristics. 1. He saves. For that purpose He came here. He is nothing unless He is the Redeemer. 2. He sanctified. Through the ages He gives humanity new life, transforming man’ s hearts, changing men’ s wills and men’ s lives, working a work in man’ s souls analogous to that which here below He wrought in their bodies when He healed men’ s leprosies, delivered men possessed of devils, raised men who had passed into the grasp of death. I know well to what you are going to object. Where, you will ask me, was this sanctifying influence in the days of Constantine, and of Clovis, or, later on, in Christian Gaul when the Merovingian kings illustrated all the infamies of life? Where, we have often asked, has it been in many of our modern churches, which have become worldly and insipid like salt that has lost its flavour? It was there. It may have lain mysterious and hidden in the souls of the faithful, so that the world knew it not--in faithful souls who, mingling with sinners of the most flagrant type, yet preserved to their last breath the Treasure of the Faith and the Eternal Hope. It was there in the narrow cell of a convent, and in the caverns of the Cevennes, in those humble men, those little ones of earth’ s passing show, who would not bend the knee to Baal. And that is why the Church has lived. That is why she still lives, saved by her Divine Chief, who watches over her, and preserves her. 3. I have said, too, that Christ consoles. It is here that men may see, if they choose, the immutable nature of His work. It is attested beyond all doubt, not by the happiest of men, but by the most afflicted--Jesus Christ consoles. He has shown us an object in grief which makes it endurable. He lightens death with an eternal hope. He tells us of a sympathy profound, immense, infinite. And this is not an hypothesis. It is a reality we experience every hour, every minute. The blind only can deny that this consolation exists. That Christ is unchangeable--let us take, then, this thought as a great power in our faith, a great consolation for our hearts, a great encouragement for our active and militant Christianity. Christ is always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He was here yesterday, He will be here to-morrow. His wealth of tenderness and of sympathy is always the same. He will be here in all possible troubles. He will be with us in the last moments of weakness, in the last sigh of agony. He will be with us to the very end. We are under the protection of an unchanging Power. When Charlemagne had reconstructed the political edifice of the Caesars, when he had gathered together under his victorious sceptre Germany and Helvetia, Italy and Gaul, the astonished world gazed upon this empire, which extended from the banks of the Baltic to the Pyrenees, and from the Alps to the Ocean. It happened that one day the old Emperor, satiated with glory, sat at a window in his palace on the banks of the Seine, and suddenly his eyes filled with tears. Being asked why he was sad, he pointed to the fields and the vines which the Norman pirates had devastated as they went up the river, and he said: “ If they will do this while I live, what will they do when I am dead?” All! what will they do after me? It is the last cry of the great ones of the earth, whether they be called Alexander or Caesar, Charlemagne or Napoleon. It is the last cry of great thinker: like Plato and Spinoza, Leibnitz and Hegel: “ What will they do when I am dead?” Imminent change, like a constant menace--heirs to succeed us who may destroy what we have gathered. But we serve an unchanging Master. It has pleased God, says the prophet, that Eternal Empire should rest on His shoulders. Those shoulders will not bend, and that empire will subsist for ever. In this hope, in this faith, in this rest, in this communion of the Universal Church, let us sing the Te Deum of the Christians of old, “ Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.” (E. Bersier, D. D.) Sameness without monotony: When these words were written they meant: Jesus Christ of to-day (the Gospel day) is the same as Jehovah of yesterday (the Old Testament day). Does not this enlarge our views, ennobling not the Master Himself, but our conception of Him? Now we know who walked with Enoch, who wrestled with Jacob, who walked with Abraham, who revealed Himself to Moses, who led His people like a shepherd--Jesus, the same yesterday and to-day. Always the same. The only (real) difference is the atmosphere through which He is viewed. I used to stay in Cumberland, and right away in line with the street, twenty miles distant, was a grand and venerable mountain-Skiddaw--always there, always the same, and yet different every day, every hour. Some days, however, it could not be seen. Clouds rolled between, but it was there, all the same. Other days it seemed close at hand, seen through the atmosphere that precedes rain, when distant objects grow near--a peculiar sombre atmosphere; then the mountain almost overshadowed one with its solemn grandeur. And some days, when the earth was deluged with golden light, and as sunbeams fell athwart the mountain, it seemed further away and yet much nearer, its details startling in their far-away distinctness. Always there, always the same; and yet, how different! Thus we are reminded not only of the sameness of Christ, but the infinite variety--may I reverently say?--the infinite novelty in Him. In Him there is sameness without monotony. How different from ourselves I We weary one another with our sameness. We repeat the same commonplaces in our conversation; we write the same things in our letters; we utter the same platitudes in our religious exercises--and God has more patience with us than we have with each other. Yet now and then we meet with a man about whom there is continually something new; who is always the same, and yet never twice alike; who always seems to have a chapter in reserve; whose life, as we know it better, ever unfolds in a way that charms the senses, enlightens the understanding, and warms the heart. Think of such a man, superior to all you know, and for whose engaging friendship you sometimes think you would give all you have. Yet even he would weary many. And at best he is a cipher, when contrasted with Him in whom is all the fulness of the Godhead and all the perfection of humanity. Even His enemies never grow tired of Him. And that “ for ever” : who shall say what it will reveal to us? Yesterday and to-day are ample guarantee of what to-morrow will be. Yesterday--Old Testament day and imperfect dispensation- what variety! Many a dreary life would be charmed by a study of the Old Testament alone, with its infinite variety of light and shadow. To-day--Gospel day--who can read the books, who can see all the pictures, who can hear allthe music; who can measure all the good inspired by Him, who maketh all things new? I. THE SAME . What beautiful glimpses we have of the companionship of yesterday, almost tempting us to wish that we had lived then instead of to-day. But yesterday is so vividly pictured in the Gospels that we may know what to expect to-day. Yesterday Jesus began His mission at a homely gathering--a wedding party--changing water into wine and disappointment into gladness. And even when He did not speak or work, how eloquent and comforting would be that silent presence and companionship. Christ in the house, Christ in the home, the same to-day as yesterday. Think what he must have been in His mother’ s home for thirty years. And, lest we should be discouraged at the thought, we have the assurance that our association with Him may be real and close and beautiful (Matthew 12:49-50). Yesterday He took the little one up in arms laid his hands upon them, and blessed them. And, no doubt, this is given as a sample of what He often did. Is He the same to-day? What means the band of 500,000 Sunday-school teachers (in our own country alone) every Sunday afternoon gathering around them some 5,000,000 scholars, and, without pay, telling those children the old, old story? What is meant by all the entrancing books and papers published for children to-day?--Jesus Christ, the same Friend of childhood to-day as yesterday; no longer embracing two or three children in the Temple cloister, but a great multitude that no man can number. II. THE SAME TEACHER. “ Lo! I am with you alway.” Is He not ascended up on high? Yet to an eminence where all can see Him. When on earth, He said, “ The Son of man which is in heaven.” If in heaven when on earth, surely on earth when in heaven. III. THE SAME SAVIOUR. Yesterday the blind received their sight, the deaf were made to hear, the lame to walk, the leper to rejoice as he escaped a living death. All this free, without money, without price, and never one case refused. Jesus--“ Saviour” --is the same to-day, and none dare point to a case and say it is too desperate for Him. Yesterday He recalled the maiden scarcely cold in death, the young man some time longer dead, and Lazarus far within the portals of death. Even concerning the body alone, when the Christian considers the marvels of surgery to-day, the progress of nursing, and matters pertaining to health and food, he is bound to ascribe them all to Him who went about doing good to body and soul alike. We feel that the miracles of to-day would not be experienced had not the Saviour come down to this poor, sin-stricken world--if He did not abide in it still. Philosophy and civilisation had their chance for ages to show what the world could do without a Divine Saviour. Last, but not least--in some way we cannot understand--Christ is the same to-day in His dying love. His sympathy is the same. When the heavens were opened to the seer of Patmos, he beheld that which made him think of a Lamb newly slain, yet slain from the foundation of the world. (M. Eastwood.) The unchangeableness of Christ I. HE MUST BE DIVINE. 1. The history of all creature existences shows that they are essentially mutable. 2. The nature of things shows that the uncreated alone can be immutable. II. His GOSPEL MUST STAND FOR EVER AS THE LIVING OF HIMSELF. III. HIS FRIENDS ARE BLESSED. (Homilist.) Instructions and consolations from the unchangeableness of Christ I. THE OF THESE WORDS. 1. The Hebrews had been blessed with public instructors, who had spoken to them the word of God, and who believed and lived what they taught. 2. They had spoken, bat now they ceased to speak the word of God. Their exemplary edifying conversation was now at an end. 3. Ministers, who have thus spoken the word of God, should be remembered, their faith followed, and the end of their conversation considered. 4. From the caution after our text, “ Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,” it would appear that there were some who endeavoured to turn the Hebrews aside from that purity and simplicity of the gospel which their deceased pastors had inculcated. Even in the primitive Church, tares were sown soon after the wheat, and sprung up in abundance. II. THE MEANING of my text, and the practical instructions it suggests. 1. The religion of Jesus is ever the same. The doctrines and laws, taught by Christ and His inspired apostles, have been, are, and ever shall be, the only rule of faith and manners. 2. The kind and benevolent affections of Jesus are the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Dispensations of Providence may wear a frowning aspect; clouds and darkness may be round about the Saviour, and hide from His ransomed ones the pleasant light of His countenance; still, however, the love of His heart never expires, never diminishes. 3. The power of Christ is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. (J. Erskine, D. D.) The uniformity of God in His government: St. Paul gives us a very beautiful idea of God, when he says, “ The wisdom of God is manifold.” The first great cause, the Supreme Being, hath designs infinitely diversified. This appears by the various beings which He hath created, and by the different ways in which He governs them. But, although there be a diversity in the conduct of God, it is always a diversity of wisdom. Whether He creates a material or an intelligent world; whether He forms” celestial or terrestial bodies, men, angels, seraphims, or cherubims; whether He governs the universe by the same, or by different laws; in all cases, and at all times, He acts like a God: He hath only one principle, and that is order. There is a harmony in His perfections, which He never disconcerts. I. We see in THE ECONOMY OF TIME four remarkable varieties. 1. We see in God’ s government of His Church various degrees of light communicated. Compare the time of Moses with that of the prophets, and that of the prophets with that of the evangelists and apostles. In these various degrees of knowledge, communicated by God to men, I see that uniformity which is the distinguishing character of His actions, and the inviolable rule of His government. The same principle that inclined Him to grant a little light to the age of Moses, inclined Him to afford more to the time of the prophets, and the greatest of all to the age in which the evangelists and apostles lived. What is this principle? It is a principle of order, which requires that the object proposed to a faculty be proportioned to this faculty; that a truth proposed to an intelligence be proportioned to this intelligence. 2. What justifies the government of God on one of these articles, on the various degrees of light bestowed on His Church, will fully justify Him in regard to the worship required by Him. Conceive of the Jews, enveloped in matter, loving to see the objects of their worship before their eyes, and, as they said themselves, to have gods going before them. Imagine these gross creatures coming into our assemblies, how could they, being all sense and imagination (so to speak), exercise the better powers of their souls without objects operating on fancy and sense? How could they have made reflection, meditation, and thought, supply the place of hands and eyes, they who hardly knew what it was to meditate? How could they, who had hardly any idea of spirituality, have studied the nature of God abstractly, which yet is the only way of conducting us to a clear knowledge of a spiritual being? 3. The same may be said of the evidences, on which God hath founded the faith of His Church. What a striking difference! Formerly the Church saw sensible miracles, level to the weakest capacities; at present our faith is founded on a chain of principles and consequences which find exercise for the most penetrating geniuses. How many times have infidels reproached us on account of this difference! Represent to yourselves the whole world let loose against Christians; imagine the primitive disciples required to believe the heavenly origin of a religion, which called them first to be baptized in water, then in blood. How necessary were miracles in these adverse times, and how hard, with all the encouragement given by them, must the practice of duty be then! Weigh these circumstances against yours, and the balance will appear more equal than ye have imagined. 4. In like manner we observe a similar uniformity in the various laws prescribed to the Church. At all times, and in all places, God required His Church to love Him with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind: but He did not inform His people at all times and in all places the manner in which He required love to express itself. Expressions of love must be regulated by ideas of Deity;. Ideas of Deity are more or less pure as God reveals Himself more or less clearly. 5. Our fifth article is intended to justify the various conditions in which it hath pleased God to place His Church. At one time the Church enjoys temporal pomp and felicity, at another it is exposed to whatever the world can invent of misery and ignominy. Let us reason in regard to the Church in general, as we reason in regard to each private member of it. Do you think (I speak now to each individual) there is a dungeon so deep, a chain so heavy, a misery so great, a malady so desperate, that God cannot deliver you, were your deliverance suitable to the eminence of His perfections? Why, then, doth He at any time reduce us to these dismal extremities? Order requires God, who intends to save you, to employ those means, which are most likely to conduct you to salvation, or, if you refuse to profit by them, to harden you under them. He wills your salvation, and therefore He removes all your obstacles to salvation. Let us reason in regard to the Church in general, as we do in regard to the individuals who compose it. A change in the condition of the Church doth not argue any change in the attributes of God. The same eminence of perfections which engageth Him sometimes to make all concur to the prosperity of His Church, engageth Him at other times to unite all adversities against it. II. We have considered Jesus Christ in the economy of time, now let us consider Him in THE ECONOMY OF . We shall see in this, as in the former, that harmony of perfections, that uniformity of government, which made our apostle say, “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” The same principle that formed His plan of human government in the economy of time, will form a plan altogether different in that” of eternity. The same principle of proportion which inclines Him to confine our faculties within a narrow circle during this life, will incline Him infinitely to extend the sphere of them in a future state. The same principle which induces Him now to communicate Himself to us in a small degree, will then induce Him to communicate Himself to us in a far more eminent degree. The same principle that inclines Him now to assemble us in material buildings, to cherish our devotion by exercises savouring of the frailty of our state, by the singing of psalms, and by the participation of sacraments, will incline Him hereafter to cherish it by means more noble, more sublime, better suited to the dignity of our origin and to the price Of our redemption. The same principle which inclines Him to involve us now in indigence, misery, contempt, sickness, and death, will then induce Him to free us from all these ills, and to introduce us into that happy state where there will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, and where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. Proportion requires that intelligent creatures should be some time in a state of probation, and this is the nature of the present dispensation: but the same law of proportion requires also, that after intelligent creatures have been some time in a state of trial, and have answered the end of their being placed in such a state, there should be a state of retribution in an eternal economy. By this truth let us regulate our faith, our morality, and our ideas of our future destiny. 1. Our faith. Let us adore only one God, and let us acknowledge in Him only one perfection, that is to say, a harmony, which results from all His perfections. If this idea be impressed on our minds, our faith will never be shaken, at least it will never be destroyed by the vicissitudes of the world, or by those of the Church. Why? Because we shall be fully convinced, that the vicissitudes of both proceed from the same cause, I mean the immutability of that God who saith by the mouth of one of His prophets, “ I, the Lord, change not.” 2. God hath only one principle of His actions, that is proportion, order, fitness of things. Let love of order be the principle of all your actions; it is the character of a Christian, and would to God it were the character of all my hearers. A Christian hath only one principle of action. In Scripture-style this disposition of mind is called “ walking with God,” “ setting the Lord always before us.” Glorious character of a Christian, always uniform and like himself! He does nothing, if I may be allowed to speak so, but arrange his actions differently, as his circumstances vary. 3. Finally, this idea of God is very proper to regulate that of your future destiny. Do we wish for a full assurance of a claim to eternal happiness? Let us then by our conduct form an inseparable relation between our eternal felicity and the invariable perfections of that God who changeth not; let us spare no pains to arrive at that happy state, let us address to God our most fervent prayers to engage Him to bless the efforts which we make to enjoy it; and, after we have seriously engaged in this great work, let us fear nothing. (J. Saurin.) The unchanging Saviour I. WHAT IS DENIED. It is denied that either time, or mood, or circumstances, or provocation, or death, can alter Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. Time changes us. Your portrait, taken years ago, when you were in your prime, hangs on the walls of your home. You sometimes sadly contrast it with your present self. Then the face was unseamed by care, unscarred by conflict; but now how weary and furrowed! The upright form is bent, the step has lost its spring. But there is a greater difference between two mental than physical portraitures. Opinions alter. And sometimes the question arises, Can time alter Him whose portrait hangs on the walls of our hearts, painted in undying colours by the hands of the four Evangelists? Of course, time takes no effect on God, who is the I AM, eternal and changeless. But Jesus is man as well as God. He has tenses in His being: the yesterday of the past, the to-day of the present, the to-morrow of the future. It is at least a question whether His human nature, keyed to the experiences of man, may not carry with it, even to influence His royal heart, that sensitiveness to the touch of time which is characteristic of our race. But the question tarries only for a second. Time is foiled in Jesus. He has passed out of its sphere, and is impervious to its spell. 2. Moods change us. We know people who are oranges one day, and lemons the next; now a summer’ s day, and, again, a nipping frost; rock and reed alternately. You have to suit yourself to their varying mood, asking to-day what you would not dare to mention to-morrow; and thus there is a continual unrest and scheming in the hearts of their friends. But it is not so with Jesus. Never tired, or put out, or variable. 3. Circumstances change us. Men who in poverty and obscurity have been accessible and genial, become haughty when idolised for their genius and fawned on for their wealth. New friends, new spheres, new surroundings alter men marvellously. What a change has passed over Jesus Christ, since mortal eyes beheld Him. Crowned with glory and honour; seated at the right hand of the Father. Can this be He who was despised, an outcast, and a sufferer? R is indeed He. But surely it were too much to expect that He should be quite the same? Nay, but He is. And one proof of it is that the graces which He shed on the first age of the Church were of exactly the same quality as those which we now enjoy. We know that the texture of light is unaltered, because the analysis of a ray, which has just reached us from some distant star, whence it started as Adam stepped across the threshold of Eden, is of precisely the same nature as the analysis of the ray of light now striking on this page. And we know that Jesus Christ is the same as He was, because the life which throbbed in the first believers, resulted in those very fruits which are evident in our hearts and lives, all having emanated from Himself. 4. Sin and provocation change us. Our souls close up to those who have deceived our confidence. But sin cannot change Christ’ s heart, though it may affect His behaviour. If it could do so, it must have changed His feelings to Peter. But the only apparent alteration made by that sad denial was an increased tenderness. II. WHAT IS . 1. He is the same in His person (Hebrews 1:12). His vesture alters. He has exchanged the gaberdine Of the peasant for the robes of which He stripped Himself on the eve of His incarnation; but beneath those robes beats the same heart as heaved with anguish at the grave where His friend lay dead. 2. He is also the same in His office (Hebrews 7:24). Unweariedly He pursues His chosen work as the Mediator, Priest, and Intercessor of men. III. WHAT IT IMPLIES. It implies that He is God. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Jesus Christ immutable I. First, the personal names of our Lord here mentioned--“ JESUS CHRIST.” “ Jesus” stands first. That is our Lord’ s Hebrew name, “ Jesus,” or, “ Joshua.” The word signifies, a Saviour, “ for He shall save His people from their sins.” It was given to Him in His cradle. Jesus in the manger deserves to be called the Saviour, for when it can be said that “ the tabernacle of God is with men, and He doth dwell among them,” there is hope that all good things will be given to the fallen race. He was called Jesus in His childhood--“ The Holy Child Jesus.” He was Jesus, too, and is commonly called so both by His foes and by His friends in His active life. It is as Jesus the Saviour that He heals the sick. But He comes out most clearly as Jesus when dying on the cross; named so in a writing, “ Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” There preeminently was He the Saviour, being made a curse for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Still bearing the name of Jesus, our Lord rose from the dead. He is a Saviour for us since He vanquished the last enemy that shall be destroyed, that we, having been saved from sin by His death, should be saved from death through His resurrection. Jesus is the title under which He is called in glory, for “ Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” As Jesus He shall shortly come, and we are “ Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” There are two words in the name Jesus. The one is a contraction of the word “ Jehovah,” the other is the word which I have just now explained to you as ultimately coming to mean “ salvation.” Taken to pieces, the word Jesus means Jehovah salvation. You have the glorious essence and nature of Christ revealed to you as Jehovah, “ I am that I am,” and then you have in the second part of His name His great work for you in setting you at large and delivering you from all distress. Now reverently consider the second title--Christ. That is a Greek name, a Gentile name--Anointed. So that you see you have the Hebrew Joshua, Jesus, then theGreek Christos, Christ; so that we may see that no longer is there either Jew or Gentile, but all are one in Jesus Christ. The word Christ, as you all know, signifies anointed, and as such our Lord is sometimes called “ the Christ,” “ the very Christ” ; at other times “ the Lord’ s Christ,” and sometimes “ the Christ of God.” He is the Lord’ s Anointed, our King, and our Shield. This word “ Christ” teaches us three great truths. 1. It indicates His offices. He exercises offices in which anointing is necessary, and these are three: the office of the King, of the Priest, and of the Prophet. But it means more than that. 2. The name Christ declares His right to those offices. He is not King because He sets Himself up as such. God has set Him as King upon His holy hill of Zion, and anointed Him to rule. He is also Priest, but He has not taken the priesthood upon Himself, for He is the propitiation whom God has set forth for human sin. He comes not as a prophet who assumes office, but God hath anointed Him to preach glad tidings to the poor, and to come among His people with the welcome news of eternal love. 3. Moreover, this anointing signifies that as He has the office, and as it is His by right, so He has the qualifications for the work. II. His . Looking at the Greek, one notices that it might be read thus, “ Jesus Christ Himself yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” The anointed Saviour is always Himself. He is always Jesus Christ; and the word “ same “ seems to me to bear the most intimate relation to the two titles of the text, and does as good as say that Jesus Christ is always Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. If the goodly fellowship of the prophets could be here to-day, they would all testify to you that He was the same in every office in their times as He is in these our days. 1. Jesus Christ is the same now as He was in times gone by, for the text saith, “ The same yesterday, and to-day.” He is the same to-day as He was from old eternity. Before all worlds He planned our salvation; He entered into covenant with His Father to undertake it. Whatever was in the heart of Christ before the stars began to shine, that same infinite love is there to-day. Jesus is the same to-day as He was when He was here on earth. When He tabernacled among men, He was most willing to save. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Hebrews 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines Evils of a state of scepticism It would seem hardly to be expected, where ample means of religious knowledge are enjoyed, that such a state of mind should be a common thing. Of those who are educated under religious light, and who are led in early life to accept Christianity, a very considerable number sooner or later reach a state in which they are disposed to question almost anything pertaining to religion. More commonly this crisis arrives in advanced youth, or on the verge of manhood. Up to that time the mind has been content to take as truth, on the authority of others, and with but little question, whatever may have been taught it. It has acquiesced, without serious difficulty, in the statements of parents and teachers as to what were the claims of duty. But now there comes a change. Of the views and impressions which childhood entertained on a variety of subjects, advancing years and knowledge have shown many to be erroneous. In this state of mind the inquirer is inclined to question everything, as he once was to believe everything. He has found a few things, or, if you please, many things, to be false, and so he is afraid to believe that anything is true. He passes, by a not unnatural process, from the extreme of credulity to the extreme of scepticism. At this point one of three things must happen: either the mind must become utterly lost to truth, and settle itself on the ultimately fatal grounds of false opinion; or it must drift on unfixed, full of uncertainty, or, it must lay hold of the strong cable of sound evidence, and deliberately cast anchor on the sure foundations of the truth. There are doubtless some who do succeed in confirming themselves in falsehood beyond the chance of recovery. We are sure, also, that there are those who gain a hold on truth which nothing can relax, and which permanently sets their hearts at rest. But how large a number fall into the intermediate class, the class of perpetual doubters!--and are carried about by diverse and strange doctrines, always catching at a new absurdity to relieve the weariness of dwelling on the last. What can be more deplorable than this unnatural, this morbid bewilderment of the soul? Such a state is, of all things, to be dreaded. 1. For, in the first place, it must needs be an exceedingly unhappy state. To all minds that have received even a moderate degree of cultivation, it is a source of positive pleasure to have, on all important subjects, clear views and well-defined opinions. So, on the contrary, it is painful to the sound mind to grope about in the “ everlasting fog” --to be threading backward and forward the mazy labyrinths of vague inquiry, which chases shadows and catches at emptiness, finding nothing solid on which it can rely. This, we say, is the constitutional law of the mind, let the subject about which it inquires be what it may. But if the matter in question be one on the right understanding of which great consequences are depending, there must be, in addition to the doubtfulness, the pain of anxious apprehension. The fear of what calamities may soon or late, result from failure to ascertain the truth, will often haunt the mind and mingle more or less with all its thoughts. Religion, it is clearly seen, if it be anything, is of the highest imaginable interest; and to miss the truth in such an affair, may, it cannot but be felt, involve irreparable loss, disaster that nothing can retrieve. Here is a most effectual cause of disquiet to the soul. 2. It is also evident, still further, that a state of chronic scepticism tends greatly to enfeeble both the character and the mind. A strong mind presses on to a decision. It is content only when getting at results, A sceptical habit--observe I do not say a season of temporary questioning, but a chronic habit of doubting--most generally indicates a want of mental energy to lay hold of evidence and to appreciate its force; a lack of the strength of mind required in order to rise above the prejudices that tend to warp the judgment. It betrays an intellectual feebleness already existing and likely to perpetuate itself. For when the mind has been allowed, and rather encouraged, to wander among the mists of doubt; to look rather after difficulties, than after proofs; it seems to become incapable of logical deduction and unsusceptible to the effect of evidence. It will also be true that in proportion to this loss of force and intellect, there will be likewise a loss of general force of character. He who is unable to decide with promptness, will not be able to execute with vigour. The habitual vacillation of the mind will be sure to exhibit itself in a feeble, time-serving, irresolute course of action. There is yet another evil result of the habit of mind in question. 3. It is very liable to impair the love of truth, and to lower the estimate set on it by the judgment. Truth has been well defined to be “ the reality of things.” To know truth is to know things as they are. On having a right understanding especially of those things that directly relate to us, our highest welfare essentially depends. Nothing therefore, in fact, is so precious to us as truth. God has, accordingly, given the mind an instinctive love of truth, a natural desire to know things as they are. It is an important end of education to strengthen this desire, and give it a right direction: and observation and experience show that, in respect to many subjects at least, it is, on the other hand, capable of being weakened, and almost or quite destroyed. It is found, for example, especially easy to repress the instinctive desire to know, when there is occasion to apprehend that the knowledge of the truth might be for any reason painful; and this is the case invariably in respect to sinful man when he inquires about religion. While on this, as on other subjects, he feels the natural desire for knowledge, there are conscious reasons growing out of his own character which prompt him to resist this desire, and rather to shrink from full and certain knowledge, than to seek it. He is inclined to indulge himself in something. The question, Is it right? suggests itself. If he presses the inquiry, he may find himself obliged to deny his inclination; and he will be very likely for this reason not to press it. The appetite for truth may yield to the stronger appetite for self-indulgence which now has possession of the mind. In every such case, of course, the love of truth must necessarily be weakened. There will be less appreciation of its value than before; and if the oftener the love of truth is repressed for such a reason, the feebler it becomes, it must finally be destroyed. But this is what is happening all the while in the unsettled, wavering, and doubtful mind. 4. It remains only to say finally, that a state of sceptical uncertainty is attended with great danger as regards its last result. To doubt about anything is, of course, to admit the possibility that it is true. To doubt about the claims and obligations of religion is to allow that we are not sure that these are not founded in reality. But while those who are floating on the sea of doubt, confess, by their very uncertainty, that the teachings of religion may quite possibly be true, they are sure to act, in the main, as though certain they were false. It needs no words to show that if you live as though the truths of religion were mere dreams, and it shall finally turn out that they are great realities, you are undone inevitably, and that for ever. This, then, is the amazing peril of resting in a dubious, unestablished frame. Even those who do this cannot but perceive that they run the unspeakably awful hazard of a wretched, lost eternity. Religion and godliness, according to their view of things, hang trembling in equal balance. How much to be deprecated and dreaded is a position that involves continually the danger of a fall from which there is no recovery I Here, then, are weighty reasons for regarding it as a very serious evil to be in habitual doubt in regard to the truths and duties of religion--reasons which make it appear in the highest degree desirable that the heart should be established. Of course it follows that nothing should be done by any thoughtful person to favour such a state, but that, on the contrary, diligent and resolute effort should be made to avoid or escape it. Do any of you find the impressions of your childhood giving way, in some degree, so that you feel disposed to question them and to demand on what foundation they are based? You see with what seriousness you should regard the crisis. Never, in all your life, has there been a time when you so greatly needed the counsel of your kindest, most faithful, and judicious friends. Yes! Believe it, my intelligent young friend--the poor wayfaring man, who wanders homeless and friendless over the wide world, finding never a voice of greeting nor a resting-place in which he may take up his abode, is far less an object of compassion than he whose soul is driven about perpetually in the chaos of confused and dubious thought, where all is dim and shadowy, and can find nothing that is stable; who as to the highest and most vital questions of his being, has established nothing, and positively believes nothing! Rather than suffer yourselves to slide into such a state, it were wisdom to suspend all other business, to shut yourselves up in the chamber of meditation and research, and to bend the undivided energies of your minds on this one work of reaching conclusions which will satisfy; and this with humble, earnest prayer to the Father of lights for that Divine illumination without which spiritual things are never clearly seen by any of mankind. You can have satisfaction on all really vital questions if you will. You may plant yourselves, if you will do it, where, though floods come, and the tempests beat, and the refuges of error are all swept away, you can stand calmly and in serenity of soul, and feel your foundations firm. Believe it--nay rather, make the experiment for yourselves, and know it with a happiness that cannot be described. There is light--and you were made to see it. There is reality--and you were made to find it. There is religious truth--and you, you may grasp the inestimable treasure, and make it your own blessed and permanent possession. (R. Palmer, D. D.) The true doctrinal foundation I. THERE IS A OF TRUTH GIVEN TO THE CHURCH IN THE WORD OF GOD, WHICH IS ITS ONLY AND RULE OF FAITH. II. THIS IS COGNATE, AND EVERY WAY SUITED TO THE OF THE GRACE OF GOD IN , AND THE OF THEIR OWN . III. TO THIS FIRST BY CHRIST AND HIS , AS IN THE , ALIEN AND FOREIGN FROM THEM, DID SOON SPRING UP UNTO THE TROUBLE OF THE CHURCH; they had done so in those days, and continued to do so in all ensuing ages. IV. USUALLY SUCH ARE AS EMPTY OF TRUTH AND , USELESS AND FOREIGN TO THE NATURE AND GENIUS OF GRACE AND TRUTH, ARE IMPOSED BY THEIR AUTHORS AND , WITH A GREAT NOISE AND ON THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN IN THE TRUTH. V. WHERE SUCH ARE , THEY MAKE MEN DOUBLE-MINDED, , TURNING THEM FROM THE TRUTH, AND DRAWING THEM AT LENGTH INTO . VI. THE RUIN OF THE CHURCH IN AFTER AGES AROSE FROM THE NEGLECT OF THIS CAUTION, IN GIVING HEED UNTO VARIOUS AND STRANGE , which at length overthrew and excluded the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. VII. HEREIN LIES THE SAFETY OF ALL , AND OF ALL ; NAMELY, TO KEEP UNTO THE FIRST OF DIVINE TRUTH IN THE WORD OF GOD. Let men pretend what they will, and bluster as they please, in an adherence to this principle we are safe; and if we depart from it, we shall be hurried and carried about through innumerable uncertainties unto rain. VIII. That those who decline in anything from grace, as the only means to establish their hearts in peace with God, SHALL LABOUR AND IN OTHER THINGS AND WAYS TO THE SAME END, WHEREBY THEY SHALL RECEIVE NO . (John Owen, D. D.) Evils of inconstancy: An inconstant and wavering mind, as it makes a man unfit for society (for that there can be no assurance of his words or purposes, neither can we build on them without deceit), so, besides that, it makes a man ridiculous, it hinders him from ever attaining any perfection in himself (for a rolling stone gathers no moss, and the mind, while it would be everything, proves nothing. Oft changes cannot be without loss); yea, it keeps him from enjoying that which he hath attained. For it keeps him ever in work, building, pulling down, selling, changing, buying, commanding, forbidding. So, whilst he can be no other man’ s friend, he is the least his own. It is the safest course for a man’ s profit, credit, and ease, to deliberate long, to resolve surely; hardly to alter, not to enter upon that whose end he foresees not answerable; and when he is once entered, not to surcease till he have attained the end he foresaw. (Bp. Hall.) Fixed religious convictions helpful to growth “ Stand fast in the faith.” There are some men who, because they want to grow, are continually being transplanted; and they think that because they keep moving from place to place, they are gaining; but they gain nothing at all. Trees that grow fastest stand stillest. Running after every new thing that presents itself does not increase the growth of Christian graces, or anything else that is good. If a man would grow spiritually, he must have a standpoint, a fixed root-place, for his religious convictions. (H. W. Beecher.) True doctrine The question is not whether a doctrine is beautiful, but whether it is true. When we want to go to a place, we don’ t ask whether the road leads through a pretty country, but whether it is the right road, the road pointed out by authority, the turnpike-road. (J. C. Hare.) The heart be established with grace Confirmation in the doctrines of the gospel an effect of Divine grace I. WHO ARE THE OF GRACE? All men are naturally destitute of grace, and under the entire dominion of a depraved heart. In this state they remain until they are awakened, convinced, and converted, by the special influences of the Divine Spirit. They now become conformed to the moral image of God, reconciled to His character, to His laws, and to the terms of salvation proposed in the gospel. II. WHAT ARE THE OF THE GOSPEL? III. Having specified the essential doctrines of the gospel, it remains to show THAT REAL , WHO ARE THE OF GRACE, ARE IN THEM. The apostle represents them so established, as not to be carried about by divers and strange doctrines; and this we find verified by the conduct of real saints under both the Old and New Testament. And it is well-known that since their day, multitudes have sacrificed their lives in testimony of the truth and importance of the essential doctrines of the gospel. And this leads me to say that they not only may be, but must be so established; for several reasons: 1. Because they know that the essential doctrines of the gospel are true. 2. Because they love them. 3. Because they feel the infinite importance of them. Conclusion: 1. If the subjects of grace are established in the essential doctrines of the gospel, then it is easy to distinguish religious orthodoxy from religious heterodoxy. 2. If the subjects of grace are established in the essential doctrines of the gospel, then real Christians see the propriety and importance of forming and subscribing creeds, or confessions of faith. 3. If the subjects of grace are established in the doctrines of the gospel; then they are constrained to consider men’ s religious sentiments as a test of their religious character. 4. If ministers of the gospel are established in the great and fundamental doctrines of it; they will not fail to preach those doctrines to the people. (N. Emmons, D. D.) An established heart I. How GOOD IT IS. What else is it that communicates to the Saviour such nobility but this immovable firmness of a spirit resting in God, from which words and deeds proceed, pure, calm, and self-consistent, like rays which the sun emits? The establishment of heart of which we speak is the union of Divine freedom and Divine power. We call him free who is not dependent on anything outside himself. Are you free in this sense? Where there is this freedom, there is also Divine power. Power is the capability of executing what we have set our minds on doing. Let me determine, moved by nothing without me, and all my action is subordinate to a single aim, and this aim stands unmoved before my eyes. But that is just what gives emphasis to all action. For such power we long, we should like to reign over nature, over our body, over everything outside us. Now it is the unity of such Divine power and freedom that makes establishment of heart so precious. Do you long after it? I know you do: you who see before you a life in which are seducers and tempters on the right hand and on the left, bent on bringing about your fall, oh, I know you long for it. II. How SUCH IS BROUGHT ABOUT--“ with grace,” says the apostle. He adds:--“ Not with meats,” intending to say, not through dependence on any outward work. When he says, “ with grace,” it is as if he said, “ through faith in the grace which is offered in Christ.” “ Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand” ; if there is not this, then establishment of heart is impossible. (J. Tholuck.) The established heart It is a good thing to have an established heart. With too many of us the inner life is variable and fickle. Sometimes we have days of deep religious earnestness, when it seems impossible for us to spend too long a time in prayer and fellowship with God. The air is so clear that we can see across the waters of the dividing sea, to the very outlines of the heavenly coasts. But a very little will mar our peace, and bring a veil of mist over our souls, to enwrap us perhaps for long weeks. Oh, for an established heart! Now there is one thing which will not bring about this blessed state of establishment. And this is indicated by the expression, “ meats” ; which stands for the ritualism of the Jewish law. Another obstruction to an established heart arises from the curiosity which is ever running after divers and strange doctrines. A condition which is the very antipodes to the established heart. There is only one foundation which never rocks, one condition which never alters. “ It is good that the heart be established with grace.” Primarily, of course, the established heart is the gift of God. (2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Peter 5:10; Deuteronomy 28:9). But there are certain conditions also indicated in this context with which we do well to comply. I. WE MUST FEED ON CHRIST. Eating consists of three processes: apprehension, mastication, and assimilation; and each of these has its spiritual counterpart in that feeding upon Christ which is the very life of our life. We, too, must apprehend Him, by the careful reading of the Word of God. We, too, must fulfil the second part of the process of eating by meditating long and thoughtfully on all that is revealed to us in the word of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. We, too, must assimilate Christ, until He becomes part of our very being, and we begin to live, yet not we, because Christ lives in us, and has become our very life. II. IF WE WOULD FEED ON CHRIST, WE MUST GO WITHOUT THE CAMP. There are plenty who argue that the wisest policy is to stop within the camp, seeking to elevate its morals. They do not realise that, if we adopt their advice, we must remain there alone, for our Lord has already gone. ]t is surely unbefitting that we should find a home where He is expelled. What is there in us which makes us so welcome, when our Master was cast out to the fate of the lowest criminals? Besides, it will not be long before we discover that, instead of our influencing the camp for good, the atmosphere of the camp will infect us with its evil. Instead of our levelling it up, it will level us down. The only principle of moving the world is to imitate Archimedes in getting a point without it. All the men who have left a mark in the elevation of their times have been compelled to join the pilgrim host which is constantly passing through the city gates, and taking up its stand by the Cross on which Jesus died. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) An established heart: Turned into modern English the writer’ s meaning is that the merely intellectual religion, which is always occupied with propositions instead of with Jesus Christ, “ Who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” is worthless, and the merely ceremonial religion, which is always occupied with casuistries about questions of meats, or external observance of any sort, is as valueless. There is no fixity; there is no rest of soul, no steadfastness of character to be found in either of these two directions. The only thing that ballasts and fills and calms the heart is what the writer here calls “ grace,” that is to say, the living personal experience of the love of God bestowed upon me and dwelling in my heart. So, then, the main theme of these words is the possible stability of a fluctuating human life, the means of securing it, and the glory and beauty of the character which has secured it. I. First, then, mark WHAT THIS WRITER TO BE THE ONE SOURCE OF HUMAN . What the New Testament means by this familiar and frequently reiterated word “ grace,” which, I suspect, is oftener pronounced than it is understood by a great many people. To begin with, then, the root meaning of that word, which runs all through the New Testament, is simply favour, benignity, kindness, or, to put all into a better and simpler form, the active love of God. Now, if we look at the various uses of the expression we find, for instance, that it is contrasted with a number of other things. Sometimes it is set in opposition to sin--sin reigns to righteousness, grace reigns to life. Sometimes it is contrasted with “ debt,” and put sometimes in opposition to “ works,” as, for instance, by Paul when he says, “ If it be of works then is it no more grace.” Sometimes it is opposed to law, as in the same apostle’ s words, “ Ye are not under law, but under grace.” Now, if we keep these various uses and contrasts in view we just come to this thought, that that active love of God is conditioned, not by any merit on our part--bubbles up from the depths of His own infinite heart, not because of what we are, but because of what He is, transcends all the rigid retributions of law, is not turned away by any sin, but continues to flood the world, simply because it wells up from the infinite and changeless fountain of love in the heart of God. And then, from this central, deepest meaning of active love manifesting itself irrespective of what we deserve, there comes a second great aspect of the word. The name of the cause is extended to all the lustrous variety of its effects. So the complex whole of the blessings and gifts which Jesus Christ brings to us, and which are sometimes designated in view of what they do for us, as salvation or eternal life, are also designated in view of that in God from which they come, as being collectively His “ grace.” And then there is a final application of the expression which is deduced from that second one--viz., the specific excellences of character which result from the communication to men of the blessings that flow to him from the love of God. So these three: first, the fountain, the love undisturbed and unalterable; second, the stream, the manifold gifts and blessings that flow to us through Christ; and, third, the little cupfuls that each of us have, the various excellences of character which are developed under the fertilizing influences of the sunshine of that love--these three are all included in this great Christian word. There are other phases of its employment in the New Testament which I do not need to trouble you with now. But thus far we just come to this, that the one ground on which all steadfastness of nature and character can be reared is that we shall be in touch with God, shall be conscious of His love, and shall be receiving into our hearts the strength that He bestows. Man is a dependent creature; his make and his relationships to things round him render it impossible that the strength by which he is strong, and the calmness by which he is established, can be self-originated. II. And so I come, in the second place, to LOOK AT SOME OF THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH THIS GRACE CALMS AND STILLS THE LIFE. We men are like some of the islands in the Eastern Tropics, fertile and luxuriant, but subject to be swept by typhoons, to be shaken by earthquakes, to be devastated by volcanoes. Around us there gather external foes assailing our steadfastness, and within us there lie even more formidable enemies to an established and settled peace. How are such creatures ever to be established? My text tells us by drawing into themselves the love, the giving love of God. I would note, as one of the aspects of the tranquillity and establishment that comes from this conscious possession of the giving love of God, how it delivers men from all the dangers of being “ carried away by divers strange doctrines.” I do not give much for any orthodoxy which is not vitalised by personal experiences of the indwelling love of God. I do not care much what a man believes, or what he denies, or how he may occupy himself intellectually with the philosophical and doctrinal aspect of Christian revelation. The question is, how much of it has filtered from his brain into his heart, and has become part of himself, and verified to himself by his own experience? So much as you have lived out, so much you are sure of because you have not only thought it but felt it, and cannot for a moment doubt, because your hearts have risen up and witnessed to its truth. About these parts of your belief there will be no fluctuation. Still further, this conscious possession of the grace of God will keep a man very quiet amidst all the occasions for agitation which changing circumstances bring. Such there are in every life. Nothing continues in one stay. Is it possible that amidst this continuous fluctuation, in which nothing is changeless but the fact of change, we can stand fixed and firm? Yes! There is shelter only in one spot, and that is when we have God between us and the angry blast. An empty heart is an easily agitated heart. A full heart, like a full sack, stands upright, and it is not so easy for the wind to whirl it about as if it were empty. They who are rooted in God will have a firm bole, which will be immovable, howsoever branches may sway and creak, and leaves may flutter and dance, or even fall, before the power of the storm. Further, another field of the stability communicated by that possessed love of God is in regard of the internal occasions for agitation. Passion, lust, hot desires, bitter regrets, eager clutching after uncertain and insufficient and perishable good, all these will be damped down if the love of God lives in our hearts. III. Lastly, my text suggests HOW A THING IS THE OF THE MAN THAT IS IN GRACE, The word translated “ good” in my text would be better rendered “ fair,” or “ lovely,” or” beautiful.” Is there anything fairer than the strong, steadfast, calm, equable character, unshaken by the storms of passion, unaffected by the blasts of calamity, undevastated by the lava from the hellish, subterranean fires that are in every soul; and yet not stolidly insensible, nor obstinately conservative, but open to the inspiration of each successive moment, and gathering the blessed fruit of all mutability in a more profound and unchanging possession of the unchanging good? So do you see to it that you rectify your notions of what makes the beauty of character. Then, my brother, if we keep ourselves near Jesus Christ, and let His grace flow into our hearts, then we, too, shall be able to say, “ Because I set Him at my right hand I shall not be moved.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Established in grace: The vendors of flowers in the streets of London are wont to commend them to customers by crying, “ All a blowing and a growing.” It would be no small praise to Christians if we could say as much for them, but, alas! of too manyprofessors the cry would truthfully be, “ All a stunting and a withering.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar Our altar: I. OUR ALTAR. The very living heart of the gospel is an altar and a sacrifice. That idea saturates the whole New Testament, from the page where John the Forerunner’ s proclamation is, “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” to the last triumphant visions in which the Apocalyptic seer “ beheld a Lamb as it had been slain,” the eternal Co-Regnant of the universe, and the Mediator through whom the whole surrounding Church for ever worships the Father. Jesus Christ is all which temple, priest, altar, sacrifice proclaimed should one day be. And just as the relation between Christ’ s work and the Judaic system of external ritual sacri-rices is that of shadow and substance, prophecy and fulfilment, so, in analogous manner, the relation between the altar and sacrifice of the New Testament and all the systems of heathenism, with their smoking altars, is that these declare a want, and this affords its supply; that these are the confession of humanity that it is conscious of sin, separation, alienation, and the need of a sacrifice, and that Christ is what heathenism in all lands has wailed that it needs, and has desperately hoped that it might find. Christ in His representative relation, in His true affinity to every man upon earth, has in His life and death taken upon Himself the consequences of human transgression, not merely by sympathy, nor only by reason of the uniqueness of His representative relation, but by willing submission to that awful separation from the Father, of which the cry out of the thick darkness of the Cross, “ Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” is the unfathomable witness. Thus, bearing our sin, He bears it away, and “ we have an altar.” II. OUR FEAST ON THE . The Christ who died for my sins is not only my means of reconciliation with God, but His sacrifice and death are the sustenance of my spiritual life. The life of the Christian is the indwelling Christ. But how is that feeding on the sacrifice accomplished? “ He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.” He that believeth, eateth. He that with humble faith makes Christ his very own, and appropriates as the nourishment and basis of his own better life the facts of that life and death of sacrifice, he truly lives thereby. To eat is to believe; to believe is to live. I need not remind you how, though there be no reference in the words of my text, as I have tried to show, to the external rite of the communion of the Lord’ s body and blood, and though “ altar:’ here has no reference whatever to that table, yet there is a connection between the two representations, inasmuch as the one declares in words what the other sets forth in symbol, and the meaning of the feast on the sacrifice is expressed by this great word. “ This is My body, broken for you.” “ This is the new covenant in My blood.” “ Drink ye all of it.” III. OUR ON THE ALTAR. What are these offerings? Christ’ s death stands alone, incapable of repetition, needing no repetition, the eternal, sole, “ sufficient obligation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” But there be other kinds of sacrifice. There are sacrifices of thanksgiving as well as for propitiation. And we, on the footing of that great sacrifice to which we can add nothing, and on which alone we must rest, may bring the offerings of our thankful hearts. These offerings are of a twofold sort, says the writer. There are words of praise, there are works of beneficence. The service of man is sacrifice to God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Jewish and the Christian altar I. ATTEND TO A FEW THE JEWISH ALTAR. 1. It had its origin in Divine appointment. 2. The altar being built, it was afterwards dedicated, and in a solemn manner set apart for God. 3. When the altar was consecrated, it was ever afterwards reputed holy. II. TRACE THE , IN SOME , BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND THE ALTAR. 1. The altar was principally designed for sacrifice, and was, therefore, called the altar of burnt-offering (Exodus 40:10). Now Christ is both the Sacrifice, the Altar, and the Priest. 2. The altar was designed for worship, and its most solemn acts were there performed. “ I will wash my hands in innocency,” &c. “ I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy” (Psalms 26:6; Psalms 43:4). And what the altar was to the Jews, that is Jesus to us; all our services are to be performed in His name, all our prayers and praises offered up through His mediation. 3. The altar was a place of refuge. Christ is in the truest sense the refuge of all who flee from the wrath to come, and who lay hold on the hope that is set before them in the gospel. (B. Beddome M.A.) The altar of the Christian dispensation I. THE LORD CHRIST, IN THE ONE OF HIMSELF, IS THE ONLY ALTAR OF THE CHURCH OF THE NEW . II. THIS ALTAR IS EVERY WAY IN ITSELF FOR THE ENDS OF AN ALTAR; NAMELY, THE OF THE PEOPLE, as Hebrews 13:12. III. THE OF ANY OTHER ALTAR IN THE CHURCH, OR THE OF ANY OTHER A ALTAR, IS TO THE OF CHRIST, AND OF HIM FROM BEING OUR ALTAR. IV. Whereas the design of the apostle in the whole of his discourse is to declare the glory of the gospel and its worship above that of the law, of our priest above theirs, of our sacrifice above theirs, of our altar above theirs, IT IS FOND TO THINK THAT BY “ OUR ALTAR,” HE INTENDS SUCH A FABRIC AS IS EVERY WAY UNTO THAT OF OLD. V. When God appointed a material altar for His service, HE HIMSELF THE MAKING OF IT, ITS FORM AND USE, WITH ALL ITS , , AND , OF NOTHING IN IT OR ABOUT IT BUT WHAT WAS BY HIMSELF . It is not, therefore, probable that under the New Testament there should be a material altar of equal necessity with that under the Old, accompanied in its administrations with various utensils, ceremonies, and services; while neither this altar itself, nor any of its services, were of Divine appointment. VI. SINNERS, UNDER A SENSE OF GUILT, HAVE IN THE GOSPEL AN ALTAR OF , THEY MAY HAVE ACCESS FOR THE OF THEIR SINS. He is the propitiation. VII. ALL , OF WHAT NATURE SOEVER, WITHOUT A OF CHRIST AS THE ALTAR AND OF THE CHURCH, ARE OF NO UNTO THEM THAT ENJOY THEM. (John Owen, D. D.) An altar in the Christian economy 1. The very name, institution, and existence of an altar implies that man is a sinner-that there is a quarrel between us and God. If no sin, there is needed no sacrifice; if an altar, there must be sin to necessitate the institution of that altar. 2. It teaches also another grand lesson, namely, that the wages of sin is death. 3. An altar suggests to us a disruption between God and man. It is one of the instinctive suggestions of the heart of man that there is a quarrel between him and God; and until he can see it in the light of revelation, he knows not the origin of that quarrel, he knows not how that quarrel may be made up. The existence of an altar in the Christian economy teaches that there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared. 4. An altar suggests to us the important, that there being one altar, it is the only way of acceptance. If this be infinite in its sufficiency why seek anything else? 5. Another idea suggested by the name “ altar “ is protection. We read occasionally in the Bible of “ fleeing to the horns of the altar,” “ laying hold upon the horns of the altar” ; thus, too, the Christian has in his altar perfect protection. Protection from what? Not from illness, from poverty, from losses, from crosses? These are sanctifying and may not therefore be prevented. But you will have protection from all that is penal; for the inscription most luminous upon the very face of that altar is “ There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” 6. This altar suggests to us the very important truth that through it and by it we always have acceptance with God; that not only is it the only way of acceptance, but it is the standing evidence of access to God. 7. This altar and the idea of an altar teaches us this great lesson, that “ without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” A great crime cleaves to humanity; a stain deep as hell has fallen upon the human heart. All the tears of penitence cannot wipe it out, all the blood of martyrs cannot cancel it, no length of time will waste it, no ingenuity of man can mitigate it. There is only one element that can wash it away. “ The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” 8. We learn another lesson from the name “ altar” : it is the altar that sanctifies the gift. The way to have all the sorrows of your life sanctified, to have your great things made greater, and your little things made precious, and the way to receive them again a thousandfold, is to bring and offer them all upon Christ, the glorious altar that sanctifies the gift. What a magnificent idea does this give us of a Christian l The least act that a Christian does is thus a sacerdotal act. All Christians are priests. 9. This use of the word “ altar “ implies that there is a priest who offers the sacrifice; who is this priest? We have but one altar, we have therefore but one priest, and we do not need any other. Wherever the winds blow, wherever the waves of the ocean roll, wherever man’ s heart beats, and man’ s lungs breathe, and man’ s soul longs for a sense of the presence of God, the great High Priest is accessible, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. 10. But this name, “ altar,” having suggested to us so many truths, where, you ask, is the altar situated on which the great propitiation has been made, by which that everlasting High Priest continually stands and ministers for ever? Our altar is in the heaven, on the earth: wheresoever two or three meet in the name of Christ, there the altar stands, and there the altar is approached; for “ I am present in the midst of them.” (J. Cumming, D. D.) The Christian altar I. First, we have an altar--THAT IS TO SAY, RESTS FOR ITS BASIS ON THE OF . Though men have been divided from each other by oceans and continents, united neither by commerce nor by any mode of communication, though they have differed in their views of polity and government and religion, they seem to have been as one in this matter of sacrifice. They have all equally thought that the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth must die to propitiate God. And we would have you farther observe, as a proof of the Divine origin of this custom, that it was not an idea which would naturally originate with man. If it had been at all likely, according to the teaching of unassisted reason, that God would have been pleased with this mode of worship, then we might imagine that man had himself devised this mode of approaching his Creator. But let Reason sit in judgment on this custom of animal sacrifices, and what will be her verdict? To kill the unoffending--can that be pleasing to God? When I am conscious of guilt, and anxious for pardon, am I likely to appease God’ s wrath by putting to death an innocent victim? We must surely admit that the practice of sacrificing animals, unless Divinely commanded, was an act of wanton cruelty, which, so far from disposing God to mercy, must have stirred Him to greater indignation; and that a custom so manifestly not suggested by reason, should yet have spread itself over the whole earth, seems to us the strongest possible proof of the divinity of its origin. Throughout the whole of the Jewish system there was a continual offering of the blood of animals upon the altars where God was worshipped; and however blind the Jews were, however hard their hearts were, however many truths they missed which the Almighty had meant them to learn, they did lay hold of tiffs truth--that there is no acceptable worship without sacrifice. And when the new religion appeared we can well imagine that this was one of the difficulties to a Jewish mind--that the votaries of the new system abandoned the altars of their fathers, and set up new altars of their own. We can conceive a Jewish objector approaching the apostles, and saying, “ How is this? From the time when men first began to call upon the name of the Lord, they have always worshipped at altars. Those altars have always reeked with blood. It is thus that our fathers have worshipped ever since the giving of the law, and even before the days of Moses. It is thus that Abraham worshipped on Mount Moriah. It was thus that Noah worshipped under the arch of the covenant bow. It was thus that Abel worshipped when men sought earliest to win back their way to Paradise. If you are worshippers of the true God, the God of our fathers, where are your altars? what are your sacrifices?” Now, the words of our text seem to reply to such an objector, “ We have an altar” ; as though the writer said, “ We recognise the great principle which has been revealed to men all through the days of the law, which has been known even by heathen men among their grossest superstitions--the truth that without the shedding of blood there is no remission, and we, too, have an altar.” We need not tell you that the altar here referred to is the Cross, and that the sacrifice offered upon it was the only begotten Son of God. Thus the text affirms that Christianity rests upon basis of sacrifice. II. The text further affirms THAT THE IS AN , FOR SIN. Through the whole of the Jewish system men were taught that as it is the life which man forfeited by sin, so it is the life which must atone for sin. There is a passage in Leviticus which distinctly affirms it: “ The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” The passage occurs in connection with the command not to eat flesh in which there blood remained. The teaching seems to be this: “ You must not eat of blood because that is appointed as the symbol of atonement, and the blood is the symbol of atonement because it represents the life of the animal from which it is taken.” It is not the matter of the blood that atones, but the life it bears and represents. “ The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it you upon the altar to atone for your lives, for the blood atones through the life.” Hence you will find in the Jewish system that before the victim died the offerer was commanded to lay his hands upon its head. Now, in Scripture the laying on of hands was a symbolical action. It represented the transfer of something from the person imposing his hands to the person or thing upon which hands were laid. What had the offerer to transfer to the victim? Evidently his sin. He came to God as a sinner. His anxious desire was to obtain the forgiveness of his sin. His prayer was that the guilt of his sin might pass from him to the victim that he offered. And the Jews believed that where there was a frank confession and true renouncement of sin there was an actual transfer of sin from the man to the animal. Now, in this text before us the writer identifies the death of Jesus with those particular sacrifices. “ We have an altar,” he says, “ of which they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” They might eat the free-will offerings and the thank-offerings, but they must not eat that particular sin-offering; for he goes on to say: “ The bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary for sin are burned without the camp.” They had been so burned in the days of Moses when the camp was pitched in the wilderness. They were so burned still in the days of the apostles, outside the walls of Jerusalem. “ Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” You see that this text clearly connects the death of Jesus with the Jewish sin-offering, not with thank-offerings or with free-will-offerings, but with the sin-offering, and with the most sacred and impressive of all the sin-offerings--the offering whose blood was taken to the holiest place by the high priest for sin. We need not enlarge on the correspondence between the death of Jesus and the transactions on that day of atonement. We are taught that by the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously offered as a sacrifice for us, a way has been opened to the holiest as through a veil, that veil no longer excluding and concealing from the presence of God, but rent on purpose to receive every penitent transgressor. We are taught that by the blood of Jesus shed for our sins we are permitted to come, not only with safety, but with boldness into the region of God’ s manifested presence. We are taught that the offering, being infinitely precious, is attended by none of the imperfections which mark the Jewish sacrifices, but is adequate to meet all the requirements of a guilty conscience, and to present a sinner, soul and body, with perfect acceptance before the holy God. III. But this text teaches us, further, THAT THE ALTAR WILL HAVE NO RIVAL, NO YOU observe that the apostle has been telling us in this text that the Christian sacrifice corresponds with the Jewish sin-offering. A little further study will show that he tells us that the Christian sacrifice avails for none who put their trust in the old temple sacrifices. He describes the Jewish system as a camp pitched in the wilderness. It was not a continuing city. He tells us that Jesus went out of the camp, and he exhorts us to follow Him. For himself, he had long since resolved to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified; to worship at no altar but the altar of the Cross; and he here exhorts all his fellow Christians to copy his example, and, at whatever cost and suffering and reproach, to go forth to Him who, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. There is no need for us to emphasize this exhortation not to trust in Jewish sacrifices. Within seven or eight years after this letter was written Jerusalem was destroyed--the temple was abolished. From that day to this no Jewish sacrifices have been offered, so far was that from being a continuing city. But is there nothing that we may learn from this solemn admonition not to trust in the Jewish sacrifices? The underlying principle is this--that Christ will be the Saviour of none who mingle any other confidence with their simple rest upon His merit. You have to come to Jesus and to Jesus only; and if some of you have been looking for salvation long, do you not see here the reason that has kept you back from it? There has not been the renouncement of all other confidences which there must be. We have an altar all-sufficient to save us to the uttermost; but they have no right to eat of it, they have no saving share in the merit of it, who trust in the sacrifices of the temple. But that is not all that this text teaches us. Not only are we here taught that it is utterly destructive of Christian faith to follow the Jewish ceremonies as a ground of merit; we are further taught that it was dangerous to the simplicity of faith to follow them at all. Now, why were the apostles so anxious to have the Jewish ceremonies abolished? With a ritual that was the most gorgeous the world has ever known, if mankind could learn the truth from ceremonies and symbols, no ceremonies could be imagined more impressive than those which God Himself appointed in the temple at Jerusalem. Why not continue the types to help Christians to understand the Antitype? Why not have an order of priests on earth to remind us of the one Priest in heaven? Why not have sacrifices offered on Christian altars to remind us of the one Sacrifice by which our sins are taken away? Alas, the apostles knew too well how prone men are to rest in shadows and forget the substance, In all ages elaborate ceremonial has been destructive of the simplicity of faith. What, then, does this teach us as to our practical duty? It shows that there is a city out of which we have all to come. We all love it; we all cling to it--the city sometimes of gorgeous ritualistic pomp, the city sometimes of orderly Nonconformist worship; the city of mere outward morality and formal attendance upon the means of grace; the city of personal self-righteousness. Out of it we have to come if we mean to be saved by Christ--away from all that as a ground of trust. Out of it? Whither? To the ignominious place where criminals suffered. To the scene where the bodies of the beasts whose blood had been taken into the sanctuary for atonement were burnt with fire. To Golgotha, the place of a skull. There is our altar. IV. But, lastly, THE ALTAR DEMANDS . We are not to escape and think that it is all accomplished because the sacrifice has once been offered. Read on to the fifteenth verse. By Him let us offer the sacrifice of praise, the Jewish free-will offering, the thank-offering. Let us do this continually; not simply, as the Jews did, on great festivals and stated occasions, but always. And let this sacrifice of praise be the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. Mark it, the fruit of our lips--not simply the words of our lips. A great many words pass our lips that are not the fruit. Fruit has a root. The fruit of the lip grows out of the heart; and only when what the lip says is what the heart feels is that the fruit of our lips. There must be the fruit of our lips--the thanks to God that spring out of a truly renewed and grateful nature: “ the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” The margin says, “ confessing His name,” and that is the best thanks we can give to God--not to talk about ourselves, but about Him, to confess what He is and what He has done for us. “ The fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” But that is not all. Forget not that there is something beyond even that. The sixteenth verse tells you: “ To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Though the Jewish ritual has been abolished, though the nursing mother no longer brings her pair of turtle doves and her two young pigeons for an offering, though the man recovered from sickness no longer drives his bullock or his flock of sheep to the temple door, the heart of a Christian will be as grateful as the heart of a Jew. If we do not bring the victims we may bring the worth of them. (F. Greeves, D. D.) Hebrews 13:11-13 Jesus also … suffered without the gate Jesus suffering without the gate I. A CUSTOM that prevailed among the Israelites in the wilderness; “ The bodies of those beasts,” etc. The apostle writes as though the camp and this custom still existed. The camp, however, was gone, but the custom remained with this difference only, that the temple was now substituted for the tabernacle and the city for the camp. It was a custom of Divine appointment. The Lord, in framing a law for the Jews, regarded the whole nation as sinners. Besides, therefore, the offerings to be made by individuals for their own sins, various sacrifices were ordained for the sins of the nation, and among these, one of unusual solemnity. It was to be offered once in every year, and on a certain day of the year, called from this circumstance the day of atonement. II. AN EVENT which took place at Jerusalem, closely resembling it; “ Wherefore Jesus also,” &c. Notice three points of resemblance between our Lord and the animals burnt on the day of atonement. 1. They did not die a natural death; their blood was shed before they were carried forth. And our Lord also “ suffered” ; His precious blood, too, was poured forth. 2. He suffered in the same place in which these animals were destroyed. They were slain, indeed, in the camp, but they were burned outside of it. So our Lord” suffered without the gate.” “ They led Him out to crucify Him,” out of their city, to the very spot probably where, after the people were settled in Jerusalem, the bodies of those beasts which had so long prefigured Him were consumed. 3. He suffered for the same end. The blood of these animals was shed that it might be taken “ into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin,” as a propitiation for sin; their bodies were burned as a testimony of the Divine indignation against sin. When these two ceremonies had been gone through God is said to have been reconciled to His people, the whole camp was considered as purged from its transgressions. And what was the end for which our Lord suffered? It was that His people, His spiritual Israel, might have sin removed from them. III. AN grounded on the event mentioned. “ Let us go forth,” &c. We must again imagine ourselves in the desert. Around us are spread the tents of Israel. The men dwelling in them are all worshipping the Lord in one way--as their fathers worshipped Him, looking for His mercy through rites and ceremonies and bleeding victims. The Lord Jesus appears amongst them; tells them He is sent of God to abolish these rites and ceremonies, to become Himself once for all a victim for them, and calls upon them in consequence to turn from their shadowy rites and long accustomed sacrifices to Him. Instead of this, they cast Him forth out of their camp and crucify Him. We are to conceive of Him, therefore, as even now hanging in shame and suffering on a Cross beyond the gate, and then comes this apostle saying to us among our tents, “ Let us not linger here. Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” 1. It is clear, then, that He calls on us, first, to forsake the religion of our fellow-men, a religion, it may be, that either is or once was our own. The Jew in the desert could not go forth to a bleeding Jesus without turning his back on the Jewish worship, and giving up all his long-cherished Jewish hopes. He must abandon the sanctuary and ordinances with which all his religious feelings have been long associated, and around which he beholds his countrymen still gathering. A painful sacrifice. And it is the same now. Many of us have a religion that the gospel calls on us to renounce. It is made up of opinions and feelings and hopes which are as much opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ as the religion of any Jew ever was. We may have cherished it long, even from our childhood. The world around us may respect and commend it; it is natural it should do so--it is the world’ s own religion; the world taught it us. But no matter who commends it or how highly we may have valued it, we must let it go; or rather we must turn our backs on it, we must cast it away, before we and the Cross of Christ can ever meet. 2. And with the religion of the world, we must forsake also to a considerable extent the men of the world. 3. Then, connected with this forsaking of the world, there must be an actual coming, the apostle says, to Christ our Lord. Observe, he does not simply bid the Israelites leave the camp, as though his only object was to get them away from their old religion and companions, he directs them all to one spot; he bids them leave the camp for one purpose, that they may go to Him who is suffering for them without the gate. So we are not to go forth only, we are to go forth unto Christ. It will profit us nothing to give us the empty religion of the world, if when we let that go, we get no other. Superstition for scepticism is a poor exchange. And it will profit us as little to forsake the world, if we stand still when we have forsaken it. The going forth, the apostle enjoins, is not going into cells and hermitages, nor is it roaming this desert world in a proud, dreary solitariness. It is a going forth unto Jesus. It is exchanging the religion of the world for the religion of His Cross; it is giving up that which cannot elevate, comfort, or save us, for that which can. And then it is leaving the world for the world’ s Master; it is suffering the loss of all things that we may win Christ; it is the forsaking of a world which is not worthy even of us, that we may be--what? outcasts? No; but “ fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God” ; sharers now of higher riches and pleasures than the earth can give, and heirs of a world that is worthy, if any world can be, of the God who made it. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Let us go forth therefore unto Him Exhortation to decision and earnestness in religion: I. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE IN THE TEXT. 1. The conduct which he intended to prescribe to the Christian converts to whom he wrote was evidently this--namely, that they should openly profess their faith in Jesus, who had been cast out as accursed, notwithstanding the reproach to which such a profession would expose them; and should publicly adhere to His worship and service in the sight of their unbelieving and reviling countrymen. 2. What does the apostle here exhort us to do? He doubtless exhorts us to make Christ crucified our only hope; to confess Him before men, and by our open and consistent attachment to His cause, His people and His ordinances, to show that we indeed belong to Him. II. SOME WHICH A WITH THIS . 1. That we renounce all other grounds of satisfaction for sin, and of acceptance with God, but those which the Cross of Jesus Christ provides. 2. That we separate ourselves from the world. Especially (1) From its corrupt practices and principles; and (2) From its religion--the resemblance of godliness without the power thereof. 3. That we are prepared to take up the cross and encounter reproach for Christ’ s sake. III. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH THE IS . 1. Our situation in this world is one of extreme uncertainty. “ Here we have no continuing city.” 2. Besides “ we seek one to come.” This is our profession as Christians. We profess that we are seeking “ a city which hath foundations” ; a “ house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” But unless we go forth unto Christ, all such profession is vain. (E. Cooper, M. A.) Let us go forth I. We have, first of all, THE ’ S PATH. “ Let us go forth without the camp.” The Divine command is not, “ Let us stop in the camp and try to reform it--things are not anywhere quite perfect, let us therefore stop and make matters right” ; but the Christian’ s watch cry is, “ Let us go forth.” To this day the Christian’ s place is not to tarry in the camp of worldly conformity, hoping, “ Perhaps I may aid they movement for reform” : it is not the believer’ s duty to conform to the world and to the world’ s ways, and say, “ Perhaps by so doing I may gain a foothold, and men’ s hearts may be the more ready to receive the truth.” No, from the first to the last day of the Church of God, the place of witness is not inside, but outside the camp; and the true position of the Christian is to go forth without the camp, bearing Christ’ s reproach. What is meant by this “ going forth without the camp” ? 1. I understand it to mean that every Christian is to go forth by an open profession of his faith. You that love the Lord are to say so. You must come out and avow yourselves on His side. You may be Christians and make no profession, but I cannot be sure of that, nor can any other man. 2. This done, the Christian is to be separate from the world as to his company. He must buy, and sell, and trade, like other men in the world, but yet he is not to find his bosom friends in it. 3. The follower of Jesus goes without the camp as to his pleasures. He is not without his joys nor his recreations either; but he does not seek them where the wicked find them. If thou hast no separation from the world, as to thy pleasures, since thy heart is generally in thy pleasures, thy heart therefore is with the wicked, and with them shall thy doom be when God comes to judge mankind. 4. Furthermore, the true follower of Christ is divided from the world as to his maxims; he does not subscribe to the laws which rule most men in their families and their business. Men generally say, “ Every one for himself, and God for us all.” “ Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,” is the Christian’ s rule. 5. Once more--and here is a very difficult part of the Christian’ s course--the Christian is to come out not only from the world’ s pleasures, andsins, and irreligion, but there are times when the true followers of Christ must come out from the world’ s religion as well as irreligion. II. But now, secondly, we have in the text, THE ’ S LEADER. It does not say, “ Let us go forth without the camp” merely, but, “ Let us go forth therefore unto Him.” 1. It means, let us have fellowship with Him. He was despised; He had no credit for charity; He was mocked in the streets; He was hissed at; He was hounded from among society. Expect not to wear the crown where Christ carried the Cross; but, for fellowship’ s sake, follow Him. 2. Again, if I am to follow Him, I am to follow His example. What Christ did, that I am to do. 3. I am to go forth unto Him: that is, I am to go forth to His truth. Wherever I see His truth, I am to espouse it: wherever I see error, I am to denounce it without hesitation. 4. And then I am to go forth to Christ’ s witness-bearing. The present age does not believe in witness-bearing, but the whole Bible is full of it. The duty of every Christian is to bear witness for the truth. III. Now, in the third place, we have THE ’ S BURDEN. He is to bear the Lord’ s reproach. I knew you may live without it if you will fawn and cringe, and keep back part of the price; but do not this, it is unworthy of your manhood, much more is it unworthy of your Christianity. For God and for Christ be so holy and so truthful that you compel the world to give its best acknowledgment of your goodness by railing at you--it can do no more, it will do no less. Be content to take this shame, for there is no heaven for you if you will not--no crown without the cross, no jewels without the mire. You must stand in the pillory if you would sit in glory; and if you reject the one you reject the Other. IV. THE ’ S REASON FOR BEARING HIS , AND GOING WITHOUT THE CAMP. It is in the text, “ Let us go forth therefore” --there is the reason. Why then? 1. First, because Jesus did. Jesus Christ came into the world pure and holy, and His life and His testimony were a witness against sin. Jesus Christ would not conform. He stands out like a lone mount of light, separate from the chain of dark mountains; and so must the Christian. Christ was separate; and so must you be. Christ was pure, holy, truthful; so must you be. I pray you either renounce your profession, or else seek grace to carry it out. 2. Moreover, the connection of the text tells us that Christ set apart His people by going without the camp. That He might sanctify His people, He suffered without the camp. The Head is not of the world, and shall the members be of it? 3. Again, Christ would have His people separate for their own sanctification. You cannot grow in grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the world. The path of separation may be a path of sorrow, but it is the path of safety. The martyrs tell us in their diaries that they were never so happy as when they were in the dungeon alone with Christ for company; nay, their best days were often their days of burning: they called them their wedding-days, and went to heaven singing and chanting the triumphal paean, as they mounted in their chariots of fire. 4. Thus we shall hope to win the crown if we are enabled by Divine grace faithfully to follow Christ in all respects. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Going forth to Christ 1. Let us go forth unto Christ without the camp, that we may testify to Him as the Messiah, the only Saviour. This is manifestly the first leading idea which our text is designed to convey. On this fundamental doctrine of our holy faith hinges the essential difference between Christianity and Judaism. It constitutes also one vital point of difference between the gospel and the various systems of heathenism and infidelity. All the sections of the unbelieving world agree in this, that they do not acknowledge Christ as the promised Messiah. “ Unto you who believe He is precious.” Attachment to the person of Christ can only spring from a Divine principle. “ No man can truly call Him Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” I beg of you, therefore, distinctly to understand, that I do not expect you will be prepared to lift up a consistent testimony to His Messiahship, unless you are the subjects of a saving change. “ The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be.” 2. Let us go forth unto Jesus without the camp, that we may specially bear testimony to Him as King of Zion. This is what may be emphatically called our present duty. We might justly regard it as treason against the Lord of Glory, were we to overlook this view of our subject. We dare not hold our peace regarding the sovereign authority of the Redeemer, although some prejudiced souls should be offended. 3. We must go forth unto our Lord without the camp if we would enjoy fellowship and communion with Him. This idea is naturally suggested by the preceding context, “ We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” The importance of this consideration should ever be borne in mind. It argues a very diseased state of things on the part of any professing Christian, when the question with him is--How far he may go in the path of error and corruption, and still enjoy communion with the “ author and finisher of our faith.” And it certainly is a sign of daring impiety when individuals, be they ministers or hearers, are exercising their ingenuity in devising reasons for palliating soul-destroying errors, and when they have the effrontery to tax us with want of charity when we endeavour to vindicate the doctrine of spiritual fellowship, and call upon the Christian people to abandon the communion of a Church that has practically renounced the King of saints. 4. In obeying this command we must lay our account with contempt, reproach, and persecution. It is the dictate of experience, as well as of Scripture, that “ all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” The mere circumstance of coming out from the world lying in wickedness, and of faithfully serving the Captain of our salvation, has never failed to bring upon them the scorn and hatred of the ungodly. The votaries of superstition cannot bear to see the truth as it is in Jesus openly proclaimed and honoured. Men of despotic principles will not tolerate, if they can help it, a spiritual authority which stands in the way of their usurpations. And false professors of the gospel, whose interests are linked with corruption and tyranny, will be among the foremost to vilify such as for conscience’ sake withdraw from their communion. Where do we find, among men, a brighter example of piety, and holiness, and philanthropy, than that of the apostle of the Gentiles? and who ever experienced greater reproach or more bitter persecution than he? When we look higher we see that our Lord Himself “ was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Why should we dream of exemption from trials? The offence of the Cross has not ceased. But we must not be deterred from following Christ by the dread of obloquy, or the loss of all things. (John Thomson.) The renouncing spirit of Christianity I. ALL AND ARE TO BE , PARTED WITHAL, AND WHICH ARE WITH AN IN CHRIST, and a participation of Him; as our apostle shows at Philippians 3:4-10). II. That if it were the duty of the Hebrews to forsake these ways of worship, which were originally of Divine institution, that they might wholly give up themselves unto Christ in all things pertaining unto God, MUCH MORE IS IT OURS TO FOREGO ALL SUCH UNTO WORSHIP AS ARE OF HUMAN . III. Whereas the camp contained not only ecclesiastical but also political privileges, WE OUGHT TO BE READY TO FOREGO ALL CIVIL ALSO IN HOUSES, LANDS, , WITH MEN OF THE SAME NATION, WHEN WE ARE CALLED THERE UNTO ON THE ACCOUNT OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPEL. IV. If we will go forth unto Christ as without the camp, or separated from all the concern of this world, WE SHALL MEET WITH ALL SORTS OF . V. THAT ARE NOT LIKE TO MEET WITH ANY SUCH IN THIS WORLD AS TO MAKE THEM UNREADY OR TO DESERT IT, and to go forth after Christ bearing His reproach. For it is a motive in the apostle’ s reasoning to a readiness for that duty, “ we have here no continuing city.” VI. THIS WORLD NEVER DID, NOR EVER WILL, GIVE A STATE OF REST AND TO . It will not afford them a city. It is Jerusalem above that is the “ vision of peace.” Arise and depart, this is not your rest. VII. IN THE OF A PRESENT REST, GOD HATH NOT LEFT WITHOUT A OF THAT WHICH SHALL AFFORD THEM REST AND TO . We have not, but we seek. VIII. As God hath prepared a city of rest for us, so IT IS OUR DUTY TO THE OF IT IN THE WAYS OF HIS . IX. THE MAIN OF IN THIS WORLD IS TO SEEK AFTER THE CITY OF GOD, or the attainment of eternal rest with Him; and this is the character whereby they may be known. (John Owen, D. D.) Coming forth to Christ I. WE MUST COME FORTH OF THE CAMP OR CITY TO HIM. 1. The camp or city is Judaism, and all erroneous sects, and also the world, and men of the world: we must separate from all things inconsistent with the truth and Christ. 2. Out of this camp or city we must come forth, and that we do when we renounce all errors in religion and all earthly affections. We have something in our hearts which keeps us from our God till we be truly converted. 3. To come forth to Christ, therefore, is to be rightly informed, and to believe the saving truth of Christ; and upon this right information, to love Him above all, as far more necessary, excellent, and beneficial than anything, than all things else. To come forth to Him is not to change the place but our hearts; it is a motion not of the body, but the soul, and if we once knew the beauty of Christ, and had tasted of His sweetness, we should be ravished with Him, and all the world could not keep us from Him. In Him alone true happiness is to be found. II. The second part of the duty is TO BEAR HIS . Here is reproach, His reproach, the bearing of His reproach. In this the author alludes unto the bearing of the cross, which was the greatest shame any man could be put unto. To endure disgrace, and suffer in our reputation, credit, hot, our, and good name, is a very grievous evil, and few can endure it, and some can better suffer death than ignominy. The Cross was not only a matter of reproach, but of grievous pain, and was the epitome of all possible evils; and, therefore, by reproach is signified all kinds of afflictions which we may suffer from men, or may be obnoxious unto in this life. Yet this reproach and this cross here meant must be His reproach, His Cross. If we suffer punishment for our own crimes, and through our own folly, then it is not Christ’ s cross. This is a reproach and cross laid upon us for His sake, because we profess His truth, obey His laws, oppose sin and His enemies, refuse to comply with the world in any sin, renounce all errors, idolatry, superstition, and wicked customs of the world, and all this out of love to Christ. To bear this cross is not merely to suffer any ways, but to suffer the worst man can do unto us with patience, with constancy, with joy, and to think ourselves happy and much honoured that we are counted worthy to suffer for so great a Saviour, and in so noble a cause. This requires a Divine faith well grounded upon the word and promises of God, and a special assistance of the Divine Spirit; for these will strengthen our hearts, and make us willing to suffer anything before we offend our God and lose our Saviour. (G. Lawson.) Bearing His reproach Christ’ s reproach It is called Christ’ s reproach in sundry respects: as 1. The union that is betwixt Him and His Church. So as the reproach of the body or of any member thereof is the reproach of Christ Himself. 2. The sympathy which is betwixt Christ and every of His members. He is sensible of that reproach which is cast upon any of them (Acts 9:4). 3. The account which Christ hath of the reproaches of His saints; He doth account them as reproaches cast upon Himself. 4. His undertaking to revenge such reproaches and wrongs as are done to His members (Romans 12:19). 5. The cause of the reproach which is here meant, and that is Christ Himself, a profession of His name, a maintaining of His gospel, and holding close to His righteousness. In this sense an apostle calleth sufferings in such cases Christ’ s sufferings (1 Peter 4:14; Acts 5:41). 6. That resemblance that is betwixt the reproaches of saints and Christ. This reference of reproach to Christ in this phrase, “ His reproach “ is for limitation, direction, consolation, and incitation. 1. It affordeth a limitation, in that it restraineth it to a different kind of reproach, which is Christ’ s reproach. It is not every kind of reproach that can be counted a matter of glory, wherein a man may rejoice; but Christ’ s reproach. I may in this case say of reproach, as the apostle doth of buffeting: “ What glory is it, if when ye be reproached for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?” (1 Peter 2:20). 2. It affordeth a direction in showing how we ought to bear reproach, even as Christ did; for we are in this case to look unto Jesus, who despised the Hebrews 12:2). 3. It ministereth much comfort, in that no other thing is done to us than what is done to our Head before us. Herewith doth Christ comfort His disciples (Matthew 10:25; John 15:20). 4. What greater motive can we have to incite us willingly and contentedly to bear reproach than this, that it is Christ’ s reproach? If honour, if profit may be motives to incite us to a duty, these motives are not wanting in this case. What can be more honourable than to be as Christ was? and if we be reproached with Him here, we shall enjoy with Him hereafter a crown of glory; what more honourable? what more profitable? (W. Gouge.) Reproach incurred by Christians: The following are the chief grounds on which the first Christians were called to bear reproach, and on which we also may be called to bear the same. 1. They suffered reproach, as being followers of a crucified Saviour. 2. A second ground of the reproach suffered by the first Christians was that they forsook the ways of an evil world. 3. Christians are reproached by many on account of their general seriousness and spirituality of character. 4. Lastly: those who adopt any peculiar mode of religious observance have been at times exposed to ridicule on that account. (R. Hall, M. A.) Bearing Christ’ s reproach Sheriff--was the child of a Christian mother. He had lived to be over sixty years of age without openly confessing Christ. Some time ago he “ became interested in his spiritual welfare, and after attending some meetings in the city where he lived, he arose and openly acknowledged his intention to be a Christian. The positiveness of his expression, and his prominence in the community, caused a reporter to insert an item in the next morning’ s paper that the sheriff had been converted. When he went into the court-house in the performance of his duties, he was saluted by one of a throng of godless men with the remark, “ Well, sheriff, we hear you are going to leave us.” “ Leave you?” said he. “ What do you mean?” “ Why, we heard,” said the man, “ that you were going to leave the world, the flesh, and the devil.” The sheriff hesitated only an instant, and said, with great emphasis, “ That’ s just what I’ m going to do.” One of the men then said, “ How do you like its being printed in the paper that you have been converted?” He said, “ Was that in the paper? I think that is grand. I wish that they’ d print placards about it and put them up all over the city, so that people might know about it at once, that I mean henceforth to be a Christian man.” It is needless to say that from that time he was a devoted and faithful follower of Christ. Prizing the Cross: Tacitus reports that though the amber ring among the Romans was of no value, yet, after the emperor began to wear it, it began to be in great esteem: it was the only fashion amongst them. So our Saviour has borne the Cross, and was borne upon it. Once a disgrace, even, it comes to be a boast to the true believer. We should esteem it more highly than many of us do, and bear it daily in remembrance of Him. (E. P.Thwing.) Hebrews 13:14 Here have we no continuing city An ever-changing scene: These words sum up what was certainly the apostolic mind as to the position of Christians in the world. They were members, as we are, of a vast and complex association which we call human society; but, with all its great attributes, it wants permanence. The world passes away as we work and speak. “ Here we have no continuing city.” We have, indeed, a city; we have a wonderful and beneficent citizenship; we could not live without it; we owe it debts beyond repayment, duties of the most sacred kind; but society is with us and about us to-day, and to-morrow we and it are to be so much farther on in our round of successive changes, by which it becomes something quite different from what it is now, something, perhaps, which now we cannot imagine, and we disappear from life and from the visible world. But though “ here we have no continuing city,” we do “ seek one to come.” Born amid change, knowing nothing by experience but change, the human heart yet obstinately clings to its longing for the unchangeable and eternal. Christian souls not only long for it, but look for it. We seek that which is to come--seek it, believing that we shall one day reach it. We do not need Scripture to teach us that “ we have no continuing city,” that “ the fashion of this world passeth away,” that “ nothing continueth in one stay.” But only Scripture can teach us to seek with hope for that which is to come. I need not remind you how, throughout the Psalms, we meet the impressive recognition of this aspect of life and of the world. They are full of the presence, of the greatness, of the eventfulness Of change--change going on for good and evil, for joy and sorrow, in Outward circumstances, in the inward life--changes visible, material, political, moral, and vicissitudes in the fortunes of men and nations; and there are recorded the most rapid alternations and successions of feeling in the soul within, in its outlook towards God and things outside it. The idea of the sovereignty of God is the counterpart throughout the Psalms set over against all that is unsatisfying, disastrous, transitory, untrustworthy, not only in man’ s condition, but in the best that be can do. The psalmists realised that they had “ no continuing city” in a way that is far beyond our experience. They knew a state of society which could rely on nothing settled. It was liable at any moment to be tormented by insolent and lawless wickedness, to be shaken to its foundations by the fever and passion of false religions, to be crushed down into utter ruin by some alien conqueror. They believed that they were the people of God; they believed that they had His promises; and yet what they saw was these promises still unfulfilled, recalled, apparently passing away to nothingness; they, the people of God’ s holiness, saw in the midst of them, trampling on all light and purity, the bloodthirsty and deceitful man; they, the elect of the Lord of Hosts, saw the enemy master among the ruins of God’ s holy place, and for generation after generation felt themselves the slaves and spoil of the heathen. What wonder, then, that the voice of grief and humiliation sounds with such tragic repetition in the Book of Psalms? “ Hath God indeed forgotten to be gracious, and wilt He shut up His loving-kindness in displeasure?” But what is the other side of all this? It is that perhaps with one, and that only an apparent exception, the voice of unalloyed and uncomforted despair is never heard there. At the very moment that the heart is rent with shame and agony comes the remembrance of the Eternal King of Mercy and Righteousness, whose kingdom endured from end to end, while empires rose and fell, and whose ear heard with equal certainty the cry of the poor, and the blasphemer, and the cruel. In spite of the daily evidence of experience, the wicked “ flourishing like a green bay-tree,” the power of the oppressor, the mocking tongue of the blasphemer--in spite of all, the foundations stand sure and unshaken by any accidents of mortal condition. “ Thou art set in the throne that judgest right.” “ The Lord shall endure for ever; He hath also prepared His seat for judgment.” “ The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed,” &c. And so with the transitoriness of the lives and generations of men. Nowhere is a keener sense shown of it than in the Psalms. “ For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain.” “ As soon as Thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, and fade away suddenly like the grass.” “ For, when Thou art angry, all our days are gone; we bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.” What is there to comfort and compensate for this dreary prospect? Nothing but unlimited trust in God’ s power and goodness and ever-watchful care. “ My days have gone like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.” There is the consciousness which must come to all men sooner or later--a consciousness in the Psalmist’ s case that these great changes in his lot were not undeserved by a sinner. “ And that because of Thy indignation and wrath; for Thou hast taken me up, and cast me down.” The great revelation of forgiveness and immortality was yet to come, but the Psalmist’ s faith in the Eternal King of the world never wavered. “ The days of man are bat as grass, for lie flourisheth as a flower of the field. For as soon,” etc. “ But the merciful goodness,” &c. “ When the breath of man goeth forth,” &c. The waste, the throwing away of human souls, of human affection--is there anything more strangely perplexing in the ruin of death? But the answer is at hand: “ Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,” &c. Men died and were buried, and their children after them; they knew that they must die and be as though they had never been. They walked like shadows in the midst of shadows. They felt to the full the shortness of life, how soon it was over, how awful its inevitable changes; yet they did not faint. They knew that over them was the ever-continuous rule of Him who made heaven and earth and all things. They doubted not that He “ keepeth His promise for ever” ; and so, with change and mortality in them and around them, written on the solid earth and on the distant heaven, they broke into the exulting song (Psalms 102:25-28): “ Here we have no continuing city” ; but we know, with a distinctness which all men have not, of the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But where is that passionate, delighted, triumphant faith of those men of old? What have we got of their joy and gladness at the very thought of God? (Dean Church.) Mutability of man’ s present condition I. HERE WE HAVE NO CITY. 1. We may be said to have here no continuing city, by reason of the changes to which our circumstances are liable. 2. The same truth will appear evident if we consider the dissatisfaction with which every condition in life is attended. 3. The truth of the apostle’ s declaration will appear still more manifest when we consider the change to which we ourselves are liable. Every step that we take, while it may bring us nearer to some object of pursuit, at the same time brings us nearer to that misty ocean upon which we must all embark, and bid adieu to all upon its shore. II. BUT WE SEEK ONE TO COME. 1. This presupposes, on the part of Christians, an idea of the existence of another city yet to be discovered. 2. The language of the apostle implies not only a conviction of the existence of heaven, but of its excellence, its decided superiority to the place of man’ s present habitation. 3. The language here employed implies a belief that this city may be gained. 4. It implies, more particularly, that Christians have abandoned the world. 5. It implies an actual entrance upon the way to heaven by an engagement in Christian duty. (James Clason.) The final home of the Christian not on earth, but in heaven I. MAN HAS NO HOME ON EARTH. 1. The inconstancy of human life. 2. The inevitable event of death. 3. The doom which awaits the earth. II. THE HOME OF THE IS IN HEAVEN. 1. Heaven is a place. 2. Heaven is a permanent place. 3. Heaven is sure to the faithful believer. III. To ATTAIN HEAVEN IS THE ’ S SUPREME CONCERN. 1. Heaven is secured to the believer conditionally. 2. That condition must be fulfilled on earth. 3. Its fulfilment requires the vigorous application of the whole mind. 4. The hope of heaven inspires Christian courage. (Homilist.) Men sojourners upon earth I. No sooner are we capable of looking round us, and considering the frame of our nature, and the condition of our being, than we may observe THAT, DERIVED FROM DUST, WE HASTEN TO DUST AGAIN; that none can claim the privilege of an exemption from the common necessity; that the human, like the vegetable race, have their periods of growth and declension, and are either cut down by the hand of violence, or soon fade and drop of themselves. Strangers and sojourners here, as were all our fathers, we soon pass away, and are gone. II. I proceed to deduce SOME AND FROM THE SHORT AND : OF HUMAN LIFE. 1. Melancholy indeed would be the reflection that we pass away as a shadow if this life were the whole of our existence, and we had no hope beyond it, But, setting aside other considerations, the short term of our existence here may give us grounds to hope that it will be renewed and prolonged hereafter. For can we think that man was not designed by his Maker to attain that perfection in wisdom, and virtue, and happiness of which his nature is susceptive? 2. Meditation on our short and uncertain state in this world may wean us from an over-fondness for anything in it. 3. The consideration of the shortness of life may assist us in supporting us under its afflictions. 4. If the time of our sojourning in this world be but short, let the great and habitual object of our attention be that state which may soon begin but can never end. If “ we have here no continuing city, let us seek one to come.” (G. CarT, B. A.) Present change and future continuance: Changeableness is one characteristic of all that is earthly. What is history? Largely the record of a succession of vapours which have appeared for a little time, and then have vanished away. What is philosophy but knowledge of the rise and progress, the extent and duration of shadows? What is poetry but the expression of the deep emotions awakened by earthly vicissitudes? And what is this world as we now all see it but a system of globes having a double revolution? Nothing abides in the same place, or exhibits two days together the same aspect. Changeableness is one feature of all that is earthly; human nature being no exception. Personally, relatively, in body, in spirit, within, without, there is no continuance. Some of the changes to which men are subject are manifestly good in themselves, good in all respects, and in the case of those who love God, and who are the called according to His purpose, all things work together for good. “ Here have we no continuing city.” In what position are we left? Are we never to have continuance? Yes, we are to look upon things abiding, for while “ here we have no continuing city, we,” Christians, “ seek one to come.” I. Look at THIS HERE FELT AND . “ Here have we no continuing city.” This seems discordant with the closing verse of the former chapter, where it is said--“ We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” But you remember, that kingdom is within us; and that kingdom is continued. The apostle is speaking in the text rather of that which is outside of us. Here, too, have we no fixed temporal condition. The rich often become poor; the elevated are brought low; and the men of many friends are made desolate. Here, too, have we no ultimate stage of existence. We begin with babyhood, rise into childhood, and oh, how soon do we get through manhood! And here have we no permanent visible Church. The persons constituting the Churches of Christ die; the members of particular congregations change; they pass from one community to another; and our Church forms and modes alter. Here, too, have we no fixed and unalterable demand upon our resources and powers. Duties and responsibilities, they all vary. Here, too, have we no fixed state of the emotions. To-day we are in joy; to-morrow in sorrow. Here, too, have we not the consummation of redemption. There are some things in our salvation now complete. Our pardon is complete; our justification is complete; but the inner salvation is being wrought out. There is no continuance in the experience of a true Christian. Here, too, have we not the everlasting Jerusalem. So that we may say, looking at all these facts, “ Here have we no continuing city.” II. WE SEEK ONE TO COME. We desire that which is unchangeable, and we seek it. “ One to come” --a higher and a settled dwelling-place--a final home. It is love that makes a home. To love, and to be loved, though it be in the peasant’ s cot, is to be at home; and often you find homes in the rudest dwellings, and none in the most splendid palaces. But where love is likely to be disturbed--where some rude hand can take the threads that love is ever spinning and tying and fastening, and cut them and sever them, the home feeling must of course be partial. And we long for a place and a state where we shall abide eternally in the presence of those who love us. “ We seek one to come.” A higher and a settled dwelling-place, a final home, a permanent state of being--not a stereotyped state of being, but still a permanent state of being, as distinguished from a mere probational state. And we long for, we seek a permanent state of being, and an undisturbed condition. Society, for example, just to take two or three illustrations--society without interruption or separation. Now, as soon as we know one another, we are taken away from each other. Occupation pursued for ever. The man who looks at this world as he should look at it almost trembles to undertake anything great or anything grand. But think of immortality as the day of your work. What broad foundations of enterprises may you lay, when you shall feel that you have the “ for-ever” before you in which to execute those enterprises! “ One to come” --not only occupations to be pursued for ever, but pleasure to be enjoyed for ever, and honours to be worn for ever, and worship to be continued for ever, and communion to be unbroken for ever, and the Church to be glorious and perfect for ever. Now, we Christians desire this for comfort’ s sake, for progress’ sake, and above all for righteousness’ sake. Acknowledge, then, that “ here have we no continuing city” ; acknowledge it. Acknowledge it by expecting change. Do not busy yourself in trying to fix permanently all the arrangements of your households, and to say, as I sometimes hear some of you say, and hear you say occasionally with trembling, “ Now we are settled.” Settled? Settled this side of the grave? Settled--where change is the very law of life? Settled? Oh, never say with the spirit that we are now condemning, “ Now we are settled.” When God requires you to make changes, make them, and be ready for them, and then they will not hurt you. “ Here have we no continuing city.” Acknowledge this fully and cordially. Then “ seek one to come” --by union with Jesus Christ, and by spiritual preparedness. There is a city to come--a collection of the saved children of Adam in one place--a holy place, a city. It is beautiful for situation, like Jerusalem of old,but built upon everlasting hills which shall never bow, and upon mountains which shall never be moved. It is a holy city, into which shall not enter anything that defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. (S. Martin.) No continuing city here I. THE VIEW WHICH THE TEXT OF THE PRESENT WORLD. 1. Our earthly possessions do not continue. (1) Our life--the chief of them--is not permanent. “ We know not what a day may bring forth.” (2) Our connections are not permanent. We may flatter ourselves in the hope that they will remain, and avail us, all along the journey of life; that we shall never want a relative to feel an identity of interests with us; but, probably, amidst all these self-gratulations, events may arise to dissolve our pleasing reverie, and to compel us to mourn over lost relations, never to be regained. (3) Our health, property, respectability, do not always continue. What reverses of this kind does the page of history record! We read of constitutions broken, estates lost, fortunes ruined--of thrones subverted. 2. Our opportunities do not continue. There is a tide in our affairs, both temporal and spiritual. 3. Our religious peace and joy do not continue. There are disturbing forces in the kingdom of grace, as well as in that of nature: there are alternations in the affections of the soul, as well as in the seasons and the elements; and it would be strange if our minds were liable to no fluctuations, since there are different states in the health of our bodies. II. THE CONDUCT WHICH THE APOSTLE IN TO ANOTHER WORLD--“ but we seek one to come.” 1. Observe the figure under which the place of the future abode of godly persons is represented--it is a city. A city means a place of concourse, in which is intelligent and agreeable society; a place of protection, a place of entertainment, where there is much to delight the eye, the ear, the taste--a place of refinement, where the minds, and manners of the inhabitants are removed from what is coarse--a place of wealth and comfort, affording a confluence of the supplies and enjoyments of life. 2. This peerless place is yet to come. That is, it is yet to appear, to be enjoyed--it is future. Hannibal’ s soldiers had no adequate idea of the Italian plains, before they descried them from the Alpine heights. The Israelites must have had a very imperfect notion of the Land of Promise, before they had crossed the Jordan, and traversed its mountains and valleys, entered its cities, walked amongst its vineyards, and partook of its milk and honey. And our highest attainments of grace upon earth leave us painfully ignorant of the perfect realisations of glory which await us in heaven. 3. Real Christians are now seeking this city which is to come. Seeking it implies earnest desire, assiduous diligence, and progressive advancement. (J. Davies.) No continuing city: In Chili, where the ground is subject to frequent shocks of earthquake, the houses are built of lowly height and of unenduring structure; it is of little use to dig deep foundations, and pile up high walls, when the very earth is unstable; it would be foolish to build as for ages when the whole edifice may be in ruins in a week. Herein we read a lesson as to our worldly schemes and possessions; this poor fleeting world deserves not that we should build our hopes and joys upon it as though they could last us long. We must treat it as a treacherous soil, and build but lightly on it, and we shall be wise. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A frail habitation: Mr. Ruskin speaks in his “ Love’ s Meinie” of the “ Little Crake, a bird which lays her eggs on an inartificially constructed platform of decayed leaves or stalks of marsh plants, slightly elevated above the water. How elevated I cannot find proper account, that is to say, whether it is hung to the stems of growing reeds, or built on hillocks of soil, but the bird is always liable to have its nest overflown by floods” (H. O.Mackey.) We seek one to come The abiding city of God’ s people I. I shall trace in these words THE OBJECT YEARNED AFTER BY EVERY MAN’ S HEART, VIZ., A SETTLED AND SECURE . Fully to enter into the beauty and force of this expression, it is necessary to imagine ourselves transported to a country exposed to the frequent devastation of war. Imagine yourselves in a land where the broken framework of the law cannot restrain each castle and town from pouring forth its band of marauding ruffians; or, suppose an enemy’ s host landed and spreading fire and ruin far and wide--you will then partly estimate the desirableness of dwelling in “ a continuing city.” II. Therefore, secondly, GOD TO GIVE MAN A WARNING IT, drawing at one stroke a picture of this world, by saying that no such permanent security is to be found here--“ here we have no continuing city.” Are riches secure? Your city has no bolts and bars to confine them. Friends, the nearest and dearest--what risk of their becoming estranged and chilled by misunderstanding. Earthquake, and hurricane, and plague, and war, are not necessary to brand instability on our comforts of this life. In the form of a slight cold Death lays its imperceptible touch upon the frame, and ere long comes to claim his own. Yet men will seek for these things, as if they were to endure, and will confide in their continuance to the last hour. It is necessary, then, that ye be warned by no less than the voice of God Himself, that “ here ye have no continuing city.” III. But, thirdly, GOD ASSURES US THAT THERE IS SUCH A STATE TO BE UNTO --there is “ one to come.” The original is more explicit, for the existence of such a state is expressly affirmed. It is spoken of not as a hope, an imagination, like those which man sets before his own eyes, but as a reality. The true force of the expressions, “ the one to come,” is, “ the city that is to come.” Yes, revelation sets before us a place of security beyond the utmost dream of human hope--“ a continuing city,” more complete than it hath entered into the heart of man to conceive, hath God prepared for them that love Him. It is figured forth as a city Hebrews 11:16): “ God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.” It hath walls and gates: “ Thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise.” It is set forth specially under the figure of the “ holy city,” the New Jerusalem: “ the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon.” The majesty of God is security for the peace and safety of that place. IV. But, fourthly, THE APOSTLE LETS FALL BY THE WAY A SHORT OF EVERY TRUE , VIZ., THAT HE IS A “ SEEKER” OF THAT : “ We seek one to come.” Recognise in this description that earnestness is an implied characteristic of the people of God. As an exile seeks his father’ s land, or his native city, where the great majority of his kindred dwell, so the Christian soul feels towards heaven. He need not affect stoic indifference to the stations and duties on earth. St. Paul said, “ I am of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.” But let earthly things clash with heavenly, and you will see where his heart is, that he is earnestly seeking his native city, into whose privileges he was new born, though at a distance, precisely as Paul was born into the privileges of Rome, though his native place was in Cilicia. The earnestness of a Christian will show itself in all he does; and in proportion as he is earnest, is the development of his Christianity. Another remark to which this characteristic description of a Christian gives rise, is an encouraging one to those Christians who, though earnest, are cast down. A Christian’ s character is evidently that of an expectant, not a possessor. Ye are not yet come into the place which the Lord hath said He will give unto you. Be not therefore discouraged at being only an expectant of coming blessings. I would now fain bind this subject yet closer upon your individual hearts, by addressing three classes of persons. First, those that have suffered much from the mutability of earthly things; secondly, those that have been prosperous hitherto; and, thirdly, those that are entering on the trials of life. (G. Hebert, M. A.) Only one Paradise for man It is said that Mahomet approached Damascus, and when he stood to view the dazzling spectacle of that royal city, amid the beautiful plain, he turned aside and left the prospect, saying, “ It is given to man to enjoy Paradise but once. If I possess Damascus I lose heaven.” Hebrews 13:15 Offer the sacrifice of praise A life-long occupation: It is instructive to notice where this verse stands. The connection is a golden setting to the gem of the text. Here we have a description of the believer’ s position before God. He has done with all carnal ordinances, and has no interest in the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. What then? Are we to offer no sacrifice? Very far from it. We are called upon to offer to God a continual sacrifice. Having done with the outward, we now give ourselves entirely to the inward and to the spiritual. Moreover, the believer is now, if he is where he ought to be, like his Master, “ without the camp.” What then? If we are without the camp, have we nothing to do? On the contrary, let us the more ardently pursue higher objects, and yield up our disentangled spirits to the praise and glory of God. Do we come under contempt, as the Master did? Is it so, that we are “ bearing His reproach” ? Shall we sit down in despair? Nay, verily; while we lose honour ourselves, we will ascribe honour to our God. We will count it all joy that we are counted worthy to be reproached for Christ’ s sake. Moreover, the apostle says that “ Here we have no continuing city.” Well, then, we will transfer the continuance from the city to the praise--“ Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” If everything here is going, let it go; but we will not cease to sing. If the end of all things is at hand, let them end; but our praises of the living God shall abide world without end. I. First, then, concerning a believer, let me HIS . “ By Him therefore.” 1. See, at the very threshold of all offering of sacrifice to God, we begin with Christ. We cannot go a step without Jesus. Without a Mediator we can make no advance to God. He is that altar which sanctifies both gift and giver; by Him, therefore, let our sacrifices both of praise and of almsgiving be presented unto God. 2. Next, observe that this sacrifice is to be presented continually. Not only in this place or that place, but in every place, we are to praise the Lord our God. Not only when we are in a happy frame of mind, but when we are cast down and troubled. The perfumed smoke from the altar of incense is to rise towards heaven both day and night, from the beginning of the year to the year’ s end. 3. The apostle goes on to tell us what the sacrifice is--the sacrifice of praise. Praise, that is, heart-worship, or adoration. Adoration is the grandest form of earthly service. We ascribe unto Jehovah, the one living and true God, all honour and glory. Praise is heart-trust and heart-content with God. Trust is adoration applied to practical purposes. Praise is heart-enjoyment; the indulgence of gratitude and wonder. The Lord has done so much for me that I must praise Him, or feel as if I had a fire shut up within me. 4. The text evidently deals with spoken praise--“ Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” ; or, as the Revised Version has it, “ the fruit of lips which make confession to His name.” So, then, we are to utter the praises of God, and it is not sufficient to feel adoring emotions. “ Well,” saith one, “ I cannot force myself to praise,” I do not want you to force yourself to it: this praise is to be natural. It is called the fruit of the lips. Fruit is a natural product: it grows without force, the free outcome of the plant. So let praise grow out of your lips at its own sweet will. Let it be as natural to you, as regenerated men, to praise God as it seems to be natural to profane men to blaspheme the sacred name. This praise is to be sincere and real. The next verse tells us we are to do good and communicate, and joins this with praise to God. Many will give God a cataract of words, but scarce a drop of true gratitude in the form of substance consecrated. This practical praising of the Lord is the life-office of every true believer. See ye to it. II. We will, secondly, EXAMINE THE OF THIS . “ Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” 1. To praise God continually will need a childlike faith in Him. You must believe His word, or you will not praise His name. Doubt snaps the harp-strings. Question mars all melody. Unbelief is the deadly enemy of praise. 2. Faith must lead you into personal communion with the Lord. It is to Him that the praise is offered, and not to our fellow-men. 3. You must have also an overflowing content, a real joy in Him. Be sure that you do not lose your joy Rejoice in the Lord, that you may praise Him. 4. There must also be a holy earnestness about this. Praise is called a sacrifice because it is a very sacred thing. When life is real, life is earnest: and it must be both real and earnest when it is spent to the praise of the great and ever-blessed God. 5. To praise God continually, you need to cultivate perpetual gratitude, and surely it cannot be hard to do that! Remember, every misery averted is a mercy bestowed; every sin forgiven is a favour granted; every duty performed is also a grace received. Let the stream leap up to heaven in bursts of enthusiasm; let it fall to earth again in showers of beneficence; let it fill the basin of your daily life, and run over into the lives of others, and thence again in a cataract of glittering joy let it still descend. 6. In order to this praise you will need a deep and ardent admiration of the Lord God. Admire the Father--think much of His love; acquaint yourself with His perfections. Admire the Son of God, the altogether lovely One; and as you mark His gentleness, self-denial, love, and grace, suffer your heart to be wholly enamoured of Him. Admire the patience and condescension of the Holy Ghost, that He should visit you, and dwell in you, and bear with you. III. I want, in the third place, to COMMEND THIS BLESSED . 1. “ Offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,” because in so doing you will answer the end of your being. Every creature is happiest when it is doing what it is made for. Christians are made to glorify God; and we are never in our element till we are praising Him. Do not degrade yourself by a less Divine employ. 2. Praise God again, because it is His due. Should Jehovah be left unpraised? Praise is the quit-rent which He asks of us for the enjoyment of all things; shall we be slow to pay? 3. Praise Him continually, for it will help you in everything else. A man full of praise is ready for all other holy exercises. The praises of God put wings upon pilgrims’ heels, so that they not only run, but fly. 4. This will preserve us from many evils. When the heart is full of the praise of God, it has not time to find fault and grow proudly angry with its fellows. We cannot fear while we can praise. Neither can we be bribed by the world’ s favour, nor cowed by its frown. Praise makes men, yea, angels of us: let us abound in it. 5. Let us praise God because it will be a means of usefulness. I believe that a life spent in God’ s praise would in itself be a missionary life. A praiseful heart is eloquent for God. 6. Praise God, because this is what God loves. Notice how the next verse puts it: “ With such sacrifices God is well pleased.” 7. To close this commendation, remember that this will fit you for heaven. You can begin the music here--begin the hallelujahs of glory by praising God here below. IV. LET US AT ONCE. What does the text say? It says, “ Let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually.” The apostle does not say, “ By and by get to this work, when you are able to give up business, and have retired to the country, or when you are near to die” ; but now, at once, he says, “ Let us offer the sacrifice of praise.” Let us stir one another up to praise. Let us spend to-day, and to-morrow, and all the rest of our days in praising God. If we catch one another a little grumbling, or coldly silent, let us, in kindness to each other, give the needful rebuke. It will not do; we must praise the Lord. Just as the leader of an orchestra taps his baton to call all to attention, and then to begin singing, so I bestir you to offer the sacrifice of praise unto the Lord. The apostle has put us rather in a fix: he compels us to offer sacrifice. Did you notice what he said in the tenth verse? He says, “ We have an altar.” Can we imagine that this altar is given us of the Lord to be never used? Is no sacrifice to be presented on the best of altars? If we have an altar, do not allow it to be neglected, deserted, unused. It is not for spiders to spin their webs upon; it is not meet that it should be smothered with the dust of neglect. “ We have an altar.” What then? “ Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Do you not see the force of the argument? Practically obey it. Beside the altar we have a High Priest. Shall He stand there, and have nothing to do? What would you think of our great High Priest waiting at the altar, with nothing to present which His redeemed had brought to God? No, “ by Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Bring hither abundantly, ye people of God, your praises, your prayers, your thank-offerings, and present them to the Ever-blessed! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Public worship a sacrifice: It is commonly supposed that the immediate object and end of public worship is edification, and that we assemble ourselves together in God’ s house of prayer, mainly, if not solely, for our own benefit and improvement. Persons who are better informed will, indeed, admit that the honour of God is also intended in public worship; but it is evident that most people are far from realising this truth. The devout Christian will readily understand that such a view of public worship as this, which has respect rather to our own profit than to God’ s honour, is most erroneous; and the words of the text, rightly understood, are well calculated to set forth and correct the falseness of this notion. Now, in considering the apostle’ s expression, “ sacrifice of praise,” with a view to ascertain the full meaning of the phrase, let us inquire whether there was anything in the ancient sacrifices which does not apply to the solemn services of the Christian Church. 1. And the first prejudice which we may mention against applying the term sacrifice to our own acts of worship is the erroneous persuasion that blood was always shed in the sacrifices of old. But this is altogether a mistake, and betrays an ignorance of the Scriptures, as well as of the writings of heathen antiquity; for nothing is more certain than that the sacrifices both of Jews and Gentiles consisted, many of them, of the oblation not of slain animals, but of flour, cakes, wine, fruits, and other vegetable substances. 2. Having, then, shown that there were other sacrifices among the Jews than those of slain animals, I will notice a second objection that might be ignorantly urged against the term “ sacrifice” being applied to Christian oblation, viz., that the sacrifices of old were always burnt upon the altar, whereas all burnt-offerings have ceased among Christians. But it is not true that all the Jewish sacrifices were burnt; for it is certain that the wave-loaves were not thus offered with fire: and again, it was distinctly enjoined that the scape-goat was to be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement. 3. But perhaps a still more serious objection to our use of the word “ sacrifice” is the fear entertained by many well-meaning persons lest this term should suggest the idea that our religious performances are intrinsically meritorious and propitiatory, and so detract from the all-sufficient merits of the great sacrifice which was once offered for the sins of the whole world. But this apprehension is also founded upon the mistaken notion that the sacrifices before the coming of Christ were really propitiatory; whereas, in truth, they had no real virtue apart from the merits of that prevailing sacrifice which they prefigured. Not one of the Jewish ceremonies and sacrificial rites could, in the least, avail to cleanse from sin, but as they were accepted by God for the sake of the offering of the body of Christ once for all. It does not, therefore, appear how the application of the term sacrifice to Christian oblations, and particularly to the Holy Eucharist, can encourage the supposition that they are intrinsically meritorious. But while it is freely admitted that none of these ceremonies, either before or after Christ, are in their own nature and by their own virtue meritorious, it may be safely maintained that, if they be done in and “ by Him,” our “ Priest for ever,” then they are, through the atonement of the Cross, availing to the quieting of our consciences, the reconciling to God, the imparting of grace, and the forgiveness of sin. And this surely is especially true of that sacrifice of praise which has been ordained by Christ Himself as the perpetual memorial of the sacrifice of His death, and of the benefits which we receive thereby. Observe: St. Paul, writing to the Hebrew converts, who of all people were most familiar with the import of the word “ sacrifice,” instead of avoiding the use of this term, as if all notion of the solemn offerings of the Mosaic law was to be carefully banished from their christianised minds as irreconcilable with the spirituality of the gospel, selects this very word to convey to them his idea of the character of Christian praise. Now, to the Jewish mind sacrifice was a solemn act surrounded with a ceremonial prescribed by God Himself. There was the trouble and expense of providing the oblation; then it was to be brought to the priest, who alone could present it with prayer to God and make it an acceptable sacrifice. We will conclude the subject with a few practical remarks suggested by the word “ continually.” The worship of the Church is a sacrifice. But not only this, it is a continual sacrifice. There was the daily, morning, and evening sacrifice among the Jews. There has ever been the same daily services in the Catholic Church of Christ; and our own Anglican branch of it asserts this duty, and claims this privilege. Has our gracious Lord taught the Church to cry continually, “ Give us this day our daily bread” ; and does this petition suggest individual and domestic wants only, and not those of the people and nation also? Is it lawful for man to pray daily for common blessings, and must it not be a duty and a privilege to unite in prayer, in God’ s own house of prayer, under the direction of His ministers? But besides this continual sacrifice, I would remind you of those more solemn days of fast and festival, upon which every devoted member of the Church Catholic (or at least some representative of his family) should present himself before the Lord, if he desires to be like, or fears to be very unlike, all Christians of bygone days. These levees of the King of kings will often be held on days inconvenient to the world. But we are not of the world, but subjects of another kingdom. But to realise this blessedness you must come to offer sacrifice. You must come in God’ s way, and in compliance with the laws of His Church. Do not think too much, or immediately of the benefit, spiritual or temporal, which you hope to receive; but think first and chiefly of rendering to God that homage which is His due. Nor make much of the trouble or inconvenience which such duties may occasion you; rather to the “ fruit of your lips,” add cheerfully the sacrifice of your time, your bodily strength, your worldly substance. (C. Wray, M. A.) Thanksgiving We must thank God for the mercies we have, or else we shall not have others. In the early days when the Puritans settled in New England they were always having fast days. They had a fast day because their bread was getting short; another fast day because the Red Indians invaded them; another fast day because a ship had not arrived that they expected; and they had so many fast days that they began to get exceedingly weak. At length, one very wise brother said, “ Did they not think it would be as well, now and then, to vary the thing, and to have a feast day occasionally? Would it not be quite as acceptable to God if instead of mourning over mercies they wanted, they were to thank Him for mercies enjoyed?” So they instituted what is called the thanksgiving day, which became a perpetual ordinance afterwards--the thanksgiving for mercies received. There is reason and wisdom in such a course. How dare you go and ask for anything else till you have been thankful for what you have? What do you with poor people who depend upon you? You gave the man some relief yesterday, and he walked away with an ungrateful face, shrugging shoulders, as much as to say, “ That’ s all!” Sometimes when you have given charity to a very greedy person, have you not seen him stand and look at it? What has been your rule when he comes next time? You have sent him away empty, and very properly is he punished. But how is it the Lord does not serve you the same? You ask Him for a mercy and you get it, and you either look at it as though it were not worth having, or else you enjoy it for a time and then forget you have ever had it, and never think of thanking Him; and then you knock at His door again, and expect that He will wait upon your lusts when you will not wait upon His throne with thanksgiving. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Thanksgiving in the heart: As flowers carry dewdrops, trembling on the edges of the petals, and ready to fail at the first waft of wind or brush of bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of thanksgiving; ‘ and at the first breath of heavenly flavour, let down the shower, perfumed with the heart’ s gratitude. (H. W. Beecher.) Praising God: In praising a fellow creature we may easily surpass the truth; but in praising God we have only to go on acknowledging and confessing what He really is to us. Here it is impossible to exceed the truth; and here is genuine praise. (J. A. Bengel.) Praise: Gurnall spoke of “ the double action of the lungs” --the air sucked in by prayer and breathed forth again in praise. Little rent: The Lord has many fine farms from which He receives but little rent. Thanksgiving is a good thing: thanksliving is better. (P. Henry.) A line of praise A line of praises is worth a leaf of prayer; and an hour of praises is worth a day of fasting and mourning.. (J. Livingston.) Thankless people Pliny says in his Natural History there m a certain people in India, upon the river Ganges, called Aotomy, who have no mouth, but feed upon the smell of herbs and flowers. We have some of the same kind of people in England: when, under the afflicting hand of God, they have no lips to praise God, nor tongues to justify Him. (J. W. Kirton.) Praise: Hard by the table of shewbread commemorating His bounty should stand the altar of incense denoting our praise. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Gratitude an aid to enjoyment: Many favours which God giveth us ravel out for want of hemming, through our own unthankfulness; for though prayer purchases blessings, giving praise doth keep the quiet possession of them. “ Have we thanked Him?” A lady, hearing of a poor gipsy boy lying very ill in a tent, was anxious to visit him. In her endeavours to do so she met with much abuse and a refusal from the boy’ s father. At last, however, the father consented to her visiting his dying son. Entering the tent, she found the poor lad lying on a heap of straw and in great suffering. She spoke to him of Jesus, and His love for sinners; of His cruel death and resurrection; and was astonished to see the boy’ s frame shaken with sobs. To her inquiry about his distress, he gasped, “ Oh, miss, and I’ ve never so much as thanked Him!” Have we thanked Him? Hebrews 13:16 But to do good, and to communicate, forget not Christian beneficence: I. WHAT THE TO “ DO GOOD “ AND TO” ” DENOTE. 1. To “ do good” is to do whatever may tend to promote the good and happiness of our neighbour; to prevent any peril or misfortune he may be exposed to, or to deliver him out of any circumstances of adversity which he may be in. The goods or evils we are capable of in this world either respect our spiritual or our temporal state. If he requires our advice we ought to give it in the best manner we can; if our assistances we ought to discover a readiness to gratify him in any reasonable request. 2. To communicate, or distribute, is to set apart some proportion of those good things the providence of God has blessed us with to the benefit and relief of others. II. WHY DOING GOOD AND ARE AND WELL- TO GOD. 1. By beneficence and charitable actions we imitate God in one of the glorious and moral perfections of His nature. That perfection which He seems Himself to exalt above all His other attributes, and without which they would render Him rather an object of terror than love to us. 2. Hereby we do honour to the providence of God. For probably this, among other reasons, may be one why God has put so great a number of men under circumstances of want, that those who are in a better capacity may have constant occasions of exerting themselves in all the good offices of humanity and love, which are the brightest ornaments of human nature; and that others, seeing these their good works, may be more effectually excited to glorify God. 3. By acts of beneficence we discover the power which religion has over us, and the sincerity of our love to God. This is the most sensible argument that we can give to ourselves or others, that our hearts are right with God, and that religion has in truth some power over us. But in truth, though acts of charity may in many respects interfere with the maxims of self-love, and seem to cross the designs of avarice and worldly-mindedness; yet it will appear under my next and last particular. 4. That they are agreeable to one of the prime and essential inclinations of human nature. God has implanted in our very frame a compassionate sense of the sufferings of other people, which disposes us to contribute to their relief; so that when we see any of our fellow creatures in circumstances of distress we are naturally, I had almost said, mechanically, inclined to be helpful to them. One reason why God has given us these natural sentiments of compassion may be that man, of all other beings upon earth, stands in the greatest need of the help of his fellow creatures; for whereas Nature, when she brings other creatures in the world, puts them in a readier way of making some provision for themselves. Man is born more exposed, and even in his full strength he would at the best but pass his time very ill were it not for the many comforts and conveniences which he reaps from society. As God has made man a sociable creature, it was a very wise design of His providence to train him up in such a manner for society as might give him the strongest impressions of all the duties of humanity and respect, which he owes to it, anal wherein the peace and happiness of it principally consist. (R. Fiddes, D. D.) Doing good: There is no good for man but to do good. To do good is in accordance with our highest reason, and commands universal approval; for, whatever may be the practice of the selfish and the churlish, even they are constrained, though in stinted phrase, to commend the generous. Whether we appeal to our personal consciousness, or the general judgment of mankind, the man who lives for others, and labours, even at a sacrifice, to assist and elevate them, receives the homage of the common heart. A parent, self-indulgent, neglectful, or failing to provide for the wants of those dependent upon him, or seeking to render the lives of his children subservient to his indolence or personal indulgence, is an object of contempt and reprobation. A prince who should squander the revenues of his kingdom on plans of personal aggrandisement, or schemes of wild ambition, is universally condemned, and men rise up in rebellion against him. The scholar who merely acquires knowledge for the delight it affords him, without seeking to apply it to the common good, is regarded with indifference or pity; even an angel would be neither the object of approval nor envy, who only lived to breathe in celestial joys, and was ready neither to wait nor to serve. God Himself is adored as the good, because He is the Giver of every good; nor can we conceive of Him as either indifferent to the happiness of His creatures, or regardless of their fate, without feeling that He would cease to command our reverence or cull forth our love, and would be like the fancied gods of the heathen, whose only vocation is to quaff their bowls of nectar and feast on ambrosia. The honoured dead, whose memories are cherished, and whose names are treasured as heirlooms of the race, are not those who, immured in palaces, have spent their lives in extravagant pleasures, but those who have endured hardship, and sacrificed ease, and even life, in conferring great boons on their generation. Not the rulers of the race, but its benefactors, are revered; not the high potentates, but the wise statesmen; not the ambitious warrior, but the devoted patriot, are held in loving remembrance; not he who has waded through the blood of others to the throne of a kingdom, but he who has shed his own blood to obtain or defend the liberties of a nation, will find a perennial monument in the grateful heart of posterity. To do good is not only in accordance with our highest reason, and the prompting of our best instincts, but it is the very genius of our common Christianity. If we are brought near to God by a true faith, we must become like Him in the exercise of a pure love. And how shall we do good? We live in a time of great opportunities and manifold facilities, of multiplied means of usefulness. Our capability is our only limit. But we should specially seek to do good by faithfully discharging all the duties of our vocation and sphere, by cheerfully responding to all the obligations which arise out of our relations to the home, the church, and the world; by honest work, true words, and daring deeds; and by using our influence directly and indirectly for the furtherance of any good work. We should do good by heartily sustaining, extending, and transmitting the gospel, and all its ordinances; in the erection of churches, the planting of missions, and the establishment of schools; by relieving the distressed, succouring the needy, and comforting the sorrow-stricken, both personally and through the agency of others, in connection with charitable societies and humane institutions; and by daily deeds of love and frequent gifts of affection and gratitude. To do good is the dictate of humanity, the demand of duty, the claim of justice, and the plea of interest; and each loving, feeling heart may readily find its appropriate work. (Christian World Pulpit.) Doing good and being good: The man who fails to fulfil his mission to others, fails to find the end and meaning of his own life; cease to do good and you will soon cease to be good, and will make shipwreck of your personal hope. The Jews were God’ s witnesses of this. Instead of making all nations love them and seek to walk in the light of their life as a people, they managed to make all nations hate and persecute them--with a hatred, moreover, that deepened with the ages, and at length wrought their utter ruin. You may say that this was the inevitable result of the position of a godly people in the midst of a heathen world. At first it might be so, but not permanently. Christianity has won its way, first to toleration, then to honour--Judaism never did; and yet the peoples around were far from indisposed to receive its impressions. Joseph won his way at once at Memphis, Daniel at Babylon. And Joseph and Daniel had nothing but what Judaism had. They were Jews to the heart’ s core, and the history of their missionary work stands in everlasting record to shame their countrymen, and to justify the ways of God, when “ the wind bound up the self-centred and exclusive people in her wings,” and bore them into a far captivity, where, unless they were prepared to renounce their nationality, they must bear witness for God, whether they would or no. (J. Baldwin Brown.) The useful life missed: When an oak, or any noble and useful tree, is uprooted, his removal creates a blank. For years after, when you look to the place which once knew him, you see that something is missing. The branches of adjacent trees have not yet supplied the void. They still hesitate to supply the place formerly filled by their powerful neighbour; and there is still a deep chasm in the ground--a rugged pit--which shows how far his giant roots once spread. But when a leafless pole, a wooden pin, is plucked up, it comes easy and clean away. There is no rending of the turf, no marring of the landscape, no vacuity created, no regret. It leaves no memento, and is never missed. Which are you? Are you cedars planted in the house of the Lord, casting a cool and grateful shadow on those around you? Are you palm-trees, fat and flourishing, yielding bounteous fruit, and making all who know you bless you? Are you so useful, that were you once away it would not be easy to fill your place again, but people, as they pointed to the void in the plantation, the pit in the ground, would say, “ It was here that that old palm-tree diffused his familiar shadow, and showed his mellow clusters” ? Or, are you a peg, a pin, a rootless, branchless, fruitless thing, that may be pulled up any day, and no one ever care to ask what has become of it? What are you doing? What are you contributing to the world’ s happiness, or the Church’ s glory? What is your business? (J. Hamilton, D. D.) “ What can I do?” The Rev. Spencer Compton, an evangelical minister at Boulogne, relates the following incident: “ During a voyage to India, I sat one dark evening in my cabin feeling thoroughly unwell, as the sea was rising fast and I was but a poor sailor. Suddenly the cry of ‘ Man overboard!’ made me spring to my feet. I heard a trampling overhead, but resolved not to go on deck lest I should interfere with the crew in their efforts to save the poor man. ‘ What can I do?’ I asked myself, and instantly unhooking my lamp, I held it near the top of my cabin and close to my bull’ s-eye window, that its light might shine on the sea, and as near the ship as possible. In half-a-minute’ s time I heard the joyful cry, ‘ It’ s all right, he’ s safe,’ upon which I put my lamp in its place. The next day, however, I was told that my little lamp was the sole means of saving the man’ s life; it was only by the timely light which shone upon him that the knotted rope could be thrown so as to reach him.” We should do good in our own sphere: Keep in the way of your place and calling, and take not other men’ s works upon you, without a call, under any pretence of doing good. Magistrates must do good, in the place and work of magistrates; and ministers, in the place and work of ministers; and private men, in their private place and work; and not one man step into another’ s place, and take his work out of his hand, and say, “ I can do it better” ; ford if you should do it better, the disorder will do more harm than you did good by bettering his work. One judge must not step into another’ s court and seat, and say, “ I will pass more righteous judgment.” You must not go into another man’ s school, and say, “ I can teach your scholars better” ; nor into another’ s charge or pulpit, and say, “ I can preach better.” The servant may not rule the master because he can do it best, no more than you may take another man’ s wife, or house, or lands, or goods, because you can use them better than he. Do the good you are called to do. (R. Baxter.) Exert your talents: “ Exert your talents,” said Dr. Samuel Johnson, “ and distinguish yourself. Do not think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a man whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing while there but sit and growl.” Activity is the key to a useful Christian life. The key to activity is opening the doors o! our hearts, and letting the river of Christ’ s love constantly flow through. Our realisation of Christ’ s love prompts us to love our fellow-man, and strive to lighten his burden. Then, too, the best way to be active in God’ s service is to embrace every opportunity to do our fellow-man all the good we can, knowing that he that is faithful unto death shall be given a crown of life. The most beautiful thing in the world is a good deed: How can this be otherwise, when everything else that is beautiful is only a symbol of a deed? What are beautiful words but more or less imperfect signs for recording and perpetuating the actions which inspired them? No poem, no work of art, is beautiful unless it expresses some phase of action. The calmest landscape represents the play of light and shade, and perpetuates some instantaneous phase of motion; the marble statue represents the body in some form of actions; music is always the soul in motion; the deed gets expressed by symbols; but it is the deed which possesses the intrinsic beauty, and not the symbol. Therefore we should not think that we are incapable of apprehending and rendering the beautiful in life because we cannot write poems, or paint pictures, or carve statues. So long as we are capable of doing good and beautiful deeds, are we capable of rising to that intrinsic beauty of life which the mere art-form does nothing more than express. What if a woman cannot paint a Raphael’ s Madonna, when she can be herself a Madonna, a holy mother? What though a man cannot write a grand and beautiful poem, so be it he lives a grand and beautiful life? This was the spirit that was in Christ. He was the greatest of all artists because He lived the greatest and most beautiful of lives. What He did was even more beautiful than what He said. And in the essential beauty of the deed we are all capable of being like Him. Is his purse converted? A Methodist labourer in Wesley’ s time, Captain Webb, when any one informed him of the conversion of a rich man, was in the habit of asking, “ Is his purse converted?” He agreed with Dr. Adam Clarke, who used to say, he did not believe in the religion that cost a man nothing. Giving, a sign of perfectness: When wheat is growing it holds all its kernels tight in its own ear. But when it is ripe the kernels are scattered every whither, and it is only the straw that is left. (H. W. Beecher.) Practical gratitude: Rohese, the mother of Thomas a Becket, was a very devout woman in her day. It was her custom to weigh her boy every year on his birthday against money, clothes and provisions, which she gave to the poor. (H. O. Mackey.) The rhubarb pie plan: During a discussion in a certain church, on the question of the duty of giving, a brother well known for his generous benefactions, was asked what part of his income he was in the habit of contributing to the Lord’ s treasury. “ I do not know,” said the brother; “ I do very much as the woman did who was famous for the excellence of her rhubarb pies. She put in as much sugar as her conscience would allow, and then shut her eyes and put in a handful more. I give all my conscience approves, and then add a handful without counting it.” We commend this plan to those who believe that “ he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully,” and who wish to err upon the safe side. Many men seem afraid of giving too much; but among all the failures in business of which we have heard, we have never known an instance where a man has ruined himself by giving to the poor or to the cause of God. “ Munificent bequests” We often read in the papers of “ munificent bequests.” To my mind it is a phrase that has no meaning at all. I see no munificence in bequeathing your property to charitable purposes when you are gone out of the world and have not the possibility of longer enjoying it. What I like are munificent donations. (Lord Shaftesburg.) True measure of charity It has been frequently wished by Christians that there were some rule laid down in the Bible fixing the proportion of their property which they ought to contribute to religious uses. This is as if a child should say, “ Father, how many times in the day must I come to you with some testimonial of my love? how often will it be necessary to show my affection for you?” The father would of course reply, “ Just as often as your feeling prompts you, my child, and no oftener.” Just so Christ says to His people, “ Look on Me, and see what I have done and suffered for you, and then give Me just what you think I deserve. I do not wish anything forced.” (H. G. Salter.) With such sacrifices God is well pleased Sacrifice--true and false: Thousands think that if they are outwardly decent, if they veneer their lives with a decorous respectability, they are very good Christians; and that, though they neither love God nor their neighbour, but are simply walking after their own heart’ s lusts. But it is not all men who are able thus to scarify the surface of their spiritual being. Deeper natures, tortured by the scourge of conscience, seeing how useless it must be to give to God that which costs them nothing, feel impelled, since they will not give Him the pure life and the loving heart, to give Him something else of a costly kind. It is this feeling which led to the awful horror of human sacrifices. But all this externality of affliction, of suffering, is vain. God is no Moloch; He delights in innocent happiness, and not in self-chosen suffering. Bodily suffering has ever proved itself vain to expel spiritual sin, and God would fain deliver us from sin, which cannot be done by vain attempts to anticipate the penalty. With such sacrifices God is not well pleased. We can in the fullest sense offer no sacrifice to God that will save us. It cost more to redeem our souls, so that we must let that alone for ever. That has been done for us. But in a lower sense the word sacrifice is applied in this verse to that which we can offer to God. “ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” “ But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” The type of all such passages is that magnificent question and answer in the prophet Micah (Micah 6:6-8). Do not let any of us pretend that we do not know what God requires of us. To communicate: What does it mean? It means unselfishness as regards what we possess, not to keep to ourselves what we have, to use our gifts in whatever way seems best for the good of the world, to remember that we are the stewards of what God gives us, and not the owners; to be cheerful givers; to learn the exquisite happiness of living for the good of all others, to have the heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathise: with such sacrifices God is well pleased. And to do good: it is not only to give; indeed, the indiscriminate, careless charity which gives to silence greedy demands or satisfy a conventional conscience; the reckless, foolish giving which only fosters the plague-spots of pauperism and imposture is worse than useless, it is a curse. Almsgiving, to be any use at all, must be thoughtful and discriminating. To do good: there you have the summary of a true life. We are on earth to give, and not to receive. We are not our own. Am I in this life of mine doing any real, unselfish good? Millions do positive harm. Like barren trees, they not only bring forth no fruit, but curse the ground with the blight of their bitter foliage and their unprofitable shadow. Millions, if they do no direct or positive harm, yet do absolutely no good. They sleep and feed and go through some sort of mechanical routine in their profession for themselves--no more. Their life is no true life; they die, but they have never lived. But among the millions who do deep harm, and the millions who do no real good, how many are there who can really be counted among the lovers of their fellow-men? These do see how often from efforts apparently infinitesimal and insignificant, lonely, inefficient, and as it seemed obscure, vast blessings come, and even when good men see no great positive result of their self-denial they feel within them the peace of a calm conscience and a blessed sense that their humble endeavours are accepted of their God. (Archdeacon Farrar.) With such sacrifices God is well pleased 1. He is so, first, because He is pleased with the spirit of faith. Such charity arises out of that faith which the apostle describes as “ the evidence of things not seen” ; for you observe that when our Lord counsels His disciples not to lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven, He makes an appeal to their faith. When He says--“ If thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just,” He requires us to believe that we shall appear before the judgment-seat of God, to receive according to the things done in the body. When, then, in expectation of these things--these things not seen but believed, not possessed but hoped for--we expend what we do possess and see; when we resign the means of present gratification; when we part with what might please the natural inclination--satisfy “ the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life” --we give a proof of faith of the same sort as that of Abraham, when at the call of God he gave up what is dear to every man--his country, and his kindred. 2. God approves the man who distributes and does good, because He sees in him a spirit of obedience. It is part of the arrangement by which the world is governed, that there should be a connection between the several classes of mankind--such mutual dependence as of servants on their employers, of children on their parents, of a people on their spiritual pastor, of the poor on those who are better endowed; and it is only while the links of the chain, constructed by God Himself, are sound and uninterrupted, that the balance of the whole is preserved, and the machine proceeds in conformity with its Maker’ s design. “ The end of the commandment is charity.” This is the purpose of God’ s revelation of Himself by His beloved Son--that when, through unfeigned faith in the atonement made for sin, the conscience is set at ease, and the heart sincerely converted to God, the result should be charity--love of man towards his fellow-men, springing from the love of God towards himself, and nourished by a constant sense of His mercy. When, therefore His Spirit has established this principle in this heart, then and not before the gospel has dominion there. (Abp. Sumner.) The sacrifice of Christian beneficence:--We are not to offer on the altar of Christian charity the halt, blind, lame, the mere offal of our comforts which we deem below our notice; nor are we content with yielding up the surplus of our possessions which we do not want and cannot use. We must be prepared to make “ sacrifices” Did the Son of God exhibit a species of compassion which cost Him nothing? Did He, without effort and humiliation merely give us, if I may so speak, the surplus of His riches, the redundance of His glory? Altogether the opposite: “ Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might become rich.” (J. A. James.) Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us Prayer for ministers I. SOME TO AND CONFIRM THE OF SUCH PRAYER. 1. The awful responsibility of the ministerial office. 2. We are men of like passions with yourselves, with bodies requiring to be kept under, and with souls to save. II. SOME HEADS OF PRAYER. 1. First of all, pray that “ utterance may be given unto us, that we may open our mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” The full and free declaration of “ the gospel of the grace of God” is the crowning part of the Christian minister’ s office. 2. Again, “ pray” for your minister, that in dispensing among you the Word of God, he may be enabled rightly to divide it. Much spiritual wisdom is required here. 3. But, again, “ pray for us,” that the truths which we preach to you may be so deeply impressed upon our own souls by the Spirit of God that they may always exert a commanding influence over our life, conversation, and whole deportment, and thus become the springs of a holy and consistent walk. 4. Again, “ pray for us,” that we may be made conquerors over our peculiar temptations as ministers--that we may never speak to you “ smooth things” merely for the sake of pleasing you. 5. Yet, again, “ pray for us,” that we are bold and faithful witnesses for Christ, God would keep us lowly and humble in ourselves, and enable us to ascribe all that we are, and have, and may become, to His free favour. III. The truth is simply this: a minister cannot be blessed without his flock being made to experience a correspondent share of blessing. YOUR PRAYERS FOR ME WILL BE CROWNED WITH TO . You will find your own souls growing in grace “ and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” You will find yourselves daily becoming more ripe for “ the inheritance of the saints in light.” Thus it is that God graciously orders that our labours of love for one another should be reflected upon ourselves. (H. Cadell, M. A.) We trust we have a good conscience Balm from Gilead to recover conscience I. WHAT IS. 1. It is an inbred faculty of the soul, “ a noble and Divine power, planted of God in the soul, working upon itself by reflection” : or thus, “ the soul of a man recoiling upon itself.” A faculty, I call it, because it produceth acts, and is not got and lost as habits are, but is inseparable from the soul, immovable from the subject, as neither acts nor habits are. In the understanding part it is a judge, determining and prescribing, absolving and condemning de jure. In the memory it is a register, a recorder, and witness, testifying de facto. In the will and affections, a jailor and executioner, punishing and rewarding. Say we not in common use of speech, which is the emperor of words, My conscience tells me I did or did not such a thing, which is an action of the memory? My conscience bids me do, or forbids me to do this or this, which is but an action of the will. It smites me, it checks me, it comforts or it torments me: what are these but actions of the affections recoiling upon the soul? 2. God hath given it more force and power to work upon men than all other agents whatsoever. It, being internal and domestical, hath the advantage of all foreign and outward. 3. It being individual and inseparable, there is no putting of it to flight or flying from it. It was bred and born with us; it will live and die with us. Agues a man may shake off, tyrants and ill masters a man may fly from; but this saith (as Ruth to Naomi), “ I will go with thee whithersoever thou goest.” It hath more immediate deputation and authority from God (of whom all principalities and powers receive theirs) than angels, kings, magistrates, father, mother, or any other superior. It is only inferior to God. II. WHAT A GOOD IS. 1. The goodness of it is the peace of it; for stirring, accusing, and galling consciences are consequents of sin, and presuppose some evil. 2. They, secondly, prove good unto us only by accident, and God’ s goodness, which maketh them as afflictions, gather grapes of thorns; yea, all things work to the best of His beloved, as physicians do poison in their confections 3. And thirdly, they do not always produce this effect. Sometimes as sicknesses and purgations, they are in order to health, as in the Jews (Acts 2:1-47). Oftentimes as in Cain, Judas, Ahithophel, they destroy their owners. Good consciences, therefore, properly to speak, are only quiet ones, excusing and comforting; but here take heed the devil, the great impostor of our souls, put not upon our folly and simplicity, three sorts of quiet ones, as he doth to most: the blind, the secure, and the seared. What, then, is a good conscience? That which speaks peace with God’ s allowance, which is a messenger of good things between God and us, that upon good grounds is in good terms with God. It lies in the lawful peace of it, and not in integrity and freedom from sin. (T. Adams.) Take care of your conscience: We remember the old story of the mariners who, because they followed the direction of their compass, thought they were infallibly right, until they arrived at an enemy’ s port, and found themselves suddenly seized and made slaves. They did not take into consideration the possibility that any agency had tampered with the needle. Yet the wicked captain had, on purpose to betray the ship to enemies, so carefully concealed a large loadstone near the needle as to make it untrue to itself, and thus be the means of their ruin. Something not very unlike this is often true of conscience. Conscience may be perverted as truly as any other faculty of the soul--so perverted as even to mislead and destroy, while it is relied upon to direct in the path of safety. “ There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways o! death.” We are warned, then, to take care of the conscience. See that there is no prejudice, no passion, no evil influence that is perverting it, and gradually making it untrue to itself, and therefore unsafe. We must examine the basis of our conscientiousness. Is there a concealed loadstone which is attracting the needle from its true polarity heavenward, toward spiritual foes and spiritual bondage? This is a vital question for every man. The comfort of a good conscience: There is no friend so good as a good conscience. There is no foe so ill as a bad conscience. It makes us either kings or slaves. A man that hath a good conscience, it raiseth his heart in a princely manner above all things in the world. A man that hath a bad conscience, though he be a monarch, it makes him a slave. A bad conscience embitters all things in the world to him, though they be never so comfortable in themselves. What is so comfortable as the presence of God? What is so comfortable as the light? Yet a bad conscience, that will not be ruled, it hates the light, and hates the presence of God, as we see Adam, when he had sinned, he fled from God (Genesis 3:8). A bad conscience cannot joy in the midst of joy. It is like a gouty foot, or a gouty toe, covered with a velvet shoe. Alas! what doth ease it? What doth glorious apparel ease the diseased body? Nothing at all. The ill is within. There the arrow sticks. (B. Sibbes.) A good conscience A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can possibly befall us. (T. Addison.) Conscience aided by right sympathies It will be found that men are sensitive to right and wrong, not so much by reason of the direct impact of intellectual decision as by reason of intellectual decision transmitted through another faculty or emotion. Take an illustration out of my own experience--for it is always allowable, I believe, for a man to dissect his own sins. When I came to Brooklyn, feeling a certain independence, I refused to return marriage certificates to the authorities. There was no law which compelled me to do it, and I was not going to return them for mere form’ s sake. By and by a law was passed that all clergymen should return marriage certificates to the Board of Health, but I did not do it then; I did not see any reason for it, and I was not going to trouble myself about it. But after the first year of the war, on two or three occasions it happened some woman would come to me and say, “ My husband was killed on the battlefield; the Government owed him for bounty and back pay; but I cannot get the money unless I can prove that I was married to him: will you not give me a certificate? “ I had none. I had made no return of their marriage, it did not take more than one argument like that to convince me that I ought to make returns of certificates of marriage. I said to myself, “ If the bread of the poor is often to be determined by the fact of a marriage; if the fact of a marriage is a question of humanity, and can settle what is right and what is wrong, then my duty in the matter is clear” ; and I believe I have not failed to return the certificate of a marriage since that day. The mere abstract law would not affect any conscience; but since my conscience was approached through sympathy, through benevolent feeling, you could not bribe me to neglect my duty in that regard. My conscience has strength on that side. (H. W. Beecher.) Willing to live honestly Honesty: I. IN ORDER TO THE AND OF THIS VIRTUE OF HONESTY, WE SHALL POINT OUT SOME OF THE FROM WHENCE THE VICE FLOWS, OR SOME OF THE CHIEF CAUSES OF . Opposites frequently illustrate each other to great advantage. The beauty and charms of Christian virtue gain strength by arousing in us an abhorrence of immoral practices. Honesty will appear more honourable by awakening a proper hatred of the odious deformity of dishonesty. With regard to the chief springs of dishonesty, they may be contemplated. Under a general consideration, dishonesty arises from the same common source with all other kinds of iniquities. It arises from the awful depravity of the human heart. But the more particular causes of dishonesty are such things as these 1. Slothfulness, idleness, and an aversion to labour and the business of our calling. 2. Avarice or covetousness. 3. Luxury and extravagance. 4. Pride and selfishness. II. SOME AND MOTIVES TO INDUCE US TO BE HONEST IN ALL OUR , , AND WITH OUR FELLOW-MEN. Can we now think a dishonest thought, contrive a dishonest scheme, or be guilty of a dishonest action? Consider the right every man has to enjoy his own, by the laws of nature, reason, religion and society, in respect to his person, property, and character. These blessings are the benefactions of heaven to all. Their right to the undisturbed possession of them is founded upon the grant of the God of nature and of grace. 1. Will the Almighty Sovereign see His creatures and His children rifled of their immunities and blessings, which His goodness and bounty hath conferred upon them, and not conceive resentment? Will He not whet His glittering sword, and His hand lay hold on vengeance? 2. Further consider, sincerity and honesty are the very bonds which hold society together. The religious observation of these virtues are the great means to advance its real interests. A dishonest person is a public nuisance, and may be viewed as a common enemy to mankind. 3. Consider the practice of dishonesty is prohibited in a thousand instances in the Word of God. The Divine wrath is revealed against it, both in His declarations, and in many examples recorded in the sacred history. (A. Macwhorter, D. D.) Honesty spiritually rewarded The religious tradesman complains that his honesty is a hindrance to his success; that the tide of custom pours into the doors of his less scrupulous neighbours in the same street, while he himself waits for hours idle. My brother, do you think that God is going to reward honour, integrity, highmindedness, with this world’ s coin? Do you fancy that He will pay spiritual excellence with plenty of custom? Now, consider the price that man has paid for his success. Perhaps mental degradation and inward dishonour. His advertisements are all deceptive: his treatment of his workmen tyrannical; his cheap prices made possible by inferior articles. Sow that man’ s seed mad you will reap that man’ s harvest. Cheat, lie, advertise, be unscrupulous in your assertions, custom will come to you. But if the price is too dear, let him have his harvest, and take yours. Yours is a clear conscience, a pure mind, rectitude within and without. Will you part with that for his? Then why do you complain? He has paid his price; you do not choose to pay it. (F. W. Robertson.) Conscientiousness: Of the Rev. S. F. Bridge, independent minister, his son says: His integrity was unbending. One circumstance in connection with domestic life demonstrated this sterling feature. A kind friend used sometimes to send a parcel of clothing, and on this occasion, in a coat pocket, a five-pound note was discovered. Many, even of the Lord’ s people, might have appropriated the money, and thought it “ quite a providence.” But father did not so. There are timely provisions and there are baits which test God’ s family. He knew the donor’ s habits, and would not take for granted that the note was intentionally submitted in a delicate manner, so he promptly sent it back with an explanation. I well remember how dear mother--her name was Martha--urged with tears that he should write first, and ascertain whether it had not been enclosed as a gift; but, although the value of five pounds was multiplied by the many mouths to be fed, she soon endorsed father’ s way as the right one. I believe this matter was never known save to the Lord, the family, and the gentleman himself. That five pounds (lid not reach us again. (Sword and. Trowel.) Honest under all circumstances Some years before England abolished slavery in the West Indies, a negro, who was a slave, but who had learned to become a Christian, was put up for sale. A kind master, who pitied his condition, and did not want him to fall into the hands of a cruel owner, went up to him, and said, “ Sambo, if I buy you will you be honest?” “ With a look that I have no power to describe,” says the gentleman, the black man replied, “ Massa, I will be honest whether you buy me or not.” Hebrews 13:20-21 The God of peace The God of peace and our sanctification I. I call your attention to THE TITLE UNDER WHICH GOD IS IN THIS PRAYER: “ NOW, the God of peace.” The names of God employed in prayer in holy Scripture are always significant. Why, then, did the apostle here call God “ the God of peace” ? He had a reason; what was it? Iris a Pauline expression. You find that title only in the writings of Paul. It is a name of Paul’ s own coinage by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. There were reasons in Paul’ s experience which led him to dwell upon this peculiar trait of the Divine character. Just as in our text he prays, “ Perfect you in every good work to do His will,” so in Thessalonians he says, “ And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is evident, not only that the apostle delighted in the expression peculiar to himself, but that he saw a close connection between the peace of God and the sanctifying of believers, and for this reason, both in the Thessalonians and in the Hebrews, his prayer for their sanctification is addressed to the God of peace. The title is a gospel one. God is not spoken of as the God of peace in the Old Testament; but there He is “ a man of war, the Lord is His name” ; “ He shall cut off the spirit of princes; He is terrible to the kings of the earth.” 1. The appropriateness of the title to the particular prayer will readily strike you, for holiness is peace. “ May the God of peace make you holy,” for He Himself is peace and holiness. 2. The God of peace has also graciously restored peace and reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, but it has been by the putting away of sin, for while sin remained peace was impossible. He died for our sins, but He rose again for our justification, which is none other than the replacing of us in a condition of reconciliation with God. He went into heaven to take possession of our inheritance; and what better evidence could there be that we are reconciled to God? 3. If you pursue the subject you will see more and more clearly the significance of the title, “ the God of peace” ; for, to make us perfect in every good work to do His will is to give us peace. Sin is our enemy, and the new life within us is heartily at enmity with evil, and therefore peace can never be proclaimed in the triple kingdom of our nature until we always do that which is well pleasing in the sight of the Lord, through Jesus Christ. Nor is this all. 4. When the apostle, praying for our sanctification, prays to the God of peace, it is as much as to say to us that we must view God as the God of peace if we are to be led to do His will. O man, is God your enemy? Then you will never serve Him, nor do that which is well pleasing in His sight. You must first of all know that there is peace between you and your God, and then you can please Him. This knowledge can only come to you through Christ Jesus, for peace is made only by “ the blood of the everlasting covenant” . 5. I will call to your notice the fact that the title, “ the God of peace,” sheds a light over the whole passage, and is beautifully in harmony with every word of the prayer. Let us read it line by line. “ Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.” War brings down to death; but the God of peace brings back from the dead. The restoration of the Lord Jesus from the grave was a peaceful act, and was meant to be the guarantee of peace accomplished for ever. “ Through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The very word “ covenant” is also full of peace: and especially is it so when we remember that it is a covenant of peace which eternal love has established between God and man. The apostle goes on to pray, “ Make you perfect in every good work to do His will.” If God’ s will is done by us, then there must be peace, for no ground of difference can exist. “ Working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight.” When all in us is well pleasing to God, then, indeed, is He the God of peace to us. The final doxology is also very significant, for in effect it proclaims the universal and eternal reign of peace: “ To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” What can there be to disturb the universe when the Lord God omnipotent shall reign, and all nations shall glorify the Ever Blessed, world without end? Not without reason, therefore, did our apostle select the title, “ The God of peace.” II. We have now to consider THE SPECIAL ACT DWELT UPON” IN” THIS PRAYER. “ That brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The bringing back of the Lord Jesus from the dead was the seal of His perfected work, and consequently of our peace and ultimate perfection in holiness. Because He had wrought all righteousness, therefore did tie stand amongst living men; and because He had merited a crown of glory, therefore did He rise even to the throne of Jehovah, to sit there till His enemies are made His footstool. We go further yet. The bringing again of Christ from the dead was in effect the leading back of all His people. Not without the sheep did the Shepherd come, for that were to return defeated. The text speaks of “ Our Lord Jesus.” Did you notice that? Ours in His offices of Shepherd and Saviour, altogether ours as brought again from the dead. What He did was for us. He is the great Shepherd of the sheep, and therefore what He did was for the sheep. “ Because I live,” saith He, “ ye shall live also” and because He lives to intercede, therefore His people are preserved from evil: Satan desires to have us, that he may sift us as wheat; but the great Shepherd, who was brought again from the dead, is daily watching over us, and the power of His life, and of His kingdom, and of His plea, are manifested in us, so that we conquer temptation, and advance from strength to strength in our pilgrimage to heaven. III. Thirdly, let us notice THE VERY MANNER IN WHICH THE PRAYED FOR IS in the text: “ Make you perfect in every good work to do His will.” That is the first clause, but the translation is not strictly accurate. The passage would be better rendered, “ make you fit in every good work to do His will,” and the original Greek word properly means to reset a bone that is dislocated. The meaning of the text is this: by the fall all our bones are out of joint for the doing of the Lord’ s will, and the desire of the apostle is that the Lord will set the bones in their places, and thus make us able with every faculty and in every good work to do His will. The first part of the prayer, then, is for fitness for holiness. The next is for actual service: “ Working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight.” And here I ask you to notice how all things are of God. Even he who is best adapted for the performance of virtue and holiness, yet does not perform these things till the Lord worketh in him to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Over and above this mode of securing all the glory to God notice the next clause--“ through Jesus Christ.” That which we do even when the Lord works in us we only do through Jesus Christ. We are nothing without our Lord, and though we do what is acceptable in the Lord’ s sight, yet it is only acceptable through Jesus Christ. IV. Our fourth point drops into its place very naturally, for we have already seen that THE WHOLE OF IT COMES TO A MOST OF PRAISE: “ To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” To glorify God is the object of it all. Praise is the flower for which the stalk of prayer exists. It would be a very difficult question to decide to whom the last clause alludes, whether to “ the God of peace,” or to “ Our Lord Jesus,” and, therefore, I think, the safer way is to take them both together, for they are one. “ To whom,” that is to God; “ To whom,” that is to the Lord Jesus, “ be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Let it be so; it ought to be so, it must be so, it shall be so. Amen. Amen. Tarry just a minute while we give glory unto the Three-One-God. He is the God of peace; approach Him with holy delight; adore Him; glorify His name evermore. Then magnify Him next, because He found for us a Shepherd. Glorify ]=lDDint next for the covenant. And then adore Him because the power which He exerted upon Christ He is now exerting upon you. Bless Him for every grace received, for faith however little, for love, even though it burn not as you would desire; bless Him for every conquered sin, bless Him for every implanted grace, bless Him evermore. Bless Him that He deals with you through Jesus Christ. Through the Mediator all good has come to us, and through the Mediator it will still come, until that day when He shall deliver up the throne to God, even the Father, and God shall be all in all. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The work of God I. LOOK AT THE ASPECT IN WHICH GOD IS HERE . 1. A God of peace. Were we hastily to form our opinion of the character of God from the aspects and condition of this world, we might come to a different conclusion. “ God of peace” ! Where is peace? Read the world’ s past history, or survey its present condition! Has not every age been filled with wars? and what soil, from the sands of Africa to Polar snows, has not been drenched with human blood? Unconverted man is at peace--neither with himself, nor with others, nor with God. Shall we therefore conclude from this view of the world that He who is at once its Maker and Monarch is not a God of peace? Assuredly not. He had nothing to do with this miserable condition of affairs; and is neither to be judged by it, nor blamed for it. In a fatal hour, sin was admitted into our world; and the ship that takes a Jonah aboard parts with peace. She has nothing to look for but thunders and lightnings, and storms and tempests. But let God have His way, only let His will be done in earth as it is done in heaven, and such a change were wrought on this world, as would recall the change that night saw on Galilee, when Jesus woke, and, rising in the boat, looked out on the tumbling sea, to say, “ Peace, be still” --and in a moment there was a great calm. 2. God has made peace. “ Fury is not in Me, saith the Lord.” He has turned from the fierceness of His anger, and made peace between Himself and man by the blood of the Cross; but not “ peace at any price” --at the expense of His honour, holiness, justice, law, or truth. No. God has not overlooked the guilt of sin; He pardons, but does not palliate it. Peace, as has often been done between man and man, may be established on a!also basis. Take for example the States of America. Before they were actually rent asunder, they might have established a peace on the foundations of iniquity. Had they given ear to preachers who perverted the Word of God, and, regarding slavery as the white man’ s right, and not the black man’ s wrong, had they joined hand to hand to sacrifice the interests of humanity to those of commerce, they might have had peace instead of war. They might have cemented their union with the blood of slaves. But such a peace as that would have offered a complete contrast to the peace of the gospel. This preserves God’ s honour. Not “ peace at any price,” it is peace at such a price as satisfied the utmost demands of His law, and fully vindicated His holiness in the sight of the universe. II. HE BROUGHT CHRIST FROM THE HEAD. 1. In one sense the glory of His resurrection belongs to Christ Himself. The only thing else I have now to give, Jesus might say, is My life; and there it is. Of My own will, by My own, free, spontaneous act, I lay it down. All your wretched tools and cruel tortures, your crown of thorns and bloody Cross, cannot deprive Me of life. It is not you that take away My life; nor is it God. It is not taken away--but given; for I have power to lay it down, as I have power to take it up again. Hence our Lord’ s claim on our love and gratitude. But He who said, “ I have power to lay down My life,” also said, “ I have power to take it up again” --as He had before intimated, when, the Jews having asked a sign of Hint, He said, referring to His body, “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 2. Here our Lord’ s resurrection is attributed to God. Here unquestionably; but not here only. Paul says, “ He hath raised up Jesus again.” In conclusion 1. Look at this aspect of Christ as the Great Shepherd of the sheep. How many are the elements of His greatness! He is a Divine Shepherd. And unlike other shepherds, who in the East dwell in tents, and here in the lowly cottages, His home is a palace, and His servants are the angels of heaven. How many are the shepherds He has under Him. Indeed, those who bear the greatest names in His Church are, though leaders, but part of the flock; He Himself being the only Shepherd, Bishop, and Overseer of souls. Nor here, as sometimes happens among men, is greatness separated from that goodness which is the best property of the two. But both properties, infinite in measure, meet in Christ. Paul calls Him the Great, but He calls Himself the Good Shepherd. 2. Glance at Paul’ s prayer. “ Make you perfect.” Could I express for you a better wish, or could you aim at a better object? I know that we are not perfect yet; far from it! In our imitation of Christ, how unlike is the’ fairest copy to the great original I Still there is no ground for despair. Perfect freedom from the power of sin, perfect obedience to the precepts and spirit of the law, perfect harmony to the mind and perfect conformity to the image of God, are within the bond, sealed with blood; and also in the prayer, “ I will that those whom thou has given Me be with Me where I am.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The great pleas of a great prayer I. THE NAME OF GOD IS THE WARRANT FOR OUR LARGEST HOPE. God is the God of peace, and, therefore, He will, if we will let Him, make us perfect unto every good work. That, of course, must imply that the peace which is here ascribed to Him, as its source and fontal possessor, is that deep and changeless calm of an infinite and perfectly harmonious being which is broken by no work, perturbed by no agitations, and yet is no more stagnant than the calm depths of the ocean, being penetrated for ever by warmth and majestic motion in which there is rest. “ The God of peace” wills to give to men something not altogether unlike the tranquillity which He Himself possesses. The hope seems altogether beyond the conditions of creatural life, which is tossed to and fro amidst change and agitations. How can the finite whose very law of life is change, whose nature is open to the disturbances of external solicitations, and the agitations of inward emotions--how can he ever, in this respect, approximate to the repose of God?And yet, analogous, if not similar, tranquillity may fill our hearts. When our wills are made pliable and flexible, no longer stiff and obstinate, like a bar of iron, to His touch, but bendable like a piece of dressed leather; when our hankering desires no longer go after forbidden dainties, but keep themselves within the limits of the Divine will; when we are ready for all that He commands or appoints, meeting the one with unmurmuring resignation, and the other with unquestioning obedience--then nothing that is at enmity with joy can utterly abolish or destroy the peace that we have in God. II. THE RAISING OF THE IS THE FOR THE SHEEP. I ask myself, Is it possible that I shall be delivered from this burden of corruption; that I shall ever, in any state, be able, with unhesitating and total surrender of myself, to make the will of God the very life of my spirit and the bread on which I live? And all the unbelieving and cowardly suggestions of my own heart as to the folly of trying after an unreachable perfection, and the wisdom of acquiescence in the partial condition to which I have already attained, are swept out of view by this one thing--the sight of a man throned by the side of God, perfect in holiness and serene in untroubled beauty. That is a prophecy for us all. We look out upon the world, or into this cage of evils in our own hearts, and are tempted to fold our hands and acquiesce in the inevitable. Alas! it is too true that “ we see not yet all things put under man.” Courage! Nothing less than the likeness of Jesus Christ corresponds to God’ s will concerning us. In Him there is power to make each of us as pure, as sinless, as the Lord Himself in whom we trust. III. THE IS THE TEACHER AND THE PLEDGE OF OUR LARGEST DESIRES. Is it not a grand thought, and a profoundly true one, that God, like some great monarch who deigns to grant a constitution to his people, has condescended to lay down conditions by which He will be bound, and on which we may reckon? Out of the illimitable possibilities of action, limited only by His own nature, and all incapable of being foretold by us, He has marked a track on which he will go. If I may so say, across the great ocean of possible action He has buoyed out His course, and we may prick it down upon our charts, and be quite sure that we shall find Him there. Be sure of this, that within the four corners of God’ s articulate and unmistakable assurance lies all that heart can wish or spirit receive from Him. You cannot expect or ask more from Him than He has bound Himself to impart. You desires can never be outstretched as to go beyond the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ; and through the ages of time or eternity the everlasting Covenant remains, to which it shall be our wisdom and our blessedness to widen our hopes, expand our desires, conform our wishes, and adapt our work. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Peace from God through Christ I. THE AUTHOR OF PEACE. From all eternity God purposed in Himself the counsel of peace; and when by reason of sin, discord and misery came into the world, the Lord always comforted His people by the promise of redemption. In the fulness of time came Jesus, the Peace-maker; and when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, the Father made peace through the blood of His Cross. Jesus Himself is our peace; but it is the God of peace who gave Jesus, and who by His atonement made peace, and reconciled all things to Himself. Peace means not merely calmness and rest of conscience and heart, based on the righteousness of God, but it means also restoration to health and well-being; or rather, since in Christ God makes all things new, not a restoration to Adam’ s state of innocence, but the creating us anew after His image. II. JESUS THE CHANNEL OF PEACE. Our Lord Jesus was the Paschal Lamb on Calvary. From that moment our peace was purchased, and we were identified with the substitute. Now the Lamb that was slain is also the good Shepherd, that laid down His life for the sheep; He is not merely the good, true, genuine Shepherd; He is also the great Shepherd, the mighty, sublime, the only one, who leads the flock out of the grave to the heavenly glory. III. GOD WORKS IN US. Have we thus risen to the thought of the God of peace, the Redeemer, the Restorer, who through the sufferings of Jesus, and by His blood, delivered us from all evil, and has raised us together with Christ, unto a new, spiritual, and endless life, then we can understand the benediction, that God should work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We are humbled by the sense of our transgressions, and above all of the sinfulness of our old nature. Let us be exalted by the grace of God. True, we groan in this tabernacle, being burdened, but we rejoice in God. The Lord works in us. He gives good desires, true petitions, living words and works. He prepares us for the work in time, as He prepared the work for us in eternity. He works in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, for what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And all is wrought through Jesus Christ. For He is our life and strength. Only abiding in Him can the branches live and bear fruit. The Spirit in us is not a substitute for Christ, but the connecting-link between the Lord and us. Thus the Divine energy within us acts simply through our faith in Jesus. Lean then on Jesus, and you will conquer sin. (A. Saphir.) Our Lord Jesus The names of the Saviour: To most of us, I suppose, the various names by which our Saviour is designated in Scripture are just like so many aliases, indiscriminately used, and all conveying the same impression. But, in truth, they each suggest some distinctive aspect of His nature or relations to us, and in Scripture are never used without at least a sidelong glance to their special significance. The writer’ s thought is always tinted, as it were, even if it is not deeply coloured, by the name which he selects. I have chosen the words which I have read as our starting-point, because they very strikingly bring together the extreme names; that which expresses lowly manhood and that which expresses sovereign authority, “ Jesus our Lord,” in the union whereof lie the mystery of His being, and the foundation of our hopes, and by which union He becomes “ that great Shepherd of the sheep.” I. So, then, in the pursuit of this design, I have to ask you to notice, first, THE SIMPLE, HUMAN NAME JESUS. 1. Let us ever keep distinctly before us that suffering and dying manhood as the only ground for acceptable sacrifice and of full access and approach to God. Then, further, let us ever keep before our minds clear and plain that true manhood of Jesus as being the type and pattern of the devout life, 3. Then, again, let us set clearly before us that exalted manhood as the pattern and pledge of the glory of the race. II. Then we have THE NAME OF OFFICE--JESUS IS CHRIST. IS your Jesus merely the man who by the meek gentleness of His nature, the winning attractiveness of His persuasive speech, draws and conquers, and stands manifested as the perfect example of the highest form of manhood, or is He the Christ, in whom the hopes of a thousand generations are realised; and the promises of God fulfilled, and the smoking altars and the sacrificing priests of that ancient system, and of heathenism everywhere, find their answer, their meaning, their satisfaction, their abrogation? Is Jesus to you the Christ of God? III. We have THE NAME OF --JESUS THE CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD. NOW that designation, either in its briefer form, “ the Son,” or in its fuller form, “ the Son of God,” is, we may say, a characteristic of this letter. The keynote is struck in the very first words. And then the writer goes on in a glorious flow of profound truth and lofty eloquence to set forth the majesty of this Son’ s nature, and the wonderfulness of His relations to the whole world. Jesus is this Son. Once, and once only, in the letter does the writer buckle together these two ideas which might seem to be antithetic, and at the utmost possible poles of opposition from each other: the lowly manhood and the wondrous Divinity. But they are united in Him who, by the union of them both, becomes the High Priest of our profession--Jesus, the Son of God. Further, the name is employed in its contracted form to enhance the mystery and the mercy of His sharp sufferings and of His lowly endurance. “ Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” The fuller form is employed to enhance the depth of the guilt and the dreadfulness of the consequences of apostasy, as in the solemn words about “ crucifying the Son of God afresh,” and in the awful appeal to our own judgments to estimate of how sore punishment they are “ worthy who trample under foot the Son of God.” In like manner once or twice our letter speaks of Jesus as “ Lord,” declaring thereby His Sovereignty, and setting forth our relation of dependence and submission. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ brought from the dead: Which words carry with them the form and purpose of a devout prayer. And prayer is the usual conclusion of St. Paul’ s Epistles. This prayer of Paul is a mutual prayer. In the two former verses he craves their prayers for himself, “ Brethren, pray for us” (Hebrews 13:18). He desires the assistance of their prayers. And see how he requites that fruit of their love. What he requires of them he performs for them; he prays for them again. Such strong combinations of mutual prayers are prevailing means to bring down blessings. The prayer he makes is most seasonable and pertinent. This prayer is a full and sweet comprehension of his former doctrine, and a great confirmation of the piety and holiness of it. It is a good character of truth when we can pray that which we preach. The text, then, you see, is St. Paul’ s charitable and devout prayer, his apostolical and fatherly benediction, and blessing of the Hebrews. I. The first thing observable is THE PERSON AND AUTHOR FROM WHOM HE SEEKS AND CRAVES THIS OF GRACE AND FOR THEM. It is from the God of peace. Why doth he insist in that attribute of God, above all others, when he prays to Him for grace for his people? Many other excellencies God hath ascribed to him in Scripture, and the interposing of them in our prayers would seem very useful for the obtaining this great blessing of grace and sanctity. 1. The Scripture terms Him the God of power; and the blessing He sues for is a work of great power, to sanctify, and fit such sinful creatures as we are, to every good work (2 Peter 1:3). 2. The Scripture terms Him the God of grace; and this work is a gracious work. This prayer is a petition for grace, and so St. Peter frames it accordingly (1 Peter 5:10). 3. The Scripture terms Him the God of glory; and this work we are about, the work of sanctification, is a glorious work. St. Peter calls it the spirit of 1 Peter 4:14). Yet we see the apostle passes by these attributes, and insists upon this, the God of peace, as most proper to what he aims at. In general (1) The aim and drift of the apostle in this epistle is to compose all jarrs and differences of opinion in the Church of the Hebrews. (2) He prays for grace from the God of peace, because, in truth, all grace flows from this, that God is become a God of peace to us. While He is an offended God there is no hope to receive from Him any gift of grace. Sue for pardon and peace first, and then His grace and Spirit, all that belongs to life and godliness, shall be made good unto thee. (3) This title of the God of peace carries with it a third intimation, and that is of a necessary qualification, that is requisite in us for the receiving of this grace St. Paul prays for. He is the God of peace, and bestows His grace where He finds His peace. Such as follow peace the grace of God follows them and enters into them. If there be a Son of peace the blessing of grace shall rest upon him. A peaceable spirit invites the Holy Ghost to enter into us and to abide with us. It makes our hearts a fit soil for the feed of grace. But besides these more general considerations 2. This title of the God of peace hath a more close reference to the text, to the purpose of it, and to all the parts of it. (1) It hath a reference to the blood here mentioned, and to the great Shepherd’ s death. And it refers to that as to the main ground, and foundation, and purchase of this peace. (2) A second reference to this title of the God of peace is to another passage in the text. It refers to the bringing of Christ back from the dead again as the proper effect and fruit of this peace. God, being now at peace with us, He brings Christ back from the dead. When Christ was brought under the dominion of death, that was the bitter fruit of God’ s fierce anger, but the restoring back again to life, that is the sweet and blessed truth of His peace. (3) There is a third reference of this title of God, the God of peace, and that is to the Shepherd of the sheep. It refers to that as to a great evidence and token that now He is indeed at peace with us. For He hath not only restored Christ to life, but restored Him to his office too, committed to Him the care of His flock again. (4) There is yet a fourth reference of this title of the God of peace, and that is to the everlasting covenant that the text speaks of. God is now become a God of peace to us, because He is become a God in covenant with us. Nay, it is not only a lasting, but an everlasting peace. He hath bound Himself to maintain this peace by an everlasting covenant. He hath established a peace that shall never be broken. Nay, it is not only the peace of a covenant, though that be strong, but the peace of a Testament. We read of the quarrel of God’ s covenant (Leviticus 26:25), that may meet with jars; but when peace becomes a legacy, a firm deed, and bequeathment that is unalterable, we shall inherit peace. Peace and safety is the heritage of the Lord’ s servants (Isaiah 54:17). And for our greater assurance He hath erected a public office in His Church, where we may view and exemplify this covenant, take out a true and perfect copy of His last will and testament; and that is in the institution of the sacrament. We have done with the first particular, the Person, of whom he craves the blessing; that is the God of peace. Now II. follows the MOTIVE THAT HE USES, AND BY WHICH HE AND HIS PRAYER. And that is the consideration of our Saviour’ s resurrection. And it is the Divine art and holy rhetoric of prayer, not only to present our suits, but to press them by the interposition of such prevailing arguments. The motive, I say, which he uses is our Saviour’ s resurrection. And of it take a double view. See the description of it; and that consists of three particulars. 1. Here is the Person raised. And He made known (1) By His personal title, the Lord Jesus. And this title is very pertinent to His resurrection. For, however this glorious title was due to Him, even from His birth, yet it is observable it is never completely given to Him till after His resurrection. By His resurrection He was declared to be the Son of God; then made known to be Lord and Christ. (2) The title of His office. The former, indeed, is more honourable for Him; but this other, that great Shepherd of the sheep, is more comfortable to us, as implying thus much, that whatsoever betided Him in the whole carriage of this business befell Him not as a private person for His own cause, but in the behalf of those that were committed to His charge. Whatsoever He did or suffered, it was all for His sheep. 1. His first mission and coming into the world was for His sheep Matthew 15:24). 2. His death and passion was not in His own behalf, but for His sheep John 10:15). 3. His resurrection, that was for His sheep to resume that office, to take care over His flock (Acts 3:26). All for us men, and for our salvation. For better understanding of this title let us take it asunder into these three particulars. First, We see the Church, the body of Christians, they are called sheep. And this resemblance is exceeding frequent in Scripture. The Church of God is called a flock of sheep (Luke 12:32; 1 Peter 5:5; Ezekiel 36:38). It is fitly so termed in these resemblances. 1. Sheep are such kind of creatures as naturally gather themselves together, unite into a flock. Such are Christians; such is the Church, combined in a holy society and communion. If we belong not to the flock we belong not to the Shepherd, we make ourselves a prey to the wolf. 2. Sheep are of a very harmless and inoffensive nature. And such must Christians be, endued with dove-like simplicity, with lamb-like innocency. The most cruel dispositions shall be tamed and sweetened when they come once to be of this flock of Christ. 3, Sheep are creatures exceedingly subject to stray, if not tended and kept in the better; unable to keep out of error; and, having erred, unable to return. Such are Christians, the best of them, if left to themselves. How soon out of the right way are we if God takes off His guidance and leaves us unto ourselves? Into what mazes and thickets of errors do we run ourselves (Psalms 119:176). 4. Sheep are weak and shiftless creatures, unable to make resistance. And such is the Church, if considered in itself, and from under Christ’ s protection. The enemies of God’ s Church are like the fat bulls of Bashan, whereas God’ s people are like a few helpless sheep. 5. Sheep are not, as many other creatures, wild and of no man’ s owning, creatures at large, but they are the property and possession of an owner. So God’ s Church is not a loose, scattered people; they are His proper possession, His chosen people, the sheep of His pasture, His peculiar people, the people of His purchase, His choice inheritance. Secondly, Here is His office. Christ is a Shepherd. He vouchsafes to be called and known by that name (Psalms 80:1). Our Saviour assumes this name to Himself John 10:11). All that is requisite in a Shepherd is fully in Christ. 1. A Shepherd is an employment of much diligence and attention. It requires a constant, continual inspection over the flock. Such is the watchful care that Christ hath over His Church (Matthew 28:20). 2. A shepherd is an employment of tenderness, and mildness, and of much compassion. If the sheep stray he seeks them carefully, brings them home gently, lays them on his shoulders. And such a Shepherd is Christ, not like a lion over His flock, but meek and merciful (Isaiah 40:11). 3. A shepherd’ s is an employment of skill; he must be able to know the state of his flock (Proverbs 27:23). What diseases they are subject to, and how to prevent or cure them: what food is wholesome for them, and how to supply them. Sure, in this also, Christ is a perfect Shepherd. He hath not the instruments of a foolish shepherd, as Zechariah speaks Zechariah 11:15), but is completely furnished with all abilities for the good of His flock. He knows their diseases, and can cure them; their dangers, and can prevent them; their necessities, and can supply them; their enemies, and can disappoint them (Psalms 23:1). 4. A shepherd’ s is an employment that requires stoutness and courage. He that will keep his flock from mischief must not fear the wolf or flee from him, but withstand and resist him. 5. As shepherd’ s is an employment of much patience and hardship. He must bear many a storm, and blast, heat, and cold, undergo all weathers. He must endure much tediousness in seeking and reducing his poor stray sheep. It was Jacob’ s lot, and much more our Saviour’ s. He served a hard service; storms and tempests fell upon Him in tending His flock. He was a man of afflictions, patiently undergoing all the toil of His laborious employment. Thirdly, Take notice of the dignity and eminency of this office. He is called “ that great Shepherd.” Great Shepherd! Surely in the world’ s account there is scarce good congruity between these two words. If a Shepherd, then we conclude Him to be a mean man. Kings and priests joined together in the Scripture. Nay, peasants and priests, that is the world’ s heraldry; so they rank them, set them wish the dogs of the flock, as Job speaks (Job 30:1), that place is good enough for them. Shepherd, Priest, Minister, all words of contempt, not to be found amongst the titles of honour; nay, what saith Moses (Genesis 46:34)? Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. So is a Church shepherd to profane worldlings. Well, let the ministry be the scorn of the world; let them stumble at it in their folly, or spurn at it in their pride, yet it is the wisdom of God and the power of God. A shepherd’ s is the office of our Saviour and the glory of Christ. So then, with or without their leaves, Christ is the great Shepherd. Every way great. 1. Great in His person. If the Son of God become a Shepherd, surely then a great Shepherd. How wonderful is it to see the Lord Jesus Christ, with His shepherd’ s crook, tending His flock! This humiliation of His Person in a great exaltation of the office makes Him a great Shepherd. 2. Christ is the great Shepherd, because He is the supreme Shepherd, the Prince of Shepherds. All other pastors, of what title soever, are inferior to Him. All hold their employment in dependence from Him. 3. He is a great Shepherd, for His flock is great; great, I mean, in the value. His flock is a flock of souls, and that is a precious flock. 4. He is great in prerogatives. All the flock of Christians is under His inspection. He is the only true OEcumenical pastor. All other shepherds are but petty shepherds, of a portion only of His flock. But to be the universal Shepherd of the whole Church is Christ’ s prerogative. 5. He is great in possession. The flock is His own, He is the rightful Owner and Possessor of it. We, the best of us, are but servants to Him, to tend His flock. He sets us on work, to Him we owe our accounts. He will pay us our wages, or reckon with them that shall any ways defraud us. 6. He is great in His abilities to tend His flock. 1. A great Shepherd in knowing His flock. He hath a special knowledge of every poor sheep. He hath all their names engraven on His breast (John 10:3). 2. Great He is in His love and affection to His flock. He lays down His life for them. 3. He is of great power to save and preserve them (Isaiah 63:1). (Bp. Brownrigg.) That great Shepherd The great Shepherd of the sheep I. WHY GOD’ S PEOPLE ARE TO SHEEP. 1. Sheep are harmless creatures (Philippians 2:15). 2. Meek and patient (1 Peter 3:4). 3. Clean (Psalms 73:1). 4. Simple and guileless (Psalms 32:2). 5. Tractable (John 10:27). 6. God made them His sheep by free grace (Psalm c. 3). II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE GREAT OF HIS SHEEP. 1. He carefully feeds His flock (Isaiah 40:11). 2. He feeds them in providing ordinances for them (Psalms 23:2). 3. In providing shepherds to dispense ordinances (Ephesians 4:11-12). 4. He spiritually blesses the feeding of His flock (Ezekiel 34:14). 5. Christ knows all His sheep (Jeremiah 33:13). 6. He knows them as given to Him by His Father (John 17:6). 7. He knows them as bearing His image (Romans 8:29). 8. He knows them by the sprinkling of His blood (Revelation 7:14). 9. He preserves them from danger (John 10:28). He preserves them (1) By His death. (2) His intercession. (3) His presence. (4) His union to them. (5) His promise. (6) And His Holy Spirit. III. WHY CHRIST IS CALLED THE “ GREAT .” 1. In regard to the dignity of His character (Zechariah 13:7). 2. In regard to His great ability to save (John 3:34-35). 3. In regard to His property in the sheep (John 10:11; compared 1 Peter 1:18-19). 4. Other shepherds are sheep as well as shepherds (Acts 14:15). 5. In regard to His dominion over the shepherds (Ecclesiastes 12:11). 6. In regard to the success that He can give to His pastoral care 1 Corinthians 3:7). 7. In regard to the jurisdiction He has over them (1 Corinthians 6:20). 8. In regard to the extent of His jurisdiction (Psalms 72:8). Improvement. To ministers: 1. To teach ministers to act for Christ. 2. To feed their hearers with gospel truths. 3. To show believers their daily mercies. 4. To remind them of their security in Christ. 5. And their final salvation and glory. Instruction. To believers: 1. Be ruled and governed by Jesus Christ. 2. Submit to the shepherds that He has appointed. 3. Pray to love the goodly pastures of Christ’ s providing. 4. Bring forth fruits unto the glory of His grace. 5. And expect to live with Him hereafter, where all sorrow and sin will he for ever done away, and the whole Church will rejoice in God eternally. (T. B. Baker.) The blood of the everlasting covenant The blood of the everlasting covenant: All God’ s dealings with men have had a covenant character. It hath so pleased Him to arrange it, that He will not deal with us except through a covenant, nor can we deal with Him except in the same manner. It is important, then, since the covenant is the only ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, that we should know how to discriminate between covenant and covenant; and should not be in any darkness or error with regard to what is the covenant of grace, and what is not. I. First of all, then, I have to speak of THE mentioned in the text; and I observe that we can readily discover at first sight what the covenant is not. We see at once that this is not the covenant of works, for the simple reason that this is an everlasting covenant. Again, I may remark that the covenant here meant is not the covenant of gratitude which is made between the loving child of God and his Saviour. Such a covenant is very right and proper. But that covenant is not the one in the text, for the simple reason that the covenant in our text is an everlasting one. Now ours was only written out some few years ago. It would have been despised by us in the earlier parts of our life, and cannot at the very utmost be so old as ourselves. Having thus readily shown what this covenant is not, I may observe what this covenant is. 1. Now, in this covenant of grace, we must first of all observe the high contracting parties between whom it was made. The covenant of grace was made before the foundation of the world between God the Father, and God the Son; or to put it in a yet more Scriptural light, it was made mutually between the three Divine persons of the adorable Trinity. This covenant was not made directly between God and man. 2. And now, what were the stipulations of this covenant? They were somewhat in this wise. God had foreseen that man after creation would break the covenant of works; that however gentle the tenure upon which Adam had possession of Paradise, yet that tenure would be too severe for him, and he would be sure to kick against it, and ruin himself. God had also foreseen that His elect ones, whom He had chosen out of the rest of mankind, would fall by the sin of Adam, since they, as well as the rest of mankind, were represented in Adam. The covenant therefore had for its end the restoration of the chosen people. 3. And now having seen who were the high contracting parties, and what were the terms of the covenant made between them, let us see what were the objects of this covenant. Was this covenant made for every man of the race of Adam? Assuredly not; we discover the secret by the visible. As many as shall believe, as many as shall persevere unto the end, so many and no more are interested in the covenant of Divine grace. 4. Furthermore, we have to consider what were the motives of this covenant. Why was the covenant made at all? There was no compulsion or constraint on God. As yet there was no creature. Even could the creature have an influence on the Creator, there was none existing in the period when the covenant was made. We can look nowhere for God’ s motive in the covenant except it be in Himself, for of God it could be said literally in that day, “ I am, and there is none beside Me.” Why then did He make the covenant? I answer, absolute sovereignty dictated it. But why were certain men the objects of it and why not others? I answer, sovereign grace guided the pen. II. But now, in the second place, we come to notice ITS . It is called an everlasting covenant. 1. And here you observe at once its antiquity. The covenant of grace is the oldest of all things. 2. Then, again, it is an everlasting covenant from its sureness. Nothing is everlasting which is not secure. 3. Furthermore, it is not only sure, but it is immutable. If it were not immutable, it could not be everlasting. That which changest passes away. But in the covenant everything is immutable. Whatever God has established must come to pass, and not word, or line, or letter, can be altered. 4. The covenant is everlasting, because it will never run itself out. It will be fulfilled, but it will stand firm. III. Having thus noticed the everlasting character of the covenant, I conclude by the most precious portion of the doctrine--the relation which the blood bears to it--THE BLOOD OF THE . The blood of Christ stands in a fourfold relationship to the covenant. 1. With regard to Christ, His precious blood shed in Gethsemane, in Gabbatha and Galgotha, is the fulfilment of the covenant. 2. With regard to the blood in another respect, it is to God the Father the bond of the covenant. 3. Then, again, the blood of the covenant has relation to us as the objects of the covenant, and that is its third light; it is not only a fulfilment as regards Christ, and a bond as regards His Father, but it is an evidence as regards ourselves. Are you relying wholly upon the blood? 4. The blood stands in a relationship to all three, and here I may add that the blood is the glory of all. To the Son it is the fulfilment, to the Father the bond, to the sinner the evidence, and to all--to Father, Son, and sinner--it is the common glory and the common boast. In this the Father is well pleased; in this the Son also, with joy, looks down and sees the purchase of His agonies; and in this must the sinner ever find his comfort and his everlasting song, “ Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness are my glory, my song, for ever and ever.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The blood of the everlasting covenant: This everlasting covenant is the covenant of grace, or the gospel, made with Christ, as the Head and Representative of all His believing people. It is called “ everlasting,” in contradistinction to some transient outward forms of it that had already vanished or were vanishing away. God had made legal, ceremonial, national covenants, which were temporary--which had not the elements of permanency. But this covenant touches, embraces everything: reaches up to God’ s highest attributes, and down to man’ s deepest needs--over all the breadth of law, and along all the line of existence. Nothing can happen to shake it. Nothing can alter the disposition of Him who makes it. He foresees all changes. He overrules all events. He provides for all circumstances. We read of “ everlasting love” ; of “ the eternal purpose” ; of “ predestination unto the adoption of children” ; of being” chosen before the foundation of the world” ; of “ the mercy of God unto eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” ; and here we have “ the everlasting covenant.” Everlasting! I cannot fix a beginning, any more than an end. I can only think there never was beginning. Oh I it is a wonderful thought that God never began to love the world, that He never began to love you. And He will never cease to love. We go on now to the other term, “ the blood of the everlasting covenant.” That is the virtue of the death of Christ. It is that grand act of atonement and self-sacrifice by which He bore the penalty of sin for us, and secured the gospel as God’ s method in this world for ever. I. GOD IS THE “ GOD OF PEACE,” WHO MAKES PEACE WHERE IT HAS BEEN” BROKEN, AND GIVES IT WHERE IT IS LOST. The God who makes peace between heaven and earth, between law and conscience, between Himself and sinful men. How does He make it? Through “ the blood of the everlasting covenant.” If there is a way between heaven and earth, an open way for hopes and prayers, for departing souls and descending angels; if troubled consciences are pacified and cleansed; if thunders of broken law are hushed into silence, it is because this blood was shed, because Christ died, “ the lust for the unjust.” II. HE BROUGHT AGAIN FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS. He wrought that mightiest work that has ever been wrought in this world, the resurrection of Christ. How? Again, “ through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The power of the death sprang into resurrection. The corn of wheat fell into the ground and died, and then, with a mighty vegetative force, produced this harvest of resurrection--this splendid flower-fact, which towers and shines above all others. III. It is through the same act of self-sacrifice is death that He becomes “ THE GREAT OF THE SHEEP.” What kind of shepherd is needed by this wandering widespread flock of men, scattered over all the hills of earth and time? Is it one who will come and pipe to them while they pasture? Is it one who will speak to them, and call them all by name? Is it one who will lead them out and drive them home? Nay, the first and foremost requisite in the good Shepherd is, that He shall die for the sheep. IV. Now, passing over the ridge of the passage, we come down upon the human side of it, AND WE HAVE THIS BLOOD OF THE FULL OF ON THIS SIDE ALSO. Here the first term that meets us is the term “ perfect” ; given us at once this high idea, the idea of perfection as a thing attainable now, by means of the blood and death of the Son of God. And this perfection is not merely a thing ideal and distant, not only a thing to be hoped for beyond earth and time, in heaven and glory. It is a thing to be striven for and realised in measure in daily life and service, as here--“ The God of peace make you perfect in every good work.” V. Finally; in this illustration of the power of the Cross, we have the inworking of the Spirit of God in the heart of the man who is thus seeking perfection, “ WORKING IN YOU THAT WHICH IS WELL IN HIS SIGHT.” This secures simplicity and spirituality--God working within by the Spirit--then all is right and good. The water is cleansed at the fountain, thoughtis touched as it springs, feeling purified as it begins to flow, affection lifted to its object, will bent to the will of God. Lessons: 1. Let us come to this blood of the covenant, or to the death, or to the Cross of Christ for cleansing. This alone cleanseth us from all sin. Here, on Calvary, is the open fountain. 2. Let us come to this blood for motive. Nothing will stir us so purely, nothing will stir us so much. Here is nobleness without a shadow, unselfishness without reserve, self-sacrifice without regret. Here is the love of God all in motion! The purpose of God in and for man, beginning to shine! Here is the everlasting model and example for new obedience! 3. Let us come to this blood for speech. The blood of sprinkling speaketh; and if we hear the utterances, we shall speak too, and tell out what we hear. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The blood of the covenant I. The subject is the covenant of grace, as it is here spoken of, and I shall begin by noticing, first, THE NAMES which the apostle uses. He calls the ever-blessed Father “ the God of peace” ; and to the Redeemer who has taken the other side of the covenant, he gives the title, “ Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” As many of us as have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are in Christ, and He is our Head and Representative, our Shepherd and Sponsor. Jesus has, according to His promise, shed His blood, and now the covenant stands only to be fulfilled on the side of the eternal Father, and under that aspect of the covenant the apostle calls the Father, “ the God of peace.” He is not the God of a hollow truce, not the God of a patched-up forgetfulness of unforgiven injuries, but the God of peace in the very deepest sense; He is Himself at peace, for there is a peace of God that passeth all understanding; and, moreover, by reason of His mercy His people are made to enjoy peace of conscience within themselves, for you feel that God is reconciled to you, your hearts rest in Him, your sins which separated you have been removed, and perfect love has cast out the fear which hath torment. While the Lord is at peace with Himself, and you are made to enjoy inward peace through Him, He is also at peace with you, for He loves you with a love unsearchable; He sees nothing in you but that which He delights in, for in the covenant He does not look at you as you are in yourself, but in your Head, Christ Jesus, and to the eye of God there is no sight in the universe so lovely as His own dear Son, and His people in His Son. Henceforth be it ours in every troubled hour to look to the Lord under this cheering name, “ the God of peace,” for as such the covenant reveals Him. The apostle had a view of the other great party to the covenant, and he names Him “ Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” We must view our Redeemer in the covenant first as Jesus the Saviour who leads us into the Canaan which has been given to us by a covenant of salt, even the rest which remaineth to the people of God; He is also the Lord Jesus, in all the dignity of His nature, exalted far above all principalities and powers, to be obeyed and worshipped by us, and our Lord Jesus--ours because He has given Himself to us, and we have accepted and received Him with holy delight to be the Lord whom we cheerfully serve. Further, our Lord is called “ the great Shepherd of the sheep.” In the covenant we are the sheep, the Lord Jesus in the Shepherd. You cannot make a covenant with sheep, they have not the ability to covenant; but you can make a covenant with the Shepherd for them, and so, glory be to God, though we had gone astray like lost sheep, we belonged to Jesus, and He made a covenant on our behalf, and stood for us before the living God. This is a great subject, and I can only hint at it. Let us rejoice that our Shepherd is great, because He with His great flock will be able to preserve them all from the great dangers into which they are brought, and to perform for them the great transactions with the great God which are demanded of a Shepherd of such a flock as that which Jesus calls His own. While we rest in the covenant of grace we should view our Lord as our Shepherd, and find solace in the fact that sheep have nothing to do with their own feeding, guidance, or protection; they have only to follow their Shepherd unto the pastures which He prepares, and all will be well with them. “ He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.” II. Secondly, the apostle mentions THE SEAL. “ 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.” The seal of the covenant is the blood of Jesus. Think how impossible it is that the Lord should ever break that covenant of grace, which He spontaneously made with His own Son, and with us in Him, now that it has been sprinkled with blood from the veins of His own well-beloved Son. Remember, too, that in our case that blood not only confirmed the covenant; but actually fulfilled it; because the covenant stipulation was on this wise: Christ must suffer for our sins and honour the Divine law. It is not only ratified with that bloody signature, but by that blood it is actually carried out on Christ’ s part, and it cannot be that the eternal Father should start back from His side of the compact since our side of it has been carried out to the letter by that great Shepherd of the sheep who laid down His life for us. By the shedding of the blood the covenant is turned into a testament. Dwell with pleasure upon that word “ everlasting covenant.” The covenant of works is gone; it was based on human strength, and it dissolved as a dream; in the nature of things it could not be everlasting. Man could not keep the condition of it, and it fell to the ground. But the covenant of grace depended only upon the power and love and faithfulness of Christ, who has kept His part of the covenant, and therefore the covenant now rests only upon God, the faithful and true, whose word cannot fail. III. We have now to notice THE , for the Lord has commenced to fulfil it. “The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that good Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” See, then, Jesus Christ has been brought back again from the dead through the blood of the covenant. See how He climbs aloft, and sits upon the Father’ s throne, for God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Now note by what means our Lord returned from the dead to all this glory. It was because He had presented the blood of the everlasting covenant. When the Father saw that Jesus had kept all His part of the covenant even to death, that He began to fulfil His portion of the contract by bringing back His Son from the grave to life, from shame to honour, from humiliation to glory, from death to immortality. See where He now sits expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. Now, what has been done to Jesus has been virtually done to all His people, because, you observe, the Lord “ brought again from the dead,” not the Lord Jesus as a private person only, but “ our Lord Jesus,” as “ that great Shepherd of the sheep.” The sheep are with the Shepherd. IV. Fourthly, we will view THE . What is one of the greatest of all the covenant blessings? The writer of this Epistle here pleads for it. “ Now,” saith he, “ 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, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight.” Notice that one of the chief blessings of the covenant is power and will to serve God. 1. Taking the text word by word, I perceive that the first blessing asked for by the apostle is meetness for the Divine service, for the Greek word is not “ Make you perfect,” but “ meet,” “ fit,” “ prepared,” “ able for.” 2. But the apostle asked for an inward work of grace, not merely meetness for service, but an operation felt--“ Working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight.” Do not be satisfied with a little, weak, almost inperceptible, pulse of religion, of which you can hardly judge whether it is there or not; but ask to feel the Divine energies working within you, the eternal omnipotence of God, struggling and striving mightily in your spirit until sin shall be conquered, and grace shall gloriously triumph. This is a covenant blessing. Seek ye for it. 3. But we need outward as well as inward work. Working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight--no small matter when you remember that nothing but perfect holiness can please God. We must know the power of our Lord’ s resurrection, and exhibit it in every action of our lives. 4. Observe, once more, the completeness of this covenant blessing. Just as Jesus is fully restored to the place from which He came, and has lost no dignity nor power by having shed His blood; but rather is exalted higher than ever, so God’ s design is to make us pure and holy as Adam was at the first, and to add to our characters a force of love which never would have been there if we had not sinned and been forgiven, an energy of intense devotion, an enthusiasm of perfect self-sacrifice, which we never could have learned if it had not been for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. God means to make us the princes of the blood royal of the universe, or, if you will, the body guards of the Lord of Hosts. IV. We conclude with THE , “ TO whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” If anything in the world can make a man praise his God it is the covenant, and the knowledge that He is in it. 1. Our God deserves exclusive glory. Covenant theology glorifies God alone. 2. He also has endless glory. “ To whom be glory for ever and ever.” Have you glorified God a little, because of His covenant mercy? Go on glorifying Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Make you perfect Apostolic prayer for the Hebrews I. He prays that the God of peace would MAKE THEM PERFECT IN EVERY GOOD WORK TO DO HIS WILL. The word here translated “ perfect “ occurs in various other texts, and properly signifies to adjust, to dispose or prepare with great wisdom and propriety. The apostle obviously means that God would fit and dispose the minds of His brethren for every good work to do His will. “ The doing of the will of God,” whether this relate to active obedience, or to suffering, forms the grand end of the gospel, considered in its practical design on the heart and life. II. He also prays, in connection with this, that God would would WORK IN THEM THAT WHICH IS WELL- IN HIS SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. That which is well-pleasing in the sight of the all-perfect Jehovah, must be supremely excellent in itself, and adapted to promote the true, the eternal happiness of His people. It consists of the various dispositions and desires and practices which are comprehended in His “ good and perfect and acceptable will.” A very great and unspeakably important part of the great salvation, consists in being delivered from the dominion of the old man--in being renewed in the spirit of our minds, and having infused into the heart those gracious dispositions which are the fruit of the Spirit, and the produce of faith in that Saviour of whom He testifies. Lessons: 1. Let us be exhorted to contemplate the blessed character of our God as the God of peace, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and who is the author of that holy tranquillity and sweet serenity of soul which is the happy portion of those who know and love His name. It is this which calms the troubles of the breast, and fills us with that peace which, in the language of our Lord, the world can neither give nor take away. 2. We are reminded of the inseparable connection between our enjoyment of the blessings of the everlasting covenant, and of the God of peace as our God, and our being fitted for every good work to do His will. 3. Let us imitate the example of the apostle Paul, in commending one another to the God of peace. 4. Let us ascribe the glory of all to Him who is the author of our salvation. (Andrew Arthur.) The closing prayer I. THE BURDEN OF THE PRAYER is that these Hebrew Christians may be made perfect to do God’ s will. There is no higher aim in life than to do the will of God. It was the supreme object for which our Saviour lived. This brought Him from heaven. This determined His every action. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/